image from Mushi's Facebook page
The South East Asian LAN event of ROG Masters kicked off yesterday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with one big upset.
After reaching the playoffs with an undefeated run through the group stage, Fnatic were bested by the youngsters from EHOME X with a 2-0 final score. They were eliminated from the tournament in the very first day.
Game One:
EHOME X took the first game of the series rather fast, forcing Fnatic to constantly fight in the mid lane and to protect their two cores. The pressure mid alleviated Fnatic's pressure elsewhere, providing EHOME X's Alchemist and Juggernaut with virtually uncontested farm. The Alchemist had a lackluster start in mid versus Fnatic’s Ursa, who benefited from her supports rotations and was saved a few times from death. However, EHOME X was able to pressure Fnatic at the six minute mark when their Beastmaster was already level six and started the Roar initiation rotations.
Fnatic recognized the pick-off potential of EHOME X with the BM Hawks scouting and started to play as five rather early, which crippled their Ursa and Medusa's individual progress. At the same time EHOME X had either the Alchemist or the Juggernaut solo farming on some corner of the map and were able to crush Mushi’s team with a six-slotted Alchemist by the 30 minute mark.
Game Two:
The second game was a bit different, with Fnatic getting slightly out drafted. Despite having EHOME X already picked Silencer, the Malaysian team chose to go with Tinker for their last pick and found themselves unable to teamfight nor to split push as EHOME X matched the Tinker mobility with a last pick Ember Spirit. Global Silence into Vacuum - Wall combo was perfectly landed with almost every team fight and allowed EHOME X to eliminate Fnatic at the end of a 50 minute game--but not before Xiang 'Puer tea' Xin secured two Rampages on his Ember Spirit.
Team Secret, on the other hand, despite making a roster change just before flying to Kuala Lumpur, had no problem winning all their games. They reached the playoffs from the first position in group C and are still undefeated after the first day. The last two SEA hopes for a Grand Finals spot are Execration and Mineski, both doing quite well so far in the tournament.
ROG Masters Playoffs day two schedule:
November 12, 10:30 CET/15:30 SGT EHOME X vs Execration
November 12, 13:45 CET/18:45 SGT Team Secret vs Mineski
