Following his current solid performance against Wicked earlier this week, Hjalmar ‘DowaQ’ Högberg turned the 0-1 disadvantage into a win against the Human mastermind, Huang ‘TH000’ Xiang in the NGL-ONE.
| DowaQ vs TH000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Player | vs | Player | map | |||||||||||||||||||||
  DowaQ | |   TH000 | @ Echo Isles | |||||||||||||||||||||
| DowaQ | | TH000 | @ Secret Valley | |||||||||||||||||||||
| DowaQ | | TH000 | @ Twisted Meadows | |||||||||||||||||||||
After showing some very strong performances against Yuri ‘Sting’ Sheremetov and Mykhaylo ‘HoT’ Novopashyn when Serious Gaming took on Wicked earlier this week, DowaQ felt confident going into this match however he did not know what to really expect when up against such an innovative player as TH000.
Game One Echo Isles
Game one was definitely a very long and slow game where TH000 went for the fast expansion followed by putting mass towers in both his main and expansion to defend against DowaQ’s constant aggression which really delayed TH000’s tech. DowaQ later switched to siege to penetrate the Humans defenses however Th000 constantly destroyed and delayed the siege by running his shielded Paladin in and focusing the siege units. Eventually DowaQ’s goldmine ran out and at this point TH000 had an Archmage and Mountain King with a lot of Gryphons and attacked DowaQ as he went for his expansion forcing DowaQ to type out.
Game Two Secret Valley
TH000 went into this game with a very different plan to game one going for a fast tech and lots of aggression as well as picking up an Archmage first. As the game went on DowaQ went for the triple hero combo of Death Knight, Lich and Panda with the standard fiend statues and Destroyers while TH000 opted for a Mountain King and eventually Paladin with Dragon Hawks and Gryphons. TH000 did not pick up an expansion while DowaQ did as well as DowaQ having a very large hero level advantage sealing him the win and evening up the score at 1-1.
Game Three Twisted Meadows
Game three opens with TH000 doing a very uncommon build of not getting a barracks and instead building a lumber mill followed by a straight tech with the defense of one tower while harassing with his Mountain King. As they hit tier 2 and enter 3 TH000 builds aviaries for Dragon Hawks and Gryphons as well as picking up an Archmage and Paladin. DowaQ goes once again for the standard Fiends, Statues and Destroyers also picking up a Lich and Panda. The two harass each other and creep constantly and eventually TH000 tries to put down an expansion but is almost immediately shut down by DowaQ. Once again DowaQ has superior hero levels and without barracks TH000 misses out on Animal War Training, making his Gryphons that much weaker. DowaQ then comes out on top in a battle after wiping out all of TH000’s units and nearly all his heroes winning him the game and the match 2-1.
DowaQ is now sitting at 23rd spot and will need to continue this performance to have any hopes of reaching the finals or even just ending with a high placing. TH000 drops to 10th one spot behind his fellow countryman, Xiaofeng ‘Sky’ Li and is still in hot contention for the finals.
Links
NGL-ONE - Source
