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and he's just got to run away. The mean script from the low ground is going to hold back these
heroes as they camp and look at the blocks he's parting in Toro. Straight after Nightfall,
they chase after Pops, they take the call, they call the stun, out for the drag knight.
That's going to help them reset a little bit, trying to hit him on the wheel. Looks
like for the fall, it's done for the drag and kill again. Nightfall is just going
to die underneath this wheel. There's not much they can do about it.
Another box managed to run down your total and break him like him. They finished off with these box ages keep on going up
The life skills are fine. The stop is going down. There's too many states. They can't get him
Take some back up to the high ground with the nightmare pulling him back the ice path as well now hidden with the magnetize
He's gonna die. But Koto has to abandon. He knows that nightfall is dead
He's just gonna try and preserve his whole life here. It's him with the kick
Rolling dead land, but with the slowdown of Bloodcrate, the magnetized building up the shrubs try to bail them out here, but it just sets up the dual breast, more magnetizes, but Koto will die, he hit a Dragon Slate, they'll finish off the support down here, it's gonna be in some trouble, Varl on an 8th and tier 2 tower, rampage for him, I was gonna give him another rampage with the arena going up, no!
The Phoenix saved the finish off one, and the bird, it'll take RU out as well!
Yeah, they'll pick them in, yule's up into the air, now they're gonna try and make the
move.
They've got the air that's popped on big them as well as Fy, RCY's going in with the side
of his as well as the Searing Teens.
Fy can't even get the Echo Slam out, they're gonna pick off this Ember in the cart, BKB,
Winter's Curse locking up to exactly what they need to follow it up with the Terrorize.
They've got the fear on to nothing to say and he will have his lips shut and
sealed.
That's by build off once again doesn't buy back. We'll use it immediately
If I just focus the BKB, all right, he gets a BKB on the last one
And he needs a T1 starter, he gets a DOSA new zone under water
Oh, I corrupted it
And he still just dying to the pit of Malus the constant
Don's out from the fangle here, he cannot move!
Gets the four step out, Waller's punches there,
Snow has not been able to play the game.
This game is over, Vici Gaming will take game number two
and force the game three.
30 seconds on the next plus event,
the buyback here pretty soon is the army's action again.
Being nullified to a high degree,
they can just take out these villains with the play period.
Finally fortification comes out,
Still no buyback on the necropos 20 seconds finally will use it the rolling thunder though Thomas out from GPK
They kick out satanic. He does have to switch that's losing the man. I don't know if I
Feel is here at this getting to be on the side of the man's house. We keep it live. You're all kind of place some more pressure
They get the kill onto the bounty hunter. It's not nearly enough to turn this
The buyback coming out now from the bounty
Reperscibe doing absolutely nothing double in fact will be enough to get the kill
The throne is completely exposed!
They didn't even realize!
When you're mega, the best way to win is fight.
really just all in right?
Laurel gets the crush initiation
Oh there's the rip!
They're going to play all his action out to kez where they have his BKB, there's Laurel
Trying to go on top of it, but if you have the cart coming out from ace
he gets killed off by the chicken man though
and look who's next, it is Micke on the Luna
No buybacks
And that should be it, Nisha, the third quarter ball
triple kill for Yatoro, can he get 30 with the ultra kill?
And he does disgusting display from the Chicken Man, looking for a Spanish rampage to get 31
kills in a game at TI, and it is Yatoro, beast mode enabled.
The arrow is all DM nicely played, PKB blink forward, no problem at all.
Winter's Curse is going to come out now, so they have any follow up?
Thankful.
Looking for the reckoning.
Thinking about going.
Let's apply.
Moves in for the finish.
No more DM.
Now she's your junior.
Moves in.
And the Reaper's Scythe will be there.
They take down the shadow being WS also in the grave,
Chira Jr.
He will not be denied, get back over here, sir.
And Gigi is called.
A very good morning to everyone,
tuning in for day number three
of our Swiss group stage here
for the International of 2026.
Modified Swiss group stage and it's day three.
And that means today is special.
Today could be very good, very bad.
It's gonna be the first day where we will eliminate teams.
Three teams will advance to the main event, very good.
And three teams will be eliminated.
And then tomorrow another five on each side as well.
So it's gonna go very fast.
And it also means we already have a lot of data
on all the teams.
We kind of know where they fall in their power levels.
We're gonna talk all about it here on that panel.
I'm joined by Saberlight Fly and Jenkins. Jenkins, how are you this morning?
What's up guys? Jenkins here. We're back with another epic day of Dota 2.
And I'm glad to be joined by my boys Saberlight and Fly.
Great fever. With wonderful hosts.
Saber, he kind of blocked the end in there, didn't he?
No, that was really good actually. Thank you.
What's up guys? It's your boy Saberlight. Also on the battle with Jenkins and Tal.
Now it's your turn.
What's up guys, Fly here. How are you guys doing? Something like this with the hands.
It's good to be here. It's another lovely day and I think we've had some incredible dota
and today the stakes are even higher. Teams are going to qualify, teams are going to go out.
This is a stressful day if you're a player. I've been in these shoes so it's a hype day
though as a viewer. I'm so hyped. I have a question for Tal. As a guy who's been to
11 of these things. How would you rate it was 11 right?
How would you rate this group stage compared to other TI's because I feel like the games have been insanely high and
Sometimes they're high, but they're not insanely high, but this one has been like so close
Yeah, I think it just like some some tournaments you have where it's like very
One-sided like the groups and the first and second days is kind of the stumps
But this this TI it feels like all the games are really close
You have upsets with like resilience taking games off people
We have game legion doing you know like some good upsets here and there some of the Chinese teams are struggling
But there's some signs of hope so like the storylines can go anywhere from here
There's only maybe like a handful of teams where you came into this and like yeah
These guys are probably gonna win and they're doing it
But you'll serve you know teams like Yandex who are not doing so good
So it's been crazy. It has been crazy. It will be even more crazy as the day goes on most likely
But yesterday was, as the panel thought, already very crazy.
We're going to highlight a couple of the matches we feel like you should be aware of that happened.
Saber, we're going to go for yours first.
You went for boom boys and vision.
Yes, today we will have vision against spirit later today.
So I thought it would be very nice to highlight how well vision played in this series, especially satanic.
I cannot believe how good satanic played.
He went 27 and 1 in this series something like that. Well, I know he had one death. Absolutely unbelievable this first game
That book or me is a boom boys. They played really well
They opened the top tower, but it didn't even matter satanic just farmed and farmed as you can see his on the top of the
Network he just killed everybody
Absolutely beautiful gameplay from him
obviously supported by his two boys on another two cores and then game 2 even
better showing from vision. This was a very close game I think it went to
some a minute 60. It was very close. Boom boys they almost had it but I just felt
like his juggernaut was absolutely insane. There was so many moments where
Like month that there's something blinked out as you can see in these fights. It was like it was an absolute massacre
So yeah, you guys might hear some crazy stats. Yes, we'll get we'll get into it later in more detail
Of course because we will cover that series but KDA
Records for this tournament satanic has 12.38 average KDA per game
He is number one obviously the next closest is BZM with
7.6 and then everyone else in that list is like in the sevens. So this guy is
five
KDA average ahead of everybody else that's in this like top five list that is
Insane those are insane stats. I mean the guys in menace we're gonna see him in action
Of course today that team has been doing good. They're one of the two
3-0 teams. So yeah, we will see if vision can with that series later today.
Prancer take it already to the main event, but I know the team spirit will
have something to say about that as well. But yesterday we had more epic games.
Ironwilm Falcons was definitely one of them. Jenkins felt the need to
to highlight that extra. It was a very long long series so there's a high chance
you saw bits of it anyway. Yeah, we were fighting over who got to cover
this one because uh it was yeah unbelievable uh game one definitely the big highlight for me
you know if you were to look at this in a vacuum uh obviously pun intended you would think okay
falcons they've got this look at their gold lead they've got a great beer going on no this actually
ended up going the way of iron wing falcons was like crushing the entire time and iron wing was
just barely hanging on they were really struggling but hang on they did and they did until about
the game, they had one comeback
fight, great beers dropped on
the ground, you know, go down
mid, win another fight and the
game and then they end up
winning the entire series,
which is insane. And I just, I
love watching 33. Like I wanted
to talk a little bit about this
idea that I think if you're
an off-lane player, you
particularly love watching this
guy play because there are all
of these problems you have to
And obviously, you know, offlaners are going to relate to the offlane problems that you have to solve.
You have this SF tree, whatever, like owning you in lane.
And 33 just says, nah, I'm not dealing with that. I'm going to cheat.
I'm going to solve that problem.
So you can watch him do this crazy stuff as an offlaner,
and you can emulate it and not really play the game.
And it's so, it's so satisfying.
And what I'm talking about exactly is this IO Largo is so not fair.
It is insane. The moment that they got the two Aghanim Scepters on the IO and the Largo,
You have the Largo with the buff, putting that on IO, amplifying the magic damage, you're doubling the healing that's coming from Largo, you're adding tankiness to the Largo, they just ran at Falcons, and there was no counter play. That's at least how it felt.
I'm also surprised there was an Arc Warden that came too.
It was an Arc Warden and a Night Stalker, which I guess is kind of cute together. You get the vision, Arc Warden clone can go in and stuff, but that's a hero we haven't seen. Unfortunately, I think they lost that game.
But they're trying different ideas. It's a good answer to Lina, so it's kind of cool to see these different ideas coming out.
I agree that Io Largo sounds very toxic to play against, so that sounds like something Iron Ring would do, you know, some kind of like crazy strategies like that.
They do try to break the meta, set the meta, and redefine everything that people have believed to be true up until that time.
We have another series to highlight as Fly, I mean, you're going for Game of Legends again. This team is really showing up.
Yeah, I've been impressed watching their games even the ones they lost
I always felt like they had some moments where they showed a lot of promise and you know, it's NA Dota
I got to return them a little bit and also this was against Extreme which we're gonna cover today
But this series was pretty one-sided. Gamer Legion just kind of crushed the lanes
RCY is showing how flexible he is as a mid laner where he plays heroes like
Centaur this game, the next game is gonna be playing Ember
Ember, but it felt really really hard for Xtreme. They actually felt lost and I also want to root for Xtreme as a team
I want Chinese teams to do well at this TI. So I really want this
Lost that they had to kind of help them propel forward fix whatever issues they've had
We're gonna go over that more in detail later
But this was a fantastic showing from NA Dota like everybody played Redual second game
I think it was maybe a little bit closer
But again, we see extreme going for a very weird strategy with IoHusker, which is just not
something we've ever seen this team do before, but you know, game religion kind of stuck to their guns at RCY on the Ember Spirit.
It's one of the signature heroes, very classic heroes for this TI with like Shadowfiend, the Centaur we've been doing.
We've seen do really well, and it felt both games that game religion was just having the advantage the whole way through.
And it is nice to see them play well. I hope extreme shapes up. I think they won their series after that.
So something did change so hopefully best for both of these teams, you know, yeah
And then game religion actually lost the series that they had after that against against beachy gaming
So, you know the revenge who was hot
Why does it have to be NA versus China dude like I want a root for both, you know
because with game religion, I feel like there's always this they're the potential man of
of TI's, you know, it's like everyone talks about them.
They take games off of good teams
and then they just barely don't make it through
the group stage.
I would love to see them make it through to the playoffs
somehow, even if they have to go the longest distance,
let's see them make it through,
but also the Chinese teams.
Let's get those guys through as well.
Yeah, we could take a look at how it all stands
right now in the group stage.
We've had, we're making our way through.
It's going pretty fast.
So round three is done. That also means that from here on out, the two groups we had, they
are merged because from here on out they'll face teams from the other group to make sure
there's no overlap and make sure nobody faces the same team.
It's quite an even playing field, I'd say. We see a lot of two ones on the board. Of
course the bottom is the place where OG and Hulagani are now in a very scary position
and they'll go up against each other for elimination there.
And the top is where we see vision and spirit.
They'll go up against each other
for the main event placement.
And the playing field has been very even.
And you hear people say this
wherever you're listening to.
If you hear it from the players,
you hear it from the coaches,
you hear it from the panel, of course, as well,
because we like to talk about everything multiple times.
That also has a different result.
The playing field being so level
and so high for a lot of teams, it means that we actually don't have a lot of new rookies
coming in, because everybody is so high, everybody has the experience.
We have, I'm going to say, only seven rookies here.
In terms of players, we listed the coaches as well, because I do want to talk about
both of them, because they're both unique in their own way, but only seven.
Keep your mind, by the way, that you got a, okay,
Echos and Malady, obviously the names are swapped around, guys.
Don't you worry about that, but Malady is one of those seven,
you know, of course he should have been there last year and he wasn't.
But only seven to give you some context.
Last year, it was 16 Jenkins.
What's happening to us? We're all getting old?
Maybe, maybe it's finally happening.
Everybody is just getting so much better
that it's more difficult to get your foot in the door.
I can't believe that Sumi is on that list either,
just because I mean, we've seen about a lot
of major tournaments.
Yeah.
He's been playing forever actually.
That's what it feels like.
So good for him to finally make it.
Today is a rough day.
Hopefully they're able to pull through.
But yeah, some of these names are a bit surprising
for me because I've been playing against these guys
for a while, whether it's qualifiers,
other random tournaments, seeing them in pubs.
It is a bit surprising actually to see these names.
And for me, the most surprising name is not me, not necessarily because he's not a new
guy, but because of how well he plays.
It's absolutely incredible that this is his first TI, and he's just making plays left
and right.
He's like fitting in so well, they're free and all.
It's crazy.
This, as your first three-year run, is super impressive.
Incredibly impressive.
I also wanted to highlight Asel, the coach from Yandex.
I feel like he came out of nowhere fly and he's just he's just on that top level and he's also going steady
Yeah, honestly, I don't know that much about him
All I've known is that this whenever this year next seem started they they kind of start off really well
Yeah, even though they ended up switching at some point, but yeah, I don't know much about him
Looks like he's done great work
I've seen some of their vlogs that they posted and looks like he has a lot of good input
He also seems to help them like psych out like psychologically
So it looks like both drafting and mental is what he's doing, which is great
So good to see good to see another thing that we wanted to kind of look into just to see how the playing field is
This is ages of the players. There's a the youngest players per role. So we got one of each because normally
Traditionally support players are a little bit older than than the core players and the satanic
You already mentioned him a lot Jenkins, but at 18 smashing it
Yeah, he is just
Butterfly, you know, we saw the 16 year old little caterpillar satanic like this kid has got potential and it really feels like
this ti he is
Realizing it. I mean they won EWC, right? So
Obviously he's
Getting to that point, but you know, it's a very similar story to
Yatoro where in such a small amount of time this kid has
has achieved so much, it's really impressive.
We also got to look at the other side of the coin because where there's youngsters, there's
old folks as well, as I feel like every year Fly, we're pushing it.
We are pushing it, it's going up, but it won't.
The shame panel.
No, it's not!
I think this is actually incredibly impressive, because it is impressive to be able to keep
up this level of play at that age.
I will speak on this because I think if, you know, I'm close to this, I think some people think older players are just not as good.
I think it just comes down to motivation. Honestly, I think a lot of these old players are still incredibly mechanically talented.
We look at no one, for example, he's still one of the absolute best mid laners in the world.
And the age is not really the problem. It's really your motivation.
Sometimes you're going to have kids like Satana coming in who just ooze so much talent that it's kind of hard to overcome.
Okay, that does happen, but all of these players a lot of them are just doing really well this tournament as well
Even ace as the oldest player
Snaking two-time TI winner like these guys are really good at Dota. So, you know, I'm I'm here for the old boys
All right, I'm on on on their side. I feel like the reaction time argument is just is just dead
It just doesn't exist anymore. It's like that whole, you know, people who drink red wine are healthier thing
And it turns out clearly that's
It was an American study and the people that were drinking red wine had money and guess what they pay for health care
Right, so it was a correlation causation type situation. I agree. It's it's it really is motivation
I think the younger players happen to be a lot more motivated, but you take somebody like no one
You know speaking of oozing anything this guy oozes motivation like he's out here
Dream philosophy and psychology and super introspective and constantly making changes not only in Dota
but in his life to improve things. Like he's just somebody who cares a lot in general.
Yeah, I think for me it's especially interesting to see that I think like five years ago whenever
I would talk to people about eSports, they're like, okay, so it's like a young people thing.
When you're 30, you're going to retire, right? You don't have the reaction time anymore. But I
think as eSports matures, it kind of proves not necessarily only in Dota, but even in other
Esports like Counter-Strike that there isn't necessarily like a cutoff. I think the only
thing that really changes is that I think older people they kind of get a life and they aren't as
like motivated maybe to play but it's not a hard line you know if you want to play and I think a
lot of these players they do want to play and they play really well there isn't like a reason
why they shouldn't be good. I think it doesn't really matter what age you are you can just
whenever you, if you cook, you cook. As long as you're willing to grind 16 hours a day, every day,
for years, I have no social life, and just grind Dota, you can do it.
Yeah, here. No matter what age. We also see, of course, that we have in the case of Vision,
we have Satanic, the youngest, Kerry, and the oldest mid-laner. They're in the same team,
because teams often try to find a balance in terms of experience, definitely. We take a look
Look at the average ages of every team here at the International.
We rounded it out, but it's pretty close.
I think...
Hold on a second.
Hold on a second.
What?
Spirit is the youngest team?
What do you want?
Your total is 23.
And I...
No, it's not the oldest, but they want 2 TI's already.
This is...
God, it's crazy.
It's crazy to have an award like this in Dota.
We're blessed.
Here I am arguing for the oldies.
Look at the stats.
Liquid, let's go.
Yeah, let's go.
I mean, Liquid is...
I think it's doing very well as well.
Let's see, I think it will be very interesting to, you know, at the end have this one and
then overlap it with the results, see how it's like that's a great idea, or maybe we
don't do it because it might be too depressing, we'll see how the results are going, we just
make this great case, it's like, you know, age doesn't matter, and maybe at the end
we'll see.
Of course, so far we have no rankings yet because nobody's out yet.
So any sequence to happen, we could take a look at what is happening today.
We still got four streams coming your way.
Let's start off with stream B Jenkins for series for every stream.
Oh, I get to choose.
Oh, man.
That's always so tough.
I'm going to go iron wing again.
I know I picked them every morning.
I love to watch my boy 33 just completely break the game and watching
their series yesterday.
They had some crazy comebacks.
So, and against the top caliber team,
putting Falcons one, two, which I was not expecting,
Liquid, their team that could win
potentially the entire thing.
So, I would expect that's a three game series
and one of them at least is gonna go 60 plus minutes.
So I'm in for that.
Okay, for OG Ligani, I think also,
this is gonna be, if we're talking about pressure
and TI pressure, this is literally
their tournament lives on the line.
So, they will go, well, hopefully for both teams
and they will go for game three because.
I hope so.
They will fight to the death, you know,
and that's gonna be very stressful for them.
Let's take a look at what's coming our way
on a sea stream fly.
Yeah, so stream sea today,
looks like we're gonna have Falcons, a game religion.
Honestly, I feel a bit bad for game religion.
I know they have a chance to win this,
but definitely a hard matchup.
You know, Falcons is one of the favorites,
and it's crazy that Falcons even have two losses.
Like they've had some really fought battle,
hard fought battles where I think they ended up even
against the Iron Ring, I thought they could take it.
There was a game that was swung the other way.
Kind of an A2O easily.
Yeah, it could have easily been a A2O.
So it is a bit surprising to see this.
I feel a bit it's going to be tough.
And then Boom Boys versus Aurora,
I think this one is kind of hard to call
because it's like X teammates playing against each other.
There's going to be that like little rivalry going on
between Nightfall who used to play there.
So that one is probably going to be a banger, I think.
So I would choose that one as like the highlight.
And then I want to see Game Religion
at least perform well.
Yeah, let's take a look at what's coming our way on stream number D, save a like.
Stream number D has the best games. Don't watch the other streams, watch stream D.
We got Resilience against Yandex and NGX against Vici.
So, two Chinese teams, very exciting.
I personally am looking forward to NGX against Vici gaming.
We got the, I would say the pinnacle of Chinese Dota.
I personally am a Witcher fan against NGX, which is also an absolute banger of the team,
so that is the series to look out for.
Yeah, and then there's of course the stream that you're watching right here,
and we know that later on we will get that series between Vision and Team Spirit,
and that will be deciding which one of these two teams will be the first team to make it
to the main event. You've seen the TBDs and all the other streams as well.
Later on today, we will have two more teams joining them in the main event,
and it also means we will see two more teams getting eliminated as well.
So a lot of data coming your way.
But we're going to focus our attention on the first series of the day, USOD.
It's Extreme Gaming taking on LGD, and it is a spicy one for many reasons.
Both of these teams are one and two, which is not fantastic.
I think a lot of people were very hopeful for both teams for different reasons.
LGD, of course, has got Topson and they have got this potential underdog story making it all the way.
And I think a lot of people are rooting for them.
And then on the other side, you've got Extreme Gaming and everybody wants to see Extreme Gaming do well.
So very curious to see how this one plays itself out Saber.
You got any initial thoughts for us for this series?
I personally am rooting for LGD.
You know, I'm a big Topson fan, also a big KJ fan, obviously we all on the panel hope that China does well
So it's a it's a hard matchup because you want LGD to do well, but they also want extreme to do well
Honestly, it will be kind of close. I'm leaning slightly towards LGD, but honestly, I think anyone can take it
That's helpful. We like that. Let's focus our attention first on LGD
You did a little bit of deep dive Jenkins into what they've been playing a little bit of a deep dive
I mean it's easy to do a deep dive with a team like this because they are number one in terms of
hero pool this tournament which
Is often the case that they pick a lot of heroes like we've talked about this on on previous days where no king jungles
For example, which doesn't whoa. He's a five position apps are five position
Enigma, if it means that like Yuma can get a better matchup or if Whisper can get a better matchup and they are willing to play through
Either of their course
Now I feel like I could say through any of their course because they did they have played through Thompson as well in a few of these games
that they played but yeah, this is a
34 heroes played in eight matches is it like these guys are out here picking different heroes every single game
It's it's really insane and some of these heroes are
are just this team.
It's very entertaining, but I don't like seeing this actually.
I think this is a bit too much.
Wait, this is the same amount that Spirit had last year.
Really?
Oh, really?
Then we highlighted that, so that was...
But they were way more matches than 8.
I think it's cool to see new heroes,
but you're also putting your players in a position
where they're constantly having to adjust so much
to something new constantly while you're playing under pressure.
And that's why I always advocate for the teams like Falcons,
where you're gonna just know what to do on your heroes,
but these guys are just playing something new every single game.
Like, I think you just tone it down a little bit, just a little bit.
It's okay to have some new spice in there,
you know, get that extra salt that Saber likes,
but just contain yourself, Caps, please.
It'll be fair, though, on the other side of this coin,
if you don't know what you're doing,
the enemy's also kind of looking there.
That's the saver strat I would have given.
I feel like for a team like LGD that did not have time to prepare anything,
it is actually good to have this, because you know, you don't have strats to prepare,
so you just kind of send it and you know, no one knows what's up, but that includes the enemies.
I talked to KJ a little bit at breakfast, and he's usually pretty honest with how he's feeling about the theme.
I was like, how are you feeling about how the tournament is going so far, you know,
given everything that's happened going on.
And he said, yeah, it's really good.
Like, we're actually really happy.
It's just that, like, yesterday was a rough day.
But things are going well.
So, yeah, they're confident.
And so that kind of makes me confident
going into this one for them.
That's good.
I'm happy that the confidence is there.
And, I mean, it needs to be there.
Extreme Gaming is a strong team
when everybody plays at their best.
We're going to focus a little bit on the off-laners
here, Saber Lych as you wanted to see
How X-XS and Whisper compare?
Yes, very exciting. We got two extremely talented offlaners.
I would say X-XS, the classic archetype of an offlaner.
He's got a blink initiators, slash like guys that teamfight.
Whereas Whisper, he's much more unique, as we can see in the heroes.
They both have this Timber and Darkseer, which is like a teamfight hero.
Whereas for X-XS, he's got this classic offlaners.
And Whisper, he's got the crazy ones.
He's got the Magnus, he's got the Batrider, the Enigma.
I'm sure Ex-Excess can also play these heroes
like Axe and Beastmaster.
He just didn't have the opportunity to do so,
this tournament, but we'll see.
I think if anyone's gonna come up with some crazy offline,
it's gonna be Whisper, whereas for Ex-Excess,
I think he'll stick to his guns,
play the solid heroes, set up the map for his ame.
Yeah, he's stable. He is stable and it's very much fitting into both teams play style I feel as well.
Yeah, as Tal loves to say, he loves his stable boys. So I think, what do you think Tal?
You think X-XS is like a better fit? You got the stable maxer against the crazy maxer.
Yeah, I like what you said that actually LGD did not have time to practice so I agree.
if they don't know what they're doing, there's the chaos element we like talking about, so
you know, I think Whisper has it in him to be consistent, and I think he's actually one of the
most talented offlaners out there. Just in terms of pure raw skill, Whisper is incredible. I think
XXS looks, he gets overlooked a lot because I think, especially last TI, he had one of the
most incredible performances out of any offlaners.
I think he had insane Aegis deals, crazy teamfights,
good scaling, good laning.
He definitely picks a lot of boxes
and I do think he gets overlooked
just because Ami is on his team.
Yeah, and speaking of last TI,
last TI Extreme Gaming came second.
They did very well.
And you wanted to know exactly how they did so well,
what they used to get there.
Yeah, I think last TI, I just wanted to highlight this
just through talking about it, that they did get second place.
And some of these players are still the same.
I think it's three of the same roster, if I'm not mistaken.
They have it in them to win.
Like they do.
These guys are really good at Dota when they come together
and have proper communication or whatever it is, team identity.
I don't exactly know what issues they're having.
I really hope that after these losses,
what can happen sometimes is like,
you could lose sight of what is happening.
You can start going into this dark hole of like,
hey, nothing is working, I don't know what to do.
Or you could be hopeful and be like,
hey guys, we need to fix this.
I want to be honest with you.
I think, you know, we need to do this better.
You need to play these heroes,
whatever it is that's going on through their team,
just be honest with each other.
Get it all out there.
Come today, start fresh.
Play your best Ota because these guys have it in them.
You know, they really do.
They do.
And when they got second at TI
And we kind of talked about this on panel like all year,
when XG is looking good and informed, they are a wall.
You cannot break that wall.
Like they will play fights and they will be together,
they will be jumping the right targets.
Nobody will be over chasing.
They will protect their back lines.
It is legitimately like playing against an AI.
It's one super intelligent AI
playing all the heroes at once.
And so I think a lot of that does come down to the hero pool.
They need to figure out what heroes they can be comfortable with
so they can have that level of communication in their games.
Yeah, I don't want to see this house car personally.
I want NTS to play as heroes.
He plays fantastic on the spirits, the stunners.
His tanker obviously was really good.
I think we covered one of the games,
but the lineup didn't make that much sense around it.
So I hope they talked it out, figured it out.
Today is a fresh new perspective on XG.
I really want to see them do well.
I also want to see LG do well.
So it's kind of tricky actually. This one is pulling on the heartstrings of it.
It really is. It really is. I think for extreme gaming, it's also, for me, it was interesting to find out.
I mean, obviously everybody knows Almey is the uncrowned king, but he's played in eight.
This is what, this is his eighth international. The seven internationals before this one, he never had a result below top six.
That's mad Saber!
That's impressive, that's impressive.
And it kind of speaks to his consistency as a player.
I, you know, I personally wouldn't mind top six at every TI.
Yeah, that'd be nice!
Yeah, so I am expecting a top six this year as well, to be fair.
For yourself?
Well, you know, I don't know.
But for Ame specifically, so we have...
And you know, Hofer the Vici also makes it there,
and then we have two Chinese teams in the top six.
That would be very cool.
So what is lacking for Xtreme this event so far?
Like, where do they fall short?
Is it their drafting?
I would say partly.
You know, obviously there was the coach situation
that happened and you know, Xiaowei is out
and Lanum is in.
So that's gonna take some time to adjust to.
All May played IO recently.
it's just not something that you would really expect for his sort of play style. Nothing to say,
Huskar, you know, nothing to say is the type of player where you give him an ember in like even a
semi decent ember game and the guy will literally 1v5 and look like the best player on the map,
you know. But he also has the performances on the other side where you give him something he
just doesn't look comfortable on and it looks like he's he's griefing. So I really feel like
If they can just find heroes that are good in the meta, they're also like their classic heroes, like they're gonna do fine.
I think what they excel at as a team is teamfighting.
It's just their bread and butter, not just because they're a Chinese team, it's just how these guys operate.
They get a pretty good win condition for Ami.
I remember how they used to draft and when we played against them, it was always kind of the same idea,
where Ami always gets a good matchup to be able to carry the game.
The other heroes kind of work around him, you know, when you have X-XS, maybe he gets a little sacrificed.
NTS is going to get some mid laner that can go in, initiate, and it was always kind of
this formula, then they would switch up the heroes, but that's what they were good at.
And I feel like they're experimenting a little too much.
They're trying to maybe try to copy like some of the, you know, the Western Dota or like
the CIS Dota.
So it's, they need to stick to their guns.
That's what my advice would be if I were coaching them is like, Hey guys, let's
just look at what we do well and just do that again.
Yeah, you're really really good at these like five protect one team fight strategies like just do it again
Yeah, all my draw ranger and like I know Mars isn't very good pick Mars
I don't care pick Mars Phoenix like what Phoenix for action over like just here classic bread and butter like all these heroes
I think are at least semi viable and that's the thing I think like
We covered the extreme against spirit game where we're talking about all both teams won the draw ranger
and then extreme didn't get a chance to play but I think
Even though it doesn't work in spirit, I think you just kind of send it again because
Like none of these things are as good as third. So even though it wasn't enough for spirit
I think it would be enough to beat maybe like someone like LGD
It could be we are in game one of this best of three and it's extreme gaming dire side LGD
Radiant side first big go in the way of extreme. I'm already confused by the salt that
Why is there a Huskar band on my screen?
I'm so confused.
Yesterday's Huskar was so spooky.
I'm not saying the guy cannot play Huskar, but I'm coming to TI.
I want to play my best heroes, you know, as a player.
I want to show what I can do on my, you know, top five, top six, even a little bit more.
That's what I would ask for as a player, as a drafter.
I don't think Huskar is one of them.
I think the other bands all make sense.
I think the Drawranger, I know they did get their hands on it in one of their series yesterday.
yesterday and they were able to win with the draw ranger so that's an army classic
Ember, Sankeeng, these are all NTS classics, I'm not sure but we have a tree in.
Yeah it doesn't make it through very frequently but when it does it looks strong.
Okay yeah I was I was thinking of this to me this is like the best answer to
tree it's definitely something that you're not necessarily comfortable
picking super early into the draft like there are very hard counters to
Timber, especially once they can dumpster him in lane. However, we literally saw Spirit
first pick draw ranger and it ended up being a pretty decent draw ranger game in both of
the games. So I guess there's a lot of other stuff to think about where LGD feels like
they can just whip out the Timber and like, okay, extreme, go ahead, like fully hard
counter it, see how it goes.
But to be fair, and maybe Tolkien speak more on this, but this matchup used to
be really good for timber as you know you're whirling, wait what is it called whirling depth?
whirling depth is very strong against melee heroes and strength heroes so you can like
whirling depth is this tree ant however with the new living armor you have a damage block
which is extremely nice against timber saw as he has like burst spells that suddenly
deal no damage if you're living armored.
I am 100% of saber I was gonna say the same thing this tree ant protector living
Armor is actually very good against Timber. Like in the lane you don't always get to walk
up and punch him without taking serious damage, but there's a lot of good things about Treant.
One is definitely Living Armor. The second is when Timber gets high levels, you usually
don't want to stay in this lane unless you really destroyed him before. So Treant is
one of the best heroes at gating. So when the Timber is untouchable, you just gait,
you start attacking the safe lane. So all of these little gameplay things and mechanics
all playing to this matchup where as a tree and protector player one of my favorite heroes
I think I'm saying that a lot but as a hero I like I don't care about this matchup that much
sure you know and okay I'll add to the train of uh kind of talking talking down on this matchup I
also don't like the thing with treant is that yeah okay maybe uh you counter him with the whirling
to have to kill the trees whatever do extra damage to treant when he's standing in the tree lines
etc etc but all the heroes that pair with tree really nicely in the lane
Destroy timber in lane. That's a good you have you have SF with tree like that destroys timber
It's still in the pool right now. I'd expect it to be banned. You have like
Muerta with tree Lena with tree like even wind ranger is a range carry all the range carries are good against timber
Even win ranger does well against timber because they just go javelin early and you can kill timber at level six
Like it's really hard genuinely to ban all of them.
You can only ban SF here and if you don't ban SF you're just getting SFed.
They ban SF.
They ban one.
There's still like many others and it's interesting to see that they could have banned the tree
right instead of the Oscar but I think that we saw how they insta-picked the Timbersaw
that so they did want this trade.
They wanted to play tree against Timbersaw and now they got the Laundroid which is
It's a nice hero. You get like a second stage laundry.
Yeah, it's not a hero that extreme gaming was worried about because they banned out the Willow and the PL instead.
They had every opportunity to ban out the laundry, but the laundry is not normally a hero that people forget about, so this is a conscious choice of them.
Yeah, I believe LGD did play laundry. I think they ended up losing the game against NGX, but it was very close, so it went like super late game.
So they are definitely aware of what each other is doing. They definitely baited out the tree and so this was all like pre-planned,
which is very much like Kaff's MO, like he's going to give you something and have a plan against it.
Laundryrd, maybe the idea was to take it early because they were worried about Xtreme playing it,
because I know Ami does play it, but now Xtreme kind of has to choose which route they want to go.
Do they want to really focus on trying to destroy the timber?
Do we want to focus on gating on the Laundryrd?
And, nice, we get a classic here, we get the FY Rubik, that's super high.
Oh my goodness, and then underlord is dude. This is such such a good draft from extreme if rubik underlord
We talked about this yesterday in sane lane you can
Pull them back into the route from underlord. You're blocking the rubik from being picked against the underlord because that
counters and then you also have underlord versus loan druid, which is one of the best matchups for underlord in the lane you can just
Fight the bear pretty much, and then you've rubik versus timber you steal all the timber spells and it just
annihilates him and a hoodwing coming out one of the most played position four
heroes that we've seen but as we also see sometimes rotated to hard support
overall just a solid choice though yeah I think this will be a hoodwing five
because hoodwing timber doesn't paired that well together I think and King
Trinkels does play it but I was curious to hear Saber's thoughts because
he plays this matchup of the Underlord vs. the London yes so the problem
The problem with playing against Laundry is that this hero is just absolutely busted in the lane.
So you have two choices.
One is you just kind of keep bringing heroes in and killing the Laundry, which sometimes
works, sometimes doesn't.
Or the other choice is you get one of the few matchups that can handle this lane.
And honestly, Underlord is one of the best ones.
You have your Firestorm, which deals percentage damage, which is very nice against the
bear as he has like some thousand six hundred HP so you just fire storm it you can fight
the bear if necessary and you can just kind of lay normally because you can always like
fight back but if you pick some other hero you know not other or let's say you have some
Mars or whatever suddenly you cannot fight the bear and the laundry will just keep
bullying you and it's just really sad to play.
I'm thinking if I'm extreme like if I'm in their position right now I might propose
as the Trion player, hey, let's start as three bottom and instantly go on the loan
jurid with, you know, Trion hiding in the woods. Rubik gets lift level one along with
the pit of Malice. So you're gonna root them, lift them back in. Trion comes in
if not a root. That's a hundred percent kill. You can really snowball the game
if that happens. So I hope people are thinking that far ahead, like how we're
gonna actually play the game out besides the heroes. And I guess it is a
hoodwing for them and an undying five, which has been a fantastic hero
this tournament. I don't know if I've seen LGD play it, but I know King
jungles can play it, the guy can play anything. So I like Undyne, I think you
see two heroes that is good against and the Underlord and the Trin Protector. I
think it is a save again which we keep talking about, it's very good against
all these like roots, you can do it through root and it just looked like a
good team fighting hero in general. So good Undyne pick I think. Yeah and we
also got the lina as we said they got their wrench you know I'm assuming that
this will be lina carry so we have tree and lina lane against timber hoodwink
which it's not the not the easiest lane for extreme but I think they're still
like favored and yeah also very nice lina game I think this guy like lina
will kind of dominate the game up until laundry it gets silver edge on his
bear and he's able to like get on top of the lina but up until that
moment it's going to be very hard to do anything to this Lina. You have like no stuns, you have only
the hoodwing, but other than that these four heroes they don't really touch Lina. She's going to be
just way too far in the teamfights to get on top of her. So really good hero to kill the Tombstone
as well, which is always nice. Like sometimes I know you can over adjust to Ozoneh dying,
we need to get a snapfire to kill the Tombstone, you know, maybe that's a bit far, but to
But to get something that's already good in your draft that also hits a tombstone is very
convenient because then you don't just have to run away from it every time he puts it
down.
Another thing about the tombstone is that sometimes when you play against the sun dying
these teams they have like spells that you cannot commit and if you save them with
tombstone it's kind of the fight is over like let's say some black hole you know
your black hole and then he saves with tombstone and you're done.
If you look at Xtreme's heroes, it doesn't matter too much if someone gets tombstones, because there will still be root on top of him, so after he goes out of the tombstone, he's still getting rooted, he's still getting hit by Lina, so it doesn't matter too much if this tombstone saves this game.
So we are looking for a hero for nothing to say on the side of Extreme Gaming.
We do have LGD banning out the Templar Assassin, so they're still respecting the potential flex of the Lynette.
Maybe go mid instead of safe lane, so we'll see how that goes.
On the other side we are looking for a hero for Topson on the side of LGD, unless we also still consider there to be flexed there.
I don't know if the Timbersaw going mid is an option.
I don't think that's really a Topsun MO, and also they are banning for Lina mid with the Pangolier and the Dragonite.
Those are bans specifically for Lina mid, so we could indeed see a hero for Ame,
maybe the Windranger that we talked about as another range hero and another pseudo-disable,
which could be nice for the Lina. I could see them going for something like that.
And I do think we're looking at a Topsun last pick,
which honestly I think is the best way to play around Topsun because he does have these wild heroes.
heroes, maybe this is the Arkwarden game, you know, like, that'll be actually super
high-pitched.
Oh, man.
The super-cancer lineup.
They will get the...
So we were on there, actually.
Or maybe this was just a base from Extreme All Along.
Here's, no, we're gonna ban out heroes that will be good against Lena Med, and that
makes you ban out some carries that we don't care about.
I remember...
Five-heading.
I remember Kezu saying at a point that that literally never happens in his experience.
I believe...
But we always...
Five-heading.
We always bring up the Five-heading.
I'm with you. I think that's exactly what happened here.
You gotta give credit to Lanum, you know? He's thinking about this.
Next level.
Let's see, what does Topson want to play against Puck?
This is the Ricky game. He already Ricky'd yesterday, so this might be it to be fair.
He was saying that in the Ricky matchup, you're pretty much guaranteed die level to us, Puck.
Even if you play perfectly, that's how bad he thinks it is.
So I can get behind the Ricky here.
So he lost the Ricky game, but it did look very good, right?
Yeah, they had like a 20k gold lead or something.
I think there's a decent Riki game.
I think the route from Underlord is really the only annoying thing.
This is a very normal hero.
This is a throwback though. Nobody's really playing Void Spirit right now.
I think out of all the spirits, he's considered the weakest
because he doesn't deal enough damage compared to like an Ember with Vessel
and he does scale well into the game.
The later the game goes when Void Spirit does get items,
he can get agonims against the puck with the silence
and he later on gets a Octurine so he can go in and out of fights.
It is a Topson hero for sure.
So, kind of would have liked to see the Riki actually, I think that was cooler.
But I think this is like a stable one that ties their lineup both together.
It plays well with the hoodwink.
It is an extra setup for Timbersaw and Lorndrude who already deal a lot of damage in fights.
They just need a little extra catch.
Yeah, I think that's why I like it because he already has heroes
that are dealing like unlimited amounts of damage. So the problem that you're talking
about doesn't really exist as much in this game. So you're just kind of getting all the
benefits of Void Spirit. And I think it's like top three highest win rates against Puck,
despite being a fairly normal hero. It's just, it's really hard to itemize to deal
with a Void Spirit on Puck. There's not really like an item build that feels that
good other than just going BKB at some point.
So who's going to take the lead in this best of three saver?
To be fair, I really like Extremes Draft. I think it's very solid, so honestly, I'm leaning towards them.
I'm going to Extremes in this one. I like what they did with the Rubik Ondorod. I think there's a lot of cool plays Trian can do in the early game.
They have good scaling, they have good teamfight, which is what I wanted them to have. So I'm with Extremes in this one.
Yeah, we have Trian Protector as the first phase ban. The majority of games, when it's a majority, it's literally only a handful of games.
games a tree that makes it through and if it does gets first phase picked so is it answered
I know I'm I know I'm supposed to say that LGD and I'm I'm with you guys like I really think extreme cooked in this draft
I was very impressed the whole way through with
All of their answers all the synergies that they have but the LGD has some classic heroes for them too
So they can always they can always pull through okay, let's see who takes the lead in this best of three as we're heading over to
OD pixel unfogged
Thank you very much, Shiva. Yes, very much looking forward to this one, XG versus LGD.
And, Eddie, what do you make of that? It's a bold move, always leaving one of these heroes in, available for the first pick,
that everybody else is pretty much panning, Trian gets through. Are they going to be okay, LGD, or are they going to regret letting that one in?
Might regret. I mean, it's banned every game for a reason, like you're saying. It does so much, it's not just about the lane, but they were mentioning as well, too.
Timbersaw can be this type of answer in some type of ways in the past but now living armor is pretty insane
And it's also just about the global threat
It's also later the vision that the hero can apply just to be able to put pressure out
I guess that's because I feel like there's sometimes periods and don't you right?
Well, there is a hero that's banned all the time sure and
Sometimes it's like well everyone's just copying each other
Does it really need to be banned all the time we're trying at the moment?
Is that maybe one of those other heroes that people are just banning to ban or this is one that's actually like
You do kind of need to ban it. You need to it's like it was it you remember the Naga siren? Yeah, right last year
The year before those people all banning it and they kind of stop banning it and then they were like well
You know what we don't actually need to ban this here. We can beat it, but tree in is the beast
It's different. It's just because it's not just the landing. It's not just the living arm. It's everything in combination
Gives you vision stalks around later on and then the ultimate
It just has one of the best teamfight ultimates in the later stages the game share the obi-kabee's in your mantas and whatnot to
Dispel it, but it is a disarm root
super strong so I'm looking forward to this matchup I do like XG's a bit too but
Lone Druid this hero sometimes can just dominate games super hard and with the
combination with the Undying 2 that's the lane I'm really looking at is how
just underlorded Rubik can endure because I you know yeah sure firestorm
and all that you can kill the bear perhaps but you're gonna be getting
reduced constantly from the decay and this is a nasty combo because overall in
the game how good is the bear killing potential from XG if this bear does
start to get out of hand. It's okay but it's not to the extent that we saw from
what yesterday liquid with the shadow fiend that was three-shotting the bear
really early. Takes a little bit more for something like the Lena. They also don't
have minus armor with their draft so that bear is gonna be quite a bit tankier.
Sure they have percent damage but yeah we'll have to see how it ends up going in
these lanes.
So look, they can somehow slow down Neelup in the early game. I think this is
the lane that's gonna be super hard for XG. I don't really know how you
you just play straight up versus the Lone Druid.
Maybe it's going to be that tree rotation
that Fly was talking about on the panel,
where they're just going to be like,
well, I don't want to be up there,
make the move and kill that Lone.
Because I would look at LGD and I do like their lane setups
a little bit more in particular.
It's just XG's overall draft does look strong
if they get to that mid and late game timing.
And what do you make the decision
from Topso to go with the Void Spirit this game?
As the panel said, it is one of those heroes that...
Good for Spock.
It indeed is great in the matchup,
but also it's just one of those mid heroes,
especially when it comes to spirits
that has fallen out of favor for a lot of teams.
It has.
It's the weakest of the spirit, like they're saying.
Its damage is nothing like the other ones, like no way.
But the thing is, it's very good for its puck,
and it's good for its Lena.
It's a gap closer, and they were lacking a gap closer
in a way for their draft, so.
Right now, XXS, doing pretty good on these last hits,
is forcing the waves in with the Firestorm,
FY trading pretty decently with KJ.
It's starting to spot him late.
Getting them relatively low here.
And also, the other thing about the, uh, right, the Topson playing the Voids,
but I think him and Ami are having a competition of who's going to play the most heroes.
Because they're just playing different heroes every day.
That's pretty crazy indeed. We saw that during the draft, but...
An insane amount of heroes being played by Topson already.
I don't know how it necessarily compares to all the other heroes and players at the moment,
but he's got to be up there, probably the highest in terms of the amount of heroes he's played in the game,
because he's played bottom lane.
That's a success. Careful.
He's looking pretty dead. There's a plug grenade upon him.
One more hit. We'll do it.
And I'm under the tower the best coming in got him the roof there's the kill first blood for you
Ma they tried to go for the aggressive play themselves XG but being kept too low
That's the problem with the constant the case fam you think you're tanky on the underlord, but not so much
Do good on the last hits, but this is what happens sometimes versus this loan
He's able to just kill you run you down a lot of times
What I've seen is actually like the tide in the slaughter is with really nice in terms of laning phase versus hero
Because they have double damage block or they have stuns to push the bear off
off. We are mid. Void spirit right? First that pot, there's a reason we're going to clearly
see the separation at least in terms of the laning phase as well too. I'd say this is
pretty much sort of the CS difference you'd expect right? Just a little bit of an edge
on the denies, having that nice little attack animation as the melee Void spirit. Nothing
that says missed a couple free ones though. I think I just saw on this too. So, it
happens. I'm going to build from top sim. Almost
I'm just going to put this on vessel, get the shot early for the farming potential.
That's the usual that we've seen. Is he actually going to go for the full vessel, is the full question for me?
That's kind of like the big one. I know Quinoa is talking about this item build on this hero. It's super important in a lot of games.
So the argument for the agonist maybe like they were mentioning on the panel could be there for the puck, but we'll have to see.
Yeah, it depends how early you want to try and get that into the build.
Yeah, just because they lack some catch for the puck is the only reason why I was saying that.
saying that because a lot of times we see the void spirits they kind of stray
away from it nowadays their catch is not the best for them.
They're gonna need something otherwise yeah nothing to say he's gonna have a
pretty free game jumping about.
Yeah, bottom mate.
The route again on to X-XS this time no further damage so he'll be fine.
King jungle is starting to fall pretty low on the resources.
It's fake though he looks low.
It's just a case and so it rips really quickly and he's back and still one more round to sort of frozen if they do go in
He's holding skill point as well too. Yeah, in case of things if he needs to maybe get like a tube stone or something
He's gonna heal up as well
The laning start at the moment as we said Lundrid is gonna do amazing and actually all three lanes right pretty much across the board here
That went in all lanes setting themselves up for success with this one
That's the power of the timber versus the tree in the lane right so
Even though living armor does block some of it. You can't really pressure whisper with these with Alina to trade the bar
It was looking very comfortable
Up on the top plan into this matchup and some nice sort of creep drag game
And overall overall for the timber game. I did want to mention this
This is a first pick timber and yes
There's some percent damage and all that but this doesn't look like the easiest game to bring whisper down overall
Sure, they isolate every they can happen, but there's there's a lot of heels
There's saves as well from being dying and overall we have to say right
They did pick the underlord into the timber which for a long time. It's not always timber is very good for us on the board
Sure pits annoying, but you you kill him so fast if you get on top of it
Because it definitely a chance right but but this timber and the lone druid
You might get to a point in the game where XG could have damage issues
They could have to deal with these two incredibly in-your-face tanky units
It's not gonna get easy brexie unless they sort of have army with this an insane amount of build up of right click damage
Yeah, but that's not me on his birthday. He's gonna try and get that sort of insane out
Output when it comes to the physical DPS, but it's gonna take time. Yeah, and there's right like there's the heels
There's the tombstone to save that we've seen so much so okay, then
Brexel
I'll make considering if he wanted to spend time trying to help for a kill, but...
He's probably a little scared of getting dove as well, too, but Tombstone gets dropped down,
they triple hero collapse onto him, it could be dangerous.
They don't know how to go around as well, they do have to be careful, they probably
ought to get the boost whacked here, that's no big...
Hiding in the trees, they're looking at army, further back it's coming in, XG's
out enough, they want to bring the backup, try and put a stop to this, they're either
going to continue the dive though, looking forward here with Whisper, XG turns towards
It's in force back to Timbersaw, they push back onto Armei.
King jungles, gets the three of them, the big burst comes in from Whisper, they take down one of them,
can they get Armei before they can?
It's opposite, in with the rotation, gets the connection with the remnant, makes a quick kill,
gives himself straight back to mid lane, believes the Whisper and T.L. of course should be able to finish off Fy between the two of them,
and slowly but surely another chain coming in, Whisper's swelling down.
They get the job done, the dive is success, and they try to bring in sort of the back.
up to help with that but they couldn't deal that with the aggression from LGD
Big kill already six minutes in LGD up a 2k gold lead love the rotation from
Thompson too right you just see he's like oh man we're actually going to fight like this
we're gonna just bring even more numbers if they're gonna try to nothing to
say it doesn't look like he wants to respond and now wisdom well they might
be able to contest this oh there's a side they gotta bring more on next
Yeah, let me back up.
Get the pit down over there.
All of them.
Good damage on Yuma.
He's looking pretty dead here.
Oh!
Look at the high ground.
He's running away.
But as that comes in,
F.Y. takes him out.
They brought the numbers.
They'll make sure that Altiy did not stop XG
from getting the wisdom.
Kiko is still going to try his best
to make them spend as much time as possible,
but he will not survive this double kill for F.Y.
XG protect the wisdom.
Really well played from XXS,
bodying there. KJ just accepted his death, right? He's respawning instantly anyway.
He's got the Cecil Sturge, so just wanted to get a little extra damage. Pushed him away again.
Good response, but still seen, right? LGD with that laning prowess,
looking very strong. 800 difference between tops and nothing to say at the moment.
Nothing to say if he kept a bit low. He's playing it! Here he got it! Oh my goodness,
living on the edge there! Oh my god. I know I had the orb still out just in time to jump
out towards the end. He's trying to get the rune. He's got the rune. I mean that's a
coil well used there indeed. Anytime taking away these early power rings, away
from Topson's voidsper, it's worth it. That was very heads up. The spot at the
bottom rune gets the coil there. Topson can't actually make the move to go for it.
So they can go for LGD, Whisper and King Jungles.
Oh, okay, just smoking in to clear the ancients.
King is going to try and use the smoke to also connect over towards Topson, getting
a bit of pressure, with nothing to say, and all will be fine, pretty low, going to stick
around for one more creep wave and get back.
No, Regen here, Topson.
He has gone for the vessel.
Yeah, I mean the vessel rush is just super strong.
Yep. Seems to get the spells on it.
It is good versus the Underlord and the Tree as well too, right?
