| Game Two | |||
 Nirvana.cn |  Starsboba | ||
Sentinel Nv.Cherry.zhou (Bot)  Nv.Cherry.Dgp (Mid)  Nv.Cherry.Dgb (Bot)  Nv.Cherry.Dgc (Top)  Nv.Cherry.InsCe (Bot) | Scourge SB.GigaByte|SS (Top)  SGBot1 (Bot)  SB.GigaByte|Ice (Bot)  sb.gigabyte|dv (Mid) SB.Gigabyte|Ar (Bot) | ||
| Mode: -cm Map: 6.68c | |||
| Download Replay | |||
From the picks one can see that Starsboba was banking on an early/mid game finish, boasting a strong magic based line up with excellent pushing power in the form of Necrolyte and Rhasta. The abundance of disable was undoubtedly chosen to counter the daunting late game heroes: Shadow Fiend and Morphling. Starsboba were however unable to ban three of Nirvana.cn's favourite heroes. Yaphets, Dgc and Zhou are arguably some of the best Shadow Fiend, Enigma and Morphling players respectively. Nirvana.cn's lineup spoke balance and favoured the aggressive play style they have adopted of late, while still possessing a dangerous team battle with Enigma, Tide and SF.
Lanes saw Enigma versus Necrolyte up top. Fairly even for a majority of the laning phase, with Necro managing to obtain much needed farm. Some well-timed gangs from Sven saw Necro go down once, but SoSo managed to stay in the game. Support teleports prevented Scourge from losing their top tower early, despite the push power provided by a solo Enigma. At mid, Yaphets, with his much favoured SF, was able to get the upper hand over David's Rhasta.
Bot lane saw the most action with both teams opting for the tri-lane. Zhou had a relatively hard time farming up as he was forced to stay just within XP range. He was however well supported by Tide and Sven, narrowly escaping a few near death experiences. A tower dive (bot) early on in the game saw Starsboba grab a handful of kills, including one on SF. A buy back is seen by SF, but he fails in trying to kill Rhasta.
Both teams broke away from the lane stage very early, realising that towers were needed if they wanted to win. This saw the Tier 3 towers fall in quick succession and both sides earning themselves kills, keeping the scores relatively even. Starsboba were beginning to build momentum, with Rhasta placing his wards near-perfectly and the rest of the side timing their disables to reach maximum potential. Regardless, they were unable to hold down SF, who was 4-1, had Power Treads and BKB 14 minutes in.
Both sides continued to probe, picking off heroes here and there but Necrolyte's bulk was proving to get the better of Nirvana.cn, with a Hood and Vanguard on the back of him at the 20 minute mark. Also, an early blink dagger from Earthshaker didn't bode well for the Chinese, while Enigma was continuously denied a chance to use his ultimate as Lion never failed to pick him off with an Impale + Finger of Death combo.
SB took an early Rosh and the fact that they chose to give it to Rhasta emphasised that they were hoping on the "suicide rax" where Rhasta would rush, in plant his wards, absorb all the damage, die and then come back to aid in disabling their opposition. SB continued to apply pressure on Sentinel, forcing them to engage despite being at a clear disadvantage. Necro's Agahnim's Sceptre allowed SF to be picked off with fair ease. Once again, Morphling bought back to prevent the loss of a tier 2 tower.
After a second rosh (30 minutes) SB won a game breaking battle in front of Nirvana.cn's base, only to overstay their welcome, allowing Sentinel to pick up a few soft kills. By now, Morphling and Shadow Fiend had their hands on a Manta Style each and were becoming a nuisance for the Vietnamese team. Once again SB overextended themselves, allowing Nirvana to splinter the side, granting Yaphets a triple kill which included an end to Necro's Godlike streak.
Tide was picked off at mid by some professional awareness by ES. Nirvana.cn realised that it would cause more harm than good to initiate without Tide, so they allowed SB to destroy the melee rax at the 40 minute mark. Necro made the mistake of picking up a sheep stick as it made virtually no difference in team fights. One would generally have thought that Shiva's Guard or even an Assualt Cuirass would have been a better option versus the physical prowess of Nirvana.cn's heroes.
Following the rax, SB attempted to rosh for a third time, but failure to ward the ramp resulted in a perfect battle for Nirvana.cn. ES was without his ultimate, Lion was picked off and Witch Doctor was separated from the fight. A well timed ulti from Enigma allowed Morph and SF to rip Necro to shreds, signalling the shift in power.
Starsboba somewhat panicked after this battle. They made increasingly more mistakes, including launching uncoordinated attacks, leaving them at odds and ends for the remainder of the game. The attack damage and farm from Sentinel's heroes overwhelmed the Scourge, with ES's ultimate not even tickling Nirvana's carries. To round things off, Yaphets found himself two Divine Rapiers, ending the game then and there for Vietnam's best.
The first game also went Nirvana.cn's way, so the side picked up a full set of points. With plenty of DotA still to be played in ADC 2010, be sure to stay tuned to GosuGamers.net for more world class coverage!
Links
GosuGamers.net - Download Replay
