Written by: ReiNNNN
Day one in EMS One is over and only four remains. If you have missed out on all the actions today, we have a recap of all the games today completed with the drafts and end game screenshot.
Table of Contents
[Match 1] Rat in the Dark vs Absolute Legends 
Game one was a disaster for the Finnish team. They started out the game heavily relying on their aggressive trilane which turned out to be a minor victory for them since unicornxoxo's DK was forced to play passively due to immense pressure. The game remained even by the end of the first night at four a piece but it turned sour extremely quickly.
Absolute Legends started popping Smoke of Deceit off and picked up a kills on Rat's key heroes. The first big engagement happened at the entrance to the Roshan pit where bad coordination and positioning cost Rat a total of four death, an Aegis giveaway and a 4,000 gold swing. Absolute Legends kept their foot on the pedal and never let go. Absolute Legends took game one.
In game two, Rat opted once again for the aggressive trilane but this time, it was nowhere near as strong as the one they made in game one. aL's trilane of Spectre, Shadow Shaman, and support Gyrocopter was able to repel Rat's advances making the viewers question, if putting the Bane Elemental should be done at all. Due to Rat's passivity, aL's supports smoked and headed towards mid for the Nature's Prophet, they got the First Blood.
In a four-man gank gone wrong, Rat lost three of their heroes attempting to kill Spectre and that set the motion for aL's snowball. As the game headed towards mid-game, miGGel's Clockwerk started roaming the map to much success, picking up many kills with the help of his teammates. Spectre also joined the fights using his Haunt and picked up a couple of kills while assisting in many. The kills bought him the Diffusal Blade 14 minutes in and aL never looked back. miGGel's Clockwerk was Beyond Godlike at the end of the game.
RoX.KIS picked the Night Stalker in game one, a hero that has not seen much light in the current meta-game. The game started out fast with kills coming left, right and centre. Most of the kills went highly in favour for the French as their stand-in, ComeWithMe (Enchantress) successful in roaming around the map. As the first night fell, Night Stalker attempted to put his team's score on the board but ended up as just another casualty due to smart warding by DD.
RoX.KIS was seen numerous times diving past towers to pick off heroes but RoX.KIS are well too aware of DD's playstyle. It was not until the end of the first night that Night Stalker picked up the kill. He narrowly escaped on 30 hit points and this was the stage for RoX.KIS big comeback. A big team fight broke out on the top lane and RoX.KIS was able to capitalize on DD's sloppy coordination to pick up a total of five kills, a team wipe. While RoX.KIS was still too busy protecting the Night Stalker at daytime, DD's overall movement around the map was a lot more efficient and allowed more farm time.
It was the second night which RoX.KIS hit their stride. Despite their poor farm, RoX.KIS showcased their heroes ability to kite just enough for DD.Dota to fall into the bait. They took another big teamfight on the bottom lane and Night Stalker's crazy aggression (which led to death in most cases) baited a lot of teleports and created space for Gyrocopter to farm up a storm.
Soon enough, Gyrocopter bought his Black King Bar, Helm of Dominator, and Eaglesong which was too much for DD's no carry strat to handle. The Russians forced the issue, taking down all of DD's outer towers and the Aegis. The game went a little back and forth for 15 minutes but ultimately, it was RoX.KIS who was the first to come knocking on DD's door. The took the high ground after much resistance from the French.
Blood was spilled before the creep spawned as two of the teams went towards the Radiant jungle. However, RoX.KIS came up on top on the level one engagement as they were smoked up and also had Brewmaster and Lifestealer, two fairly tanky heroes leading the charge. The quick engagement was an easy level two for all of RoX.KIS heroes as they put their level advantage to work on the laning phase.
The Russian aggression started surfacing just four minutes into the game as RoX.KIS contemplated on diving the tower. With the great rotation from Solo's Tinker, RoX.KIS was up to a five kill lead by six minutes and looked solid going into mid-game.
A big and extended fight broke out on the bottom lane at 10 minutes and just as DD.Dota was about to stage a comeback from a Faceless Void Chronosphere, a clutch Blinding Light from the Keeper of the Light saved the Tinker from an imminent death. With the kill score up to 9-0, RoX.KIS mounted for a push in mid but was quickly repelled by DD, picking up a team wipe off a good Chronosphere.
RoX.KIS responded to the team wipe by taking down DD's outer towers, a French team wipe, Roshan and soon enough the series.
Mousesports was quick to abandon their off-lane after Gyrocopter, Nyx Assassin and Leshrac from Alliance appeared on the top lane. The Lifestealer went into the jungle and Mouz's supports roamed middle to kill s4's Puck. Lifestealer did eventually return to the top lane but Gyrocopter was already level 7 and even with two supports, Mousesports could not go on the Gyrocopter fearing the back-up. Meanwhile, Mousesports' Alchemist was left to free farm on the safe lane and he saved up a Shadow Blade, Midas, and Power Treads in 12 minutes with the help of level two Goblin's Greed.
Capitalizing on their massive gold lead, Mousesports smoked up and went at Puck but Alliance's reinforcement was quick to arrive. A chaotic and off-position team fight broke out ending with a great Call Down by Loda to kill off three Mousesports supports. Ny Assassin gave chase to the Lifestealer who narrowly escaped on 100 hit points. Even with such a win, Mousesports never seemed like they were faltering under pressure.
Mousesports grouped up and starting applying pressure on Alliance's outer towers as they built up a 10,000 gold lead by 27 minutes. Alliance's only way to come back into the game is only to split push at this point but that also did not go well for the Nature's Prophet as he got picked off twice within a five minutes span. Despite sneaking the Roshan and claiming the Aegis, Mousesports walked uphill and forced the gg.
