Playing with two stand-ins, Fnatic fought admirably and moments ago, they took down the tournament favourite Vici Gaming 2-1 in what seems to be a good candidate for upset of the year nomination.
Losing the first game to Vici Gaming's trademark push strat, Fnatic came back in game two with their "YOLO" Shadow Fiend and Slardar pick which outmaneuvered and outwitted Vici Gaming. With the series tied up at 1-1, Vici Gaming had a plan going into game three using the Doom and Disruptor but a few mistakes in the early game phase cost them an inevitable loss.
Vici Gaming will be going back to China with $7,500 while LGD.cn will have the enormous task to take down the current fan favourite. You can bet for the game here. LGD.cn will be going into the grand final with an one-game advantage.
D2L prize distribution:
1. $25,000
2. $15,000
3. 
Vici Gaming - $7,500
4. 
Alliance - $2,500
Fnatic vs Vici Gaming: Again with the upset
Game 1
Picking the Spectre, Vici Gaming put themselves in a very tough situation considering he will be going against Fnatic's Tiny if the game goes late. In any case, the game started and Spectre was left to free farm on the bottom lane because they think it will be more productive for the Doom to farm in the jungle. The early game was all about Vici Gaming's push strat. Pugna moved towards bottom at the 5 minutes mark and Vici Gaming was able to blast down the bottom tier one. The Chinese team gathered on the middle lane four minutes later and pushed the tier-one on the lane without any retaliation as well.
The game as a whole was very passive because the score was only at 1-1, 8 minutes in, provided there were a few tower kills. Tiny definitely had the upper hand when it came to farming as he killed 77 creeps at 10 minutes while Spectre only had 60. However, Spectre still had a higher net worth in comparison to Tiny because of the bonus gold from towers.
Fnatic tried to respond to VG's push strat by split pushing but their first attempt on the middle lane ended horribly. After throwing out the Roar and Doom on the Pugna, Fnatic got scared of VG's incoming reinforcement and backed off but they were a step too late. The arrival of the Venomancer and the Visage ended killing three of Fnatic and that was when the game went out of control. Vici Gaming started pushing a lot more aggressively and there was not much Fnatic could do about it. They also attempted to kill Tiny several times but the Io was always there to sacrifice himself in order to bail the Tiny out.
Desperate to get something going, Fnatic made a great maneuver disguising their Roshan attempt but once found out, Vici Gaming engaged on Fnatic regardless of the Aegis on Tiny. The fight started out with Doom using his ultimate on Spectre while Tiny tried to kill the supports. The supports spaced themselves out very nicely and kited him for a long time until Spectre rejoined the fight. In that fight, Fnatic lost the Aegis and two heroes on the side before Vici Gaming retreat. Minutes later, Fnatic, still trying to get something going, smoked into VG's jungle but they were annihilated because the reinforcement from Spectre and Clockwerk came very quickly. It was all over for Fnatic from that point onwards. At 30 minutes, VG took the top barracks. Fnatic got a few pick offs but once VG took down the second Roshan, the game was quickly over.
Game 2
All-or-nothing, Fnatic drafted the heroes that got them the win against Alliance last night but they were off to a bad start considering Trixi's Bristleback going down twice on the top lane while DeMoN's Shadow Fiend died to a rotation from Nature's Prophet and Visage. Shadow Fiend nearly died a second time when he overextended but the Io tethered him and kept him alive with Bottle charges.
Fnatic was suffering until the Slardar bought his Blink Dagger, Fnatic immediately sprung into action. Vici Gaming went for the 5-man push on the middle lane only to be attacked by Fnatic who came all guns blazing. The battle lasted for a long time and while many heads fell, they came back to life before the fight is over. Most crucial of all was the Bristleback who came back to clean up the fleeing Rubick and Nyx Assassin, VG's only two survivors of the battle.
After that fight, Vici Gaming knew they were on the backfoot and tried to split push with Nature's Prophet instead. That was perfect for Slardar because a blink into Silthereen Crush into Amplify Damage easily kills rOtk. That happened twice before rOtk gave up. Knowing they cannot let the game go any further, Vici Gaming gathered on the middle lane to push the tower but Slardar charged into the middle and Fnatic once again won another battle.
Vici Gaming forfeited game two at 20 minutes.
Game 3
In what was a quiet game three blew wide open at 6 minutes when a gank attempt on gank attempt happened on the middle lane. Vici Gaming was the first to start the fight but they did not have Dragon Form which resulted in Super having to walk up the opponent's high ground to stun Kunkka. The backlash was quick and swift as the Elder Titan and Crystal Maiden was able to hold the Dragon Knight long enough to pick him up as the First Blood. Fnatic also killed the Visage and the Disruptor with the help of the Timbersaw who teleported in.
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The same thing happened again two minutes later and this time, they were able to bring down Dragon Knight for the third time in the game as well as three other Vici Gaming heroes. All of the sudden, the kill score was 8-2 and Fnatic led the gold difference chart by 3,000.
The kills continued to pour in as Fnatic stick together as five and started pushing down towers. That was until the Disruptor by fy went all superman and pulled of two amazing Kinetic Filed to Static Storm to win Vici Gaming the Roshan fights. Vici Gaming eventually got the Roshan kill and Aegis but Sylar lost it soon after to the pursuing Timbersaw. The buybacks from Fnatic was able to halt Vici Gaming's great comeback and they did so by killing the Doom and the Gyrocopter.
Both teams stayed dormant and avoided fight until Fnatic abruptly decided to push the top tier-two. After killing the Doom, Fnatic initially backed off and made a questionable smoke turn-around with none of their ultimate up. Fy went all super saiyan again and once again, he trapped three guys in the Kinetic Field and Vici Gaming walked away with the win there. However, Fnatic replied with a sneaky Roshan kill shortly after.
With the Aegis, Fnatic once again tried to rush into Vici Gaming's base. Off a beautifully placed Earth Splitter, Vici Gaming heroes fell like flies and Fnatic took the bottom barracks. Fnatic headed straight for the mid lane and took down the tier-three and forced a lot of buybacks before retreating. A quick regroup obliterated Vici Gaming outside their base and the game was quickly over.
