One of the most anticipated matches featuring the two strongest teams in the world – Vici Gaming and Team Secret of the Nanyang Championships was set to happen on day two of the main event.
Game One
The lineup of Vici Gaming was an attempt to abuse the strongest AOE in the game – Gyrocopter’s Call Down, Jakiro’s Ice Path, and Alchemist’s Acid Spray. But the weakness of this lineup lies in the lack of gank initiating power. On the other hand, Team Secret’s combination of Ember Spirit and Magnus secured a strong team fight lineup, combined with control abilities from Bane and Windranger. Both lineups have their merits and execution seemed to be the key.
The laning phase proved to be a struggle for Secret as they have a weak link - Bounty Hunter. VG’s offensive tri-lane slowed down Ember Spirit’s farm by a huge margin. At the same time Secret could not prevent farm coming from the Gyrocopter. The laning phase was a disaster for Secret to say the least. As the laning phase concluded, Team Secret did not let their disadvantage during the laning phase get to them, as they constantly hoped to find farm and kills across the map. However, the offensive team fight nature of VG’s lineup allowed them to dominate the mid game and they took one tower after another with total control.
Alchemist’s Acid Spray provided a buffer zone for the team and the powerful AOE effects from Gyrocopter and Jakiro was uncontestable. 15 minutes into the game, VG was in total domination. However there was still hope for Team Secret. With their strong combination of Magnus and Ember Spirit, Secret was able to held onto a thread of hope defending high ground and split pushing. 35 minutes in, VG was able to secure Roshan and picked off heroes on the side of Secret, Secret’s chances became slimmer and slimmer by the minute. 39 minutes in, after a successful pick-off by VG on the Ember Spirit, VG decided to siege high ground. But with a buy back from EternalEnvy and a lucky critical hit from the Sleight of Fist, Secret secured two kills instantly and VG was forced to fall back with Gyrocopter being the only survivor. Although Secret pulled ahead, this came at the cost of three buybacks from Secret.
45 minutes in, Secret sneaked in a Roshan kill with the burst damage of Windranger’s Focus Fire, the balance of the game was slowly equalizing. 47 minutes, VG initiated a gank onto Ember Spirit, but backup from Secret came in early and with a Shackleshot Secret team wiped VG. Another key exchange happened at minute 55, although VG was able to secure Roshan, Secret retaliated with a kill on the Gyrocopter. With no buyback on the Gyrocopter, Secret cruised through mid-lane attempting to end the game on the spot. VG came out of the base to contest the push but failed to sustain through the constant Sleight of Fists, heroes on the side of VG fell one by one and eventually all were dead. Team Secret made a beautiful comeback and took game one.
Game two
Secret’s lineup in game two had some resonance of their success in game one. However they substituted Ancient Apparition into their lineup to deter the pushing power of VG. Whereas VG’s lineup looked to have an extremely potent mid-game with slightly less late game power.
Before the starting horn, Secret secured two kills with an aggressive smoke into the Dire Jungle, putting VG on the back foot from minute one. VG was unable to retaliate because of the weakness in their laning phase. Queen of Pain could not exploit the weak laning stage of the Ember Spirit because of the support of Bane and AA. On top of this, the active movement of the Nyx Assassin caused all the lanes of VG to crumble.
Progressing out of the laning phase, Secret changed their plan to expanding their global presence, abusing the combination of AA’s Ice Blast and Nyx’s movement across the map, VG’s heroes could not farm efficiently enough, and VG could not accumulate any form of aggression due to constantly being picked off. With items falling behind, VG’s team fight capability cannot achieve its fullest. However, Team Secret being ahead led to a few sloppy plays on their part. 35 minutes in VG was able to lessen the gold advantage and Secret is only ahead by 3000 gold now.
But as the Black King Bar durations on VG’s side decreased, their team fight became much harder to win due to the incredible amount of control within Secret’s lineup. With less free space from VG, Ember Spirit’s farm accelerated quickly and his net worth pulled ahead in a flash. A hasty fight after killing Ember Spirit near the Roshan pit made VG too self-conscious being unaware of Ember Spirit being able to buyback. Ember Spirit buys back and immediately returned to the battle field team wiping the VG squad, at this point VG’s hope to come back into the game completely disappeared and Secret marched into the base of VG, forcing them to GG out. Team Secret took the series with a 2:0 score.
pictures courtesy of Nanyang