Just being able to have that extra damage.
And overall, yeah, it's just the hero still doesn't want to build in some of these games, so...
And they're going to be like the Cratchers.
They are going to be getting charges.
LGD is going to be playing quite a bit more aggressive, I would say.
XG, they probably want to play more passive style of farming.
Sure, they can react with the global potential of the fiends gate when he's got it,
XXS is super slow down, you know, we were commenting on how he was doing okay and bottom to contest the wisdom
Whisper is level nine XXS is level five
I mean, yeah, the fact that the fact four levels off
I think that's the first time I've seen that. Yeah, there's definitely some struggles that
The three cores of LGD doing just that little bit the whole better
Yeah, than that of XG here in this early game and underlord
He can farm stacks in a way but nothing like that timbersaw right so timber on top of having this good stuff this start
He's got stacks to go back to as well to continue to improve him a very mentioned even though it's the first pick timber
It looks at the pretty solid timber game
One of whispers best as well yeah probably is probably spacer at the moment. Yeah, I would agree
That's why
You get the ground this should be a kill
It's going
jump away
Save him
Stops the TP from the Baron, that's annoying.
Looks like they're trying to hang out through their mid tower as much as possible here, bringing three heroes.
Bean's game is ready too, so they can look for the fight if they overextend too hard,
but LTT is also bringing quite a lot here, bringing Whisper for a second.
Let's see if they'll stop. Hard to just full commit through the tower.
There's a lot of deep push on the side of XJ, Fadebolt, plus the fuck orb.
Yeah, one of the slower games for X-XS, and I do like to say always for XG, he's one of
their main guys.
He almost always has a pretty stable game, so it's definitely important for LGD that
they've shot him down the start of the start.
I mean, yeah, that makes sense, right?
Imagine if you're going against XG, that's not a bad approach, right?
Just sort of say, we are going to go and do our best to shut down X-XS, because
he's always so stable, you know?
it's over in the river it's gonna get caught in my fear the core jumps in a
whisper this timber yeah the symptoms is massive army of course keeping up on
farm yes with the three cores of LGD but it's just gonna be so much to deal with
the three cores that are gonna be very ready to get straight in his face and
they do get on top of him right all three of them in a way sure the bear
not for now it's a later when he has a bag when it comes out of him yeah he's
He's gonna have to try and keep the bar off him, keep the Timbersaw off him, keep the
Void Spirit off him, and the team around him, they've got a lot of work cut out for themselves
and they don't have the biggest saves.
Exactly.
Yeah, that's what I was about to say.
So, yeah, you go have a look on that.
You're saving all of her and that's about it.
Yeah.
FY.
Okay, get away.
And overall for the Lina too, most of the time, well, not most, but a lot of times
when I've seen the Lina carry, had a lot of success.
There's a good amount of like magic and all that, there's a lot of physical
and pure damage.
Back in five past two or two.
Gonna try for Whisper.
Streaming everybody.
Coil, Laguna Blade, a fiend's gay, everything.
To bring down the Timber, they will succeed.
Takes a lot though.
Hope so, maybe see if you can find something on the way out.
Nothing to say relatively low on mana, but does have one charges in an orb.
Maybe you can play off to your abuse, but sorry.
That's what it says, not sticking around, not taking any chances.
Festival done. Time to accelerate even more.
Gonna press Y again.
A couple times now, but I managed to catch out Fy around this mid area.
And for LGD overall, right, they're the one setting tempo, so this just means Lone Druid is completely free,
which is usually not something you want to see. A lot of the games that I've seen when teams have done very good versus Lone Druid,
they've killed it once or twice in the laning phase, maybe even a third time, they're always the ones hunting him.
That's not the case this game. It's a lot harder, I would say, for me to really look for him until Tree can start getting down here,
Get some vision to stalk him so they can use the global
OCD playing fast
Power time and look to start to siege
They want army
Good timing for him to get away
That's Nova. Shows for a second here. They've got enough time to jump to those easier routes.
He's not down here.
The stiller also already picked up for Theo, so they're always going to have a vision to catch this trick.
And the buildings. This is going to be an important thing too, right? For XG, hitting these towers is not the easiest for them.
The Lena is the one who wants to, and it's dangerous for Ami to really show up early at any point to go for these towers.
So yeah, I mean he's not gonna want to show his face on the
Radiant side of the map for a very long time this game
So it feels like LTV can kind of start to not fully just run at these towers, right?
But they can just start to get in a pretty good advantage of taking over the map as well, too with getting these easier pushes
XG is more just a farming lineup
So the moment XXS and nothing to say. I'm getting too much about fun
Catch it up though at least especially in levels. So he's now level 10
Thompson is everywhere.
Copping down the map, constantly putting on the pressure.
Living armor will be there for FY to help out, and TP's are coming in.
This time, XT.
Once upon a stop, Thompson.
Gonna jump away, but step, he actually gets out of the ring, the overgrowth.
They don't catch him.
He's gonna have another step in a few seconds.
The Fiasgate coming in as well. They really want to kill him.
They'll get the silence on him. The pit is there.
They finally get him.
It takes a long time, but no help coming from LGD to turn it around.
Kind of bear.
Might go down. Okay, they were making their own move.
Yeah, the same time.
Whispering.
Teal the core, get the set up.
Puncture R may set.
Topson, end of the day.
They'll say space created.
It took them 20, 30 seconds to chase kill him.
They didn't have the coil yet.
They're ready the whole time.
So, and I may get slowed down.
It's a big kill.
Got him close.
Very fast timing on me on it.
He did.
Managing to beat that.
In fact, Yuma's timing on the other side of the map.
Justima has now also got his and he'll boss time in there but those get taken out. He'll farm fast
But he is super squishy. He's very very vulnerable and they have multiple ways to get on top of this or indicating
It's a very scary lineup, but can run at him
And now if you'd be so fun if you're doing exactly that I'll put down the map and towers right?
This is the timing that they can go forward where L for xg. They can't really hit these buildings in the same manner
I'd prefer them to hold on to this without the underlord here, I think this tower likely
is just going to go down.
It's easier for you to set up with this Mjolnir as opposed to how male it is with the leaner
on the other side.
The tower's gone and feel the cool whisper.
I'm now ready to continue the hunt.
It's no fun.
I'm getting some good information and I'll just be not aware of his position.
How long for a fiend's gate?
They're starting to get some damage on the bottom tower.
Two x-accessors are actually able to finish it off.
Very important that they get at least one early one.
Buys the shard early too, so interesting.
Once you get that little extra farm, the delay is agonist, but...
Strong to be able to throw onto the puck as well too. You fire storm the puck when he's jumping in.
Can actually do a lot more damage to get some extra kills.
Occasionally it's just going full heal build.
Lock it, max soul rip. Not something we see every game on the Undying, we do see max decay.
Occasionally as well too, so this is interesting.
We also do see like the blink save builds with the shards, so this is a different approach that we're seeing from him.
from him.
Next sheet.
Good to make him move here with the green coil.
It's not gonna be a dying.
He'll die, but...
Committing a coil does mean now that Topson has some liberty, but I just pride onto a
few ways that they can kill him early on is with that coil, unless they commit a lot
more to do so.
And he dies back.
It's the respawn, so...
Yeah, especially the fact that on top of having no coil, Toxin has got an illusion in the
bowl.
So, the little of the catch that they did have has got an answer right now.
And Whisper continues to just be at the top almost level 16.
He's got the blink now finished up for even more catch with the back lines.
He has a problem.
They see Armag.
as soon as they saw him the second he went under that ward they did it before
they're ready to do it again X-Nervous trying to be in position to block these
sort of plays but people with that oh no way they avoid exactly where X-Nervous
trying to block off this smoke plate oh that was beautiful if they find him
here he's gonna be a nasty surprise and they will X-Nervous gonna try and help
Oh, the fiends came to cut the tree!
I should cut the tree immediately!
Oh, that was smart!
I was like, I'm dead!
And with that backup, they could kill off Whisper.
I should chase down Cleo.
They could go on and get them with the gate straight on top of the tree!
It cut the tree!
That was actually big brain as hell.
I mean, that's on purpose for sure by X-XS.
Wait, was it?
No.
I think so, yes.
That was interesting.
I think that was on purpose, man.
I mean, that was pretty crazy.
And Thompson, he's gonna be fine.
Shield brim will save him.
I'm saying that.
No blinks up.
The dream comes back online.
Nothing to say.
Close is the gap.
They have the pit! Is it enough? It's not!
Thompson's able to jump away, he'll live!
What an insane... I mean, I would say that that's on purpose.
You think he was ready?
We've seen some of these fiends' game plays where they cut off like the exit pit,
right on top of the bushwhack, right on top of that tree.
Yep.
That was sick.
X-XS might have had a bit of a slow start, but yeah, he's locked in now, catching up,
slowly but surely.
And now, our man...
He's at the top.
Quick, right away after that. He's gonna have the...
He's rushing the BKB right after, which I really like this game.
Absolutely.
Very cool stuff. I mean, fantastic angle that LGD somehow...
It was counteracting by the way.
But I guess that's the thing, right?
It was not only X-Nova that was ready for that sort of play with this position.
It was the whole team right there.
Like, they are going to make this move onto Army.
We all have to be ready to save them.
Saving Private Army.
Definitely going to be the name of the game.
Another sort of good defensive response like that.
And they'll have pretty much taken away that entire network fleet that LGD's have for the majority of this game so far.
And now Ahmed can turn up with the team.
Now he's not just farming on the sidelines or anything like that.
He can start fighting with this team for a certain start.
Looking for these objectives as well, sir.
It's pretty perfect timing that they get aggs now on the underlord.
They get the BKB for the lean-up.
You're 20 minutes.
It's time for these roaches, not for these thorns.
And they are at the ready to fight against them.
LGD's still very big, right?
They do have that 3-4 lineup that is incredibly strong, but...
Now this lean-up is a lot harder to deal with with the BKB.
BKB Tommy super strong this game. Yep. Yep
Not the most damage that goes straight through it right so much
Pretty much. Yeah outside of that. He's having a BKB and run away
Sure, it tops and can close on top of this wall too. All right game has changed up
The axe is now done for human a pretty fast timing
Because that's the thing as well he is
Going to get BKB off everyone. There's no instant cash, right?
It's what bushwhack and a random neither though, you know, they're both relatively telegraphed you're gonna be out of pop
BKB
Yeah, until the bear has shadow blade and then he's doing the thing where he got to do behind the savage door
Blah blah blah red
But that's still some time until he has to worry about that. He should be able to get the protection
Low kill score game, but a lot of little tricky moves that both teams are working around here
Vessel also for FY now really like this this game versus the load and versus the timber versus the sole rip that we see
you know, dying gold for the max.
That's who's here, you know, just sort of bringing on right now over to LGD side of the map.
I know that it's time to get on handball.
Whisper.
The coil.
A lot of damage with the vessel.
The three of them is inherently adding up and yeah, Whisper's gone.
Same time, Armey's able to turn and take out the other door.
But he's the overgrife into the Light Shrike right a lock down the bag.
Get that extra bit of money coming in for Armey.
Big money.
Well, the LGD started to hammer some big kills.
XG started to get crazy momentum and set up, right?
They're set up for the Tormentor.
Can't look to go for that here.
They all really started to fall back in their favor after they made that play.
To keep Armey safe, he gets this BKB timing straight away.
Taking the tier one mid.
And making aggressive moves in the mid lane.
Was there also making that play down bottom?
Things starting to really come together now for XG.
Radiance...
...is a good capture.
That's it.
Like it got on here.
I can land a light strike.
Whoa!
A little off!
That was quite off there for Mame.
You know, it got it, Maw.
Yeah.
LTD.
Setting up, they do have undying, so they can just force this roast.
They're trying to make their way over it's like very fast.
They're gonna try.
At least the temp station's there to be for nothing to say to jump in.
They're fighting.
They're fighting.
On to it.
Coil.
Coil now but the Roshan is really dead. The Aegis sort of picks up my Topsun.
They're fighting.
Pit round on the back lines over towards Juma.
Silence down the war, Topsun a key jungles.
The tilting jungles.
See how much more they can get. They take the Aegis out of the hands of Topsun.
And they go for round two. I'll make sure to suck at the pit.
They'll get the brew onto Topsun.
I'll make Popsun be dead.
I'll make...
He's gone up to TPL. I know that this fight is no longer theirs.
will be KBTP away. They don't stop the roast, but they do get two kills because nothing to say, get out, he can't.
They do end up losing the puck on top of that, but they don't immediately take the Aegis away from Thompson.
It's pretty good, right? They got two kills, they got the Aegis, they're going to slow down the momentum that LGD might have gained if they didn't take that move.
So, I like it. DKB used from Arme, able to fight, get a couple kills pickups too, so why not?
I'm making the correct call there to leave the fight when he does.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, if he stayed any longer, he was definitely gonna die there.
By losing nothing to say.
He does hurt a bit, because he is struggling.
But it is all about Ame, right? So...
Two more?
kill the bear or not not yet don't want to risk it I don't think they see
anything so don't want to just go for like a rain of bear kill and get turned
on when there's no BKB probably
what stops him going for here okay he's gonna go for the BKB feels like he
needs that he really does need it right there's a plan there's it it's
just so much to control you now they'll go for it but it won't work
It's a bit too much at the moment.
Need that extra damage on my armor before they can really take down the bear consistently.
Might go for it again here.
Yeah, round two. Half HP would do it.
You must play safe with the bear.
Parasma finished up for nothing to say.
Standard build, not deviating.
Rarely do we see these pucks deviate even if you're versus some annoying stuff.
It's always displayed to display.
Pay on.
I'm absolutely honest with you, this is a pretty dream game from in the sense that they just don't have cash.
Yeah, and he's not going to agonize on Void Spirit either too, right?
So I'm going to have to ask for silence to be able to bring him down.
No, he has died a couple times.
Yeah, we'll see if it goes through after the BKB.
I imagine that is likely, or do you think there's other items at that point you're considering then?
Probably other ones he's considering, which way that he's on, right?
Yeah, I guess for a Hex or an Opteream player on the cooldowns.
It depends on how he wants to play for like the right clicks, right?
Does he want to... I've seen some people go like these witch plays and all that.
I'm not the biggest fan of it. I prefer the octereens.
Very close game, though. 11 to 12.
It really is. I think it's...
Exactly what to say for these two teams.
Just that sort of difference, though, where XG's side is resting pretty heavily on our main shoulder.
It is.
Still XXS, nothing to say. Pretty far behind on farm.
They've just got that bit of an edge overall if they have the team like the five heroes
as teamfight when you look at XGs, their teamfights is a bit better overall.
LGD ideally want to get a cast before end and this time they'll get the ban.
Got to be summoning.
Getting quite a bit of gold though for Almec.
That the BKB done, it is.
So Toxin now has a lot more liberty to pick and choose his targets inside of these
teamfights as well.
It's all he died the once
And that was just off that what pretty aggressive dive that he tried from the tier one bottom where
It's happened at a moment where there was no real way for team to connect to him and
Was of course that moment where the team did kill army. It's true. Yeah, that one death
Allowed them to get there to one kill against our mate. Tommy time
FY
It's gonna be close. He's living on the edge to through supports.
Can they do this? It's a high average initiative.
My goodness. That works.
Sharp breath, why?
That was so dangerous.
I guess they had a good read of where LGD was, but yeah, that's pretty crazy to do the three heroes.
They had to slow down a little bit from LGD, right? They didn't get the, well, they got the rush on the edge,
but they didn't get to do anything with it because they lost the edges immediately.
So I think SG is realizing that
LGD themselves have also slowed down, just to try and get that next step of items online.
And maybe he is anticipating like a hacks or something to come out from the voids, but like you were saying, I saw the Lincoln's queued up from nothing to say, so maybe he's thinking similar pain is lost to it.
Oh, he's just switching like crazy, okay? He's just showing off four different items, but...
Yeah, Thompson, queue up the axe.
He's gonna go.
Okay, as he said, a lot of merits to the axe this game. They need that sort of silence.
And it's just a piece of shrub here against the party.
I like it versus supports too to be honest right the Rubik and the tree can be tripped up a lot from it
As the scouting plate don't be in us so getting close and closer to being able to make these sneaky aggressive plays with the bat
Yeah, I kept under vision here though nice word there from XG scouting white a lot of LGD movements
Okay, it's taken away jam now picked up LGD. I
Think this is getting to these timings where LGD wants to probably do a bit more
They're still very strong, sure as we're saying, if SG's teamfight is strong, they can just
like wrap around with the bear and get all this extra information and maybe just snipe
the hero.
Exhaust is pretty massive.
He can get the satanic day list done.
You know, this will be the leaner of...
that you come to be clear for all.
And one of the reasons why we see leaner be quite a hot pig right now.
How fast he kills the bear.
So he did get the serrated shift, so very fortunate.
It's a lot of extra damage versus the bear.
Aging in is very close to being dumped in Top 10.
It's 12-1 to go. Point boost down and he'll have it.
I didn't think that this would get this type of series.
I thought this game was going to be a bit more action packed, I'll be honest.
Both teams are pretty content with just playing that farm game.
They're keeping it very close.
LGD with that little bit of an avanciage overall.
Offsets?
It's going to get found, but he's got BKB of course.
So it's gotta watch out for Ex-Nova.
He gets caught!
They put the overgrowth!
CPL ain't gonna cut it even with the BKB when Ex-Nova's around.
I was a bit surprised that he goes for it like that.
They're rather like, disimulating, making them force a little bit more.
Just those get caught.
That's a painful death.
And they hunt for more.
And they do have a coil.
Whisper's so very difficult to bring down, especially if the lean is not there.
Okay, boys. Do so. Back to farming.
Yeah, I'll make.
I did pick up the reaver, but once I get the small crit online first, we'll finish off the full cent.
No, he's good.
No, he's good.
He's good.
He's good.
In the brawl source, the claymow is mixed up.
Yep.
Very safe build.
Yep.
But you already do so much damage anyway.
Right, so it ends up being fine even if he doesn't have the crits.
We'll see if it matters though.
Say Tanik and BKB, you are incredibly tanky.
Yeah, look at the hero damage, right?
Pretty interesting to see.
There it is, sir.
30-minute timing.
Looking very good on the lean-up.
Of course, front, there's a wishless keeping up on this timbersaw.
Yes, and the laundry.
It's been incredibly prominent on.
That is the difference, right? They do have these two very big cores.
It's got to be a lot for our mate to deal with.
Ex-Excess though, also keeping up at least with levels, he's going to have his seedless pretty soon, he's got his DKB to counter the timber as we were messaging him earlier.
Coming back up soon. Probably the point of contention that we're going to see both teams really clash.
They were prepared for if there was going to be a move towards Army, but nothing of the
sorts right now.
LGD continued to not make any over-aggressive plays.
Stop.
I'm trying to poke something here, but it is Whisper, so I'm not able to fully commit
for him.
So, something interesting too.
If you were mentioning before, for the side LGD, they don't have the crazy amount
of stuns and lockdowns, right?
So the BKB, it's essentially gonna give him this like three lives.
It's not that there's control after he pops the BKB.
He'll just be able to hit targets and heal back up.
I'm definitely one of those situations where...
Until the bear is fully confident that the bear can take it down through it.
You know, if you see that BKB pops an armor, you're probably looking to kite it out.
And not get involved in the fight.
LGD is farming so hard, though.
Now they've got extra timing. BKB's done another bear.
Okay, now they want to force an issue before the match.
Alright, here we go.
Alright, here we go. Ag's done for the Void Spirit 2.
Ready for the full 5 man teamfight.
What does nothing to say have on the puck right now? Does he have anything to counter the silence?
He went greed, he did not go A on this.
He could get caught because of this.
The arm is up there, but it's pretty deep.
And the XG seems to be pretty responsive to this, just holding back around the tier 2.
Nothing to say does jump out though.
Oh god.
With this build up, nothing to protect him.
They're going to try and fight back.
They're looking towards the van.
They're cornering in the pit.
Army's bringing in the damage.
Oh, got two stone.
They've got to bail the bear out.
Get him into the tombstone.
Jump out.
Take himself out of there with the Invis.
He's away.
At the same time, Whisper.
He's having to just clean up X9 run in the TNT Tower.
Uh-oh.
This is the issue with the Puck sometimes.
If you don't, you're feeling like,
oh, the game states are cool.
You know, I can go to the three build,
not to A on this.
Now he dies.
And not only does he die, he loses their gem.
A real big deal.
He has the gem!
He did.
Well, Missed on Rosegum, they will get to take the rose, take the Aegis, and they won't have to be concerned with any chance that makes you take it out of their hands as soon as they kill it.
Oh, that is such a monstrous kill that they're able to find like this.
And nothing to say is going to be feeling it pretty bad, because now he has to go back and farm that A-Hunt.
This is the end of this game.
He's going to have a lot of time in this game now where he's just at risk of dying it.
Pretty much just if the Void Spirit shows up across one and they need that deadless as
well in RMA.
They could have quite killed him there.
Now they're in trouble.
8k lead here for LGD.
Double gems as well for LGD so they can control the majority of the vision on the map
now too to find these jumps, restrict the farm from RMA.
They look at Theo as well, because he's actually very close to having a hex himself for the
puck as well, so further and further catch it's going to be there for nothing to say,
who's now the bottom of the court.
He needs it desperately, but it's a long ways away now.
Thompson.
See what he can pull us out of the man-made-me-own-the-tower.
They hit me on the tower.
The Bat's on him with a big burst coming from Whisper.
Ex-Excess almost died for the BKB.
He's got to run away.
They have the overgrowth to lock down Topson.
Can they take him out?
The Wantslides, the Great Clubs, if they can.
That's the Aegis card.
Whisper holding back the backlines though.
Forcing out by nothing to say up to the side.
Two stones safe comes in from Self-King.
He'll just get back out of there.
The BKB's off my army.
He'll stand this ground and creep down the back.
The rest of LGD though.
They would have backed off.
A just gets taken away, a couple BKBs, XG with a nice defensive response there.
They're holding onto the BKB as long as possible, all important for them to be able to fight
there.
Look at the damage from Ame.
He pretty much has all of their late game damage at the moment.
Sometimes we do see the pucks do crazy damage late game, but it's going to be a fair
bit of time and so nothing to say is able to get that.
It's kind of a crazy play there from LGD as well too, right?
Top-2 is just kind of running in into the tier two.
I'm not really with the bear getting the flank either. So it's just kind of an awkward goal for them
So actually was very prepared. I mean they did get very close to bursting X-XX. They did
That's who perverse. We saw how quick this underlord can die despite how big they have
It's time to be miserable as a support though because this bear is now going to kill all of them on the map
And yeah, that hacks for Theo it's gonna come pretty quick
So even for army too, right?
Like, now this BKB, now the Satanic, not as safe either. If he does get caught from an incident, he can get bursted.
Yeah, if they get the Hex on him, and the follow-ups there, they'll 100% take him down before he's able to get out of the Hex and get the BKB Satanic off.
Because they will have the Rubik potential save, but they don't have something hard saved like you're dying, where you get put into two quarters, you're gone.
Even the cores, since they talk about the support, see if an Hex Excess is struggling with a spare.
Oh, nice try, Exnova.
He's trying to get that bear kill.
Now they have overgrowth on cooldown, but both of these BKBs also used, see if LGD wants
to take advantage of overgrowth cooldown.
It's a big one.
They're looking at Armae.
Armae posturing pretty far up on the lane, but looks like LGD don't want to take the
risk up to the 2x2.
Yeah, now with the bear being on the opposite side of the map at this point.
Now they'll smoke, probably rejoin their bear and look for some of these connecting
kills.
We'll data this now for Armaid.
If he's able to find his position in the pipes, Armaid will take them down one by one.
He'll?
We'll catch him. He'll. Easy kill.
Big kill.
If he can go for more, they'll get the coil down onto King Jungle's.
Armaid finds his way around, a couple of hits.
This will help him kill for Armaid.
Supports a little out of position there, and that's going to give back the gem to XG.
Call for it.
Now how much you trying to force it here with army?
You don't have that much time.
You don't have overgrowth either, you used your coil.
You don't have to force it, you don't have to get the bat.
Get the bat.
Throw it out.
Army.
Let me try and turn up towards top some humor.
Turn the bat back over towards the army.
I'm going to say Tanex there.
I'm going to back up to full HP.
I'm not going to say trying to play around with top set.
The lift up into the light strike, here comes the damage from Armey, they've got it!
Actually, Armey.
You get to catch on someone and Armey will have no struggle killing them right now.
Armey's been struggling and some of this game is in the storm a bit, but this one, he's truly being the carry they need him.
Yeah, this is looking like a real step up in terms of carry performance from Armey compared to what we're seeing in some of the other days.
I mean, this is truly a game of, it's saving private Armey, right?
As we saw with the underlaw with the brilliant with everything pretty much, it's there to ensure that he can have the best game possible.
That success is close to 25 as well.
LGD.
Getting caught again.
It's the number one frags here.
Fighting jungles.
Number one for our mate.
These are all important moments too, as we said, for the Pock 2.
Got caught earlier.
Now has probably had the downtime to be able to finish off that A like this pretty soon.
So should have the protection as well.
That's just terrifying, mom.
Oh, they do that sometimes against an island here.
This was him with the VKB and the Reactive Armor.
Are they trying to kill him off through it?
Still very tanky on the Timberstool, which is now the Timberstain away here, but...
With the Bears, VKB and the Turbulent, watch out for that.
Are they trying to take him out with the right click so they don't get it?
The Bear's gone.
Now look who makes a jump on the Whisper.
Where's the way? This didn't get the Timberstain connection.
Oh, he's in trouble.
They can lift up into the Light Strike Ray.
Are they reaching the right click with the right click now?
The crit's coming in.
He's burning him!
Oh, these sequences from XTR.
Masters Bay will lose nothing to say on the south side, but wow.
What a couple moves you received from XTR just relentlessly running through them there.
They'll bring down Whisper.
End up losing two cores, though.
Always been one of the hardest counters.
It takes a while. I mean, it's like 40% of your HP.
Octarene soon for Topson. So something interesting I did want to point out the
data list with the Lena he did take the left talent and I think if you know how
this will works data list actually breaks this talent. It just doesn't work with the
dragon slave you can watch as well too like you get your data list crits but
when you dragon slave you're starting to act up you don't get the 150% I'm not
sure why I don't know if they fixed it I'm not sure if they fixed it but I
know as a few days ago that wasn't working so. Either way he's definitely
doing enough is with a without a army to get the damage down on these heroes and
whisper any missing in three there too a ram is from it
we've likely survived if you got out with that initial timber jank that's no
play from fy2 right blinking in gets a flim throw gets on top of the finishes
involved this game is very exciting yeah he feels they're on that miss tank it's
It's rare to see that from Whisper, because he said it's his best hero, so...
Bots 2? I'm hitting actual critical mass here at this point now.
Okay, you can treat yourself the ice, bless you, get a moonshade, and then he's pretty much done.
I'm trying to watch for the dragon's life, I think, by the way, just to see...
Yeah, right, you don't see the 150 credits, right? Those two hits should have had a little bit of criticals.
They didn't have any red numbers on your eye.
I've seen this a couple times, but either way, as you said, he does have enough damage though.
Smoked up looking for another catch in this triangle.
They got it. They kill up the bird, they kill up the hook.
They keep catching, they keep catching these supports in the front line.
The gem keeps passing out between them.
I think this is like three or four times yet.
This hoodwink and this Undyne are just getting caught in the front lines over and over again
It is important for them to survive. They're the control.
It's Mr. Hoodwink! These two are just on it.
At this point, Ryder dies so quickly to the Lina.
Thorny gets a good Siege. Tier 2 will fall.
The middle tower has fallen.
Slip-killing for the bear.
You might as well be KB to save the bear here.
They are hunting this bear pretty good now at this point though with how big Am I is. It is not safe.
And how's nothing to say is progression that he's gone so yeah, he does have the a on this
now so should be saved to protect himself versus this one spear in particular.
That downtime that was scary for him ends up being okay because they win a couple fights
to be able to get that.
at the tricor, right? That tricor of LGD is still keeping themselves in a pretty good position
in comparison, right? 9000 ahead from Whisper as an apparent success. So I'm excited to be
on that. He has his work cut out for him still.
But actually with a good supporting cast around him and ooooh, damn damage.
That's gonna be a lot of damage. They get the hex though.
No follow up.
Finish it out, burst it down, it's now the Hicks comes to an end, he turns towards the bear, you must try to run it away, he'll keep it alive, the bear gets out for now.
I'll turn over towards the tombstone, King John goes, he'll soundly fall.
I can put a roge, but not quite up yet.
Just a bit, I'm dying to pull, the rest get out.
Ex-Gee, some of these moves that they're making with the smokes, it seems to be catching LDP off guard, right?
Always finding the least supports in the front line again and again.
And Roche should be the call. And now the box too!
They're gonna try and save the takedown whisper.
Don't play enough there, but they do have chase potential in a sec for the play.
Roche play with the player side, go for the BKB BKB out.
No BKB though, and that could be around the Roche fight, that he's not gonna have BKB available.
XG might just be able to go for it when it spawns immediately because of no BKB on the Timber.
Towers are starting to fall though. The bear, starting to bear things.
It's opening up.
They always do have the Underlord though, which is nice because then you can not worry so much about the split push.
Okay, Roaches up. Are they just gonna go straight for it? I imagine so with no BKB on Timber, XG can force this.
Dying fast.
I don't want to put a stop to it there, LGD.
And some moves. Thompson's looking for some sort of wrap-round to see if you find someone alone.
Or it does be made to...
Get the axe up! What a war's nothing to say!
See Thompson jump in, has the Revenant control on the Wame, but cannot commit to the kill.
X-Nile will get the open road for the Worship of the BKB, he's popped on the bear.
You're gonna try to get the bear out there, but cannot escape Wame's reach.
This bear needs some armor or something. It's dying so fast, the Wame.
I mean, uh...
Why? You might have just been out of setup for a moment.
Stop the BKB and the Reactive Armor at the ready.
Obviously, he's got more than enough protection, Aegis, Sepanic Cheese has everything at the
ready here.
Even though we've seen LGD having the gold lead for a majority, this is actually XG kind
of taking over most of these fights in a big scenario.
That gold lead, of course, at this point becoming pretty irrelevant, just this small
amount.
Whisper also got to go for a hex. They do want multiple ways to control this Lina.
They do they need more because even with what they have at the moment some way in
every one of these plays we're never really seeing any of them actually be
able to find a way on top of Lina. You know, Lamy's getting the chance to
just stand his ground and get insane amounts of damage out without any
interruption. They just have so much protection for him. Oh, at last. Very dead hard.
Taziel is the next item looking. He's still continuing to be very big, and he can't, you know, can't scale
maybe a bit harder than the Lena with how many items he can pick up on this bear.
The Daedalus is gonna unlock it quite a bit more potential for him, but we are seeing these Aeon discs
Even protect the supports for a moment
That will actually allow it to probably just kill off the underlook solo for the Daedalus
Careful around here
Very close to 25 and the sheavers
People themselves, again, just consistently with that gold lead.
I mean, they do have that gold lead, but it feels like it's been a while since you've seen them sort of convincingly win a trade.
It actually has been a while since you've seen LGD vs. 5, right?
It feels like it's always XGS 5 running in, and LGD kind of, frankly, coming one by one to form things together.
They're going to try and pull things a bit more aggressively now.
He's just easy to bear. They just can't every single time.
They can get the jump but they can't stop impressing the Satanic.
They're not going to be given that case. They still need to seal the backpack.
Still has that 8-2 minutes. The Satanic alone gets that off.
He's going to stand full HP.
So maybe for LGD what they're going to do is wait 2 minutes, wait till they have the hacks
And then they're gonna go for this like
And just try to blow up on me through it because yeah so far
Illusion bear
Levels starting to get crazy high to level 27 on xxs
Need as many hexes as they can get here lpd
The kill army!
They should have a solid shot of winning these fights, but...
As we've seen the last few times, they cannot stop this leaner.
It is. It really is all about army though, right?
If army dies, the fight is completely collapsing to the side of XT, so...
Can't go for it!
We've got a Ghostsepper.
Army is there, ready to kill the bear again!
Ex-ex-exit, and itemization.
This is the build that we're seeing from these underlords every time, right?
Now he's got the Ghostsepper 2, so the pair can't go for these solo kills on him either.
No, not a fire.
This is the thing as well, Rami, it's 11, 2, and 4, but effectively the kills are much higher than that, because the counting times he's killed the best.
Team escape, up top.
The whole team collapsing on him!
And they could kill.
Yes, they certainly have to keep it on the work-saving this time, Ralph.
They kill anybody at this point, XG.
And again and again, right? It's LGD all split up all over the place, XG as a unit ganking every single time here.
I really like the way that they've responded to LGD.
Yeah, they very much got past that sort of period of the game where the BGNSB zeroes may have been too much.
The army is absolutely the one where he gets the kills.
And the period of the game where nothing is saved was at risk, because he went for the greedy build.
Right now he's got Aeon Desk. It's very difficult to bring him down pretty much at any of these times.
It's just that more and more lockdown is needed.
And Whisper, I think, was closing in on the Hex.
He is.
OK, now that Aegis is gone, let's see what they want to do.
Probably an X-60 seconds or add 60 seconds
when Whisper is responding to find that Hex.
I'll see it soon, Sankin.
They're starting to get some push going.
They have time with the Timber, Dan.
On the flip side.
Also, my back, I'll see what reaction
LGD come in with the four of them.
Bear is starting to push though.
Oh, find a brigadier.
Fortification, Army's gonna stick on the offensive.
And Y-Dex is trying to get up and down.
Jump for a jump onto Army, but it won't stop it.
My Hex.
He's not going anywhere.
Fortification will not stop.
HG.
That's our mate.
Here more hits and we'll be able to finish up the fourth set of racks.
They'll make another attempt to jump onto him.
Detention to bear on him and then he's actually going to die for that.
Oh, never mind. They keep the racks alive and that's our mate dead.
Oh, God. That's a pretty massive one.
Maybe felt a bit too comfortable there, our mate.
Little too much control.
That is 90 seconds.
Yeah, that's a big one.
And they didn't get the racks.
The melee racks still standing, right?
as experienced as it has, but it's still there. He couldn't quite finish it and he's dead.
And now his team is a bit vulnerable on the map.
LGD, how much do they want to push forward to go for that racks themselves now too, because the glyph was used?
Oh, I think that's like one of the first mistakes we've seen for Mami this game.
Playing it pretty clean, but they're just sticking it a little too hard.
And now the hex there, it is finished for Whisper. So they do have multiple different ways to control.
That's a rough one.
That was.
I mean, we've all been in that rich spot.
You know, when you try the Raxes, only a couple hits away, you're like, you kind of just
block everything else out and you're like, I'm hitting this Rax, I'm gonna finish it.
Doesn't always work out here.
The damage also just comes quick, right, with the build that you was done for.
Ciri doesn't have a nullifier, but with the Swift Blake and this Daedalus, he
pops targets pretty fast.
How's it do that?
Look at him be ready to jump into the base.
Thirty seconds on our back.
He does not want to press that buy-by button.
I don't think they're gonna do their best to try and force it.
Another tier 3 out, whispers him in the hex on a FY.
I'll hold Aion.
Nicely done there from Whisperer, keeps it out long enough to pop the Aion disc of FY, now he is at risk.
Not the least, they don't have to use these buy-backs, they will just...
...lose the tier 3 in the mid-circle.
But 9000's all game from LDS, right?
You went from 10k to 1k to 10k.
So they can get quite a lot.
Definitely not going to want to do that again.
No.
I may ideally watch the play with Aegis, I would say.
And with the pretty, I guess we're
going to go for that push just for more of the team with him.
Sure.
He didn't have everybody.
A lot of money on Topson.
We'll see what he commits for.
They all have a, they all get purchased with a light,
but they'd like to.
Nothing to say.
Aon gets popped.
That's two Aons now on cooldown for the side of XG.
the next minute or so. And that could be around the rush again. That respawn is coming
pretty quickly here. Oh that's silly. Poor supports can't even win healing. Yeah, you're
not competing with him. This top of his class is healing. This carry. That's actually mean.
He's got refresher now too, so more bears at the ready here for Yuma. And that
That roast shit is up.
Not super easy for XG to get out there either.
LGD can start to poke it here.
They're going to smoke.
They know that they're probably looking to set up for that roast.
The scan does connect.
On the front line, these extra hexes.
Yes.
And on my playing it very aggressively forward here.
up the back. Don't finish it. Do bear, swinging across the map. Need the team wanting to go
into the pit until they've found a fight. FYI still 20 second cooldown on that A on
Damage top to try to jump people kill a fixed over there is the bear with the fear this time round
Oh, they will turn leguda blade pushing back with a hurricane fight. Oh, they will live
They break boss him off
They have to use the two buybacks there on XG with the supports to come in and keep army safe
But I may survive literally just standing his ground killing the bears
Do they have another one or did he actually use the refresher there for that?
I think that was no bear for the defense here for a long time 90 seconds until the bears back
Nice fight there. I can't believe how long they end up surviving on some of these supports in particular as well too to protect, aren't they?
Whisper also with a couple chains that don't connect on top.
I mean, I took two times pretty close, but they nearly did get him that first time round.
They couldn't quite lock in that long enough to stop him from getting the BKB, say, Tannigov.
And then the second bear, that nearly got him as well.
But the control came out.
Armey still at the hurricane pipe, ready to push himself away from it.
from it and take out that pair a second time in the fight.
Come out on top, get that Rocham secured and pick up the Aegis.
All little things coming into play, right?
This one I think was like a refresher overgrowth perhaps
that ends up catching and just slowing down a little bit
of this extra attack speed and catch up to him.
Now I'm back to what he was looking for earlier.
And he's got an Aegis now to play around.
Another fortification.
Much safer.
This time.
Should be able to get a little bit more.
Two, three on the top, goth.
Twenty-six is still topsoons up, he doesn't want to use the buyback.
Might get two sets.
All the Hex to slow things down a little bit.
Another Hex.
Another stun.
He's getting out there, they're calling the trees.
He's so far forward.
And they've got him, he's gone for nearly two minutes without buyback.
He was so far forward on the hoodwink.
That's rough.
He's one of the Hex carriers.
He's super important.
and he's gone. That is a rough depth of deal. I can get what he's trying to do right with these hexes
and slowing down army but he puts himself in such a formidable spot. Topson is going to find
it's going to come forward and the light track right comes out of the two of them. Is he going to
run that out towards army? The two stone save is going to be there for Topson. Give them a chance.
Give them a chance. Give the BKB off and jumps away to assimilate in the last little step he'll live.
Almey standing his ground.
Ready to move on to the tier fours. It's a 4v5, well 4v6 essentially.
He can't be used in.
They got one bear.
Nearly got the refresher back up in 10 seconds.
It's the only bear though.
Look.
It's just gone.
He's got refresher. He's got refresher up. Okay.
They should be able to get a second one out. They killed off nothing to say.
Here's the second bear. It's on its way over.
We're getting burst though. I'm actually destroying them.
They'll be forced to use the buyback of both cause.
He almost too scared to send his bear into.
He knows it's his last one.
This is the last one.
of act that they can find. Still 46's without fear of the core and still into this age of
some army.
That's not a refresh.
Ah, besides, they found the bear. He's gonna put the BKB trying to get it away from army.
Will manage to save it.
This bear can't do what it wants to do. It can't go up and go for army by any means.
He has too much supporting cast of them. Too much damage from him too.
Fortification's gone.
They still don't...
20 seconds left of the full line-up. Wisp is gonna jump in trying by time for this.
They look to F5, but F5's able to get away with the shot, and Asheville stepped down to the low ground, tops of the BKB.
Well, jump out before the BKB comes to an end, stay safe.
They managed to push them away from the base, but they're still trying to take their attention away from the objectives.
The bear will destroy F5 on the backlight, SFY gone for two minutes.
The Fesgate comes in there, they caught the bear.
Army, bring it in the right click, that's going to be the bear gone!
Uh-oh.
56 seconds, until you'll see the next bear.
Army can go for the C chair, still two minutes on Aegis.
And they do it without the bear.
And they push Army back somehow.
First X comes in into the sharpshooter. Topson's gonna make the jump over to XXS, but the BKB's up for XXS!
Turns over to WSPA, Army! Free the right kick for the two, so Zayn comes in!
WSPA's gonna be fine for now!
Time for the bushwap, but no tree to connect to.
Full Skadi. Picks up on the way over for Army, ready to fill his slots up off the Aegis Sixpire.
Still a minute and a half left with it.
X on to him, X Nova being bullied by WSPA, but will live with the living armor.
Ain't no way! I'm the worst I can survive.
He pushed them away from Arme though, so Arme is a little more isolated, but they're just scared of him without the bear, they don't have the damage for him.
They're buying time though, the bear's gonna come up soon.
Jump forward, he'll be all set up, and the remnant, and then the Hex, might be the only chance of getting the first life out of him here.
Second Hex, the second round of burst for Whisper, it's gonna be Aegis God.
He swaps the BKB in early, so he'll have it immediately as he comes up.
BKB and Scottie gonna be hit the next round, but straight away they have the remnant.
The fear comes in, they surround him, can he heal up here?
Army the same time he comes to play the BKB, he turns towards the bear.
The bashings are coming out, can he kill the bear?
Or he can, the human's bear will fall.
Army turns to one time, and he's gone, Army survives.
He's doing it.
He's looking to likely be over.
There's no buyback for Topson, no buyback for Yuma.
Army living through it all as he's ready to put an end to this under the tier 4s.
And this game's over. Game 1. It's gonna be in the bag here for XG.
Oh, Army. Surely being the king in this game. 15, 3 and 10.
Obviously with the supporting cast.
And with many bare kills on top of that. You know, you take those into account.
He's probably getting close to the 30s.
That was pretty impressive stuff.
Just being able to stand his ground multiple times.
Being confident in how he actually uses the BKB, he uses that satanic.
He died the once goal for the high goal miss out. That was pretty much it. That was beautiful
Absolutely, now had some sort of shaky performances on the days coming up to this by here turning up under stay three
Army coming out on top in this game one
What a fantastic game to open this series with we had the the loan route versus the tree and protector to highly coveted heroes
We had the army Lena coming out. This was quite the treat saber
I mean, I'm sure you would have been happy either way who won, but I know you were also ready for extreme
What this was incredible?
I'm so impressed by armor
I think once he got his all his items when he got the pendulum satanic scuddy
It's not like there's just no stopping him. He just stood his crown
He did it it and there's nothing you can do
Yeah, this was classic extreme
Well, you could see it in the siege at the end there how much faith they all put in if we just
just protect Aume, we're gonna win the game. Like you had XXS just throwing down the pit
on Aume, he's sieging, everybody's like positioned perfectly around him, and in every fight from
like 20, 30 minutes onward it was just, it was so hard for LGD to break extreme, like
we were talking about it the whole game, they pretty much had to wrap on LGD and break
them in that way because when it came to just like mono, a mono of team fighting,
it was never gonna happen.
But to be fair, Numa did a really good job on that.
There was moments from, let's say, 30 to 50 minutes where he was just playing solo, just
the bear pushing all the waves, pushing rex.
They almost managed to get the win from that.
But I think once Dalina got this critical mass it became way too hard.
Speaking of critical, I wanted to be a little critical here because the whole game
I thought LGD misplayed pretty hard when we saw the laundry today compared to spirits laundry
I thought spirit played a lot better around the laundry here of where this laundry is going to be pushing waves out
He's going to be ratting and then the enemy has to respond
And then it's good for your team to camp some heroes behind the bear and attack
You know or use that to attack somewhere else on the map
But I didn't really see that happening because like Jenkins said they cannot 5v5 extremes lineup the team fight is too strong
The Lena is like Saber said whatever like as fast as you can the third is just too powerful and you can see whisper getting obviously
Animated and sad about that. Yeah, I actually don't think LGD played that. Well after such a great early game that they had
I feel bad for whisper. This is just something that sometimes happens when you're playing timbersaw, you know like in the late game, especially
When you have that 25 talent for the extended range on the W
You can sometimes just kind of throw it in the middle of a team fight and you're hoping like a slight change in angle
And you're missing that tree that you're aiming for that's like two three screens away
And then everybody sees that's okay. This guy's no tipper chain for like four seconds. Just kill him
That is kind of the problem with the 25 pounder the wrench is so long that you have to like aim on trees off of screen
And like normally you could you're just gonna click on the tree
But once you have this long range, you're not clicking the tree
You're just trick clicking the direction and if you're missing the the tree then yeah, you're in big trouble
Big trouble maybe now also for LGD. I mean this is a series not for elimination both these teams are one and two though
So if you go one and three here, if you lose this series
you are gonna be playing to avoid elimination later today and
extreme with one game up
It had to be Arme. It had to be Arme for our MVP of this game because as the Lina, he did hold his ground, he did trust in his teammates to help him out staying alive and I don't think you can make a better case for anyone else fly.
Yeah, this brought me like flashbacks of the old Lina when she was completely overpowered
And you would have the Lina and Triant as a classic combo because you're just basing your entire lineup on this Lina
Just being able to sit there and right-click like a turret with the living armor with all the different buffs
You have the save from the rubik you have the control from the underlord
So we were all very excited about the draft the whole time
We thought they had a really solid draft and Ami just did he did his job
I think the early game was crumbling a little bit
I think they didn't play the early game very well, but as soon as they hit that mid game timing they played fantastic together
Yeah, and they didn't have a cool some cool moments on the cool moments. We're gonna look at right now was ramen at 18 Jenkins
Yeah, I agree with Tal they all did do their job
And we also talked to the pre-show about how sometimes these cool plays get overlooked
You can see here XSS actually uses the underlord portal to
destroy the tree from hoodwink which stops the stun and then saves all night here
And to me, this is just a reflection of kind of how the whole game was being played and how extreme plays whenever they're informed, which is everyone is utilizing every single thing they have in their kit to protect Almey.
And they're all thinking about it as a team, even diving here.
And I don't think they ended up killing him, but this is a lot of pressure on the map.
And something that started looking good for LGD and complete turnaround,
because they were protecting Almey.
Yeah, we did have a lot of close fights in this game.
Kuda for a long time still go either way.
But there was one fight that definitely swung everything in favor of extreme gaming Saberlight.
Yeah, I wanted to highlight this fight where it becomes clear that this Lena is a problem.
Like, when you play against Laundry, you can't really run away from him, because he's going to root you, as you can see.
He got the bear on top of the Lina, but once you got enough items, he just pops his satanic, and he's hitting.
He's just, you know, killing the bear, chaos everywhere, but they end up winning this fight on Xtreme,
and they will get Roche as well, and this was kind of the turnaround, as you can see.
LGD still has the network fleet in this fight, but since they weren't able to finish this Lina and kill him,
They just once the fight there was another sadly missed timber chain, but yeah
They they lose the fight they lose Roche and the game becomes really difficult
Because if you can't kill Nina without a guess then you're not killing her with Vegas. Yeah
This was a rough from there on out of for elderly
But they did do a good job throughout the game on trying to create space in a large portion of that space came from
The lone druid was very oppressive lone druid coming up from human to look a little bit
Closer onto that we are heading over to part
Thank you, Shira. Yeah, there's been a lot of talk about loan druid in the last couple months
Actually about how strong this heroes
But I just wanted to show you some examples about how dominant his laning stage can be because this game he landed against an underlord
Which isn't exactly the best match up there for xxs
Basically what he does is he runs at his opponent pretty much consistently
We're only a minute into the game and he's preventing his opponent from getting close to last inning while you ma misses some of these last hits
The pressure that he's put on his enemies are relatively high and kind of a cool thing here is they ended up coming to lane with the teleport scroll already on his bear
So even though he took a bunch of damage, he can actually teleport him back to base to effectively buy him an extra summon
So he basically has three bears for the cost of 100 gold. If you think about how much regen that is
It's like a 1300 HP healing cell for 100 gold, which is super super value there
So when he ends up teleporting back in the lane the same thing's gonna happen
He's gonna go back to zoning and xxs who now says okay, that's a full HP bear
I can't TP back to base and get fully healed like my opponent can and they get a run them down and they get the first blood as a
Results of this so even though there were some good last hits by XSS and the previous portion
They ended up getting a little spooky Yuma does survive this chase down here and what ends up happening afterwards
You might think okay. Well Yuma lost HP finally. He's gonna get out harass
He's gonna have to buy regen now
He's got a heal from undying and every single time that his bear attacks his main hero is getting regen
So he basically gets all of the sustain while harassing his opponent while zoning his opponent and even at one point
We do see like more rundown here XSS is again getting zoned. He just harasses him, zones him away, comes back, get a last hit
harasses him, zones him, runs back, gets a last hit and all this time any time these radiant creeps are dying
The Underlord is even remotely close to it
So he doesn't get full experience advantage, which is really rough for him here
And then finally they do get a little good harassing on the low injured here throwing him back into the pit of Malus
Gaining a lot of right clicks, but the lane is just not enough
The lone druid survives again and once again doesn't have to read in up because he's got lone druid bear
No support has to come. He just gets the lane stabilized
He's still really really high up on net worth if we take a look at the totals here. Let's compare them
There's lone druid at 3,000 down here underlord 12 or 2,000 gold
So big advantage for the lone druid and this is something that a lot of players have to deal with in their games
Well, Andrew is hard to lane against and his re summer stuff capabilities later on are really tough to deal
So further impressive the extreme gaming beat it with the Lena
It wasn't an easy beat. This game was 58 59 minutes, which you might think like well that was very long
Thank you, Perch. I appreciate it. Thank you Perch. You don't have to say it every time. We will say it every time. Thank you Perch
But 59 minutes, you know, we we get I don't know how you guys at home are watching when we at home
we at here rather get the luxury of watching all streams at the same time and
And we were the first game to finish every single game, every single game one of every single series live, went to, well, over 60 minutes apart from the one we just witnessed.
And I know, Flight, you said earlier, that today, because there's a elimination line, you feel it as a player. Is this the result of that, you think?
Oh, for sure. There are a lot of nerves for everybody here. There's a lot of thoughts going on through players' heads.
And I think one of the series was Yandex.
Am I allowed to spoil?
Yes, you are.
Yandex lost game one to Team Resilience
in a 16 minute game or something.
This is an upset I would never have imagined
when I came here.
I was like, this is never going to happen.
But it's happening.
Yandex is looking a little not so good as we were used to them.
And Resilience is actually taking games off good teams.
So some of these upsets are really cool to see.
So I was watching our game.
And I also had to watch the other game on the other side.
It was just too good.
Yeah, and we know that Gamer Legion vs Falcons was super close as well.
Falcons in the end winning, but...
Gamer Legion was... they were ahead.
We were pretty hyped about that.
We were like, okay, Falcons, this happens, and then they win Game 2,
win Game 3, but yeah, they did end up winning the first game.
Some clutch comebacks there.
Yeah, and since we're in the process of spoiling,
OG did take Game 1 off of Lugani,
which is of course the one series that is on right now
that is for elimination already.
It was also a 60 minute plus game,
so it wasn't an easy game for them at all,
but so many spicy games coming your way today.
It's hard to choose,
but you made the right choice being here.
