With a reworked LAN playoffs set-up, the second season of Nanyang Championships has concluded today with five games played in the grand finals.
The two teams left standing in the Nanyang house, Newbee and Wings Gaming battled for the Championship title displaying very high skilled play styles and ingenious drafts, extending the current meta to its limits and sending a strong alarm signal for what’s about to come from the Chinese region at the very anticipated TI6.
Game One
The first game of the series featured a team fight oriented draft from Newbee who ran a support Kunka along side Dazzle who babysat their late game carry Terrorblade, while Wings went with a pushing line-up developed around Dragon Knight and Beastmaster but chose an underwhelming carry considering the enemy threat, namely Necrophos.
Although the game started with a first blood drew by Wings in the mid lane, the overall laning stage went into Newbee’s favor who found three kills for TB in the safe lane and were able to start the early five man rotations over the map to prevent Wings from executing their pushing game plan. However, the full advantage for Newbee came at the 27 minute mark when they forced the issue through mid with a three man Chronosphere from Damien 'kpii' Chok that allowed his team to take two towers without casualties. Terrorblade’s net worth escalated quickly and with the Aegis secured, Eye of Skadi and Hurricane Pike finished, Newbee continued the push, aiming for the bottom lane barracks but took only the ranged one as Wings put up an impressive defensive fight and nearly wiped the entire NB squad.
Taking down four heroes, Wings were able to counter push fast, took down the mid tier three tower and the ranged barracks of Newbee but lost their Dragon Knight in the process and on the retreat path they got fully wiped out. Despite having all five buybacks available they couldn’t hold their base one more time and lost all their buildings as Newbee re-engaged.
Game Two:
The first picks and bans of the second game were identical with game one, Newbee making sure again that no funny Drow aura strategy will come into play and went once more with the five man team fight - push draft from the previous game, Terrorblade - Dazzle- Kunka and even a Death Prophet in the mid lane. However, this time around Wings had a very strong answer with a long time forgotten duo that took Newbee by surprise. After they secured the same third picks from the previous game, Wings turn around the draft with a fourth pick support Warlock and closed with a last pick Luna.
The old times Disruption on Luna’s Manta Illusions coupled with the Warlock’s massive slow from Upheaval made the team fights impossible to win for Newbee and the game ended in just one GG push at the 35 minute mark which reduced the grand finals to a best of three scenario.
Game Three:
For the third game of the series Newbee managed to secure the Shadow Demon - Luna duo for themselves but it seemed like Wings lured them into picking them as they knew exactly how to counter their own strategy. An anti push Keeper of the Light fourth pick followed by Morphling was their answer. Newbee’s push power was way stronger than just Luna Illusions as they also had a mid Dragon Knight and an offlane Beastmaster who provided the superior vision for early skirmishes. In spite of all this, the first big clash that happened only 11 minutes into the game when Newbee grouped up in the top lane to take the tier one tower down, ended in disaster for the TI6 invited team. Zhang 'Innocence' Liping found a four man Echo Stomp and KotL pushed all the slept heroes under the tower with the Blinding Light which translated into a wipe for Newbee and a saved tower for Wings.
Realizing the game could easily slip through their fingers, Newbee went for a sneaky smoke Roshan at the 20 minute mark, placed the Aegis on Luna and went for the high ground push.
As soon as Roshan died, instead of waiting in their base to defend against Newbee, Wings Gaming smoked as five and marched to top lane taking tower trades and forced their adversaries to come and defend the barracks. For the next twenty minutes all that Wings did was to drag the game as late as possible, buying time for their Morphling to grow. 40 minutes into the game Wings finally contested for the first time a Roshan kill and they did it successfully, placing the Aegis on Morphling and securing an ultra kill streak for him. As soon as the Pit fight finished the day time came and the Aghanim’s Scepter on the Keeper of the Light made the high ground push extremely easy for Wings who, despite playing the entire game from behind, took the series games advantage in one single push.
Game Four:
Starting the fourth game of the series with their backs against the wall, Newbee put into play a new game plan and reveled perhaps, one of their pocket strategies. They started the draft with a mid lane Batrider followed by Naga Siren, which proved to be their offlane core hero, and put Chen 'Hao' Zhihao on his famous safe lane Weaver, supported by Undying and Winter Wyvern. A multiple initiation line-up that saved them from elimination as Wings kept surprising everyone with a mid lane Juggernaut and a last pick Troll Warlord.
The game was a continuous back and forth fight, both teams looking for pickoffs to ensure the lead. By the 32 minute mark the kill score was 17 to 18 in Newbee’s favor who, despite playing on the Dire side of the map, were not able to secure the Roshan kills, Wings’ Troll always finding the right moments for a sneaky Aegis.
As the game transitioned to the late stage, Naga became bigger and bigger, and started the Manta - Radiance - Octarine split push while Weaver was impossible to kill with his Linken’s, Hearth, Assault Cuirass item build. Two Roshan kills in a row, at the 41 and 51 minute mark where the Aegis went to the already immortal Weaver allowed Newbee to breach high ground through side lanes and pushed the grand finals to a decisive game five.
Game Five:
After four games in which Newbee used their first bans on Drow Ranger and Huskar, they opened the last game draft with Drow - Io and closed it with a Huskar for Zhang 'Mu' Pan in the mid lane, seriously out drafting Wings who tried to salvage everything with a last pick Treant Protector.
Surprisingly, Wings were the ones playing extremely aggressive from the first minute of the game, using the strong right clicks and remote heals from Treant at maximum efficiency. The first ten minutes went totally in their favor, with a very good laning stage for the carry Weaver and even for their Bounty Hunter who reached level six fast. The only tremendously under farmed hero on the Wings side was the mid Alchemist who had no chance against the Huskar-Io dual mid and that came as a big burden after Newbee got the first Aegis for Huskar, only ten minutes into the game, and started the five man team fights.
Although the previous four games looked extremely hard fought and kept everyone in tension, the last one was more of a pub snowball show where Huskar with two items - Armlet and Dragon Lance - and the Aegis, heavily boosted by Drow’s Aura and Io’s Overcharge was burning down hero after hero and melted Wings’ base to secure the Nanyang Season 2 Championship title for Newbee in a 35 minute game.
Nanyang Season 2 final standings and prize pool distribution:
1st place: $100,600: Newbee
2nd place, $50,300: Wings Gaming
3rd place, $25,152: LGD Gaming
4th place, $10,100: CDEC Youth
5th-6th place, $7,550: Digital Chaos, Vici Gaming Reborn
7th-8th place, no prize money - WarriorsGaming.Unity, Team Empire
