The South America Kiev Qualifier finals saw Not Today taking on SG e-sports in a tense, hard-fought series.
The Grand Final of the South American region of the Kiev Major qualifiers saw Not Today take on SG e-sports. For many, this was the final that was expected from the region. After Not Today overpowered SG in the earlier phases of the tournament, SG were looking to redeem themselves.
Game One:
Not Today started the series with an unconventional draft, picking a support duo of Sven for Steven Vargas 'StingeR-03' Mamani and Lich for Alex Davila 'Masoku' Matallana, heroes not seen regularly throughout the tournament. Not Today started the game with a safelane trilane that started horribly for them, as Alonso 'Kotaro' Lion’s Weaver died twice before reaching level 2. SG used this early advantage to group up and pressure towers around William 'k3-hFn' Medeiros’ Luna and Octavio 'Tavo' Gabriel’s Necrophos. This pressure led to the first major teamfight of the game which SG took handily, teamwiping Not Today whilst only losing two of their players. The next fight didn’t go any better, as Not Today were simply unable to kill Tavo’s Necrophos at the start of the fight. Tavo’s Death Pulses kept his team alive and let SG take another positive fight and a tower in the aftermath, giving SG an 8000 gold lead at 16 minutes. By 20 minutes, this lead had stretched to 11 000, and SG had claimed all of Not Today’s outer towers. SG pushed highground, took one last good fight and Not Today’s bottom lane of barracks. Not Today realized that they didn’t have any way back into the game, and called GG.
Game Two:
In game 2, Not Today were determined not to make the same mistakes as game 1. Not Today banned out Luna and Necrophos, the cores that defeated them. Not Today’s unconventional picks continued with Troll Warlord for Kotaro, pairing him with Leonardo 'LeoStyle' Sifuent’s Outworld Devourer and Karatekaa 'Kingteka' Averigualo’s Faceless Void. SG chose to go for another draft capable of fighting early, with Undying, Legion Commander, and Vengeful Spirit. Not Today unsuccessfully tried to dodge SG’s trilane by placing 3 heroes in the bottom lane. Danylo 'KINGRD' Nascimento‘s Undying relished their presence, landing many multiple-hero Decays and harassing Not Today effectively. This allowed hfn’s Weaver to essentially freefarm. Once SG believed they had enough levels, they dived the Troll Warlord, picking him off and not losing anyone in return.
Although SG used this early lead to push the first tower, Not Today saw an opportunity when SG stayed too long afterwards, with Kingteka landing another superb Chronosphere that led to 3 heros from SG dying. After that fight, both teams elected to split the map and farm for the next 10 minutes. Not Today got the better of this farming period. When the two teams next clashed, a two-man Chronosphere from Kingteka killed k3-hFn's Weaver and Emilano 'c4t' Ito‘s Vengeful Spirit. With these two heroes down, Not Today took the first Roshan of the game, which they used to safely farm once more, taking them to a 9000 gold lead by 30 minutes and claiming the second Aegis on the Troll Warlord. Not Today walked into the midlane and breached highground. Unfortunately for Not Today, SG managed to lasso the Faceless Void and burst him down, sending Not Today into full retreat for the first time into the game. SG used the brief period without Faceless Void in the game to damage Not Today’s tier 3 tower in the midlane. The next time Not Today pushed highground, it was more successful – the weight of their 20 000 gold lead meant that even though SG got a good initiation, Not Today’s heroes stayed alive through the initial round of spells, destroyed the mid barracks and forced Weaver to buy back. This buyback proved to be SG’s downfall, as Weaver was bursted down in the next major teamfight. Without the Weaver to provide damage, SG had no ability to kill Not Today’s cores, and SG called GG, bringing the score to 1-1.
Game Three:
In the final game, Not Today declared their intent early, picking Undying, Sand King, and Keeper of the Light as their first 3 heroes. SG responded with a 5-man heavy line-up. With both teams having kill potential early on, the early laning stage was filled with trading leading to occasional kills. The most notable lane was midlane, where Adriano '4dr' Machado’s Quas-Wex Invoker was destroyed by LeoStyle's Storm Spirit. The safelane carries of both teams were able to freefarm, with all 4 supports constantly roaming to try and eke out lane pressure wherever they could. The first major fight of the game started with Not Today killing Tavo’s Beastmaster, but a good Telekinesis from KINGRD's Rubick allowed k3-hFn's Luna to get off a lethal Eclipse and turn the fight in SG’s favour. k3-hFn went from strength to strength, topping the net worth and claiming the first aegis of the game at 18 minutes.
Similarly to the second game, the pace of the game slowed down following the first Aegis. SG, on the back of the Luna, were able to forge a 5000 gold lead by 25 minutes. In the first fight since the early game, Not Today managed to pick of c4t's Dazzle at the beginning of the fight. Kotaro’s Terrorblade fought the Luna effectively. However, k3-hFn picked up a Butterfly soon afterwards. This meant that k3-hFn was able to essentially solo Not Today’s entire bottom lane of barracks. The Luna proved to be un-killable, and after repeating the building murder in the top lane, Not Today called GG, meaning that SG claimed the series 2-1.
SG were able to turn the result from the previous series around with some solid team play. Their supports were able to keep their cores alive and make the initiations that netted their team the series in the long run. From this solid foundation, k3-hFn put in great performances in all of the games, farming effectively and pushing his heroes to the limits. Congratulations to the Brazilian squad!
