LGD.International displayed impressive perfomances in game one and three to take down Rattlesnake 2-1. LGD.int kept their hopes of qualification through the group stage very much alive with this victory.
Rattlesnake vs. LGD.int | ||
Rattlesnake | vs | LGD.Int |
Both teams fielded strong tri-lanes, but with LGD.int looking to have the better of the solo lanes (with Silencer in Mid and Lone Druid up top) just from the picking stage the game looked to be favouring them. However Rattlesnake picked up the First Blood and a got double kill in mid on Silencer and his support, the early game advantage was quickly wrestled away from LGD.int. To make matters worse, Pajkatt was making a bit of a mess on the top lane, not picking up the dominance that was expected of him against the Queen of Pain.
However Rattlesnake failed to take advantage of their early lead. Too much space was granted to the core trio of LGD heroes, with both Lifestealer and Lone Druid picking up enough farm to carry LGD to victory in a huge team fight at 18 minutes. The game quickly slipped away from Rattlesnake's grasp. However they sneaked the Roshan at 21 minutes and after a ginormous Reverse Polarity managed a complete team-wipe three minutes later.
However the gold that this granted them was invested in Ghost Scepters for every members of the team. While in theory this is a good pick-up, as LGD.Int are only dealing physical damage, it left them with no real damage source. This effect was compounded by the fact that Alchemist was not buying pure carry items, despite his healthy farm, preferring to go for a blink dagger. While RS now have the ability to survive in a teamfight they have little to kill off the tanky LGD.int heroes. Finally it became clear that they can't reliably win a fight without a perfect RP. As such LGD.int take a big teamfight, Roshan and push to take barracks and the game.
The lanes for game number two were somewhat less standard with Rattlesnake running a dual lane mid against the Juggernaut and Queen of Pain soloing the safe lane up against an aggressive LGD.int trilane headed up by a Silencer.
Juggernaut ended up immediately dying to Kunnka and Shadow Demon in the middle lane and nearly died a second time immediately afterwards. However, Queen of Pain was struggling to have any impact upon the bottom lane and died fairly early. Throughout the early game Rattlesanke continued an aggressive strategy that worked well for them. They traded effectively taking down the big LGD.int heroes again and again. While there were few big teamfights that can be pointed to as key turning points, RS were slowly pushing themselves into a commanding lead.
However their aggression soon lost their focus and LGD.int was granted a slither of hope as they won an ill-coordinated teamfight and took Roshan. Unfortunately, RS was simply too far ahead. Kunkka was by far the most farmed hero on the map and Queen of Pain has managed to gather the levels she was missing earlier. They began to play safer and developed a tight stranglehold over the game. By 32 minutes in, RS developed a 14,000 gold lead and eventually used this healthy advantage to crush LGD.int.
The fate of the third, and deciding, game of the series was quickly decided when LGD.Int picked up a triple kill in the first minute in the top lane following a surprise deployment of their two supports behind the Dark Seer. Rattlesnake engaged on what they thought was a free kill and was decimated by heroes they did not expect to be there.
LGD.int took full advantage of this gift, dominating the trilane and playing a ridiculously aggressive strategy. Another very early team fight, in which 1437's Leshrac picked up an ultra kill, essentially ensured the win. All Rattlesnake outer towers were destroyed by 12 minutes and the jungling Lycan was unable to have any impact on the game. A desperate attempt to Roshan was thwarted and LGD.int took the Aegis and the series in short order.
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Fresh off their loss in the Grand Final of GEST March against MiTH.Trust, Chains Stack will be taking on arguably the best SEA team, Zenith. The game will begin at 13:30 CET and will be played in a best-of-three.
The games will be broadcasted live by Ayesee and BeyondTheSummit.
Schedule (19:30 SGT):
27th March - LGD.cn vs LGD.int
28th March - iG vs Chain.Stack
29th March - RSnake vs Orange
30th March - Zenith vs DK
31st March - LGD.int vs RSnake
1st April - Chain.Stack vs Zenith
2nd April - LGD.cn vs Orange
3rd April - iG vs DK
4th April - Orange vs LGD.int
5th April - DK vs Chain.Stack
6th April - RSnake vs LGD.cn
7th April - Zenith vs iG
9th April - 2nd placer Group A vs 2nd placer Group B. Winner qualifies to LAN
10th April - 3rd placer Group A vs 3rd placer Group B
11th April - Loser of 9th April vs Winner of 10th April,Winner qualifies to LAN finals
1st April - Chain.Stack vs Zenith
2nd April - LGD.cn vs Orange
3rd April - iG vs DK
4th April - Orange vs LGD.int
5th April - DK vs Chain.Stack
6th April - RSnake vs LGD.cn
7th April - Zenith vs iG
9th April - 2nd placer Group A vs 2nd placer Group B. Winner qualifies to LAN
10th April - 3rd placer Group A vs 3rd placer Group B
11th April - Loser of 9th April vs Winner of 10th April,Winner qualifies to LAN finals