SK Gaming back in business, beats DWi 2-1

The loser's bracket is heating up as the last 3 American teams fight it out for a chance to play FnaticMSI for the $10 000 grand prize at the Grand Final. Few days ago SK Gaming and Deal With it, arguably the number 2 and 3 team from the US fought it out to see who goes on to face Evil Geniuses. While the match was seen as a nice clash between 2 famed ricers, Testie and rycho, unfortunately Testie couldn't show.

Prior to the World Cup playoffs, it seemed like both teams had their own troubles mainly due to roster issues. SK Gaming were in a transition phase trying to gel better with newer players Tralfamadore and CarDinaL while the team was going through some kind of a slump after Testie went inactive. The former Starcraft pro decided to come out of inactivity for the World Cup. And since then SK Gaming were near unstoppable, topping their group with ease and sailing through the playoffs winning 2-0 everytime before falling prey to bitter rivals Evil Geniuses.

Deal With it on the other hand, wasn't even active before the World Cup. Once seen as the nearest challenger to then undisputed world number 1 team Evil Geniuses, unfortunately went inactive as core players EternalEnvy and AMXZaku somehow faded away from the competitive scene due to an interest in Starcraft 2 and commitments in real life. Famed American player Korok even had to play for them in the group stages. Finally a stable 5 was formed as KiWiKiD, formerly of Tease' em who disbanded right before the world cup joined their ranks. DWi fell to the loser's bracket very early due to some miscommunications with scheduling but fought all the way back to the very end of the loser's bracket.

Game 1 [23109643]
SK Gaming		Deal With it
Bans (Legion First)
Picks
/ /		/ /
Lanes
[SK] tabako (Top) [SK] Bdiz (Top) [SK] Fogged (Top) [SK] Tralfamadore (Mid) [SK] CarDinaL (Bot)		[DWi] sniperdad420 (Top) [DWi] Tarano (Top) [DWi] sLicKz (Top) [DWi] WaFFOMGZ (Mid) [DWi] KiWiKiD (Bot)

Judging from his recent performances, specifically against Dirty Minds, SK Gaming knew they had to keep tabs on sniperdad420's farm if they wanted to have a shot at the game. A very aggressive Swiftblade trilane however, did not exactly work out as intended as rycho (sniperdad420) gets bloodlust on Magebane. A lot of back and forth exchanges resulted in SK getting a small lead in the game. Portal key Swiftblade makes another competitive appearance, this time however, is on the opposite side of DWi.

DWi sneakily kills Kongor at 32 minutes but the token is immediately used in a teamfight. SK Gaming piled on the pressure at top lane but good initiation allowed DWi to kill Hellbringer before he could get his ultimate off. SK pushed mid after rycho was picked off at 39 minutes, forcing a buyback from him which saved DWi's mid raxes. The turnaround finally happened as SK were forced to concede Kongor to DWi after tabako gets caught. DWi proceeded to push in SK's mid and bottom lanes and the game was over. SK conceded at 56 minutes.

Game 2 [23114169]
Deal With it		SK Gaming
Bans (Legion First)
Picks
/ /		/ /
Lanes
[DWi] KiWiKiD (Top) [DWi] sLicKz (Mid) [DWi] Tarano (Bot) [DWi] sniperdad420 (Bot) [DWi] WaFFOMGZ (Bot)		[SK] Tralfamadore (Top) [SK] CarDinaL (Mid) [SK] tabako (Bot) [SK] Bdiz (Bot) [SK] Fogged (Bot)

DWi surprisingly decided to abandon their melee hard carry strategy that has so far worked out very well for them this game, opting to let rycho play on Flint Beastwood instead. SK Gaming themselves came up with a last pick that hasn't been seeing much competitive play lately - Pollywog Priest.

The trilane vs trilane setup was fairly even during the laning phase, but SK were crushing DWi's solo laners. Just 8 minutes in Tralfamadore and CarDinaL were at 320 and 420 GPM respectfully. Needless to say, sLicKz and KiWiKiD on DWi's end were struggling hard. As Bubbles and Pollywog ran riot across the map with their insane early farm, tabako on Forsaken Archer was free farming. SK Gaming was using a split push strategy which was working well for them as at the 17th minute CarDinaL and Tralfamadore killed 2 legion players mid as the other 3 SK members pushed down the bottom tier 2 tower. The game just went on this way as DWi fell further and further behind, finally conceding at 26 minutes.

Game 3 [23116317]
SK Gaming		Deal With it
Bans (Legion First)
Picks
/ /		/ /
Lanes
[SK] Fogged (Top) [SK] Tralfamadore (Top) [SK] Bdiz (Top) [SK] CarDinaL (Mid) [SK] tabako (Bot)		[DWi] KiWiKiD (Top) [DWi] sLicKz (Mid) [DWi] sniperdad420 (Bot) [DWi] Tarano (Bot) [DWi] WaFFOMGZ (Bot)

With a berth to the loser's bracket finals on the line, both sides were eager to assert early dominance on their opponent. A 2 man gank on mid from both sides resulted in a 3v3 clash, with CarDinaL getting bloodlust on sLicKz's Soulstealer. Meanwhile, things were going well else where for SK, as by 7 minutes Gladiator had his Helm of the Black Legion and the hero kill count was 4-0 in their favour. By the 15th minute mark this had turned into a 14-2 slaughter with a 10k gold gap between the 2 teams. With portal keys on Pebbles and Witch Slayer along with Gladiator getting his Shroud in a team already with Hag, SK's lineup had inifinite ganking burst potential.

Map control was also completely on SK's side as DWi's total buiilding damage dealt remained at 0 at the 20th minute. A mid push genocided DWi as SK emerged without a single player below half health. DWi's mid melee rax fell as a result. Despite their difficulties, DWi did do a great job of synergizing their ultimates to pull off a good defence at bottom lane around 28 minutes. But it all was in vain as SK Gaming came knocking once again with a token on Pebbles this time around. An easy push in by SK Gaming effectively ended DWi's chances of coming back into the game and they conceded.