Third seed Speed Gaming International continued their incredible run today as they took down second seed Sigma International in the first semi-finals of MLG Columbus 2013.
Speed Gaming will be the first grand finalist of MLG Columbus and will have a chance to take a jab against Na`Vi or DK, both whom Speed had defeated earlier in the groupstage for the championship.
Speed has also guaranteed themselves a second place finish in MLG Columbus while Sigma International will be walking home with 10% of the prize pool. The prize pool is $136,657 at the time of publish.
Match report
Game 1
Kicking off the day in MLG Columbus, Sigma knew Outworld Devourer will be a big threat to them and they quickly picked it in the first picking phase before Speed did. Speed responded to the pick with a highly unorthodox three offlaners strat consisting of Clockwerk, Elder Titan and Weaver. Speed ended up running dual lanes of Weaver and Ancient Apparition on top and Crystal Maiden with Clockwerk on bottom. Sigma also ran Windrunner and Venomancer on the bottom lane, and Puck and Alchemist at top. The First Blood of the game went to Alchemist - with the help of Puck and Venomancer - as he threw a fully charged stun onto Ancient Apparition. Sigma's Venomancer was just a split second shy from giving away the First Blood as he dropped immediately after Ancient Apparition died.
The first huge engagement of the day happened on the middle lane at 07:30 game time, when Clockwerk hooked the Outworld Devourer and succesfully Cogged him. Sigma however, was quick on the reply as they teleported two heroes in and they were able to turn the fight around and killed the Clockwerk and the Elder Titan. Another huge engagement happened just shortly after and this time, Speed was able to come out on top with the help from Ancient Apparition's Ice Blast from the top lane. The difference in gold was almost non-existent at 12 minutes in. Speed did have Ancient Apparition, Crystal Maiden and Weaver going Midas while Sigma had none.
18 minutes into the game, Sigma finally got a taste of what Speed's strategy was all about. An Elder Titan Astral Spirit coupled with Natural Order Aura plus Ancient Apparition's Ice Blast and Clockwerk's Rocket Flare did a significant amount of damage to the Outworld Devourer and nearly killed the black bird in the process. As a result, Sigma decided to stop farming and started pushing the middle tier one and the bottom tier one. From there onwards, Sigma's group up was rather successful as they took fight after fight, including an extremely crucial counter-gank on the Alchemist at the top lane.
Despite these minor victories, Speed's supports ended up getting up items (thanks to Midas) and all of a sudden, they were once again in control of the game, especially after they counter-initiated Sigma's attempt to fight on the top lane. Wasting no time, Speed went straight into Sigma's base and took down the top melee barracks before Sigma's heroes respawned. Ancient Apparition's Aghanim's Scepter and Weaver's naked Linken, Midas and Desolator were the main source of damage for Speed as they took down Roshan at 36 minutes after chasing Sigma back.
By 40 minutes, Sigma had lost all their outer towers and were stuck in their base defending against the unrelentless onslaught of spams by Elder Titan, Clockwerk and Ancient Apparition. However, Speed still had huge difficulties going uphill. Speed tried to breach Sigma's base multiple times but all their attempts, including two smoke ganks to go in from the top lane were tactically stopped. It was not until 50 minutes that Speed took down Outworld Devourer who had no buyback to take down all the barracks. Sigma surrendered shortly after.
Game 2
Starting off game two with Luna placed on the off-lane, Speed Gaming immediately swapped her to the safe lane after the Luna dropped First Blood to a three-man gank, courtesy of the roaming Windranger. As a result, Speed lost out on experience but they were quick to equalize the differences with an engagement on the middle lane. The balance was once again tilted towards Sigma when both Luna and Crystal Maiden got killed by a Gyrocopter single-handedly. The gold difference between the two teams was approximately 2,000 at 10 minutes in Sigma's favour.
Desperate for any sort of victory, Speed Gaming sneaked into the Rosh pit and took down Roshan while the rest of Sigma was busy killing Mirana on the top lane. With the Aegis secured, Speed immediately rotated to the bottom lane and killed Outworld Devourer and subsequently the Windranger who teleported in to rescue his teammate. Speed then wasted no time in grouping up for a middle lane push but they were once again picked off and back to where they were before.
8 minutes passed and despite Sigma's seemingly huge lead, they did not manage to accomplish much with it, only taking down one tier two tower and forcing a Templar Assassin buy back. Roshan respawned soon after and Speed managed to outmaneuver Sigma and killed Roshan a second after Clockwerk's Rocket Flare spotted them out. The game went a little stale after the Roshan steal, until Sigma overstayed their welcome after they took down Templar Assassin's Aegis at the rune spot. Speed's reinforcement was able to arrive in time before Luna revived and took the fight convincingly. Speed barrelled down middle lane and took down the melee barracks before retreating.
Things escalated quickly for Speed from there onwards as they continuously found pick offs which led to them taking down the bottom barracks as well. With their backs against the wall, Sigma tried for one last effort down the middle lane but their attempt was futile, giving Speed the win.
