LGD eliminates VG.R from the Manila Major. They will move on in the lower bracket to play against MVP Phoenix.
The matchup between Vici Gaming Reborn and LGD Gaming was a chance for both teams to prove that they are at the pinnacle of Chinese Dota, along with Newbee. It was obvious that both teams knew each other very well as the drafting phase went through very quickly.
Game One
VG.R decided to ban out Xiao8’s favorite hero Tidehunter and September’s favorite hero Phoenix. LGD was also able to get their hands on Invoker for Maybe. VG.R opted for a healing face rush lineup with Alchemist, Io, Doom and Juggernaut. Along with Chemical Rage’s health regeneration, the regeneration of Juggernaut’s Healing Ward will double along with Io’s Tether. LGD’s lineup shifted from their team fight oriented formation into an aggressive face rush lineup with Ursa and Slardar.
VG.R decided to put Io in the mid lane to help out Alchemist in the early game. As a result Doom was left against Disruptor and Ursa which led to first blood. As Alchemist’s farm began to snowball out of control, LGD decided for a gank in the jungle to catch the Alchemist. But the double rotation on the side of VG.R halted this gank and managed to kill off Invoker as well, resulting in an immediate lead for VG.R.
Although VG.R had the gold advantage, Ursa was able to secure an early Aegis. VG.R looked to dodge fights to secure Alchemist’s fast Radiance, whereas LGD began their aggression with their heavy minus armor lineup. Their aggression paid off as they were able to secure three kills right after the Roshan kill. VG.R’s timing to attack began to start as Alchemist purchased his Radiance. With his minus armor along with Juggernaut’s Omnislash, none of LGD’s heroes could withstand the damage. Moreover they also had Lion to control the movements of Ursa during team fights.
The early advantage of LGD began to equalize. Because Lion was forced to purchase early wards for the team, his Blink Dagger was delayed indefinitely. As a result VG.R lacked the necessary initiative. Alchemist’s concoction was forced to use to initiate. With a self-explosion on Alchemist LGD was able to capitalize on the positioning of VG.R killing off four heroes on their team as Disruptor cut off the battlefield into two with Kinetic Field.
With LGD losing its aggressive timing, they had no answers for a face-rushing Alchemist due to the evasion on Radiance. Maybe’s Invoker once again held the fate of LGD in game one as his team fight control could potentially control the Alchemist without BKB. This was what happened 35 minutes in with an initiation on by Invoker. Although Io had the chance to Relocate, a clutch Glimpse by MMY retaliated the save, and LGD was able to secure Roshan along with Cheese. Lacking BKB, VG.R’s heroes could not answer Maybe’s spellcasting. With two consecutive team fight victories, LGD was able to take down the first lane of barracks. Although VG.R was able to contest LGD with their BKB on Alchemist, Maybe singlehandedly won the last team fight with his flashy invokes. VG.R was forced to exit the game.
Game Two
This game LGD was able to draft their favorite hero of the tournament – Tidehunter. However they also decided to draft an infamous pub combination – Dazzle Huskar. On the other side, VG.R’s lineup was a face-rush lineup on the back of Elder titan’s Natural Order. The Axe pick also significantly counters the Dazzle Huskar combo.
VG.R opted for a greedy jungling Axe because they knew they could get away with it since Earth Spirit is a weak laner. This greed paid off for them as Axe attained level six before five minutes. As a result, VG.R had three cores quickly shaping up. Slark’s farm was especially intimidating as LGD did not have enough stuns and controls for a Slark. With early farm on VG.R being secured, VG.R was able to take objectives without much obstacles.
20 minutes in, with an encounter in the Radiant ancient, Slark was able to get a triple kill off from almost 200 agility stolen, the hopes for LGD in this game was fading. 27 minutes in, VG.R seemed to have lost focus as two heroes were caught out in the Radiant jungle. This quickly snowballed into another two kills on Slark and Axe in the mid lane. Because Alchemist went for a late Radiance, Ember Spirit and Huskar began to catch up on farm quickly. It seemed like the only thing that was going well for VG.R was the constant Sheever impressions Xiao8 was pulling.
35 minutes in VG.R opted for a risky smoke through the tier two tower of LGD and managed to catch out both Ember Spirit and Tidehunter on the back of a nicely executed Berserker’s Call from Axe. On the back of this gank, VG.R quickly regrouped and held onto their draft advantage. With a fresh Assault Cuirass on Alchemist and BKB on Slark, VG.R quickly took their first lane of Barracks. 43 minutes in, VG.R made their final push into the base of LGD initiating on Huskar. Taking down the second lane of barracks, the lack of answers to the Slark resulted in his domination in this game. LGD exited out of the game and VG.R equalized the series.
Game Three
Although Xiao8’s performance on Tidehunter last game was mediocre at best, VG.R insisted on putting LGD out of his comfort zone by banning it. With VG.R first picking Beastmaster, LGD immediately retaliate with a counter on a jungle Beastmaster – Riki. VG.R also decided to hard counter Enigma with Rubick. Although LGD consolidated their team fight with a Disruptor, VG.R drafted two very solid team fight heroes – Gyrocopter and Dragon Knight. With Timbersaw being picked last, LGD seemed to have solved their lack of damage but it could potentially still be disastrous with the burden of a support Riki.
VG.R began with a very aggressive smoke but it came to no fruition. VG.R attempted to execute an aggressive trilane to suppress the farm of the Slark, but with a ward on the side of LGD rotated the Slark to the bottom lane. As a result they were able to snatch first blood on the Beastmaster. The mid lane was also dominated by Maybe’s Timbersaw with him not losing a single CS in the first four minutes. While Timbersaw was dominating the net worth chart, Dragon Knight shifted his focus to helping his team take down towers. However, LGD played around Maybe very well with his farm. Slark was able to recover from his early lack of farm due to ganks along with Timbersaw. 17 minutes in, VG.R still couldn’t manage to get a single kill.
21 minutes in, LGD was already storming behind tier two towers looking for kills led by Timbersaw, and it seemed like VG.R did not have much hopes left at the Manila Major. Finally, LGD decided that the advantage they've accumulated was enough and rushed into the base of VG.R. LGD took the series and VG.R was eliminated.
After their victory at Starladder i-League, VG.R has exited the Manila Major placing top eight, a placement not to be ashamed of. LGD emerged as the winners and will remain in the tournament as one of the two Chinese teams left along with Newbee.
