Some very interesting series today

OG looking like they're playing pubs, fountain farming in min 25 and **** like this: https://v.redd.it/6rncejcsbqh31

EG seem to have found their game, but also Secret with an absolutely MASSIVE choke. So far ahead in g3 vs a Magnus and ember+PA and they just stop playing for 15 mins after they're 15k up in 15-20, literally just giving them BKBs. They began playing not to lose instead of playing to win. The only person doing anything for Secret in this time was zai who just fed. Almost certainly the worst series MidOne has ever played, his decision making made it seem like he had been replaced by some random fan from the crowd (that uphill walk at top bounty rune when he KNOWS they have vision???). 1-4-3 in 43 mins as a Slark who was that far ahead is catastrophically bad and that was his least horrible game. I realize these guys are under unreal pressure but still, what a throw.

Team Secret have have lost 3/3 upper bracket games since its inception, winning just 1 game and losing 6. And people will still call Puppey the greatest captain ever lul.

Luckily for Secret though people will probably think of VP before them when talking about choking. Before this ti, I think saying they choked at TI often neglected the context that the only teams they lost to in the main event were top 3 teams both times, but this year they just looked bad.

Liquid run over TNC surprisingly, thought it would be a close series.

Meh, I wasn't able to watch all of the games but didn't think MidOne was really the problem in those games. When he was Tiny for example, there was a part where he comes in from the bottom rune, both of the supports are ****ing off in between the mid towers and don't help him at all. He got the toss combo off but there was no follow up damage. Later in that same game everyone but nisha was mid behind the t2 after the turned the momentum in their favor, and there was just not enough damage to win the fight. Tiny is strong and can poopsock a solo support but he is not the kind of mid who can kill a core that way. They looked very uncoordinated and 1, 2-5 were always out of position.

That g3 MidOne slark is probably the only time we'll be able to say that BSJ would have won a TI game if he had switched places with MidOne

So sad about TNC and VP, wtfffff. TNC was actually so close to beating VG and going to next round in UB, ugh. VP just straight up imploded

You are playing against Infamous...

PERU

WOW

WHAT AN ENDING

what a TI

not even top 8 yet

Seriously. Was Newbee the only team stupid enough to let WK through knowing all of infamous success this TI came with it? that and slark

I actually turned off Mineski v Secret game2, how the **** did they hold that

Radiant has a 45% winrate over the 168 games played so far. 10% winrate Dire advantage - that a fluke or an actual thing in this patch? Seems pretty imba

LGD looked quite a bit better in game 1, as expected.

VG might be the best team of all to turn it after losing game 1 though, super excited to see what rotk drafts.

It's normal for one side to have an advantage, it usually changes with patches.

Iirc, the teams swap between being first to choose what they want of faction and first/second pick (first pick is also an advantage). And that changes every game I believe.

That Topson dodge movement at ~12:30-13:00 in this OG EG game was insane. Just dodging stuff effortlessly looked like Neo

2EZ4RTZ

That Sumail dodge on Ana made me lol. EG about to lock up their standard TI top 3.

clinical

Remove untouchable from the game. What a stupid spell and hero.

OG are unreal. They understand the game so well. No OG death is anywhere near as costly as the kills they get the other way, not even when it's ana. They get so much done all around the map.

EG's decisions game 3 were weird imo. They won game 1 by crushing the lanes and smothering them, game 3 Invoker has a free lane and EG aren't getting anything anywhere on the map, Ceb gets a free lane too and even ana is farming decently despite dying a couple of times. They're playing with an AM and they give SK, Ench and Invoker a free game, even though those heroes can put so much pressure onto the map. Think they didn't expect notail to play rubick because that AM pick and their lane setups was just not good.

No idea what that AM last pick was WTF?

Enemy line-up is Ench, Invoker, Rubick, Jugg, and Sand King

EG line-up to that point is Tiny, Mirana, CM, Willow

Guess it's a hard pick, no clear cut auto win hero... Dotapicker says Bristleback is the best choice, then Timber, Ursa, Clinkz. Yeah I'd much rather see a fighting hero like BB, Ursa seems good too. Timbersaw is nice but not an RTZ hero.

It's pretty nuts how Ench was first picked yet EG seemed like they still lacked answers for her, even after RTZ farmed BKB he was still getting shredded by Impetus shots.

Edit: Actually I think the problem is last picking the RTZ hero and not Sumail's mid hero. Shutting down Topson with Sumail has gotta be EG's way to win. Guessing that maybe Sumail doesn't feel like he has a deep enough hero pool to be able to counter Topson mid or perhaps it's that OG can switch who their mid hero is on the fly (Jerax could play 4 Invoker for instance).

The AM pick was assuming that the Ench was a pos 5 and that he would be laning against a pos 3 SK, which is great for AM. I think Synd explained how OG adapted to the pick really well right at the start of the match.

I do think you have a point about not picking Sumail's hero last though when they have last pick. Last year Sumail was beating Topson in lane even when he had a bad match-up but Topson's laning has improved massively since then and I think EG needed to put a higher priority on getting a good match-up.

What in the hell is this tiny tree toss ****? LMAO

This tiny aghs 2x Dadelus is so stupid

I dont like to hate but Liquid looking pretty lucky to 2-0 that. Don't think they have a chance against OG or LGD.

Probably unlikely they beat either of them. At the same time though, I think Liquid's chance of beating them are higher than any other LB team atm.

They've begun playing their own heroes and they're still winning, that's always a good sign.

This seems to be over. They draft heroes who deal well with alch, but they set it up weirdly. And this was even an early alch pick, but they still end up with a timbersaw trilane which is just beyond awkward (not to mention very far from s4's best hero).

I'm really curious as to why they didn't lane timber mid or vs ds, tiny easily could have laned in any of those lanes, and they could have picked another hero last if they had to.


These games also a good showcase of why replacing matu was huge. Matu doesn't play tempo mid heroes that gives you an additional wincondition, w33 does.


Not to step on them when they're down, but it has to be time for some serious self reflection in EG. They've been a consistent top 5 team for 4 years, but they haven't won a meaningful LAN since TI5.

Yea I dunno if Timber can be picked early there, it only feels like an Alch counter when it's 1v1 in mid imo. Late game I've even seen an Alch out regen double chakram.