On the back of an insane team performance in all the three games, Faceless have knocked the four-time major winners out of the Manila Masters and advance forward in the Lower Bracket.
In a match-up whose odds were heavily favouring OG, crowd-favourites Faceless seemed to have done the impossible. Losing the first game of the series, Faceless were able to regain momentum and put a strong fight in front of their home SEA crowd in the second and the third games, ultimately winning the series for themselves. They advance forward to face Team NP later on in the day, and send OG packing home. The MVP for Faceless this series has to go to Anucha ‘Jabz’ Jirawong, who was able to get so much done with so little and his early rotations and impactful ultimates on Sand King and Clockwerk were the deciding factor that steered Faceless towards their two victories.
Game One
OG went for a rather interesting draft in Game One as they took a surprise last pick Arc Warden for Johan ‘n0tail’ Sundstein as well as an offlane Earthshaker and a support Pudge for Jesse ‘JerAx’ Vainikka. Faceless’ draft featured rather standard picks, except a roaming Enchantress for Jabz.
The laning stage was almost even for both the teams, even though Daryl ‘iceiceice’ Koh had managed to give the Arc Warden a hard time in the bottom lane. However, JerAx was able to get a lot done on his roaming Pudge especially with the Sunstrike and Fissure combination and was able to secure the early game for OG, by getting successive kills on the Faceless cores especially Dominik ‘Black^’ Reitmeier on his Shadow Fiend.
After getting the crucial Blink Dagger on Earthshaker eighteen minutes into the game, OG looked to be in the driving seat of the game, as they looked to take Roshan after a T2 Tower for T2 tower trade for both the teams. Iceiceice on his Clockwerk, however, sensed the Roshan attempt with his Rocket Flares and as he hooked in at the last moment, he was unable to get the Aegis steal but was able to immediately pop the Aegis on n0tail’s Arc Warden. After two successive failed ganks close to the Radiant Jungle from the side of Faceless, OG were suddenly looking a lot more confident in their teamfight capabilities. Now, they were the ones on the aggressive and a well-executed teamfight near Faceless’ T2 tower bottom lane proved disastrous for the Dire side as they were wiped from the face of the earth by OG.
Being able to comfortably take Roshan and with the Aegis in the hands of Anathan ‘ana’ Pham’s unstoppable Invoker, OG were now knocking at Faceless’ base and Faceless really looked like they could not stop the Rat coming out from n0tail’s clones. With OG’s cores miles ahead of Faceless’ and simply no match for them, Faceless had absolutely no answer for the push coming out from OG’s side and after a haphazard defense from their side, they had to forfeit the first game of the series.
Game Two
With their tournament lives on the line, Faceless closed out their draft this time with a signature Anti Mage for Black^ as a response to the Storm Spirit on OG’s side, an Anti-Mage that would dictate the pace of the game.
The pace of the early game was determined by Jabz on his roaming Clockwerk who kept the action going in all the lanes, but the center of attention for both the team’s supports was the middle lane where Faceless were duo-laning their Anti Mage mid and OG knew the threats of a Black^ Anti-Mage if not shut down. The Faceless supports were able to keep Ana at bay, however, with Clockwerk hovering around the middle lane and catching out Ana a couple of times and allowing Black^ to play comfortably and secure the farm that he needed early to steer his hero forward.
With Black^ having completed his Battlefury 13 minutes into the game, Faceless were able to quickly push towers before n0tail’s Lycan could really come online and were able to use nighttime to their advantage as iceiceice was able to keep OG on their toes on his aggressive Batman. With their Anti Mage almost twice as much networth as n0tail’s Lycan, Faceless were able to grab an uncontested Roshan and wipe OG in the teamfight that followed. Faceless were now miles ahead of OG’s cores in terms of their farms and Black^ was simply going ham on his Anti Mage, looking to close out the game. In a fight top lane, Black^ was able to even dive Tier-4s to kill the heroes of OG and they had no answer to this aggression coming out from the Faceless side.
The disastrous nature of the game for the side of OG could be judged by the fact that Jabz on his support Clockwerk was tied and even slightly ahead of n0tail’s safelane Lycan in terms of networth. With a Beyond Godlike Anti Mage able to take down Roshan and also grab an Aegis for them, there really seemed to be no light at the end of the tunnel for OG. With Black^ was soon knocking at their base, OG had no choice but to call GG 36 minutes in, with almost a 40,000 Gold Deficit.
Game Three
Game Three’s drafting phase was quite an interesting one from both teams. With OG picking up a Safelane Faceless Void and a Mid-lane Mirana, Faceless picked up the Naga Siren last, and had the Bristleback and Weaver to compliment it.
The early game, like the previous two games, saw action from both the teams as OG looked to pickoff the Faceless heroes early on and secure towers with their Shadow Shaman. A key point of the game was when Jabz and Wong ‘NutZ’ Jeng Yih were able to sneak into the Dire jungle and grab a juicy 4-stack that OG had prepped for Ana’s Mirana.Just like the previous game, Black^ had a comfortable early game and was able to get his Radiance almost 17 minutes in. Having been involved in successful early rotations and stealing a 4-stack from OG’s jungle, Jabz was able to get an early Blink timing that allowed him to be very active around the map and get impactful Burrowstrikes.
Sensing their timing in the mid-game and with a tanky iceiceice Bristleback, Faceless were able to snag an uncontested Roshan and started pushing OG’s outer towers. A fantastic fight from both of the sides near the Dire bottom bounty rune saw both the teams throwing all they had to stay in the Masters. Almost immediately afterwards, another action-packed fight broke out in the Radiant Jungle where OG looked like they could come out on top with the Chronosphere but soon, they were on the retreat and were able to successfully bail out with fewer casualties than could have been.
Faceless were able to take a successful fight in the Middle lane, on the back of which they went into the Roshan pit, and managed to deter OG from contesting it. After grabbing the Aegis for their Weaver, they started to again push the outer towers of OG as Naga Siren steered ahead in her farm. After Weaver was able to juke out a missed Chronosphere from n0tail, Faceless were able to exploit this key timing and tried to push in the top lane, getting all of OG’s members low but not dead. OG were able to slowly bounce back, chasing Faceless further outside the base and grabbing the T2 tower in the top lane. However, Faceless were able to grab yet another uncontested Roshan and an Aegis on Weaver once again, as the game hit the 50 minute mark.
Faceless were able to pick off n0tail in the top lane and he was down for 2 minutes with Buyback but BKB down. On the back of this, they were able to get the top lane of barracks as n0tail held onto his buyback. However, as n0tail hit back to fight Faceless, he was able to catch Weaver in his Chrono but it was only the Aegis that he blew off. OG were simply unable to kill the iceiceice Bristleback even after going all-in and expending the Buyback on a lot of their heroes With a Naga Siren sleep to reset the fight as well as a huge Epicenter from Sand King, Faceless were able to force out the GG from OG and a huge upset sent them packing.
