picture courtesy of ESL One
The Filipinos go home with some valuable experience as Team Secret eliminates Execration from the International 2017.
In a best-of-one series anything can happen. This time, however, favourite’s Team Secret triumphed over Execration in a cleanly executed 30 minute victory. Draftwise, Secret went with a fairly greedy lineup, picking up Batrider for Maurice ‘KheZu’ Gutmann, a Phantom Lancer for Noah ‘MP’ Pyo, and a Templar Assassin for Nai ‘MidOne’ Zheng Yeik. Execration mirrored Secret’s greed with a Shadowfiend for Ryan ‘Bimbo’ Jay Qui along with a Lycan for Fernando ‘Nando’ Mendoza.
The key to victory in this game was the aggression against the greed of Team Secret, contesting their numerous stacks and pushing down objectives. Unfortunately, Execration were unable to do so, playing relatively passive throughout most of the game, with the only real aggression coming from James ‘CartMaN’ John on his Clockwork. Without any contest, MidOne and Khezu were free to get their items, which they put to a devastating effect.
As the game went on, Execration continued to hemorrhage gold, heroes, and objectives as Secret simply stormed down the lanes, wiping the Filipinos even without their cores. After a string of bad fight from 15 minutes to the end at 32, Execration called GG and are going home in a top 16 finish, a nice chunk of the prize pool and some good experience for the upcoming DOTA2 season. This International marks the first main event appearance for Execration, having made it to the Wild Card at TI6 and no doubt nerves were a big factor in their performance. Still, it will be interesting to see how the young Filipinos develop, especially with competition from Team Faceless, TNC, Minseki and Fnatic back in the SEA region.
Team Secret move on to the bo3’s where they face Team Liquid in round two of the lower bracket. Previously, Team Liquid 2-0’ed Secret in the group stage making this, a revenge match you’ll want to see.
