Tonight The Defense Season 3 comes to a conclusion and will see Fnatic.eu fight Virtus.pro. The best-of-five will start at 20:00 CET.
| Virtus.pro vs Fnatic | ||
 Airman/Illidan kSi NS ARS-ART Crazy/tmw | vs |  Fly h4nn1 Era n0tail Trixi |
Virtus.pro opted for an aggressive trilane to contest with the Phantom Lancer's farm. The Russian's trilane showed stronger kill potential and they picked off the supports quite often. Fnatic.eu however dominated the other two lanes with H4nn1 and Trixi.
Virtus.pro showed fine coordination and moved as five to force down towers. Bad rotation from Fnatic gave away three kills on core heroes. The Russians snowballed and especially kSi managed to stay on top of the farm. Even though H4nn1 kept up with the top farmer, the rest of Fnatic was too poorly farmed to actually contest in teamfights.
VP slowly sieged down the top tower with Fnatic having no chance of forcing out the Russians. Crazy was on spot with his initiations, catching multiple heroes in his ultimate. Top racks fell and it looked dim for Fnatic.
A spot on stun by NS caught both H4nn1 and Era, opening up the midlane for his team once again. Virtus.pro smartly backed off after getting the second racks and came back with full health to take down the third set. It never came to that as Fnatic were forced to call out the gg before just that after having lost yet another engagement.
The game started off with a 5on5 engagement without any casualties however. Both teams had to use several regeneration items. This time around, Fnatic put up an aggressive trilane and got the better trade off as they scored two kills for the cost of one first blood, which gave them the edge on this lane. Virtus.pro could not pull and were left to leech XP with Airman getting almost no creep kill.
The other two lanes were balanced out with both sides trading blows in the mid and kSi farming both the lane and the enemy jungle as his Dark Seer. A rotation by Crazy's Puck to the toplane scored the Russians a kill but cost Crazy the lane as H4nn1 continued to outfarm him, getting an early blink.
Virtus.pro traded a tier1 tower for two but it was a necessary boost to get certain items, such as proper boots for their Sven and the Mekansm for their Dark Seer. A good teamfight on top scored them three kills and put them back on the map, followed by a Wisp+Sven gank on Lone Druid, the by then top farmer in the game.
The Russians continued to trade efficiently, farming up on their Sven and taking towers, gaining more and more map control back. When approaching Roshan, VP managed to pick off Fnatic one by one and Crazy scored a triple kill.
VP forced out the top lane and breached highground. A good initiation by Dark Seer got an early kill on CK and Sven dealt a lot of damage, getting several kills, forcing out three buybacks. Fnatic was able to wipe out the Russian team but VP took down a tier 3 tower.
The Russians kept up the pressure but poor coordination lost them three heroes for the prize of a CK, giving Fnatic a way back into the game.(networth 30min) That window of opportunity shrank smaller and smaller when Fnatic got caught off guard at the Rosh pit once again. Clutch stuns by ARS-ART and Airman secured them a complete team wipe.
With the Aegis on Airman, VP forced down the top racks and scored two kills for the trade of their supports. A timed Relocate by NS saved him and Sven, denying Fnatic two big kills.
VP took complete map control and waited for core items to force down the midlane, where they had no problems killing off the whole Radiant line-up, getting the racks and the gg.
The first game in the series where no trilanes met each other. Both teams felt content in giving each other space, although Trixi’s Dark Seer did not gain anything in his lane, whereas KSi on his Lone Druid got a lot of XP as Fnatic pushed down his lane early on.
When Era approached Roshan, Virtus.pro wanted to contest but bad positioning cost them three heroes and all outer towers as Fnatic’s line-up took tower by tower with the confident of an Aegis.
Fnatic pushed Virtus.pro back into their base and slowly sieged down the midlane. But the Russian’s line-up proved to be capable of turtling as they defended their base for quite some time. Fnatic got the mid-racks but it cost them as they retreated with low life. VP tried to chase down the Dire but Fnatic smartly turned the engagement around with a clutch Vacuum into Puck ultimate.
VP had no chance of defending their racks anymore as they lacked farm and damage. Even a perfect RP from Crazy could not bring down the Dire line-up and VP called the gg.
Once again, both teams felt confident in giving space to one another, but both of them opted to destroy towers early on. VP however lacked the proper damage, whereas Fnatic took down two towers without problem.
Trixi managed to snipe the enemy courier, followed up by a mid engagement with a Naix infest, securing first blood and the mid tower. Fnatic took the map control and destroyed almost all outer towers 14 minutes in.
Virtus.pro was forced into their own base and could only farm with their Nature’s Prophet and DK. 20 minutes in, VP claimed their first kill which goes to show how dominating Fnatic is on the map.
A wild chase for the Chen got turned around and VP lost two heroes for the price of a centaur. Fnatic then slowly sieged the midlane and Era proved to be too tanky to take on as they took down mid racks.
Virtus.pro tried to pick off heroes outside their base but the advantage was too big and a triple kill from Trixi sealed the deal.
The Broodmother pick didn’t turn out effective in the beginning as VP picked off Trixi here and there, boosting Airman’s farm. The Russians stayed on top of the farm early on and ganked with an early Gem, getting several crucial kills. They also turned the ganks into tower pushes and destroyed five outer towers within 15 minutes.
The Radiant maintained their map control and traded a Roshan and a courier for the prize of two supports. With the Aegis, VP forced down the last outer tower after winning a teamfight.
KSi ganked all over the map and two kills opened up the midlane for the Russians, bringing down the first base tower. After VP picked off another hero, they forced down the mid racks and Fnatic traded with a tier 2 tower.
The Dire had no window of opportunity to strike back and when they tried they got caught off guard and lost another melee racks on the bottom lane. With VP lacking a Pipe and Illuminate however, Fnatic managed to keep VP off their top lane for quite some time.
When the time arrived and Fnatic engaged, VP wiped them out completely with Airman being completely untouched. Fnatic called the gg and VP takes the title.
If you have missed our statistical breakdown of The Defense 3 heroes draft, take a read here.
You can find recaps of every game right after they've been played out as we will keep this newspost updated.
TobiWan will be providing coverage for this match-up.
| The Defense 3 prizes | |
| Placings | Prizes |
 Virtus.Pro | $10,000 |
 Fnatic | $5,000 |
 Team Dignitas | $3,500 |
| Team Liquid | $1,500 |