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Alliance secured their second consecutive Star Series win after they defeated iCCup in two games. ?Game one was a thrilling 50-minute show in which both teams pushed their skills to the limit. The second game was no less exciting but the Swedes managed to close it up a lot faster.
Prior to the grand final, Alliance faced Quantic Gaming and Virtus.Pro in which Alliance won 2-0 in all the matches. Alliance received an one game advantage going into the grand final from the winner bracket.
iCcup on the other hand, was defeated by Virtus.Pro and dropped to the loser bracket on the first day of the tournament. However, the young Russian team rallied back, defeating Quantic Gaming and Virtus Pro in straight games before they guarantee themselves at least a second place finish.
Alliance will be receiving $12,000 in cash prize while iCCup will settle for $6,000.
| Star Series VI prizes | ||
|---|---|---|
| Placing | Teams | Prize money |
| 1st place | Alliance | $12,000 |
| 2nd place | iCCup | $6,000 |
| 3rd place | Virtus.Pro | $3,000 |
| 4th place | Quantic Gaming | $1,500 |
Match report
Game 1
The first game of the series saw some interesting picks and decisions from both teams. The first blood was spilled in just two minutes into the game with Admiral Bulldog's Bounty Hunter diving past the bottom tier one tower and killing the enemy Lion just in front of Weaver's eyes. The first ten minutes were relatively slow paced with both teams farming and getting levels on their heroes.
Around the 10-minute mark the first fight happened which laid the foundations of quite an interesting game. Three of Alliance's heroes jumped onto the enemy Clockwerk expecting an easy kill, but some excellent skill and a great defensive hook by ALWAYSWANNAFLY turned the odds in iCCup's favor as they fought back and took down two of the Swedes. A little later on Alliance managed to wipe out the whole enemy team as they showed some really good coordination. In 18 minute Resolut1ion equipped his Batrider with a Force Staff, a Blink Dagger and a gem - core items on his hero despite the fact that he died a few times.
Loda's Lifestealer entered the mid-game quite farmed with an Armlet, Sange & Yasha, Drums, Phase. With Alliance's first Aegis claim around the 20-min mark, they were the better standing team. iCCup's game wasn't bad as well but the tiny mistakes they made put them into a difficult position. With only one physical damage dealer such as the Weaver, they needed to secure him a lot of farm in order to be able to fight the Lifestealer and Dragon Knight.
Alliance secured their second Aegis 32 minutes into the game and managed to destroy the middle melee barracks a few minutes later. With a 10 000 gold advantage, the Swedes returned back farming. ICCup took a breather as the game calmed down. Although with one rax down they didn't seem to be losing hard as they showed some great communication. While Alliance were killing Roshan for the third time, Jackal's Weaver dealt quite a bit of damage to the top melee barracks. A little later on a big teamfight happened in the top lane right in front of Alliance's barracks as iCCup surprisingly came out victorious and destroyed the top melee barracks. After this fight Alliance's huge gold advantage melted down to just 2 000 gold.
Fifty minutes into the match both squads knew that the slightest mistake would cost them the game. A long, two-minute fight took place in the Radiant jungle and bottom lane in which the teams pushed their skills to the limit. Akke's trademark Chen returned back to the base a 100hp Lifestealer who immediately teleported back and helped Alliance to destroy the enemy heroes with the cost of death. With iCCup's formation broken and Dire's creeps' help, Alliance pushed through middle and forced the "gg" in the 54th minute.
Game 2
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After a thrilling game one, the second match was expected with no less excitement. Among Alliance's picks were the popular Keeper of the Light + Phantom Lancer combo as well as s4's trademark Puck. On iCCup's side Jackal was once again playing as a Weaver. This time the Lifestealer and the Dragon Knight went into the Ukrainians as Resolut1on's Batrider was banned.
The game started with a first blood in 2 minutes in and stunning 6 kills in the next thirty seconds. With the first blood Akke's KOTL took down two more heroes to start off with a triple kill. Alliance secured two more kills and iCCup managed to take one.
Valve's servers reminded of themselves by disconnecting all players 4 minutes into the game. Shortly after everyone successfully reconnected with no loss of gametime whatsoever.
Going into the middle game Alliance was generally the better standing team with a better kill/death score and a constantly farming Phantom Lancer. Anyway, during the 20-30 minutes both teams were mostly trading 1 for 1 kills as the score reamined with a slight advantage for the Swedes.
ICCup managed to kill Roshan in 27 minute giving them a glimmer of hope. With the right exectution and good communication in the upcoming teamfights they could even the game. Exactly this happened two minutes later when iCCup took down two of Alliance's heroes with the cost of Dragon Knight's life and Weaver's Aegis.
Thirty five minutes into the game in a teamfight Alliance killed three of iCCup's heroes right in front of their barracks. Loda's Phantom Lancer was waiting for such a moment to send his illusions and destroy the enemy's rax. Right after, Alliance moved straight into the middle tier 3 tower and took it down as well as the middle barracks. ICCup weren't able to fight back and called the "gg" in 36 minute.