Anyway, wanna talk about what's happening game number two
because we started this whole game one
with the opening of Dream Protector Laundry.
And these are two highly coveted heroes, Saber.
Are we gonna see them again?
This was only the fourth Dream Protector game.
It did win, but I wouldn't say it was the cause of the win, per se.
I think it kind of adds up, especially like the Lina.
You kind of want as many saves for her as possible.
So I think the Triumph impact is harder to see, but it is there.
It's with him healing towers, making it harder to push, protecting the Lina.
He did have some very nice ultimates throughout the game,
but I think LGD are probably not going to play against Triumph again.
I feel like in these things, you come in with the approach of like,
okay guys, let's try to beat this tree and we know what we want to do.
We'll pick our timber saw and that's the plan.
And then you try it and then you lose and you're like,
I would be surprised that they do it again because it's just,
if you're going against the grain, you kind of want to try it once.
And if it works, it works.
I think similar to how they played against Falcon's Oscar.
They decided to play against the Oscar they beat it so then they don't have to be afraid of it
However now that they lost it. It's not that good. Yeah, I would I would ban the tree. It's not it's not really about the tree
It's more so like what the tree enables if Lena's out
Then SF is the pick if SF is out then it's more tough
There's some hero that is going to be able to stand their ground. It's gonna be all May
He's gonna be top net worth extreme is gonna be completely in their comfort zone even okay
Obviously the living armor is a really big reason that these like hyper carries can 1v1 in the late game like all may was doing and beyond killable
But even the tree and ulti being
BKB piercing this was giving all my the ability to press a panic and get the full HP if this is not a tree in and there
Isn't the root there even on like two heroes
They say like they kill him through a satanic right because it's only maybe the carry the enemy carry can like BKB
And then hit on me while he's using the satanic but because of the tree root you just don't have this option to like okay
Let's all in kid in kill all me. No, no, no, there's like something just multiple things to save him
It's just a bit too much. Well with that in mind fine. Will there be a loan through it?
I mean with caps in the kitchen
It's hard to say like one game is some cardamom this game
Maybe some jalapeno peppers like I don't know exactly what's gonna happen. He's got a lot of things cooking
So he's gonna leave something and he's gonna leave something in he's gonna have a plan
I think he would switch it up that sounds like his MO like something didn't work
I I'm I definitely saw this guy like when he's prepping for games like I see him sitting down
He has a notebook. He's writing down like different heroes. So he's clearly planning
You know, I think he does it more serious than a lot of other coaches
Yeah, where he focuses a lot on the hero specifically other coaches might focus more on the game gameplay aspect
I think caps focuses a lot on draft and trying to out draft the enemy
which sometimes works in their favor for sure. He definitely comes up with some good stuff.
So I want to see something else this game. I think I do think they didn't play that well around Lingerd.
Not like Yuma not playing the hero well, but as a team their understanding seems not as high as like a spare team.
So maybe a different approach. Maybe give Topson. I think that giving Topson the last pick was good.
I actually thought he did pretty well on the voice pair.
So I like keeping that and then maybe try a different opener.
Give give them something else. Don't give them tree into which we said fits really well in their archetype of drafts
Yeah, so because
Saying that the voidster was a good overall last pick
I did want to touch up on that because yeah, he did well, but
Is he supposed to still do better like isn't he supposed to dominate take over the game?
Or is that not ways the problem with their draft? I think it's also they have only two stuns
They have the hoodwing bushwalk and then they have the the void spirit
So then it's a lot of pressure on these two heroes to find the pick offs on the map because you have the bear running around pushing waves
But then these two need to be really on point to get the pick offs
And I think throughout the game it they didn't really manage to get that many important kills and then it becomes really hard
I think that comes from gameplay honestly
I thought they should just camp this bear while he's running because then somebody's gonna come out
They jump them if they don't it's fine. They can still just farm around the bear. There's no problem. So I
Didn't mind it so much. I think actually the voids for just it's not a very popular here in the meta and we can see why
I think he's a little underwhelming. He had so much more net worth than the park the entire game
But it didn't feel like yeah, that's that's not Thompson's fault
It's nearly the heroes just a little weaker compared to the other meta heroes. I think to be fair
It's a little bullshit playing into Lina with 80% magic resist
Laguna's the bear and all of a sudden Thompson's like well
I have plus like 50% spell amp and like 2,000 magic damage burst
But that's gonna be about 200 again, you know, and just think about it
He his job in the fights was to find the rubik and he did assess
Assassinate him some some of the fights like the laundry and the voids paired were chasing this rubik like crazy
And I think that is a good hero for that
Maybe he should have went this more like right-clicking build where you go like Daedalus, Manta, I don't know
I don't I don't see this here very often
But this could have been the game for the physical damage Void Spirit
Yeah, that's that's honestly not a bad call against all the magic resist and Manta against Trent is yeah
The best item you can get in the game. Yeah, that's true
I mean, I guess I guess one argument there is maybe he didn't think the game was gonna go this late
Because you get to this like 60 minute mark and you're like goddamn
I wish I had a Mantis style on the Daedalus on my Void Spirit, which is a big mistake because as we've learned this TI is only long game
Yes, yes, so you're saying we should buy Midas
Well, maybe
But I feel like it's yeah
I don't know maybe it's like the the pressure and the nurse but I or maybe it's just teams being really good
So it's never easy to end the game
But I do feel like this T.I. meta always kind of evolves into okay who can pick a better lady and then like not get too
destroyed in the early
Do you guys remember was it was the last T.I.
That every support was getting Midas it started with ancient apparition
Always that was not no that was not T.I. I think Midas has not been
That popular for a very long time. It was the last the last few years
I mean Midas is just not happening that item is pretty bad unless it's on ogre
I agree with that as an ogre player that item actually makes sense. I
You get to multicast so it's actually value good value and you get items then you buy hex you can triple hex
You can you know multicast that it's great. So we're in that build is the glimmer and the words
Well, what a core question. I say we come on
The bus for will buy it. Oh, right
No, actually, when you do play Ogre, I used to just buy one team item, because you want
one item for the first initial fights of like 15-20 minutes, where you're fighting some
small objectives, then you buy the Midas, and then they're not as upset at you, just
like, you know.
Yes, you can track your team into thinking you're supporting them in reality.
So look at your inventory at the start of the game, like, oh, it's the first time,
that's nice.
Yeah, it's all a master plan, just to buy the Midas, and they cannot report you
after, it's great.
But these games going as long as they are, though, I mean, we are seeing more supports
being more aware that their inventory will fill up eventually, right?
They have to pick and choose a little bit more carefully and maybe go for bigger items.
I like that.
It's fun to watch as a viewer perspective because that also means that the team fights
will be more explosive potentially.
Very curious to see how explosive the upcoming game is.
we are heading to game two. LGD and Extreme Gaming are both one and two right now on this group stage
and we are gonna see which one of these two teams will be at a two and two and which one will be at
a one and three for their series later on today as we are in the draft we got Extreme Gaming on
the dire side. LGD on the radiant side so that is a similar and the pick order also similar
extreme gaming gets the overall first pick in so far winter wiver and once again banned they went for
that last game as well just like the earth spirit keep in mind extreme gaming their third ban previous
game was the invoker they can choose to leave that in or still ban out the lone druid or whichever
one is of course being left in the pool and the sand king and the ember were also two bans
that were similar the only one that we were critical of we saw lgd ban out the huskar
in the first phase previous game same bans for extreme here by the way we'll see if they
still been out the Husker. They will have to change it up because they bent, oh they bent both out.
That's cool. That means that the draw ranger and Husker are in.
Okay, Fly is happy. No more, no more Husker, Ben.
Yeah, I think that was, you know, the soup was not right for that one of the salt. So let's see
if this time they're gonna actually take the draw ranger, which I think would be really fun.
I would like to see it. I think the the time Xtreme picked it, they did not first pick it.
Yeah, they actually went for a similar draft where they first picked the Marana,
And then the draw came in a second phase.
I'm not sure about the Marana first pick.
I think she's a solid support, but she hasn't looked as good as we thought she would.
I think it was like a rough 40-45% win rate, right?
Not that. Not super hot or anything.
It was a bit rough.
Alright, we got an exact 50%.
So 50% chance we're going to win this one.
I will inhale some copium a little bit and say that
The teams that are really good with Marana such as Falcons, they're really good at like drafting around it as well
You know they'll have multiple stuns in the different lanes
They can set up for it if it does rotate like they'll run some you know
SD plus Marana and then like tiny on Skeeter something like that and I do feel like some of these other teams are just kind of
Whippen out the Marana rather than like drafting around it too much
It is true. You do need stuns to set up for the arrow and then then the hero becomes properly powerful
Yeah. I think the first picks of the draft are usually like the building blocks.
So you get a Murana, you get a Treen Protector, you're gonna build around that.
The Treen, you're gonna get this ranged archetype hero as a carry, you're gonna build around that.
Murana, you're gonna get setup stuns, could be an Ember Spirit mid, for example.
I know it's banned this game, but some hero like that where it sets up for the arrow,
Shadow Demon, etc. You're gonna build around that Centaur,
Generically a strong hero. I think it is pretty flexible and what it can do. It scales really well into the game
You have great item builds. You can play with a lot of different carries
They do give army a counter pick now
So I'm curious to see what they're gonna leave in a pool because I think army does have a lot of good heroes against centaur
Is it is it on me though? Because the the originator of the centaur mid was Thompson
People copy this from they copied this from his dream
It made its way into pro level pubs, and then this is when you had the Malorenes and other people
experimenting with it, so I could absolutely see LGD flexing this
to potentially be mid. Three out of the four games live right now went for in the first phase pick center
It is interesting to note that this hero yesterday
I thought this was caused for maybe moving this hero's priority up to the ban list because he looked
Unstoppable. Unkillable. Especially if games go late, you want a center because he's going to be at some point turning into this monster that's literally more than a raid boss.
He's unkillable and then he gets an Agatom Scepter and then he makes the hypercarry, whatever it is, SF-Lina, unkillable. So yeah, it's very good.
Basically, heart is a broken item and this is the best hero in the game to have a heart.
Yeah, I would say like the best thing about center is that he just scales super well
And sometimes you have a problem like usually people go to build of like helm into heart and it's it's very greedy
You're like farming for let's say 25 minutes before you really join the game
But if these games are going late and the centers
Have the opportunity to just farm and farm they will eventually get super fat and you're not killing them
So perhaps that's why it's becoming way more popular and feels really strong in every single game
I think they're gonna so we see the altered Titan come out to it
I think it's a cool combo with Marana because you get a stomp in the teamfight you get a
Arrow follow-up. It's very like it's a solid combo starter
I guess they just like it as a answer to centaur because centaur usually doesn't buy armor items
He buys it's for example the heart. He buys the honor of dummy
He will probably need to buy Lotus's game.
So now Yuma kind of has to pick a Syro against Ardhar because they want to hide the center like Jenkins was saying.
I didn't realize he plays at mid, but it makes perfect sense.
They picked the Windranger, which can also go mid as we saw Thompson play it.
So this is like a good CAF situation here where he has these flexible heroes.
Actually, Wind can also play as a support. I think Teolokor also plays it.
He does.
So this is like some crazy super right now.
with Flex and even though we saw Lina see mostly on the carry, another Flex. So that is potentially
three cores there flexed out and Windranger can then also still go support. So that's a that's a
very cool one and it is LGD that has overall aspects so they're not going to need to reveal
anything from this point onwards. So Extreme got their work cut out for them.
Yeah the world is their oyster on this one.
And to be fair, Xtreme can run mid Slaughter as well for nothing to say, and I'm not sure how that would do against the Centaur mid.
I know Slaughter like dumpsters most melee heroes, but maybe Centaur is different, and this is where the Lina also comes in for LGD,
is that if they were to run the Lina mid against Slaughter, then I think Lina should do very well against the Slaughter, who will just constantly get harassed.
It becomes really hard to figure out how to do it with extreme because I think the slaughter against center matchup is pretty good for slaughter
Center doesn't have much armor as a slice set
However, it is hard for you to decide right because you don't have last pick you need to comment with the with this next pick on extreme
Is this slaughter met or is it carry and then LGD can decide okay if it is slaughter met
We don't need to put the center there
It wouldn't make sense to put the center again center against draw and then you can just decide, okay
We put the wind wherever the slaughter is going. That's where this win is going
Orderly I guess I think now it's pretty clear from LGD's perspective for sure
I think now Santa should go offline. Yeah, I think the wind rangers should match up against the elder Titan
Because it's a good support matchup because you can just win run away from the ET was trying to hit you
I think the hoodwink is a good support matchup against Marana and the one to one the hoodwink
he will usually beat out the Marana.
The Lina can still go either safe lane or mid lane.
I guess that's the last thing to decide,
but they will see everything,
so it should be pretty easy for LGD from this point on.
I think now Xtreme just has to make sure
their draft is cohesive to enable the draw ranger
to do what she does best,
which is to right click and fight some destroy everyone.
So I would like another initiator,
Type Hero, whether it's mid or off lane,
I think both can work.
I think X-XS is more likely to play the slaughter, but otherwise maybe there's something I'm
missing that NTS could play mid as a stunner.
Does he play Ember?
Because I believe it is a very net, oh it's banned in the first phase, never mind.
Because yeah, I do think they need some kind of initiation before the slaughter.
Pango now also banned.
Pango's banned, okay.
would be we've seen this as the answer to Lena. I mean puck is yeah puck is
still cool. Yeah, it can work. It's similar. Yeah, but then doesn't seem excited
about it. But I know that people pick Centaur as an answer to puck so maybe
some lane shenanigans can happen there. I mean it's hard to answer every single
thing as long as your draft makes sense from this point on I think it's
good enough for Xtreme to have a shot at winning this. So whether it's the puck,
maybe there's something, if they want to get really creative, maybe there's like a
brewmaster angle, not the best against Centaur, but it will also be like some pseudo initiation
that is good against like Alina in the early game. Otherwise, I like the puck idea. I think
there's nothing wrong with that one. Yeah, I think drafting against Cuffs, it's kind of hard
to not get outdrafted with this last pick, considering how many flexes they have, but
it doesn't necessarily mean that if you get outdrafted slash outcooked by cuffs, that the game will be
hard for you, because I think as long as Xtreme can pick their own cohesive draft that makes sense,
it doesn't really matter that the enemies are flexing three different heroes,
like they have the last pick, they will get something, so as long as you make sure that
your own heroes make sense then that's all you need.
And this is exactly how they won the previous game and exactly how they got
second place at the previous TI is just having cohesive drafts that are doing
the same thing every time protecting Aume, setting it for Aume,
making his game good, giving him amplification you know which they have.
Has been their recipe for success?
Kunkka would have been good. It's a tanky beefy boy to run in initiator as well.
Also a hero to set up for Marana Arrow. Kunkka into X into Arrow is a classic.
Yeah this one is a bit hard for me to call, without really remembering all of the heroes
that NTS plays or X success. But I think it's more likely to be a mid lane hero that
they're going to pick, because I think Slardar often will do better.
Magna!
Do we think it's mid-magnus? I feel like NTS does play Magnus.
He does. It used to be one of his signatures. I think they can choose now. I think they can
wait themselves and choose where this goes. I think the idea is once it is an initiating type
hero so it's what we were kind of thinking they should do and it's also a hero that can
bring Lina or Windranger, whoever is like a core, out of position in the fights,
which is always a good thing against these range carries. So I think it's cool, I
like their draft, it makes sense together, it's got a very clear path to
winning and I think LGD has some pressure on them with this last pick to
really pop off against this Extreme lineup. And to be fair I think this
last pick is very important because LGD they've been they've been
sorting their soup, this entire draft, but now if you over-salt it with this last pick,
it becomes a problem.
What about something like a Viper that just demolishes both of these heroes' mids?
What about Monkey King, that helps in classic?
I think they need something punishing, because I think if they go toe-to-toe again, like
a 5v5, it's going to be really hard for them to beat this final.
And the center mid is no longer an option for you guys.
Never mind.
option, maybe. It's definitely not going to be Spectre mid, is it? No, it's Lina mid.
Okay, they're going to go with Lina mid. I mean, Lina does very well against melee
heroes mid in general. I think Magnus vs. Lina is probably okay for Mag, right? You
just shove the lane and go jungle. It should be Lina favored, but not like some crazy
Stomp, which would be Lina's favorite.
I mean, Spectre is good against Drow, in a nutshell, like you want heroes that are on top of Drow, like Gapclose,
but also the Drow lineups are usually very grouped together,
so Spectre will have a harder time finding that opening when she's alone outside of like some early game skirmishes.
So, you may have over-salted this one, I think.
I think he over-salted it.
i think it becomes like it's a very dependent on how extreme place when the
magnus gets his blink if he's able to find
kills with with it and like set up the tempo
because i feel like one specter hits his items
it becomes a really hard draw in your games you have the stump eat you have
you have specter that's going to be on top of you then it gets a bit scary
for ame and a hard mag game too
i think i think specter is one of the highest
Winner rates on Dota buff like of all Dota games against Magnus because you just can never hit a good RP because of haunt
But slaughter against Spectre and lane to be pretty good for slaughter, right?
Yeah, I think you just run them down. Yeah, that should be pretty chill
What do we feel about the sport you know because windranger and hoodwink often are considered to be here as a do kind of the
Same they also are very elusive. So it will be hard to get potentially kills on them pickups on them because they are
just gonna run you're gonna miss that's why I was a bit confused by the
spectre because I think the heroes don't make that much sense together to me they
all rely on the center who doesn't even buy blink until very much later like they
want to shoot their their spells they need to stand for it so LGD has this
like ratty game going on where they're gonna have to outplay the
opponents and again extreme is gonna be this grouped up gameplay of like
sticking together and going together so I prefer extreme this game okay let's
Let's see who comes out on top from this game number two. We're heading over to Odiepixel and Funt.
Thank you very much, you've got game two tonight, I'm here, ready to go.
And some exciting drafts of different heroes coming into play, coming in for that Magnus as the last pick.
And indeed you're going to get to see some ET.
What do you sort of think of the two approaches here?
Last pick coming in from LGD, going with the Spectre.
Solid hero right now, but is this the sort of draft and position to pick it in?
You could see why right just gap closer versus the draw like Jenkins was alluding to as well versus the Magnus
You can give information in a lot of ways, but the lane definitely doesn't look the easiest right versus the slaughtered arm
Orana, it's one of the better ones versus a lot of these melee's who can get punished
Yeah, I don't know. I like I like this energy from XG's
I think LGD's does look a little bit like not everything being the most synergistic
So we'll have to see how that ends up going in terms of everything
Actually played super well last time and I have seen these drows they can deal with specters
It was Amé last time on the Spectre versus Yatoro on the Drow Ranger the other day that we saw and Yatoro was out playing the hell out of him
Honestly, so we'll see if Amé can do a similar thing at this game
Because also this is gonna be a slowdown Spectre again
And that's what happened to Amé the other day where he was like 0-3 on the Spectre versus this super farmed Drow Ranger
It was a full recovery game for him
Though we'll have to see how these lanes end up going down as well because I do have some worries for the Spectre
They have my boy ET. Hell yeah
I mean does he look like a good ET gang?
He's one of the better ET players and it's about having this secondary combo shared with the Murana, but it's also just this protection and the eventual.
Earth Splitter is amazing for Centaur because nowadays these Centaur's that they always talk about, they go hard.
Earth Splitter is a percent damage max HP ability which is actually super good.
Can I finish off this?
They might be able to.
Oh, well, I mean, I feel the car actually kills our farm a for the first blood there
So well slowly, but surely get whispered
They didn't get it before LGD got the first blood themselves with the other core and King jungles catching Armour out on top
He supports able to blast them down. I think you might be getting baited in a little bit by fear the core
He did get fear the core relatively low
So probably tried to push for the kill and suddenly a whole point turns up and surprises him
And that's the how this mid-mashup goes, right?
Thompson should have quite a bit of an edge versus nothing to say, but nothing to say.
Can't start to get some recovery points later on, but Thompson's gonna have a very good
start and good opening into this one.
Now, let's see how this goes, because I think this could be kind of tough for the
mag.
Lena just is a bit of a different beast right now.
Yeah, that's pretty true.
And he's constantly kept away from the wave.
You'll have a few nukes yourself, but your nukes are just not the same as
the Lena's.
Double range creep coming in. First two waves very important for nothing to get something because it's going to get harder and harder of course.
We'll get that last hit. Infinite harassment.
Supports might make early rotations just to help out, right? We might see the Marana leave the bottom lane a little early just to ensure that they can get the refill to slow down top since harassment onto NTS.
Now let's see how it goes. Always want to see some mag. There's not a hero really that a lot of teams from now sit are right now.
And always a fun one to watch and always one that gives you that potential to make the comeback plays even when you're far behind on those base defenses
I think that's what actually it's kind of gone for in this game overall, right?
Their late game is terrifying pushing into that high ground into Magnus E.T.
All these type of things with the draw as well
It's gonna be difficult for LGD unless they get a good
Advantage in the mid game to go for any of these high ground pushes. That's scary
You've got Stampede to bail out, but it's not gonna save you every time
Well, at least have the bottom out and the water running.
I'm getting too far behind on CS, nothing to say.
We'll see if he is able to try and hold as close as he can to Topson's Lena in the CS.
Once he's got boots as well, too, he can start dragging a little, right?
You can start avoiding the Lena, but until that point, it's going to be very difficult for him to get any of those extra last hits.
Topson just literally nuking him, not even nuking the wave.
The nuke's just a little bit too much for the mag.
Extra denies coming out because of it.
And do you like some of the way that they went with sort of having the deletion in the mid and going for something different with the carry pick?
Whoa, whoa, whoa, nothing to say.
If I get this time.
He has to skewer away on it. He went for a, he tried to go for a play to skewer him under tower perhaps, but not going to be the case.
I think it was just a last second kind of pivot that they went for here.
They wanted to have this slaughter in this matchup.
I mean, you're not getting pressure as much on these first levels.
Not at all, actually.
I thought it was going to be a little harder in the first few, especially, so very nicely
done.
On the flip side though, Aume, same even though he died at the start, this is a pretty
free lane for him.
He's got the ET to back him up always.
Looking forward to see what Exnova does, because I've seen a couple, I've seen
more of these ET's than I anticipated.
A lot more clockwork has been, clockwork's kind of just been disappearing and people
finding a replacement for it. And yeah, the wobble combo, right? They do get some good
RPs eventually too, that splitter, that stomp. Very threatening.
This is going to be a complete free farm for Topson on the mid lane.
And they're not even swinging over support as well too, which is a bit interesting.
Look at how they are. They're bringing the ETP toward the mid lane, but...
Yeah, she's going to be able to do much with this.
He canceled.
Yeah.
It's getting the jump on Topson as this leaner is looking pretty unlikely.
Whisper is going to just have to start jungling a bit here, being kept low, going to back
up.
Now he can come back toward the top lane afterwards, but yeah, it's a free farm spectre and actually
a free farm drone.
Pretty important for Yuma.
If it doesn't get pushed too far behind, we'll definitely see the advantage of the spectre against the drought for a large portion of the game, but it's only when you get those sort of later lines, right, having that hurricane pike and the silver edge and ways to sort of react to getting jumped upon by the spectre that you can start to play back into it.
Starting to wave drag as we see here, but yeah, 18-0 to the 25 people, or 7 behind, I guess. It's not that bad.
No, he's playing it well.
As I say, I think this is a really hard matchup to play against Lina.
He's not feeding. He's getting what he can.
I think honestly, he's doing the best he can kind of doing this sort of matchup.
It's not a fun one against Lina right now.
Yeah, absolutely.
That's why it does get caught during the leave.
The last little bushwhack.
Could be just fine.
It'll be okay with the second leaf.
Bart of Damage gonna come into Yumi here because of that.
Can they get the arrow connection?
No, he's trying to line it up.
If they can sort of do it in a distance,
where there's going to be time to make the connection, but timing's off.
That's a tricky one to connect with.
You either have to have a bash primed and you get the stun into the bash into the arrow,
or you have to shoot the arrow instant as the stun comes out, so can't hesitate.
Tough to execute.
But it does mean that Yuma has brought half HP.
So now has to be a little careful how he steps up in these next few moments,
because the harassment will add up.
Power root, looks like they are starting to set up for it.
Both sides support starting to swing toward the mid lane.
I know he's going to be the case where, yes Topson is free farming, but there's repositioning
so he has to be very careful how he steps up in some moments, nothing to say.
He's going to take quite a bit of damage from this.
He'll live, but I'm just fully backed up over the river.
This time around they do get F-Walked.
It's interesting movements from Yuma, right?
He's like, I'm just not going to put the lane into 1v1 for the Slaughter.
I'm going to join my support.
Exnova.
He should be able to play himself out of this.
Too speedy?
What's gonna be the build from nothing to say is it just gonna be a blink crush is gonna be the question if I feel
It might be yeah depends like
You buy for the blink first or do you get yourself something like the echo so you have a chance of getting some farm
I think this might be one of those where he just gets the blink and then the slaughter
Maybe that's more of a greedy style. We'll have to see yeah, cuz it might be a bit weird if both of them rush the
Yeah, we'll have to see what the witch he wants to do because the break is so good this game right versus the Lena
All he has to do is land it on top of her and very likely she does this get comboed and burst
Exelva he's very bad
trying to
Trying to try this look though. Oh cheeky case. No, what was around but there was option
He's looking for it has the goona just out of range. I get the reach
So nothing, so not having a fun time, but at least, you know, he's not feeding his life
away.
He very much knows that when he can't be around, he can't be around.
Still not a fun start for him, but as I said, not a surprising start.
I can only imagine he knew this was going to be tough playing into this lane.
He's the sacrifice in this game.
Yeah.
That's what they did with the draft, right?
He was just, he just has to be able to do it the way that they set up the
the drab with the double melee from the mid and the bottom when there's that lean up pick.
You about being kept very low now at this point.
Yes, some sort of angle where he's going to be in trouble.
New success is going to look to close in as Yuma goes for that creep, but again the combo
is not really being lined up between the two of them.
I have it anyway.
Looks like they will jump forward and with the neutral to the star storm they do.
Why, you know, why hit the arrow when you don't hit?
Yeah, did he hit a creep with it?
Actually, it looks like he might have maybe, but...
I think he did actually hit it behind the back.
I think I was efficiency from FYAs. I don't need to hit it. I'm going to farm a creep and still get the kill.
Alright, let's see what help comes toward this mid lane. They're starting to put more and more attention on it.
LGD, they want to take out this tower early. Limit the Magnus' space to farm.
Reaction's coming in. Is this everybody on LGD? They're bringing what?
4-5 here, I set our a little bit close.
Even Yuma's swinging over.
They really want to get this early tower.
They're on track, so do so.
3-9 minutes here.
Getting a lot of damage on Spatia 1 mid.
He's got the regen, so he can just tank it.
No way for them to slow it down.
They don't have, honestly, on the side of XG,
their D-push is pretty lackluster.
It's a shockwave, right?
It's a shockwave, but usually you see like fadeboards, like some other hoodwink spells, it's not really anything.
E.T. is not one of those e-pushers.
This time, let's not scare him back up, sir.
I'll be okay.
But it's gonna be a rough road for nothing to say.
It is.
He's gonna go for that blink straight up first naked, but...
I felt like he asked him.
Take time to get there.
So, he's just gonna be pretty much the full sac.
He's literally going to be the off-laner from the mid-lane,
and X-X is gonna be the mid-laner from the off-lane.
Maybe maybe there's one of those things you do at the moment in this patch against Lena
You know you're gonna have a tough time in the lane
So just pick something that's gonna survive through the lane and have strengths elsewhere
Cuz that that seems to be the way that the angle that they're sort of taking
You know tops would get a complete free start. Oh, that's it. I'm in my job. Nice rotation from the supports
Can they finish him off though? Oh, they can't the sleep comes in big stuff big spirit
I was gonna try and fight back not quite strong enough to do that yet and might actually pay for his life. Oh
Oh, that was sad. It looks so nice when you have all that damage.
It's like, yeah, try to punch him!
But then you're going to be just level 4 support at the moment, and E.T. is not really a broken era.
No, sadly he has been in that struggle a lot of times.
Nothing to say at this time.
Yeah, this time they'll get him. He's done a good job of aiding death, but finally it comes for him.
He could become a support in this game pretty quickly.
I mean, especially when you're doing this sort of build up, where you do just try and scramble towards a naked blink.
You're not gonna get any crazy farm anytime soon and when that blinks there
You're gonna hope that you make it plays because if the plays don't come you are gonna be
Eternally left behind on the farm. He does need to find a little more. He needs some more help
I did try to bring the help to him, but yeah now at this point. It's looking really really rough for him
Whisper gonna be pretty massive can just use this helmet dominator creep get all that he wants on the map
And not really the best things to rally around until at this point for XG
They're gonna have to just rely on the slaughter in the early game to make all that space until the Magnus does have that blink dagger
It feels like yeah, I mean that
That's sort of the best thing that they have going for them right now
Is that they did slow down Yuma a little bit?
But it's just a question if that was even as much as they would have hoped to with their lane set up
Because the LGD taking towers there 11 minutes in they're looking to take another tier one and they're getting away with it
Give it a U-Bomb.
Extra little bit. Always will help.
Look at the trade.
That takes us to Waldo Blink. I mean, he's playing versus pretty fragile heroes, so
it's still super valuable. It's actually a very squishy lineup when you look at it
from the side of LGD till the later stages. Sure, Santar is tanky, but he doesn't really build armor.
Not any of these really build armor. Yeah, Spectre sure, and at least tanky
Thank you because of it, but that's going to be pretty strong this corrosive is early on
But they have to make stuff happen with these blinks
You go in on this blink, purchase first up on the Magnus and the Slardar
The plays don't start rolling in, or if you start jumping in and dying, the game comes full apart
Super quickly and to the point where it might just be too much for Army to carry alone as the Drow
Even though the Spectre is down, shut down right, that Lena is that other Terry
pretty hardcore from the middle.
And Thompson is having quite the game with the fact that he had a pretty completely free lane.
And he's even going to the greed build. He's going to Kaia in between going for this axe.
He's going to be very dangerous.
And overall for the drought, I was talking about this during the draft.
The drought was very squishy and there's a lot of burst damage on the side of LGD.
So I'm a Kansas get popped in a lot of these fights just from a honestly a Laguna,
plus a drop shooter even and like a random power shot in the early game.
All right, nothing to say the blink it's gonna be coming out all right all he really needs to do is catch one big kill
Oh, yeah, if you get up with this smoke blink reveal jump the leaner with the RP get the kill
Things can be wrecked to fly in very very quickly after a rough landing phase
Good awareness here from LGD expecting the move they also have that off century on the north side
So they did see it's very deep work
They put a lot of attention onto the mid lane, and it's working well for them here right now.
I did have a spot here. They got the double blinked shredding.
Mm-hmm.
Now on XG.
See where they go with this.
And how much does he wear? Nothing. Nothing said doesn't really want to lead the mid lane.
Like, he doesn't want to go bottom and look for a play. He wants to catch this Lena.
You want top some here?
Absolutely. Top of the list, Ted.
Well, XG's gonna be looking for.
That shows you need now making them move themselves. Leap, FY.
Got a secondary one if you need to use it.
He will.
Also, I'm not seeing them, you know, quickly try and do anything with the blinks, and they do just show them against the skewer, say, they've got to stand here, they're gonna try and run, but they're on top of him, he's dead.
dead and ex-nobu as well I get the sharp should have come in in xx this is
gonna try and jump tops of a king jungler is here ready to help out with the
bush back into the light track ray army turns up but won't have to reach to get
any sort of damage onto top son has to be careful himself there were two dead
on xj awkward for them lgd very ready for the move well they were I mean
that's a two blinks come out but nothing really happens and they lose
two lives themselves oh this is cool and it's a bit of a different feel
that we see from whisper than we've seen usually here it's a really good
crimson game versus the slaughter and the drought the damage is very limited on
the side of xg in terms of magical that makes it even less likely that the
get kills with the blink yeah and even tops in might even look like he'll get
crimson there we go I get something there just a support though they want
the bigger targets Yuma is starting to get that recovery is he's crawling
closer and closer towards that relic they need so much more here xg this is
He's looking much more disciplined this time around from LGD than last time.
Armazpharm is still good at this.
Yeah, he had to carry relatively hard in game one. He's gonna have to carry much harder here in game two.
He doesn't have like the broken tree next to him this time either.
Sure, you've got ET for some protection, but you don't have this tree overgrowth
plus this living armor that's always gonna be there to bail you out in a lot of scenarios.
much, much more difficult lineup to execute on the side of XT than the last time to protect
Aumei.
And it's at the Stampede too, so have to be ready to protect him, otherwise they will
just close that gap.
I have nothing to say, see if you can find a setup here off the back of the Moonlight
Shadow, but the tower, does he want to jump Whisper?
Probably not.
Super tanky, they'd have to do the full chain stun onto him.
I really like this Crimson Pickup, I gotta say.
I said it really kind of just stops them from being able to make these sort of jumps.
Yeah, I guess Panel will say too, right? Centaurs usually don't build that armor.
It's just the Dominator into the heart. This is going to completely shut down the aggressive potential from that corrosive haste type of play in that movement that he can make.
Because it looks like he's just not going to go for the heart at all with the build.
Probably not.
He's going to have the Shiva's next.
Yep. Just go for all that armor.
Link Shiva's.
Link Shiva's. Sounds great.
Yeah.
Like the pivot.
Just a straight change up to not only these blink rush plays, but also the fact there's an ET in the game.
Yep. Love it.
I do love to see it.
4K lead here for LGD.
4K lead for the liner with a spectre.
It was kind of good.
You must still know that he's at the bottom side of the course,
but he's getting space, he's getting time,
and that relic is pretty much done.
Spectre and lead, right?
We can never write off what Topsy can do.
Well, any of these leaders can do as he saw in the last game especially.
I feel like it needs to be more kind of hastiness from XG.
They try to move they've got a hope link they're not trying for another move
Yeah, they're afraid to make these moves the one thing they do have always is like their lineup eventually look at some points
Like the high ground D is insane so but that's much later down the lines
They don't want to fall too far behind in terms of map control and playing for that as your strong point
It's definitely a risk. Yeah
And we'll see what the plan is gonna be from XG, but for now things have seemed to slow down from them
And LGD farms very, very fast with their heroes, right?
The Lina versus the Magnus is going to out-farm it quite rapidly.
The Centaur versus the Slardar, Centaur farms way faster.
I'm going to whisper on any of his off-lane heroes.
He seems to always be in the top two, three net worth.
And Centaur is just kind of busted with the way that he farms.
He just has this Dominator.
Never has to really, well, he can join with this hero, but the creep just doesn't
enough when he just saw a stampede zip.
Another one of these games though that is not the highest kill count.
Last game also in the early game, bit slow.
Sure, you got all my hit in the creeps, but as I said, I feel like any time that the game is this peaceful,
the spectre to play is the happiest.
They're the happiest.
And look at the itemization that they're all going for on the side of LGD, right?
They're like, okay, guys, there's not really the most magical damage on the side of XG's line of
Make sure the splitter will be an issue, but they're going solar crest, starting to build more and more of these answers.
Time to make the jump onto...
...Helikop.
It's hard for them to make any move, and quite nearly dying to the illusions.
And it's a sneak away with the moonlight shadow.
They just really don't have a bit later to rally around because of how bad it went, and then he's unable to find anything with the blink reveal so far.
It's just gonna have to take time in to try and get the BKB feels that he can't go for a fight before he has that, nothing to say.
It's gonna be a while away though.
They're chilling.
Sure, Yuma's getting happier and happier as it goes on.
Not getting picked off. Let's see if they're gonna try it again here. They just don't have it enough.
They're even gonna bring Arme down here, but it's already getting rat out.
GD, they see him.
They do.
So, X-XS ain't gonna be able to get the jump.
I'll be nice to talk.
But you get the sleep, but the split is not going to hit.
They're going to be able to dodge it.
Lakuta comes in to take down XXX.
That's light striker right down as well on the ET.
Oh, this is getting awkward.
And now Ami came down here too, so he's in trouble.
As a power shot slow, he'll put them up to try and run.
And he's got Fy with him.
King Junkers is going to see if he can find the lock down.
And Gus will push him back.
Very good.
He'll bleed forwards there.
I mean, you can feel how desperate they are, right?
When they're bringing Ami in for that sort of play.
Honestly, LGD's just playing the Superboy. I really like the way they've covered the wards as well too.
Most of the attention in the first 14 minutes was around that mid lane, right?
Now, bottom, we're seeing them cover, protect Yuma so that he can ensure getting this timing of the Radiance.
Everything's going their way now. Let's see.
This is early days, but it's already looking pretty impossible.
I don't know, what do I actually do?
Nothing to say. He's got to get involved. That's the important thing.
Amé getting involved in the Magnus just hitting creeps. That feels pretty bad.
because show he wants his BKB but it does feel like the game is in that sort of
desperate position where you got to maybe just try for some sort of blink
off he played before that it's hard it's hard for them to find these angles
honestly I would either just playing the map really nicely they're not having
anyone too far pushed forward it's gonna get caught and skewered
away so just yeah really liking the responses that we're seeing from LGD
and this time
Tormentor time soon. XG has not really found much of anything in these last ten minutes.
Tormentor though. Looks like they should be able to ensure this one with the Coros of Haze.
How'd you just head over? Well XG they seem a bit scared.
Yep, I think they did see them there too so yeah, they're back in a way.
I wouldn't be able to make this play.
Another thing that LGD is able to deny them all.
Barry heads up. They're just reading every single one of the plays so far here
And they even have tabs of Amai with the top board that they had so they know exactly where the Drow is too
But they saw him for a second. It's it's now despawned, but they did see him
Stay the zone up to themselves now that they've been able to push
XG away
This is very Chris moves and tops him out this point. He's got the agonies
I was mentioning the burst damage versus the Drow. This Drow could die instantly when she turns up
Yeah, Thompson's having a pretty insane game, had the dream start, he's made the most of it, perfect farm, top of the net worth.
Yeah, to die, no attention can put on him really, and yeah, nothing to say, just one of the quietest games we've seen from him.
Yeah.
It's a risky hero, we don't see a lot of people try the Magnus.
I guess, you know, this is just one of the reasons why, right? If you have a tough lane, it is very, very hard to get your game back online.
Especially if they just don't show you and they don't give you any opportunities.
Like, look at the lane positioning, right?
Where is the Magnus gonna go for a blink RP skewer type of play with the way that LGD is distributed?
There's just no one to really go for.
Topson's not pushing the lanes too far. They've already got all these early tier ones.
They don't want to hit tier twos yet at this point with the Spectre lineup.
Leanly controlling the map here.
Follow Crest soon to be done.
At least one of them, I didn't see if the hoodwink also went for it.
And it was yours for Theo, so that Magnus, he needs the BKB as well.
The tools is Magnus' nightmare.
I was hoping to see somebody pick it up and they are going to pick it up on one of these supports.
I think he's got it done.
So if you don't like pre-BKB, you're never going to get a sort of blink playoff.
This is looking tough for XG. I mean, we said he has worked about it cut out from in the last game. This one
It's way way more. Ah, yeah, it really is playing versus multiple different calendars
But yeah, maybe you wanted more of a challenge. No, I mean, it was like the game was easy
Guys, you know, take it a bit more chill this time around or more of a challenge
It's only getting it here is for sure
Every moment has you my closing the gap on him, which is you know, very scary for the challenge the specter
sure if you have that sort of item of vantage you are going to be able to play to your strengths
as a dragon, to specter, but if the specter is this close behind your own farm it is not
a fun time for the draw.
Okay, BKB is done, but again I'm just continuing to just look at the lanes, there's no way
he moves.
So you're just going to have to deal with the fact that LGD they farm faster than
you and they have some very good scaling as well too.
And as you said it really feels like they're going to play for the wait until
they come to us? Yeah, wait until they push, try and catch them in the base, go over the
big skewer place, that's what they're going for.
Hey, to be fair, if they land like a big RP on Earth Splitter, heroes are going to get
evaporated. It's just hard to execute.
Yeah, it's a high-risk approach. It's a fun approach, because it could lead to a pretty
crazy combat.
Definitely can.
But it could also lead to a pretty quick demise, if the success is not there on
that high ground defense.
And the Drow might also just get deleted as she tries to follow up to some of these plays if they do get the catch.
Okay, here we go. Biggest clash.
It's got the BKB on both of them in fact.
Texas has nothing to say with the Blinked BKBs.
Those are pretty important, especially now that they're getting closer to these tier twos.
They look close. Gonna scout them out though.
And the Full Sheavers is on the way out here for Whisper.
I think for LGD ideally they want to just go for this Roshanow.
You don't want to go near these super aggressive plays and get caught and pulled away.
Do you have tops in here?
You do if you can
Too far now little too quick here on the leaner
Why trying to scout as well? Okay? He's some simple this those money
Hey arrow nothing to say will be having capitalizing on the bar. He gets the stir out of the two of them
They've crossed off to come they kill him off
Oh, they can't he's waiting to find he's ready to turn as they don't get the kill XG
They're gonna fail out this army's not gonna get the chance to do so caught in the light strike f y and I made a fall
So desperate the desperation continuing it very visibly from xg's plays
That was just way too if you see if you catch him earlier right in the water
Perhaps and you can pull him back then you can go put that deep
I mean yeah, I really wanted to try and set that up with the shields arrow play
He had a shield brun in the bottle ready to go so unless you're bursting through that RP stun
It's not gonna happen and they just don't have the damage to do
Anyway close to it up and I'll take my now he's got a full sheathless as well
Thompson also the centaur's there he gets the crimson guard on him it's gonna
block it by so much of the damage that they really have at this point I feel like
these sort of attempts they just need to come a little bit earlier from XD and I
did it and I like how LGD they you know we saw them posturing a bit
aggressively around here too isn't there wait a minute why we do this we
don't need to be in this area we can let them we can force them to make these
mistakes and then we get the roast now I this game is looking and so looks so
hard but maybe the high ground maybe the high all in on the high ground for XG I
think definitely after that play I can only imagine they are now going to be
saying right let's literally just never do that again just keep hitting creeps
wait until they go for a tier 3 push we don't want to try and make a play
anywhere else especially once they got an agent out in Thompson now they sort of
missed that window of opportunity that was that was so rough that's the double
BKB reveal you get literally nothing our majors gets handed on a silver
platter standing in a place that he does not want to be much cleaner game this
time from LGD maybe you know this as it has been in many of this series so far
this TI that the lean effect to quite some in between these teams in the army
getting to have an incredible showing with it in game one and now in this
game two from the mid Topson having a flawless performance pretty insane
hero he doesn't have to go for the you know the magic resist talent that
we talked about to we seen more of these mid players also taking just
the straight damage at the 15 talent he doesn't have to worry about there's no
magic so yeah and I've ruled just what is a pretty impressive with the
itemization from LGD as a whole yeah I love it some of these heroes getting that
armor across the board yep your play versus ET slaughter so it just that's
natural to do this type of building yeah I'm really happy that whisper pivoted
especially
GD, at this age you can start ticking off further boxes, tier 2s.
I'm very likely that XG is probably not going to be going for any sort of crazy moves.
No, like we said, fight for high ground.
Yeah, play away from LGD for now and only look to meet them when you're forced to.
There's a game where army also he needs to buy BKB on the drought
So can't just go through this type of greedy item build because he can't just get deleted
Yeah, I mean I know so the painful thing that last fight right the oven to cause that that BKB's but I'm I so are you dragging me into this
I don't have mine yet. Well, you're nothing to say little RP skewers and BKB TP's out on is a K
Indeed he's gonna be quite happy when he has that one
Yeah, great control, LGD. Just discipline, gaming play. They're not really pushing the
issue. They don't feel like they need to. Chilling back and farming. More and more scaling.
Yashikaya now for the Lina. I can see, well, will we get those big
plays? No will. Nothing to say. Be able to redeem what's been a pretty slow game
way. He's not been able to do a whole lot. Maybe.
So they're still an option. There's still a chance for redemption here from the mag
It's okay whisper, but I was gonna say I think whisper might just go for the agonims now at this point
Cuz then if they are going for high ground pushing someone does get you can just save them as well, too
Yeah, I'm not a hard find anyway, too
Then then he could just stand there under the tower. Yeah, for sure
He's gonna go up stand there in the tower
They're gonna have to decide do they want to jump this heart sheep at Zen Tor and try and put him on a position
To kill him probably not
But when he's sort of sitting there on the tower taking a tower, it might be under what you have
Other chance he's taking it. Please push link deep being in that flight
I just be dead. I'm gonna be surprised that he actually dies just for the Laguna
He has the ules of course to dispel the slow burn, but he will literally just died of the Laguna plus the burn
It's no space no space for the side of XG this game
nothing connecting literally three kills they haven't been able to find anything
they didn't shut down you learn much enough and get just quiet from nothing
to say
for now so say for now building building up all you did switch I think sent our
can we check out he's not going for the likes of the acts yeah I was gonna say
because okay if you're going for siege you know Lena's gonna be hitting tower
you're only real worried that they get caught you can just jump in card on
say I guess already what with the crimson the Stevens you can thank
That's how many of us don't know.
I prefer this, honestly. Even though Hart is so good, he's very tanky enough.
Zombie's BKB.
Okay, his damage is not the greatest though, right?
I mean, sure, he's a drought, so it's going to be there naturally, but they are naturally tanky on the side of LGD with the way they vitaminized.
He needs that Silver Edge for the Spectre in particular.
But as he said, it's not really the Spectre who's been shown to be most of the problem tops in...
Nuna's kinda chillin', he's sort of the backup policy here for LGD
Actually, these linas are gonna have to be addressed a bit better if feels like in some games
That's why
Dumbled, leap
Lucky to survive
They're getting kinda stuck in the base now, and
It's time to be pretty limited how they can step outside on XG
I mean, X Nova being up here, you must probably just
Not considering going for the move, they know exactly what the E.T. is.
Aegis is gonna get reclaimed.
And might try something around the Aegis' exploration.
Going for Topson.
Get the drag back onto him, R.P. as well, they're looking to burst into the cocks!
Coming over, can they bail him out of this one?
He's taking!
He's fine, he doesn't even need Paley though, he stands and ground, finally dies, but he got a lot of damage now.
I'll make the snipe!
Chop shooter onto him, they've got any further jump to finish him off, King Jogles?
They do!
After the other calls, they're just gonna have him himself in the power shop.
He didn't even get carted and he actually almost takes through it just because Crimson blocks 90% of their damage it feels like.
Oh man.
I mean they got him. They got him.
It's something but of course still nowhere near enough to put the game anywhere closer to a state that XG is going to be happy with.
They lose three heroes themselves including the Carrick.
Yeah, decent timing. They waited for that Aegis to be reclaimed but yeah.
They're just too far ahead now at this point and LGD the drought does not do that much damage.
I'm just like, what? He just didn't have the chance to get him in the cart?
I think he got stunned.
Something, something clipped him and he couldn't actually...
It looked like Whisper was gonna be able to save him there.
Yeah.
It was close.
Oh, LGD will take that all day.
Yep.
An attempt there from XG to try and work around that, uh, Aegis going away, but...
Doesn't go as well as they nearly needed to.
Well, Scotty coming out for the Spectre suit as well.
Another Tomanse here for LGD.
one of the tougher games to recover it even with all the things that were
mentioning about it on the high ground and all that they're just getting too
tanky too beefy this is what you need to be the harpoon the refresher and treat
yourself for nature lens on top of that and get them dragged back into the
fountain you need them honestly you need a multi-hero RP but it's not really
it's not gonna be given not an easy lineup not gonna be given to you
What what even what two of these heroes are standing next to each other exactly? You're not gonna get it unless they make a big mistake
It's very difficult
Which is as well as also one of the reasons why I was a little surprised with Magnus pick because it's just not a lineup
That you look at and say what imagine the RP's right?
It's just never gonna get a good RP against this line of heroes
The other thing right that I think most of us have been kind of talking about is when you pick this you don't have a combo now
With the Marana in most situations which most of times when we see this Marana have some success
You have I know ember and all these were banned and so is the conquer that mean you were looking at but yeah
They could have been high now would have actually been high damn
No way to play around the Magnus no way for them around it to follow up
And yet this you see so much protection here for tops in the solo crest crimson's even some neutral creep with some aura
So last time in the fight if they do manage to get picked up in the car he won't live
I nearly lived without it
Silver edge gonna be that next big timing for our may but still
While away from it, maybe with that they can have some sort of chance to take it out the specs
I've also even with the break because of how much you must caught up and now taken the lead spot ahead of army
Not uneasy here at a kill
Never feel good never just feel really good to be that you're our an item behind versus a specter
That any means you look even gonna go for the safe build max and acute the DKB
They're hunting looking for somebody here if they get a kill it's immediately into that Roche for the side of LGD
And when you look at the drafts to right XG they're the draft that wants to be getting the Rochans constantly
They have the haze they have the drought. It's just not able for them with the game state
AC for X-XS even more physical, but as I said, there's a lot of minus or a lot of armor already built up on the side of LGD
They have the answers
It's the moonlight, I'm going to try and get out with this.
Roche is up, it's about to start shifting to the bottom side of the OTP.
I'm looking at Yuma, but if I'm too far away from anyone else, I'm just trying to force
out some sort of TP reaction.
That's interesting, I guess so they can try to get outside of the base, because it's
no way he's making a move there.
No, you're just getting reaction.
So, interesting.
Roche, it's going to start shifting, so XG, start the TP over.
And maybe you do go for this move now, XG, because you feel that you might force some people top.
Roshan's going to be bottom. Maybe you can try?
You also just don't want to give up a free Rosh to a Spectre.
You want to be able to contest this Roshan on the side of XG.
Time to start it, LGD.
It's going to go down pretty quickly and very safely.
Any sort of attempt to interrupt is going to have to come now.
They're a bit far now at this point too. They forced the roar.
LGD's anticipating a fight to come to the front. They're playing it very safe LGD, looking down the whole area before they go for the rush.
That seems to say, alright maybe we just can't contest it it seems, so that does not feel good.
Your condition to try to come back in this one is to go for this high ground defense, and you can play into this Aegis now.
That high ground push is slightly going to be coming very soon.
We'll get to see if they do have any surprises left on the defense.
Can they get the full wombo combo? Can they land it on multiple heroes?
This is the question really. It isn't even going to be enough if they do, with our tank either all getting.
How many damage this really isn't increasing too much too?
Very defensive style build that he's going to have to go for this game.
I really need that Silver Edge at least but I'm still not looking likely but he's going
to have it completed before this first attempt of the Pope comes out from LGD.
Double catapults with the banner. Time to start pushing.
Yuma very close to having that BKB coming out too even by grief so I mean
they're looking at the game pretty soon that means there from the side of LGD
picking up this on the supports as well. They're gonna feel how far ahead they are
at this point. Nice place. Arrow to take out one catapult through the banner and
then a force staff to move it away so at least they'll be able to stop the
push there for a moment. The most pretty much the entire tower did drop
there. That's nearly got it, aren't they? Okay.
A few little things coming together for XG that might just get them an opportunity to
kill someone if they do get caught by some sort of deep arty skewer back into the base.
