After coming through the BYOC bracket untouched, FnaticMSI faced the IOL-qualified Reason Gaming in the finals of the DreamHack Summer 2011 IOL Heroes of Newerth Tournament.

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Sunday, June 19th @ 23:30 CET
Jönköping, Sweden

A huge crowd assembled to watch the IOL Heroes of Newerth Grand Finals at DreamHack Summer 2011 on the DreamArena Extreme stage. In addition, more than 16,000 viewers were tuned in to the livestream. TobiWan and BreakyCPK were busy hyping up the crowd and getting ready to cast.

As expected, FnaticMSI went undefeated in the BYOC bracket, made it to the top four teams, and were headed into Day 2 at DreamHack: the Inferno Online League playoffs. They defeated TS-Gaming in the semifinals, and were out to defeat yet another Swedish team on Swedish turf, nonetheless.

Reason Gaming beat KD-Gaming e.V., a team that also survived the BYOC bracket, to make it to the finals. Reason has built their reputation on upsetting teams in major tournaments, including their first big victory over FnaticMSI in the SK Gaming Tournament #1.

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The teams walked out onto the stage! FnaticMSI's intro music was the Robot Unicorn Attack song, "Always" by Erasure ("Always, I wanna be with you..."). Players were, understandably, looking a bit nervous.

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The camera panned over each player as they were individually introduced. The crowd reacted, cheering especially loud for [Rea] Black and [MSI] NoVa_.

Game 1

FnaticMSI won the roll in Game 1 and chose the Hellbourne side. [MSI] Fly typed, "Although, I have a feeling Kongor won't be so sneaky."

Game 1 launched, but there were some issues and the game was remade. A new game went up. Livestream viewers were now over 21,000. Game 1 was finally underway!

Game 1 [44069895]

Reason Gaming

FnaticMSI

Bans (Legion first)

Picks

Lanes

[Rea] strangby (Top)
Behemoth

[Rea] eresloco (Top)
Myrmidon

[Rea] Hmmpz (Top)
Valkyrie

[Rea] giftig (Mid)
PuppetMaster

[Rea] BIack (Bot)

[MSI] N0tail (Top)
Andromeda

[MSI] NoVa_ (Top)
Pyromancer

[MSI] Fly (Top)
CorruptedDisciple

[MSI] Trixi (Mid)
Pharoah

[MSI] Freshpro (Bot)

Standard bans were made by both teams, with "respect" bans on Kraken and Wildsoul. They both set up solid trilane lineups, with MSI picking Maliken, a carry popular in the recent MSI-DuskBin series of the GosuCup finals.

There was a lot of early action between the six heroes in the top lane. Reason finally got the bloodlust kill on Pyromancer, catching Andromeda shortly after. A couple minutes later, and MSI's trilane got completely wiped out by Reason's. There was a 5-0 hero kill score in favor of Reason. Puppet Master took the lead over Pharaoh at the bottom lane, while Corrupted Disciple's creep score nearly doubled that of Valkyrie's.

Corrupted Disciple grabbed an invisibility rune and got a double kill at the top lane. MSI started to even up the kills, thanks to some great reactionary play by Pharaoh. MSI began to play more aggressively; Corrupted Disciple dove into the bottom tower with Pharaoh's support and came out with a hat trick. Despite Reason Gaming's early lead thanks to their trilane, superior warding and great Pharaoh play swung the game into MSI's favor.

There was very little action for about eight straight minutes, as Reason allowed MSI to kill two towers and Kongor without contention. MSI went on to push the top base tower with the Token of Life and fresh Shrunken Heads on Corrupted Disciple and Maliken. MSI waited for Kongor to be up again, then went in for the kill, genociding Reason. They conceded, and it was on to Game 2.

Game 2

It was close to 1:00 AM in Sweden at the start of Game 2, but the spectators' energy levels were still high. The number of livestream viewers reached 25,000. FnaticMSI's confidence was on the rise after Game 1, and their first-pick Wildsoul made the crowd erupt. "WHAT SHOULD THEY PICK?" popped up on the screen, and the crowd went crazy, yelling out hero names.

Game 2 [44073879]

FnaticMSI

Reason Gaming

Bans (Legion first)

Picks

Lanes

[MSI] Trixi (Top)
Myrmidon

[MSI] NoVa_ (Top)
PollywogPriest

[MSI] N0tail (Mid)
Wildsoul

[MSI] Freshpro (Bot)
Tempest

[MSI] Fly (Jungle/Bot)

[Rea] strangby (Top)

[Rea] BIack (Mid)
WretchedHag

[Rea] giftig (Bot)
Hammerstorm

[Rea] eresloco (Roam)
VoodooJester

[Rea] Hmmpz (Roam)

The bans were similar to Game 1, with MSI banning Torturer this time and leaving Wildsoul open for themselves. MSI was clearly going for the push strategy that we've seen them run before with Wildsoul and Tempest, and they even got Pollywog Priest, as well. Reason picked a strong mid-game team with superior late-game potential, if they could manage to hold off MSI's early pressure.

Early on, Wildsoul caught Hammerstorm roaming through the Legion jungle, and a last-second Entangle proc gave him the bloodlust kill. Meanwhile, Pollywog ward-trapped and killed Dr. Repulsor at mid. His next wards cooldown was used to try to push the middle tower, but Hammerstorm came in to gank Pollywog and the tower was denied.

MSI continued to push, taking out the first bottom tower and putting pressure on the second. At around 14 minutes, a teamfight ensued and MSI nearly genocided Reason. The Hellbourne team was in trouble with their backs against the wall and base towers already taking heavy damage.

Pebbles and Tempest both picked up their Portal Keys, and by 18 minutes, all of Reason's outer towers were down. Mock of Brilliance was finished on Booboo, and MSI took out Kongor uncontested at the 22 minute mark. With little chance to come back, Reason conceded at 27 minutes, and MSI had successfully defended their title of DreamHack champions!

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DreamHack IOL 5v5 Heroes of Newerth Tournament

1st Place: Europe

FnaticMSI, 55 000 SEK + qualified to DHW 2011
2nd Place: Sweden

Reason Gaming, 30 000 SEK
3rd Place: Sweden

TS-Gaming, 15 000 SEK

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[MSI] Freshpro was interviewed on stage immediately after the match. He spoke about the victory as if it was both inevitable and a huge relief, his first word being, "Finally." The interviewer asked Fresh, "Who stood out in the Fnatic lineup today?"

"Umm...me?"

Reason Gaming and FnaticMSI meet in the DreamHack Summer finals