Northern Arena BEAT Invitational kicked off today with the very first best-of-three series featuring the Canadian squad NP playing against the Greeks from Ad Finem.
Both NP and Ad Finem got to play this week in Montreal, Canada at Northern Arena BEAT Invitational after two initially invited teams decided to withdraw from the competition. NP replaced Digital Chaos and Ad Finem was brought in instead of Team Liquid. Despite not being part of the initial invites, the two teams opened the LAN event with a very entertaining and hard fought series that went all the way to a decisive game three.
Game One:
For the first game of the series Ad Finem went with the classical Shadow Demon - Luna illusion strategy and forced NP to play against an aggressive trilane that accomplished a lot for the Greek boys. NP came with their own game plan and drafted a minus aura lineup with multiple stuns and combos to complement a core mid lane Mirana.
Despite their very good team fight control, NP lost the early battle and found themselves completely contained by Ad Finem who delayed Sven’s progress tremendously while they secured a very good laning stage for their mid lane Outworld Devourer. Getting a very fast Hurricane Pike on top of Drums of Endurance, Dmitris 'ThuG' Plivouris went on demolishing NP with every team fight, culminating with a Rampage at the 25 minute mark. However, a minute earlier before the Rampage, Kurtis 'Aui_2000' Ling found the money to buy his BkB and with the second Roshan spawn NP was ready to stand tall in teamfights and focus the OD before the BKB effect wore off from Sven. Getting caught multiple times by Arif 'MSS' Anwar Sardar's perfect two-three men Slithereen Crush initiations, Ad Finem lost team fight after team fight and couldn’t take down more than one tier three tower before the game totally slipped through their fingers.
Game Two:
Going with the same game plan into the next matchup, Ad Finem let ThuG to play OD once more and went with an aggressive trilane. NP stuck to their previous game support Warlock and mid lane Mirana, but changed the overall plan, drafting a very mobile line-up with a couple of strong infest bomb combos.
Ad Finem’s early aggression was easily countered with a roaming Spirit Breaker while ThuG’s OD didn’t have the same easy early advantage having to face Aui’s Lifestealer in the mid lane. In spite of getting over-farmed and pushed behind their tier two towers, and in spite of playing on the Radiant side, Ad Finem managed to win the warding battle and secured every Roshan spawn for their Ursa, which not only kept them in the game but eventually allowed them to push the series in a decisive game three. Matching NP’s mobility with four Blink Daggers, two Force Staffs and a Shadow Blade on the Batrider, the Greeks were able to avoid the infest bomb’s initiations and had the superior vision to engage on their terms. The game ended at the 40 minute mark after NP lost two set of barracks and had to admit defeat.
Game Three:
For the last game of the series both teams continued to prioritize OD and Warlock respectively but EE-Sama prepared a very fast paced, pushing strategy while Ad Finem went with a draft emphasizing pickoffs.
NP’s Vengeful Spirit- Beast Master Aura stack, plus the great pushing power of a level six Warlock and Razor, was simply too much for Ad Finem to fight against, especially when NP started to play the five men Dota with the first big rotation, only nine minutes into the game.
With their win in the opening series of Northern Arena BEAT Invitational, NP advances into the upper bracket semifinals where they will face the winner of Wings vs FDL while Ad Finem will have to fight for their tournament survival from the lower bracket.
title and banner images source: NP's Instagram
