NEXT.kz against Quantic was the opening match of the second day of TI2 West qualifier. It was played at the same time as zNation against Keita Gaming.
The matchup NEXT.kz against Quantic was the match were the only undefended team in the tournament, NEXT.kz, which won 2-0 against Keita the day before, faced the Morphling-loving team Quantic Gaming, which love to give Korok his trademark hero.
Game 1: Great follow-up aggression after a successful gank
The first game of the best-of-three already gave Korok his Morphling. Quantic Gaming was so confident about this hero that they even dared picking Morphling first. Korok on Morphling was most farmed hero in the early game, but the rest of Quantic had nothing. Nevertheless, Morphling is the more offensive option compared to NEXT.kz's Anti-Mage, so Quantic is able to take all three tier 1 towers before losing a single one.
Korok decided to go for shotgun-build in this game, buying the Ethereal Blade even before Linken's Sphere. The risk against NEXT.kz's lineup, however, was the good counter-initiation by Earth Shaker and Brewmaster, both with Blink Dagger, and Windrunner. Gamebreaking was a smoke gank into the Radiant wood by NEXT.kz, rewarded by two kills, followed by bottom push, which Quantic was unable to defend because of bad positioning. Quantic lose game 1, NEXT.kz stay undefeated, for now.
Game 2: Is Anti-Mage really back into the meta game?
The second game is a repetition of the battle Morphling for Korok against Anti-Mage played by Mantis. Just with even better farm on Mantis. He even gets the Ancient creeps stacked by Beastmaster. First Roshan goes to Quantic, but the second to NEXT.kz.
A distraction aggression by Anti-Mage gives him a crucial death, but his teammates take down the bottom tier 3 tower by themselves even without Mantis's help. Mantis's farm on Anti-Mage is just too much for Quantic to handle. It looks like that against those Morphling-loving teams, Anti-Mage is back into the meta game.
This win against Quantic Gaming secures NEXT.kz the first spot in the upper bracket final. NEXT.kz is already at least third in this tournament and currently still undefeated.
Check out more information about the games here!