Look at LGD playing it smart, right? Not looking to force it super hard. Yula goes back, picks
up another item, they finish up Thompson's Octurine. Keeping that farm increase.
They have this difficulty, as we said, for XG to step outside, anybody shows, can just
died an instant with the haunting of Kanch up there from top so with the box
okay I was gonna say Theo anticipated this one it seems like that word was
pretty sneaky one that actually had placed but will be taken out
the map is yeah just continue to shrink and the vision is disappearing now with
this gem
that's why I was around
What?
Whoop
Dangerous
Once you get out and get his axe purchased
Yeah, he will be able to get it. Can he get himself back to the base?
Question it
Setting up here
Alright
Thompson's around to try and fly back. Kingdilm is back out of full HP and now to the horn up
XG's got a run
They're trying to get outside
They're trying to make this move outside of the base. He's going to cost them one of their life
Oh no
He needs the BKBs to run away with the rest of them
Oh, that's brutal
Trying to make this aggressive move outside that's not something they want to do
It's gonna cost them at least both supports. And it was the two BKB now
They can't fight for the high ground push because the BKBs are used. I mean they're feeling so
Maybe just go for the backup backup plan. Let the barracks fall
Let yourself get mega creeps and then go for the defense around the tier 4s
They're gonna be that much closer to the fountain
And you're probably gonna need to get them in the fountain if you want to kill anyone
They don't have their BKB
I don't even think they're gonna be able to kill anybody even if they catch them now without the BKBs
It's been a rough one here for Ekstik.
Yeah, one of the rougher ones.
Splan did not work out this time and...
Now, Lena.
Nothing is said, can't even do anything.
He's just having illusions thrown at him.
Power shots as well.
Look at the damage.
That's why he's broken.
That's almost nothing to Yuma here.
Just haven't...
Haven't got to see many RPs this game.
It's been a bit of a shang. I was excited to see some Magnus, but it hasn't been much of a chance for nothing to say to pop off this game. He's had a tough one.
No, and his only one actually got me killed and it was pretty devastating.
Was that the only one?
No, there's two. Sorry, another one is up too.
Oh, that's true. We've had a couple.
Oh yeah, not great.
I do think LGD, they prepared themselves very nicely with all this, as we said, with the
itemization they've got, for the solo crest, ULZ, armor, etc., great answers, nothing to
say if you can't be forced outside again to just try and survive.
And now if you try to go for a bling play, it's just going to get insta-ULZed in 80%
of situations.
He's nearly got the refresh though, right?
I think this is the recipe away.
Okay.
So if he could get the RPS, duo refresh, duo get them in the fountain, that's what
he's playing for. That's what they need. Be quite the combat, if they can execute such
a play. Would be one of the bigger ones I think we'll see in this TI if it does happen. But
that way the LGDs have been setting themselves up, they're not giving the opportunities.
They're chilling. Yeah, what are we at? 93% feels like it's big. That's actually generous.
This is just pumped up to an 8%. I said the systems believe in the refresh and comeback
potential of the Magnus. That's actually strange because usually
it loves Spectre. Usually it's expectors in the game.
If I'm the Magnus, I'm telling the team this game ain't over until the throne falls.
I'm getting my refresh out. We're going to get the entire team dragged back into the fountain. We're making a comeback
That's how they have nothing to say he believes what they got to do
Someone's got to cause some chaos force them to all stack up. Yeah, get that four or five better
Hope it's open frame now the only problem does come up
He doesn't have actually matter for the full combo, right? I don't think you guys
No, that is one of the problems sometimes when you go for this you're dreaming big things
You're not actually gonna have enough manner
Actually, no, no, he has mystical. He got mystical. Oh, yeah, he's got mystical.
You gotta make something that's gonna get the full combo off twice.
I was gonna say, wait, his manacost, so he did get the neutral item, we'll be able to allow him to very like...
That'll do it. That'll do it. So there's the refresher. Okay.
And he has got a full wand as well, so extra mana to pump into himself.
Okay, NTS, can you do it?
So next up, get that ether lens.
You wanna get the cost of shard as well, to help you.
That's still the extra screw range, right?
I didn't change that last one. No, it's the extra screw right?
They're going up. This is a this a dangerous move here trying to catch. I don't know how to catch the split off
Is what I this is risky support
Get to where no one gets the blink off he's gone. Yeah back to base back to base
Yeah, do you really want to still try and force this this is such a risky play to the goal
But they get caught wrapped around behind like the fountain is your friend. You don't want to be fighting away from the fountain
27k behind. It's not going to be easy anywhere else.
I'm just hoping that they catch one of the cores somehow, split off guard, but even then.
More and more daggons. Thompson.
Very scary. I mean, somebody's here. Let's get to dying.
If they get stunned, they might just die in the magic burst.
Oh they will, they certainly will. I'm doubt about it, this position.
But the catalyst as well two heroes are going to disintegrate, Yuma level 25 has been hit.
Yeah, I like this as well, he realizes he doesn't need to be KB you know.
Ended up getting through the bastions, now he's gonna get the butterfly.
Okay, yeah I guess.
At this point you're this far ahead.
Sure.
I don't know what he need to be KB.
You can just wait for it as your last item anyway so.
Another torn.
That's nice, okay.
Get's it for free.
Killing up those final shard spots.
It's a test!
That side of the base!
Not again!
That's a risk! And a risk that they're gonna pay for!
And he's gone.
You at least have two buybacks on both of those heroes.
I'm wanting to use it, but probably gonna have to with the push coming in.
I think you let yourself get mega creep.
Play for the tier four defense.
Nothing to say, smoked up.
You've got to go for the ridiculous plays to try and come back in this one.
And it's not even... I swear I don't think the damage is going to be there.
That's why you've got to get in the fountain.
You've got to get in the fountain.
And you're not really doing that for the tier 3s.
You're doing it for the tier 4s for the refreshers.
You're not doing it for the tier 3.
Is he going to go for the risk players here?
Alright, he's going to try for Topson.
Now into the arrows.
That's a very good deal.
Topps whispers from getting the call.
They got the win ranger, and she's one by back as well, and XXS coming back in there to sort of be there ready for that, but that, that's nothing.
That yields from FY.
Yeah, that was FY, right.
Yeah, I got it right on the center during that fight.
Made all the difference several times, you know.
Latlina's getting out, not only getting out, but probably turning killing your whole team and winning the game.
That was very head-on.
XG, they get to breathe another breath.
The life continues.
the life continues as you said high-risk high reward plays that they kind of have
to just go for it this point with this deficit
Roche is going to be respawning soon too when this leader is still dead for some
time
but that bump took to 11 percent.
The algorithms they are believing
in the nothing to say redemption story here instantly pops the refresh
I think the surprise RP you never expect this one
they're counting the cooldowns and this is one of those positions where
Sometimes counting the cooldown works against you
To catch them by surprise they should be able to get this Russian time because of this guys super fast all right
28k gold down they get in the rush
Big moves now they get another refresher sharp for themselves, too, so can't look to play with that
Impressive 20 seconds to the lean it does respawn though butterfly now also for Yuma
Did he keep the radiance who got rid of the radiance the butterfly?
Get rid of it. Get rid of that. Yeah, no the fire time too.
Well, a little bit of a shake up. Shake up.
So for Whisper now for the next times, he's gonna pre-click BKB.
If one of his cores especially top one. Oh, that's true, cause he does have BKB. Yeah, yeah, that's easy.
He has to play for that last one. Yep, yep, yep.
I think he just didn't anticipate it to happen that quickly. Very good play there from FY.
And also an unexpected one, like we were saying, like they were probably anticipating that I was gonna come closer to the fountain as well.
So yeah, overall Whisper can still get the saves if you preview to these, and they also
now do have a Wind Waker, so they have multiple different ones to be able to protect each
other.
Oh, he's actually just going...
Oh, okay, now he's just queuing to look at that.
Or is he actually going for this?
What for the what?
Oh, he's just gonna do like double disassemble plays and all that or what, because he's
going for Radiance plus Nullifier.
He's just queuing up the next Talisman for some reason, so it's been interesting.
is just to cue the item, but...
I mean, it's not really...
You know, why don't we rebuy the Radiance, right?
I don't know. You can use the nullifier.
I don't know. It's just a...
Yeah, yeah, just queued up for whatever reason.
Yeah.
Nullifier is there for you.
Three minutes on Aegis. They're smoking again.
Oh, okay.
RP, second one, 60 seconds.
Taking the big risks here, but...
You know, I'm all for it.
From here, from XJ.
You absolutely have to at this point on XJ.
Especially with this Aegis advantage,
They can start to try to sneak forward here
Caught in the trees is gonna put a stop to the smoke
It's gonna move on past him they want this spectre but you must out. I may still incredibly vulnerable with this build, too
He's still very squishy
LGD can just wait wait for two minutes. Yeah, well need to risk it
No, or just wait on a high and they could also just wait on a high ground positioning and anticipate and actually move it into them
Because they still could take a fight very easily obviously I
Like this given the refresher shark perhaps to the ET as well double splitter every little thing they need
Oh
the ages. Nothing to say against the Stuart back. He is going to get turned upon and burst
down low here by Tubsen. He turns the tension over to Armey. Armey's gone. Nothing to say
to Fall. Right outside of the base. Didn't work this time round. They have some buybacks
but they don't have a buyback on Armey. He doesn't have the money. Desperate move
to go for that there. Tier 4's going down. There's no Armey. That's game. They have
buyback on nothing to say but I don't think he's got any RP's left and he has
and GG's gone! LGT will finally close this game off. XT they could have
climbed the insane comeback here today for me. At least they got a rush, at least they
got something out of how one side of this game truly would. They did get a couple
catches here but LGT, one of the more disciplined games I think we've seen
them and I really like their itemization it was a particular right. The
way that they pivoted there for whisper even buying solo crests every
little thing to just protect. And Yuma overall had a pretty solid game too and the Spectre
didn't get shut down in the lane.
Yeah, and Lina's stonks continue to rise.
Still rising.
It's not a surprise, but this series getting the wins this time for the Mid on Topson. We're
going to gain three ladies and gentlemen. It's one to one right now between LGD and
XG.
Thank you very much gentlemen. One to one, that means we get treated to a game number
three between these two teams. I will say this game number two though, it was not
the most active game that we've seen and a large portion of that came from the strong control that
LGD had Fly, I feel like the whole game through maybe at the end slightly faltering a little bit,
but that control was the name of the game. Yeah I think LGD played a really good game,
I think they did exactly what they should have, they pressured the Magnus mid heavily with
you know Topson and Lena, it was a winning matchup and they brought both supports,
they kept attacking, the Magnus was just out of the game for the longest time,
He had a really rough one, so they used that and then they slowly got their goldied up.
They got really good itemization on the Offlane center where he bought his Crimson.
So they could take their early fights and Drow Ranger just can deal any damage.
So good game from LGD.
Yeah, it was like boringly flawless from them, to be honest.
They won pretty much all of their lanes.
They didn't give any openings to Extreme, like all the times that we saw,
You know, Yuma farming in locations where there was even a remote chance that Xtreme could pick them off.
It was because his entire team was behind him.
You know, Whisper also just farmed. He wasn't doing anything that special, just used the creep,
got every single creep wave, dodged the ganks that were coming to him.
There was a few times that Xtreme smoked him, like with the Magnus Blink, and he just knew what was there, and he got torred.
He just dodged it at the right time and eventually they close it out, flawless stuff from LGD.
If you look at the draft, the LGD draft scales super well.
They have the Spectre, they have the Centaur, they have Lina.
So this game was always going to be hard for extreme late game.
So their only hope was they won the Slardar lane.
They could have played through the Slardar and you know make something happen that way.
Or hopefully they could have made it through the Magnus but since he got so destroyed mid,
It becomes really hard, and then the game just, you know, it gets late and then LGD wins
Yeah, that was that was real rough from from nothing to say
I think if they were to the only dad three times though that is utterly shocking to the degree. I'm
convinced that's a visual bug
He just
Didn't have that much impact and this was a really late
Pick Magnus. It was it was a lot of spits. It's a lot of spits, right?
So I mean I get the idea like I think tell you've mentioned it on a few of the other panels whenever Alina comes out
A classic counter is these repositioning type heroes
But then she just
Obliterates him in lane so it's kind of like you're picking into a counter in that way
But yeah, we had to give the MVP to it we though
It was we were I thought it might be topson. We're a pop and whisper right
Yes, we were and I think in this game in particular if we only look at the one game
One of the main reasons why extreme couldn't get their feet at the ground is because nothing to say have nothing to say this game
That was because of top son on his leader. Yeah, I see what you did there
Now top son, I think he played really well this game
I also like his itemization with getting an early she was because they sort of recognized that they don't have that much
Damage on extreme gaming side because they're so far behind so all you have to do is just not die to the initial jump
And you're just gonna win the fight so good itemization good gameplay constantly
Throwing Laguna blade after Laguna blade
Oh
Yeah, this one's gonna be juicy honestly, I like that he did this it looks really funny, but
the idea that
If you press one button, that's like what 60 second cooldown something like that
on a hero, and every single time he has to leave lane, it's just good.
He was getting a level advantage without killing him, like you mentioned.
I mean, these are like the three kills on him, right?
He didn't have that many deaths on nothing to say, but he also had no points in Empower, so he couldn't jungle.
Which you can tell, right? If you're TopStan, you get hit by a Magnus Q,
and it does like 200-something damage to you, you go,
holy shit, this guy has no points in Empower.
Just Laguna him when he walks into the lane, and he has to go base, and he's not farming anything.
Yeah, it was uh, I mean it looks funny. It worked out very well
It was very sad for for nothing to say we got a couple of other moments
We wanted to highlight around minute 24 is our next one because there was a little bit of a fight
Yeah, so this is when extreme kind of hit their timings where they had the blink
I think they might have had BQB at this point and it was getting desperate because they missed the initial of
Opening to jump and an FY goes and yulz the leaner throws an arrow
But it's so deep on the enemy side and you're already far behind that I just felt the desperation at this point and
If you're far behind and this is what you do
You're just digging a bigger hole for yourself. You kind of need to relax if the smoke doesn't hit
It's okay. Just relax go back to farming look for another opening
But if you go that deep there's no coming back after that
No, we did have them try a little bit more
There was a fight saver that you wanted to take closer look at and they managed to get Luna
they kill Topsit. Yeah I wanted to highlight this fight because as you'll see it's complete chaos
everybody's on top of each other but these fights are usually better for the team that
doesn't have a draw ranger because as you can see it's absolute madness but if it's absolute
madness the spectre will be there in the middle of everybody just hitting and hitting so even
though they got the lina which is a really nice skill as you can see they cannot take the
fight any further. They managed to get the draw after and also pick up this, the ET, and it just
feels impossible. Even though you get the skewerback, you get the RP, you're like all clumped up,
it just feels impossible for the draw to just hit and deal proper damage.
Yeah, I mean for this team, draw going down, like, am I going down means that it's not a good
fight? No. Because the other two cores are what MagnaSword are, like, who cares if they
survive? They're not the ones that are going to carry the game.
Yeah, it makes me wonder that seeing the clips that we had, all of them have one overarching problem
Is there's not enough damage coming through when there is a moment where damage can be done?
Is that just a result of the Magnus not being there? Should it have been a different hero on hindsight?
It did feel like the Gyro incident
This mid hero comes out and he's actively just not doing anything
He's losing his lane. He's so far behind the net worth even when he got his blink
I don't think he found a single opening
So, maybe they could have pushed the blink dagger timing a little bit just to try to find one little RP even on a support, anything.
But they didn't get a single opening. I think LGD also played well around it. It was like in good group formation, but it didn't work out.
I also like what Jenkins said at the start that Magnus has a horrible win rating in Spectre.
And I don't think it's necessarily only because you cancel the blink RP with the hon, but I also think even if you do get this RP into skewerback,
The spectre will always be able to haunt on top of you, or like your backline, so even
though you get this Lina and you scurr him back, he's not really away from his team.
The spectre is able to jump there as well, so you're never really putting anyone out of
position.
So then, what's the point of the Magnus?
Yeah, that makes sense to me.
It's a counter initiation too, right?
Like you have a hero who, it's really obvious when the Magnus team is going to go.
You see that circle, you see your team gets stunned, and you scurr back, it's
like, okay, the fight is starting, and there's no getting out for either team.
Inspectors like okay perfect, you know, I'll press R and destroy the team fight. Yep
And now it's it's one to one where by the way every single first series of the day on every stream is
Is a 1-1 it just goes to show how how close everybody is save I feel like it's quite unique
It's it just proves to show how incredible this day is how close the teams are and you know
Maybe it's some nurse or maybe it's just just great seeding
But it's it's just so impressive that all of these teams are are so close, especially the resilience Yandex
I'm very impressed by resilience and I'm hoping that this is not another moment of resilience
Taking a game off of a super strong team and then losing the series afterwards
They did lose the second game in 18 minutes
So that was a little bit of a rough one
But of course that's happening on the D stream if you're interested in what's happening over there
We are of course getting ready for our game three here coming your way between LGD and extreme gaming
But before we get there we are going to check in with ex Nova and how he felt before coming into this international
Ex Nova welcome back to TI
But it is a TI under much different circumstances than last year because last year you were coming in as a stand-in
And when you were getting on that plane to Hamburg,
what was your mindset like about getting into that TI?
Last year, I came as a stand-in.
So basically, I felt really no pressure
going to the tournament, to TI.
So I was really enjoyed throughout the whole tournament
until the finals, yeah.
The whole tournament, because that's what I was wondering
is at any point during the run, where you ever like,
oh, this is getting kind of real now.
Like, it's no longer just for fun, like, we're going quite far.
Or you're saying the whole time, you're like, whatever happens, happens.
I felt the most nervous on the first game against Tanra at the playoff.
Yeah, that was probably the only time I felt like not myself, but
immediately adjusted into it.
Nice.
I like that you're saying that you felt not yourself because that to me
sounds like you're usually quite easy going.
Like when you come to a tournament, you're not that nervous.
Is that true?
Uh, not really.
Sometimes you do feel nervous.
You do feel prejudiced sometimes.
But for me personally, I felt I played the best when I'm really calm and really
like enjoying everything.
Atmosphere is the, the wipes and everything in the game.
Okay.
So then, uh, if you don't mind me asking, how are you feeling right now
coming into Shanghai right now?
I think I'm actually adjusting into like trying to catch back up how I felt last year
I mean it was a long season for this year for me compared to last year when I just played for one or two turns
So yeah, I'm slowly catching back up and I hope I can enjoy it like last year
So for you, when do you feel that rhythm? Like you were saying that you were nervous for the tundra game last year
Yeah, after you beat them you got back into it
What does that feel like for you like do your clicks feel better? You just know what to do. Can you even describe it?
I think I just stop at everything. Okay, basically everything like I'm enjoying like what I'm doing
I'm so clear-headed and like every cut spell pasting or predicting what the opponents are doing like everything is on
On sync. How often does that depend on you syncing up with your teammates?
Are you usually the kind of player that like as long as your focus you can worry about your game or
Sometimes if your teammates are off you can find that that affects you as well. I think I saw and as I'm focused
The others doesn't matter like I can basically like control everything extreme gaming has a lot of attention this ti
A lot of people are looking at you guys
Does that pressure from the public? Do you feel it at all or does it do the opposite? Does it energize you?
We are playing at home ground, for sure there will be a lot of expectation for us and the
tension will be there for sure, there's no doubt.
You think that home field advantage you're going to be able to feel it like not just with
the crowd but like I was talking to Bok earlier and he was even saying that just like just
seeing the signs and like you're seeing the Chinese script for text and stuff like
that, it makes you feel at home.
Yeah, for sure. I think being here just feels like comfortable.
And then how about your team's state right now?
How are you guys feeling as a group of five in the current patch, current meta?
Throughout the year, we had some struggles, we had some up and downs.
But now I think, yeah, we are like getting ready mentally for it.
Nice. Well, I think that that mentality is going to carry you far.
Ex Nova looking forward to your Shanghai experience.
Thank you.
Let's see if that mentality can carry them into a two and two score lines here in the
modified Swiss group stages.
We are heading into game number three momentarily between extreme gaming and LGD.
Both of these teams are one and two right now and I don't know if you guys need
reminding, but it's very scary the moment you get to be 1-3 because that means you are one
game away from potential elimination later today.
So we're going to attempt to break down what's going to happen next because both of these
games that we've had so far have been very different, not just from the gameplay perspective,
but fly also from the drafting perspective.
So I'm curious how you feel the team should progress from here.
Yeah, I think you just can't put yourself in the position that they did last game
where they kind of figured out that there's a chance that Lena goes mid,
and I didn't realize how bad it's going to be.
So in hindsight, when you see this Magnus, it was a trash pick.
I'm not gonna lie.
I don't know why they didn't just go for some casual puck that they already played,
which is going to do at least a little bit better,
and it fit their lineup anyways.
So just don't put yourself in that position.
I like the top some ended up playing the Lena.
It was a, I mean, he played it very well.
He had good items and that shows I can also play like the more normal heroes
He doesn't always have to cheese you which I'm happy to see he like he has both sides
So I don't mind the start of the draft, but just make sure you don't ruin it later
I mean, I hate to say this but LGD has looked a lot better when Thompson is playing normal stuff when he's just
Win ranger pangalir like
The guy won two TI's you know, he's a extremely good player you don't need to cheese with him
And it seems like it's fitting better
Maybe they you know need to figure out what cheese is actually working for him
But some of these heroes like Lena are just so broken you gotta play at mid
And I think that's like the difference between game one and two is that I feel like
Triant is an OP hero and Lena is an OP hero and
You know the OP heroes won both games. Yeah
I guess the elevation of Lina is probably what we're going to see in this game 3, because
as the series progresses, you can tell what heroes are going to be better for both teams,
and both teams have won with Lina. I don't see why they wouldn't just first pick at
next game if they see the opening. Why not?
Would it then also, would you then preemptively first phase ban Lina? Because we have seen
in after game 1 and game 2, we saw LGD ban out the lone druid and the tree protector,
So is it now time to remove the Lina from the equation?
I think it could be an adjustment, yeah.
It depends who has choice, who gets first pick,
who gets second pick.
I wouldn't mind seeing Xtreme get second pick,
because I think LGD actually thrives with second pick
just because of the way caps drafts
and all these flex heroes,
it's obviously a little more confusing,
confusing for both sides.
Nobody knows what's happening.
So maybe if Xtreme has choice, they could change it up.
I don't really know who chose what.
And then they could afford to ban the Lina as well.
Yeah, I think also the LGD really enjoyed the overall last pick
and in both cases it was for Thompson.
Maybe take that away from them in the process
with the same decision there as well.
But we'll find out how that happens with the draft order.
Other than that, Cenk, is anything
you want to see the teams focus on
in going into this game number three?
I'm just looking at Extreme's first phase bans
and questioning them a little bit.
So maybe you guys can shed some light on both games.
They banned Wyvern.
They put a lot of priority on banning Wyvern.
And in the first game, like, they had Puck, Lena, Kors,
like magic damage, right?
So I'm just curious, like, could that Wyvern just be Elina
and you're banning an actual OP hero?
I don't really see LGD as like the epic Wyvern team.
They're probably okay at it.
Yeah, it is a bit surprising. I feel like the Wyvern, it's a very strong laner, but I don't think it's necessarily a hero that you need to be afraid of.
I'm hoping to see this adjustment to either replace Wyvern with the Lina ban or them picking the Lina themselves.
I think Wyvern, if I'm not mistaken, LGD did play the Wyvern early pick in their previous series, which I think they won.
So maybe it's just looking at what they've played and they're like, okay, they like the Wyvern.
Maybe we have a free ban, we can just ban it.
There's definitely heroes you can pick against it.
I don't think it's as an oppressing hero for sure compared to the Lina or the Sheen Protector.
Those are like game warping heroes where you really have to address.
Wyvern, it's like small adjustments, like maybe don't go all out physical damage,
should get a little more magic damage, get some range position 4 that deals with him.
It's not too difficult. So I definitely see your point where they can change up the bends.
I can get behind the Earth Spirit Invoker for sure though. You don't want to play against
Thopsin Invoker, right? I think that hero, if you're good at it, is in that S tier category
with Lena and probably so is Earth Spirit. Maybe it's not as good as Lena, but it's in the
at least same ballpark?
I want to offer a different perspective, because when you're preparing against the team,
you look at their heroes that they play, what they like to play, and
you think about the heroes you like to play. So from
NTS's perspective, when he's seasoned in Volker, I know,
okay, it's a permanent man, but just hear me out. Let's just say you give them in Volker,
and then NTS has a bunch of heroes he likes against in Volker like Pangolir,
Even if some late pick, Kunkka could be really good against Invoker.
Like he has heroes that he plays that can pressure the Invoker, so he could do the
CAFs where he baits the hero and pick something good against it.
I like that approach that some teams do.
So obviously this game we're not going to see it.
And we do have Alina in the pool, so I wonder if Extremer's just going to take
Alina this time.
Yeah, the center is the one that gets addressed instead of the Winter Vibrant
is the center that gets banned out.
Still a very strong hero.
Centaur is good. That's a totally reasonable band for sure.
And then the Lina overall first pick in the hands of Extreme Gaming.
This makes sense when they have first pick. They don't need to ban Lina if they want to pick it.
And also they have still got flex potential with that, of course.
It's exactly the same in terms of ban pick order though.
So we're still going to have LGD with the overall last pick.
And probably CAFs has a plan for this overall first pick, Lina.
Yeah, this is exactly what Fly is saying, is that CAFs loves to dangle something.
And then it's because he wants you to pick it and he has some game playing against it
It may be it won't work. Yeah, sometimes it doesn't but he will always do this
What what have what have we seen that's like good against Lena as a hero the Arc Warden actually looked pretty good from iron wing
But it's a very weird hero
Definitely up Thompson's alley
So the big and special but I do think Thompson can play too. Oh, I'm sure you can play anything at this point
An old-school counter to Lina and I don't know I've not seen it that often
We've seen a couple times is the tiny is still coming out here and there
I don't know if that's still very high on the priority list
Against Lina
Some players like it a lot. I think for example skitter would would probably pick it for sure
You market play to he's a he's a good tiny but in my mind, I don't know this linear is just so annoying to counter pick
it feels it feels like
With some heroes, you pick damage to the killer, but once he hits his timing like he did in Game 1,
the hero is too tanky.
So not only is he dishing out so much damage, but you also aren't able to just get on top of him and kill him.
Well, killer.
So I think some classic counters could be like the Pangalir, where it's a physical damage hero that has gap close,
kind of fits the bill of what you want against Tino.
You want a mix of things.
You want initiation, you want physical damage, some way to catch Renefights.
I think that could be an okay second phase for LGD, but thinking that it's LGD,
they will probably pick some flexible heroes.
Could be another Windranger game where they can put it as a core.
They can actually play it on pretty sure four positions mid, safely and often and support.
So I don't see why they won't just go down that route again.
And then maybe it will be interesting to see if Whisper can find some sort of gap closing heroes.
I was about to say Magnus, but it did get banned out because I thought maybe Whisper wants to pull it out again
Because I think he played it in one of the other series found out mistaken and he's a good Magnus
I mean another hero he played is axe. It's one of the few heroes that actually can
At least I'll say it does seem like axe can kill Lena once she hits that like critical mass with the blade mail
pure damage physical damage reflected with the fiery soul stacks
But Axe has not been as popular at this TI as I expected going into TI.
It's surprising, because the hero is pretty strong in my opinion.
The only problem with the Axe against Lina matchup is if the Lina ends up going mid, then you don't do as much as Axe.
She still hits really fast, so she can still kill herself on the blademail.
However, she doesn't really deal that much physical damage if she's going like the Axe, Kaeyasha.
and Axe doesn't like playing in heroes that deal magic damage
because you're like the physical damage guy, you get armor from your ult
so then it becomes a bit harder.
LGD still the team with the widest hero pool, this international.
So very curious to see how they're gonna play this draft out.
I feel like for extreme gaming in a way, it's a nice thing.
so they can focus solely on themselves because they don't know what's coming, nobody knows what's coming,
they're here to pull, so why keep up the light now coming out.
That's an unusual one. I think for Extreme Gaming I'm happy that they, for this draft,
for this series, can focus fully on themselves. I think that's actually a very good thing for them.
Are they trying to like coddle Beastmaster or something like that?
Like I'm looking at the Clinkz ban and wondering why.
Yeah, that is definitely a setup and not for the caudal pick but for the for the next pick
So the the Beastmaster could be an interesting call because it does combo really well with caudal
You can just spam axes and lane you will stack the the triangle for him like they work well together
It is a healer core special. I'm surprised. They haven't played it before. Yeah, actually because it's one of his favorite heroes
Every time you play against him pubs, he will pick it. He will go mid. He will go off and you will play anything with caudal
So they do reveal the support duo, so now I think on the extreme side you want to answer the caudal.
I think heroes that are good against caudal are either heroes that can chase him around the map,
so for example like a bane elemental that can just run at the caudal,
steep him out of position, follow him into the triangle if he wants to stack.
That is one of the matchups I personally like against them.
And against hoodwink, I'm not pretty sure what that fly likes.
Quick question though, who'd Keeper of the Light be for Topson?
He's been playing different heroes every game and we know that LGD does like the flex potentials.
Is this still possible flex? We don't really see it that often anymore.
It could be. I think the other idea is that they love to flex, but I do know what Thao said that Theo loves this hero.
Yeah, I think mainly it's it's a support. However, they do have the last week and they do have the
Ability to just flex it around and decide afterwards
Fair enough
They had the Marana out on the side of extreme gaming
I'm not feeling the Marana. I don't think it's that good against either of these supports
Again, I think hoodwing is a good matchup against Marana one to one
She just deals more damage than you. She has physical damage. She has catch and I think Caudill also is able to run Marana down with his
When he has his ulti in the solar bind. So I'm not feeling the Marana
I think Tusk is okay. It's another hero that can catch the Caudill and kind of chase him around so similar to a Bane and
Now they're setting up this Dina for potentially being safe
Safely and the Beast does come out which is a great call by Jenkins
Yeah
Also, I'm thinking in terms of Kaudal, it's nice to have a hero in lane that's comming with it,
but it's also really cool when you have a mid laner that is comming with it for the mid game,
when you're going to leave Beast to his own devices.
The pango that you guys mentioned earlier, I think still fits.
There's no real interaction, Marana, Tusk.
I feel like pango is flying against these heroes and still really good against Lina.
I guess it's just a question of like do you want to save last pick for Topson or do you think that these two bands are
Going to take out the good cuddle combos. So the way I see it is that by picking this beast
I think they're trying to push the Lena into the mid lane
Which is why they're also picking this dragonite to sort of like get to lanes that are good against Lena wherever she goes
if she goes mid she faces a dragonite which we've seen before I think they lost that game but
But theoretically it can work.
And Beastmaster with the bores and the constant Axis spam should be good against Lina, where
you can pressure out of the lane eventually.
So they're trying to trap the Lina right now.
I don't think it's too bad to just put Lina mid, but yeah that's what they end up doing.
I think Lina mid is going to be okay against Dragonite from what I've seen.
So I like addressing the Beastmaster lane a little bit with Tiny, but actually is
Tiny going to be fine in this lane?
I'm not so sure.
I feel like the extreme supports are just not that great against Beastmaster Bors,
which is usually what you want to concern yourself about, is do you have a way to kill the Bors?
Because if you don't and the Bors are just free to hit your carry,
then these Beastmaster lanes become a problem.
Because not only he's like winning the lane against you, but then the Kotla is stacking as well,
so he suddenly hires Network from lane and then he also gets the Ancient stacks.
What is the arrow is not good enough? Sorry well you could arrow a bore but not
Unreliable like yeah, it's not that easy to hit to be fair. Okay. I'm thinking like
One thing you can do if you're extreme is have the tusk mostly
Sitting bot and almost trialing the Beastmaster if you can get an off-laner
That can be left alone in the early levels. I mean, unfortunately, there's no
last pick for extreme so they
Can't be sure of that, but one of the things I really hate when I'm playing Beastmaster is a four like tusk just camping my lane
You can really just
Run away from people with poor slowing and like tusk shards plus three heroes hitting you can be can be pretty devastating
I'm feeling the pressure for extreme right now. I think they did not address this beast master
I think the support duo they picked was
bad to begin with and my eyes
So I'm worried for them. I think this beast is going to be off to an amazing game.
I think X-XS's hero has to address beast in some way.
Maybe like a dawnbreaker, underlord type of hero that can help the other lanes when, you know,
like when he needs to, or switch the lanes up eventually.
Because I don't see how this tiny is going to survive the constant spam with a Murana
because they don't have sustain in the lane.
They don't deal too well with boars.
This is looking very good for LGD.
Overall last pick for Yuma Obligatory, is this a good meepo game question?
It's not that great against Tiny I think.
You could pick it, but I don't think you necessarily need to.
I feel like your draft is already looking really strong with just these four heroes.
So we'll see what offline they pick, but I think as long as Yuma counters this offline
and is able to win his lane, then LGDs are the set up for success.
I like this a lot.
They needed this, I think, to have a chance.
This was a really good call.
Now I'm thinking maybe something like a Sven.
For Yuma could be really nice. I think it lanes well into Dawnbreaker.
I think he's gonna have a free game.
It's another jump to Lina.
Something like that. It works really well with the supports.
Maybe Sven Alchemist type of hero could be nice.
They got a full minute still left in their bonus time to think about what they can what they're gonna do here
So that is quite the luxury position to be in for LGD
So what boxes do they do they need to take it obviously needs to lane well into the lane
There's now known as a dawn breaker and the tusk
I mean he can even do another specter game. I think the lane is gonna be okay because he's leaning against
double melee I know like the Tusk downbreaker does have like synergy
together but if he just has an okay lane all he has to do later on is just find
the lean and the fights so I'm fine with any of the Sven, Alc, Spectre I see all
of them work two of them are more like jumpy one is more like a later game
type of hero. Is there a wall they would put DK carry and pick him up? So it's a
good lane against Dawn. I could see it yeah I mean I remember that was a
counter to dawn for a while.
Woo!
Wow.
That's scary.
Spice is in.
Oh, Yuma's gonna do it.
Is this the right amount of spice, Saber?
Little bit of chili powder?
Do you like that in your dish?
That is spicy.
Honestly, I don't mind it.
I think it's very solid.
Like as I said, I really like the first four heroes.
And Wench, to be fair, I do think she's a little exposed.
I can see the extreme offline killing her a bunch of times.
and then it becomes a problem. However, if she does not feed in the lane, then it becomes
very easy for LGD to play. They have three really strong cores. Bench would act it's
scary. She's going to go some Hydra's breath and deal insane amount of damage.
And we talked about repositioning as a concept versus Lina, just like getting her in there.
I mean, Venge Slop is one of the best ways of doing this. It's just that Venge,
than LGD, there's not really a team that's like whipping out the Venge Carrier, so I totally
forgot about it.
But this honestly makes a lot of sense as a Lina answer, especially if you're getting
that last pick like this.
Yeah, I don't think necessarily they needed it, but I like the extra spice.
I think their lineup was already great before that, that we could name a bunch of heroes
they could pick, and it'll work.
So I'm liking LGD for this.
I think Lina can carry this game.
I think if anyone's going to do it, it's going to be NTS for his team because
it is still a decent Lina game.
But I am worried that this Beastmaster is going to be out of control.
Save or final thoughts on these drafts?
Yeah, even though I am rooting for Xtreme, I think LGD will take this game.
Yeah, they have been playing maybe a little bit better throughout the entire series as
well, which definitely Game Number 2 was very firmly in their hands.
Keep in mind that this game is deciding if, well, the team that loses, if you
have to play for elimination or to avoid elimination later on. And if you get yourselves a win here,
then you make sure that you're just fighting to decide on which side of the elimination
round you'll be at. So let's see who takes this third and deciding game of the series
with AudiPixel Unfold.
There you have it, Shiba. Yes, time to see who's going to come out and stop between
these two in this game three. And an exciting final pick. The vengeful spirit come out
What we had on the stats was picked once before they don't win
But here are some people have been talking about what do you make of it the moment in carry position?
I know they like it right we saw them even do it a couple months ago
Right and it was against a similar lineup
They like to play it versus this tiny because this 20 talent thing I believe I know I've talked to caps about it as well
True and that's one of the concepts on top of like multiple different things right so
They have a repositioning tool slash save versus the Lena
They have this 20 talent which you see the wave of terror steals damage
Which first tiny clearly makes sense how much you're gonna get from it and then in the lane
It's a stun versus the dawn for the combo kind of stuff
So couple different reasons I can see why LGD wanted that and yeah, they're draft
It looks like a very strong tempo setting draft
That being said XG a lot of stuns a lot of ways to just take fights team fight overall. Maybe not the
Most that they have on their lineup, but overall skirmishing is definitely strong from XG
I'm trying for a bit of a sneaky smoke plate to get some action, but let's go, let's go
to the smoke.
And yeah, let's see this guy, right, Whisper, the one to look at probably for this game,
this beast.
Could get pretty scary how much he can do in this one.
If he ends up having this good lane with the Caudle who ends up usually securing that
good lane, gets those stacks too, could definitely be a big deal.
I think XG was, I thought they were actually walking up there to block some of this,
perhaps.
That's not, that's why they went for that level one smoke.
Yeah, I just think he's got a bit scared once the smoke came off.
Yeah.
And I didn't want to walk up blindly.
Maybe they'll wait and do the ward afterward.
Because usually you do want to at least block a little bit of these camps
so that they can't just enable the Beastmaster that much more.
We shall watch and see.
I see the Murana walking up right now, so I think that's what we're getting.
He's pinging it.
See where he places it.
Because you don't want to let them just stack for Beastmaster.
So nice sneaky ward.
We'll see if it's going to be found.
See how long I lost?
He's jacking for it.
And...
The way they smoked right he's gonna get it right or what do you don't look in there?
You might not expect it there. Okay. Nice play there for Max Nova very clever to write you said they were afraid of the level one
Just in case waited was able to put it afterwards. All right. Yeah, let's see how these lanes go. I
Haven't seen the dawn plus a
Tusk combo in a while. That's a lot of damage that comes out. Yeah, it's a good combo those two can offer
Hard versus this lane though, right double range. They're gonna play get a distance poking you constantly
So even if you do go for the play, you might be low HP and get turned on, or you get bushed, whacked, or the tag team plus star breaker or something.
They're gonna have to drag waveside, imagine on the side of XG down here.
Yeah, lane's definitely looking very strong here for the side of LGDTL.
Ooh, they're both trying to stand their ground.
Blundernake!
XGDTL is gonna have it.
Little bit of help coming in from Arme there with that tree toss.
And they will get first blood.
Nicely done.
Good trade coming in and he's gonna have the whole wave to farm now under for Amix. That's actually very important
So people to get a pretty much free level 2 and this is that this is the lane to watch for me at least for the side of
XG if they can endure this lane, it's gonna make a big deal how much they can do in the mid game
So good so far hit first few waves
Mid lane as well too. We've seen I think once or twice now this DK versus Lena
The DK can withstand it, but at some point the leaner is actually at least what we saw right the level four and five
It started to be difficult for the DK's. Yeah, it's
And not quite the the same as the matchup was in the past
It's not a Magnus. It's not it's not as bad as definitely one of the better
May they hear is to to put into the matchup to try and get out the laning phase with some sort of farm
But there's definitely not a whole lot of fun
against the leaner
So Farame, pretty solid up here.
See once those levels do come out for the beast, how much it's going to start mattering, because
they don't deal with the board that well, and those axes are going to get you refreshed
constantly, but nice opener here for XG, blocking the camps.
And overall, is there anything else really about the Dragon Knight that's caused it
to sort of be looked towards it again, or is it just the rise of Cleaner Potential
turning up in the mid?
You need Taver here or the Gets through the lane?
I think it's that plus just your instant stun gap closer, right?
So I think that's the other concept that some people are looking at here.
And looking at it too, right?
Breathe Fire actually versus Tiny as well, right?
It's pretty effective since you're all that base damage.
Breathe Fire reducing quite a lot of the damage.
You can definitely see more merits for it than usual.
What is Breathe Fire nowadays?
I actually don't even remember what the percentage was.
35% or 20?
32 at max, okay.
Still a lot!
For sure, especially versus Tiny.
Spam is starting to add up.
See how much regen they're going to be able to bring to this top lane on the side of XT.
This is where the power really comes in.
The Axis plus the Chakra.
Gonna have to bring that extra regen for Aume.
I'm getting tricky and tricky, but it's done really well on the fast, freeway.
C.S. Getting that first blood, definitely very important for them as well too for Ex Nova.
Awesome to have that little bit of an edge, so it's easy for the other ports to trade with them.
It's late actually, I mean this has been very important for Armey.
Working up to see if they can find something. Might just have it.
Launch into the arrow. And a few right glutes, they'll get the kill.
This is like, get the carry there, Almeisa.
Very, very good start here for the same plane, Tiny.
So important for their draft to have this start here for Almeida.
Just slowing down Whisper a little bit is very important too.
Bottom, we are seeing the effect of the double melee versus that Venge and the Hood Link, but either way, not dying, which is important.
Let's play there from FY2, sneaking away with the snowball.
I feel like we're in for quite a treat here really. How much I feel like these two teams are going to be skirmishing because both lineups, it's very strong skirmishing that we're coming in. There's so many stuns for both sides. Waste of reposition. We have a tiny toss on one side with the band down the other. Going aggro on Yuma.
Quite able to get the hammer down on three for them though. So when did that extra burn damage? So Yuma and King Jungles are fine.
dangerously to get to you want to get aggressive with the tusk in the dawn but
if you get conned a double stun plus the double bounces from the acorns it's a
lot of damage that comes between these two
and Thompson has been kept low in the mid but he's doing very well on the CS
yeah not too far behind the leaner at all so absolutely getting done what you
need to into a matchup but nobody really wants to play into you right
right now Lina being that annoying with the constant dragon slave spams but here's the
DK, Topsin.
Third hero, Yuma now, it's too much for a nice bushwhack there but not enough to hold
him away.
I've got to go for King Jungles on top of that.
Besides, Scott, you know, a little bit of a chance to juke around the trees, he's
got a couple of fairy fires if you want still, pop one, get another bushwhack off.
But he will eventually go down, as he gets the two of them, it's a good start
on the side lanes, I mean, 4-0-2K lead already, 6 minutes in.
A lot of this being because of how well that level 1 and level 2 really went for this top lane, right?
He knows he can lead the time off, so...
We'll be losing FY.
That makes a quick rotation to try and find something from the side lanes,
realizes they're not going too hot right now.
I really like that move there from Exnova, just moving with the Murana,
shutting down this vent, she was having a better time than the Don.
Really good preparation in this early moves from XG.
The wards though, it was taken out to the camps, they are starting to get stacked.
I'm starting to see that they're around the triangle for the Beastmaster the whisper is going to be enabled
He is still gonna get boosted forward a lot
That Dom timing is gonna be very fast
They have good ways to force buildings to like looking at the temple that LGD can't set right beast DK
Venge with the dominator with a coddle behind healing could absolutely see how they can accelerate
There was they just have to roll for a potential escape attempt
You can get enough passage, got the mana for it, and I don't know if even with the one charge is repressed, it's uh, he goes down.
Armory's doing excellent, now continuing to just thrive in this top lane, they're enabling him.
Seven minutes.
Theo.
Will be able to secure it, but Xlva doesn't make it there in time.
I'm gonna scout the stacks, Topson.
Well, we'll be able to go for either of these.
XG though, now aware of the stacks.
They might rotate the Tiny and the Lena over to at least try to contest.
If you bring any of the cores over, I mean, all three of them are good at stealing the
stack.
How close to six on the dawn as well, too, right?
Because they could have Solar Guardian as well very soon if they want it.
Super close.
I mean, when that's up, they're definitely fine around this area.
Yeah, I think they're going to run in.
They better keep tabs on that on the side of LGD.
I was just going to try and start clearing, but it won't be quick.
Oh, it's already in top.
It's up!
Did he get put to an end, in fact, and that allows LG to turn and get the kill.
Our man, X-Tuber, is still going to try and fight on forwards.
They haven't got much left in the tank. They've got to run.
Oh, that just says, go down.
The dragon tail's back up. He's gone. X-X has ended up teeping over.
He will now turn up, but not really a lot left for him to do to try and help out.
X-G's just got to run and get out of this.
I think the ward that they have on the bottom side saw him.
It may be on the tree line, because I think he was trying to hide from the vents.
Venge, but he gets stunned during the solar. Yeah, you have to take Yuma. That's a big play
Honestly, they would have lost so much if they didn't get that and said they killed Alina
Really nice play there from LGD. That's that side. Yeah
So they were keeping tabs of it very nicely there and now the catch to I'll make
Let's be fine here under the tower
And the shocker targets to right they have the Beastmaster, which is the obvious one in most scenarios
But the other two aren't bad either.
I'll keep the bench.
And this DK, you can get chain stuns coming out.
King Jungle, he's already looking for more beyond the tower.
He's found X-Town over the bush black.
He's fine, but still X-Town for now.
I'm getting close, completely out of this top lane.
Pushing the top tower, also making the move back toward bottom.
Yuma is level six, has the swap ready.
I'm trying for this, yeah they're popping into the King Jongles combat.
I synergy coming in from LGD this game.
Easy for XG to really make moves into any of these lanes right now, you know, you set up a lot of him, he gets swapped and stunned.
And at mid tops is on the DK, pretty beefy, he's gonna take quite a bit to bring him down and out of the lane and then...
He's doing so good.
On the off lane, you know, you're gonna get roared.
Yeah, honestly.
the follow-up TP's come in so XG they're probably going to play it kind of passive now.
Yep it's really big the top since having this type he's only 300 behind the Lina but he's essentially
one of the favorite. He's comparable in the lane. I mean it definitely was
saying why some of these mids are considering GK is a bit of an answer or a way to get through
the laning stage against these heroes such as Lina. Oh that's interesting whisper.
Looking to just go for an agonimus instead of going for the overlord timing that we tend
to see a lot of times. As you said their lineup can get pretty tanky in the way that they
kind of collapse and close the map off so this could be a cool approach if you
He wants to go for it as well.
F.Y.A.T.
I'm going to catch on him, get the chance to get a snowball off, he will!
He's got nothing to say, next time we're here to help out.
Look at the arrow in arms towards him, Yuma's down with the shot, they're trying to save
Topsin.
He's trying to run away, he's up to the high ground, he's still alive.
No way.
He's getting away from them, they're still there from Yuma, bailing Topsin, out the
end of killing off X-X-S and indeed a tip, coming out there from Topsin and
Yuma.
Now Yuma, these first 10 minutes, super clutch, both Solar Guardians have encountered
Literally just by him the first one stunned the second went to walk the way the bench
Feel it pretty good. Yeah, and I'm not a lot of other carries could do those sort of moves, right?
Not a lot of carries right now in the matter having sort of a stun to interrupt some solar guardian play for dawns left on the road
And obviously no one else having the potential to swap your mid lane out and keep him alive like that
They really lives with what 50 HP or so tops in able to scurry away
And that's probably gonna secure his blink dagger at a super fast timing and versus that Lena
That's not what you want to quite when you see as that Lena at the venue pick looking very very very good for this
Yeah, that sort of play that LGD is looking to play with because I've really only seen the bench versus the tiny of course
But also versus the doom as was the initial one that people theory crafted because it's an axe
You know you get it you get doomed to carriage you come back blah blah blah so but definitely seeing the power of it versus the dawn as well
And this hero once it gets to the point of it once it has its eyes
It does absurd damage. It actually really does some of the craziest amounts. It doesn't look like you should, but yeah.
Not.
As soon as you get that wave of terror on one or two targets at 20, once you get this Hydra Breath as well too, yeah, the damage is absolutely crazy.
We've all been there in that game where, you know, someone just happens to pick up Avenge, carry against you, and it's 40 minutes in, and you're like, my goodness, this hero looks busted.
Why am I not seeing more of it?
Yeah, it is a nice one to see at times if you do get away with getting that farm in the lane. If you're able to get that array at a good timing.
Link done for the DK. As he said, the skirmishing from LGD is super strong. Same thing for the side of XG, but as we see there are some counters that LGD has to play versus XG skirmish.
Still not quite level 6 on FY either. LGD having all their sixes. Starting to take these towers early.
An XG, they do not really hit buildings in the same manner at all this game.
Sure, Lena can, but it's risky versus defense.
LGP can really accelerate this game.
XG, who are you looking to make the plays around?
Are you expecting FY to sort of be the one to go in and set things up, or are you sort of looking to armate?
It's going first as the carry.
It's probably army, right? Which is usually not the case.
Because you're doing all of Lina. They don't want to be starting things right.
They want to be reactive and sort of be able to sit back, react from a distance, or react with the Solar Guardian.
But it has to be the tiny or the tusk to make those moves.
It is. Or they just have to play with this reactive kind of though, which isn't usually the best thing to do.
It will work out too hot for the last game.
Like, you've got Snowball saves, you've got Solar Guardian, but play fully reactive can be incredibly dangerous.
Army.
What the?
I'm the one that's into the arrow and the Solar Guardian, but...
Swap!
the swap. Gonna be out of Q-Flash for safe, they're ready to turn with the magic missile
and the roar. Not to be sazed in as well with the burst to bring Yuma down though. Laguna
Blade comes in, they'll get the Venge kill. XG's got the numbers for now. Does LGD want
to push forward? It looks like they want to entopson. I mean I'd say that, you know,
they were sort of looking towards the Beastmaster. They end up getting Yuma instead. I mean
that's the carry. That's like, it's gonna get caught by surprise with the fact
that LGD was still hanging around on the high ground. We can actually get out now,
Especially nothing to say. He is very vulnerable right now.
Axe access is just out of there.
They found him. They're caught.
So whilst the initial move did sort of work out, they killed the carry.
They do still end up losing a couple of heroes for it.
Topson making sure he gets the last hit on that one.
And Yuma being, you know, sacrificial lamb.
It's okay to do this sometimes as a bench, even though if you're, you're recorded called carry,
you'll get to that point as well, too, if you're enabling your other two cores.
Yeah, that's fair. And these are two other cores that can also be carries themselves.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, these guys are gonna scout.
Especially with how Whisper is building, which I doubt is he still going for the agonins?
I imagine he was, so.
Yeah, he's gonna have that absurd scaling.
He's gonna have it super fast this game.
And the synergy with the lineup, with the caudal as well too.
It's gonna be tough for them to really bring him down.
I don't think they can go for Vessel either on their team.
Unless the Murano really wants to go for it, but that's just not the case anymore.
distiller or yule's almost every single time. He's gonna do it. Okay. I was gonna say somebody
probably has to versus the Kotlin Beastmaster, so it's gonna be Ex Nova, but he's a five
position, so it's gonna take time for him to have that vessel. Not the easiest move
to make with just two when there's a solo guardian available so looks like this
was maybe just an attempt to catch a support. Moonlight Shadow, XG.
Oh they found me out. Top two will ditch him.
It's actually not bad that Xnova gets the kills as I mentioned because he wants
that vessel early. I actually don't mind when he gets a couple of these extras.
If he's able to find this vessel at a good time it's gonna be a nice answer
versus these DK and the Coddle, even.
That's getting pretty close, yep.
I'm thinking about a swap play, maybe.
