ESL One New York began with a showdown between Fnatic and Secret. The European team managed to secure the series 2-1 after a couple of close games and advance to the next round.
The first day of the tournament started wth a showdown between two relatively now rosters; Fnatic vs Team Secret. Both had been dominant in their respective regions with the new rosters and were under a great deal of pressure to perform at their first LAN event.
Secret were the favorites coming in but they looked shaky in the first game. They cheesed Fnatic in game two and three to secure a tough 2-1 victory. They will face the winner of CDEC vs Archon in their next match tomorrow.
Game One:
The draft of the first game was very interesting. Heroes such as Phantom Lancer, Tusk and Leshrac got picked even after getting nerfed in the latest update. Both teams had a great late game but Fnatic's true strength was around 35-40 minutes. The game started out slow with Secret getting an early lead. But it was quickly neutralized due to a great play by Dj to get the first blood.
EE on his Spectre and W33 on his Windranger were farming much better than Mushi on his Shadow Fiend and Black^ on his PL at the six minute mark. Then Mushi got a double damage rune and was able to comeback by 9 minutes. Even though Fnatic started to get back on track, Team Secret were ahead in the early game because of the kill score.
By minute 17, EE had his Sacred Relic and was very close to his Radiance. Secret got greedy and went for Roshan, Fnatic spotted this and attacked. Clockwork tried to delay the onslaught but was a little too early on his hook, leading to an amazing fight by Fnatic; wiping Secret and getting the Aegis as well. To follow this up, Fnatic pushed the mid lane and got an even tighter grip on the game by 25 minutes.
After this point, Fnatic repeatedly tried to break base but were unable to do so. Even though they did not get any Tier 3s, they were able to force buybacks and mantain their stronghold. It was not until 35 minutes that they finally broke base and forced the "gg" call.
Game Two:
The second game draft was very interesting; Secret picked a safelane Necrolite and a mid lane Meepo for a W33 and Fnatic picked a Outworld Devour for the mid lane. This game was not even close. Secret completely destroyed Fnatic in the top lane with a Necrolite, Bane and Wisp tri lane. They got the first tier one tower down by the 3 minute mark and moved on to the teir two by the 6 minute mark.
Meepo got big and kept on getting constant pickoffs, the score was 18-4 by 19 minutes. Secret got Roshan and then moved on to finish the game and did so at 22 minutes.
Game Three:
The third game started with Secret outdrafting Fnatic with a fourth pick Broodmother. Fnatic did not have any counters available to the Brood, and they lost the lane really hard. The top lane on the other hand went much better than expectd thanks to the Undying and Earthshaker. Mushi also had a good time in the mid lane and got an early CS lead.
The game was very close by 14 minutes, Secret had a slight lead in terms of networth and kills (4-3). The turning point was Secret taking Roshan in the next minute. Even with an Aegis, Secret lost a fight in the mid lane because of amazing team fight execution. Slark also got constant pickoffs and kept the game close even though on paper it looked like Fnatic had already lost.
But at 25 minuites, Slark lost the gem and Secret started dominating team fights due to their superior vision. W33 had an amazing performance on his Windranger and got two hero shackle shots again and again. Secret took rosh at 37 minutes, got Aegis on w33 and Cheese on Alchemist. They face rush Fnatic and win the game with an immense lead by the end.
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