The LAN playoffs of D2CL are currently ongoing at Dreamhack Masters, Bucharest, and Gosucrew members have traveled to the event to bring you live updates for the action.
Only four teams remain in the quest for the D2CL throne, as we have reached the offline phase of the tournament. Empire, Na'Vi,Sneaky Nyx Assassins and Team Tinker have all travelled to Bucharest and Dreamhack Masters to battle it out in the double elimination bracket of the playoffs. The matches started earlier today, with Na'Vi vs Empire at 11:00 CEST which was a steady 2-0 victory for Na´Vi, where Dendi picked himself Puck both games and it turned out to be the right decision. The other match of today is Team Tinker vs SNA at 15:30 CEST.
Live updates from GosuCrew
15.45 - The free wifi-stopped working on mobile devices. PICNIC!
15.40 - Dendi spent about 15 minutes signing mousepads and T-Shirts, taking pictures and more. The fans are excited to see him and he seems to enjoy himself as well.
14.33 - The whole venue is getting crowded, the secret shop line is getting longer and the smell of food is in the air: feels like a true LAN event.
14.10 - We also conducted an interview with Ush, who's here playing for Sneaky Nyx Assassins. The video will be uploaded soon and will be up on YouTube.com/GosuGamersnet
14.05 - The wifi in the VIP/press area is actually rather stable and very fast, the DreamHack staff is very nice and accommodating. GosuGamers approves !
14.00 - The press and player area is actuallz interwined with the VIP lounge. Screens are set up to provide a more relaxed viewing experience, drinks are free. It is a very calm and chilled environment.
13.45 - Apparently there was an issue with communication and it is not known whether EGM is on his way to Bucharest or not - but Ar1se is waiting and he's ready to play
12:50 - The first match of Na'Vi and Empire is over, Na'Vi grabbed the first victory.
12:30 - SNA is currently streaming against a local team
SNA selected a fairly greedy draft for the Radiant side with Zeus, Void and Terrorblade as their cores supported by an Enigma in the jungle whereas Team Tinker went for a fairly conventional line-up. The TT supports Earthshaker(EGM) and Witch Doctor(Bulba) maintained continuous pressure on the SNA carries while the weak early game of SNA ensured Gyrocopter (Pajkatt) and Necrophos (qojqva) remained unscathed in the laning phase. The early game was fairly passive as far as kills go but TT managed to carve for themselves a significant lead primarily on the basis of better economy. To give you a better picture: Void (ixmike88) had two deaths (including first blood) and 3 creep kills by the 8th minute.
While Pajkatt and qojqva continued to grow strong, the carries on SNA had very little farm comparatively. Even though SNA managed to maintain a decent kill score and tower count, they couldn't match up to the damage Team Tinker would bring into the engagements. A fairly decent early game for the mid Zeus (ush-) wasn't enough to keep them in the game, and TT slowly took over. qojqva was beastly on the Necrophos with an unconventional dagon into refresher build after a Midas. With the numbers on their side TT casually took down the barracks on all lanes with brilliant positioning ensuring Void or Enigma (with a dagger and BKB) had no opportunities to cast their ultimates. That secured a fairly easy and well executed win for Tinker with Terrorblade and Void ending the game with KDA of 1/5/1 and 0/5/3 respectively.
Team Tinker went for a similar lineup with just two heroes different from the earlier game: Bristleback (Pajkatt) and Treant Protector (EGM) for Gyrocopter and Earthshaker. On the other hand, SNA surprised us with an uncanny draft with Drow Ranger (TC) as the position one hero complemented by the support Visage (WhiteBeard), with a rare Storm Spirit (ush-) in the mid and an even more rare Spirit Breaker (ixmike88) in the off lane. TT maintained a strong aggressive top lane making sure Drow Ranger gets very little farm. They succeeded in getting a few kills diving the tier one tower with a Bristleback and Living Armor from the Treant Protector. Things only became worse for SNA once Tidehunter (SingSing) joined his teammates and Drow Ranger was forced to go for a disaster management build with three Wraith Bands.
Even though SNA were behind, they continued to gank and find a few pick offs which the changed Charge of Darkness, but couldn't translate them into objectives and this meant TT had taken five towers before SNA had even taken one. With a strong lead TT went for Roshan and an attempt by Storm Spirit to sabotage this plan went horribly for SNA. With 3 heroes dead and an Aegis in their pocket TT took down the bottom and middle barracks comfortably with Necrophos getting an ultra kill in the meanwhile. The final helpless try from SNA yielded no different results and SNA soon called the GG. With this win TT moves ahead to the upper bracket finals where Na`Vi awaits them.
Na'Vi selected one of their usual strategies with Razor, Puck and Faceless Void being their cores. Empire answered with the Io-Gyrocopter combo, along with Magnus and Legion Commander. The Ukrainian squad opened the game with a lot of aggression, scoring a fast 3-0. The continuous rotations forced Empire to go on the defensive very fast, something they could not afford due to the nature of their lineup.
Being behind in terms of gold and experience, the Russians were only able to fight decently with a good Reverse Polarity by Resolut1on. While they did manage to find some openings, they were unable to keep Na'Vi from completing their objectives. Silent's solid inventory delayed the game significantly, but the first set of barracks eventually went down by minute 48. The remaining buildings of Empire had the same fate, going down to XBOCT's Eye of the Storm. The game ended with an Ultra-kill by Funn1k inside the Dire base.
Both teams started out evenly but Na`Vi's good laning phase gave them a head start which they developed further with Midases on Dendi's Puck and XBOCT's Weaver. However, great play by yoky's Tidehunter allowed Empire to get back into the game. After a bit of back and forth, Na`Vi got a grip of the game once again due to some superiour fighting.
Empire tried to keep some control in the fights but the elusive and farmed heroes of Timbersaw, Weaver and Puck were out-mauevering them on all ends, winning more and more ground for Na´Vi. Ultimately Natus Vincere could proceed to go high ground and destroy buildings, at which point Empire threw in the towel. Natus Vincere won 2-0 and moves on to the winner bracket final.
Author
Andreas "drouks" StThere's really not much to say about Andreas 'drouks' Stavridakis, except that he sleeps two hours a day, plays the guitar and survives solely on Diet Coke. He also writes about DotA sometimes.
