picture courtesy of StarLadder
Even though SG e-sports put up a great fight, they eventually succumbed to Newbee - losing 2-1 in the opening match at the AMD SAPPHIRE Dota Pit League.
The AMD SAPPHIRE Dota Pit League LAN Finals kicked off with Newbee going up against SG e-sports. The Minor tournament would be the first one on the new 7.07 patch, which saw a plethora of changes coming into the game – so a new meta would begin. After Newbee were able to claim a top 4 spot at the ESL One Hamburg Major just last week, SG-esports were not so lucky and finished at the bottom of the pack. Both teams would be looking to get their tournament off to a great start in this best of three and avoid the dreaded lower bracket.
Game One
A quick start from Newbee saw them grabbing first blood before runes had spawned, finding Thiago de Oliveira ‘Thiolicor’ Cordeiro’s Bounty Hunter on the wrong side of the river and having the detection to bring him down too. But SG were the ones to take control of the early game, racking up constant kills in their top lane onto Damien "KPii" Chok’s Nature’s Prophet. With ten minutes passed SG found themselves with an 8-3 lead on the scoreboard and were controlling the game tempo too.
With just over fifteen minutes passed, SG had removed all tier one towers from the opponents side of the map and two tier two towers as well – as they looked to be in the perfect position to take the game. But Newbee were not ready to give up just yet and begun to make a slow and steady come back into the game – even though SG managed to pick up an aegis, the Dire team were beginning to find their footing. SG managed to find the tier three in the mid lane but Newbee were able to claim a trade as KPii’s split push took down the bot lane tier three in Radiant base.
After they claimed another aegis and the cheese, SG looked on the right path once more. With thirty five minutes passed, Newbee went looking for a quick trade by taking two lanes of barracks while SG took the mid barracks. But the constant push from SG with Wraith Knight on the front lines, saw them rip through the Dire’s base – and with a double rampage from Adriano ‘4dr’ Machado Mirana, SG claimed victory in game one of the series.
Game Two
Newbee took three heroes mid early to make a first blood attempt onto 4dr, but quick reactions from SG’s supports saw them claiming the bounty as they dropped Hu ‘Kaka’ Lianngzhi’s Winter Wyvern. This game though saw a much more even start in the opening ten minutes with kills and towers falling on both sides – and a 6-6 score line. With Xu ‘Moogy’ Han on Ursa and Chun ‘SCCC’ Song on the Templar Assassin, Newbee claimed a quick Roshan kill and aegis before fifteen minutes – and looked to claim an advantage in the game.
A few moments later saw a huge team fight in the mid lane saw SG take a much better fight as they managed to get rid of the aegis and kill SCCC again, along with three others from Newbee’s line up. Even though the fight went in SG’s favour, Newbee were still finding much better fights across the map and keeping themselves ahead on the net worth graph. By twenty five minutes, the Radiant had full map control and were looking toward the high ground.
By thirty two minutes, Newbee dropped the barracks in the top lane and forced out the GG from SG, taking the series into a decisive game three.
Game Three
With the series tied at 1-1 and the loser of this game facing the dreaded best-of-one lower bracket, neither team would be wanting to move into the lower bracket. Newbee took the early lead as Hong ‘Faith’ DaZeng’s Spirit Breaker was everywhere, creating kills constantly. With ten minutes passed, the Chinese squad had a 7-3 lead and with their team composition, they were ready to fight. From then on, Newbee started to dominate SG, constantly finding kills around the map.
However, the Brazilian team were able to find some crucial kills to keep themselves in contention and allow them a small window into the game. By twenty five minutes, both teams began to dance around the Roshan pit, looking to claim an aegis. The proceeding fight lasted for a while and SG were able to continuously kill Newbee, giving them the aegis and suddenly the Radiant had control of the game.
The game swung back into Newbee’s favour as they found 3 quick kills and pushed down mid onto the high ground. Newbee managed to rip through the Radiant line up and claimed mega creeps without any fight back from SG. A few minutes later and SG had no choice but to call GG.
After a hard fought 3 game series, Newbee claimed victory 2-1 and would move on to the next round at the AMD SAPPHIRE Dota Pit League. SG e-sports would have a tough task ahead of them as they attempted to fight through the lower bracket. The next match of the day will see Team Liquid going head-to-head against Immortals.
