After four long days filled with matches, MVP.Hot6 emerged victorious in The International 5 South East Asian qualifier and will claim a direct spot in TI5 main event later this year.
Losing 3-1 to their sister team MVP.Hot6 in the final, MVP.Phoenix will join North American Rejects, CDEC and the second placer of the European qualifier in the wildcard tournament. Out of the four teams participating in the wildcard tournament, two will advance to the main event.
MVP.Phoenix vs. MVP.Hot6
MVP.Hot6 winning MPGL. Picture by Mineski.
The grand final of the The International 5 South East Asia qualifiers was surprisingly one-sided as MVP.Hot6 clearly showed superior drafting ability and lane control to win themselves three straight games.
In game one, MVP.Hot6 utilized the roaming Bounty Hunter to its full potential and shut down all of MVP.Phoenix's lanes. Coupled with heroes like Disruptor and Lina, the Bounty Hunter found success in every lane he roamed to resulting in kill score of 17-6 in favour of MVP.Hot6 by minute 10.
Majority of the kills gotten prior to the 10th minute mark was before the Track kills came into play but once Bounty Hunter hit level 6, it was more or less over for MVP.Phoenix. MVP.Phoenix continued to fight for another 4 minutes but tapped out when MVP.Hot6 went on a 12-0 killing spree.
Moving into the second game, MVP.Hot6 kicked off by drafting a heavy heal line-up causing multiple drawn out fights against the high offense strategy coming out from MVP.Phoenix. While the laning phase of the game started relatively quiet, the pace exploded from 15 minutes onward near the Roshan pit where MVP.Hot6 outlasted the hordes of Zombies and Pugna's Netherward to wipe MVP.Phoenix.
Game 2: Heals and more, MVP.Hot6 outlasted MVP.Phoenix in fights.
Despite that, it was still hard for MVP.Hot6 to siege high ground with Tinker's March of the Machines raining down. However, it was MVP.Phoenix's own aggression on the retreating MVP.Hot6 heroes that got the fight started. In the two pivotal fights prior to the end, MVP.Hot6 survived through the barrage of attacks and countered with Desolator Weaver leading the charge. MVP.Phoenix conceded game two after MVP.Hot6 strolled into their base.
MVP.Phoenix bounced back in game three sporting a Sven pick. MVP.Hot6 were able to take the early lead in the game but they were not able to keep their momentum up and running. MVP.Phoenix mounted a strong defense on their top tier-two tower and MVP.Hot6's insistent on attacking was their ultimate downfall. The deciding fight of the game happened in the Rosh pit where MVP.Phoenix's Sven blinked in and stole MVP.Hot6's Roshan and Aegis on top of killing four of them. The game quickly turned in favour of MVP.Phoenix from that point onwards and MVP.Hot6 was not able to recover.
Game 4: One fight to turn it all around
Game four of the series, apart from being the last game of the SEA qualifiers is also the closest game in the grand final. Starting the game with a massive lead off an amazing laning phase, MVP.Phoenix's inadvertently paved way for MVP.Hot6's comeback due to their own overconfidence.
While the game was kept close for the most part of the game, MVP.Phoenix was in the driver seat for the first twenty minutes, picking off and killing MVP.Hot6's heroes at will. As MVP.Phoenix look to move to siege Hot6's base, their massive overextension and refusal to retreat and eagerness caused them to lose the Queen of Pain and Earthshaker despite blowing all their ultimates. With the Chaotic Offering down, MVP.Hot6 took the opportunity to push the middle tier-one but was met with strong retaliation from MVP.Phoenix.
However, Leshrac got into a prime position to cause damage and together with Repel from the Omniknight, MVP.Hot6 wrecked MVP.Phoenix's positioning and got four kills of that fight. That was the beginning of the end of MVP.Phoenix. Leshrac bought a Blink Dagger from the gold of the fight alone and used it effectively in defending the next incoming push.
With all the drive they got after winning those battles, MVP.Hot6 pushed the bottom lane and easily pushed back MVP.Phoenix to take the barracks. The second push came from the middle lane and while Leshrac and Weaver had to use their buyback to return to the fight, MVP.Hot6 took down the rest of MVP.Phoenix convincingly and took down all their barracks.
MVP.Phoenix and MVP.Hot6 celebrating their dominance in TI5 SEA qualifier. Picture from MVP.
