Newbee sit secure with their ticket to Dota Pit's Season 5 LAN Finals, set to be held in January next year, joining Team Secret and Virtus Pro as they await the rest of the qualified teams from SEA, EU, and NA.
Game One
The name of game one was Newbee, as they dominated Invictus Gaming in the laning phase and middle sections, taking it in just shy of 25 minutes. Unlike iG, Newbee went with quite an aggressive lineup, taking an Axe and Juggernaut in response to iG's first phase Sand King. iG responded with some passive supports, looking to hedge their bets on Zhi 'BuRNing' Lei Xu's Morphling with Ou 'OP' Peng's Timber looking to make space for him. Newbee responded brilliantly with a Shadow Fiend for up and comer Chun 'Sccc' Song who played absolutely phenomenally.
Early game, iG looked to simply secure Morphling's farm with a tri-lane, but Newbee threw a wrench in their plans, contesting with an aggressive tri-lane of their own. Meanwhile, the Sccc's SF mid had very little to worry about from OP's Timber as he simply farmed away. iG's offlane SK was in a similarly poor position, as Damien 'kpii' Chok's Axe dominated him. Kpii and Hu 'KAKA' Liangzhi's Rubick were the lynchpins of the game, as it moved into the final phases; KAKA managed to always steal the right spell at the right time, whether that was Burrowstrike, Epicenter or even Adaptive Strike.
With their tri-lane hampered, iG decided to try and make things happen elsewhere on the map as Ye 'BoBoKa' Zhi and Zhang 'Q-HHH' Yi left BurNIng to his own devices. For a time it worked, as they took the pressure off of BurNIng's lane, allowing him to get a decent amount of farm, catching up in net worth very quickly. However, it simply wasn't enough as Newbee's stellar laning phase gave them the advantage to not only take Roshan, but push iG's highground at an early 18 minutes. iG valiantly defended, but with about four diebacks for defending one barracks, Newbee pressed the advantage and sealed the game a few minutes after.
Game Two
Learning from game one, iG decided to go with some more aggressive tempo supports, and picked up an Earth Spirit along with a Rubick while Newbee decide to take the Sand King for themselves. iG decided to try and fight it out, hedging their bets on an Ursa and Luna to give them that mid-late game edge. Newbee responded, and went with a very scary teamfight lineup, with a Void and OD to complement the SK.
The early phase of the game went much better for iG compared to game one, as BurNIng's offlane Luna got some excellent farm. However, Newbee were the ones to catch the tempo first, as they caught iG's Dark Seer off-guard with a double support rotation, giving Newbee first blood. iG answered back as ES made some great rotations to the top and mid lanes.
As the game transitioned into the later phases, it looked relatively even despite the gold and exp advantage going the way of Newbee. iG took the first aegis at 12 minutes, with Newbee almost stealing it from them. Newbee answered by taking the aegis back a few seconds after, but the Roshan gold and exp gave iG some breathing room. Another engagement at around 14 gave Newbee the edge yet again, as kpii's Sand King hit a massive three-man Burrow-Epicenter in response to iG's pressure on the mid T2. Newbee continued their momentum at 19 minutes as they caught four from iG. iG attempted to answer back with an Ursa buyback, taking two in return and contesting Roshan, but failed to grab it as Newbee took two from them again.
The final phases of the game saw iG's Luna and Ursa starting to come online, but with the hemorrhaging from the earlier fights along with the overwhelming teamfight capability from Newbee, it was simply too much. An over commitment for Jakiro by iG at around 30 minutes sealed their loss, as iG lost three, along with a dieback from Ursa shortly after.
Newbee now sit secured in their tickets to the upcoming Dota Pit Season 5 LAN finals, joining Team Secret and Virtus Pro as they wait as they now await the other qualified teams. The LAN finals are set to be held in January of 2017, in the Spaladium Arena in Split, Croatia. The qualified teams will compete for their share of the $125,000 base prize pool, and also have some valuable practice before Valve's next Spring Major.
