Invictus Gaming takes down LGD Gaming 2-0 in the first best of three series in Starseries China and extends their winning streak to nine games
Game 1
Game 1 of the best of three between iG and LGD began with iG opting for an aggressive pushing lineup coming from the Invoker, Bristleback and Shadow Shaman while LGD decided to rely upon the pushing ability from Nature's Prophet and the late game power from the Spectre to turn the tides of battle. The tri lane combo from iG proved effective in limiting the farm potential from Spectre as she faced constant Quill Spray and auto attack harass. First blood came to iG as Nature's Prophet overextended his stay before falling to the power of the Cold Snap and Sunstrike combo from Invoker.
iG then rotated to the Radiant jungle where they caught out the jungling Crystal Maiden as well as the Spectre who tried in vain to stop the kill giving the Bristleback a free double kill. A major team fight near the bottom radiant one tower resulted in both teams trading kills with iG losing four heroes before coming back and securing a few kills as well as the bottom tier one tower.
With their outer towers falling left and right, LGD found themselves being caught out in no mans land as both Nature's Prophet and Spectre fell to the ganking combo from Rubick and Shadow Shaman before the rest of iG's lineup cleaned house. iG then pushed the middle barracks as both teams traded blow for blow. Despite the brave last stand by Spectre and the constant dagon harassment by Puck, gg was called after both the top and middle barracks fell under the sustain pressure from iG.
Game 2
With one game away from being sent to the loser's bracket, LGD decided to take the Invoker away from iG and utilise the Clockwerk-Lifestealer combo with a Engima to be able to control team fights. iG decided to keep both the Rubick and the Dazzle which worked out so well in game one and opted to pickup the ever popular Lycan to bite into the heels of LGD.
Once again, iG's tri lane combo limited the amount of farm the Lifestealer could obtain as the constant harassment from weaver forced him to farm in the safety of the tower. First blood came to LGD this time as a surprise smoke gank by Enigma caught out the Lycan, allowing the Clockwerk to secure the kill. An early push at the Dire tier one bottom tower resulted in the Clockwerk being killed by a three man gank before the tower fell.
The Roshan pit became centre stage as both teams played a game of cat and mouse. iG were kept up to date with the Lycan wolves proving a very useful source of intelligence gathering while LGD attempted on mutiple occasions to take down Roshan before giving up each time. On the seventh attempt did they finally have the man power and guts to take down Roshan before iG could respond.
A failed gank on the Lycan by the Clockwerk-Lifestealer combo gave away two kills to Lycan which allowed iG to push the lanes further in. The choice of items between the Puck and Invoker proved to be a deciding factor in this game as the blink + hex combo from the Puck caught out the Lifestealer as well as the Invoker twice despite having a Black King Bar. With complete map control and the ever constant pressure being applied on the lanes by Lycan and Weaver, LGD were forced to defend their base. A desperate last push by LGD proved to be the final straw as iG team wiped LGD from the face of the map with Chaun's Rubick getting a free Black Hole to add to the pain, forcing LGD to call the gg.
With this win, iG takes down LGD 2-0 and advances forward to the second round of the upper bracket while LGD will have to work hard to get back to the top.
