DK moves on to the grand final after some solid carry play by Burning, showing the world how to truly operate the role of a carry. LGD gets bumped down to the third place match.
After a tough day of battle in which DK lost the first game, they bounced back winning the next three games against LGD.cn to move on to the grand final of Dota 2 Super League.
Guaranteed a second place finish, DK will be facing the winner of TongFu versus Neolution Orange in the grand final on the 6th of July at Feng Yun Esports Arena.
Unfortunately for LGD.cn, they will have to go up against the loser of tomorrow's match in the third and fourth placer match on Saturday. The third placer of the Dota 2 Super League will walk away with $16,200 in cash while the fourth placer will receive half of that amount at $8,100.
The other semi-finals of the Dota 2 Super League between Neolution.Orange and Tongfu will be played tomorrow at 11:00 CEST. The match will be played in a best-of-five format and the game will be streamed on the second channel of BeyondTheSummitTV.
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Match report
Game 1
DK started out game one running the off-lane defensive trilane of Weaver, Earthshaker and Dazzle to go up against LGD's Alchemist, Shadow Demon and Jakiro. At the same time, Clockwerk faced off against Nature's Prophet on the top lane and was very successful in controlling the creep equilibrium, keeping the creeps fairly near to his base tower. The game was fairly quiet until Nature's Prophet hit level 6 and he immediately teleported bottom to assist in the First Blood kill on the Dazzle. DK's solo mid Dragon Knight also teleported bottom to provide support for his team but just ended up dying to the level two Unstable Concoction. Alchemist did not level Greevil's Greed until level 7.
With LGD off to a great start, Magnus was able to buy his Blink Dagger at 11 minutes. However, LGD did not capitalize on the early Dagger purchase and continued farming away while Magnus was constantly being a menace to Weaver on the top lane. This overaggression from the Magnus allowed Earthshaker and Clockwerk to pick him off and despite blowing the Reverse Polarity and Skewer, he could not get out alive. Realizing this, LGD immediately gathered as five after the Magnus respawned. They successfully pushed down the middle tier-one tower after picking off the Dazzle. LGD occupied the top 3 in net worth 21 minutes into the game.
LGD extended their lead to 7-2 after a quick skirmish on the top lane which resulted in the death of the Clockwerk. LGD scrambled out of the fight in haste as the rest of DK arrived, including the Weaver with a newly bought Black King Bar. LGD's second attempt at the top tier-one tower was off to a rough start but LGD was still able to pull it off despite Shadow Demon's early death to a backstabbing Dragon Knight. The real key to the battle was the Magnus who at that point, had a Black King Bar and was able to cast his ulti on the back liners of DK.
In a desperate need to make something happen, DK attempted to Roshan but that was quickly dismissed with LGD heroes pouring in. LGD then forced a fight on the middle lane in which three of DK's supports once again fell victim to a well placed RP. All three of them melted immediately and LGD took Roshan shortly after. LGD wasted no time and threatened the top barracks after the Roshan. It was DK who initiated the second Alchemist's Chemical Rage ran out but it was futile. LGD was way too farmed at that point and with Xiao8 pulling off yet another great RP, DK called the gg immediately.
Game 2
Despite witnessing Zenith getting punished for picking up an early Spectre yesterday, LGD second picked the hero and completed the line up with some high maneuver initiation heroes such as Batrider and Puck. DK on the other hand, went opted for a late-mid game strat but they will first have to avoid the high ganking potential of LGD to get to that point. LGD ran a offensive dual lane of Spectre and Rubick against a solo Weaver. Perhaps wanting to go head on against the trilane, LGD rotated the Rubick and Spectre to the top lane and left Nyx Assassin to fend for himself on the bottom lane. Spectre did not have the best time at top going up against a DK trilane.
By all means, LGD's unorthodox laning did pretty well considering Puck and the jungling Batrider both have substantial amount of farm due to DK's supports constant try to apply pressure on the Spectre on the top lane. Nyx also did not have a bad time hitting level 6, 8 minutes into the game. Puck on the other hand, bought Power Treads instead of rushing straight for the Blink Dagger. A quick rotation of the Slark to the top lane secured DK the First Blood on the Rubick.
In contrary to the first game, DK secured a 4-0 kill by 10 minutes and control the tempo of the second game. DK extended their lead to 7-0 after taking down all three of LGD's supports while trying to push the middle tier one tower. LGD, currently on the back foot smoke ganked the Sand King hiding in the trees but DK's supports were quick to arrive and took three of LGD's as a trade for Sand King's death.
With the gold lead firmly in place for DK, towers after towers went down as DK moved up and down the river clearing all the structural units one by one. 25 minutes into the game, DK has limited LGD to the confine of their base. DK took down the Roshan with ease.
DK attempted to go high ground several times but LGD does have a lot of AOE spam skills which were able to clear the creeps relatively quickly. After several fail attempts at mid, DK rotated top and was partially successful in pushing until LGD started buying back. 10 minutes passed and DK's attempt at one barracks was still unsuccessful. Still in control of the bigger portion of the map, DK built up a gold advantage of 15,000 and once again, took down the Roshan without any retaliation from LGD.