Bit too late there.
They're putting focus onto this bottom lane here,
they're gonna back off this.
Fastest, 39 minutes faster than the previous.
Just to be done, at least see too many
of them building it, of course,
so that's actually pretty cool.
Level 12, can't whisper the real carry at this point for his team
You know
Thinking about some sort of swap move as they're chasing onwards
Probably wants to save the swap at least unless he gets a leaner or if he's like saving for somebody
I think swapping that supports this kind of crazy
Look little pause we got coming out
They want LGD could look to try and push that final tier one.
Has Aame's timing looking, does he have the shadow blade finished up just yet?
I did see that he was going that instead of the blink, so that kind of indicates more
farmy kind of style from XG, rather than looking for the fights more reactive style.
Yeah, so he will have that along with the TP if there's a situation where he can come
in and try and look to sneak into the fights.
I'm queuing up the BKB next. He is playing it to Roar, so it's not going to be an end-all
to your answer, but...
That whisper is going all... He's going like actual semi-carry full build, yeah.
He's not even queuing up the Overlord afterwards.
Why has this sort of been straight away from?
It got nerfed.
It's just that a lot of players feel that the nerf was enough that it was just no
longer the strongest way to play the hero.
How many consecutive nerfs was it? I think it was a 3... I don't even remember
over the year, right? Because it was so OP for a while. They also made it so it didn't
work on the rush. They changed the shard. They made so many different kind of changes to
ensure that this agonist wasn't as busted as it once was.
Yeah, that's when he added when he could just hit them and apply all these, it was
pretty nuts like how much you were doing. You were literally a carry. But they were
actually picking in his one position. A lot of games, so.
on the numbers. Pretty close here. It's a lot more threat from LGD than when it comes
to taking these objectives. Absolutely. XG, as we say, it's going to be a question of
when they want to get Army involved. Yeah, sure. Yeah, XG has a lot of stun, but same
thing for the side of LGD. Great ways to just skirmish and fight. And catching backline,
that's the big thing, right? For XG, initiating fights, catching backline a bit difficult.
For LGD, it's very easy for them to jump these backlines right now at this moment.
Eventually we're going to have these two blinks on the DK and the Beastmaster.
And when you're playing vs Kato especially, right, like you need to catch this backline.
If Kato just free casts in the teamfight, it's usually your demise.
Hopefully everything's alright with the headset.
That's true, this is a decent amount of time for a headset.
Checked out.
and
standard since the action to the acts
and then what what what he did not see if it is just a hundred to buy anything
defensive for yourself or if you can kind of get away with
i guess what's that nothing
done on the offensive
slot so that the kb and maybe just because there is that much fun and all
that right but what to see because he could just go greedy
go down that line we'll see how it all depends on like how far ahead he is
so good all three tier ones taken here 16 minutes sent by LGD oh that's
success caught sleeping that's gonna be a kill
that's up just a bit too far for LGD it's just easier for them to make
plays across the map for SG it's as hard as we're saying we it's army
They did it all on our maze decision on Wednesdays
You know where the value is and spending his time whether it is going to be to continue to play on his own at the creeps farm it up
Or if there's going to be more value and then turning up and trying to get involved vessel
I have both of those options as a tiny vessel is done now
So they do have that finished there for the Marana
But now it's like X Nova is actually playing kind of a four position from the five and that means that the tusk now at
This point is probably going to have more delay on the blink dagger for him
Because that's the ability that they do want.
And they definitely want to blink on the Tosca.
Versus the Beast, you'll be able to save versus the Roars, potentially, or catch back.
So it's going to take a lot more time for FY because of this.
The Elk does have a Vessel himself, which is also a good Vessel game for LGD.
Yeah, always.
Tiny and Dawn, fantastic.
Yeah, exactly. It completely ruins what you want to do with the Solar Guardian.
And Tiny is very high HP, so with that plus the Solar Bind, it takes like 50% of HP almost.
Pretty absurd how much it can actually do.
Next jeep. Not ready yet.
Content with just getting the space for our mate.
Looks like Whisper is considering getting a blink as well. They're gonna have like three or four
different ways to start the fight then if he does go down that route rather than going for the
treads and carry build.
Yeah, I think getting the blink first is gonna feel very nice for him.
He's gonna get all these other irons anyway. Yeah. The blink honestly just kind of accelerates that.
Yeah.
Just been able to have it for, well I feel like one of the underrated things about the blink, it does speed up your farm speed.
Just getting around camp to camp, lane to lane.
For sure.
And yeah, just can pick and choose who he wants to go for the Vroar Rift or which I follow up he wants to do it with with Toxin.
We'll look Shadow.
Exliva's still not having the vessel, right?
Just getting close though.
And this might be the move they're looking for armies joined the team. Okay whisper he gets the blink off
I think he just picked it up off of that courier armies coming over though
Whisper have to roar and run the avalanche is gonna catch him
He's gonna just kill the tusk. He is a success also off them off with the starbreaker
So he's gonna be fine and that's that's pretty armies sort of ticket to sort of say well
That's the last time I'd say that one back to the freaks. You know he tried to try to be getting involved
There was nothing to get involved in
Yeah, I'm gonna be back to it and preach after that one. That's the most value pick up of a blink almost ever
He literally picks it up and ends up saving him and he gets a kill because of it afterwards as well
So I see down there for whisper
All right, I mean I actually like this
I saw they did have the BKB queued up, but I think they need something gotta do some start shadowblades not enough
You're gonna run into some century or whatever here. So here we go. So let's say shadowblade blink on our mates tiny. That's it
That last attempt didn't go too hot
But now they does have the blink on top. He can be the one to get in and get that reliable catch
If LGD call by surprise
Topson is around
Gee what are they looking for?
Scared to run directly into them still at this point. We know how LGD just quite a bit stronger right now still as the group up
smoke up though they're gonna look for the angle it is going to be around this
tormentor if they can find whisper that's probably primary target number one
right now
playing it safe though he's hiding away
omics looking for him you know he's now coming in LGD ready for the fight
down here getting closer and closer to the agonist he pretty much he hasn't done
now on you my actually having six heroes now at this point actually quite
likely did that rather than finishing the yasha right he just was like I'm
actually getting close to this aggs now let's forego the yasha for a second
get this aggs now we have this very very strong 20-minute timing
So it's now done for XG, so that you have to play it.
The BKBs and stuff are starting to come out.
Yeah, I mean, again, it just feels like the passiveness from XG, that we did have it a
bit in the last game, more understandable there because they had this real struggle
in the other game, so it was kind of like, well, can they actually make plays?
This time around feels like there is a chance to do something, but they are opting to
go on the more passive side.
LGD's lineup, they take these objectives very fast and a lot easier in particular both Tormentor and the Roshan. They can just force these
LGD even themselves, they can just smoke and look for a fight themselves pretty much at any point if they feel that they want to
They have the BKB, yeah with the BKB from Topson for sure they could look for any of these fights now
Foxen.
There's any area.
He's gonna go for the jump.
There it is.
Oh, they got him anyway.
They got Foxen anyway.
I mean, the Laguna Blade kinda came in a max range.
Yeah.
Two for one, but Yuma still has the illusion to be able to farm with for these next few moments.
But it works out! It does! Aame gets a... Aame's like,
Okay, maybe I will join in for some of these. No, I may be able to get away after we get the kill.
Might have been expended, though. SoloGuarding once used whispers like,
Alright, that's my call to just go for the rush now.
See how XG wants to respond to it.
Link is finished for FY now too, so they're gonna get this further catch.
Leo, very far forward.
Getting punished.
Trying to keep the way for the Rose, maybe.
Yeah.
If that is gonna be enough though,
or if actually do still come looking,
ah, they got it.
So blink on that fly, that's actually pretty important.
Now they do have double blinks to be able to follow up
and even to tend to save
versus some of these stuns, the Roar in particular.
I should have WKB for the next fight.
No pretty solid farm level 18.
Yep, keeping toe to toe there with Whisper.
So now after that death, actually the one to start falling behind.
They see him.
Army!
Are you there? Gonna get the avalanche off it first, one of the two of them.
Solar Guardian coming, and the Swap will come out.
Yeah, Whisper out of the side, he's able to tank it, the roar off onto Army.
He'll run down that fly, let Topson and Whisper through the rest of the deal with.
Army!
And Whisper is just so damn strong at this point. He truly is the carry.
Every single time, you must in position to get these Swaps as well.
And yeah, just a random sentry on the floor.
It's a painful death there for Army.
It is.
It's having a pretty safe game up to then.
He's so close to having that BKB, right?
Yeah, they're very, very close.
And now potentially this could lead into a tier 2 very quickly here.
LGD collapses very quickly.
Maybe even potentially very near to them.
Yeah, both lanes round.
You need to see, for LGD it's much easier for them to execute these plays.
XGs, it's very complicated for them to get these types of setups.
Did you see me get more and more of the answers?
And this is still, you know, I mentioned the Venge 20 talent.
he's getting closer and closer. Four more levels. It really does start to get quite ridiculous how much
you steal if you do get it on the timing. Nice aggressive word that got to LGD, so scouting both
the Lina and the Tosca at the moment. Getting this tier two access to the outpost.
a bit quiet from nothing to say overall three and three sure you got the
lagoon on topson earlier but not the easiest game for him as we're seeing
the other two too
it's not catapult it might like just man maybe they're just poking some
creeps there but no go back away maybe go for a kill I think they are they
They expect Tommy to head out and find these camps.
Oh, no way. If they get him here...
But how did they just...
They just knew.
Roar. He's gone.
I mean, they read him perfectly there.
They knew exactly. They was coming out of the base and going to those camps.
I mean, I guess it's Yuma who made the call.
I mean, Yuma's getting a lot of tips from his team this game, and now the push.
I mean, just died, respawned, died immediately.
That's rough. And he was...
Yeah, pretty much up there is the top network of the team before that.
my great shot calling whoever we got that rest that we got to go check those
camps
that's a rax
full set
twenty six minutes in
he might even get the second set they pushed 30 seconds without the carry
and as we've seen they haven't been doing anything much without the carry
they might even get to the 20 talent for the bench
pretty crazy to see especially
in a meta right where we've had so many long games, 26 minutes in, taking two sets of racks,
we just haven't been seeing that this tier.
Honestly, he brought the fresh arrow and gotta say, we might have a half duration game here
this time compared to most of them.
Very easy.
Lincoln's now finished up for the Lina, so I mean versus the individual, the individual
like single target abilities is gonna be good, but there's not just these single targets,
it's a lot that they have on the side of LTD.
Well, that is a pretty monstrous advantage that they've gotten now.
full sets. Probably one of the best ages usages we've seen. I mean just you didn't have to use it.
And both of these games it does just feel like LGD they have just a bit stronger of a game plan
right when it comes to what to get done on the map. XG looking a little lost for sure.
It's not able to really rally around nothing to save right even in that last game too on the
Magnus he had a quiet one to be anticipated but this one on the Lina it's incredibly quiet.
Oh my goodness, look at this one.
The algorithm has given this one much less of a chance than last game.
It's getting to the other end.
Just to give every answer, it really truly does on the other side of LGD.
And as I said, it's all before even the 20-town, which is when the vengeance actually rips everyone to shred with their tiny...
I mean, I guess this is the question as well.
You know, you talk about how I didn't have a lot of nerves, but now after this game,
people are going to be looking at which Beastmaster to be like, you know what, maybe,
maybe the axe Beastmaster is going to come back in and play this TI.
It was a pretty dream-beast game overall, with the lane that he's up against.
Even though he didn't dominate the lane in particular, it was enough.
And I just, yeah, I love that he did go for the Axis game.
On-term of the fight in the solo guide, if the bush works out,
two of them, they will take out Yuma the once.
You're gonna fall, stun on him, they'll get him a second time.
He's just getting reclaimed.
Won't be able to chase though.
Nice reaction.
There's a little bit of something there from AxG here.
Taking Yuma properly out of the game, twice.
This time, nothing to say. Actually, he was able to get involved as well, too.
I think they did it with the snacks.
How do they feel that they can do anything with this?
I should probably just back up and farm again, with the way that XT has been playing.
That's just kind of a game plan.
Flowing down that momentum pretty decently, but they still are playing at this two racks
disadvantage.
So those lanes are always going to be shoving in onto their side now, giving all that
extra information that would be needed to play around.
Thompson's got a bit of a different style build here.
I think I've seen him do this before though.
Early overwhelming blink.
Can be annoying in the fights but usually not what you usually see picked up from the
game.
I like it.
Sure.
It's a decent bit of a tax piece though, right?
It's annoying, yeah.
You know what I mean?
It gets like tiny leader and dawn that try to get these extra punches in.
You jump on top of them and suddenly they have to kind of put the BKBs early and
stuff.
I'm not crazy about it but I'm like, alright whatever.
You know it stops and he tends to have his own style of build, so...
LGD?
Imagine they do just want to look for every single one of these fights.
Especially with Roche coming up in the next minute and a half or so.
Probably want to get a good board and a good catch at the start of it.
Whisper it out with a full BKB as well.
See the courier.
Oh, they can jump them around if they read position.
I mean, well, XG is gonna try and react.
about the whole squad almost going to show here with the jump is going to get
caught by the world we can put everything on to Yuma take that the one now they
turn up always whisper wasp at the BKB off so we're just going to try and stand
his ground potentially he's getting outnumbered though turns throws the
axes out army moving his BKB on a fun deal because BKB now going to come to an
end on army the coin in the bush white HXS swims back into the star
break but he's doing barely any damage to the top so the tall top
Full HP! He can turn, chase down XXS, he'll pull himself away with a hammer!
Can Ame get out also? Are they all really going to just be able to disengage?
I'm just going to play a full 2-9 in a second, he'll have another blink, he's into the trees, nothing to stop the TP, Ame gets away.
Wow, somehow able to just disengage, it looks like they were going to lose Ame or XXS, but able to get the kills and clean up out immediately afterwards, still cleaning up Yuma.
He does still have his illusion alive, and now I fly, might just get caught.
Play the terror, is it in range for the SWAMP in a second?
He's okay.
Nice moves from XG.
Catching LGD a bit off guard, they weren't all together at that moment that they're
able to combo the Venge down.
That is the name of the game.
If they can get the Venge at the start of things, then there's no swap out of
that solar garden a couple of times you've been seen
that's quite the bill that would be a spicy one a little uh... late
game radiance
happy we're too but you know i like i said it stops and so knows i don't know
i don't i don't know how i don't like that one either
radiance ladies that's definitely a little i'm not all for the crazy stuff
that's what i thought you wouldn't see anyone else do this
Goldlead has completely dropped down all three cores now on the side.
He's changing it up, he's getting up on three.
Topson still considering his options.
He was gonna get shot again, caught first.
And in the once, they return with the stun over to Wardsex,
now back to him against the leap off.
The roar is there to finish him off.
Seller Guardian comes in, but they're able to kite it out.
Armay probably gonna be pretty early now.
So he's gonna come to it and he's gonna try and run away from this,
but Whisper and Thiel are caught on top of it.
They take Armay down.
They're gonna see the tip tip, he'll get me TP out from Ex-Ex-S.
It will succeed.
That's all my god!
Can't get Yuma...
Losing their own Tiny.
Get him the once, but he just comes back and ends up getting the swap off anyway.
I couldn't kill him a second time this time around.
And the Whisper just continues to be the actual carry, right?
Just over and over again, sure you're killing him.
You're killing Yuma, but Whisper is just the one cleaning up and running through you.
And Vroshnau is up.
At top 8, he's looking for all the fun stuff.
I think it's going to be like a Radiance Noxerina, a Defuser Blade, a Sheva's Guard.
You know, he's going for them all.
I like this- I'm okay with the Sheva's.
I mean that sounds nice.
Almost sounds the most like it.
I just heard Whisper for his gun for the disease.
I was looking for his first.
Sure.
Then Whisper, an Orc get now picked up for him as well, too.
Difficult for the snowball saves to come in, in particular.
Two, he can just Orc get him now.
Don't look him like a finger out here.
Don't have anything to say about this road shot.
Give me Yuma. Whisper has yet to really be threatened in most of these fights, so Yuma just wants to play with that as level 19, oh and almost 20 now.
Well, I see for X-X, that's starting to gain a bit more damage here. As we said, the three cores are farmed on the side of XT, it's just, it's a lot of heal, a lot of sustain, a lot of ways that LGD came to this fight and now at this point, the next fight, it's seven heroes they have to go through because of the way that this Venge has.
And maybe even more if you guys back in between the two so there's a lot of different
Yeah, a lot of different things that LGD can't do
Next to hanging on
Well octarin for nothing to say
Alrighty bench 20
See how much he actually gets from way the towering on that tiny.
Those numbers are gonna go up pretty high.
Really, really high.
Alright, looking for the heart next.
Now it's pretty hopped right now, but isn't normally something you see on the tiny, right?
No, I usually want this Daedalus for the big explosive hits with your damage,
But okay
It's one some sort of way to be guaranteed to live through any kind of raw attempts on to it
Surprise because it feels like the long fights don't work that I might try to think about the reasoning because like I think they want more
Explosive damage rather than going for the long fights is a big algae in the long fights are just better
I mean, it's your Beastmaster DK and then you they do all sell at three cores that don't mind a long fight
Yeah, and with the title is what to blast in the hills. I thought that army would just go for more exploit might change
I think he's not spence up and say any bit of it
But I mean it's hard either way right it is difficult to itemize at this point
Two and a half minutes on this ages
some of the sheavers on top of the overwhelming blink is definitely gonna
be very annoying once he gets the jump on them. If there's tiny BKBs, how many
attacks speed is going to be dreadful? It's gonna be very very right. He has like
no attacks speed already throw that in on top plus the overwhelming blink. Out of
the seven seconds of BKB he's got a kill a whole lot of PD really does.
And that's what I'm saying, doesn't get the aid list. Yeah, that's how much damage you actually get out doing that BKB.
Yeah, we'll see if he does actually commit for this
He's got to be careful right now with his positioning as well too. They are starting to sandwich on top of them
And maybe also just trusting that his job is to kind of get in the front and live and the damage
It's just gonna come out from the lean. That's okay. That is kind of fair
I was trying to think also, but the lean is full-spot cast it still right
It's no extra right click that is that is true. It's all in on the magic burst. Oh
So, yeah, they're the kind of biggest step of the physical that they've had recently
as the AC has been added to the lineup from XXS, but indeed outside of that might be hard
to take down some of these cores.
RGD, they certainly do not lack in the damage department.
Double catapults again with the banner.
They have an arrow to deal with, but if they want to do the same thing, they have a four-staff what they did last time,
last time they four-staffed it out of the banner range as well.
Not the case this time.
Second arrow gonna be up soon though for Ex-Nova to take out the next catapult.
And it looks like LGD just didn't have anything to just force the issue here.
XT does not know that though.
All right, really nice neutral items the Prophet pendulum one of the best especially when you're playing to versus this high burst damage
You must gonna have that to be able to play with as well
Get back up get tormented. There's a big efficient on the map now. I'm going again. It's just actually they're little passive
Yeah, they're very past all five of them. They don't want to leave the base. They're terrified
Oh, look happening really from actually side of things
They probably just feel yeah, they're feeling that pressure especially with the ages still on the side of LGD
Yeah, they just back up there guys. Let's just maximize efficiency gold lead jumps by like 4k in just a couple of seconds here
Boots of travel, okay on the coddle. He's like, yeah, we can just farm. I'll put the travel. I'll join you guys later
Yeah, I'm just gonna scale more.
I can get all the waves pushed in and just take as much as you can from the map.
Yeah, but the way the game state is going, right, he's just like, they're not making moves, so we might as well just farm.
Yeah, I like this for KJ. I was hoping somebody would buy the Vlad for the team.
He's gonna be the one that goes in on the hoodwink.
Yeah, I thought I was starting to see that bit more from teams right now.
It used to be one of those arms that just got ignored completely right.
But now teams are starting to pick up a Vlad Ceren there again.
Yeah, really nice when you have just multiple different right clickers.
It's going to synergize beautifully with the Venge.
I'm waiting to see it when he does get that Wavatarra.
Just one connection on how much he actually gets.
I can't remember exactly. It's a lot. It is an absurd amount.
I think it is a Tire.
The reduced damage of Waveterra is the entire damage or is the base damage?
Base damage.
Wait, actually I think it is a Tire.
Yeah it's Tile.
Yeah it's Tile.
Yeah it is Tile.
I remember with the... it's in Tantotems as well right?
Maybe that's why I don't want to get Daedalus then.
Because then it's totally... Tart damage is higher than if he has a half.
He doesn't want to get stolen.
Yeah, okay I guess.
But yeah.
Then you still don't have any yourself.
Then you don't have any damage yourself exactly, so.
Lead growing dramatically.
I mean, they still got more to grow, right?
Whisper can get this, uh...
Disperser.
I mean, Thompson has an insane amount to grow because he just got like,
he's got this like anti-carry build rather than a carry build.
Having a lot of fun.
Yeah, they're just not really able to step outside too safely now at this point.
They're coming out now at the base.
Doesn't hit the tiny, hits the dawn, gets plus like 100 damage.
Yeah, that's the thing about this Venge too, is that you have so much to grow, you can
eat the axe, you can get BKB, you can get Hydra, Butterfly, there's so many options that
you can still go for at this point.
You can make use of such a high amount of net worth on this hero as a carry.
And he isn't even the true carry in this game, right?
As we've said, it's been whispered the whole time.
to hit that 25-6000 ahead of the next hero, flawless game so far pretty much from him.
Yeah, I think more teams might start looking at the Beastmaster with the axe again, despite
the fact that it fell out of favor. I have to whisper confine a way to make it work
this game, I'm sure there's other games as well where it can.
XG wanting to get outside, they've been stuck in the base for a very long time,
trying to probably prepare for the Roche.
I guess that the risky thing as well, right, for Armageddon for his heart, it does
I mean they're also making these plays where he has 4k gold not spent true as opposed to where he might have felt that he
Could get like a small crit and still have money for a potential buyback
Same if something a bit bigger means that he doesn't have to play over here unless he wants to sell that one to get the
Reaver
Does not at the moment
KJ
He has an a on disc and he's got back up
I'm gonna tell him at the start take out FY it's gonna be a get the get out of here
You know for xD they don't want to be around. Oh, he's been found. He's stunned and he's left the hike of the rest. He's super
He failed out. Look at the damage on the bench 349 plus 225
Oh my god actually doubles his damage or more. So 349 plus 225 is like
574 and then let's click on the bench now
574 and then 190 plus 172. It's like 362. It's like plus 200 damage or something
It is pretty sure.
He literally had over 200 more damage.
Yeah.
Of a good wave of terror.
It is pretty crazy.
One of their strategies.
I think I've only seen LGD be the team that does it versus that tiny.
It's been some time.
17k lead now.
Yeah, it's looking pretty comfortable here for LGD.
Yeah, XG perhaps feel a bit desperate with that move.
I think the arrow...
...anyways to protect you, but...
...30 seconds without Army.
Good Lotus.
He was about to get swapped.
I'm gonna say that swap would've had him.
Success will live.
We'll be able to hold, at least by time, for Army to respawn.
LGD just playing very safe. They're gonna back away.
Wait for the Roche themselves again here.
And Army, he just has not...
Honestly, hasn't increased at all. It feels like in the last 10 minutes or more.
It does feel like he's sort of been stuck in this state of the game where he's just kind of walking him around with
These big dreams of items queued up, but yeah, I mean look he's not quite able to build into them
Literally only got a thousand gold in the last five minutes of the carry, which is never what you want to say
It's a tough one here for XG they are struggling
He said just goes like LGD they've had all the answers for quite some time in this game
Yeah, just blowing open the game with those double raxes and just had them giving them so much extra freedom
I actually like I said, this is desperate, but they got seen that word did see the smoke
Lgd claim in the high ground position
He supports our monstrously farmed as well too for Lgd since they're just able to sit back and farm
Oh
Army it's a good avalanche one of the two of them
Oh, damn it any fall on Thompson's is having to have the big heavy look to army on is to put the big heavy run back up with the high ground
Good ability comes out
Do you find the other core off to the side? This is so deep chasing very deep for this call
And they're not even gonna get it or maybe we're gonna go in and they can
That's what they don't feel the cause still alive on a try to kill it with the bush
That's why it comes out of the sooner than after Starbreaker and he'll come through.
Finally they killed the other core, but it took so much and they had to go so deep.
Can they actually get out of this? Nothing to say he's caught in the trees.
They'll lose the leaner. I'm always able to TP out at least.
But just getting the core all cost them two their own lives.
One of them being out of the mid and they had to go so deep.
For so little.
It's a screaming frustration and desperation.
Just trying to get any of these catches but they just cannot.
But I... So if he crits on Yuma with the Wavintar Violet, it's a 1600 crit that I saw there.
Off those Wavintars, yeah.
Now the rush won't go down, and you have the damage from Amma. It's just not fair.
Not by any means at this point.
Did he spend up on anything?
Not before that move.
So still no.
Alright, now he spells up.
They're just buying multiple hearts.
Okay.
I mean, it's a good item.
And it is a good item.
It is.
It's going to be good enough to turn this one around on the two of them.
They're down 17k gold right now.
They're tanky.
They are very tanky.
But LGD heroes also do pretty crazy damage.
I mean, when you mention like the 1600 crits coming out from you, it's like,
it doesn't matter how much HP you've got.
If you've not been able to take out this vengeance the two times you need to
or the three times cost for the Aegis, the vengeance is just going to destroy you.
And XG's damage just feels very...
It feels very...
And I think the Hydra's breath right, that does some sort of big damage right, depending on the percentage...
It does!
Some more HP, it's gonna do more damage here!
Yeah, this one's fantastic here for LGD humor.
Let's look for the final set.
Okay.
Oh my god, that was insanely risky!
Oh xxs
Swing him I guess he's helped to make the jump over the water walked out back on the xxs
I put the big get me trying it away the world comes in they put him on the side
They put the snowboard a bail xxs out for now xxs will live thanks to the save of fy with the racks and army
Just by kids of human but you would just turn to the stone control
I mean he's locked down fighting as the big get me off
But he's so low the jump comes in from fy so the guy needs one to take you around the ones
That's the ages gone
You can go from round two Thompson back in with the job because all they are way xxs
Tipped up by the stud into the hook, we push back.
He's out for good.
90 seconds, no buyback on him.
The mega creeps are out.
Oh man, this Thompson build too.
It's very annoying for us.
This is a steep.
Look at Armageddon.
He can't move.
LGD and these last two games,
they've really looked a step ahead of XG.
That game won really a distant memory.
I'll have to see the performance here in the game.
Turn the game three from LGD.
Roar.
Another one. God's like ready to close it up. They're going to try one final attempt to hold them back as they look towards you, Matt, but I'll make he's gone out of the game.
No buyback on him. GG is called as LGD. We'll take this series two to one with a very impressive game two and now game three.
You're getting all the tips. He probably asked for the bench, right?
And it was probably a lot of individual things stopping the solo guardian
Swapping at the first solo guardian is up to so many different things he was able to do LGD
Just couple steps ahead of this one. Absolutely just doing things a little bit different with their picks with their item builds
And it's absolutely working definitely finding their footing here LGD as they get a confident when two to one here against XG and
that. And they do not have to
play for elimination today.
They're at two and two record.
We'll see if they go for the
three and two later today or two
three doesn't matter. They'll
play tomorrow. Rough loss as we
see here for extreme gaming.
This is a tough one because they
will need to play for
elimination later today. That
players themselves as well. He'll have to make it all down though. We're here with SavorLife Fly
and Jenkins, because this game was, I think, now two games in a row. We've seen LGD in the
driver's seat against Extreme. Yeah, I mean, that one hurts for Extreme for sure. I can understand
why they're feeling a lot of pressure, but also coming into today, like, LGD just looks like
the better team. They were so immaculate in the last two games that they played. They
They played almost flawlessly, Topson's not doing anything too crazy.
He's playing the normal heroes, but adding a little bit of spice in there with the DK build.
I think that was very cool.
And then of course Yuma with the last pick Vengeful Spirit, so LGD in LGD fashion.
They win the series.
It was very spicy builds from Venge.
Well, not necessarily even the build, just the pick.
And you know, sometimes you play it just right and I think this was the game for that.
I was really impressed by how they played, especially Whisper.
I feel like it was a pretty free beast game after this early game.
They extreme did have the dawn break hold to cover the roar, but it never felt like
it's enough because LGD did have the DK stun, they had the hoodwing and just so
So much setup that Beast could hold his roar, it just felt super hard for Xtreme to fight.
I think it was really nice how Yuma played this game in particular.
I think he was always there in the right moments to kind of save from the Dawn Ulti's early
game and sometimes he would sacrifice his life.
But I think it's fine because Beastmaster was kind of like the carry for the majority
of the game.
The lineup kind of was revolved around him and Yuma played his role perfectly.
So I really like how he played this game in particular.
Whisperer is such a good Beastmaster and he's got these Grandmaster tier heroes.
He's the only Platinum tier on Beast, but I feel like part of that is maybe he's too
bored to play it in his pubs.
This is too easy for him.
He does these little things like going for the carry build, getting the mantis style,
getting the Lincoln Sphere.
This is something that he does a lot that I think is really cool.
You get Lincoln's.
So that way, when you roar into Lotus and you roar yourself, you save yourself from your
own roar and you can continue carrying the game.
He consistently does this and goes for the late game disperser.
It made the game very easy for LGD to play, having essentially carry in the off-lane for
Yuma to save.
Yeah, Yuma gets our MVP for the game.
It was a tough one, as either Yuma or Whisper, but Whisper already got some MVPs, I feel.
So, you know, give it to Yuma here on this Vengeful Spirit.
was a solid game. He probably made the call himself to play eventual spirit in this one
and pushed LGD to victory here. I want to touch upon something that we talked about
when the draft was happening. We saw the Moran and the Tusk been picked on the side of
Extreme Gaming and we instantly said, well you guys instantly said, don't like that.
And Fly, it turned out to be very lackluster. Yeah, I think we could recognize from the
draft that they're just picking Marana for the sake of picking Marana. I don't
think there was too much thought put into it. It's not like this whole plan or
like hey we're gonna set up the Marana arrow of certain heroes, this is a good
matchup. They had some information that I think they saw both the caudal and the
hoodwink and they used they didn't capitalize on it. When you see your
matchup as a support you should have some idea in mind how do I beat the
Sky in lane or how am I gonna be good against them in the game and I
felt like both those heroes didn't really do anything so they put themselves in this
fall and they paid for it. Yeah it was a it was a rough early game already I
think Saber you chose a moment from that early game that you wanted to
highlight. Yes indeed I chose the I would say most important moment of the
early game they played for their stacks on radiant and as you can see they were
just farming them and it is important to protect your stacks. These guys if
you stack for your offlane or protect the stacks you ma beautiful
cancel on the Dawnbreaker ulti so the Dawnbreaker wasn't able to connect to
this fight and LGD were able to not only defend the stacks they also killed
Alina and also the Dawnbreaker TP'd in to help and that helped Yuma and an
enormous amount because he was losing bot lane so then Dawnbreaker TP'd out
he was just farming bot they got the stacks this was all they needed from
this early game and it just kind of snowballed from there on out yeah
And you already said that Yuma played a big role in that fight, even though he wasn't even there.
But he played a big role in a lot of fights where he was there,
as we do have a little bit of a montage fly of him having some great plays.
Yeah, this is what we talked about early, that he was sort of always there in the right position,
because often you'd think your carry is just going to be farming back camp somewhere,
but he connects to pretty much all the engagements in the game, and he makes some really clutch saves.
The downbreak ability doesn't hit a lot of times because Yuma was just there in the right moment.
So, it was just really nice to see and you can see why he wanted to vent.
She had this idea and I don't think we saw it in this particular clip,
but I think we're seeing in this one.
Yeah.
Here we go.
This is going to be the one.
Guess this clutch save, beautiful.
Saving Private Thompson.
Saving Private Thompson.
And always waiting until the full committal is there too,
from Extreme, where they're like overcommitted.
LGD definitely in this game, actually previous two games,
the way that they played fights was beautiful,
which it's a really difficult thing to do against a team like Xtreme.
There are very few teams in Dota that can teamfight like this one.
When they got second place at TI, this is what we were always talking about.
The way that they fight is flawless.
Maybe like Spirit Falcons are up there in contention.
So to beat them in this way is very impressive.
Yeah, and it looks good for them for the longest time already,
but of course you will have to have a moment in that game
where it was really cemented that they were the better team here.
One of those moments, Perch, is going to break down.
Thank you, Chiever. It's always a big moment for teams when they can take those small advantages
and compound them and turn them into bigger wins that ultimately win them the game.
And the first one that was really significant, other than those early clips that we just saw,
well, we'll see this teamfight one more time here, 23 minutes in.
This is that great teamfight where they barely keep King Jungles alive.
They're able to kill both the Tusk as well as the Tiny.
This is a nice team move. This was good for them.
They gave them a little bit of a 2K advantage, but what they did after with it
was the most important part of the game here.
They end up pushing, taking the tier 2 towers, Glyp gets popped, Whisper is going to cut the next creep wave as well,
while they also rotate over to kill the mid tower as well, so take a look at this.
Killing the tier 2 mid tower, so now they won that teamfight, they got two tier 2s.
And look what happened on the map really quick, it's a little bit hard to spot, but I'm going to zoom in here.
Look at this, you're going to see, oops, never mind, sorry, one second, I'm going to fix this here, I changed my tool.
There we go, okay, Ami just cleared this creep wave here basically, and they were going to see a little lingering vision of him going this way.
And what happens is Yuma pings, saying, he's over here, look how fast they smoke.
They were mid just now, they're instantly going this way, they're going to cross past this creep wave here,
because they know that Tiny was over here.
And they got here before he kills both camps, this way Viterra is really important because it interrupts the blink dagger.
So then he can't blink away, they manage to roam before he gets BKB off, and they get this kill.
And what do they get out of this?
Two sets of racks, just because Yuma made this call, and they had a smoke ready to go.
These are the crucial moments that happen in these games to make the game much easier.
Once they're up two racks much much easier game for them to play so very clutched that he's able spot that and they're able to get there
I I didn't honest take here from the two pro players on my panel
Is this a blunder for mommy like did he did was this LGD? Thanks birds. Thank you bird
You are very much bird extreme things. I'm just watching that and I'm and I'm thinking like
Surely he can farm somewhere else right he sees the caudal
using spells on the creep wave from the high ground does that give him like this
false sense of oh they're up on the high ground they're not smoking to kill me
here well I would say don't a map it's a little bit like a pendulum like it goes
this way well you could also do it like this basically like they you push one
way and then the other wave gets pushed into you so then the wave that's
pushed into your base you suddenly want to out push it because the
enemies are not gonna stay there and the other wave gets pushed and you
kind of just keep doing this the entire game. But the problem is that at some point these
guys they get too smart and they camp the wave that's pushed up here, right? So this
was one of those cases and he got caught with his pants down.
Gentlemen!
It's a 6-7 thing but that was a real analysis actually.
It was a real analysis.
I appreciate that.
Gentlemen, I need you guys to look at your watch. What time is it?
It is advancement time.
It is advancement time.
We're moving on to our next series.
It is time for a team vision, taking on Team Spirit.
Just everybody was looking at their options.
Is it working, Cyber?
It's 215.
Mine just says Hello Kitty.
Mine says Hello Kitty 215.
Is it two already?
Doesn't matter.
We have got ourselves two teams that are 3-0 right now.
one of these teams guaranteed after this one series will be the number one of the entire
group stage and make it to main event. We got vision, we got team spirit, Saber, these are two
top tier world class teams. I can't wait. I feel like we've had so many good games this TI
and I feel like these two teams, they just seem unstoppable, especially Zatanic,
but also Yatoro. I feel like they're both playing out of their minds
and seeing them against each other. One of these teams finally being a 4-0 team is extremely exciting.
I can't wait to watch this.
Yeah, focusing our attention first on Team Spirit.
Flamga, put you on the spot that you have them in the top of your predictions.
Uh, I think I put them as the, is it the 4-1 team?
Okay.
I think I put them as 4-0.
Oh, they're still tells you?
I have vision as 4-0.
Ah, okay, okay, okay.
It's actually this, we kind of had an appetizer, a great appetizer.
Yeah.
It's kind of like a main course right now.
That's how it feels like to me.
That's fair enough. G-Spirit has been, has been on fire, a lot of people have been calling them, you know, back in Team Spirit form.
They are also the overall youngest team here at the International, which is mind-boggling that three of these guys have two rings, although they're about already, even though they're only like 23, 24, 23 for the guy that you're seeing on your screen right now.
So, super impressive. And I think the most impressive guy, though, on the team, it has to be not me, Jenkins.
Well, you're not on the team shivers. So it doesn't make any sense
Just gonna keep doing that joke for another few years here. Well, not me is yeah
I mean every tournament he shows up to he's been absolutely popping off
I think people kind of questioned is the pressure of ti gonna get to the guy
It's just you know first ti ever the dream leagues and these online tournaments. That's whatever, you know
You're playing in a boot camp scenario with your team. You can have that comfort
Now the guy just loves Dota like he's just super into Dota
He can make these clutch plays that is kind of part of the team spirit identity and this is something that I'm
very excited about when it comes to this matchup is that you have a team vision who is kind of
crushing people and
Just they look like these giants and spirit on the other hand
They're winning a lot, but their games look hard like they're stressing themselves out
I saw Mepocheka and Milan in the hallway in the hotel and these guys are like they're they got more gray hairs
Than I've ever seen before they're losing their hair because they're watching their team and it's so stressful
You know, but the players they don't they just don't buckle under stress. They don't focus our attention on vision
They also indeed don't
They don't care about this pressure
They're performing at the top level regardless of where they are and maybe even more so
with the pressure. I feel like Fly, the guy that we just saw a moment ago, we
have to start by highlighting him because he's been around forever and we
mentioned him earlier today because he is the oldest midlaner here in Shanghai
in 4TI. He's been on top of his game or he's back on top of his game even.
For sure. So I mean I just realized we have no one versus not me which is two of the greatest names.
It's an epic battle for the casters in joy.
No one has been, he's had such a cool story, I think, because he's been, you know, at the
top of the Dota chain, really, he's won a bunch of events.
He has not won TI, but he has won a bunch of other big tournaments.
He sort of goes under the radar, disappears for a while, and now he's back with vision,
and he's been looking amazing.
It never looked like he was not one of the best midlaners in the world.
He's just up there.
I think a lot of mid laners will say that no one is one of the players that puts the
most pressure on them.
He's also, he gives up the vibe that he's like kind of a big spirit leader for this
team.
Like he's kind of the heart of the team almost when he talks, how he leads the team in the
game.
When I play positive this guy here, you can tell like this guy is a leader.
He for sure is.
I have had the fortunate privilege of, you know, getting to know this guy better
And he is just a through and through philosopher psychologist. He loves life. Yeah, from the oldest player on
We go to the younger satanic very ready for this upcoming best of three, of course as
He's been has been quite that a trendsetter quite the record set there Jenkins
He has you know, and you could look at no one as maybe he's teaching him these lessons and you know
Molding satanic into the player that he is because he started pretty good everyone thought that the kid had potential and
And boy, were we all correct that, yeah, he is setting a ton of records.
At the top, we have records for this TI.
He has first place for pretty much everything, GPM, so you might think, oh, he's just last
sitting a lot, right?
First and last.
It's now he's also the biggest killer and has the least deaths.
And by the way, the only person doing more tower damage than him is Mikkei, so he's
also hitting towers.
So he's doing everything.
He's doing everything in a game.
And how does he do it?
When he talked about it in the opening panel, he just has that raw talent.
That's it.
He's got the dog in him, I feel like.
He's him.
He is him.
He is actually him.
And he is him against Team Spirit Jenkins, which is another thing that is extra special
for him.
Yeah, this was from Fissure Playground.
Satanic was notoriously, I'm just going to say it out loud.
I mean, everybody knows it.
Really hard to interview.
The kid, we would get nothing from him.
You would ask him some long question, set it up for-
It was like 16, 17, go on.
He would get a yes or a no.
But basically this was the one time
he grabbed the microphone and just said to the crowd,
like, I'm so happy to be here.
I'm so happy to have beaten these guys.
But also he puts that respect on them and says,
I would not be where I'm at
without these legends on stage.
So he has that respect.
I don't wanna set up the story like,
oh, will that pressure get to him?
I don't think it will, I don't think this kid feels pressure anymore, but it is really cool to see this clash because you have the team that kind of put him in the spot that he's at, at the biggest tournament in the world.
Yeah, and we are in the draft for game one of this best of three. Let's see which one of these two teams can for now call themselves the best team in the world.
We'll see if that changes of course by the end of next week
But for now both these teams three, you know and one of these teams instantly
Making it to the main event
We got teams paired on the radiant side vision on the dire side first pick all the way of vision as well in terms of pants
Definitely a bit of change of pace compared to what we have been seeing still one drew tree and banned out. Yeah. Yeah, I know that but
Bane I'm dying Windranger banned out by vision. So they are going the support route
I'd say in terms of bounce fly. Are you are you happy to see that? I think it's an interesting approach
You know puppy is kind of notorious as trying to also break metas
I think as a he's done this historically as a drafter for you know, who knows how long at this point
He always wants to test ideas. He does this a lot and practice games against him
He would always leave a bunch of different heroes try different ideas
in some ways we saw calf drafts and I think puppy is a bit similar maybe like a little more restrained in terms of
How many heroes he's gonna pick but the idea of trying to bait people into stuff
So it's it's good to see that he has some approach with these bands
And then I think they were like it's interesting to see that we have Lena in a pool
But this game they're gonna prioritize something else with the earth spirit, which I mean no one has looked really good on
It's a hero that he can control the tempo of the game. He can scale into the game and
I'm sure they had a plan on Spirit side as to what they're gonna respond to each of these picks if there was Alina
I'm sure they had an idea in mind, but they've seen Earth Spirit
They take the slaughter slaughter is just a good matchup against Earth Spirit in the mid lane because slaughter is good against other melee heroes
And he can kind of if he can shut down the Earth Spirit
He can control the early game himself because it's a hero that can get faster on the map
He can take the ruins and he scales well as well. Yeah at the start of
Puppy taken the seat for drafter, which was like about four ish months ago
one of the things that he was doing and they were open about it is putting nine class in a box of
You know a cage no more weird heroes for you only playing normal heroes
One of the quote-unquote normal heroes he got to play was earth spirit and we have seen him play a quite a few times
so is that still an
an open option for them or is that kind of no longer worth because he's just so strong as a midlaner?
Yeah, good. I think so. I think the Blink Aether Earth Spirit is really good. It's just that it's so good on mid that that's why we see it.
But if there's some awesome mid pick for our boy, then yeah, I think they could swap it up.
I know when we played the house cream he also likes playing Earth Spirit 4 and his idol for as far as Earth Spirit is concerned
Was always 9 class. He would always use his him and as an excuse like woebab
Pro 9 class is playing it. Please let me also pick some pick some Earth Spirit
So I'm sure they could do it, but yeah, the the mid Earth Spirit just seems super strong
Especially now that we have the draw picked as well. I think mid Earth is very powerful
you can get on top of her. I'm expecting Cruella's Crozier, perhaps even first item.
Well, okay, maybe not first, maybe after Vestal, but it is already a really nice concept against
Team Spirit have two heroes that deal a lot of physical damage, so you already have
Vyvern on vision, which is extremely good against physical damage. You have your cold
embrace heal, very, very nice draft from both teams.
I think it's going to be interesting because there's some ideas where you can put this Earth Spirit as a support
Usually Darkseer is the best pairing which is banned, but maybe there's an angle for like an Enigma here
Enigma Earth Spirit could lane well together, it's a hero that Nautist really likes
And then you can pick a different matchup against Slaughterer mid
Just to punish the Slaughterer like for example Alina
Alina could punish the Slaughterer mid and make his game very sad
But never mind they just go for a Willow, looks like they're just going to keep the Earth Spirit mid
mid so they kind of reveal their hand about this nine class air spirit nothing
wrong with it because now on the next pick for vision they're gonna have a lot
more information to work with yeah we'll see where team spirit wants to take this
as well because I'm sure that they are aware that right now they're heavy on the
physical damage I'm sure they want to spread that a little bit it will be
team spirit with overall last pick at the end of this all so they will be
able to find the missing puzzle piece when all of a sudden we got the ring master coming
out as their first pick here.
I know we're big haters on this panel of this hero, but I would...
Which hero?
Ring master?
I would love to play Night Stalker into these three heroes.
It's like two squishy heroes, you could silence, Earth Spirit rolling in into a
silence feels pretty bad for him as well.
It's a bit awkward because it doesn't mean you would be...
Well, I mean they could pick it later on.
Yeah, they would probably last pick it, I think, and keep flexing the Slardar.
I'm expecting them to pick the other supports here and just keep the Slardar open.
Some clockwork, like something to go with the draw in the safe lane.
A little pairing for that.
Yeah, that would make sense.
Just a melee hero for Rue to play with the draw ranger.
Not that much left, yeah.
A clock is probably the next in line.
Maybe there's something we're missing for melee heroes, but I'm dying and
Trinter both out, so...
feels kind of bad to play into all the AoE.
Maybe Ogre Magi? It's your time to shine now.
I'm wondering if you'll go Midas.
I would love to see it if they do that.
It's a very good Bloodlust game for both Sardar and Drow.
Just saying, just giving it out, laying it out there.
Channeling the Ogre right now.
Yeah, manifesting, let's go.
They are not having a lot of time left.
This is already their bonus time, which is unusual to see
for a team in this position to only have 10 seconds left for a lot of thought
and maybe then also vision maybe posing a little bit more problems for them
than they thought they would need to solve at this point but they'll just go with the stable
try to test it through clockwork. Yeah it's a classic you
yeah you don't you basically just need a melee hero that will protect the draw
it's nice to have a second form of initiation they have the slaughter blink eventually
but it's also good to have clockwork that can set up with the hookshot.
I'm thinking, what does St. Anak want to play here?
Because they're not going to have the last pick of the draft,
so you kind of want to pick the best possible hero here,
like your win condition, because you see everything.
I feel like it's a really nice spectre game once again.
I feel like whenever we see this draw,
then the other team ends up picking spectre.
I know there's two to range supports already, but why are these teams not going for Lena?
Like it's completely ignored and we've seen it be so dominant in so many other games
It's got to be something like both teams are dangling it, you know and they just
Because or they expected it to be banned, but they don't want to change the prep that they have like they planned on going with something else
But I don't think it's a bad hero or either team thinks it's a bad hero by any means
Yeah, I also feel like these teams they have like their own meta kind of like in the previous series
I feel like both LGD and Extreme like the Lina a lot and also the Lina won the first game
So then it kind of just becomes the meta of the series whereas for these teams
They have their own ideas and you know, I'm sure it will develop from this game onward
Are we happy with the native profit? It's a
Is it a flex to off-lane? No, really
No, I think this will just end up being the carry.
Yeah, 10 seconds.
I think it's okay.
I think we've seen some really good performances from Nature's Prophet during this event so far.
It's a hero that scales really well into the game.
It's also a hero that can speed up the game by teleporting in to kind of collapse on the draw ranger.
Because once again, you know, Team Spirit is creating this third lineup for the draw ranger to be able to hit
with all these different initiations from Clockwork, Slardar.
And a way to break that is to attack her early in the game,
bring heroes to her lane, Earth's spirit with his magnetized,
Nature's Prophet with his ulti and TP in,
try to slow down the draw ranger before she hits a critical mass
and create chaos in the fights.
I think that's kind of how you beat these lineups who want to group up.
So Nature's Prophet falls in line with that.
It's also a strong laner.
Into starter, in case starter goes to his lane.
So I think they're trying to cover as many angles as they can.
does mean that we get a lot of offlaners potential offlaners getting
banned out in this phase we still don't know exactly where the slaughter is
going to go but at the moment we do see vision respecting it as a mid if they
have been banged out offlaners with the center and the underlord a removed
spirit removes Largo yeah that would have been really nice to counter the
stuff that Tal is talking about where like vision is clearly going to be
collapsing on the Drow at some point and so to have an offlaner that can respond to that with this global portal would be really nice and
It also would have done fine against the natures in lane
I'm not so sure how I feel about the night stalker anymore
Just because I feel like you should get kind of dumped on by a natures profit in the first five minutes to a degree that might be like very problematic
Interesting so more damage for for team vision feel like they already had the
Plenty of damage from the Earth Spirit below and profit, but you know you can never have enough
It puts a big smile on collapses face seems like what we want coming out here for team spirit
They again don't have a lot of time to think about this one
This would be such a sick bat rider game if it if it was not a bad hero. It is about hero
That's true
I can't help myself. It's a doom at the end of it all and yeah that one's going in the hands of collapse on the offlane
It is a good matchup against Prophet you have your scorched turf that kills the Trian
So he should be able to just free farm in the lane. It scales very well
So, you know as we said if this game goes long, I would say the team spirit is slightly favored
So they already drafted for it and it's like set up very nicely
Yeah, I think I like the Doom. I think it's one of the off-liners that is also good against Timbersaw in the game
Because you can always do him in the fights. You don't have to worry about him killing you as like a strength
Hero killer. So I think overall I'm liking Spirit a bit more. I think both teams have definitely good drafts
It's not like one is completely like out drafted the opponent
But I do like Spirit more and a lot of it's gonna come down to the Strow Lane and how it's gonna work out
Is she gonna get collapsed on even though collapses on her team, but
Yeah, I mean both teams definitely have options when you have these like master tier drafters against each other you often have
Situations like this like timber one-to-one
Very good against ring master. He can put somebody in a box
But all of the pure damage is going through the box, but then on the flip side doom can take off timber
Agnum Scepter, Doom, Cancun, Timbers, Healing, so both teams have options, it just depends
on how the early to mid game rotations go.
What are you going to look at this game, Saver?
I'm going to be looking at how amazing these teams are.
I am so excited for this, I feel like no matter how this game will look, even if Vision
is winning, I'm sure Spirit will be able to claw their way back in.
I'm expecting like a 60-minute absolutely epic monsters game.
Oh, I think you and me and everybody at home is hoping for that one to come to fruition here in game number one coming year away with Audi Pixel and Fogged.
Yeah, absolutely. It's gonna be a real treat to see these two teams go head-to-head, team vision and spirit.
Two teams, I think a lot of people are home, are expected to see make the, you know, the whole way to the Grand Finals here at the International.
I see how they go when they go head-to-head here when it's a matter of as it matters the most to secure that first spot
Straight through to the next stage out of these group stage dross in hand. What do you want? What do you make of this?
I mean nothing's too sort of surprising right both teams having some pretty solid stuff
Nothing really that kind of sticks out as a question. Why everything kind of makes sense. Yeah
And when you have these two coaches, right that's gonna happen. You've got Poupon on one side
You've got the post gun the other they're gonna give themselves the best opportunity for these games
I'm not sure who's I like better
I'm pretty 50-50 kind of broken with it because there's a lot of counters on one side with this like cold embrace
They get this timber saw too, so they're trying to try to counter that minus armor that physical damage
That's coming from spirit, but yeah, this is a really really fun matchup
I think everybody's been waiting to see these two teams, so
That's why I get into it because out of the two teams from the wings that you've seen so far
Is there a team of the two that you feel is playing on that slightly higher level like how evenly matched are there?
