Secret's dominance of late continues in The Summit 3 as they easily took down LGD 2-0 in very convincing fashion. Secret has now secured their spot in the playoffs of The Summit 3 while LGD will have to face the loser of Invictus Gaming versus Not Today tomorrow.
Day 3 schedule:
18:30-21:00: EG vs Rave
21:00-23:30: C9 vs EG/Rave
00:00-02:30: iG vs NoT
02:30-05:00: LGD vs iG/NoT
Game 1
LGD started game one very aggressive, constantly looking for kills, especially on the middle lane. While they managed to kill the Shadow Fiend once, further attempts to shut Arteezy down were repelled by the Rubick. Regardless of LGD's intention to constantly look for him, Shadow Fiend got a decent farm by heading into the jungle and farming up the stacks safely.
These unsuccessful ganks by LGD gave way for Queen of Pain to free farm and eventually, control the pacing of the game. Secret gained many pick offs from good map vision and accurate hooks from the Clockwerk and their lead began getting bigger and bigger.
Desperate to bounce back, LGD grouped up to take towers but it was easily met with Secret split pushing on the other side of the map. LGD then hatched another plan and that was to smoke into the Roshan pit but their plan was foiled as well (picture). With the Aegis in hand, Secret pushed high ground but LGD did a good job defending their tier three (and destroyed Shadow Fiend's Aegis) without investing any big spells despite the 14,000 gold deficit.
Secret backed off a little without the Aegis but went back in after they picked off Brewmaster in the Dire jungle. Secret rushed mid again and they nearly lost the battle if not for Rubick's 3-man Thunder Clap. In their last ditch effort, LGD went for Roshan and although they got the Aegis, they lost 4 heroes in the subsequent fight. Secret pushed middle with the win and then bottom for the win.
Game 2
Game two of this series is perhaps the very definition of a disaster for LGD. Picking up the Shadow Fiend early in the pick phase coupled with Rubick and Ancient Apparition as supports, Shadow Fiend was left vulnerable to the tower diving of Bristleback and Io as he repeatedly died after teleporting to the middle lane. Bristleback and Io continued staying aggressive against the Shadow Fiend and was successful in doing so because they ended up killing the offlane Earthshaker and the Rubick who came to help.
In response to that, LGD rotated more supports to help the middle lane but it was to no avail as well. By 10 minutes, Shadow Fiend was 0-5 and Dark Seer could farm rather safely against the solo Slardar.
To extend their lead in the game, Secret placed deep wards in the jungle of LGD to ensure that they will not feel safe to walk out of the confinement of their base. Secret quickly farmed up a 25,000 gold lead by 20 minutes while diving the tier four towers.
With a couple of buybacks, LGD was able to extend the game slightly but LGD was going to inevitably lose if Secret doesn't start diving the fountain for fun.
