And not only that, Chu is back for LOAD, so there is no one who can say this isn't the highest quality game in terms of skill level you can ever wish for.
Game 1: Match ID 13600496
Pharaoh gets banned straight off, to prevent Fresh from playing it most likely, as is Thunderbringer. He is considered a good soft-counter to trilanes, so expect to see one of those. Freshpro goes Slither, Bot on his trademark Pandamonium, Trixi on Bubbles, and N0tail and NoVa_ supporting as Nymphora and Andromeda. On LOAD's side, we get to see Chu on Pebbles, se`busca playing his top hero Valkyrie, bkid on Swiftblade with FujiApples on Witch Slayer and Dodo on Voodoo Jester.
An early Bloodlust kill gets denied by se`busca getting the killing blow on Dodo, who was getting almost caught and killed by the MSI trilane bottom. And just a minute later Chu gets the bloodlust kill on Nymphora, getting a haste rune and doing the classic Pebbles combo. There is a lot of movement early game, between all three lanes, Witch Slayer moving around setting up ganks for Pebbles, Jester doublestacking the Hellbourne jungle for Swiftblade. MSi has their trilane and they are getting their farm, but the level advantage on Pebbles and Swiftblade might just be more powerful.
MSI tries pushing the bottom lane, but a quick TP or two puts a stop to that, Pebbles taking out an already stunned Pandamonium and a Slither, and Swiftblade following down with a spin and Swift Slashes to take out Nymphora. LOAD is playing hardcore ganking style, moving almost completely as a 5man group, taking out player after player, which is nullifying the low levels they have on some of their heroes. This will eventually translate into a destruction of the trilane strategy as not only the support heroes, but Pandamonium himself has gotten picked off twice already.
Pebbles is blessed with luck this game as well, getting not one but two haste runes in a row, both times taking out Slither, and getting Pandamonium with the help of his teammates. Stuns from LOAD's Jester, Valkyrie and of course, Pebbles is just taking out MSI's heroes at will. There's absolutely nothing you can do if you're level 6-9 to stop a level 12 Pebbles with Striders, Chalice, Portal Key, and rune control. Slither, Andromeda and Bubbles get their revenge later on though, initiating on Pebbles catching him alone. Pebbles is so tanky though and he almost escapes until he runs into a Nymphora stun, and then Panda comes in for an autoattack to finish him off.
Pandamonium shows why he's so strong still though, with all his abilities being Physical, he is able to deal with Swiftblade once he starts spinning, and at least twice he just Face Smashes him down. LOAD gets a free Kongor kill at the 27-minute mark, which coincides with Frostfield Plate on Pebbles. Swiftblade has his Runed Axe and a Token of Life. A minute later all hell breaks loose as LOAD pushes down mid lane, and the biggest teamfight of the game breaks out, with lots of people dying on both sides, including getting rid of Swiftblade's token. He walked in first and made sure that they were gonna take him down first, freeing up time for the other teammates to do damage, including Pebbles with his aoe damage and Witch Slayer's ultimate. The tower stays alive though, so it was an even trade for the most part.
Panda is now seriously dangerous, with his Shrunken Head and halfway to his Nullstone, but the question is if he can stand up against LOAD on his own, as Swiftblade is getting more and more dangerous by the moment, and Pebbles is still lethal. As LOAD pushes bottom lane, they manage to catch Pandamonium completely off guard, stunlocking him so he can't even activate a Shrunken Head. Panda buys back immediately and ports back, and they continue the teamfight, but they end up losing several heroes and the tower, while only picking off one hero on their own. The buyback ends up delaying that Nullstone even more. MSI has been fighting from behind for this entire game, and at the 40 minute mark they are down 23k experience and 19k gold.
After Panda, slither and Nymphora gets caught in the Legion forest by the LOAD 5-man gank squad, LOAD pushes relentlessly, taking out four barracks, and it doesn't take long after before they start working on the remaining two, and MSI concedes, giving them the first loss since their new lineup, aside from the one game they lost to Dirty Minds when Bot wasn't there. 1-0 LOAD.
Pharaoh gets banned straight off, to prevent Fresh from playing it most likely, as is Thunderbringer. He is considered a good soft-counter to trilanes, so expect to see one of those. Freshpro goes Slither, Bot on his trademark Pandamonium, Trixi on Bubbles, and N0tail and NoVa_ supporting as Nymphora and Andromeda. On LOAD's side, we get to see Chu on Pebbles, se`busca playing his top hero Valkyrie, bkid on Swiftblade with FujiApples on Witch Slayer and Dodo on Voodoo Jester.