Who's looked the horror out the wind so far
I would say vision a bit more hot, but I'd say spirit they have that clutch factor where you can never you really can never count them out
They have always ways to catch back up in these games
They have honestly some of these like next level new players not me we've seen him do something
I mean he's a nice place stealing that ages
He's making a name for himself so many different ways and he's playing a super high impact hero hard to execute sometimes
But if he is playing that ring he can do so much with it. It's getting counterpicked. We did see that Tim
Sure, they've got ways to get damage in the boxes and necessarily gonna always be that
saving grace but again a lot of the other stuff it's just the potential to
come in for some pretty clutch plays. This is what we are just waiting for again to
start some apologies. Ladies and gentlemen, as we do have a little bit of a pause.
There's so many different things to look at in this game
right because we've now seen these teams a lot throughout the year and
we're seeing more and more teams with the first pick drought. Sure this one
wasn't first pick but the way teams answer versus it so now they have
multiple different ways to close on top of it with all three cores right
And they have cold embrace to be able to deal with them to versus that physical damage and even willow
So you could look and you can say the vision have a lot of ways to address the draw in a way
But it is your Toro on the drought and he's been able to counter the counters in some of these situations as well
So he does normally find his way out of some pretty tricky situations
I'm free to pretty tricky periods of a game your Toro on his drill very hard to catch
and find with sort of the farm patterns and
He's sort of how quickly he moves around the map.
Always feels like when he's on his draw, he's sort of in the place that you were going to
look for him next, but not the place that you're looking for him now.
You're making the move down bottom, he's already teeping up to the top, and he's somewhere
else.
His mobility is excellent.
He's one of the, I mean, not the only player, but he's, you know, when he gets that
Gus talent, he spams it like crazy.
His mobility is fantastic on it, so, yeah, we're in for an absolute treat.
And we'll see how much he struggles in terms of the early game, how much they
do collapse on him, because Nature's profit, this is the one a lot of the team's
theorycrafted of level 2, level 3, you keep it down, you bring that 3rd, 4th hero, you
just kill the Drow, you shut down, you get that momentum going, you take towers.
I think it's one of the best against the Drow, and it's obviously going to be a lot
of fun to see here, because this is a scenario where we're going to have both carries bumping
into each other pretty early in the game, you know, if things go the way that Satanic
wants them to.
He's going to be looking to turn up and get involved if there's any early opportunities
to dive in against Yatoro.
And we've got to say it for Satanic again too, right, how many more records does
this guy going to break. Because his nature is profited.
Yeah, we saw the stars at first on everything.
Pretty much when it came to the different stats that we've had across all the games so far.
And a lot of people at home are very happy to have him as part of their fantasy team
getting a lot of points from this lad.
That's me.
Yeah, he's been absolutely incredible.
And yeah, his nature's profit is probably one of his best as well too.
Sometimes I have seen him a couple times.
Like, he has died a lot on this hero if they are able to get aggressive on him early.
So that's where I'm looking at this slaughter ring, or sorry, the doom plus rings.
So you're looking at the carries that we've seen him on.
You once said it's the most stable carry.
Not the safest.
Stable, yes, but just not the safest always.
I've seen him die more on this here than others, which he usually averages.
Which it makes sense when you're planning an H's profit because some of those aggressive
TPs might just not work out.
Yeah, it is one of those carries that you can, even the best in the world, can
start feeding on the TPs placed around the world.
My goodness, I mean, I've said Tannix been playing well, but 100% for Team Vision, man.
I don't know about that.
It'll update after.
Oh yeah, there's going to be so many fun things to keep track of, and yeah, how much is this
ringmaster actually going to be able to do to save targets?
It definitely doesn't look like the easiest.
No, but this...
Why do some teams not play that?
Is it just some teams just don't have a ringmaster playing?
I would say, yeah.
I think this is a hard hero.
There's a lot of supports that just didn't touch it, or like touched it, and they
just never wanted to put sort of F into mastering it because they felt that it
wouldn't be relevant super when you see the good ring masters play it looks
great well we had so far in all these games only the eight picks but it's
been good yeah it has been good at 100% win rate on the radiant side and well
what side he's on here he's on the radiant side says the stats go things
look pretty good for not me on his ring master so as you say very much one to
watch in this game for the saves and good to see because they're gonna have
clutch saves from both sides right because hundred plus over the cold
embrace. You've got to look out for that when it comes to making big counter plays. So, honestly,
both of those supports could be having some pretty huge impact in this game.
There's so many things to look forward in this, like we're saying.
I mean, you talk about the teams, overall, you feel a vision. There's been a bit more convincing
than that of spirits when they've run so far. This game, though, with the drafts, if you're
kind of just looking at the heroes in particular, is there a style that you think has been working
out better for teams in this international group stage. Are you going with this draw
or are you going with this kind of draw response that Vision have when it comes to draw?
I'm not sure, honestly, because I feel like Vision, I would say Vision counterpicked more
than the opposite side, right?
So it's better that we got the heroes that they wanted, so not sure. Both teams very
happy probably with what they've gotten. We're just going to have to see how these
executions come into play.
Uh-oh.
That's not good.
We're just still getting things set up. It's a big game. Gotta make sure that
everything is working and in place great voice line by the way I bought the
one as well the Chinese don't have a baby eyes are nice for my life down a lot
and he says go go all five disconnected
you're a little collapsed supporting everybody
they've got to get the quality so you don't want to get caught up by these
He's a satanic sprout place.
So this is actually really interesting to point out also for a collapse.
I think this is the...
I want to say second or third time I see him do this exact item, right?
I think he did this the other day when he was playing the Night Stalker.
The three goalless in the ring.
Yeah, which is pretty cool.
He's an avid fan of backpacking the gauntlets and then like eating a tango and walking
back in the lane so he maximizes as much as possible.
So yeah, cool to see that he goes this build.
And as it goes for heroes that we've seen have pretty crazy games.
obviously having the Earth Spirit team vision. How he's going to look from that mid lane? Is this
one of the answers that you feel is one that we'll see come back? Is the Earth Spirit going for
something like the Slardar to try and punish the fact that you're playing against this melee
matchup? I like it quite a lot. It's one of the better ones for this mid lane. Then in the
mid game too you have so much control from and so much extra damage. Are these Earth Spirits?
Yes, they build armor but it comes later so you can be a bit fragile. So it can absolutely
we see Laurel have a good time versus him there, but that's where the cold embrace comes in right, lots of these counterpicks, so yeah, this is
super interesting to see what's gonna end up happening in this mid game in particular.
Still just getting things set up. Sounds like we have a
final tech issues. We're starting to see some of Team Vision come back into the game.
So hopefully won't be too long on the fixing of it, but apparently
A few more minutes and we should be ready to go just having to restart some of the PCs, I believe.
I think we're all okay with waiting a little bit for this. Honestly, this is the series that we've all been waiting for to see these two teams matching up against each other, so.
And probably one that was in a lot of people's predictions right when it came to before the group stage.
Do you think a lot of people were anticipating these to be the two teams to come out with the 3-0 so far to get to this point?
Maybe spirit a little more surprising, but I think people, like as soon as you see their first few women,
the postca hero, postca hero, you're starting to see how powerhouse they really are.
So then we're going to go, kind of, this women win and get to this point without any hiccups.
And they have looked very good.
Something else I'm happy to see, too, is I think for me and you, we started to see a bit
of a disappearance of this clockwork, right? Some teams are just like slotting in other
heroes to try to substitute, even like these bounty hunters and ETs and things.
I'm happy to see the clockback. I still think this hero is super strong still does the similar job
Of course not as busted as it once was but very disruptive, and it's a great protecting hero for something like drought
Listen, we're gonna get into this. There's no but Sandy maybe the nurse not enough
Look who I mean clearly for some of the players it is right now. I guess I'm people are staying away from it
But okay, so he switches it up a little he's gonna get the guy gets the calling so the right he's playing against it
That's probably the right, yeah. You don't want to turn up and get sprouted.
I know it feels too good, but here we go ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you very much for your patience.
I'm ready to start off with the action here in this game one between Team Vision and Team Spirit
to see which of these winners so far are going to be able to come out on top.
Looking at both teams having a similar, I mean pretty much even of who has longer cooldowns,
who has better skirmishing, small skirmishing, it's pretty even across the board here.
board here both teams very good at skirmishing both teams very good at
sieging and taking objectives so taking all the boxes in both of their drafts
another pause we've got going on what happened the jig is up look maybe the
old turn it off and turn it on again didn't quite do the job here for no
one's PC. Might just be a hot key issue as well though I never know. Could be a quick easy fix.
Let's go for these teams. Either side gonna be looking for a first blood here.
They probably will do delay smoke.
Is that Ducales right putting that on his face?
I think it is.
I thought you were going to say the 6-7s as well.
No, no, no.
Ducales said that he loves those.
He's got the spirits back here as he's putting that on his face.
That is a nice one, I will say.
I feel like not enough people use the sprays.
They are nice and obnoxious, but I don't see them that much.
There was a time you remember I mean during the og that ti they were spamming it in the mid lane
The top soon as this drop in the face the whole time
So I'm kind of glad we don't see this right this spray is every letter those were need more sprays pretty tilting
Now it's been a good few seconds without a pause it's a good sign
So Kevin's working looking good ready to go. Yeah, let's see what we get
Let's see a vision, as we said, couple of these counter picks, how it's going to work,
the cold and blaze for us to draw, the reactive armor from the timber solvers to the draw
and start.
You can clearly see the idea that they've gone for this one, so let's see whose idea
works better.
The battle begins.
Two to two, the bounties to start things off.
Balance in all things.
Well, I've switched it again.
It changed again.
Entry is laying with the tangos, but he does have the quelling blade coming out on the courier after those bounties nice body blocks
These are this is beautiful
Keep it up. I don't want to watch you. I don't want to look away. This is nice
You still let the range through the front. Is that the strap?
What depends depends on how much you want to fight in the lane usually not the case anymore
That is a beautiful body block. It's a nice position to lay there for collapse.
Not going to be the easiest lane for him. Sure, he's got the scorch there to deal with these
trants and even the Ringmaster E does a decent job of killing them at times, but shouldn't be
the easiest one for him. Rare to see these Ringmasters using their, you know, their
impalement aren't to hit some of these units, but it's actually not bad versus the trants,
by any means. Yeah, you don't mind it. Usually it feels terrible because you hit a creep
and you're like, damn it, I'm pushing them, but this, yeah, this is fine.
I'll do that little bit extra to just sort of give collapse that better chance in the CS again,
Satanic with the Priests.
Nice last hit there on the range group too.
And he's got the camp open.
So very nice there for not me to have it available for collapse.
Bottom, root, cogs of course have been nerfed quite a bit, they don't travel as far.
Still does get connection on two.
I'll take that right on the edge that one.
And so, in terms of the sort of supports that some teams really like, but others are not touching upon in the lot, it's a...
Willow, right? Willow, true.
Seems to be rising in popularity with a fair few of these squads.
It's really nice to follow up with something like the Earthspear, you just throw the terror eyes, they just get controlled so much,
and you do provide a decent amount of damage if you're able to close Gap on some of these heroes.
And when you're playing versus a heavy physical draft, right, the Drow and the Slardar, your W has a lot of merits.
Being able to just Shadow Realm in and out, close the Gap.
Bottom lane, I would say, is harder though for the timber than comparison for the doom.
The worst of this drought, it'll get better as the levels come out and he's going to be able to have stacks eventually, but
it's not the easiest one overall for notice to just get those blast hits.
Well, the doom, he'll just have extra because he's killing trients, yes, you know, devour as well to eventually at some point.
Flaps will be happy in this top lane.
We're happy here, sorry.
We're still laying due so to see the chance to try and force for a kill first.
Good question actually.
Maybe it is just going to be collapsed because he is being kept just that much lower but
it also could be like the drought randomly and if the NPTP is over, right, if they
do just they are it might be actually down to satanics first yeah it could be
something like that they kind of have the firepower to take down a first blood
but hard for them to harass your Torah went to a position where he does get
brought down because of the lane setup that they have with the willow in the
timber we'll keep eyes on where the lane is or is pretty much having a flawless
start on the CS what 19 and six on the first few waves three of star here is
the drought means to cannot slow and down at all if the wave pushes up too
much, right? That's where the risk is for your Toro. If he's too close to the tower,
that's where they can bring the numbers in and just try to take advantage of him.
Fill-farn, not the case, and that's stacked camp. If Ru's able to get the pull-off,
that's going to deny even more away from the timber.
He's gonna drag it! Okay, nine classes able to actually get those melee creeps.
Nicely done. Full-free farm for the Drow.
The pressure on collapse but not quite as much as going down on the other side of the
map.
They're killing so many of those triads, every time that he summons them, every single one
of them just get cleared out.
He can throw in a blood grenade, just get the extra bit.
Not me?
I mean the extra bit was about like 21 gold or so per trium.
That's up.
TP's out, wants to just, it doesn't want to risk, doesn't want to waste his
salve or anything, wants to come back with full HP and full mana.
I wasn't going to allow it to play careful a little bit, but at least that's the
way pushed under the tower so we'll push back into him collapse and right look
at top they have 33 last hits a lot compared to the 12 of the timber in the
bottom sure as you said a lot of it is trees but notice definitely gonna have
the the slowest start and slower entry into this game I just crags you really
how close things up between the two carriers right you see both your
Torah and satanic getting literally the exact same CS out of the late 26 and
eight are both of them four minutes in these guys they're that evenly matched
on their lany skills mid lane too right look at that 25 for this is why that's
kind of crazy this is why we're both in the two carries they are on exactly the
same level you don't see that you don't see that but these yeah these two teams
having very very similar skill level yeah just the difference at this top
lane right just collapse getting that much more in a safe he's actually pretty
safe here with this build extra tank he keeps eating the creeps they keep
cleaning out all those trains so it means a panic
maybe it's like I don't even want to spawn too many more trains if they're just going to clear them
I mean that's the honestly that's probably going to get to that point right
because he hasn't used them in a while
now he's got the TP at the ready but you know Spirit they're going to be ready
for him to make a move
yes you're unlikely to catch Spirit by surprise
when you look for that too sort of early TP playing
Barrow's got the six a bit faster here than the Earth Spirit now at the moment
Power Rune is going to be that big point of contestion
I don't know what to do with the pressure, TP comes in, first blood for Satanic, it was
the most likely time for it to occur that there's no kills up to six minutes in, where
did we have to look, we have to look to where Satanic wanted to make the move and
he makes it.
Takes down Yatora.
It felt like it was going to be that case, so that's how the lanes were going, just that third rotation.
Doesn't mean that Laurel doesn't...
Uh, that no one doesn't get any help securing that route.
It's off to Carlos on his eye.
They're going to try and dive in, but the code embrace comes out.
They should have him.
Get back in front of Blake.
That's going to take quite a bit of damage from the tower.
Should be fine.
Not me will tank the last few tower hits.
They get the kill, they get out.
Laurel gets the route. He gets an arcane.
A lot of damage out to this tower here with the satanic...
It was just a huge move from Satanic, right?
You get the first blood, not only that,
but of course you're getting it against Yatora,
whilst he was trying to TP out,
so we had nowhere to get back to the lane.
Rue's now suffering.
Might just die here with nine plus,
getting the wraparound.
You get the two kills, you get the tower,
pre-seven minutes.
This is what we've seen most of times
from these natures profit, right?
When we've seen them versus Drow,
they're the ones that get ahead,
they're the ones that dictate that tempo.
Now, he's 1100 ahead of the Drow,
just because that one quick move.
I mean, this is not easy to do,
but it's definitely a large factor is that
a nature's profit, I really do feel this is one of the carries you want to run against the drought.
100%.
It does feel like they have some very good counter answers on the side of vision
versus what Spirit wants to do, at least in this early game in particular.
Spirit can calm things down a bit and keep
some of the areas a little safer for your Torah to try and catch up.
Because St. Danek
already has a... he's been doing his own games for his top net worth
By a decent amount relative to how early we are in this game.
Lapsed.
Almost gets brought down there too.
And this pre-6 on the Nature's Prophet too, so it doesn't even have to be a rapid Nature's going to come out soon too
for increased farmer, increased kill threat onto these side lanes as well.
And losing the tower this early for Yotaro is dangerous.
Just extra access points for the NP to TP down even the Earth Spirit to make moves onto you, not to worry about the tower.
That's a 9 class.
I don't think he's here, he's got the shot around, if he feels pressured, he doesn't even need to use it.
Notice now at this point has just completely caught up to, just with that rotation also versus the Doom.
Probably trying to the wrap round on this, why don't you call for the Bramble.
Here comes no one.
First crowns upon him though and no one ready to close in.
Trying to save himself with the box, but not getting out of this one.
Every kill here for vision.
Getting that pace going, but Laurel, not overreacting. He sees the rotation from the Earth spirit, just continues to slam onto the mid tower here.
He's having a really good start into this game.
And he's the one that they have to rally around at least to make that early movement, right? The Slardar in comparison to the Doom.
He's going to be the one to make the moves to bring that game back into this mid game.
Well, for vision, it feels like they can make more moves with just everybody. A little bit easier.
Well, that's going to mitis
Oh for that greed
One of those heroes that you can still get away with it. We don't see that much because even then it's not
The hoist to pick up spot
Still one that some doom players do favor
Maybe indicative of how spirit wants to play toward like they want this this one late game, right?
They just office okay, and normally they're able to get the game for that point right especially when your tour is on his drought
You know short they're able to punish him with the early play, but beyond that
It's hard to catch him again. You're Torah
They probably also feel like they do at some point like maybe not drastically, but they can outscale in a way
It is tight though because vision also does scale very hard with the Earth spirit in the nature's prophet, but
The big separation between the nature of profit and the drought on the NP is gonna be able to accelerate that much more with
this step of start than your Toro is. Unless your Toro gets some kills handed his way.
There's going to naturally be the case that
he's going to get outpaced from the farm from Satanic.
Yeah Satanic's not only going to be able to like farm faster than the Quick Mouths
and it's going to be able to join that much easier as the Nature's Prophet.
Not be easy for your Toro to keep on
hard with that farm. Yeah just losing that tower so early
is really dangerous. It limits the extra space. That play was brutal.
Yeah, makes it so he kind of just has to hit jungle creeps.
He can't really hit the lane creeps as easy at this point.
It'll be quiet, as he said, from Spirit for the most part until Laurel has the Blink Dagger.
Not many moves will probably happen for them.
But for vision, yeah, they can make all the moves.
Zotanic Males from the Sun.
Gonna farm so quickly on this stage as profit.
It's in early days, but likely another game where you're just gonna see Satanic zoom that far ahead of anyone else in the game on the net worth
Oh, yeah
And he has protection but it does have
Ten two pseudo saves. Yes, but why everyone plus he has the air spirit away to protect them
Versus this heavy physical damage that spirit does have
on our own
Sticking around a little too low HP under the tower there, but a rolling get the setup
Oh, that's a rough deft turn too. He was having a pretty good entry into this game.
They might have been able to just push the tower with this kill too.
Here comes Satanic.
That trance, this tower is likely just dead.
This is gonna be a challenge here for Spirit.
That's for sure.
Especially since they're going the greedy route, right?
Now he is committing for the Midas and all.
And they live through this stage of the game.
Gonna be the question.
And is your Toro gonna get...
Is he gonna be protected enough to get any of this farm too?
Because as you said, there's two to three different things that are gonna be gap-closing on to him.
Just a strip of farm.
That Death for Law just hurt... I mean, that one really, really does hurt.
Losing the tower as well.
Losing the momentum to get that blink dagger,
which you probably would have been finishing the next 30 seconds or so.
Gotta get delayed a lot more here
When they have Rue level 6 they can start to make more of these aggressive moves without Laurel, but he's still just level 5. Nice Juke
Not me does have the 6
Couple Cogs. Night class will be just fine
move up top no one is looking for collapse here and they're gonna see I
mean they're gonna see this minus and they're gonna be a guy's it's go time
it's a deal with the minus we can just go for all of these objectives very
early it's hard for collapse to really contribute too much
they're trying to make sure that not so many of those things get fed away
bottom lane. The play solo kill. That's a solo kill.
Stay tanks ready to TP over towards Yatoro.
Oh he's in trouble. The sprout's out, Yatoro.
No way to cut out of this.
Oh man, things are accelerating. Quick Knight class gets a solo kill.
He's still alive. He's living.
He's getting away.
They will get the setup here with the Wheel of Wander on towards Nox.
They'll have to drop the Duke down to ensure the kill.
They get something, but it's an expensive one.
Laurel gets the last hit, so he does have the blink dagger now,
but Yatoro again getting gone. I'm trying to help his buddy.
Knight class literally just solo killed at the clockwork, baited your Toro to show for the TP for Satanic to come forward.
Little pause, okay, let's see.
AC.
And Knight class back to full HP with the urns that he has down here.
These are very good aggressive plays and vision, they're not slowing down.
Laurel does have like a dagger finish, so Spirit can react a bit better here at this point,
but they did use their doom, they did use the Ring Ulti to finish up that Timber.
I'm visioned that they've got their ult.
They got everything.
Ready with the Fear on the Willow, the Curse,
Magnet's Eyes, they've also got this Vessel picked up.
Early timing for it all.
Nightclash again, getting the catch, looking for Nautnate.
Gonna try and push him back with the whip.
Nice costs.
There's some lal there, ready with the counterplay.
Make the jump over to Oz, Nightclash, Nightclash!
He'll get the Shadow Realm of the Moonlight!
He's living!
Finally, he falls, but they've already lost two themselves for it.
They're likely to lose, Rue, on top of that.
There's no chance to know on chasing him down.
He has got a hookshot to maybe break himself away.
And this fight maybe is not even worth the chase.
Now no one wants to go for this.
He'll get him.
Oh my God, you can kick Chukin up for it.
He tipped him for sure. That was a nice move, but he will go down.
You guys kicked there from going at the end of the fight.
They're trying to react to these plays, but it's just too hard.
Especially when Satanic turns up as farmed as he is.
He's already...
I'm so big already.
About 50% more farmed than Yatoro. I'm only 15 minutes in!
It's been such a good answer for the Drow Rangers in so many games.
This one's looking like another one of those.
I don't think we're gonna see Vision get the chance to get the Nature's Prophet.
If Spirit are gonna want to run back the Drow this series, this is just...
It's looking pretty unplayable into Satanic's Nature's Prophet.
He's literally just... look at that.
It's everybody else who's kind of even across the board and they're just Satanic.
And nine-class, of course, too, having a very excellent opening into this game on this Willow.
Very impressive opener here, 4K of D right now.
It's just so hard to kill him at this level.
And Knight class, you know, very sneaky Scott.
He will get found but he's obnoxious.
And he's got back up.
Oh, they miss, he gets pushed out of there.
He's going to be fine, he gets away with the Wanda.
They do have the cold embrace coming in to buy him even more time.
Surely should die, he's trying to get the fear of will fall.
The world dies for him.
He costs Lali's life and now more times people for no one to turn up, rolls over towards
more.
for the bigger kill! Fine collapse!
Oh boy. I am poor Laurel.
He got the blink dagger, turns up, dies. His game has been completely shut down.
I mean, I'm rude, not me. They're kind of like, well, where do we go?
They're kind of stuck in this corner of the map.
Oh, a bit unlucky there with the combo, with the ring ult and the cog.
Pushing him onto the low ground gets super awkward there.
Gatoro will say, guys, thanks for the space, I guess, but
Emerging more and more kills, and this time it's the two cores.
And notice now at this point, alright.
Doesn't look like he had that tough of a bit of a lane start, right?
Top three net worth, he's got the kaiosanjuri finished up.
And overall in the matchup, sure the doom is annoying for him, but versus everybody else, this is a great timber game.
Spirit, let's see what they want to do next.
Because Laurel probably being like, guys, I don't know how much I really want to just
turn up to some of these fights now, it's just a blink.
Can't just get popped instantly versus this Timber and all this magic damage.
Not me.
We'll get found very deep on the vision side of the map.
tied. No one having a very good game also 303 in comparison to Laurel has a
shield rune 2 for the next fight. Collapse does not have a blink.
Rue? It would be fine over the cogs. I would say that Bramble's actually still
catching from a distance. Now Gloss Rue has to use the hook shot to get away
but not this. He's ready to close up on him. Hook shots through another Bramble.
It does get caught in the stun
Vision. Tough times here for Spirit and their Sully game
And Vision not doing any like crazy flash, they're just kind of approaching it with a straight up approach
Getting all these extra kills, shutting down any of Spirit's moves
Seemingly one step ahead
And yet punishing the Minus really
Collapse not able to really get too involved, he does have blink now
You're totally not falling too much further behind though.
It's been stuck at that 3K now for some time.
How much behind he is, that of Satanic that is.
Very difficult to take away that lead.
Yeah, and Satanic, he's gonna have the pike finished up before they're able to make any type of aggressive move on him with either the Doom or the Slaughter.
So he has a way to just distance himself now as well.
Laurel, the chart is done. He does have Medallion, so this is actually really nice that he's been able to get these two pickups here.
But again, there is a lot of answers for this minus armor and for this physical damage with the Timber, the Shadow Realm, with the Wyvern.
Not easy for Laurel to find the move, so collapse. He's looking for something.
That's a very early blink dagger 9 class also having an excellent entry into this game.
It's got it done already.
There's not going to be a way on this move coming in very likely.
It's dangerous for you to make this move.
You have to, I mean if you go for notice you have to throw so much onto the kill
at this point. And if the Wyvern's behind him, he might just save him as well.
No, I'm gonna make that play. I have to just hit the creeps, try and get these EKBs online.
7K lead though, 20 minutes soon approaching. Nice little deny.
those signs of them being able to find any way out on the map to catch this nature's profit.
Static. He's in the safest place possible. All the space in the world and
almost impossible really for Teesprit to get anywhere close to it. Yep, and they can't even
hit the tier ones either as the problem, right? Being able to take any of these objectives to
get access to go for this nature's profit just isn't easy for them at this point.
They do not really hit the buildings in the same manner. It's got to be the drought
to do so in Yutaro no way he's gonna look to hit buildings for probably next I don't know how long
depending if they get a fight win or not.
At this point Yutanix is gonna start popping the Otoff cooldown right just to get that extra farm
so we will see that separation start to increase it went from 3k lead on him over in Yutaro now
it's up to the 4k he's gonna go for the BKB if he's able to just get BKB and AC and the
And the AC kind of hard counters the idea of Spirits draft as well too.
Because what does Spirits do in this position?
They want to breach themselves and bomb their own BKBs first.
I think that's the case.
And then you immediately have to try and look for play?
I guess so, but they're hemorrhaging a lot on the map.
I'll pick up a number one there.
And he's just finding them.
I guess they're trying to find any type of way to put any wards out here if you can't get some vision of them, but...
Down, bottom.
Hey, then we'll let the backup come in!
Laurel, they can't save him!
Laurel's gone!
Rue, can he get away from this Timbersaw? He can!
They will at least bring down 9 Cluster M'Tan, but they've got no chance of killing off Nautis.
Support for Acorn.
This will take that all day.
21 minutes, they can, yep, keep pressuring down in this bottom side to ensure that they can set up for that torment whenever they do want to.
DKB now done at a very early time, also for no one.
They're gonna have to commit so much to kill just one of these cores, it feels...
It's looking like a pretty... pretty difficult task.
Right, because you're gonna have to either... you're gonna have to doom and ringmaster...
You're gonna have to throw like double ulties on either the Earth Spirit or the Timbersaw to bring them down,
which just means that Satanic is just gonna have free reign.
That's it, I'm sure Satanic knows how much faster he's farming than it was low too.
Yeah, he knows he's pretty much getting very close to being a full arch in my head
But you're talking about it keeping up right like it's 251 to the 313 is the same level as in this world too
So hasn't gotten picked off again, but it's just now
Satanic has the BKB. No one has the BKB. They've got their timing of hit fast or triple BKB's
We'll maybe get bailed out by roof row and his body into the hook shot
He's taking out he's gonna fall pretty low
No one heads in to keep it going still gets the kill lals gone
And the route's gonna be there to stop a route from seeping out. Oh, this game is looking so hard your Toro
You've got all the work cut out for you. Yeah, this is I think a lot of we will expect something a little bit closer than this
But apparently team vision
They are just that much how much more ahead right now
Laurel's rotations is
Back to back to back not working right and him dying like this
I'll slow down any progression for him
You can see him battle with the course now at this point and collapse right he went for the Midas build
So they know the only moves that can come out is from Laurel and he's just getting punished time-to-time again
Tier 2 to fall 23 minutes in super early
I think it looks super clean so far here vision. No really not really any mistakes
Satanic has not
Been letting these sort of lead slip away and they're maximizing as much as possible
They're not even going for the tormentor yet. You see Vru? He's rocketing it expecting them to go for it
But instead they're actually making the move again to look for more kills on the side of vision looking to keep constricting that map
The two supports on the side of vision also both level 12
So both of them having access to level two ults now at this point before the opposing supports do
Yeah, everything just going their way
Vru, let's round again
Oh, here's your life for the supports in this game, on Team Spirit.
Not for anybody except for Yatoro, it seems like he's the only one having some fun right now.
DKB's done now for collapse, but as we said, for Laurel, his has gotten slowed down so much, and it's a panic.
Gonna have that first component of the AC finished up after his DKB already.
And the Atta Blended Tarot has to go for BKB in between versus the Timber, versus the
Urspirit, even versus the Willow.
Collapse.
Trying to get the Doom down on a nine class, but nine class and step ahead with the blink.
I'm ready to turn and see how the Tarot has to come across and help take.
Collapse down.
I was a sick play from the nine class.
He truly is styling this game.
all over the place. Said it's just Yatoro having any type of game right now for the side of Spirit.
It looks like Collapse kinda is too, but that's just, you know, that's much my best farming.
That's why his looks so good. No one? Scott DKB, he's insanely tanky.
Heck, I'd love to bring him down. He's gonna be fine. He's even ready to just roll in aggressively.
Ready to get in there. I mean, say, Jack, isn't it a bit of an awkward spot
this moment, but honestly, with as much farm as he has, it doesn't matter.
He's just able to casually walk away from them, they continue to win again another trade, and lose nobody.
And apply so much pressure.
You're very much seeing how far ahead they are there, you know, no one knows, it seems to be safe as they're tactic.
He's just rolling in on this Earth Spirit wherever he wants, they're tactic-tipping into the middle of it.
He knows they can't kill him, they can't touch him.
And that was what five heroes forced from the side of Spirit to try to protect them, right around their own tier two, right outside the base.
So the map, yeah, unable to really farm outside of it much,
then that's essentially the AC not done there for satanic.
This kid's crazy.
I mean, what are you sort of saying
if you spur it in this sort of situation?
If you are indeed discussing kind of the plan for game two,
what's got to change when it comes to these picks,
do you think?
Well, I don't know if they're doing that just yet.
So overall, maybe it is just taking out this nature's
profit.
If you are going to go for the drought
situations but it's not just that one thing that's kind of countering them
right it's a lot of what vision has gone for here so difficult to say one or
one or two things. I'm trying for the storm enter. I think he did see it though.
He's going to be able to time anything. He'll be able to finish it off so I'm
shot here for root. See if you can catch anyone trying to TP out won't be the case.
Everybody gets away. Not the real one. Throws a blood grenade throws the
spells onto it won't be the case on all right when they're at this deficit at
least they can get the tormentor but there's that is something getting the
objective in a game where they are in a very rough position
running that continues to fly out a ridiculous moment say the AC done on top
of the BKB of course okay spirit this here we go this is your triple BKB
timing let's see what you can do with it versus what spirit has been able to
build our what business been able to build up so far triple BKB
I have gotten themselves out of some tough spots before Spirit.
They have.
If you wanted the harder ones, looking for no one, that's a deep hookshot.
That is a very deep hookshot.
They're going to try and follow up whatever the curse is already down.
They went very far for this and they're going to be able to get away with the play.
Maybe they're on top of satanic.
They've found him at the dude.
Collapsed, trying to chase him down.
If you want to TP out the kick to the side and keep him safe, he's away.
Satanic will live.
And now Yatora on a dangerous fight himself.
Gonna get surrounded by Nautis and 9 class.
Rune, Lyle gonna provide any sort of safety to allow Yatora to live.
They will pull him back, Nautis, but collapse is dead.
Satanic's gonna come back soon.
Yatora can't finish Nautis off, but here's Satanic returning to the fight.
Yatora will put the BKB, try and slide away,
but Nautis and Satanic are chasing after him.
Jukes to dodge the kick, Lyle comes back here for the BLEAK FORCE there.
Nautis finishes off the kill, they get Lyle on top of it
And they're ready to move straight into the Rose Champ here team vision. They gave it a shot script
They went pretty deep there right up until the tier 2
And they still could have do it even though they find that kind of perfect target prioritization
They get collapse and Yatora on top of satanic, but they couldn't kill him off
They get the team down on him doesn't matter. He's out of back off
I think you got an extra sort of kick from no one again a little further away so he could TP out
Reset, get back into the fight. It's all team vision again.
If they weren't so far behind, right, you could see that that could probably have been their fight.
But the fact that they are this far behind, how deep it truly was, the Acetanic also very heads up calls.
BKB, teeping out, resetting, come back in. You could see it coming there for Yatoro as the time went on.
These guys are good at fighting. They know how to protect each other as well as we've seen in no one.
And no one as you said that nice little kick distance away
Perhaps being the exact thing to keep satanic alive because he did drop to like my 2% or 3% they
He was you know as close as they've got so far this game to killing him. Yep
24,000 net worth for him notice the full she was as we saw was revealed in that fight too
So it's not it's not just of course satanic. It's also this temper so that is a huge problem eight one and four this game
Collapse.
Now moving down, he's got a BKB, but even with that, he's not getting away.
Way too much damage now at this point. Small crit has been picked up for satanic.
And the GPM is just out of control really.
Getting those early kills onto Yatoro truly setting the pace for this game.
18k lead as you said we've seen spirit do some magic but this is gonna be one of
those this extra difficult route and I'm trying to get away but Satanic's found
in the last about a vision to set up for the last bounce of the nature's
wrath and the curse another catch gonna stop the CPF and not me feels like
they just do have too many of these answers right just too many in
The combination of what they're playing against, the counterpicks absolutely working for vision.
Elaro and Collapse in particular.
Just being slowed down so much in this game, just unable to really find the connections to get that space for Yatoro.
Or even getting any of these kills to slow some of these heroes down. All three cores on vision, just having...
The time of the day? Yeah, time of the day, it's really 7-0 on this nature's profit, how much does no one have?
I think he's also got zero deaths as well too for the air spirit, 5-0-8.
And as I said, what, 8-1 or 9-1 there for noticed.
No one.
Getting over, maybe seeing if they could find Collapsop now on this top lane.
They know he's out and in fact he lands the side straight on over then.
Also the BKB.
He can't go anywhere.
Let's know what he got.
looking tougher and tougher losing all their words as well to it that gem that was picked
up five or so minutes ago they have literally what just that one word on the bottom right
of the map which isn't giving much information at all.
Static.
Ah maybe another one for him.
Yep.
Three shots in.
That's another one.
God like here on the nature's profit.
Damn it.
It's it.
It's going to have to go for it.
There's no way.
There's no way after this the spirit is lost.
going to want to leave any chance of playing against this satanic nature's
prophet it's actually so broken in his amp yeah it looks incredible well
that was a far off with the hundred to zero minutes here it's kind of look
like this the Toro oh my god half HP almost dying didn't get away with the
bkbs they're gonna try and turn on the towards no one but no one's so tanky
Satanic just does so much damage. Laurel pops BKB, but it's barely even protecting him or Yatoro.
They're just too far ahead at this point. I mean, Satanic's damage is insane.
Go for the Lincoln's next. If he feels like he needs it versus the Doom, they're gonna smoke.
Alright. These desperation smokes.
Yeah, give it some sort of an attempt.
Still a minute left on the Aegis, though.
Throw everything on him, drop the doom on him.
Can they actually bring him down?
I don't know if they can.
The BKB's out, the curse is dead, a hold him in position, Klaap's gonna try and step forward.
This is our BKB, the right-hand team, Centenna will pre-lever, won't quite kill him.
Centenna turns towards Lalo, gets him, the crusher and the bash on to 9th class.
Dice to the neutral.
The neutral's end up killing him, 9th class.
The only one that's died this fight on team vision has died to a neutral.
And now your Toro.
It couldn't even get the kill.
I don't know how much more of this game they're gonna wanna play for.
This is looking pretty measurable.
It looks pretty done and dusted.
The target that they full commit on,
he's now hitting the buildings.
Notice still alive.
Just beautiful gameplay from vision.
Yeah, this is...
I know we all hope for a closer game in this one, but...
It's a message, we've got more games to go through.
Spirit, I'm sure they're gonna come back.
Super hard in game two, but this game one,
They have been absolutely destroyed by team vision.
Yeah, fully answered.
And a lot of it, right?
Not just the farming from Satanic,
but it's the movements that he's been able to do.
The pressure on the bottom lane,
so getting the tower.
This hero is just incredible in his arms.
This is, I don't know how you defeat this.
How do you defeat this?
Maybe not giving that and the Earth Spirit as well too,
which we see in no one.
It's one of his best heroes as well too.
So yeah, there's gonna have to be
some adjustments to come up in spirit in this next one.
I'll give it one final shot.
And the five of them are back up.
ABT and Vision make a mistake. It's unlikely considering what we've seen so far this game
and so far this group stage.
What's the chance?
I'm gonna have to make more than... I don't make like
ten mistakes.
Ten pretty big ones.
with this game state has been
and yeah they've really made none
truly have made none in this game
super disciplined play
not me overall having a pretty quiet game
but it's no both pretty quickly in this game in satanic
level twenty five has been hit
he's already hitting six slots
he's gonna break a thousand tpm perhaps again
and the thousand XPM again in this game too, making sure that all those averages and records
are kept very safely under his control.
It's a moonshot already, I mean this is, yeah, this is crazy.
Absolutely crazy what he's been able to do.
Oh, Lara's curry even dies.
This is as he is rallying towards the nullifier.
Oh, my after...
BKBTP does.
Okay, I was about to say Wyburn's getting close.
Not close enough to stop him.
It's almost at that 1K per minute lead, Owen.
I don't think we've seen, at least I haven't seen that yet in this tournament.
I am not sure, we did have a quick game earlier today.
There was a Yandex got like a 19 minute victory.
Okay. Maybe that one, but honestly, again that short,
You're probably not even getting that much of a goal lead.
So the one care minute, this might be the only one
that's getting close and probably will achieve that.
Buildings are dropping.
His trees hurt.
Oh.
Trying to take their attention away from the bar.
It's just Garg.
Garg's are gone.
Level 25.
Self.
It's Oral.
Uh-oh.
He is caught.
He's speeding.
He is.
And he's got room by his side.
He might just be able to run away from this.
Be more back in the base though.
They've lost not me.
They've lost Lyle Lyle.
Doesn't have to buy back available.
They'll drop a team down onto notice.
I don't really think he dares too much on me.
Maybe you just care now that your turret's turning up,
providing a little bit of damage.
They're not having much damage.
It's not enough though.
Skalap's gone triple kill for no one.
They'll tap out, they've had enough.
Wow.
Incredibly one-sided vision.
It's just putting on a display.
This is beautiful gameplay from everybody, not just one player in particular, right?
This was all of his infest styling.
Right.
What are the biggest stomps that we've seen in probably the matchup that you would least expect to see it?
Why does this happen?
Why does this happen sometimes when everybody's like, man, this is going to be the match of the match?
Wow, okay.
We just cursed it.
Yeah, that was quite something there from Team Vision.
Game 2, though, I'm sure. We're going to see more from Spirit there,
But this game won, they didn't get to play a whole lot of DOS,
there is team vision, just absolutely crushed them.
Yeah, this was not close.
This was not what we were expecting from this match up.
And say, were you set this up?
You're like, oh my god, there's going to be a great series.
We're hoping for 60 minutes back and forth.
What happened?
The only thing I'm better at feeling in the off-lane
is being wrong on the panel.
Yeah, I don't know, I don't know.
This was, just vision is too good.
I was watching the game.
I was watching Collapse, Lane in the top lane,
and I was like, wow, I can't believe how well
this guy is laning.
He's like, outlasted things, Zatanec.
He's just playing so well.
But then, I don't know, Zatanec somehow even better.
He like ganked Yatorov.
I think we have a clip for that later.
But I don't know, they just lane so well on vision,
and they're one of the teams that kind of lane well
and they just kind of snowball from there on out.
They never let go of this lead that they had.
Yeah, this is scary stuff.
We talked about it a little bit
while we were watching the game
that Puppy came into this team
and he, I think he talked about in interviews,
he was expecting to come into a team
that had a lot of their own ideas
about how to play the map, how to play the game.
But a lot of them were actually kind of playing intuitively
and they didn't have like identity when it came to this stuff.
And so he not only was helping them with drafting and heroes,
but he was also helping them with how to play the map.
And boy, you can see it in this game.
Like they got an advantage
and you could see Satanic drawing on the map.
Like, okay, here is where they're going to go.
We need to smoke and go here and kill them.
Or he's doing something with trience there,
getting vision and it was just master class Dota honestly.
It was so one-sided flying. Is it just a result of the early game going so poorly? Because
normally you'd expect, especially a team like Spirit, to be able to make a comeback.
Yeah, I think this was a really good case of, you know, Truet here won Dota where
they get this lead and the way they position around the map. They're literally choking
Spirit is what they're doing there
They have just enough heroes to pressure in the right area and it was kind of like the Earth spirit the timbers on the and the dark
Will they were sort of pressuring this bottom area Satanic could join at any time, but when he's not he's just farming away
He's holding a safe lane tower. They're not giving up this tower for free every time collapse
Runs up to try and contest the wave. They're gonna set up and attack him as well
So it just felt like they're really getting suffocated slowly and they didn't know how to break it at some point
They were so upset I could see them drawing on the map from spirits point of view like I don't know what to do guys
They keep attacking us bottom area, but we can't get anything on the map
I think also collapses item build was a little too greedy when he goes Midas with a draw ranger on the losing game
So they were never actually able to combine anything together and the way vision played was just really nice to see
It was it was a chokehold the vision had over team spirit in this first game
We are of course hoping for game number two to be maybe a little bit more
Balanced and competitive and some might say but this first game definitely was in their hands solidly
And a large part of that was because of how early how early vision started to make moves
And one of those first moves is the one that's able I would like to highlight
Yes, I wanted to highlight this minute six first plot
So what a lot of teams will do is that they will go for the six minute runes
And I think what satanic and maybe notice realized, okay clockwork will leave I can TP in
Sprout and block this drawranger get a first blood and pressure the tower at that point the timber
So was losing this then pretty hard
But thanks to the satanic rotation
They were able to get the first blood and pressure the tower and later on they got the tower as well
So even though the timber was behind he just got to farm and suddenly they're all farming
Yeah, and they all farming, they all get big and Team Spirit, they were farming here and there, took a little bit longer of course, but there was a moment where they had three BKBs and they're like, this is the time, we're gonna try something.
Yeah, this was the timing. We were pretty excited. Okay, here's the comeback that Spirit always, you know, tends to have, but unfortunately the hero that they do run into is Earth Spirit with the BKB with the tankiness.
They do manage to get a doom onto satanic, but once again just the positioning and then no one kicking him out there
That small play from no one kicking him out means you Toro doesn't get one extra hit on him
And we were looking at his health bar ticking down in the base
It was like legitimately one more right-click from drought one more tick from doom and satanic would have died
If you don't kill nature's profit with the doom
This is like one of the few heroes in Dota that can just get back into the fight
Instantly afterwards with full resources and at this point it's utter devastation of the highest degree for spirit
They lose almost all of their heroes. Yeah, I think after that it kind of sealed the deal
You know that was like the one fight they had in them and unfortunately they
Misexecuted as well
Yeah, it was it was a little sad that our deal of foreshore
And of course, if we talk about this chokehold that vision had over Team Spirit and large portion of that came from the Nature's profit
And not just the main hero, but maybe those are the little tiny treants that we're walking around. Let's learn more about that from Purge
Thank you, Shibuya. I'm watching these satanic games
And I'm always like how does this guy have all of this now worth advantage over all of these other players that are fantastic?
And and I have some clips to show that to you
I have the example of that first blood gang here
He goes, getting last sets, teeping into lane, bullying his opponents, clock-teeping from close to the rune spot to try to defend, and it didn't end up working out.
And check this out immediately after. They get the kill, they go to push the tower. Look what Dark Willow did over here on the right.
He grabs the creep wave, pulls it into the small camp as well while they're pressuring the tower.
Luckily Clockwork can get the creep wave past the tower a little bit.
This means that the creeps waste less time hitting buildings, which is good for ultimately taking the tower.
Saitanix can min-max this, he knows he's not going to be able to chase the clockwork, he focuses his effort killing the tower
And most importantly, check out these last sets. I mean, Glastidian tower is a very common thing
But he's getting 300 gold every single time that he gets one of these. He does not miss them
And that's going to start adding up because what we're really looking at is how much net worth advantage
He has over like his draw ranger, the enemy draw ranger, you know when the collapse comes to lane
He gets zoned this by Saitanix. Time normally a squishy hero, not vulnerable when his opponents are low
And they also commit two observer wards to the safe lane here to try to make sure he's extra safe
Because if he's just constantly hitting creeps and he gets a TP when it's a good time
It's ultimately going to be very very good for him
Even when he's defending the tower he does it relatively safely pulling the creep wave to treants
Waiting to see if his teammates can back him up if needed and again her S's collapse to make sure that collapse running down
It's just simply not likely to happen
So all very good things where he eventually TP's again, which is time for the next time to pressure a tower
So he's gonna do that go for the teleport. He's gonna pressure this thing
He's gonna spawn trients they don't get there in time and again. He gets the last hit now
He's gotten to tower last this he's now got two thousand gold
About a thousand five hundred gold over his opponent and Jenkins caught this check this out here
17 minutes and he's spawning trients and he's sending these guys across the map for the goal of
Blocking enemy camps and this person he did look at us the exact same time
You tore comes here to farm and look where he put these little these little cheeky guys here
He put this tree in down here in the bottom left corner in this on the upper
And even with your tour looking for them he didn't spot them in time as a result both these camps get blocked
And that's less gold and a lot of time wasted for your tour
These are the reasons that he's getting ahead staying ahead of his opponents and making the game easier for his team
Yeah, if that happened in my game, I just be like what the tri already so sweaty
I guess that's why he's he's at here. You know, but that is I mean, that's just obnoxious
You're gonna see that hero getting banned out. I think that is not
not normal and too good. Thank you so much, Purge, for that breakdown.
Thank you, Purge.
Thank you, Purge.
There is one other hero that we didn't really touch upon too much. A lot of attention in
this game is taken away by Satanic, because he is playing a very flashing age prophet,
but we also have to highlight no one. In the mid lane, he had a fantastic time.
He was the only other core that did not die, I believe, on the side of vision.
He made it work so well.
Yeah, I think it kind of is a testament where you just respect the air spirit.
He gets counter matchup on Laurel with the Slardar, but no one's performance was as better
this game.
He was able to hit the rotations, his net worth was higher, everything he did was just basically
better.
He had more hero damage, everything worked in his way, and you kind of expect them
to be able to play on Laurel, but because of all the pressure they put on this draw
I feel like they ended up reacting too much on Spirit and no one was able to capitalize on that and keep attacking the drawranger
The Sardar never quite found his footing in the game
He was never able to go to the doom and combine his hero together with the doom
He kind of tried to react to what the air spirit was doing, but it didn't work out
So good job to no one good job to no one
I was so curious to find out how spear is gonna answer this because this game was I mean
This is this is probably the one of the most devastating losses that I think team spirit has had this entire group stage
So they're in a position that we haven't seen them in yet
We're gonna find out how that one progresses, but I'm sure vision is also very happy with themselves
And they can be proud of themselves
This was a very convincing win against team spirit before we head into game number two
Though we are gonna find out how nine class was feeling before this group safe even began
Vision have been widely considered a favorites for this ti and I'm here with mr. Nine class
Hello! So, do you consider yourselves favourites going into this international?
I think so.
Do you feel like that puts a bit of a target on your back?
I think yes, because now a lot of teams are watching our replays and trying to play like us.
So, every time you play, you're bringing new ideas?
Right now, not. I'm just trying to play good daughter.
And if me and Toshifting, we're just trying to adapt.
Brilliant. Well, it's been certainly working for you.
Another part of your success is, I'm sure, comes from your coach.
You're playing with Puppy now, I mean, what's that been like playing with the legend?
I mean, everyone respects him, he's after it, everyone listens to him.
He's helping us in game-wise by where we should play, how we should play,
and he's always preparing for enemy teams, so you can just,
Nitro, you can draft as chill and he will draft good.
So, he's good, you can just focus on your gameplay.
I see, so he's a very hard-working coach.
Yeah, he's always in front of PC, and you're coming to practice, he drafts in like 10 hours.
Wow. Did you have any difficult points this year, any big challenges?
I would say no. Sometimes, maybe on the Birmingham, we were trying really hard to
to adapt to meta and we had a lot of problems in team because we were starting to learn
a lot from zero and again. So it was hard and a lot of stress was, but when patch came
out and we started to play good because everyone started to play bad. So it patched help us
and when we started a lot of hard working every day, Papi was helping us. So yeah,
It was the hardest part, I would say.
I see. Well, you overcame that really well, for sure.
You're a very creative player, as we all know.
Do you have any surprises in store for us, this International?
I have one hero, I cannot say.
It's like a melee hero, which is good now.
But still, I like some Dark Willow.
I think he's a super-powered Rubik.
I want to ask, is there any hero, some meme hero, which you've always wanted to play
and your team just always says no, you can't play it, you know, it's too cooked?
I mean I'm trying to ask for a patch, but every time it's like hard to pick.
I try for the Gernel, it's also hard to pick, so yeah, I'm just playing casual heroes right now.
Alright, well, what hero overall do you think is going to be the most popular hero at the international?
Do you think we're going to see something new coming in?
Most popular, I think it should be...
...Lina.
But it's not support from supports.
I think some Houdink and...
...Rubik, maybe.
Houdink, Rubik, that's always heroes.
Alright.
With The International, would anything other than the first place be acceptable?
Would it be okay for you or is that the only goal?
Last time I was okay to not be first, but now I want to win, I think I'm ready.
Alright. Well, Lanklas, thank you very much for coming to talk to me.
Good luck at The International.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Night class feels ready to win a TI at his second TI that he has attended
Maybe with the joggernaut. That would be fun. I am so down for that
He did get to play the punch in one of the earlier games
So he goes reach there and I feel like the melee hero that he's referring to that he thinks will be good
He's a guesting. That's the bounty hunter. Or was that the punch? I
When he said that I was thinking that it's Nick's assassin because he was playing that on his stream and
And like Dawnbreaker was a really popular pick in Pro-Level Pubs, Nix counters Dawn.
So, I know he said this before and it just turned out to be Nix's assassin.
Okay, well, not too surprising.
