no-alt
All News
article-headline
Dota 29 years ago

Team Empire returns to Manila

After going down 2-0 to Ad Finem in the first round of the playoffs, Team Empire was looking to redeem itself while both teams attempted to secure a spot in the Manila Major.

Game One

After a slow start to the game, Empire attempted to take control at around the five minute mark and began to pressure the Ad Finem lineup. After fifteen minutes, their pressure had begun to pay off, as Empire had a 9-2 lead.

Although Empire had constant game control, Ad Finem's Broodmother was given free rein in the top lane. When the Dire team made a push on the bot lane, the Brood pushed through and dropped the tier three tower top. Even with the pressure coming out from Ad Finem’s spider, Empire simply wiped Ad Finem and returned to pushing the lanes out.

As the thirty minute mark approached, Team Empire looked ready to head to the high ground and claim the first game. Instead, they backed off and tried to go back to farming, but a bad engage from Empire caused them to drop two. Ad Finem pushed up in an attempt to claim some map control, but Empire stopped the push in its tracks and farmed up toward the next Roshan. When the Dire team took the Rosh fight, Ad Finem began to find momentum once more, but again Empire shut them out and claimed the aegis for their own.

After a valiant effort from the Radiant to keep themselves in the game, Ad Finem were forced to call the gg and surrender game one to Team Empire.

Game Two

This game started off better for Ad Finem as they claimed two early kills and another two before the five minute mark had passed. Although there was a quicker initial phase to the game, it began to slow down again and this gave Empire a great way back in. With fifteen minutes gone the score line was 13-8 in Ad Finem’s favour, but their Legion Commander was quickly becoming a threat. At that point, the game felt very even, but once more Ad Finem managed to find an advantage and drop three Empire heroes.

Empire claimed the aegis at twenty minutes and then looked to find their way back into the map. Even with the aegis on their side, Empire was unable to deal with Slark's damage and lost their bot lane tier three. For the next twenty minutes the game went back and forth; Ad Finem attempted to push the high ground and Empire held them off. This carried on for a while, with neither team really pushing for a win, but rather finding picks and utilizing their smokes.

Finally, at fifty minutes Team Empire decided to go through onto high ground but Ad Finem completely wiped them. With this advantage, Ad Finem pushed out the lanes and the game went back into its original stalemate. Ten minutes later, Ad Finem took  another Roshan and escaped the pit, losing nothing. With an aegis and cheese behind them, the Radiant team looked to go high ground mid but were once again stopped by Empire.

After seventy five minutes, Empire dropped four mid, and attempted to push through to end, but Ad Finem burned their buybacks to take down four of their opposition and then charged down mid. With Empire out of buybacks, Ad Finem managed to destroy the throne and tie the series at 1-1.

Game Three

Once again, Ad Finem looked to start of the game at a fast pace. Now on the Dire side, they drew an early first blood at the starting bounty runes but this was tied up soon afterwards by the Radiant. Much like the previous game, this settled down after the quick start, but after leading 13-12 on twenty minutes Ad Finem found themselves down again as Empire took four, only losing two in the process.

Empire did this again at the Rosh pit, cementing their hold on the game. They then proceeded to push into the Dire’s base, taking down the tier three tower and killing off four again to drop a rax. Before 30 minutes, Ad Finem called the gg, putting Team Empire up 2-1 in the series.

Game Four

Empire started this game looking ready to take the series. Empire had a solid lead in the first five minutes, but with great rotations and good ganks, Ad Finem began to pull the net worth graphs back to an even standing. By thirteen minutes, the Radiant side had tied up the score 10-10, and when Ad Finem turned the game around completely before twenty minutes had passed, wiping the entire Empire team and forcing buybacks, they looked in control. The Radiant didn’t sit back passively with their lead, pushing down the bot lane tier two tower soon after twenty minutes.

Ad Finem pushed through into the Dire base and destroyed the tier three tower, forcing out three buybacks before they lost two and retreated. However, even with this retreat, the Radiant side looked set to take the series into game five. But Empire struck back, dropped four of Ad Finem's players, and took out the tier two mid tower. The game went back to its usual back and forth again as the Radiant proceeded to take down four of Empire and push through to finish off the rax top.

Ad Finem forced Empire back into their fountain and got the gg call from them after thirty eight minutes, tying the series at 2-2 and taking it into a decisive game five.

Game Five

The final game of the series started with both teams being cautious, not wanting to give up too many early kills or map control. By ten minutes only four kills had occurred across the map with the score at 2-2. Like the other games in the series, both teams were pretty even across the board, farming the jungle on each side. As the game went on Empire began to pull ahead, grabbing pick offs where they could and keeping the pressure on, but Ad Finem managed to reply with a good team fight and even up the game again.

By twenty five minutes into the game, Empire held a four kill lead at 8-12. Even though they had a severe lack of vision, they decided to go for Roshan. With the aegis in hand, the Dire team pushed down mid while the Radiant pushed both top and bot tier two towers. Empire proceeded to take a big fight bot and went on to drop the rax before losing one and disengaging.

Forty minutes through the final game Team Empire looked like sure favourites to win as they broke highground mid, dropped the tower, and wiped Ad Finem. From this, Ad Finem called the gg, giving Team Empire the series victory.

Team Empire claims their spot at the Manila Major where they will hope to continue their run of good form.

Author
belandrial-avatar
Jarrad "Belandrial" AdamsBelandrial has spent most of his years following Dota 2 closely, but now has found a new home in the complex world of Mobile Esports. When not watching nearly every possible esports title available, you can find me running around Azeroth or building strange bases in Valheim.