An early Bloodlust kill gets denied by se`busca getting the killing blow on Dodo, who was getting almost caught and killed by the MSI trilane bottom. And just a minute later Chu gets the bloodlust kill on Nymphora, getting a haste rune and doing the classic Pebbles combo. There is a lot of movement early game, between all three lanes, Witch Slayer moving around setting up ganks for Pebbles, Jester doublestacking the Hellbourne jungle for Swiftblade. MSi has their trilane and they are getting their farm, but the level advantage on Pebbles and Swiftblade might just be more powerful.
MSI tries pushing the bottom lane, but a quick TP or two puts a stop to that, Pebbles taking out an already stunned Pandamonium and a Slither, and Swiftblade following down with a spin and Swift Slashes to take out Nymphora. LOAD is playing hardcore ganking style, moving almost completely as a 5man group, taking out player after player, which is nullifying the low levels they have on some of their heroes. This will eventually translate into a destruction of the trilane strategy as not only the support heroes, but Pandamonium himself has gotten picked off twice already.
Pebbles is blessed with luck this game as well, getting not one but two haste runes in a row, both times taking out Slither, and getting Pandamonium with the help of his teammates. Stuns from LOAD's Jester, Valkyrie and of course, Pebbles is just taking out MSI's heroes at will. There's absolutely nothing you can do if you're level 6-9 to stop a level 12 Pebbles with Striders, Chalice, Portal Key, and rune control. Slither, Andromeda and Bubbles get their revenge later on though, initiating on Pebbles catching him alone. Pebbles is so tanky though and he almost escapes until he runs into a Nymphora stun, and then Panda comes in for an autoattack to finish him off.
Pandamonium shows why he's so strong still though, with all his abilities being Physical, he is able to deal with Swiftblade once he starts spinning, and at least twice he just Face Smashes him down. LOAD gets a free Kongor kill at the 27-minute mark, which coincides with Frostfield Plate on Pebbles. Swiftblade has his Runed Axe and a Token of Life. A minute later all hell breaks loose as LOAD pushes down mid lane, and the biggest teamfight of the game breaks out, with lots of people dying on both sides, including getting rid of Swiftblade's token. He walked in first and made sure that they were gonna take him down first, freeing up time for the other teammates to do damage, including Pebbles with his aoe damage and Witch Slayer's ultimate. The tower stays alive though, so it was an even trade for the most part.
Panda is now seriously dangerous, with his Shrunken Head and halfway to his Nullstone, but the question is if he can stand up against LOAD on his own, as Swiftblade is getting more and more dangerous by the moment, and Pebbles is still lethal. As LOAD pushes bottom lane, they manage to catch Pandamonium completely off guard, stunlocking him so he can't even activate a Shrunken Head. Panda buys back immediately and ports back, and they continue the teamfight, but they end up losing several heroes and the tower, while only picking off one hero on their own. The buyback ends up delaying that Nullstone even more. MSI has been fighting from behind for this entire game, and at the 40 minute mark they are down 23k experience and 19k gold.
After Panda, slither and Nymphora gets caught in the Legion forest by the LOAD 5-man gank squad, LOAD pushes relentlessly, taking out four barracks, and it doesn't take long after before they start working on the remaining two, and MSI concedes, giving them the first loss since their new lineup, aside from the one game they lost to Dirty Minds when Bot wasn't there. 1-0 LOAD.
Game 2: Match ID 13608027
Witch Slayer is banned this game, as is Pharaoh. Thunderbringer isn't though, and bkid is going to play him. FujiApples and Dodo support as Glacius and Andromeda, while se`busca plays his Valkyrie from last game - and pick of the game is Night Hound on Chu. MSI maintains the trilane-Panda strategy, with Bot on Panda and Slither/Voodoo Jester on Trixi/NoVa_. Freshpro plays Hellbringer while N0tail plays Tundra.
The game starts with a four-man gank squad from Hellbourne, looking in the Legion team, however the flying courier flies in there first and sees them, so nothing comes off it at first - however, most of them stay there, and once Tundra picks up an Invisibility rune, they manage to get a bloodlust kill on Thunderbringer mid. Tundra stays there, going up against TB, and doing quite well thanks to that first kill. Valkyrie is soloing top against Hellbringer, and the Panda trilane is up against the Night Hound trilane.
