In a intense final, MVP.Hot6ix managed to comeback from a huge deficit against Energy Pacemaker to claim MPGL Season 7. This was the first LAN Hot6ix have ever won and they did it barely one month after big roster-changes. EP fought to the bitter end in their first LAN appearance since DAC and managed to earn $10,000. Mineski and G-Guard ended 3th and 4th respectively.
MPGL Season 7 have just ended with several surprises. Despite boasting an unusually big prize pool for the SEA region of $50,000 USD several known teams had to miss it due to their attendance to other international tournaments. This situation opened a perfect opportunity for SEA teams that were desperate for more experience with TI5 Qualifiers mere three weeks away.
The group stage ran as expected with the exception of group C in wich EP, TnC and Underminer had to go to a three-way tiebreaker to determine who went to winner bracket, who to the loser bracket and who had to pack their things and go home. EP managed to come out victorious while TnC defeated Underminer. Now in the winner bracket, the only Chinese representative EP defeated the Pinoy powerhouse Mineski with a dominating Tiny-Wisp combo. The other WB match-up featured the home-soil finest YamateH and Winter against a renewed Hot6ix with the ex-TeamTinker/4anchors Finnish player JerAx. To the locals dismay, the Koreans rolled over the Malaysian squad with a superior pushing and nuking power line-up.
The only bo3 with no advantage was the WB final with the undefeated Hot6ix facing EP. The Chinese team proved they weren't afraid to try unusual strats in the big stage by picking a global strat consisting of Wisp-Furion-Ember in the first game and then picking an offlaner Earthshaker plus a PL-AA dual lane in mid for the second game. Heen however wasn't caught flat-flooted and successfully nullified EP's plans both games with excellent counter-gankers and better lanes. The two games quickly spiraled out of control in favour of MVP.Hot6ix and they went into the Grand Final with a game advantage.
The loser bracket had absolutely no room for mistakes as the entire bracket was best-of-one. The first big clash came in the third round when G-Guard faced Mineski, the two most favoured teams by the crowd. Both teams went for four-protect-one lineups but the Pinoys got almost everything they needed from the early game and brought the fight to a Malaysian team that wasn't able to handle the aggression. The superior and better distributed farm in Mineski allowed them to overwhelm their rivals and gave them a chance for revenge against EP in the LB final.
But history repeated itself and EP came on top in passive but intense game. The Chinese squad started with an advantage and they built on it for the rest of the game, slowly getting a firmer grip of the game. At the 25th minute mark EP knew they only needed a small crack to bring down the dam and they hunted for pick-offs with their Spirit Breaker and Storm Spirit. Mineski didn't have the map control nor the mobility to respond to the aggression and quickly fell apart. Barely half an hour into the game EP was already hunting them inside their base to force the 'gg' call.
The grand finals gave a big edge to the Koreans since they only needed to win a single game to claim the tittle. It didn't start good for them thought because EP went for relentless ganks lead by oldchicken's Queen of Pain. EP systematically picked-off heroes and successfully pushed towers. The only times Hot6ix got half-decent trades they were at the cost of structures and in half an hour they already lost barracks. They hold on for a few more minutes until another good fight for EP cleaned their base and tied the series.
The last game of the finals started well and developed even better for EP as their entire line-up seemed to farm well and gank efficiently but once again Heen's squad didn't lose their calm and collectively gave space for Forev's Huskar to farm his core items. After the 20 minute mark EP struggled more and more to find the kills they needed to stay ahead and Forev added salt to the wound by taking a Roshan and finishing his Satanic. At this point EP didn't have the fire power to repel the Huskar whilst the nuking power from MP's Zeus and JerAx's Lina were threats on their own. MVP.Hot6ix seized the opportunity to force the issue with what seemed to be a raid boss instead of a Huskar and decided to siege. EP looked confused and unable to decide how to tackle the Huskar and after a messy fight in their base they got raxxed and fell too far behind. A few minutes later Hot6ix delivered the final blow by pushing once again and earning a deserved check of $30,000 USD.