I think that this guy is, he ruins a lot of Dota for people because he has these crazy ideas.
And he can pull it off because he's nine class and he is one of a kind.
It's very rare to have this player that has such a unique view of the game.
Maybe Topson is actually another player that comes to mind.
like he will pick certain heroes that nobody else plays,
they'll find a way to make it work,
and then people try to copy him
and ruin everybody else's game.
So this guy's a dangerous player for a lot of reasons,
but I would love to see Juggernaut, that would be hilarious.
I would not love to see Juggernaut, please.
Don't let this guy on Juggernaut, oh my God.
I think I've had enough of like Slark Force
for like another 10 years.
I don't want the Juggernaut for...
Yeah, maybe it wasn't Ex-Assassin.
I feel like he wouldn't say that if it was something remotely normal, you know
Maybe it was like omni knight or Abaddon. You think you guys think the bounty hunter is normal?
Yeah, bounty is too normal. Nix is not normal. Pudge is honestly too normal
Everyone expects like nine classes known for his his budge, right? He is known. Yeah, whenever he picks it in pubs
It's he terrorizes games. He does he does a cool build
He goes noltalsman because with Pudge you just end up sitting in lane throwing hooks anyway like basically for harass
It's good very good value to need the mana for it. So I would love to pull it out against spirit
You know, that would be really cool. I thought maybe as an answer to how it was something
Well, I want to focus our attention mostly on what spirit is gonna bring to the table in this upcoming game because we know
Vision solid, you know, they had a solid draft. I'm sure that team spirit is gonna try to to cook something up for themselves
What would be their their best strat?
What would you like to see in their hands?
So you're like, yeah, that's how they're going to win this next game and force out game number three.
I think for me, especially, like Team Spirit is a team that more so than any other team picks Slardar and then has a lot of physical damage.
And I think being a survivor is super good against that.
Not only with the cold embrace, like reducing all the physical damage to zero, but also with the ult that you kind of hit each other and you have a bunch of heroes that deal right click damage.
So I am hoping if they do decide to go for this draw or like physical damage build or let's say drafts rather
They don't give win survivor again because not only is it good against that, but I think the colors also
Place the lane really well and then vision gets ahead from the lanes and then it gets really hard
Just a heads up. It's been a little while since we've seen this these fear does this time around dire and vision radiant
But with this also the pick order changed team vision will be first pick
So that's again first pick
So one of these two teams is either preferring first pick or you know
They're happy basically with the pick order that they have here as we don't see any change from that
We get another earth spirit on the board probably a four no one
Maybe still some flex potential there, but the answer is there this time coming from the ember spirit on the side of spirit. I
I think that's pretty good. I would assume, I mean, I saw this picked also on the other stream against Earth Spirit, the Ember into Earth.
And then in the other game, I saw Slardar into Earth Spirit. So for some reason, on this series, on all of these series, Earth Spirit is being left through.
But, you know, you've a mage Slayer buyer, that's good against Earth Spirit, who's doing a lot of magic damage, you're building Vessel.
That's also good against Earth Spirit, who has a lot of HP. And I would guess if teams are picking it like this, it means Earth Spirit's not very good at going through the shield,
shield, which means Ember can probably do the annoying stuff where he's like pulling creep waves in
the camps and like taking space from you. It's kind of fun because there's this battle of the spirits
and I think Ember kind of triumphs all the spirits in a one-to-one matchup. So when you see storm,
earth spirit, storm spirit, you can pick Ember and usually the Ember will be the strongest
in the mid lane. He'll be the strongest at contesting the runes and thus like getting ahead.
So, I like this more than a slaughter because I think this is just easier to execute.
I think the slaughter requires a little more niche things to make it work.
So, right now I think they should get strong supports on Spared side,
supports that play with the Ember, and their plan should be to
constantly control the mid-wave, attack their Spared, don't let them get ruins,
and that way you're going to be able to control the tempo of the game.
So, could be a good time for like hoodwinks, like follow-up,
Any sort of follow-up damage I think would be good. Well, I was just about to say I feel like with Ember spirit
I don't mind the Ember Ana that is like the good old combo chains into arrow. They did ban it. However, that's a very good ban from from vision
They'll have to do with there with something like Talset some hoodwing some nice follow-up for for them
Willow's not bad either to throw in there
pretty much all the heroes that Nine Class mentioned in the interview as the top four
positions.
No.
One ban is what Team Spirit gets.
The Nature's Prophet, of course, was removed.
And the other heroes in the previous game that you'd like to see taken out, or was
it just the Nature's Prophet that was like the main instigator here?
I'm thinking of the Winter Wyvern that we have seen first phase banned a lot today.
I don't know how important we felt like the Zero was, it's gaining a lot of popularity.
I think Wyvern is the support that kind of blackmails you and to pick certain heroes.
So you pick Wyvern and now you're thinking, okay, they're not going to pick these heavy
physical damage heroes.
They have to go for all these magic damage heroes and it's just a little annoying.
That's what it is.
So you have to just think about all these factors that go into the game.
And we instead see the Largo, which is a very popular hero against Ember Spirit.
So maybe this was more of like a, let's just deny pick this.
It is a good combo with Ember because you can amplify his magic.
And you can also dispel spells from Earth Spirit.
So it's not necessarily bad.
Yeah, good against Festival, good against Silence, Earth Spirit, ulti.
Pretty nice.
Very nice.
Banning Zutanec's Kez in the process there as well as we get an enchantress on the board.
Ench is kind and nice against Largo.
I'm wondering, do they play Largo on support on Team Spirit or is it just collapsed Largo
at this point?
I think it's going to be collapsed Largo because they also banned the Kez which
is one of the carries of people like against Largo as far as I understand.
So I think they just revealed what they're doing and I don't think it's anything
wrong with that. I think now Spirit has the information about what Vision is doing. Vision
is picking these supports that can actually contest the Ember in the mid lane because
the Ench can come in, she can take off the Flame Guard and if she takes off the Flame
Guard then the Air Spirit can actually fight the Ember. So I would like to see some kind
of response to the Enchantress in particular so they can fight in the mid lane. I think
Hoodwink is still not bad because it's a hero that can kill Enchantress with her ultimate.
And then I'm trying to think what else maybe actually never I was like I was going to say
Pudge vs. Rong team.
I was like that would be cool.
It would be nice.
But we do get the hoodwink now we just need one more that makes sense.
Maybe even a Crystal Maiden could be okay.
You want to support that Will Rotate mid to help out with this brawl that might occur.
Exactly.
I was thinking about Maiden I just don't know if we really plays that hero likes
it.
Okay usually when you have like this spirit against spirit matchup then the early
game becomes a lot about runes like the six eight and ten minute runes so you
just want to pick supports that complement your your spirit why don't
you just go for an oracle then then you know where the rune is true well you
already have a perch from Largo though that's very good oracle kind of suffers
against ench as well running the creeps at you and birth spirit backline
silence well if you really want to win the rune skirmish you get arc
Gordon and then still the rune with the magnetic field yeah things a bit too late
for that in the draft with the having the ember locked in but who knows who knows
maybe it's the secret nine-class hero he said it's me Lee but it's actually
just wrenched I think nine class might be playing the willow but we got ring
masters remaster rotate I think he here's another follow-up for ember I
don't think it's particularly an amazing green master game I don't see
anything that box really changes I don't see the interaction against
the end creeps that much even with the daggers it doesn't really kill the creep
I think it's okay I think they just went for comfort I don't think I've ever
seen Rue play something like a maiden which would match the enchantress better
nothing wrong with it I think the idea still there's gonna be a lot of
skirmish that's happening you're happening around the mid lane so yeah I
think it's okay okay let's see what vision wants to do with their fourth
pick oftentimes a lot of teams especially when they're in the pick
position where vision is in right now they spend a lot of time thinking about
this pick in particular because you can protect it with the two bands that
follow. So, say Kanax Hero probably? Yeah. Yeah I wonder if he's gonna go for the
draw ranger it's a very nice matchup against Largo and honestly it's
pretty good against other heroes too you have your silence you have ancient
earth spirit that protect you and you also steal it from from team spirit
who like troll themselves.
What about like a NAICS-DRAGONAUT type of hero because they cannot really kill NAICS-DRAGONAUT right now through the magic community
and I think it also pairs well with...
So they go with NAICS.
This guy's good.
That's satanic, yeah. He's so good.
I think it makes sense because again everything is kind of revolving around the smidling
and NAICS is a hero that can be left alone.
Yeah, you should not be under any threat and throughout the whole chaos that's gonna happen around mid
That's what I'm predicting the next could maybe find openings to infest the creep
Maybe gate on the atorral if the matchup's so good. Maybe he can join on mid
So he will have a lot of cool openings in this game that I want to look out for
When we're gonna watch again
Yeah, I love this life stealer pick for all the reasons you mentioned like he is just
free and this is this is where satanic shines if you give him a hero that is
just totally uncounted and no you know pressure on him whatsoever he will farm
the entire map and just be top-net worth so my question is last pick you know
yatoro sees he's playing against satanic on lifestealer he sees that
there's gonna be all this pressure around around the mid lane then what
is the last pick void would have been pretty good that would have been
pretty nasty like ultimate carry and so he does get the matchup right like
vision's gonna be picking first notice has to pick us you're blind so your
Toro definitely try to get some kind of good lane so he can also be left alone
and then ideally a carry matchup against lifestealer and just trying to think
what notice is gonna want to play in this game there's still quite a few
offlaners in the pool that we saw banned out in the previous game
being one coming to mind that has been highly contested is the centaur.
Yeah, I was thinking the same. I think like when you have a blind pick like this and you don't know what you're landing against,
I think centaur is always going to be solid. They already have kind of everything they need from their draft.
They have like a way to start a fight, they have scaling with the life stealer, they have plenty of damage.
So he can kinda be anything, so in that scenario, I think you just want a hero that works in any scenario
and Centaur is probably the best for that.
Darkseer would have been very nice as well.
Yeah, yeah.
But I was thinking a lot of the heroes that are good against Life Stealer and Fett Spiritstraft
would be countered by Darkseer, right?
Like, Drowstil on the pool.
And if you want to have a lineup that is everywhere and is able to jump on people,
then Underlord is still in the pool as well.
I was thinking maybe Timbersaw could be good again.
Timbersaw was already banned so that was indeed you're on the same line there as Team Spirit.
They also thought Timber would be great.
They end up going for Doom, different route there. What do we feel about it?
It's good. It scales very nicely.
Very solid against Largo and Ember.
The only thing I worry about is that it maybe gives Spirit a chance to pick the drawranger.
It's a very nice matchup against Doom. I mean, I'm very worried about this life stealer pick as in like
Team Spirit has two stuns, but none of them are instant, right?
The bushwalk flies and then same for the ringmaster, like it takes a little bit before the stun actually hits
So it feels impossible to get this life stealer before he pops Rage
And you can try to solve it with this last pick and yeah
They go for the classic because now maybe you can get like a random silence and he can't he can't reach
This draft has been really fun to to watch because you can kind of see the ideas
Through both teams what they're trying to do how they're trying to respond to each other
there's a lot of like little games happening and
Honestly both teams again, they I think they have both winning drafts like I don't think one team got completely out drafted or anything
I think I like vision's responses a little bit more. I think the enchantress idea was really cool from from puppy in the colis
I can see exactly what they're gonna do trying to contest the mid lane
I think there's gonna be a lot of space for satanic to rotate on the draw ranger throughout the whole chaos of the game
So I'm gonna go vision on this one. I like what they did
Two oh four fly he feels that theme spirit don't have what it takes
They do, just not in this game in particular.
What do you think, Samur?
I will disagree with Tal.
I think Spirit will win this, and I think I will be correct, and he will be wrong.
You want to elaborate as to why Spirit is going to be well?
Of course.
Yeah, I like the draw.
I think it's very nice.
It should be a good lane.
Honestly, I think it's a lot on collapse.
Theoretically Largo against Nikes is a bad matchup during the game, however in lane you have about 10 to 15 more damage
So you should be able to outlast hit him and maybe if he's able to like snowball it from there
Then I think Spirit can get a very nice game going, but yeah, you know it is against the Tannix
So it's it's not as easy as it seems. It's not easy. We talked about potentially a lot of rotations going mid Jenkins
How do you see that going down? I think it's a really good enchantress game
He's gonna be the dominant one going mid which should help out in the earth spirit matchup
I also think that to call us can go through the portal and pressure a drought pretty hard
But satanic's the one setting all the records
You know he was the guy that pressure draw in the previous game yatorra versus to call us
Maybe it's a better draw game for yatorra because he's not countered by satanic as much
Well, maybe this student surpasses the master who knows what's gonna happen in game number two as we're heading over to
Only picks from the fog to find out
Thank you. Yes game to ready to go pretty soon on your screens here between spirits and team vision and fogged
Are we gonna get closer close again to some things have said the same
We still get in the drought coming out as the carry much better drought game. That's the thing right that last game
It it got hardly it was just a complete stomp
So I could totally understand why your tour is like give me the drought again that game
Let's forget about it
And I'll be honest like I was looking at things and I was like when I was talking about it
Right like even though he died twice early. He was doing okay at keeping up. He just had if you ignore ignore the other farm
Yeah, everything else. Yeah, your Torah was getting the farm, but yeah, not enough. But yeah, this time around should be I
Mean if it's a stomp at the same level that's gonna be quite something
But it's unlikely right because satanic playing a very different form a carry this time on the live stealer
Even if they do dominate, you can't really dominate as quick and just masterfully as you can across the map as an ancient prophet, it's different.
Also, I don't think that they're going to get into this case where they don't have this off-laner to play around either, because, you know, Collapsi did go a very greedy build.
They ended up hurting a lot. They didn't have that much to play around. It was just Laro who was going to be sacrificing himself. This time it's Laro, right?
So he's going to be more involved. He's going to be pressuring a bit more. He's going to be playing with the ember rotations too.
So let's see what we do get
The vision of course they do still have a very strong draft right they've got the earth spirit again
Which he had believed is three zero on now for no one this life stealer pick also not too many things that can threaten him
Besides the draw ranger in particular and noticed I did want to talk about noticed a lot because
No one is so good, right?
Satanic is so good
I think this guy goes under the radar of how good he truly is on so many of these heroes
So on the last game right he didn't have an easy lane, but
He did and I'm looking forward to see what build he goes. I he's not gonna go
You know, he's not gonna go Midas. He's gonna go much more aggressive that the style build
So let's see what we do get going out here
So this bottom lane is there any pressure they can put on six time here to start things up because last game
Obviously there's nature's profit. He had a pretty much sure, you know
He had very good form not the easiest to pressure by any means now and we're seeing them
They're cutting all the trees as well already too
So having the preparation to not allow him to use push quacks to
Collapse does have that base damage advantage like they were mentioning but
Satanic he's just very good at getting the CS. I
Don't think I've really seen too many games almost everywhere looking. I'm like man. He's missing last hits. He's always able to secure those
And it's something that's which right now Vru is playing the ring master. He's like move over let me try it this time
if he has more success with it overall with his team. He has easier ways to set up with
this game because they've got the ember to play around. You know, we did talk about Laurel
playing the Slardar, but it's a harder hero to play from the mid lane than any of the
Spirits. See how much more impact he can have this time round. I mean, overall, through
Spirit's lineup, their heroes deal a little better with a Spirit that starts bowling
at them if he does start to get out of control early, no one?
Yeah, a bit better. I would say they have the Ember that just has Flameguard built in.
They have the Lick in order to dispel the Magnetizer to protect some of their heroes, so...
I'm saying all this, but the thing is the mid lane...
I don't know, and I've just seen him dominate some of these Embers as well.
Sure.
With the Slardar, I feel like actually the matchup is...
Maybe a little easier, at least for Laurel in particular?
What to say?
Because level 2 Flameguard, that's when you have that, you know, way to trade as Laurel, but...
Oh, and he's just gonna go for it, just to kill him.
Tower swaps onto him though.
Laurel?
He might have a chance to...
Burn him.
He's gonna get him low, won't quite be able to finish him.
No one's fine.
But I don't know if he's gonna be able to get that rune then Laurel didn't walk fast.
That's true, Laurel did focus on chasing Rob and then getting the refill.
So both of us will be able to get a water rip.
Top, Yatoro.
He is set up for success at least to farm up here, right?
Plane versus the Doom.
Should be pretty safe up here.
The ring though can absolutely get caught versus the willow and the doom
And if there is gonna be that third rotation here
We could see that enchantress send the creep and that's where the really the fear is for the draw if they do bring that creep
They bring like the third hero
Arm so far on the sideline
It's looking good for collapse, he's easily CS down here against Satanic, so both cores
getting something out of the bottom lane.
Notice he is getting slowed down again, just like last time.
Like last time.
Just a shadow run, hoping to find the trade, cause he gets the range creep, he does.
With disparity, continuing to grow, 19-7, 13, 14, 15, 15, 15, 15, 15, 15, 15,
of concern in considering how much no one did do with that early lead last game, it's
going to get the chance to do it again.
Catch up to Rue.
Got to stand his ground with Gatoro.
They've got the mana burn creep, so they're going to be spamming out.
Far as healthy though.
And overall his hero, right, he's going to be again the dictator of the pace for
his team and he has two great supports to follow up with him.
And yeah, something about these spirits overall, looking just of course, like the strongest
mid, so the Slardar a bit more risky.
Level 3's been here for the edge, can start getting these big creeps.
And they try and set up onto collapse.
Lot of damage here.
The Coloss cuts the tree.
It's on before the stun comes in.
It comes down to turn as well as the slow onto collapse.
Got the lick.
Taking a lot of damage here.
survive he can I'll get back under the tower but taking quite a fair bit of
damage there from the two of them that sort of play if it comes in again it
might just threaten him in the mid blood grenade from no one I'll kill Lyle
but not gonna be the case and just to have time going a bottle charge to rely
on to stick around in the lane but we rather low I love when I see mid later
as you blood grenade trying to be as aggressive as possible Laura will be
Okay, notice top and get the connection this time they're getting him last game
We saw satanic at the first blood this time it's gonna be a torus and notice is definitely struggling
They're actually starting to pull the waves as well too because of that that drought pick absolutely seeing why they did go for it in
this position now a
Great success for the outside of that loss game
And Tora...
That's Tannix chilling. Sure, we did see that for the first few waves.
It's collapsed with that base damage dependent, but now at this point with the phase boots...
Tannix under no threat whatsoever.
That's the last game though, like you mentioned. Look at the last that's across the board, right?
One of them is left out. It's noticed again who is the one who is struggling.
I did a lot with the last game so I think we're going to see the same sort of comeback
from Nozze, even though he's having the slow start on farm.
Six minutes.
Are we going to see those rotations?
I imagine so since it's both of these spirit heroes in the mid lane.
All these supports rotating over level six, it's hit on both of the mids.
Down bottom.
Oh no, it's going to pick up on it.
And Carlit tries to head over and burn him, and he's gonna die to this, can't survive at the moment with the early levels of heal.
That's really nice for Laurel. Gets the refill, has the regen, gets a kill, gets a momentum going this way.
And you notice, as you see, he's not gonna go for the Midas build.
Usually he does it the phase drum kind of style build. I thought that's honestly what we're gonna see from collapse in the last game too
But perhaps thought that he could go for the grade obviously got punished
Here we go
Those are the lanes are gonna start to get broken they want to contest the win
Yeah, they want to see if they can get the steal here comes the ember as well too
So they're bringing four heroes to collapse over here, but they will probably sacrifice theirs for this
Yeah, unless sort of they want to send the log over to try and deal with the two of them up
Going for the steal.
You can want to react to this.
Nine class.
Very nice.
Taking out the combo.
They get the Shrine of Wisdom, but indeed the trade will occur.
To Carlos, have to get round and take Spirits.
Spirits, though, this time.
Another one setting tempo for now.
No one.
No one.
Connection has traded.
Just a set upon a Wachitoro.
He's going to start taking down into the magnetize.
Getting him out of the reach of no one.
And at the rotation coming from Lyle,
has to change to hold no one back,
but the magnetize is continuing.
So much damage for such a long time as your Torah comes to an end and he gets out and he's able to roll away
You can find notice just something out of this one the brambles are gonna hold him back though and notice
He's getting out alive. They don't get anything in return spirit his flame guard was running out
Anyway, it doesn't feel like he could have continued to chase there
Rotation just a little too far forward there in the draw the second he shows under the tower
No, I just an immediate tip before it and gets it right on top of him
Also, it almost gets the kill on the ringmaster with that kick, very close to getting it.
And easier overall, right, for vision, to go for these threatening plays onto the drought.
Going for any of the plays onto the lifestealer?
I don't know how they do it.
That's true, he presses rage on a free game for himself.
He runs away, he's got the extra point ready to spend if he needs an emergency and vest.
There really is no threat in the game for him until the drought shows up with a gust and potentially catch the death,
but that's not something that he wants to do early.
It's a Titanic absolutely set up for success in this early game.
Okay.
The law with him.
He was baiting, noticed.
Time, wasn't it?
Looks like it's going to be a success.
Playing goddammit.
They'll take notice now.
They're going to steal some of these stacks as well too.
No one's coming in.
They're going to have something to say about that Rosen.
And immediately, the elite's not me.
They need to get these trades.
Even though Spirit's trying to make these heads-up moves, Vision is getting trades every single time it feels like.
He did block the camp, so at least the Ancient Wolf will be able to get prevented to get stacked again.
No one's got magnetized.
This is the thing, it's entirely but already the Urspritz looking like it's gonna be quite the issue.
Two levels ahead of the Ember and also the Drow overall, right?
The threat for the Drow is there in this game from not just the Ursprit,
but even the Enchantress Crypts and even the Potentialing Life Stealer,
If he does want to use like an infest play and make them move up there too, it's not the easiest
Not the safest for your Toro in this game
I mean it really just that's the difference right that you look up with an
Earth spirit can do against the three cores of spirit
You know once he has this vessel no one can pretty much go on try and have a kill attempt on any of them
It's just not as easy not anywhere close to as easy for the ember spirit playing into the cores that vision have
That's why this lifestealer pick just seems so damn good for satanic in this game
It's gonna have very good timing on his relic collapse. Let's continue to get chased out here
High five strong in top.
So when I take out this pesky creep, I was putting a ton of pressure onto the tower there.
Power rune, no one rolls forward, he's able to snatch that one away from Laurel, gets the invis of top.
Toro is definitely going to have to give some of his first carry performance here to out
carry this lifestealer as the drought.
How many things he'll need to do in these fights to set the team up with a chance of
killing off the lifestealer in the mid game?
Yeah, at least they have the box, right?
They have the lick.
different ways to protect your Toro from the Earth Spirit, but he can just keep it going, right?
That's the problem with this Earth Spirit lately. It's picked in every single game pretty much.
How much you can do even if you're playing versus some of these pseudo-counters?
I just no threat for Satanic. Nothing that goes through that BKB at all in the game either,
right? Even in the later stages. He's just gonna be able to rage TP out even if he is
going to be squished tomorrow. And then they look for the setup, and he's hooked with a
the slide into the remnant. Doesn't get caught from the silence.
That's a magnetized wasted 100 seconds to call us looking to get some damage
onto this mid tower here with the scatter bolts.
Okay, how much he wants to persist. He's gonna take a creep, but Laurel's turned up.
As I said, much closer this game in the last one. The Ring Ulti will connect,
not fully onto 9th class. And he's got the TP, won't happen.
I'm rude. Celebrity land the damage in.
Yeah, much closer this time anyway on the numbers.
Five to two.
Yataro keeping up with the lifestealer.
Even though he did get ganked the one time.
Well done.
It's gonna be a fast radiant from Saishanic.
Oh yeah.
He always gets the way to dice as well.
Alright, extra little bit.
Hey man, it makes a difference. Julie does.
Look at like this is what it means right this is because of the rage look at how
far forward he can play there's just not really what are they gonna what are they
gonna do walks in even farms these are I mean he farms the Largo camps so here's
you these are the ones that the Largo wants to be able to take he's just
taking them away radiance plus magnetize it's gonna be a lot of damage
in this mid game sir it has to be prepared for this they give up ways
to counteract it with the Largo with the extra kills and we'll find his
carrier as well.
No, there'll be just a little extra annoying here collapse.
I mean, Lyle's coming over towards this bottom lane, but as you say, it's sort of hard to
see the play he can make.
Let's take over the Lifesteal Lever, and even for Ducales, it's not easy.
You pop your Flameguard, he just dispels it, pops the heal on himself.
He should just be fine even on the edge.
Super difficult to make moves, as a Samba.
Yeah.
It's one of the reasons why we see a lot of what kind of air spirit being picked up first
But not really love Emma spirit picked up as the leaves it was in the draw
Good answer though first year spirit in general sure go for the mage slayer built
He can start to try to counteract it, but he's not the same beast. It feels like lately
Carlos
Not the easiest for them to just calm all down
Put him in the wheel got an infest and I have they keeping him alive
He's survived.
They're gonna push Wacom doesn't matter lol's going down and they can't get the enchantress satanic
He's ready to bail it out every little thing coming into play right he has trans
He's got a raindrop extra little HP is what makes the difference there to survive 2k lead now
That's Laurel, that's one of those rotations for him that slows down is so hard to do for hard
It's just to be the ember spirits the pressure's on you, but really is where do you look?
Where do you go?
And all during this downtime right now the Doom
is starting to get that full catch up, he's going to be able to sit back and farm
but the Vow is going to start to really add up in comparison to the Largo
Radiance it's done, pre-14 minutes, does have it finished up
I'm going to try for the Wisdom Steel
I'll try for the Gennie
They might be quick enough to get it
and they won't be able to stop and take that one so
they'll be able to at least secure both of the 14 minute Wisdoms
Team Spirit
Looks like we will just be able to walk away as well too.
They don't want to throw a doom or anything on to them.
They want to save it for the next.
The Colossal will be able to get the tower tonight.
There's lane again.
Oh, God.
It's going to be tough times ahead for LL.
Or Loro.
Last game also, right?
His first two moves, they've really kind of slowed
his entire game down.
This is the same thing.
Those moves are just not connecting.
It's going to feel so rough playing an Ember Spirit
from behind this game.
Now already, if you're sort of level,
Even if you're a little bit ahead, it's not easy.
Again, Team Vision's lineup, you're behind.
Oh, it's hard to see what you can do.
Okay, Collapse is doing this build that I've seen popular in this by 33.
And I don't know if people have talked about the reason why they do it.
You know, if you played this hero, the down,
you see the two second downtime between singing.
It puts it down to 1.5 on top of, of course,
your other abilities being faster.
Okay, we'll see if you can quickly switch out, get your spells off.
But it's a lot, it's a lot of money.
It's a lot of invested. So, I mean, I heard the players talking about it.
I just sometimes I'm looking at like, is that really that worth it for an Octo-Raid?
Well, I'll have to see.
Especially in this game.
He's got satanic, the pacing.
And this is a game where he can go back for this armlet, of course.
I mean, I like this.
I love it versus the Drow 2.
This plus armor is super good when you're playing versus Drow.
Fun Claws!
I'll catch him out in the river.
He's kind of the only one getting caught, though.
Right, three deaths now for nine class.
The lead.
Hey, let's just continue to grow here for vision.
For you know, he's hitting the creeps, he's been up on farm
with Satanic, but again as we alluded to earlier
it's gonna be a heavy game for your tour to carry
Thanks for Laurel right there, it's just a lot of different ways that he can get caught still
Yes there's a lick to protect him, but that just means that
you know they have to sit right behind him until he's got the mage slayer
Yeah and then if these two sort of cause a sick fight one another
they're not gonna be climbing their way out of this
bottom spot that the Cornet were
He just gets caught into a silence and then just a willow follow-up he will just get brought down on that on the ember very likely
Okay lead
More efficiency around the map even the support thread getting that much more especially the enchantress in this game
That's using the creeps to get that extra
He wants a tower
So easy, easy tower loss hit there.
They did get the deny on the mid one, I believe vision was also the one that got the deny on the top one.
So, a couple of talent denies coming into play here.
And the Atari also just said, keep it up!
But much more vulnerable in this game in comparison to the Light Stealer.
So many different things to get on them.
Yep, farm efficiency up to 5k.
Not quite yet at the levels of game one.
No, not yet.
Improvement!
Okay, so notice is doing the build that I actually thought collapse was going to do in
the game, because it's the one that I saw him popularizing, the phased drum, you get
the shard, you hope you get a black dragon, and then you're pushing lanes invisibly,
you use the fireball from the tree lines, and then you can farm jungle costume with
the cleave.
So this is essentially like a mini Midas in a way, for notice just to be able to
get that extra farm and pull ahead of the Largo. I hadn't seen anyone do it in a
while though. I've been seeing that Radiance more coming back but I'm happy
to see him doing this. Just see, look, you just every time you have to show
yourself in the lane you just use that fireball. There's the entire one of it.
Looking pretty nice for him. I mean all three cores of team vision. Very
solid spot. Borrow does have the mage slayer done. See if they want to look
smoke up with that timing they will. These three together very strong. If they catch the
doom, that's the question though. Now there is probably the one that they most likely to be able
to take down out of the course and ideally wanting to get these kills before BKBs. I mean if they
just sit back until the BKB comes out of the doom and hit him in the scalp. So they're gonna come
this right round and look this deep, full notice. This is pretty deep though and they're
They're pinging it.
They seem to already know this move is happening.
No one was pinging it before they even showed it anyway, so they knew that move was happening.
Just unfortunately wasted time there for Spirit.
Infest is ready here now too.
There's the scan move, Spirit went successful with their attempt.
We'll see if Team Vision up.
If Vision's able to get these double BKBs plus the lifesteal, there's nothing that
goes through it.
No one's in.
That's right away.
Use the lich.
Top of him collapses, very likely dead.
TPs are coming in.
Maybe they get to call us with the break here
from the sharp shooter.
They will, if they can get more,
no one's gonna be able to kick back.
Well, Lars still wants to chase them forward with the remnant.
No one's got a shield brewing up.
They will be able to block off the roll.
So Tenecan nine glass watching from the side.
Get the wheel bonded down, they'll be able to catch no one.
That's a big kill.
They put an end to no one.
Nice, they've done good reaction immediately.
It seems like they also knew
that that move was coming as well,
who took him a little longer to bring down collapse, much needed kill onto no one.
So, Satanic, once you get the side there, making the correct call not to try and get involved after that initial?
Yeah, I didn't have the opportunity, he didn't use the initial and fast for the kill, could have potentially gone for some type of safe way, but not being the case.
Now, Yatoro's able to actually show up in a tower here, so nice little move here from Spirit knocking back.
And important for them to make this move as I was mentioning right like not letting them
just sit back and get these DKBs because if no one in the tomb get the BKB then there's
just so many limited moves that Spirit are gonna be able to do on the map.
I could see notice buying this BKB before the blink dagger.
This counter is pretty much all of Spirit besides that drought.
Oh, it's the rune.
And the nice thing for Lara also in this game at least, right, is going to have the croak
in a lot of situations in this game.
Octorine is now finished up.
I'm trying to go still or threat this cannot be touched
that's gonna come up pretty soon
presentation pretty sort of big mistakes from satanic crim to die this
guy especially especially when he has them at the man to right like that but
drow silence was the one to early kill him with the man to he should be pretty
free to survive in most of those situations but they've kept it steady
4-5k has an increased that much more spirit is slowing down vision
There it is that's that bkb for the doom bkb soon on the horizon for no one to and that feels like when it's gonna be
The case they really accelerate on the side of vision here and to cause as we said he's been quietly farming
This agonies is very strong if you're able to get it the undispellable
Grab onto a target super annoying for heroes like the emba. Yeah
Also, Stoles allows you to have the second creep too, so you can even control the map
as well too, so you can save creeps all over the place.
This axe is very powerful.
Surprisingly, you don't see it picked up on most of every one of these games on these
enchantresses, but I think we are starting to see it picked up.
Yeah, there's a few players that do a lot to rush it.
Yeah.
There's just two different things, right?
That's a nice thing.
Having the double creeps as well too, you're putting so much pressure on the
map.
I could time save from Spirit, they're ready to try and get...
Yatora involved once more before the BKB on no one, it's definitely important.
If they can kill no one once more here,
could lead them into getting a rush,
because they do bring it down very quickly.
Oh, that's a nice rune too!
They'll define an amp damage for the next move.
I mean, with that, maybe they can have a chance for Saitana, perhaps.
He's still not the easiest by any means, but if they do catch him off guard...
A lot of time spent to look for this move though.
They need to find something with this.
And especially before a BKB comes out if he's able to get the...
They're heading the opposite direction and forcing for themselves.
They'll settle for a two-man sub-alpha.
They will find us easily.
At least something gained out of all that movement.
We'll get it.
the best shard in particular, but at least it's something.
Yes, Tannick is going for that plus armor, since he's playing versus the Drow.
Get that AC online, it's going to be very beneficial for himself as in his team.
Now look to Blotzen!
He is in your buff, the rage. Pretty much all I can do, just look at this live stealer right now.
They can't go on him and there's that BKB so they've got built-in rage from the life stealer double BKB on the course
And there's it's not that much that spirit has that goes through it
It's just really the drows damage that's gonna be going through
Any fight that your tour gets jumped taken out of it's gonna be a fight comes a pretty rough end for spirit
This could hit really hard here spirit
Let's see if they can avoid the fighter just cut their losses as much as possible
Yeah, they've got it right
Just let route die get everyone else out of there. Nobody else wants to be a part of this if you spirit
Roche is gonna start getting poked though and you do not want to give up Roche to vision when you're the light just have to though
Can you really try and take the risk around the Roche pit?
I don't know what if you're giving it up to them though, but with 20 seconds down stone the ring
They're positioning themselves as if they do want to contest. I mean maybe lala can go for some sort of crazy play
Not me caught immediately
As they're holding them away
From the pit there's the BKB picked up on lala
Lunti's on an O and they're forced to BKB out from the airspirit pretty early.
Good. That's pretty solid there actually from Spirit.
I might give them the confidence to step up towards the roche pit and in deeper vision,
they aren't gonna start to fall back a little bit off the BKB's used.
Immediate smoke here from Spirit to look for the fight.
Forcing those BKBs are pretty massive.
No one?
They nearly got him with the slight change.
It's the disengage.
Spirit.
I don't know if you wanna go for this.
Yeah, that's a bit of an oing one.
He's on the Largo.
Now it's just he's going to go straight over the wards collapse.
They take as well pushing him with the rage.
They'll have the box to bail him out a little bit.
But as soon as he's out of it, they still take him down.
The Brownbles are going to catch on wards of Root.
As Root will try and hide here with the M-Vis.
They tell the sharpshooter, able to shoot down 9 class.
Both teams is very good at disengaging,
as we see there.
Immediate smoke down vision.
The vision's ready to go.
No one.
They're trying to get a position in here
since the Roach is shifting.
How long are no one's BKB? Because he had an arcane room when he used it, so it's going to come up pretty quick here.
It might catch him off guard.
That just does have to blink.
Oh, he does. You're right. So if they get on top of Yatora...
This could be so dangerous for me.
I know he's around, they're going to see him!
They're on top of him, they'll try and slide away, go for the TPR.
Is there anything to stop it? There's no! He gets out alive!
Yatora survives, Lyle's going to try and battle on.
But he's surrounded by the four of them.
He's gonna have to put the BKB himself and start to back away.
Cannot do the damage to get any of the kills.
Rui's gonna get picked off on the side by no one.
Oh, heads up from Yatoro.
I thought LSD survived, but they're just still having to just run away from vision.
Stalling out the roast longer though.
Gonna be able to respawn with the heroes to try to contest it.
Oh, that was mean.
Grab the creep, gonna be able to take the secondary one.
Bullying from Ducalis.
Next fight round, Ducalis will have that agonimus.
He will.
I'm the 700 gold, I'll fit.
That will hurt. And no one getting closer and closer to having a Sheba, so you'll have that plus armor, so now perhaps in the next situation won't have to be, won't feel as forced to pop the BKB, that's, that soon.
That much quicker on these items coming out of the vision.
Yeah, that's a big chance that they have the AC on satanic for the next team fight.
It's horror if he's able to get the butterfly though. That's gonna be a pretty key timing for the just the other cores again
They're falling behind just like in that last game just your total versus the world. It's starting to become
Blake also for the willow so just more gap closing
Okay, they're gonna go again, we get the sweat for a to ship as well satanic. Oh, he did
But before they're going to go for this move as well.
There we go.
Spirit, are they ready for this?
BKB is so powerful for vision right now.
Not much that Spirit has to bypass them.
Don't be sorry, they get the jump instantly.
Right away on a non-mage.
There's the dude down on the low, so low's gonna have to be KB and run.
Non-mage will be down with slowly but surely by nine class and no one.
They're still trying to run here on low.
He should be alright.
He's okay.
He's gonna live.
At least able to get low out of there despite being doomed.
That was very close to him being brought down.
Spirit looks like they are just going to wait for that butterfly, right?
Not looking for the fight themselves, they weren't looking to react to it, they immediately
just start to disengage as the fight does kick off.
28 minutes, wisdom.
We're low in position for this steal.
Laurel's in the area, though.
We'll be able to push it away.
There's that axe.
a bit of lockdown here keeping themselves that bit of head right level I mean level
three or level 18 on all three of the chorus as well too for the side of vision
and there's the AC finished so a lot more of an increase for satanic for himself but also
protection for his allies 24 armor in the doom that's going to be now at 29 the air spirit
as well is going to be pushed up a lot safer too. Butterfly's done, not going to get
of the catch on and on me. He tried to mess around with the enchantress there but the
carlis was ready to turn and had to lock down. Gatoro's gonna do a lot of damage here though.
He does have that butterfly finished. Which comes out from Satanic.
If his armor goes through, we'll get brought down. No one will be able to find him on
the sidelines here. Seems like he maybe can't stall there with a fear from the
shot. It really is just so much physical resistance that they're gonna have here
for satanic. So the butterfly, it's gonna give him good damage but more than that
it's gonna give him some of that extra protection for the lifestealer until
that MKB does come out. The colis should have a good shot at taking him
down with the three of them Yatora. Damage to take him out. So that's a nice
skill. They can maybe start at least poking it, the Roche perhaps if they want to start
to threaten it. It is 30 seconds until it's going to start shifting. It's risky, but this
is because surely Team Vision is going to have something to say about this. Oh for sure.
Nothing like last. You're going to win with this one for free, if you're a spirit. They're
definitely trying their best to. Ten seconds until it moves. Taro's committing for it.
He's getting close. He's kind of doing it with the damage that he has with the
They're ready to move in, Roche at four, bring your Tori, get the kill and he gets the Aegis!
They'll succeed, you can, they take the team, fight no Spirit!
There's Vision ready to fight on, they commit for the BKBs,
Doom's been dropped down onto collapse, you'll back off, Spirit, they'll take that!
They get the Roche, they get the Aegis, and they don't lose anyone!
Super smart calls, right? They only have 30 seconds to do it,
and it's gonna fly to the last tick of the Doom!
Actually does end up dying there.
Very smart call though, right? They get just a cone and chantress,
It's enough for them to go for this type of play.
Alright, yeah, Yatora might just have it in him to make the calls to turn this game around.
That was scary. Doesn't have the BKB. If he gets hit from the roll, he might just die there.
Much, much more of a chance here in Game 2, team spirit.
Much more of an exciting game that we've got going on here.
T'Gallis.
Feel good?
Yeah, looks he's good.
I hope they look like they're first second here.
You get the Aegis? Don't get out fully cleanly, of course. They do end up losing their Largo.
They'll take that. They'll take that.
Taking away an Aegis and a Roche kill from a team that...
Barlok, head down!
Head. This time he does get hit.
Yeah, there's no way out of this one.
He's gotta be more careful how he's playing on these lanes.
He's gotta have the defensive remnant down instantly, and even then it's...
...very unlikely to save him.
There isn't snowfield strong enough to just run at them here. Even versus this ages they are not really afraid of it.
Titanic? Can I dive in? Can a very easy kill against no mate?
He's got to have the MKB pretty quick to enter that butterfly. And yes, Yatoro is strong, but as we keep alluding the other heroes just feel so weak. It's really just Yatoro.
He does kind of have to do it all here this game Yatora
His positioning in these fights has to be perfect his data list stuff
We're gonna be very important for him as well too if you can get to this timing
He's all the damage for his team. It feels like at this point
There's in all three cores continue to get this scaling
I'm round on the other the GPM and the losses much closer as opposed to what we saw last game
I think well last game pretty much this point it's like a 30k gold lead for team vision
Yeah, actually.
Spirit definitely able to give it a much better shot here in game two but still a hard one.
Like the struggle.
Full Shiva's now for the Earth Spirit just buying all this plus armor.
Natural build of course for him but excellent versus the Drow Ranger of course.
Votus now at least finished up so extra things I think it's yeah.
I think you just have to buy everything you can to buff up this Drow Ranger.
Ranger. You have to hope that he can take this game into his hands. Lee does
just continue to grow up to 10 or 11k now at this point. And as soon as that MKB
is out, no longer is Yatoro really that safe. He just gets caught on top of it
again. He will get brought to a very fast and satanic. Two minutes left on the
Sages.
Not able to do too much with it though. Not even really looking for a fight.
not able to touch it here too still. It's like they're a bit afraid on the side of spirit.
Thor better though! Still gonna be able to get again.
I'll still shot that for your Thor, I think. Not farming on top again in the full day list.
Thor might just be able to do it.
That the MKB done, I believe it is finished up here for Satanic.
I think these drows be able to do it.
If Gatoro can with this one, Q2 is falling, 90 seconds left on this Aegis.
Vision's looking for the move.
My class is looking for the back line.
Oh, he's high!
He's deep!
They might have caught him, they'll be able to bring him down to the low ground,
slide him out there.
It still has Aegis for a minute, but they're afraid.
Looking to reset their position and claim a high ground.
No one drops dangerously low.
Still has the BKB at the ready though and does have healing.
Oh, that's a big rune bottom.
Can't damage the Aegis, getting reclaimed in about 40 seconds here.
Not gonna wanna fight into this.
Spirit's farm also just continues to be pretty ridiculous in comparison. He's gonna have the octerey finished up soon
Satanic still yet to die yet to really feel that pressure
Both games the carry pick they're able to get for Satanic seem pretty
any spot on and overall this the the off-lane position that they've put
spirit in in both games feel like collapse having some a pretty quiet
series I would say
I see nine claws for the steel plate but dodges it with the aloof in their room
nicely done will secure the wisdom like a secure killer as well it's a nine
class series got the control and put the wheel down nine claws they got
I'll put me out of the run.
Nice play from Rue. Beautiful usage of the- I don't even remember what that one's called the illusion thing though.
Funhouse mirror? Is that what it is?
Yes it is.
That is the one that brings out the funny illusions.
Yep, I remember that.
Oh, Bloodstone, sorry for the airspirit, apologies. That's the one that he's spawned for, so extra sustain that he's gonna have.
He's got the Bloodstone.
Titanic's got the Nullify. Got the Cloak of Flames as well too.
He's gonna be doing absurd damage in these fights, and healing a lot too.
Agus has gone vision. They're looking for the move here now.
Laurel again, careful.
Sprint throughout the numbers. They're actually gonna try and get aggressive on it, was no one.
Forced the BKB immediately recessed pretty early BKB, so he'll back out now, no one.
Very smart way that they're poking and prodding to get that BKB.
Shieldgren also spawns bottom for Laurel, he'll be happy.
They've got a gem on both sides, so not that much vision really on either of the sides.
Goldlead is shrinking a bit here, so, Nitora on top of the net worth.
The Ember is starting to catch back up as well, too, here.
We definitely have a game on our hands though, and now we really do.
Nitora has managed to carry Spirit-Free situations like this many times in the past.
Yeah, Laurel has actually gotten to that next item.
I was worried that he wasn't going to be able to really start to break out again
here.
Now he's got the Aghanims.
Speaking of the Agonyms though, noticed also having one picked up for himself on the Doom.
Probably means, does he want to go look for the creep, you know, the congregations that
we do see them usually get when they have the Sheevis as well.
Probably going to be the case soon.
Right now still farming with the Fireball though.
Radiant.
There's Linkins, but yeah, he does have that Agonyms already for the Doom, so it
does have to wait and go for it anyway, not me.
You can hide him.
How could we find him to get away again?
They're not hemorrhaging nearly as many kills as well, too. This time, Spirit.
They were losing their supports all over the place the last game.
This time, they're doing a good job of just being that much more elusive.
So I'm gonna try and chase him for not me this time.
He looks pretty confident.
He's not gonna be able to hide.
Make him work for it, though.
Let's get brought down though.
Guy assigns now for no one. Also getting close to these level 25s that are pretty absurd.
The life's slow in the Earth spirit having some pretty strong ones, but also Yatoro getting close to his.
Rosh, perhaps that next point of contention, though 40 seconds is until we do find out for
the spawn.
Either team's gonna let that one go.
Either team really having that much vision though, as we've been mentioning.
The gems haven't taken out most of these wards, it's just one ward on both sides,
that's two wards right now for the side of spirit.
game
step up a little bit
notice the swinging round ready to join
satanic
bush coming up very soon
smoke up
spirit looking for an angle
Jump to start this one would be pretty. I mean any kill right?
I think the call is it's not a bad catch here. They're gonna have to shop to hit. That's gonna be to call is dead
Stop poking the roast with that kill and sell it. Yeah seconds
No chance to us kill it pretty quickly. We a Torah vision is gonna go in for this play though
They're looking already spirits respecting this
I'm the vision is gonna try and take this fight for you five not starting the roast just yet
30 seconds until inch does come back
They are a bit afraid to just tap it, so similar situation where it's 30 seconds until it's
about to start shifting.
Looks like that was not enough for them to even start coming.
Last time they did clean it up in sort of the final 20 seconds, I wanted them attempted
to try again.
This time because of the roar, right?
That's true.
It's a lot harder.
It's not happening.
They can't really just commit.
I mean, I say it's not happening.
They attempted to try and see if they can do it.
I mean, they do do it very fast with the drought.
Where's the roar?
Surely at this point they're gonna have to let it move to the other side of the river
Say that fight
Like the jump forward Roche is gonna start moving
Hunting for him shut around up in a second he's burnt down
They're gonna look for the jump though. Yatoro has to be careful with his gluteus.
They know that he's trying to make his way over to the other side of the river to get towards the roge pit.
They're gonna try and block him off.
Oh, it's this.
They're gonna catch on to the supports here. Stay chatting.
It takes out not me.
There isn't so quick to claim that high ground there.
It's gonna give time for Nightclash to respawn here.
Not much committed. They just jump in, able to get the hoodwink.
And this roge, it's very low. They could just sneak in and kill themselves also.
Not quite as easy for them to hit it as opposed to, obviously, Spirit having to draw out.
Yeah, a draw kills it in like three seconds at this point, at this HP.
Yeah, let's start doing it, though.
What's the roar?
Full Abyssal coming on the courier.
Satanic has spent the ball.
Somebody's able to get him in on the front lines, whether it be the Doom or the Ursprit.
Now Bissell nullifies killing any of them.
Any target that he gets on will die. Notice this enemy.
He's hit.
The little one's alive, but the AOE Fumon is going to stay on top of the ambush.
Static moves to cut bridge to the damage that's going to be Lyle gone.
The buyback comes in from Rue.
Lyle just had buyback available. He's going to use it.
Comes straight back in with the red dot over the watch.
If the Fumon's still there, he's going to be careful, Lyle.
He's far behind.
And no one in Static is pulling back the rest of Spirit.
Gatorra is gone. Lyle will finish stuff.
Notice that the carry's dead.
Galax is going to try to keep you out of the Abyssal's back.
Puts us up to the TP.
Satanic is too big, too many wins.
And they could turn back over to Walsall now.
He pulled back for this fight.
Can he get out of the room?
No, the silencer's up for no one.
As he died back on LAL, Spirit,
they tried to put so much into that.
They could not succeed.
They lose LAL twice.
And they also lose Yatora and collapse on top of that.
The fights for Spirit are just so complicated for them to do.
They're trying to protect Yatora.
They're trying to protect Loro, but it's just...
Is he stuck?
doing so. It looked like he was. I think so. Yeah, they're just sticking on.
The turtle can't get the liberty to attack targets. You can see he started for a
second there, but then as soon as like his Lincoln gets fucked, it's just...
I mean, no mid now for 90 seconds nearly. Team vision now that they can do the
damage. Coming down the mid lane. And we're truly seeing what the difference
that we were saying, right? The Earth Spirit versus the Ember. This Earth
Spirit is just running a trade. He's getting on top of any targets, 9-1
And just the difference in vulnerabilities to Kari's right, you know, you tore up all the farm that he's had and how carefully he's played this game.
It's almost impossible in this team fights to avoid everything, whereas they turn it with a build up that he's had and has a life stealer.
They can't touch him!
Just a dream pick really.
Sneaky spot here by the way.
He's still killing it not me.
He's trying to steal this rune.
That would be insane.
Might be able to.
There's no way.
He's done it before.
There's no way.
There's no way.
He's done it before!
Oh my goodness. Oh boy. Oh boy. Oh boy.
He gets the high pass. I thought he got it.
Oh no. If he got away with that one.
I mean, someone's pretty crazy about this lad.
But this time, he went quite good.
Great effort, though. Great effort.
This guy's making such a name for himself though.
In just like half a year, everybody's going to know him.
That was such a nice place.
Nice attempt there.
Knows he has to do something desperate.
Laurel, as he said, die back losing all of that game that he had.
Then no one out, right, level 26, the absurdity of the Earth Spirit.
You can go for the agonies, they can have further saves and protection.
And just a quiet series from Collapse in particular.
Sure as Laurel, it's hard to be really that flashy in particular, but...
Nice try, it's probably the least flashy of the all-playing heroes right now.
Yeah.
This kind of sings a song. This kind of exists.
This Lifestealer pick did just seem like the absolute perfect pick for them too.
He's played it to perfection as well too. Zero deaths so far, always getting on the right targets.
Yeah, I mean it does feel like both games. You know, we've pretty much seen one of the, if not the best character at the moment in the tournament, on the best hero for the moment.
for the moment, right?
The last game on the Nation's Profit seemed amazing.
This game on the Live Stealer also seemed amazing.
This counters everything, right?
You can't make moves to gank him at all with this rage.
He's gonna break the 1000 XPM again.
Not the 1000 ZPM, but the XPM for sure.
And now he's got the eggs already consumed.
So just harder and harder for your Toro
to be able to have the success.
Yeah, it's just your Toro now.
at this point to be able to go for any type of kills here.
Double 25 has been hit for him, but the base push is coming in.
Kanyatora somehow do it.
They take down Sanktanic, and be quite the reward for it.
That's the question.
I'm even going to bring him down the once in the game.
Doesn't look like it.
point inside the base here, spirit.
Try to think of these ways for them to go for these wraps, they're too tough to kill,
they're very tanky on all three cores as well too, they have nothing that goes through
BKBO and it's just the drought.
So they can pop those BKBs, disengage in most scenarios as we've seen, level 25,
I just can't get him off the barracks.
Quick little infest, able to disengage, no one even there just in case looks like he's
trying to bail out his body if anything, but Titanic, more than safe enough.
