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Dota 28 years agoIsaac "RedCrayon" Celis

Team Secret advance into the Grand Finals of SL i-League StarSeries S2


image source: Dota Blast

With some very solid gameplay and teamwork, Team Secret triumphed over Natus Vincere in the upper bracket finals to secure a top two finish at SL i-League StarSeries Season2.

Game One

Game one of the upper bracket final saw some solid play from Team Secret. Draft wise, Team Secret went for a first phase Drow, hoping to capitalize on the strength of her aura in the mid-late game, and paired it with an Enchantress for Clement 'Puppey' Ivanov and a Razor  for Artour 'Arteezy' Babaev Razor. Na'Vi looked as if they would go with a fairly aggressive early-game lineup but changed their tempo greatly with a last pick Naga Siren for Dmitrii 'Ditya-Ra' Minenkov, leaving their resident mid, Daniel 'Dendi' Ishutin a Timbersaw in the safelane.

Early game, Puppey had a tough time getting his jungle started as Akbar 'SoNNeikO' Butaev contested him very aggressively on the Phoenix. While pressure seemed to be on the mid and offlane, Jacky 'EternalEnvy' Mao on his Drow safelane got uncontested farm with some great support from Johan 'pieliedie' Åström on the Oracle. Secret took an early tier one tower at four minutes, but a misplay by the squad's captain gave Na'Vi a free kill. SoNNeikO kept trying to make things happen throughout the early game, rotating constantly but struggled to get his key level six for the Supernova, a crucial tool to Na'Vi's teamfight capability. Secret took Na'Vi's last tier one tower at 10 minutes along with three heroes from the Ukrainian squad. 

As the game went on, it seemed Na'Vi couldn't come together. With such a slow pace due to their core Naga, Na'Vi tried to make space for the Slithereen, but couldn't while Secret simply split the map getting great farm on their cores. A fight at around 32 minutes gave Na'Vi some breathing room as they took down three from Secret after they pressured the Na'Vi high ground. However, down two sets of rax, Na'Vi looked in dire straits as they tried to continue that one fight's momentum at 36. Na'Vi valiantly dove under Secret's tier four's trying to secure some space but ultimately failed. Secret pushed down the last lane of rax and won a few minutes later, putting them up 1-0 over Na'Vi. Kudos however, go to the Ukrainian squad who fought it out to the bitter end.

Game Two

Going into game two, Na'Vi looked to pick up the pace with a fairly aggressive draft. Na'Vi picked up a much neglected Lifestealer, who saw so much play during the TI6 open qualifiers to combo with some great initiators namely Slardar and Batrider. Team Secret stuck to their guns and went with a first phase Drow-Oracle again with Puppey and Bulba on Axe and Abbadon from some very tanky frontliners.

Early game, Artstyle looked much more in his element with his signature Chen, constantly pressuring EE's Drow in the top lane, effectively securing the farm for Slardar played by Victor 'GeneRaL-qw' Nigrini. Down on levels, EE opted to switch out lanes and moved to the off lane to try and secure his own farm. Team Secret followed up the Drow and decided to five man down the bottom lane, securing two towers and two kills on the Na'Vi squad. 

Both teams seemed even in the mid game stage despite Na'Vi being down to a tier three tower in the bottom lane. Without the two towers, Secret took the control of the Na'Vi jungle and took the first Rosha at the 16 minute mark, along with a kill on Dendi. The aegis and kill swung the momentum back towards Secret after taking a shaky fight in the middle lane a few minutes earlier. With the Aegis in their hands, Secret slowly took down objectives, placing their cores at the top of the net worth chart. However, SoNNeikO's Winter Wyvern that kept Na'Vi from collapsing countless times with an insane amount of clutch Cold Embraces and Winter's Curses.

Around 33 minutes, Puppey initiated with a great blink-Call, but it was Sonneiko again with a huge Cold Embrace to turn the fight for Na'Vi. At 36, Dendi was caught out of the base, but again, his supports had quick reactions which allowed Na'Vi to turn the fight. However, Secret's positioning on the Storm and Drow constantly gave them the edge each fight, with Bulba and his Aghanim's proving to be the lynchpin each fight. A final fight at Na'Vi's high ground top cost them the game as Secret grabbed megas and sealed their place in the Grand Final.

Team Secret await the winner of the Lower bracket final between Na'Vi, and the winner of Fnatic-F.R.I.E.N.D.S series.

Author
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Isaac "RedCrayon" CelisLoL refugee. DOTA lover. EE fanboy. Hit me up about anime, dota and anything else you can think of

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