EHOME, who taught the European elites a lesson in Paris, just took a step further on achieving the same goal against their fellow countrymen. The Squad around KingJ, managed to take down LGD.sGty after 36 minutes.
The tactical conception of both lineups, turned out to be quite similar, as both teams put most of their emphasis on guaranteeing their carries have a stable laning phase. While LGD decided to go with a classical 2-1-2, running Carry plus Babysitter up top, EHOME chose a 1-1-3 and the safer Trilane to guard their Sniper at bottom. The result was a carefully played first phase. LGD's bottom heroes Windrunner and Oblivion left their Lane to AAA passive farm, while ZSMJ had an easy time against 357s solo Lion.
| Semi Final | |
 EHOME | LGD.sGty |
| Bans | |
    |     |
| Picks | |
  |  |
  |   |
 |   |
| Lanes | |
| Sentinel EH.GIGABYTE.820 (Bot) EH.GIGABYTE.J (Roaming) EH.GIGABYTE.AAA (Bot) EH.GIGABYTE.357 (Top) EH.GIGABYTE.X!! (Mid) | Scourge LGD.2009.sGty (Mid) LGD.YYF.sGty (Bot) LGD.Gx.sGty (Top) LGD.ZSMJ.sGty (Top) LGD.ch~.sGty (Mid) |
Six minutes into the game, the two solo mids plus the two carries picked up a substantial amount of gold and experience, leaving the other six back in oblivion.
| Creepstats | ||
| Time/Teams | AAA | ZSMJ |
| 05:00 | 26/23 | 19/8 |
| 10:00 | 58/34 | 46/15 |
| 15:00 | 106/40 | 73/16 |
| 20:00 | 135/42 | 94/17 |
The first team that decided to leave their lanes was LGD, by moving their bottom heroes towards mid, they secured themselves a Tier 1 tower along with an important kill on Storm Spirit. The downside of this maneuver however is allowed AAA to accumulate an insane amount of money at bottom lane. While LGD's main aim was to push towers, the Casters of EHOME defended, pushed back and kept the game open, until their carry was ready. With a finished Manta Style on the Dwarven Sniper after 15 minutes, plus X´s brilliant decision not to go for Guinsoos, Bloodstone or Linkenspere, but picking up a fast Black King Bar against LGD's massive nuke power, the Sentinel laid the foundation to advance early on.
Due to a flawless gameplay, an excellent coordination and better farming, EHOME turned every fight to their favor and showed that less popular heroes are also capable of achieving big victories. With a performance this strong, it is no doubt that we may have IEM's next champion in the making.
MVP of the game:
EH.GIGABYTE.X!!Links
GosuGamers - Replay
GosuGamers - IEM 2010