Predictably, that's also where all the action happens, as the heroes on all the other lanes come down their regularly to gank the opposing team's carry. There are varying degrees of success, and the score is 3-3 until the eight minute mark, where a massive teamfight breaks out, and both teams are decimated. For the moment, Panda is outfarming Night Hound, but LOAD has the kill advantage. MSI takes a tower shortly afterwards though, cementing their small lead. Just about when Night Hound hits level 6, Tundra picks up a Bound Eye, which is obviously to counter NH as well as shut down any warding and counterwarding attempt. It's risky though, if Tundra falls, they would have just lost a lot of gold this early on.
And that's exactly what happens at the 17-minute mark. MSI set up a gank on Thunderbringer in the bottom lane, but LOAD teleport in and turn them back, killing Pandamonium in the process, and as more heroes from each team join the fight, Night Hound kills Tundra and destroys the Bound Eye and escapes at 55 hp.
A few minutes later, MSI tries to get a Kongor kill. LOAD suspects something, and tosses in an arrow, sees it, and prepares to make their move. MSI knows this, so cancel the attempt, and nothing comes off it. However, another Eye has been picked up on Tundra, and he himself has picked up an Invis rune. he catches Night Hound running towards the Haste rune and stops him with his Avalanche ultimate. Jester follows up with a Cocktail/Cursed Ground, and incomes the rest of the MSI team, disintegrating Night Hound and taking our three other heroes on the Legion team, that initiation catching them complete surprise, and a team of MSI's calibre will always capitalize on that. Thunderbringer buys back to use his Ulti, and kills two low-HP MSI heroes. MSI goes back and tries to kill Kongor - but Bot disconnects and DIES to Kongor! A pause comes up, but the damage is done.
LOAD has their heroes up, they are close to Kongor. Bot is dead, MSI is scattered. Will LOAD go in, take the damaged Kongor, capitalize on an out-of-game factor?
It doesn't matter! Never underestimate MSI, Bot IMMEDIATELY buys back and teleports down, and before LOAD can even blink, Tundra opens up on Valkyrie and MSI fights hard to protect their Kongor kill. Panda ends up dying again, but they drive LOAD back, in fact, Slither with the Bound Eye follows Night Hound as he tries to escape, and Tundra micros his Shiver bird to keep him in view, and they manage to kill Night Hound, and then turn back to take their hard-earned Kongor kill. They even took out Andromeda and Thunderbringer in that fight earlier. Incredible sequence. Key moves were some brilliant Tablet of Command pushes by Hellbringer, using it defensively once to get Slither out of Night Hound's cloud, and offensively twice to chase down Night Hound.
LOAD rallies back, picks up Hellbringer and Jester as well as taking Panda's token off him in a teamfight, but shortly afterwards they are not so lucky, and Hellbringer gets his ultimate off, and MSI goes in full force, annihilating the LOAD team, getting a complete Genocide while only losing Tundra. They follow that up with taking out a secondary tower and a base tower. LOAD chases them as they back off, but they meet up with Tundra who's back by now. There's some close calls, but MSI gets away safely, except for poor Tundra who died again.
MSI win a teamfight and takes out both mid barracks, although they lose another Bound Eye in the process. It's time for another Kongor attempt. This one goes a lot more smoothly, and he drops quite fast, without any interference. Panda now has his Shrunken Head, a Nullstone, and a Token of Life, quite dangerous.
All it takes is some brilliant Shiver usage, to keep watch on exactly where the Legion team is, then they initiate and take out Thunderbringer, and Night Hound drops thanks to the eye, and MSI pushes the final push to win the game. Technically LOAD stay alive for a couple more minutes, fighting back and getting some kills, but with four barracks down, and being so behind in gold and so on. It's inevitable from this point on, and it doesn't take long for the final final final push coming, and LOAD conceding.
Witch Slayer is banned this game, as is Pharaoh. Thunderbringer isn't though, and bkid is going to play him. FujiApples and Dodo support as Glacius and Andromeda, while se`busca plays his Valkyrie from last game - and pick of the game is Night Hound on Chu. MSI maintains the trilane-Panda strategy, with Bot on Panda and Slither/Voodoo Jester on Trixi/NoVa_. Freshpro plays Hellbringer while N0tail plays Tundra.
