Never Back Down wins SEA Qualifiers!

It's been a long journey since the Gosugamers Steelseries $40,000 World Cup was announced back in June. And as every region's qualifiers have come to an end, we have our South East Asian champions! With some very attractive Steelseries packages on the line, both teams gave it their all, with NvD emerging showing the same form of fluid teamplay and dominance which has earned them their reputation in the international scene.

Game 1
Never Back Down		Roam and KiLL
Bans (Legion First)
Picks
Lanes
[NvD]lutan(Top) [NvD]zekaykay(Mid) [NvD]capt`mike(Bot) [NvD]Dragon(Bot) [NvD]ismification(Bot)		[RAK]PH`Laya(Top) [RAK]VoSraYchard(Mid) [RAK]aUzTiN(Bot) [RAK]majeGAMING(Bot) [RAK]shura(Bot)

Game 1 was probably decided within the first 5 minutes of the game. With the 4 solos at top and middle performing quite evenly in terms of creep kills and denies, all eyes was on the 3v3 lane at bottom. NvD's reigned supreme as perfect coordination landed Forsaken Archer 3 hero kills in the first 2 minutes. Garena's outdated 1.06 patch came in to play for the 3rd kill, as Andromeda who would have escaped was ticked down by FA's Skeleton's DOT. Soul Reaper was having a hard time at bottom, managing only 3 creep kills while FA already had 23.

This game could arguably be said to be a showcase of the difference between a good team, and a great one. It was essentially the small things that NvD did which RAK did not, or did better than RAK which amounted to a commanding lead. While Andromeda and Glacius was busy keeping a struggling Soul Reaper alive, the legion supports were counterwarding, creep pulling and stacking. As every minute progressed, the legion's overall higher GPM led to a widening gold gap.

By the 14 minute mark, NvD started a bottom push, RAK's initial decision to leave only Andromeda nearly cost them both the tier 1 and tier 2 towers, which was only barely saved by a last minute scramble by 3 hellbourne players. A 4v4 game of "who's gonna initiate first ?" ensued at the bottom lane while zekaykay and PH`Laya were else where on the map getting free farm. NvD won the team fight and grabbed the bottom tier 2 tower and 4 hero kills.

RAK seemed to be fighting a losing battle by 20 minutes as everyone on the Legion team had above 200 GPM. While Laya was doing decent with a 360 GPM Corrupted Disciple, Dragon on Forsaken Archer had already reached 500 GPM and could easily outcarry him. RAK decided to dodge teamfights and go for a tower race instead, conceding top to go for an all-out bottom push. This did not end well as RAK only gained one tower while NvD got 3, with 4 RAK members including Laya dying during an attempt to save their last tier 2 tower. NvD proceeded to take the mid base tower and backed off.

After a 25 min Kongor, Forsaken Archer led the way with her Token of Life, Geometers Bane and Frostwolf Skull for a final push down mid. NvD got an easy genocide, losing nobody and RAK conceded at the 27th minute. Final score was a dominating 23-5.

Game 2
Roam and KiLL		Never Back Down
Bans (Legion First)
Picks
Lanes
[RAK]majeGAMING(Top) [RAK]aUzTiN(Top) [RAK]VoSraYchard(Mid) [RAK]shura(Bot) [RAK]PH`Laya(Bot)		[NvD]zekaykay(Top) [NvD]Dragon(Mid) [NvD]capt`mike(Bot) [NvD]lutan(Bot) [NvD]ismification(Bot)

Game 2 didn't start well for RAK as well. capt`mike on Behemoth landed a perfect Fissure block at the first minute to capture Forsaken Archer, easy bloodlust kill for Gladiator. zekaykay on the other hand was doing amazing against a dual heal top lane, perhaps due to the synergy between Soul Reaper and Voodoo Jester not being as good as the old school Soul Reaper + Accursed lane. He even got an early kill on Voodoo Jester.

The tri-disable trilane was proving too much for PH`Laya on Forsaken Archer, who managed only 7 creep kills by 6 minutes, as he moved to the top lane to solo Valkyrie. However, he was quite underleveled and continued to struggle throughout most of the game, not reaching the 200 GPM mark until quite late. On a less serious note, an epic moment ensued at mid during the 8th minute as Torturer's last hit on Corrupted Disciple healed him instead of claiming the kill due to negative damage done by Corrupted Conduit.

Recognising the threat of VoSraYchard on his specialty hero Torturer, NvD did a 4 man tower dive to take him out while zekaykay took out Forsaken Archer at top easily due to his level advantage. NvD takes out all tier 1 towers by 19 minutes, and a perfect blind arrow sets up Torturer to get beaten down at the secret shop.

However, a series of good defences by RAK saw them starting to catch up as NvD loses teamfight after teamfight at middle. VoSraYchard's Torturer was beginning to get very tanky and played a vital role in every teamfight. NvD reacted by forcing a 5v4 teamfight at top while Soul Reaper was at middle to easily claim back 4 hero kills.

With it still being anyone's game, NvD goes for Kongor after consolidating their top success with a tier 2 tower push. RAK was fully up by then, but either choosed to concede it or simply didn't know about it. It wasn't a fast Kongor and NvD was arguably lucky to get away with it so easily. The token of life proved to be a game changer as when RAK seemed to emerge victorious from another teamfight mid, Valkyrie revived and Corrupted Disciple turned back to fight. A nice arrow landed on Torturer led to a genocide with zekaykay and Dragon both surviving with very low health. There is no doubt that fight would have been completely different had RAK had the token.

Realising they're not safe enough without the token, NvD pursued a tri-push strategy to maintain the pressure. Their tactic succeeded as a very teamfight dependent RAK was forced to split up. This bought them enough time to wait for the next Kongor, which fell easily to NvD this time. Once again the token proved to be the decider as again Corrupted Disciple and Valkyrie emerged the only 2 survivors from the final teamfight, ending it with style as zekaykay sniped down a dying PH`Laya on his way back to the fountain.

It was all over for RAK as NvD proceeded to claim the mid and bottom raxes. Few minutes later, Legion's top easily fell to the Hellbourne as megacreeps spawned at the 49th minute. GGs were called out and final score was 26-36.