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Dota 29 years ago

Manila Major: LGD earns a spot in the upper bracket defeating EG

Day two of the Manila Major saw the battle move to Groups C and D. In Group D, LGD successfully earned a spot in the upper bracket of the playoffs after defeating MVP Phoenix and Evil Geniuses. 

Game One

LGD started their draft with two of their most confident heroes, Agreesif’s Lifestealer and Septermber’s Phoenix. EG quickly countered the first pick Lifestealer with Bane and Doom in order to limit his damage output during team fights. In terms of bans, EG seemed to be afraid of Maybe’s versatility and decided to expend bans on him, whereas LGD decided to ban some of the common heroes of EG – Puck, Dark Seer, and Beastmaster. LGD’s lineup once again stuck with their playstyle with an emphasis on team fight on the back of Tidehunter and Phoenix, while EG’s lineup was very balanced with a fair share of team fight, push, and control.

Although the laning phase was going fairly well for EG with Sumail’s Queen of Pain pressuring Maybe’s Ember Spirit, a successful rotation from Lion helped Ember equalize the disadvantage, but Fear’s Doom was able to get away in the jungle with a quick level 6. Although LGD was able to get ahead in terms of kills, they were falling behind in experience due to the jungle Doom and the lack of space the supports were getting. Transitioning into the mid game, EG was able to abuse the mobility of the QOP and Nature’s Prophet and level the kill count. Although LGD retained a strong team fight potential, EG did not give them the opportunity due to the lack of initiation without a Blink Dagger on Lion. 

17 minutes in, a slight over-extension by EG led to a team fight victory for LGD. EG took the opportunity of the ultimate cooldown on LGD and swiftly took Aegis and a lane of barracks with two pickoffs on Tidehunter and Phoenix. Originally LGD had the split push plan on Ember Spirit to fall back on, however, with the Orchid on QOP and Shadow Blade on Doom, Ember’s movements were severely limited. Although LGD was able to grab a few pickoffs, EG continued to snatch objectives such as Roshan and the rest of the outer towers., before they managed to seize an opportunity when LGD left their base to take a team fight against them.

Although EG emerged victorious from that encounter, LGD reconciled with two kills on QOP, Furion, and Bane. It seemed like there was still hope for LGD. This glimmer of hope began to shine 39 minutes in. EG underestimated LGD’s team fight and insisted on fighting on the back of LGD’s Aegis. As a result only QOP escaped at the end of the team fight. However, as LGD held onto the last strand of hope, their departure from their base resulted in a disastrous team fight. With Tidehunter’s Ravage missing two of the cores, Ember was quickly deleted from the fight and Lifestealer soon after. LGD had no more ultimates left for the final push from EG and was forced to bow out of the game.

Game Two

The bans in game two were extremely similar to game one. LGD once again opted for a team fight oriented lineup with Invoker, Tidehunter, and Earth Spirit, whereas EG changed up their control role from Bane to Disruptor and snatched the Lifestealer Puck combination. The greediness in EG’s lineup continued with a solo support on top of four cores. LGD’s answer to this was increasing their pushing power with a last pick Lycan to hopefully close out the game earlier.

Similar to game one, Fear’s Doom was able to farm the jungle uncontested, giving EG a gold and experience advantage. LGD’s advantage was in mid lane with Invoker dominating the Puck. EG decided to rotate Lifestealer and Disruptor to help gank the Invoker, but a Grave by Dazzle resulted in two reverse kills on Puck and Disruptor, and EG’s greediness began to haunt them as LGD was able to grab one advantage after another. At 16 minutes, LGD had destroyed all the outer towers of EG and were headed straight towards high ground.

EG was able to deter the push, and as time dragged on, EG’s heroes were only beginning to gather farm. LGD seized the moment of weakness from EG and took their first barracks, but the game was only getting harder with the four cores gathering more farm, with the momentum of the game shifting at 32 minutes. With a Doom initiation on Tidehunter EG was able to get a team wipe on LGD, but EG overstayed their welcome losing two of their cores once again. The accidental purchase of Diffusal by Lifestealer before his death prevented him from buying back, which ultimately resulted in their defeat.

Game Three

LGD’s draft for the third game retained many characteristics of the previous contests. The primary goal for them was to secure a solid team fight on the back of Invoker, Dazzle, and Tidehunter, whereas EG switched their theme into an early aggression lineup with Axe, which counters Dazzle and Enchantress on the side of LGD. The disruptiveness of Phantom Lancer as LGD’s last pick also had the potential to cause problems for EG as they have no answer for it other than Axe.

Doom’s early game motive was obvious – to Devour any creep Enchantress dominated. Right as the game started Doom began to hunt Enchantress down in the jungle. With the help of Venomancer EG successfully took first blood, but the effect of Enchantress began to kick in with two successful rotations on Vengeful Spirit. In the bottom lane, Axe completely dominated Tidehunter and was able to purchase Vanguard at six minutes, securing a good foundation for EG’s mid game. As EG decided to switch up their lanes in order for VS to recover from his early lack of farm, LGD successfully killed off Axe with three heroes rotating. With Axe falling off quickly after two deaths, Templar Assassin remained as the only farmed hero on EG’s side. The goal of early aggression by EG was put to a halt.

Templar Assassin emerged as a potential problem due to her enormous amount of farm, but as explained earlier, with Axe falling off quickly, PL completely dominated the Templar Assassin killing her twice with an Aegis. Although Templar Assassin’s farm continued to pull ahead, the nature of the hero is extremely limited by the draft. EG began to purchase Maelstroms on Vengeful Spirit and Templar Assassin in order to counter PL through itemization. This attempt immediately saw success with a quick kill on Phantom Lancer. Vengeful Spirit’s farm recovery was extremely quick as he makes a return to the top of the net worth chart. The fact that LGD had no ganking potential led to the abuse of lane farm by EG. However, as EG began to make a push, EG could not counter the constant mana burn of LGD. This push once again brought LGD back into the game with a buy back death on Templar Assassin.

As the game progressed beyond 40 minutes, EG began to make unnecessary mistakes with Vengeful Spirit and TA getting picked off one after another. As the heroes of EG began to fall off in the late game, their BKB timer also began to fall off. Without BKB the cores on EG had no answers for Maybe’s Invoker and PL’s Diffusal Blade. After one bad fight at 53 minutes, LGD steamrolled EG as they rushed into the base of EG.

EG will play against the winner between Team Mineski and MVP Phoenix for a second chance at the upper bracket seed.

title image from LGD's Twiiter account