The game starts with a four-man gank squad from Hellbourne, looking in the Legion team, however the flying courier flies in there first and sees them, so nothing comes off it at first - however, most of them stay there, and once Tundra picks up an Invisibility rune, they manage to get a bloodlust kill on Thunderbringer mid. Tundra stays there, going up against TB, and doing quite well thanks to that first kill. Valkyrie is soloing top against Hellbringer, and the Panda trilane is up against the Night Hound trilane.
Predictably, that's also where all the action happens, as the heroes on all the other lanes come down their regularly to gank the opposing team's carry. There are varying degrees of success, and the score is 3-3 until the eight minute mark, where a massive teamfight breaks out, and both teams are decimated. For the moment, Panda is outfarming Night Hound, but LOAD has the kill advantage. MSI takes a tower shortly afterwards though, cementing their small lead. Just about when Night Hound hits level 6, Tundra picks up a Bound Eye, which is obviously to counter NH as well as shut down any warding and counterwarding attempt. It's risky though, if Tundra falls, they would have just lost a lot of gold this early on.
And that's exactly what happens at the 17-minute mark. MSI set up a gank on Thunderbringer in the bottom lane, but LOAD teleport in and turn them back, killing Pandamonium in the process, and as more heroes from each team join the fight, Night Hound kills Tundra and destroys the Bound Eye and escapes at 55 hp.
A few minutes later, MSI tries to get a Kongor kill. LOAD suspects something, and tosses in an arrow, sees it, and prepares to make their move. MSI knows this, so cancel the attempt, and nothing comes off it. However, another Eye has been picked up on Tundra, and he himself has picked up an Invis rune. he catches Night Hound running towards the Haste rune and stops him with his Avalanche ultimate. Jester follows up with a Cocktail/Cursed Ground, and incomes the rest of the MSI team, disintegrating Night Hound and taking our three other heroes on the Legion team, that initiation catching them complete surprise, and a team of MSI's calibre will always capitalize on that. Thunderbringer buys back to use his Ulti, and kills two low-HP MSI heroes. MSI goes back and tries to kill Kongor - but Bot disconnects and DIES to Kongor! A pause comes up, but the damage is done.
LOAD has their heroes up, they are close to Kongor. Bot is dead, MSI is scattered. Will LOAD go in, take the damaged Kongor, capitalize on an out-of-game factor?
It doesn't matter! Never underestimate MSI, Bot IMMEDIATELY buys back and teleports down, and before LOAD can even blink, Tundra opens up on Valkyrie and MSI fights hard to protect their Kongor kill. Panda ends up dying again, but they drive LOAD back, in fact, Slither with the Bound Eye follows Night Hound as he tries to escape, and Tundra micros his Shiver bird to keep him in view, and they manage to kill Night Hound, and then turn back to take their hard-earned Kongor kill. They even took out Andromeda and Thunderbringer in that fight earlier. Incredible sequence. Key moves were some brilliant Tablet of Command pushes by Hellbringer, using it defensively once to get Slither out of Night Hound's cloud, and offensively twice to chase down Night Hound.
LOAD rallies back, picks up Hellbringer and Jester as well as taking Panda's token off him in a teamfight, but shortly afterwards they are not so lucky, and Hellbringer gets his ultimate off, and MSI goes in full force, annihilating the LOAD team, getting a complete Genocide while only losing Tundra. They follow that up with taking out a secondary tower and a base tower. LOAD chases them as they back off, but they meet up with Tundra who's back by now. There's some close calls, but MSI gets away safely, except for poor Tundra who died again.
MSI win a teamfight and takes out both mid barracks, although they lose another Bound Eye in the process. It's time for another Kongor attempt. This one goes a lot more smoothly, and he drops quite fast, without any interference. Panda now has his Shrunken Head, a Nullstone, and a Token of Life, quite dangerous.
All it takes is some brilliant Shiver usage, to keep watch on exactly where the Legion team is, then they initiate and take out Thunderbringer, and Night Hound drops thanks to the eye, and MSI pushes the final push to win the game. Technically LOAD stay alive for a couple more minutes, fighting back and getting some kills, but with four barracks down, and being so behind in gold and so on. It's inevitable from this point on, and it doesn't take long for the final final final push coming, and LOAD conceding.
Game 3: Match ID 13614946
Bans are mostly the same, except Tundra who gets banned by LOAD. The picks are the interesting parts. Balphagore on FujiApples, who's going mid, se`busca plays Witch Slayer. bkid picks up Behemoth, a truly lethal hero when he lands his ulti correctly. Chu plays Soulstealer and Dodo finishes off the AoE-heavy team with Hellbringer. MSI goes for their trilane, but no Panda this time, with Maliken on Bot. Trixi plays Bubbles and Freshpro plays Slither. Nova goes Andromeda as usual, and N0tail goes Thundebringer.
