picture courtesy of PGL
After a magnificent day 1 at the Kiev Major’s main event, day 2 kicked off with the clash of SEA giants as TNC went head-to-head with Team Faceless.
Coming off a brilliant group stage, only losing out to Virtus Pro, TNC were looking to take down their opponent. For Team Faceless, they wanedt to put a rather poor group stage showing behind them and overcome their rivals. With elimination looming for one of these team’s and a top 8 spot available for the taking, their best of 3 series was a fantastic way to start the day.
Game One
The game got off to a quick start as both teams went for a play in the mid lane – it was Faceless who claimed the first blood, but in response they lost 2 in the fight. TF continued to punish the mid-lane Templar Assassin in the early game period, making sure that Kuku "KuKu" Carlo Palad had no chance to find proper farm. After only ten minutes, the Radiant team looked to be absolutely dominating TNC, with the score line being 9-5 and TNC struggling to find any space around the map.
Faceless continued to keep their pressure going – dropping all the Dire tier 1 and tier 2 towers by just over twenty minutes.. A good pick off from TNC got them a chance to go into the Roshan pit but a massive play from Anucha "Jabz" Jivarong on the Storm Spirit came out as he jumped into the pit and snatched the aegis – along with a few kills as his team joined in the fight. And with that the game looked completely over for TNC as Faceless went high ground and dropped both the top and mid lane barracks.
With only twenty five minutes passed and a full team wipe from Team Faceless, TNC had to call GG, giving TF game one of the series.
Game Two
This game saw a very quick first blood coming out in TNC’s favour as they found Treant Protector on an early warding skirmish. This game was much slower for Faceless and TNC were not falling far behind in the early stages. With ten minutes passed the score line was 5-4 in TNC’s favour as the game remained fairly even. But TNC began to find the kills to open up the map, making great rotations around the map to make sure Dominik "Black^" Reitmeier on the Anti-Mage was not able to freely farm.
As twenty minutes closed in, TF found a perfect fight in their own jungle and managed to even out the scores. The game slowed down a fair amount, with both teams focusing on vision and farm but TNC managed to use their vision advantage to claim an aegis for themselves. TNC started to put on the pressure and with thirty minutes passed, they moved onto the high ground and dropped the mid lane melee barracks.
With that, the game looked completely in the bag for TNC as they team wiped Faceless and forced out buybacks across the board. With 41 minutes passed, and TNC stepping up their game perfectly, the series was tied up at 1-1 and a final game three would decide the outcome of the series. KuKu on the Windrunner made some amazing plays throughout the game to ensure his team were kept in the running.
Game Three
With the series tied at 1-1, the final game would decide which SEA team was going through to the top 8 and which team was going to be going home.
The early game was going well for TNC, winning almost all the lanes but it was Faceless who managed to find the first blood just as 5 minutes passed. The game slowed down for a long period of time but when TNC went into the Roshan pit close to twenty minutes, it ended in failure. While they managed to claim the aegis, it was Faceless who managed to come out ahead with the proceeding fight.
The game, again, entered a period without kills but Faceless begun to systematically push down towers and take some map pressure in their favour. With thirty five minutes passed and Faceless looking to push high ground, TNC managed to stand firm and take down 4 from the Dire line up.
With their lead, TNC moved into the Roshan pit once again but again it ended in failure. Faceless found a perfect fight on the back of the aegis take from TNC and proceeded to push straight down mid to destroy the Radiant’s mid and top lane barracks. After sieging the bottom lane barracks for a while, Faceless moved into the Radiant base and ripped through TNC.
With no hope left in sight, TNC had no choice but to call GG, giving Team Faceless a 2-1 victory. With that, unfortunately for TNC they would be eliminated from the Kiev Major, while Team Faceless would book their spot in the top 8.
Black^'s Player Profile
For those who may have missed it, here is Black^'s Kiev Major player profile video, which we saw just before game one went live.
After that fantastic display of SEA Dota 2 being only the first game of the day, there's sure to be tons more action with 3 more series - and 3 more teams to be eliminated - at the Kiev Major.