After a drawn out fight in mid, in which DK ran in like a bull with the Aegis, DK came up on top despite yet another mass buybacks from LGD in an attempt to defend their base. The battle started out on the middle lane and was fought all the way to the top lane. Spectre, the only survivor of LGD after the skirmish, could not do much to defend the base against four of DK heroes. Spectre helplessly watched DK mow down barracks after barracks before LGD surrendered.
Game 3
In game three, both teams ran a dual core line-up with LGD opting for the Spectre once again and Dragon Knight while DK picked Anti-Mage and Kunkka. Running the Clockwerk on the off-lane against LGD's trilane, Clockwerk was able to Cog the creeps into the jungle and heavily disrupt the creep equilibrium Spectre wished to build on the bottom lane. The swarm of creeps pushing towards DK's tier one tower on the bottom lane instantly gave ROTK level two. He attempted the creep block a second time but once he emerged on the lane, Silencer, Rubick and the Spectre rushed into the tower to kill him for the First Blood. Meanwhile, DK took down an easy tier one tower on the top lane since Dark Seer has abandoned the lane.
Four of LGD heroes converged on the bottom lane and was able to kill Clockwerk for the second time off a Surged Rubick Telekinesis. DK responded to the kill by gathering on the middle lane and took down the Dragon Knight and the Silencer. Although, the score was 4-2 in favour of LGD, Anti-Mage was farming up a storm and has pushed his team's gold advantage up to 2,000. Despite Burning's good farm, DK could not deny LGD's superior team fighting capability at this point as LGD mowed down their first tower of the game, punishing DK's greedy line-up. Both teams traded their second tier one tower, LGD taking down the top tier one while Anti-Mage single handedly destroyed the tower in mid.
LGD continued with their game plan, ignoring Anti-Mage and continuously push down towers and although they have been taking down towers in great success, this allowed Anti-Mage to farm up a whooping 243 creeps 22 minutes into the game. Apart from that, Anti-Mage also took down four towers, all of it while LGD was gathered up as five and pushing down single towers. With Burning starting to join fights with five items (including the Aegis), LGD stopped pushing as five due to the sheer power of Anti-Mage right clicks in fights.
The tide has turned for DK. With the Aegis in hand, DK immediately pushed bottom lane and took down the barracks and a couple of heroes with ease. Despite the mass buybacks from LGD, all of them together cannot stop the overfarmed Anti-Mage and surrendered immediately.
Game 4
The teams are mirroring each other with having trilanes on their safe sides with their offlaner in the jungle. They both push out the other team's tier one tower rather quickly . Yao rotates down to the bottom rune, walks straight into a trap where Magnus and Rubick catches him. Spectre and Prophet teleports in to secure the first blood. An early blink dagger by xiao allows LGD to punish rOtk in his attempt defend his tier 2 top tower. Both rOtk and the tower goes down, shortly after LGD also demolishes the mid tier 1 tower. The game is progressing slowly, but all according to LGD's plan. They are merely interested in pushing out towers with Necro tanking up as much as he can, avoiding team fights. At minute 23 LGD goes for the base siege at bottom, but great play from Rubick and Visage saves the day and turns the fight. Dai manages to disrupt Batrider's initation by lifting him as soon as he lassoes.
This failed push seems to throw LGD a bit off their game, they give up another kill later on as Sylar is positioned rather sloppy on the map. A huge fight breaks out a bit later, where Magnus lands a four hero Reverse Polarity, Necro manages to bring the heroes low though and finishes off Spectre and then Dragon Knight joins the fight to turn it around. Burning buys back despite LGD's inability to push after that fight. Both teams remain in the passive rhythm, waiting for a new Aegis. LGD enters the pit and starts damaging the big dude but DK throws their heroes into the lines and Reverse Polarit's, Haunts and kills of Sylar who has no buy back. However they pay with Burnings life as well as rOtk who does a classic rOtk-move, teleporting with 100 hp into an almost full HP Dragon Knight, gets stunned and killed. LGD takes the Rosh kill and in the next push, Burning manages to bait LGD to initate with Lasso and Scythe on an illusion, but the huge Reverse Polarity isn't there and LGD manages to get out alive, only losing the Aegis.
However, DK completely demolishes the next fight with a great Reverse Polarity, the lack of a hard carry in LGD's line-up is proving to be a severe problem since the clash is usually decided by a Reverse Polarity + Haunt alone. LGD buys back and keeps throwing their lives to prevent DK to end the game, DK gladly takes the kills and settles with the Roshan, leaving the base of LGD intact. Just outside the base of LGD though, Sylar imagines himself farming safe but rOtk hexes him and the team follows up to take him down followed by DK starting tearing LGD's base apart. They finishes off both the side lanes before eventually getting chased out of the base by multiple buy backs. Worth mentioning is Burning getting focused and Sylar throws down the Aghanim ulti on him, dying during that prevents buyback. A clutch force staff throws him out of range from LGD though, causing Burning to survive with 60 hp after the Scythe, and then dying Shivas. He instantly buys back. One final clash on top lane seals the deal and LGD calls the "gg", DK moves on the grand final.
