Not Today were resilient and put up a good fight but LGD proved too strong for the Peruvians to handle. LGD, the 96% favourite coming into the match, outplayed their opponent in their classic calm and collected style and set themselves up to fight Team Secret for the playoffs spot at The Summit 3.
Day 2 schedule:
18:30-21:00: Secret vs iG
21:00-23:30: LGD vs Not Today
00:00-02:30: Secret vs LGD
Game 1
Going against the Slark, Spirit Breaker and Lion safe lane, LGD placed Tusk, Lina and Io on the offlane to nullify Not Today's attempt to dominate a lane, leaving the Tiny to solo against the Zeus on the middle lane. Both teams did not make any aggressive move for the first five minutes but LGD gained a significant lead in this period due to their outstanding laning skills.
The first fight of the game happened on the bottom lane when Tusk, Lina and Io engaged on the Spirit Breaker. With the rotation from the Tiny, LGD took a commanding 4 kills lead in exchange for a manaless Lina. Tiny's second rotation onto the bottom lane saw three dead for Not Today in exchange for nothing.
LGD started the deathball as they held a commanding lead over the map and picked off Not Today's heroes left and right. The kill score was 10-2 in favour of LGD at 10 minutes but that quickly turned into 20-4, 15 minutes in.
Despite having a tough time against the Chinese and was more or less waiting for the impending push, Not Today did not tap out until they lost all three barracks. LGD finally took down the barracks on all three lanes at 24 minutes, forcing Not Today to call it.
Game 2
Game two was a much better game for Not Today. The Peruvians were able to get two kills prior to the creep spawn, one on the Rubick who was placing a ward, and another on the Morphling who contested the Bounty Rune. However, similar to game one, Not Today was unable to control their lanes well, overcommit resources and wasted too much time trying to get kills, which they were mildly successful in but mostly on LGD's non-core heroes.
Coming into minute 10, Not Today started buying smokes after smokes and after it ran out, they go into a rather passive mode while LGD continues to farm up. As a result, while Not Today's Anti-Mage was rich, the rest of his teammates were poor, putting them in a bad position to join fights.
LGD took their time and after killing Roshan at 22 minutes, they executed a beautiful wrap around on the top lane followed by a push on the middle lane. The siege took a long time but LGD was able to take down the barracks at 25 minutes. The game was more or less over then.
Headline image from BTS flickr.
