The two non-Asian teams that made it to Shanghai, China to play at Nanyang Season 2 playoffs. Team Empire and Digital Chaos had to battle each other on the third day of the tournament in the lower bracket.
Game One:
From the outset Empire was firmly set on a strategy to maximize efficiency of their carry. A lethal combination of Terrorblade and Shadow Demon created potential matchup problems for Digital Chaos.
Elder Titan secured first blood in the top lane by killing Axe early. ET then rotated to gank Batrider which gave Mirana control of the mid lane. Roman 'Ramzes' Kushnarev was able to free farm his safe lane while Shadow Demon helped with another kill. It looked to be an excellent start for the Empire draft strategy, although it took another 10 minutes before a kill was found. DC attempted to gank the Terrorblade but were unable to pull it off while Empire secured a kill on batrider mid. Eventually DC was able to respond by killing Mirana, but it cost the Dark Seer as well. Mirana fired another nice arrow which again favorably found Batrider to make it a 6-1 advantage.
It was another five minutes before the teams began to trade kills. Empire was able to rush Roshan first to grab an Aegis. The combination of illusions and timely stomps provided by the Elder Titan proved to be too much for the mid lane of DC. With a heavy gold advantage and mid lane pushed, Empire was easily able to secure the first match going straight down the middle.
Game Two:
The second match started out with a Void - Phoenix combo for Empire while DC countered with the Mirana and Beastmaster to jungle and control vision. It became an AOE squad for Empire while DC countered with powerful aura buffs from Drow and Vengeful Spirit. Aliwi 'w33' Omars Invoker was set to battle Windranger in the middle lane.
DC secured first blood on Vasily 'AfterLife' Shishkin’s Tidehunter in the top lane, but Empire rotated to kill Invoker mid and the neighboring Beastmaster. The two sides traded towers and kills but DC held a strong net worth lead. This quickly turned into an Aegis grab while Empire was forced to watch and wait on long cooldowns, and the towers fell quickly with DC splitting up their push. Empire used powerful combos to pickoff stragglers but were unable to pose a serious threat to enemy towers.
DC was able to win a 5v5 which snowballed into two lanes of barracks while Empire was forced to focus on every teamfight. DC heroes went straight for the buyback to threaten top lane but the damage output was too much for Empire to handle as GG was called in the 33rd minute.
Game Three:
Empire opened up the playoff final with a first pick Elder Titan while DC countered with a Void and Lion safe pick. Ramzes666 opted again for the Terrorblade, while DC pulled a copycat Phoenix to combine with the Void. racle, Dragon Knight and Broodmother were selected to take some of the pressure off Terrorblade. Drow and Storm Spirit were selected last for DC.
Afterlife went down as Broodmother for first blood top as he was revealed, but Void died in the bottom lane as Elder Titan landed his stomp. Top lane struggled as Afterlife fell twice more in the early stages. Empire was able to knock down each tier one tower before the 12th minute due to Ramzes666 Metamorphosis. Digital Chaos obtained a considerable kill advantage but failed to secure a single tower until the 20th minute. Terrorblade began to look unstoppable as the bottom tier two tower fell while Broodmother distracted the top lane hiding among the trees.
At 26 minutes Empire made a move for the high ground while Terrorblade dealt 500 damage per right click to take the first set of barracks. All but Ramzes666 on Empire fell while DC countered with a mid push but were unable to get past the tier 3. Empire was able to secure an Aegis to force their way down the mid lane for a second set of barracks. After 45 minutes of play w33’s Storm Spirit was a force to be reckoned with as he zipped across the map with a full inventory. Each team was left with only one lane of barracks after DC dominated every late team fight. Digital Chaos did an excellent job kiting Terrorblade while ensuring kills on his supporting cast. GG was called in the 59th minute as Empire was unable to find an answer for the mobility of w33’s Storm Spirit.
Digital Chaos will continue their battle against the Chinese teams tomorrow, July 9th when they will face LGD Gaming in the second round of the lower bracket.
