It took three games but their effort and patience were well worth it. Vici Gaming, the sole Chinese contender in EMS One Fall, has fought their way through Group B and Alliance for a spot in the grand final.
They have guaranteed themselves a second place finish and earned themselves an exclusive right to win the Chinese the title of a tournament outside of China before the year ends. They will have to face Fnatic, a team who has also yet to win a single major title this year, in a short moment. The winner of that match-up will win a grand prize of $12,000 while the runner-up will have to settle for half the amount.
The best-of-five grand final will be streamed on EMS One stream.
Alliance vs Vici Gaming
Game one
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Game one between Alliance and Vici Gaming was perhaps one of the most one-sided games you will see this year. Drafting the Shadow Fiend to solo middle, Alliance did not emphasize enough protection for S4 and a few rotations from Shadow Demon and Leshrac was able to keep Shadow Fiend at bay. With the farm the Alchemist gathered from the lane, he rotated to the bottom lane and to the top lane and helped Vici Gaming gain even further lead in the game.
After pulling off a spectacular kill and escape on the top lane (~08:30), Vici Gaming gathered in middle for a push and it did not take too much effort for the Chinese to take down the tier-two. VG immediately transitioned into the Rosh pit and while Alliance were gathered on their side of the river and ready to go, they were a second too late and ended up getting wiped by VG. Loda called the "gg" as Vici Gaming at 15 minutes.
Game two
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In a gank went wrong, Vici Gaming's Chen overcommited to killing Nature's Prophet and ended up giving away the First Blood to Abaddon who teleported in to stop VG's dive. VG on the other hand, replied with a Crystal Maiden kill on the top lane to equalize the scoreboard at 1-1. Nothing much happened for the next few minutes until a huge engagement broke out on the bottom lane that left Puck, Nature's Prophet and Abaddon dead. Vici Gaming subsequently took two towers from that engagement, swinging the gold graph by 3,000 in their favour in 2 minutes time.
Luckily enough for the Swedes, they were able to stage a comeback on the top lane and replied by killing three of VG's as well. Alliance noticed that VG's Anti-Mage will eventually catch up in farm with his Battlefury up, thus, they started pushing. Vici Gaming minus Anti-Mage could not really hold the pushes as one tower after another fell. By 28 minutes, Alliance has gathered more than 14,000 lead in gold from the constant pick-offs.
Vici Gaming managed to sneak the Roshan but upon securing the Aegis, Alliance rushed in and ended up killing three. Anti-Mage bought his Black King Bar but it was a little too late. Wasting it on a futile attempt to save Clockwerk, Alliance's waited for the next wave of creeps and destroyed Vici Gaming. rOtk surrendered at 33 minutes.
Game three
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With the series tied at 1-1, Vici Gaming opted for a high initiation line-up with Storm Spirit and Clockwerk while Alliance went for a more well-rounded one focusing on mid-game. Although Storm dropped the First Blood to a gank, VG bounced back by securing a kill on the Enchantress and subsequently twice on the Batrider who was farming on the lane. Both teams encountered one another in the Radiant jungle and that skirmish quickly exploded to a full on 5v5 fight which ended heavily in favour of Alliance.
More focused on letting their carry farm, Alliance fought without Gyrocopter beside them and that move cost the Swedes several deaths and towers. The action died until Vici Gaming decided to walk into the Rosh pit. Spotting it out, Alliance moved in to defend the Aegis but they were unwilling to cross the river to do it. A bunch of long range nukes later, Vici Gaming still took down the Roshan and they gave Storm Spirit the Aegis.
Vici Gaming could not do much with the Aegis and spent the next few minutes trying to take down the bottom tier-two which was subsequently denied. Both teams stayed passive until after the Aegis expired and it is time to start scouting Roshan. Alliance took a huge fight on the middle lane after Batrider Lasso'd Storm Spirit to immediately eliminate him from the fight. Alliance then destroyed two towers but backed off instead of going for Roshan. VG sneaked into the Rosh pit as Alliance was unprepared. Storm was more or less forced into buying Linkens because of Batrider and VG did not want to rush in before that happens.
Upon completion, VG immediately rushed towards middle and pick off Batrider before the battle began. VG took down the middle tier-two as a result but backed off after Storm got picked off by Batrider once again. The momentum changer came in a fight for the third Roshan. For the third time, VG was able to snipe the Rosh but Alliance played great and killed off the rest of VG while Weaver and Storm were busy picking up the Aegis. The fight gave Gyrocopter a Triple Kill while Crystal Maiden a Double Kill.
After regrouping, Alliance pushed middle and took down an uncontested ranged barracks. They did the same for the top lane and got severely punished for Gyrocopter's premature usage of both Black King Bar and Satanic. With their new found confidence, VG once again roams the jungle of Alliance and after picking off Batrider, the team retreated, only to be chased past the river by Alliance. With all their ultimates down, Vici Gaming was able to burst down the Swedes with pure right clicks from Weaver (Ultra Kill) and took the Rosh as a reward for their effort.
With the Aegis expiring, Vici Gaming pushed bottom and once again, picked off Batrider before the fight began and broke Alliance's formation to fight. They traded Storm for Gyrocopter and VG played it safe and backed off. The deciding fight was on the middle lane and due to some late reactions from Loda, he did not Black King Bar the second Storm jumped in on him and allowed himself to be Vortex and Hex'd. He had no buyback and Alliance lost every hope they have from defending VG's push. VG went straight for the throne.
