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Dota 28 years agoGosu "GosuGamers" Gamers

Alliance takes down Virtus.Pro 2-0 in round 1 of the Starladder|i-League Invitational

Alliance made a dominant return to form, taking down Virtus Pro 2-0 in round one of the Starladder|i-League Invitational in Kiev.

Fresh off a nearly six-week break from professional Dota, Alliance came out swinging in their first showing at the Starladder|i-League invitational. Meanwhile, Virtus.Pro’s new lineup got their first LAN outing and demonstrated Virtus.Pro’s continued strength in the professional Dota scene.

Game One

Game one’s draft was about as standard as one can get from the Alliance point of view. Henrik 'AdmiralBulldog' Ahnberg picked up one of his signature offlane heroes with the Beastmaster, while Joakim 'Akke' Akterhall scored his legendary Chen and Gustav 's4' Magnusson was granted his ultimate comfort hero in the Queen of Pain. Meanwhile, VP went for a more defensive line-up with the two support players Ilya 'ALOHADANCE' Korobkin and Alexander 'NoFear' Churochkin selecting Oracle and Winter Wyvern respectively, while Maxim 'yoky-' Kim was placed on the carry Sven.

The action picked up quickly with Akke rotating early on the Chen and sniping VP’s courier in mid to deny the Zeus his bottle. Alliance’s players continued rotating across the map and were able to take full map control with kills across the board. By the ten-minute mark, Alliance had a 5-1 advantage over VP and rapidly moved towards the Rosh pit. VP traded the Aegis for Alliance’s top tier 1 tower at the twelve-minute mark but were then ambushed by Alliance in mid behind VP’s own tier tower.

From this point on, Alliance were able to take full control of VP’s side of the map and took another fight in dominant fashion at the 22 minute mark before rotating towards VP’s base and taking bottom and middle rax. Alliance then rotated back towards Roshan to secure their second Aegis and with it the victory. Alliance pushed through top lane and were handed the GG 25 minutes into the match.

Game Two

Alliance again took a familiar draft in game two with Akke and Bulldog picking up the same Chen and Beastmaster, while s4 was handed a Juggernaut and Jonathan 'Loda' Berg selected his signature Gyrocopter. On the other hand, VP built a far more aggressive line-up for game 2, swapping the Wyvern and Natures Prophet for a Dark Seer and Earth Spirit.

VP smoked from their base immediately upon the game starting in an attempt to get the drop on Alliance. Rotating into the Dire jungle, VP came close to picking up first blood on s4 who was able to escape their grasp with a well-timed Blade Fury. VP then proceeded to pressure Bulldog in the bottom lane, scoring 4 kills on the Beastmaster by the 8 minute mark. To recover from this early pressure, Alliance quickly rotated towards the Rosh pit before the 13-minute mark to try and score a recovery Aegis.

VP caught wind of the attempt and looked set to orchestrate a beautiful ambush on their opponents; however, Alliance's strong positioning and counter-initiation capabilities allowed them to turn the fight and secure the Roshan. Alliance then pushed down mid lane to VP’s tier three but were successfully deflected. Both teams jostled back and forth for the next few minutes before Alliance going for a second Rosh at 23 minutes. VP were far more prepared this time though and were able to score multiple kills on Alliance while s4 was able to secure the aegis. Alliance again tried to push down mid-lane but were not able to secure a good fight, instead being picked apart at the tier threes and losing most of their momentum.

Again, the teams fought back and forth for map control until Alliance were able to take a 4-0 fight on 32 minutes, and VP’s Sven wasted a buyback while Alliance rotated quickly over to Rosh and secures the Aegis. Suddenly, Alliance found themselves with a 10K gold lead and began to take hold of the map. Alliance pushed down mid and secured a single melee Rax but lost three heroes on the retreat.

VP attempted to push mid to take a counter-Rax but weren’t able to find a successful fight. Alliance were able to take another large team-fight in VP’s middle-lane before immediately taking Rosh again. Alliance then began to split-push across the map, taking multiple Aegis and slowly picking VP’s map control apart before taking a final fight in top lane and taking the GG at 57 minutes.

Some, including VP's own Artsiom 'FngBarshak, were obviously unimpressed by VP's inability to close out the game.

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