Team NP played valiantly, but the returning champions, Wings Gaming, repeated their performance from the recent NA BEAT Grand Finals and sent NP to the lower bracket.
Game One
Wings Gaming started off game one with a very mobile draft, picking up Weaver, Timbersaw and Spirit Breaker, along with Oracle for some survivability. Team NP responded with a relatively balanced lineup, picking up Ursa, along with an Invoker for Jacky 'EternalEnvy' Mao. NP rounded it off with a Warlock, Elder Titan and Nyx Assassin for some hard CC: something that Wings Gaming lacked.
The early game saw NP take the initiative, with Kurtis 'Aui_2000' Ling's Ursa picking up a number of early kills in the safelane with the help of Avery 'SVG' Silverman's ET and Theeban '1437' Siva's Warlock: the Upheaval-Echo Stomp combo proving deadly. With much of the pressure on the top, Chu 'Shadow-' Zeyu's Weaver got free farm with Arif 'MSS' Anwar's Nyx Assassin relatively safe against the Weaver-Oracle duo. Despite the mobility from Wings' lineup, it was NP that struck, as a number of early rotations around the map putting them up to four and one in the first five minutes. As the game transititoned into the later phases however, Wings aggression began to mount.
In the middle and later phase, it was back and forth between the two teams, with a slight edge perhaps to NP, who obtained the aegis three times in a row over the course of the game. At around 1630, a big fight broke out around the middle lane as NP lost Envy and Aui's aegis but answered back with a big 'Lock rock, as NP took four from Wings in return. As the game continued to its conclusion, the two teams constantly traded, going back and forth. However, the massive frontline from Wings, with Zhou 'blink' Yang's Timbersaw and Li 'iceice' Peng's Spirit Breaker was simply too much as slowly but surely, NP were pushed back time and time again to defend their high ground. Wings sealed their victory just under an hour as they dove well past the throne to grab some more juicy kills from the NP squad.
Game Two
Game two saw NP try to ameliorate their late game power with an Alchemist for Envy instead. NP also chose some very defensive supports, hoping to hedge their bets on the Alchemist. Wings Gaming responded with a very aggressive midgame lineup, looking to put the pressure on the lanes with an Ogre Magi and Beastmaster for Zhang 'y'Innocence' Yiping and Zhang 'Faith_Bian' Ruida respectively. Along with a Juggernaught and Invoker, Wings looked to have a balanced lineup for the lategame.
Compared to game one, both teams decided to lay off the aggression in the early stages, preferring to establish and secure the farm for their late game cores. Wings were the first to start the action, as they took the first tier one tower in just under 10 minutes in addition to going up 4-0 with relative ease. Again, the game settled into a relatively passive state as the teams continued to farm.
With Envy starting to come online with his Alchemist, NP decided to try and break the stalemate around 16 minutes, and smoked up but failed to catch a pick. Action broke out around 20 minutes again, as Wings caught Envy with an aegis out but lost two in return putting the score even at a very low 4-4. However, as the game transitioned into its final phases, NP were hemmed in their base as Wings slowly and methodically had taken all of the Canadian squad's outer towers. Wings continued their stranglehold, playing a cerebral and methodical game, pushing out waves and slow seiging the trapped NP. Wings Gaming finally broke through at 41 minutes with an aegis and cheese and sealed Team NP's place in the lower bracket.
