The dream came true, the mainly American squad of Zephyr managed to come back from the lower bracket and take home the championship title of Nexon Sponsorship League's third season.
The third Nexon Sponsorship League final was played this morning, interestingly enough with barely any Korean players in it. In a way it is looking a bit like the North American StarCraft 2 scene, but in reverse. The context is that American tournaments and teams invited Korean pro players and as time went by, all tournaments were won by Koreans rather than players from America. Anyhow, the mostly American team of Zephyr was a big story back when the team was established in the beginning of the year and kept being a top story. After starting off well in the bracket, they eventually lost to Eye of Tiger.Hammer in the upper bracket finals, sending them down to the lower bracket.
After that the team really came into shape, defeating 5InQ three to nothing in the lower bracket before moving on for a rematch versus the mostly Filipino team of Eye of Tiger.Hammer. Due to roster issues within the Hammer ranks, ex-Evil Geniuses player Jio 'Jeyo' Madayag completed the roster as the solo mid player. He was off to a great start in the first game with his Shadow Fiend, dominating the networths. The rest of his team looked solid as well and Zephyr were noticeably nervous, setting them back quite a bit during the early and mid phases of the game. However, during the later stages, they shaped up and especially Corey and Bamboe with some extraordinary plays turned the game around and staged a comeback, eventually evening out the game around the 50th minute mark. Zephyr managed to expand the comeback to take full control late game and after an extended team fight inside the Radiant base, they were finally victorious.
The second game went much smoother for Zephyr, they pressured all lanes, pulled off some successful ganks and transitioned them into tower kills. Eye of Tiger relied on Jeyo's Naga to farm up and split push late game but the rest of their heroes remained underfarmed and the team fight presence of Eye of Tiger was rather weak. Even the Siren's Song was not very efficient due to Death Prophet's Exorcism still being active during it. Zephyr controlled the game from beginning to end and could expand their lead to 2-0 without too much effort.
Bamboe played Nyx for the third time in a row in game three, Zephyr prioritized the hero quite heavily throughout the series, most likely due to the efficiency of the hero throughout the entire game without the need to excel the laning phase. They completed their line-up with a mass mobility synergy, utilizing Io, Tiny as well as Storm in addition to already mentioned Nyx Assassin, making the map very unsafe for the Hammer squad. Eye of Tiger kept up with Zephyr though, showing the potential of their pick when it came to team fights and control. The global gank potential came into play in the later mid game, in which Zephyr took back the pace of the game, gaining a big farm advantage on Hammer. The Lone Druid did not end up being any real use as the hard carry of the team, especially not in comparison to the massive damage dealer of the opposition's Tiny. Eye of Tiger could not stop the started train and Zephyr managed to ride it all the way into the depot with a 3-0 victory.
>> VODs of the final available here
Zephyr will thus be joining the Nexon hall of fame alongside StarTale and MVP.Phoenix and will, like the previous winners, be prohibited from playing further Nexon seasons.
Nexon Sponsorship League, season 3
1st - 
Zephyr ~ $56,500
2nd - 
Eye of Tiger.Hammer ~ $7,500
3rd - 5InQ ~ $2,800
4th - MVP.hot6 ~ $2,800
Picture: Zephyr Dota's Facebook page
