NewBee is one step closer to Starladder's LAN finals after defeating LGD on straight games. They now advance into the lower bracket finals of the Chinese qualifiers.
Tomorrow, NewBee will face the loser of the iG-DK match-up scheduled later. The winner of the matches later and tomorrow will guarantee themselves a slot on Starladder's LAN finals on 17 April.
Game 1
Both teams opted for strong middle-game lineups, with LGD going for a Brewmaster-Razor-Nature's Prophet core while NewBee went with Dragon Knight-Weaver-Clockwerk. Both teams also started sloppy, with NewBee giving first blood after a failed gank on the tanky Brewmaster, while LGD lost a hero on mid not long after after diving on the other tanky hero in Dragon Knight. While each team traded tower early, LGD led slightly on the gold graph because they were able to deny theirs.
Both teams have taken five towers apiece by the 21st minute, with LGD holding a minimal lead on gold and experience because of their hero-kill advantage. Both carries are also evenly farmed at this point. Aside from a small group up from both teams as they traded for each other's last outer tower on the 25th minute, it was a quiet period of everyone trying to farm and level up. The first fight since then happened at the 30th minute, on which NewBee was able to sneak a Roshan and force buyback on the Brewmater.
LGD was able to pick off Clockwerk at the least, which lead them to an attempt on NewBee's tier-3 mid tower. Despite finishing off the tower and forcing out the Aegis, they lost three heroes in the proccess. LGD tried again on the middle lane after picking of Weaver, but the results were the same - losing a 3-0 hero trade. The pivotal play of that was the quick reaction of NewBee to permanently disable the initiation Brewmaster before he can use his ultimate, chaining Voodoo, Shackles and Dragon's Tail perfectly.
With a Weaver on the opposite side, LGD cannot relent on their push attempts. NewBee proves to be a tough nut to crack however, as they defended the push for the third time in a row, this time winning 4-1 on the hero trade. These consecutive teamfight wins had NewBee leading by a decent 3,000 gold and an enormous 15,000 experience against their opponents.
At 42 minutes into the game, LGD again overcommitted as they were caught out of position after chasing the Clockwerk. Brewmaster was killed again before he can use his Primar Split, and NewBee converted it to a middle lane barracks and a tier-3 top tower. NewBee was also able to force a buyback on Razor before they backed out. With the Weaver being all farmed up already, LGD decided to throw in the towel at the 42nd minute.
Game 2
The teams attempted something different, at least on the laning, for the second game. LGD sent their Nature's Prophet to solo the easy lane, sent the Enigma to camp on the opposite jungle, and have a Dazzle-Storm dual lane. NewBee was also mixing up a bit, putting Morphling mid, sending Nyx to solo the hard lane, the Enchantress on an offensive jungle, a dual lane of Doom and Shadow Shaman on their easy lane. It was NewBee who had the early break. as Morphling took first blood against Dragon Knight with an assist from the Enchantress.
NewBee started racking up kills as their hereos reach level 6, as a Vendetta and a Doom spelled two quick kills for them on the separate lanes. LGD was having trouble keeping up with NewBee's killing potential, finding themselves on an 9-kill deficit despite a Roshan kill and a 3-3 tower score by the 15th minute. More importantly, NewBee's Morphling is getting farmed, amassing a 6-0-5 KDA score by then.
LGD terribly lacks a source of damage, and mobile heroes of NewBee made it hard for Enigma to get a chance on a good Black Hole. With the big farm on Morphling, NewBee easily destroyed LGD as they were trying to siege the tier-2 bottom tower. LGD found no chance of a comeback, and called GG just 24 minutes into the game. Hao was very impressive, finishing without a death and scoring 200 last hits while being on the middle lane.
