LGD.Int was placed into group A of the tournament, many said the group of death, alongside top Chinese teams such as DK, For.Love and their fellow comrades, LGD.cn. LGD.int debut in the G-League facing off against LGD.cn on the 26th December. Game one was disastrous for the underdogs but they quickly bounced back with Pajkatt's signature hero, Luna, in game two and took their momentum with them to game three with an unconventional Lycanthrope push strat.
After that game, the Western community roared for LGD.Int while the Chinese were baffled and in awe on the amazing progress the team has made since they arrived in China just a few weeks ago.
LGD.Int went on to face the B-God and co, DK, on the 28th December. Despite winning their first game with Burning on Lifestealer, Burning on Lone Druid was too hot to handle and LGD.Int fell in game two and game three.
Their groupstage game against For.Love was a crucial one. Assuming that they lose the match-up, they will be up for elimination depending on how DK versus LGD.cn goes. LGD.int came into the game more motivated than ever and took it to For.Love 2-1. DK was eliminated.
Due to their successful run in the groupstage, LGD.Int qualified straight into the semi-finals. After a much needed time off, LGD.Int faced the formidable TongFu who swept group A's third placer, For.Love 2-0. The time off allowed LGD.Int to observe and analyse their next opponent TongFu in much details. It paid dividends. Come January 4th, Western viewers watching David 'LD' Gorman and Litt-Binn 'WinteR' Chan shouting their lungs out were truly entertained by the spectacular show LGD.Int put on, annihilating TongFu 3-0. However, many argued it was TongFu who played bad rather than LGD.Int played good.
LGD.Int will be the first Western team ever to challenge the Chinese in a Grand Finals on their home ground. Godspeed.
Nobody really knew how iG was going to play after such a long break although everyone knew they were training constantly. iG was surprisingly placed into the arguably easier group B of G-League to go up against TongFu, Vici Gaming, and MUFC.
IG debut their pre-Christmas celebration, yes celebration, against new upcoming pubstar team Vici Gaming. Vici Gaming was formed out of a collective of star Chinese pub players who put on the same uniform and played in the same house. IG struggled to find momentum in the first game but managed to shine towards the end showcasing teamwork worthy enough to play in the NBA. They destroyed Vici in game two though.
As the new year dawned on humanity, Invictus Gaming and Tongfu were locked up in the studio playing against each other. ChuaN and Faith used Sand King and Keeper of the Light respectively in both games and played extremely well, moving and roaming around the map. Fresh off their win against MUFC, TongFu had no answers for iG’s coordination and iG once again swept their opponent 2-0.
After a day’s rest, it was time for MUFC to step up to the plate. Motivated from their win at The Asia, the Malaysians participated in the G-League with xFreedom from Team Zenith. However, the G-League is no proving ground and MUFC was unable to keep up with the quick rotation from iG's players. iG put YYF on Lifestealer and Zhou on Enigma to show off their versatility when it comes to player roles.
After the fog was cleared, iG was the only team in the tournament who have not dropped a single game.
Similar to LGD.Int, iG was seeded directly into the semi-finals where they went against the arguably second best Chinese team, LGD.cn. Game one was relatively easy for iG, as they maintained good pressure on LGD.cn’s towers and pushed in for the gg as mid-game approached.
The second game on the other hand, was a lot tougher than imagined. LGD.cn used the Phantom Lancer and Keeper of the Light combo and it proved troublesome for iG to handle. IG cleverly baited two Rosh fights in which they won and took the Aegis but still could not push in due to the pressure from Phantom Lancer and Keeper of the Light. Ferrari’s double RP Magnus made up for iG’s mistakes and they took down their rival.
Game three was much easier for iG, forcing out the gg from LGD.cn in mere 34 minutes with several clutch RP steals from Chuan’s Rubick.
With the win, iG is coming into the Grand Final undefeated like the true champion they are and they will be a tough nut to crack.
In an interview with ChuaN, when prompted on his thoughts about his opponent tomorrow, ChuaN replied “one foreigner (referring to himself) in China is enough”.
That are all history now. G-League Grand Finals will be on live at approximate 11:00 CET tomorrow (may subject to change) and since the semis, a lot has changed including the meta-game. Over the last few days, we asked four pros and one noob on who do they think will win the G-League and why do they think so. Let's have a read:
syndereN"iG is the team to beat, and the favourite for me. I think their execution, teamplay and strategy is pretty much the pinnacle of what Dota 2 has had to offer from The International 2 and onward. However, we haven't seen that much play from them recently, and the question is if they're still playing on AS high a level as they have shown over the last months. I also believe that if any team in China has a good chance against iG, it's LGD.int, because of their different strategies. All things considered, it is a best-of-five, and I think iG will prevail, albeit probably losing one if not two games to some play from LGD.int that they are not used to!"
iG
mouz.Black^"iG are still the monsters that we know from TI2, just this time they're even stronger, if they smell blood they're unstoppable but if anyone right now can stop them its lgd.int with their unconventional picking style... My prediction for this game is a close 3:2 for iG.""
iG
ABC.WinteR"I can't say who will win, but I would like to see how iG deals with Shadow Demon and Chen and LGD.int's aggressive play style. I think iG will still win because LGD.int said in scrims that they find it very difficult to break down iG. Nevertheless, I'm rooting for LGD.int. They've made such a sacrifice to go play in China - I want to see it pay off."
iG
EG.Maelk"I think iG will win in a clearcut fashion but it's all speculation on my end as I don't know how much they have been practicing. My assumption is based on the fact that Invictus Gaming is the best team in the world and has been for a long time now coupled with the fact that LGD.int has had a long break outside of China."
iG
TjernobylOperations Supervisor at GosuGamers
"LGD.int has a lot to prove and they are aware of it, so they should be properly prepared for this; going there with a few tricks up their sleeve. In the end though, the experience, skill and versatility of iG will give them the victory in the full best-of-5. The interesting aspect will see how these two teams react to the recent styles of Dota 2 in terms of picks and strategies."
iG
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- Match Analysis: LGD.cn vs DK
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