Balphagore ends up going top against Bubbles, Soulstealer soloing mid against Thunderbringer while the Behemoth/Hellbringer/Witch Slayer trilane to counter MSI's trilane of Slither/Andro/Maliken.
Notail is completely shutting down Soulstealer in mid, but Balphagore is destroying Bubbles up top, using the Blood Chalice to stay on nearly infinite mana and taking out Bubbles for a Bloodlust kill, giving him a 2 level advantage. Just a minute after he dives beyond the tower and unleashes his ultimate and takes out Bubbles again.
Balphagore is dominating still, and even when MSI sends Freshpro up there to take out Balphagore, he just turns around and takes out both of them without breaking a sweat. And as soon as a teamfight breaks out that merits the mighty Balphagore's attention, he gets a hat trick. 13 minutes into the game, Balphagore is sitting on 8 kills and 0 deaths.
Two minutes and a teamfight later, the Bloodbath is a fact, and the Legion bottom tower drops. 600 experience per minute, 500 gold per minute.
MSI fights back as well as they can, but not only is Balphagore completely DOMINATING them, Soulstealer played by Chu is getting his farm up as well. At the 20-minute mark LOAD attempts to kill Kongor, and MSI charges in, but a good Fissure stun blocks their escape, and then the big fat demon goes to town, destroying the poor level 7 and 5 Andromeda, and then silencing Maliken mid Sword Throw and killing him as well. 15-0 in 20 minutes. I've never seen such domination in a high level game like this. Just to add to the unbelievable domination, he picks up a Mock of Brilliance. Hell, if you farm over 500 gold per minute, why not?
Two more kills for Balphagore, And FujiApples forces MSI to concede. Wow. I'm speechless.
Bans are mostly the same, except Tundra who gets banned by LOAD. The picks are the interesting parts. Balphagore on FujiApples, who's going mid, se`busca plays Witch Slayer. bkid picks up Behemoth, a truly lethal hero when he lands his ulti correctly. Chu plays Soulstealer and Dodo finishes off the AoE-heavy team with Hellbringer. MSI goes for their trilane, but no Panda this time, with Maliken on Bot. Trixi plays Bubbles and Freshpro plays Slither. Nova goes Andromeda as usual, and N0tail goes Thundebringer.
Balphagore ends up going top against Bubbles, Soulstealer soloing mid against Thunderbringer while the Behemoth/Hellbringer/Witch Slayer trilane to counter MSI's trilane of Slither/Andro/Maliken.
Notail is completely shutting down Soulstealer in mid, but Balphagore is destroying Bubbles up top, using the Blood Chalice to stay on nearly infinite mana and taking out Bubbles for a Bloodlust kill, giving him a 2 level advantage. Just a minute after he dives beyond the tower and unleashes his ultimate and takes out Bubbles again.
Balphagore is dominating still, and even when MSI sends Freshpro up there to take out Balphagore, he just turns around and takes out both of them without breaking a sweat. And as soon as a teamfight breaks out that merits the mighty Balphagore's attention, he gets a hat trick. 13 minutes into the game, Balphagore is sitting on 8 kills and 0 deaths.
Two minutes and a teamfight later, the Bloodbath is a fact, and the Legion bottom tower drops. 600 experience per minute, 500 gold per minute.
MSI fights back as well as they can, but not only is Balphagore completely DOMINATING them, Soulstealer played by Chu is getting his farm up as well. At the 20-minute mark LOAD attempts to kill Kongor, and MSI charges in, but a good Fissure stun blocks their escape, and then the big fat demon goes to town, destroying the poor level 7 and 5 Andromeda, and then silencing Maliken mid Sword Throw and killing him as well. 15-0 in 20 minutes. I've never seen such domination in a high level game like this. Just to add to the unbelievable domination, he picks up a Mock of Brilliance. Hell, if you farm over 500 gold per minute, why not?
Two more kills for Balphagore, And FujiApples forces MSI to concede. Wow. I'm speechless.
LOAD wins the Cyber Sports Network Grand Finals, taking out the only other competitor for the "Top Team" status. Three fantastic games, and LOAD proves they can take out the seemingly unbeatable FnaticMSI team. Congratulations!
Links
HonCast - Game 1
HonCast - Game 2
HonCast - Game 3
