One of the most interesting groups of the Fall Major should be the one featuring four Asian teams and Alliance, namely group D. The debut game of this group had the Swedish team facing EHOME.
For both games of the series we witnessed fresh and completely unpredictable drafts from EHOME, while Alliance went for a Tiny - Io dual mid strategy.
GAME ONE
Although Alliance had a precise goal, to pressure EHOME from the early game, with their scary Tiny – Io and a Brewmaster last pick for S4, the Chinese squad was prepared for this kind of strategy and surprised Alliance with a Nyx Assassin pick for eLeveN. The laning phase started decently for Allaince; Loda and Nuts duo midlane pressuring EHOME’s Shadow Fiend in mid lane while Cty's Anti Mage was completely shut down by s4’s Brew. However slow farming tempo was broken once Nyx hit level six and started to rotate - firstly to help his carry in safe lane and then to disturb the Tiny – Io mid lane.
His early rotations brought EHOME to the lead in both gold and experience and suddenly Alliance fell behind and were forced to play defensively, despite their relocate ganking potential.
A totally wasted Primal Split from s4 around the 26 minute mark near the Roshan pit allowed EHOME to secure a free aegis for themselves which essentially sealed the faith for Loda and co in the first game of the series.
While Alliance was not feeling safe anywhere on the map due to the threat that Nyx posed to them, Cty was left to freely farm up to the point where he had a casual Hyperstone on top of an Abyssal Blade, Assault Cuirass, Manta and a Battle Fury. Once EHOME decided to five man push the high ground, Alliance realised that they didn't have the resources to stop Cty’s Anti Mage and called out the gg at the 40 minute mark.
GAME TWO
The same Tiny - Io dual was the opening drafting move from Alliance who also choose to leave the Nyx Assassin open once again for EHOME. This time around the Chinese squad had a much more dominant presence on the map right from the first minutes of the game with eLeveN playing a very aggressive offlane Nyx. Getting two kills in a row on s4 - Razor, he found his level six extremely fast and rotated mid lane to shut down the Loda - Nuts duo early.
Alliance was struggling badly to resist the continuous EHOME aggression and they couldn’t do anything to stop LaNm’s team who definitely had a superior teamfight and overall map control which allowed them to take the second game of the series in only 25 minutes.