Mousesports bizarre and greedy line-up turned out to be a sick combo, chaining off the Nightmare, Unstable Concotion and a few right clicks by the Anti-Mage and Nature's Prophet was rewarded with the First Blood on Loda's Lifestealer. As the first night came, Night Stalker and Alchemist started running all over the map ganking and were successful in getting Magnus to waste his Reverse Polarity or risk dying. Lifestealer.
Alliance was quick to respond with two smoke ganks of their own, the first one picked off the Night Stalker, the second smoke wasted, and the third smoke picking up the Bane. After 15 minutes of exchanges, Alliance finally tied up the kill score at eight a piece and secured a 3,000 gold lead mostly due to the free-farming Lone Druid.
With the minor lead they had, Alliance quickly took down all of Mousesports' outer towers and succeeded in engaging the top barracks courtesy of a three-man Reverse Polarity. Magnus, Lifestealer and Lina blew all three of their ultimate to take down the Anti-Mage and subsequently Roshan and the game.
In the crucial trilane versus trilane situation on the top lane, Mousesports started with a big upperhand having the more aggressive heroes and the situation forced Keeper of the Light to Illuminate the creeps in order for Spectre to level up. The series of Illuminates caused the lane to be pushed out and hence, making the situation even more dangerous for Spectre to farm. Spectre only had 13 creeps 5 minutes into the game.
Night Stalker introduced himself on the first night, killing off the Nature's Prophet who paid his life for the tier-one tower on the bottom lane. Five minutes later, in a gank gone wrong, Nyx Assassin lost his life to a timely Sentry Ward placement and Alliance heroes poured into the battle one by one only to get picked off. Mousesports traded the Magnus for the Nyx Assassin, Spectre and Clockwerk.
Despite having such a big lead in gold and experience, Mousesports' push was being heavily delayed by the Keeper of the Light. A well placed Illuminate ignited a fight in the middle lane but Mousesports still came up on top as Spectre once again fell to the Lifestealer. The Lifestealer and the Nature's Prophet both escaped on 50 hit points.
Alliance made a slight comeback killing off four mices in a team battle and rewarded themselves with a tier-one tower for their effort. However, Mousesports quickly rebounded as Magnus pulled off a three man Reverse Polarity as Alliance's supports were walking in. Despite having such a rough start, Spectre has also rebounded and farmed up his Sacred Relic at 24 minutes in although his team's supports spent most of their time standing behind him, wasting time.
Soon enough, Mousesports had total control of the map and Alliance heroes were unable to leave the comfort of their base any longer. A smoke gank attempt was made but it was to no avail because Mousesports were all on Alliance's side of the map. Having enough of the shenanigans, Mousesports sieged the high ground but failed miserably because Lifestealer could not rage in time before getting stunned. Another fight broke out shortly after and once again, Mousesports was caught off-position and destroyed. This was the comeback Alliance has been waiting for.
However, it was Mousesports turn to get lucky, another big three man Reverse Polarity turned the tide for Mousesports as Spectre fell shortly after and had no money to buyback. Spectre picked up a Heart of Tarrasque just before the fight and that cost Alliance the game as the favourites stumbled out of the tournament.
Fnatic's smart warding in Na`Vi's neutral creep spawn was successful in stopping Lina and Nyx to gained experience pulling the camps on the safe lane. Na`Vi was hesistant in engaging Fnatic's survival trilane comprising heroes such as Undying, Bane Elemental and Lifestealer. Their plans to smoke mid was also thwarted by the Undying. Slowly, the creeps pushed forward due to Lina's Light Strike Array and this created more space for Fnatic's sole carry to farm.
On the middle lane however was a completely different story. Came 8 minutes, n0tail's Tinker was already two levels down compared to Dendi's Queen of Pain and giving away the First Blood did not help either. Na`Vi grouped up ten minutes into the game and threatened to push Fnatic's top tower but Fnatic was quick to respond by rotating five of their heroes too. Na`Vi's second attempt at the tower was successful but it came at the cost of three heroes including the Juggernaut. Meanwhile, distractions at top allowed Lone Druid to take down two towers on the bottom lane.
Fnatic tried defending the Roshan but a failed Blink - Clap combo gave the Aegis to the Queen of Pain. Na`Vi continued on their game-plan to five men the game. Fnatic failed to stop Na`Vi from taking down their final tier-two tower and also gave away four of their heroes as tribute as the Ukrainians built up a gold lead of over 12,000. As hard it is to push into a Tinker, Na`Vi manned up and walked uphill 36 minutes in, only losing the Aegis. GG was called as Na`Vi regrouped and pushed mid.
Na`Vi showed variety in game two, abandoning the bottom lane and allowing Dark Seer to farm in the jungle. Realizing that nobody was going to show up, Fnatic's two hard supports, Vengeful Spirit and Lion smoked towards middle but their gank just fell short of the First Blood. Shortly after that, Fnatic made a weird switch, laning Lion mid against Storm Spirit and the initial mid solo, Gyrocopter, rotated into the jungle. All these happened while Era's Alchemist maxed out Goblin's Greed on the free-farm safe lane.
As the game hit the 10th minute mark, Lion had died thrice in the middle lane to an overcommitting Storm. Na`Vi's aggressive warding allowed themselves to position way past Fnatic's tower and forced the Alchemist to join them in fights. However, it was to no avail. Na`Vi's heroes composition are just superior in the mid-game as they wiped Fnatic in front of their base. The kill score was 0-11 by the end of the fight. Na`Vi slowly pushed down all of Fnatic's outer towers before heading into the Rosh pit to secure the Aegis.
Moments later, Na`Vi rushed into Fnatic's base targetting the Magnus who was slightly out of position. Magnus bought back to pull off the Reverse Polarity but it was too late. Na`Vi advanced into the semi-finals.