He hangs onto this dragon the whole time. He didn't end up switching the neutral,
he just really likes it. It does make you farm absurdly fast, I believe, so I can't blame him.
Also, still has plus armor, right? I think it does have like that little bit of plus armor
I'm on the staker.
Oh yeah, go off.
Spirit.
Trapped in the base.
See if they can pull together some sort of defence here on the top side.
Titanic's just walking in.
Get the bushwhack onto him.
Put that Aegis.
Titanic not breaking a sweat.
Aegis is the answer to everything.
really does I mean it feels like it's almost getting to
territories of rave here for you Toro thinking but he just doesn't really
have the slots to be able to go for it either no yes Bill could sort of finish
the build as a draft maybe eventually through the link
but he needs to panic instead still well for no one magnetize guys on of the
two of them so with the chains and the wheel but he's still up against the
PKB and the plus sign off no one's fine and spirit that's getting pulled
It's like the fountain. Be ready for the one minute duration magnetize at the least and continue to keep it spreading
Maybe he'll stop it here for now since they don't want to keep pushing forward. I just as it about to expire
Nobody step way for the cool down again
And this guy's farm this good thing is to be absolutely crazy and take your take your by the minute
Right, just getting all these extra last hits, 709 now at this point for that extra HP.
Smoke up, Spirit.
Looking to try to catch Vision off guard, because I think they're just knowing, right, if it's just gonna be these 5v5s,
there's just no way that they can do it. They have to do something to split them up.
But again, just so difficult for them, they just can't threaten these Quarters.
No real disables to keep them controlled.
They're all starting to come out in the bottom lane.
Why is it not me?
What's up guys, I'm the kick.
Push coming in to our top again, satanic.
I did farm the whole map, pretty much farming the 7 items at this point.
Looks like they'll find the enchantress, taking them some time, they will get them.
getting punished a little bit for being fully split up here I'll make awesome
it's not just trying to get out on the map spirit trying to open up extra farm
opportunities for their course no one did see your Toro for a second there
we're not gonna be able to just push forward for him
Panic, wants to look for the infest.
Notice, a Wind Waker also picked up now at this point.
Incredibly comfortable spot here. Team vision, not really a whole lot they need to do apart from just...
...sure that if anyone heads out with the base on Spirit, they don't get back home alive.
They have a clear path to success while for Spirit, it's an incredibly complicated one.
Aion just even being picked up for their spirit, they've got a lick to get rid of this kind
of a guy.
BDD plus Aion, 5000 HP, good luck bringing him down.
I've only been able to do it once this game.
Or considering his next time, probably looking at the Saitanic, yeah I guess that is going
to be it.
Or you just, I don't know.
They're rid of the Lincolns for the Saitanic?
I mean, it has to probably be that, but does he need a second life is the case, right?
I just feel like they need more damage, but I had it all.
There's still a chance that that does get replaced for something else.
He also can just die, right, like so easily.
So maybe he just needs a satanic too, because the magnetized could just, like,
tick onto him forever and bring him down to him, so he probably wants that extra protection.
It's hard to say. It really is.
Roche, it's up. Vision.
And a very good position to go for it here.
And yeah, he's just going for the safety.
I think he's safe.
Botanical, as you said. His seventh item.
The Daedalus.
Yeah, Daedalus, he's ready to put the Fliesboots in the bot pot now.
Now they actually have a way to catch.
I was waiting till somebody bought it.
They have a Hax now on the side of Spirit.
Before this, they've had like no way to actually stun and lock down the target.
Dable this this will be that extra thing that allows them to maybe go for one of
these cores. Stopping this aegis live stealer though from taking a base. Yeah
and there's only one at racks left.
Refresher shard as well too on the Earth spirit so infinite magnetized. Even more
stones, even more magnetized. Yep. Gonna go throughout the duration of the
fight and more look at this wrap around they're looking for here no one's ready
to go in get some information it's gonna start things up in the jump over was
not me they get the clothes on towards the embers spirit laws out of the fight
he's got buyback back up wrap around and do they get the wrap around over the
war's nine class what matters to take about your choice of a pretty decent
spot to start doing the damage you're gonna look over what's he's having but
he takes able to jump in towards him with the impression the fascist come out
there's your toys surrounded in trouble the box comes in and trying to get
Yatora out of this trying to keep him alive but no rolls in with the BKB.
Yatora is gone. He has got Bibeck.
He's going to almost certainly have to use it here, Root.
Dead outside of the base.
They're chatting back onto the barracks.
It's just too much for them to go with.
They have got the Hex on a notice.
The Infest comes in. Be able to heal him back up.
Got the cheese as well too if he feels necessary to use it.
Back up to full HP. The Bibeck's come out for Yatora.
Look at the satanic, satanic still with the Aegis.
X is there, then we'll take him out the once.
No one's back in.
Up against the mega creeps now, team spirit.
Back to Ty spreading.
Having to get back over towards the pounce and collapse will be able to take it off the two of them.
Otis still in the middle of the jump and have a lick to try and get Lyle back to safety,
but the roof catching on him, he'll get the slider fist up, he'll run it away.
But there's an impetus chasing on forward.
Lyle's gone for good.
Deft for the two minutes.
Down to the three of them to try and hold back against.
Say Taddick, but say Taddick moves in.
Tears apart collapse.
And this game, this series,
It is over. Gigi is called. Team Vision today turning up again the 2-0 against Spirit.
It's going to Spirit have to give a little bit of more of a punch back, but barely still.
They drew it out for the 53 minutes, but my goodness, Team Vision.
Then you're exactly what I do against Spirit today.
On top of just playing so perfectly, right? This pick for this life stealer is just so insane.
And honestly, this Earth Spirit, it's got to go for no one. You can't be giving it to this guy.
Yeah. Wow.
Team Vision, my goodness, what a show they gave us here.
Spirit could not quite keep up with the maneuver at their games.
It's a 2-0 here for Team Vision.
And with that, they are the first team to get their place
in the main event of the International.
Congratulations to them and to having such a clean road to make it there.
This was this is spectacular stuff.
And against Team Spirit to do like this as well.
Yes, Game 2 was more competitive than Game 1, but still very much in the hands of Vision for this one.
Saber, what do you feel about Team Vision?
I mean, it's just there, just a step above the rest of the field.
They are there. I don't know. I don't know how they do it, especially against a team like Spirit.
It just feels incredible. So obviously not only Zotanik, I think no one showed up in a big way
and also no one did, you know. They all did in a way.
Yes, his Earth Spirit is incredible, the supports, they're always enabling them in lane, they're
always winning lanes, it's, yeah, I don't know.
Yeah, and speaking of lanes, there's one moment in the lanes that was already kind of like,
we kind of knew it was going to happen potentially, you wanted to take a look at that.
Yeah, I wanted to highlight, usually I personally don't care about my supports life, this
Enge is dead if I am on the screen. However, that is not the vision way. They bring everybody,
they infest, they help him, and after Spirit bring heroes, they bring the Ember Spirit and
waste so much time trying to get a measly Enchantress kill. They can't even get that. And Ember
dies instead.
Ember dies instead, and I mean that was already pretty bad because Ember was already down
on that bottleneck for quite a while waiting for an opportunity.
Luckily for Team Spirit, there was a chance for them to be a little bit more on the bond
on point later down the line as we are going to take a look at Jenkins and what happened
at around minute 19.
Yeah, this was pretty cool.
I mean, you can still see the Team Spirit magic in this game at least.
Game 1, in my opinion, was way more of a slump.
There was no chance for them whatsoever.
Spirit was at least like crawling back in this one.
You see the double remnant block from Laurel onto no one.
This is the sort of gameplay that you have to do
to stop no one from rampaging you on Earth's Spirit.
I guess we can kind of angle it like that.
I agree with Fogged and my boy Saberlight
that I don't know if you can play against his team
and give the dude Earth's Spirit again.
Not just because mechanically
he knows how to play it so well,
but also because his team is super capable
of playing around it too.
Like they use him to the highest degree possible.
Yeah, and after that, of course, it was a little bit back and forth, mostly fourth though, in favor of vision.
But there's one deciding fight where we're like, okay, you know, it's time to pack up for Team Spirit towards the later ends of the game. 42.
Yeah, this was about the second Roche fight.
I think there was a lot of cat and mouse kind of gameplay going around the Roche, moving around.
It was really cool.
And then what we realized is, you know, this is a draw lineup and how do you beat a draw lineup?
you get position on her. So Nodus gets a jump in first, he goes on the high ground,
Jawa is immediately forced to low ground trying to run away but the positioning is already
compromised here because you need to be able to stand and hit people. But as soon as the
doom does that with the agonims, the fight is just chaos and when there's chaos, the Jawa
Ender is going to lose. So this was a really nice way of taking command of the game,
getting the second roach and from here on out it's just about closing out the map slowly.
I want to have a special mini shout out to not me who was trying a little cool play there
with the hook wing trying to sneak in a Roche steal.
You got to try it in moments like that.
You try out and successfully so Roche steals frequently.
I love stealing the Roche, but not in this way.
This was incredible, like abusing this little pocket of vision.
I feel like after this, Valve is for sure fixing it.
Even though he didn't succeed in the steel, I just think it's incredible that this is his first TI and he goes for a place like this.
And yeah, he could have easily gotten it, and then maybe this game looks completely different.
Yeah, we went for the MVP on the Earth Spirit for no one.
Yes, the hero is very strong, and I'm sure we're going to see it addressed in many drafts in the following series to come and in the main event as well.
but on top of it all, he was just everywhere and he was playing a two-perfection fly.
I think he was very well deserved because both games he got his hero first pick,
Laurel gets a counter-pick, and both games I actually felt a little bit like of a mid-diff,
you know, which is pretty rare to say, he won the lane, I'm pretty sure,
and he got most of the runes from the 6-8-10 runes that we were talking about.
He made better rotations, he forced Loll to go to one lane, then he attacked the other lane, and just a stellar performance from no one, really.
What is the counter to Earthspear? Because on all the streams we're seeing Slardar, we're seeing Ember, and watching these performances, I don't feel like these did enough.
Is it really just mid-diff? Like is it a skill thing between these two players right now?
I mean, from my knowledge, this is supposed to be Ember-favored, maybe not a Stomp, but
just slightly Ember-favored.
It could be a lot of different things.
We also saw the Entrotating a lot, trying to help out.
So maybe it came down to the supports.
There was a lot happening in this game.
So you know, you'd really have to break it down.
But I do think no one just overperformed today, for sure.
Do we feel like there should have been more rotations going into the Midland?
Because we talked a lot during the draft about their needing to be rotations.
More?
I don't know it's hard it's hard to to rotate against edge this here is very strong on runs and the problem with this ember hero is that
You have your you have your
E spell your flame shield, but you need to press it beforehand and it's just gonna get perched
There's no point saving it like some other spell because sometimes let's say like a quap ulti right
You'll just save it for the moment where it's needed whereas for flame shield
You just kind of you pop it and then it's dealing damage over time
However, then the edge can just choose whenever to purge it and your entire kit is just gone
I do wish they played a little bit more around the draw ranger because
Yatora won his lane really hard, which is what should happen against doom
But as soon as they made that rotation to the life stealer and it failed with floral when we saw the highlight
I think that actually completely cooked the game
It seems very miniscule but those types of things actually matter so much in these high level games that gave doom so much space
It made Lars game really bad all of these things combined. They did not recognize the correct pressure points for themselves
Yeah, and that's just slowly
It was vision taking the lead keeping the net worth game and lead the whole game through and they take it
And they get themselves to the main event and we are gonna find out how they're feeling right now as we head over to nomad
I'm here with Duke Alice from team vision and you have just qualified to the main stage of the international
with a 4-0 record. How do you feel?
Very feeling good, but I think we still need to improve some stuff
because we started playing better from the start of the tournament
because we were kind of dreadlocked and we were having a really hard trip.
But now we are improving from day to day.
I mean, if you're looking to improve from here then
you're going to be unstoppable by the time the main stage comes.
But we'll talk about the series versus spirit.
I mean, Game 1, kind of looked like everything just went to plan for you guys.
Yeah, I think game one was kinda easy because we got a Furion and he threatened them on map, like unit 5, he typically draw towers, so they are a bit lower on map, and we have kinda unkillable heroes everywhere.
I'm playing Wyvern, they have Slardar, so they don't have that much amplification for physical damage.
And Edgar divided all the vision, so yeah I think we were just doing everything well.
I could pressure more, but yeah, just 5 or 10 more percent.
For real, I mean that first game was really really solid.
Game number two also very good, they pushed you a little bit later though.
How were they able to do that?
I think we just didn't hit our smokes, and I think we was a bit as well, not good on the buttons.
No one said after the game that he bit the mis-pressed BKB, so if he don't do it,
we could kill them all and all the stuff, so I think yes.
I think yes, and I think also I died quite times, like 2 or 3 times on important objectives,
where my team could take 5 days from my life, like 1st rush I think we lose because I died.
So yeah, I think we just a little bit, was not on the proper state to destroy the game,
but we still win.
Still win, still win.
I mean, there were a few rush moments that game, also when NotMe suddenly comes out
of the cliff seemingly from nowhere, and Bushbox even almost takes that rush down,
which would have been a disaster, didn't quite get it, but what was the team's
reaction when that happened?
My reaction was like, oh fuck, because against this team if you're not ready they will always
try to steal Rosh.
They will like, I don't know, force stuff, steal with Chay, Fist, steal with like hiding
in the broken spot and like, it's insane to be true.
I mean they are good in it, but I think like it's one of the key things.
If they don't steal your edges they are not like that good enough, yeah.
Okay, well, I mean there were some really interesting moments in this game, but also
Satanic, I mean this guy is just playing absolutely insane every single lane it feels like he's coming out ahead
How are you managed to achieve that in every single match?
I think it's because he's very young and very talented and like it's half of the thing
Why he's like this and I think the other half is a puppy because he teaches him a lot how to play Dota
how to play aggressively, and they are talking a lot.
And I think that's why he also improved, and I think one more thing, it's like the atmosphere
that we try to all bring. Sometimes we don't do it, like sometimes we have bad days.
I mean, I think every team has a bad day.
But basically, I think when we're coming to the official, we are all in good mood,
and we try to cheer up each other.
Certainly working out for you guys, absolutely.
I mean was there anything in this group stage which caught you guys off guard that you had to adapt to?
I think first match was really hard because of dreadlock and I think team resilience is really good team
I am waiting them to go to playoffs
And Falcons played well
I mean I kind of fucked up third game with Falcons and because I feel on Titan on lane and
First game we was also kind of ining. I think I think team resilience was really hard to open to be true
I believe they're really good team.
Yeah, I'm excited to see more from them as well, to be honest.
But now, we're through to the main stage.
How does this change things for you guys going to play in that arena?
I mean, we are really appreciated to have this opportunity to play in front of Chinese crowd.
And I wanted to say sorry one more time, guys, about last year.
And I'm waiting for you to come. And I'm really sorry.
So come, cheer for us. We will try to do our best. We love you.
We love you.
All right.
And anyone who learns your fans out there watching from home as well?
Yeah.
And I can say it like on my language, thank you very much for your support, friends.
Come and cheer for us.
I know that there will be a lot of city fans here at the stadium.
We will try our best for you.
Thank you.
Brilliant.
Dukalis, thank you so much for coming to talk to me.
And good luck at TI.
Thank you.
That was awesome.
I love hearing Dukalis talk about the atmosphere that his team is going through
and that it's just a happy positive atmosphere and I think Jenkins we can feel that they're just very comfortable playing in this group stage
Yeah, I'm glad he talked about it. This is something that I heard from no one where he said that
You know satanic in particular this guy had a lot of like intuitive feelings on the game and
You know would take a tower because he's just really good at last sitting gets the advantage and lane etc etc
But a lot of the time he didn't really have like theory on why these various things were good
And it was a little hard for them to
Get through to him because he's just so good setting all these records right but then puppy comes in
one of the Dota legends of all time and
Also, you know with the machete. He's able to actually get through to satanic and now we see like
This kid is on another level dude
It's like satanic is an ass tier and everybody else right now seems to be a tier at best
Yeah, it's it's super impressive also already talking about you know, they be just one
No one hasn't died a single time that game flying. He's already you know guys. I miss press my buttons here. That also is I mean, it's
Hallmark of a stellar player. I love the mentality because even throughout this entire interview
The Colossus is pointing out all the mistakes he's done
So they're just clearly just thinking about all the things they could do better and they're not that satisfied with
you know what seems like kind of a really great win over Team Spirit and I can
definitely sense their expectations as a team like he didn't seem overly excited
or anything after you know making it to the main event but they're expecting
more they're expecting to win the whole thing even from nine classes interview
earlier and it's cool to see that just resonate you know within. Very true
there is of course a flipside to this story because we knew that in this
first half of the day we would have one team making it to the main event. We also knew that during
this time there would be one team that would be eliminated and that has happened. Hooligani has
taken leave of this group stage as the first team to be eliminated from the international
and for some final words we're going to head over to Pirion who's talking to see you.
I'm here with Sayush from team Hooligani who've just been eliminated from TI 15. Our first
team eliminated. So I use commiserations, sorry to see you guys go home. Talk me through
that series, what went wrong from your perspective?
We had a bad pick. First, we didn't play well. Second, we won. We played better than we did.
Third, we made a mistake. We wanted to kill Enigma at the beginning, so that we could play better.
Because of that, the line went worse. That's why we started to pressure Bota a lot.
We hoped that we'd have a big tree, but we couldn't get together and tried to hold on to the plan to stay from HG, so it didn't work out.
Enigma and that's why we closed the initiative on the bottom lane in the easy lane of our team
Which resulted in a snowball which we did which we didn't manage to cope with. Wow. Thanks. Great analysis there
You've got quite a first of all first time at this tournament for your organization. You've got some newcomers to TI as well
Do you think they've learned a lot playing against?
Teens at this standard and do you think that they've improved as a result of playing at the tournament?
Do you think a lot of young players have had time to learn how to play TI?
Of course, it's a great experience for the guys who are the first international.
Otherwise, the best teams that show good results throughout the year win tournaments,
and take high places.
So, I think it's a great experience for the guys who are the first.
It's also a great experience for experienced players, for us, for me, for respect.
I think this international will give us a lot in the future.
Do you have anything you'd like to say to the fans?
Thank you a lot for cheering for us.
The result didn't end up the way we expected it to.
to be. However, we tried to hooligan up the situation a bit, but we failed in a way, but
thank you nevertheless for supporting us.
Great words, and thank you to you for competing. We wish you all the best in the future. Back
to you guys.
Thank you very much, Apirion, as you've... I mean, it's tough getting eliminated, being
the first team to be eliminated as well. And I'm sitting here with two people, teammates
that have been also eliminated by Lugani from the qualifiers. Does this bring extra feelings
seeing the team that eliminated you getting eliminated as well? I feel like I have to
ask it.
Yeah, why you gotta do it? Do us like that. No, no. It's a bit unfortunate to see them
go out this way. I would have hoped they would have had a better fighting chance.
as they did get outclassed and it is devastating, you know, you put your entire season in hopes
of making it here which they did, but then you also want to perform, you don't just want
to come here and end up losing.
So hopefully it is a good experience for a lot of their players since it was a lot of
their first times at TI, so yeah, just use this and come back stronger in the future.
Yeah, we talked a little bit about that Saber, about how important it is to just,
it doesn't necessarily mean that you've got to win TI, but to be there at least
once to have to know how to deal with a tournament of this scale as a player.
Do you feel like this is a team that will take a lot of lessons from something like this?
Yeah, I think it's for sure helpful to, you know,
banging out for the first time.
And then if you're, unless you're not me and you're just cooking every single game,
there's exceptions to every rule.
It's, it's a good experience.
And I'm hoping that they had a good time.
And despite the losses, yeah, it's kind of bound to happen.
A smart man once told me that he really appreciates or admires Dota players
because there is 16 teams, but only one of them will win.
So there's only one winner and basically 15 losers.
And yet the Dota players, they do it again and again and again.
And that's just kind of the life and you sign up for it.
And someone has to be in the last place.
Was that Insania?
It was actually Dr. K, the Dota psychologist.
Well, gamer psychologist.
Very cool guy.
I mean to be fair, I think throughout a career you're gonna lose way more than you win like that's statistics, right?
Make sense. Yeah, that's right. I think the
one of the
beauties of Dota but the curses of Dota as well is that a lot of the time
The losses feel so much better than the winds like the winds are just kind of relieving, you know
And you lose you're like that's rough
But it's I I feel like it's probably a motivating thing to get back to the tournament though
You're like all of these things that I could have done better. I have to get back. I have to get back
I have to prove myself almost more than like never having gone there in the first place
It is a bit like madness
And then you watch the other teams competing you watch somebody win and then you have this like fire that comes within you like
I want to be there, you know, I have another chance to compete against these guys
I want to be the one lifting the trophy. So I totally understand and now there's gonna be more series coming our way today and
And there's four teams that will, because we saw Ulegani today, they played against OG,
that was the 0-3 versus 0-3 matchup.
OG is now 1-3, there's three other teams that are 1-3, so that makes four teams that are
1-3 and they are going to go up against each other and two more teams get eliminated.
So I'm going to tell you guys those four teams in case you are not aware and I would
love to hear you guys thoughts on how this will go down.
So of course we got OG that was able to beat Hooligan this morning other than that we got
Gamer, Legion, Fly, I'm sorry, resilience that we heard the call us talk about just now
and extreme gaming.
That's crazy.
And then this is, I mean all four of them, you can make cases for them to just make
it through because they have taken games off the best of them, but two of them are
going to get eliminated.
I need your thoughts on this.
I hope it's not him resilience because as we heard the Ducales say they they took a game of
Vision they took a who did they be today? They took a game of Yandex. Yes Yandex
so that's like two incredibly talented teams and
Resilience was so close to beating them both. So I really hope they they make it they make it through
They also took a game of LGD. Yeah, they to oh they too out. Oh gee already earlier on
So there's also this like trend of the third best Chinese team being the one that like clutches it out
For the last couple of years. Yeah, I remember it was always like, you know
Two Chinese teams where there was LGD extreme and then your cult would always be the team
It would pop off in the tournaments and be like the team to look at so I'm kind of getting those vibes from resilience a little bit
And it would be nice to see that
Actually happen. I'm with you guys. It would be really fun to see resilience do well
Of course, I'm also rooting for game religion. Just I really think they they have it
You know like they have a chance. They just had some really hard matchups got a route for NA
So I would look out for those two teams personally. I just want to see them do well
You can make a case for og you can make a case for extreme, but I'm gonna go for zillions in game religion
but also since she reset that
that resilience and OG are already played together, does it mean there's a high chance that the
resilience will play either game and region, or extreme?
Oh, well, let me just say, as I wait for the matchups is over, we can take a look at what's
coming your way.
Let's take a look at what's, there's four streams again, so we're going to go down
line.
So we're going to start with stream C.
So our upcoming matchup is known, the other ones we don't know yet because of some
teams still playing, but we do know the series playing for elimination.
OG vs. Gamer Legion there, Fly?
Yeah, so, well, I'm actually sad about the other, the conflict of this, it's two Chinese teams, but we'll get to that in a second.
So, OG vs. Gamer Legion, I don't even know if they faced each other anytime recently.
Again, I'm rooting for any here for sure. Hard to say who's gonna win.
I thought Gamer Legion looked more promising throughout this tournament.
I think OG looked a bit shaky. They did look a little better today with their win, but I think Gamer Legion had
more impressive performance so far for me.
Yeah, I think so too.
I look at OG and I see the team that kind of set a lot of the meta for this season of Dota,
and then after everybody caught up with the things that they were doing,
they've fallen behind and they haven't really gotten back to that point.
Whereas I feel like game religion is cooking a lot of new and fresh stuff
and we're even seeing them do it in this tournament.
So I would have a little bit more faith in them being able to pull it out here
I'm also leaning towards scheme religion
I not only because of I agree with what you guys said that they do seem to have a little bit better grasp on the meta
But also from the insider info I have from OG is that I
talked to Yopash today at breakfast and
He didn't even smile at me. Oh, he's such a cheerful. Okay. He's a smiling guy. He like give me like a
And we all know Jopasz, he's a cheerful guy, so I just hope that it's always very taxing
to play at TI and to take these losses.
So yeah, if he doesn't hit me with a full smile, then I'm just worried about him.
On the bright side, OG did just come off the win and that means that maybe Momentum
has shifted and they're happy and Jolien will see how that series goes.
But as Fly already alluded to, that means on stream D, inter-regional elimination, and
it is sad.
It is LGDVG gaming.
My bad team.
I was practically speaking, it is two Chinese teams.
My brain just melted a little bit there, but this is two teams that are two and two.
So this is happy times.
This is fine.
Nobody's going home.
Well, okay, hold on a second hold on I'm not happy about this. I
Want both of these I have both of these teams in my that's fine
I think I know they can but one of them is gonna be some I just wish it was easier
You know for my predictions
I would LGD just did what I said they would do for now and VG would you know at this point have some team that they
Could stop you know, but this is this is gonna be a close one at least LGD
looked really good today if VG has looked really good you know we started
this whole narrative of like oh no the Chinese teams are getting knocked out
whatever not VG they're just they're just doing solid like VG looks like VG and
I think they're they're matching the expectations going in as the strongest
Chinese team but yeah I mean they're playing against LVD and Thompson like there
you go and now now we got the resilience now we can get it first yeah
Which is sad. It is sad to see a Chinese team have to leave us this early and you know, I would wish both of these teams make it through.
I think Amir with the stat earlier that he's made it to top six every single TI. This looks like his hardest road yet.
I'm pretty sure. It must be.
It's possible, but I actually would not mind seeing resilience going through and you know, some new faces out there.
Also after the callous hype them up. I'm even more excited to see how they play because if the callous says that these guys are good
Like you know these guys are beating everyone in vision. So but I'm very interested to see because I feel like
Resilience are probably doing a little bit better this ti than extreme like I think if you watch their games
They're probably a bit more cohesive. However, these like China against China matchups. It might be completely different
I think sure extreme they're probably much more confident in like
their own play especially against another China team so I don't know they
might just be able to like roll them with their confidence. I think for the most
part inter-regionally in the tournaments throughout the year that has
been the case like extreme beats the Chinese teams for the most part maybe
barring the last part of the... I thought earlier this week I've heard
someone say that extreme actually normally does better internationally but
not as good regionally. It's flipped the curses flipped then. I don't know
who set that and could just straight be lies and all that.
But I mean, we're gonna find out.
That's the thing, right?
That is the thing.
Either way, heartbreaking for one of these two teams,
but that's the way the cookie crumbles.
I mean, two teams, three teams total
have to be eliminated today.
It also means three teams total have to advance today.
And we already got one on board.
We don't have the rest of the matchups yet.
There's still a series going on as well.
So I would like to speculate a little bit though
on who we think is gonna make it through here.
There's still quite a few options
But we got two teams that we know guaranteed are three in one and that is about three teams actually because Spirit just joined them
Aurora my galaxy and then
Spirit and GX
That's cool. I
Didn't even I didn't catch their games really on ngx
So it's a little hard for me to to say how they're doing, but if there's three one, they're doing well
I think Lornoff has probably been popping off. Yeah, that sounds like you know up his alley
Like he's been playing amazing throughout this whole season mostly as a stand-in, but now here
Where did you guys put them in your predictions? I?
Put them either winning the tiebreakers or in the 4-1. Yeah the elimination phase
Yeah, like they would win the elimination phase. Yeah, I had them
I had them in the four ones, but I was doing it like emotionally based on what I wanted. I wasn't doing it based on
on what I thought as an analyst,
if I'm being completely honest,
I think I put liquid in getting eliminated
because I was like, wow, to have NGX up there,
I gotta put one of the likely teams down, you know?
So I was like, yeah, liquid's gonna choke, NGX, they're in.
It's funny, because liquid is playing
against Ironwing right now.
I had Ironwing choking, but-
That was gonna be my other choice for choking.
That's funny, because you have to,
you have to put other teams down
in order to push teams up.
I had Fiji gaming up,
I think my Galaxy is still hot down though, so what's wrong on that?
We'll have those series later, we'll have those match-up later,
we'll get all the information to you when we have that.
But of course, you now have seen what is coming your way.
We are going to have extreme gaming taking on Team Resilience.
Before we get there, we're going to hear from two separate players from those teams.
We're going to have YSR, but first we are going to listen to FY, who's talking to Tsunami.
Fy, you're a legendary player, but we have not actually gotten to see you at TI in quite
a while, not since your fourth place on Azuray in Seattle in 2023, so I wanted to know how
does it feel to be back?
So I know that in your past TI journey, a lot of fans have looked at your path as
coming close but not quite getting the ages, but I know there must be happiness in
those tournament runs. So I'm wondering what is your personal favorite moment from a TI?
Do you miss that feeling of the anxiety and the energy because
Now you've been to so many big lands, I'm sure it's not as intense as it once was.
Or do you like that you are now more calm coming into events?
Okay, so I guess the game has changed, but maybe your competitive spirit still remains strong.
While you have been competing for many, many years, you have had the same teammates for quite a bit of that run.
You've had history with Ame, nothing to say, Exnova.
I was wondering that over the years of playing with them, has your dynamic with them changed at all?
So it's almost as much of a friendship as it is a teammate relationship.
Nice. Happy to hear it.
My last question is I saw that you got 16k MMR recently earlier this year.
It is rare to see support players that high on the leaderboard.
I wanted to know if you had any secrets or advice to give.
Okay, that's something that most Dota players do not do.
So it'll be a hard road for them to follow.
them to follow, but offline, hopefully that respect carries you far here in Shanghai.
Best of luck to you in extreme gaming.
Thank you.
YSR, welcome to Shanghai and you're bringing a new team to the international team resilience.
You guys found success quite quick.
You guys formed and then immediately reached the final of ESL ACL challenger.
Did you know, like, right away that this team was something special?
Um, no.
I mean, it's just that we're all familiar with each other and have a bit of a reaction.
How long have you known some of your teammates?
They've probably been together for four or five years, or two or three years.
So you've known them for quite a while, but still, in terms of TI attendances, you're the one with the most experience.
Do you feel more responsibility being the biggest veteran of coming to TI?
How are you dealing with that regional difference?
Obviously the past few years at TI has been quite western dominated,
But we're here on home turf in Shanghai.
Do you feel more pressure or is it exciting?
How about making it through the qualifier?
I'll admit, I was surprised to see you guys take the first slot.
But it seems that you're not really underdogs within China.
You're quite strong.
Sometimes we can't even see ourselves, but we won.
Wait, so are you saying that even the heroes you're picking, the strategies you're running,
you don't really pay attention to the details, you're just along for the ride?
Do you think part of it working out is this patch favors your team and your players especially?
I was gonna ask have you filled out your predictions in the game and if so, where did you place team resilience in the group stage?
Okay, why not 4-0?
Okay, taking a realistic approach. Well, I hope your prediction comes true at least making it through to the playoffs Erica
YSRO 4e. Thanks for joining me and good luck here in Shanghai. Yeah, thank you
We're halfway back for day number three of TI in 2026 here and of course getting a little
bit of insight before TI started from both the two teams that we're going to be seeing
right now.
It's Team Resilience up against Extreme Gaming and joining me here on the catches is going
to be none other than LaCosta Gunner and Monkeys Forever.
I'm starting with you Gunner.
I feel whenever I do my introduction.
So how are you feeling?
I'm doing good.
I'm excited.
Yeah, yesterday wasn't long enough for me. Oh, right, right. Sorry there. What nine hours that you had just wasn't enough
I know I just I want some 60 minute games. I think yesterday's been lacking
I think the average game done went down like you know minute or two minutes
Yeah, so let's just bring that back up. Maybe we get towards that 60 minutes to
Actually, I think 70 72 would be my preference. Yeah, that's good for me. What about yourself will cost
I mean excited like the last few days have been amazing with the Dota with the picks like teams are theory crafting new ideas
for some it's working out for some it's not working out but they will have to
dig deep they will have to bring their best strategies here especially in this
series and monkeys I would ask how you're feeling but I know early today
unfortunately your dark horse game a legion of the tournament ended up not
getting the dub against Falcon I mean you know as far as teams go for them to
lose to Falcons maybe was a more expected result but I mean hey they
took a game off of them so you know I definitely look nothing to feel bad
about in my opinion, you know, definitely shown promise. Of course, the pushing them to the
limits. We can have a look though at us with brackets so we can see how all of our rounds
have been shaping up because as fun as day one and day two were day three. And of course,
tomorrow is where we're starting to get to see our teams qualifying teams eliminated
already wanting qualified today. That was in team vision hula ghani. Unfortunately,
being our first eliminated team there, but there's still so much more on the line.
two more teams to qualify today, two more teams to say goodbye to today, and this is how it's
shaping up our three and O's having played out two and one still having to decide for themselves
our O and three there for that O and four unfortunate elimination we talked about.
But it is also down to round number five where we look towards those one and threes those three
and one teams where you're just on the verge. Yeah, you might not have been necessarily the
best in groups, but you're right up there gonna. Yeah, and you can you can make it through,
you cannot make it through. I think the exciting ones are all the teams at 1-3 is the scariest because
you're so close to just having the extra chance of extra life for the elimination or going out today.
That was what we said. YSR, Erica, however, you would like to call him or remember him there
was that we put ourselves in the elimination round of winners. He knew that they weren't going
to be up to a strong start, but I have full faith, look, host in a roster that's willing
to believe in them powering up through the learning stages of a TI group stage. I think
I think this team is definitely better than what the score says.
This is the best team, even when you look at the score,
because right now they're 1 and 3, but they're also 5 and 6.
And this is also a team that did manage to take the game off team vision,
showing the strength of the team.
But I feel like they just needed that extra bit of oomph in some of these situations.
They also got stomped, like they lost in 17 or 18 minutes.
So definitely a team that can look really good,
and sometimes they can look really bad if things don't go their way early on.
Yeah, by no means has there run throughout the group stage been easy.
It's vision, LGT, OG and Yandex for the monkeys.
When we look at a lot of these teams are either coming in as the hotshots
or have proven themselves in the group stages being hotshots.
Yeah, I mean, as Lacoste said, taking a game off of Yandex and vision,
I mean, like, you know, the 1-3 definitely doesn't reflect resilience's potential, or resilience,
yeah, it also works.
But you know, definitely, I think, going against Extreme here, Extreme kind of, they've been
trying a lot of new things, I feel, with this tournament.
You know, we've seen a Tinker mid, we've seen an Io carry on Aame, we've seen a Mag
mid as well and nothing to say.
know I feel like extreme or kind of a kind of testing the waters of the at it
hasn't exactly worked out for them you know I I think a lot of their tests have
got have gotten punished more and more so but it will be an interesting matchup
to see because I don't believe we've seen either of these teams on the A stream
yet. No we haven't really gotten to follow them too closely and that was the
I think about extreme gaming ending in this one and three slot for themselves. Is that previous series up against LGD?
They had a great performance in game number one game number two
You could chalk it up to okay
This one's rough
But we at least can still learn a lot from it
But in game three it felt like there were more question marks gonna around
What exactly they wanted to do for themselves because as monkeys mentioned trialing at that mag in mid
Yeah, that's worked in previous patches, but for now that easily could have been a better mid matchup for them
Yeah, I would definitely prefer them. They had the tinker game for nothing to say earlier in the tournament
And I thought they lost but it looks promising. I want them to go more towards
More comfort again the IO carry did not look that good for them
I would like them just nothing to say play like his ember his tinker his puck the stuff that over the years
Has been his bread and butter and then I'll may again to play his bed and butter
I think both of them have kind of tried to do something new something special and
Has not had the results yet, and you know, maybe there's something we don't know
Maybe the scrims have been good for them, but
It's hard to it's hard to argue for scrims when it's not working in tournaments
One good thing for extreme gaming is they have been known to play longer games
This is how they played and very meta that you know
The average game time is around 50 minutes right now
So this is their territory if the games are gonna be going late
I think this should be the upper hand because a lot of the times this is the team that you know
When it comes out the team fighting good the spell casting
They're very very good a lot of the times in the early stages of the game
Against more some like these European powerhouses where the games go like relatively quickly
Against the Mike boom boys team vision that can close out the games and they're focusing heavily on the lanes
They might struggle against some of these teams, but they're against team resilience
I would say that their chances are definitely better, but also do not underestimate this team because if you look at the names on the team,
I think for me at least the one that stands out the most is new. He was the one who got a really high placement at TI 2023.
He got a third place with LGD and he also, you know, he was kind of missing in action.
He was the assistant coach for Team Tidebound. He was the main coach as well, but I'm really glad that he's back because back at that TI,
He was breaking some records.
He was always in like top three, top four when it comes down to all of these major stats.
It's crazy to see this team, VTeen comparison right now for their showing in group stage
for the international.
Their average duration, very similar, shortest duration within a couple of minutes.
Obviously, their longest duration is a bit of anomaly there, but their heroes played
as well, having such a wide hero pool.
Sometimes that's a big detriment to teams when you're trying to fit in too much
that everyone is out of kilter everyone's just trying to experiment that little bit but both of these teams fit in similar columns of
That and so now it goes okay
You reign it in you lose this best of three you're out you win you get to go the elimination round
You get to have that extra chance for yourself
So how much experimentation gunner are you hoping comes out and which roles would you want it to not begin?
I remember back long time ago years of seven years ago. Well, I was in this very city
I was playing March and he told me this quote. He said you only need five heroes to win a tournament
And so for me, I've always thought that that basically per player
Like yes, obviously a team is five heroes
But each player kind of needs just a five-year-old pool that they're kind of experts at and sure
Maybe have like one guy who is gonna play 15 heroes like you have some random carry player
Who could you play everything?
But if the majority of your team even all five players if you just have that very limited pool
you just know what works together what you need to fill in the draft how you
need to play the games and again for me you look at a lot of these top teams
sure again you can see like satanic like oh satanic can play everything why can't
we but you look at the rest of their players and they have such a consistent
hero pool they have like three or four different heroes that they get every
game that it lets that final guy fill everything and again for these two
teams sure they're experimenting as teams but you know the results to
follow up that experimentation I think it's just better to just be like okay
Hey guys, these are the top three heroes for us.
Let's just try to get these heroes
and have really solid drafts with them
and not have to re-bet our drafts.
Just have to worry about the gameplay,
have to worry about the stuff in the game
that we can change rather than the stuff we can out of the game.
That makes a lot of sense.
When you said that quote, I thought it meant
you only need five heroes to win it.
It was more about these five heroes
that get demortalized every single time.
Yeah, the 5-0-2!
I wanted to begin with.
He March definitely had a good reasoning
when it comes down to picking because this is exactly how it works for the most successful
teams.
We're also seeing more predominant heroes coming out as the group stage develops and that's
the thing.
Everyone starts with a wide pool, a big net, you try and catch as many fish as possible
as many winds and now you just go to narrow down to focusing on ensuring you take out
what has been giving success not only to your team, your opponents, but other teams
that are so desperate being taken out, Shadafine as well, Treant Protect and none of these
are big question marks at all as to why they fit into that first phase.
And we're gonna have extreme gaming with the first pick too. So we'll see how they would like to end their ban here and set themselves up for a good foundation
Earlier today is the it was the second game in all the first years of the day
It was a center in every single game and then every single game. I believe there's also Marana
So those are the heroes that have just been popping up a lot and they're slightly flying into the radar because they
Don't necessarily have the strongest win rate, but you can consistently just get them into any draft at any point in the game
And it's like okay, we're moving past because a lot of drafting is not necessary every pick can't be broken
You can't just have every single one of your five things like this is the best year in the game
We're winning because this hero some of the picks are we just need a way to
Have something that's solid like it's okay if it's not the strongest, but it gets us past
I think that those heroes undying has kind of I was gonna say undying. That's the one for me
But even for me
I think that guy's more in the S tier like broken supports
So I think it sounds likely getting banned, but if not, yeah, wouldn't be surprised to see him.
I'm really glad you mentioned Centaur, because looking at the extreme gaming, they're the team that they haven't played Centaur.
X-X has been notorious to play Centaur, but it wasn't really as Centaur meta, and if you look at the games that they lost to,
they lost all three games that they played against the Centaur.
So I don't know if this is also on their radar, because I would definitely love this hero to be potentially either banned by them
or picked by them because they are the teams that have been known to utilize
the hero really well. I also really wouldn't mind to see a natures
prophet right now. That hero has been a standout hero for me this tournament I
think it currently is at an 8-1 record so I think natures prophet it's one of
those heroes that just provides it provides a tower push it provides that
kind of more aggressive playstyle it allows you to you know move around the
map and connect a lot of heroes and I think I think that much as a hero that
could really work for well honestly I believe either of these scenes are
able to play it it just it just hasn't quite come out yet it's also pretty cool
it fits in this like tower carry meta of being that guy that just stands
in right clicks but he has because he's this global teleport he can teleport on
top of the enemy ranged carry and outright clicking so it's this weird
thing where he's like a mold he can set up his turret where every once in the
Whereas ever the case you think like a droughts like this guy's got a shadow blade find the right position to to get these right clicks in and he's like
Oh, no, I'm right on top of you. I'm with my mid laner. My Earthfrag is rolling you on here
You get the kills but as of now then Voker that's also been pretty popular today paired with the centaur getting picked up
This is I think the joy of getting to look at some Chinese teams is that they don't open like everyone else
Yeah, a broken leaner is still in the pool whether you want to talk about that centaur as well
The teams like to open up with this is why I always love China
because they always had their own ideas, you know, their own identity, identity as yeah,
absolutely. And I think because they have the pick out of the phase inside of resilience,
so I would love to see it or center. I would love to see maybe pain coming out. I think this hero
not going to say has been forgotten, but this is the setup like we've seen. If you have a
guaranteed Sun strike, it just automatically wins you the lanes like it's like, oh,
You're getting this pure damage on the side lane, any kind of a setup like we've seen other teams go for like Shadow Shaman
It was popular more in the previous patch because the hero was better overall
But we'll have to see the centaur gets banned and removing Invoker because you know
This is a bit of a tougher matchup for Invoker. I would be worried at the Bane here
For me when you pick Invoker you have to ban Puck. I think that matchups
Super bad for the Invoker, but then now you pick the ringmaster or the Bane you set up for ringmaster
Which is a terrible matchup for the bane because you can always just move the grip no matter what and it is pretty nice
To protect your teammates from the invoker combos with all the magic resistance
So I don't think they need to necessarily like yeah, not of the phase
But they're just later. I think later if they can get a pain
They see a second support already picked by extreme gaming. It would be pretty good
They could go with a position for here and or if they can find you know
Maybe something for the off lane because we are seeing a bit of a different picks coming up from these Chinese
I mean, I really wouldn't mind like a bane plus piranha or shadow demon plus piranha because I think both like the setup works
Well, I'm dying, you know, we were just talking about that here too
One of the better better pause flies like Ken flex the off lane
We haven't really been seeing much on dying off lane this tournament though
I think part of that is just all there. There's so many, you know, just solid off landers right now
Yeah, I feel like typically teams are looking for more of that like either really high
like burst damage out of the offender like a temper saw or more of that you
know stun setup as you were talking about earlier you definitely want physical
damage now so this had extreme I was thinking slaughter a pango slaughter is
more of an invoker response and pango is a bit more of an undying response the
swash kills the zombies so it kind of helps in these like either the lane or
the team fights it pairs really well the hudunga if that ends up being
offlane so it's like a bit of a flex and then now probably you just want to
pick some another lane securing five. I think Marana for extreme is good. It's fine versus
the unvying. You get right click like attack speed from leap. And it you don't have the
greatest error setup, but we've been seeing people just pick Marana, you know, for value
Marana highly because of the two minute smoke for free. Like a lot of times every single
time disability is off cooldown, you use it, you're getting something out of the
map and they will get the Rubik. Not the best abilities to steal in this game right now.
Like, stuff from Undying can't be good with the Soul Rip. This is going to be the setup for them
on the side of the resilience with the Axe. They don't see the carry-to-carry matchup.
They have a bit of a soft save later on with the Rubik. You have like the roll. These heroes
can build into Yul's Scepter to try to remove some of that damage, but once Axe goes in,
But I don't feel like I don't know. I'm kind of digging what the resilience have at the moment. Yeah
I would really like starter for extreme
I think it's the you have the detection verse and rana with the ult
You know the minus armor that pairs with both the hoodwink and the pangalir
It's a good matchup either mid versus invoker or a king even lane often into the undying and not many carries have been banning
It's just like the shadow fiend the laundry
So I'll make sure pool is still kind of gonna be there on this 23 pick on the the next pick of their draft
I think I want to see more of a dawnbreaker. I feel like this here has been underutilized
It's also a save once axe goes in. It's one of the stronger laners
Depending on the matchup, but we have seen so many games
Maybe that's so much in this patch
But in the previous patch in the previous tournaments for dawnbreakers like top network cheese use the lane bully as well, but
This is this is nasty. We've seen some
18 picks Phantom Lancer and
And against Axe it can be tricky, but I've also seen PL experts pick Phantom Lancer into Axe.
It's good to see other three heroes.
I'm dying, Marana and Voker are pretty sad against the Phantom Lancer and Voker in some situations.
Pretty cool version, but most of the time he just runs at you and you get hit by the Cascadia organ and you die on the Invoker.
So pretty good game for the PL. It definitely is a bit worrisome to play into the Axe,
But again, you know, we're talking about these world-class players, they definitely have the potential,
and like he has the understanding of what he wants to do in the draft.
I'll be okay with Sven. I've been very impressed by Sven's performance so far in the tournament,
especially with the Alakrity. They have no BKB Pearson abilities that once he goes in,
like he can also kill Pango with the call on the edge.
You have the setup, and I think all of these heroes are kind of just straight up dying.
that's one of the reasons why they are removing Tiny.
Just a small little, you know, the hub gone there but the picks are still all there guys.
The extra bands that have come out now, Tiny and Slaughter and it is out-texturing gaming
to get their final band there so you just use your imagination, pretend that the profile
pitches of Tiny and Slaughter have been slotted in there.
I will also say the Axe vs. P.O. matchup I think Axe does scale really well against
a Syro under the late game because of Ag's because that removes the counter-helix cooldown
and it can cause PL to, you know, burst himself very, very quickly if you're ever able to Berserker's
call the real one.
And also, obviously, I do think PL is good against Invoker, but Invoker does have all
of these AoE spells and, you know, it's definitely a hero that can do the damage
against PL if needed and like as the game goes on. Trying to think if there's any
particularly good mid or offense because the Pangolier can still flex, so they
have a lot of different options. They're gonna take the Timbersaw which to me is
pretty good. I think it's good for seeing dying the axe. It is scary sometimes
into the Slaspik, but again the Shadowfiend is the biggest one. That's
out. You would think of Luna is another popular one, but so Timbersaw,
TA and those here is you don't necessarily want into the Phantom Lancer
So it's kind of cool that they're protecting each other with these last two picks for extreme
One final pick to come out for team resilience here to try and answer that to feel that they
Are going to have the carry to carry matchup not going to put themselves in time or even though you want to close out a game
Foster against Phantom Lancer
There's no way they pick faces void right
You say that but you
You've been calling for a while.
I think I picked early today as well.
Okay.
Did you see the game? It was game-religion up against Falcons.
It was pretty good.
It was pretty good.
They also have the Invoker combo with it with Cataclysm.
Yeah, that's the main reason why I think about it.
It's decent against Timbersaw because all his damage,
at least on the lane, is like single burst
and you can just heal it back up with your Q.
I just...
Do you still feel too volatile about the hero?
Yeah.
It's just worrisome.
Interest.
That is not a convinced interest. It's a very not convincing interesting. I worry about
the matchup first
Pretty much all the core is like sure it's actually covers the ping a layer
But Timbersaw completely doesn't care about the ethereal. He'll just go through it. He all loves buying
Bloodthorne loves buying nullifier
Just being able to burst the necrophos anytime he walks in and I think in Voker once this carry to use a
lacryon in the middle of the game about to say the same thing like well who they
get an electricity because acts doesn't get it necrophos doesn't get maybe it's
marana she starts to scale all of a sudden what I've seen that before if we go
to monkeys around the axe does get eggs I believe it's you get the spin
counter to your right-click
I want to rush out now we're seeing the vision come to light
yeah I'm being like maybe go hummed on that yourself see you get the most
far in the matter. It reminds me of that old Axe field where you go
Manta-Syphiline. There was the, I think it was Aurora the other day who did have it.
Oh really? They did have it. That's old after all, huh?
Yeah, I think they too. I don't know, I gotta say that they didn't expect these two aspects to
come out a little bit of a different trust that's what we have been seeing and maybe this is
the reason why these teams didn't have the greatest success. I did really like what
Resilience has up until like Necro. He can be okay against BL. He's definitely great against Pangolier
But the problem is they don't really have ways of just going in and closing out the game
Because there's literally no tower damage. I worry about it being
Sure, maybe extreme has a rough early game per se or you know the mid game is rough
But I don't really see resilience closing the game out with this necrofos for me
Maybe the invoker does pop off. He goes to the super scaling hero with and he has a meter hammer
He can take 50 minutes the other game, but in my opinion
I think it's gonna go a bit too late and extreme is gonna have a good time in the late game
What does it mean your final thoughts monkeys who you are hoping to see come out on top of their lineups?
I I feel like I have to lean towards XG
I think this P
I like even though the axe can get that eggs and you know have this decent matchup against it
I just I think this P. I was gonna run rampant and you know
I think the game would just get harder and harder for resilience. I'm gonna read between the lines
It's extreme gaming with the caveat that if this acts goes for an items then we're gonna see monkeys changes by
Maybe he still hasn't it that we're gonna take away that hesitation
We're gonna jump on into game and number one of this elimination best of three between extreme gaming and resilience with lyrical and Trent
Thank you so much Nat. Oh my god. I can't wait to see the PL. That's so exciting Trent
We've got a great game here.
It's elimination time.
Elimination!
Oh my goodness.
Finally.
But yeah, and Axe gets taken.
A little bit of some strange fixes.
We're already into the game, some sun strikes being thrown.
Was there anything that really stood out to you
in the draft that the panel didn't cover
that you really wanted to highlight here?
I mean, I'd say they kind of hit all the notes.
This is one of the better drafts
Marana-wise, I'll say, for having some friends.
I feel like the Maranas have been kind of missing
some of their buds for the arrows.
But they got, you know, the axe, maybe some invoker set up a little bit.
That's kind of nice, the constant maneuvering across the map.
And I think they need that maneuvering across the map because I think the strategy must be good for,
as the panel said, I think their draft looks difficult to execute on the side of resilience.
Yeah, execution is always a bit of a trouble.
And with some strikes with arrows, you want that extra setup.
And to me, the main thing I'm seeing is just the first way in is either
Necro walking into people or an axe call.
Yeah, so some drafts it's like, oh like how do they end this game?
This draft is kind of like, when do they end it?
When do they get their big lead? Like all their little windows?
Quite small. Arrow goes out from behind, finds the timber saw, a tricky one to kill,
and some strike, oh comes in just a second too late, X-Nove, we're going to draw first blood.
ISR also gets that other kill there, and a one-for-one exchange, they also take out that ward.
Yeah, the Necrophos was a bit of a showstopper there at the end of that draft, huh?
I mean, obviously, you might be watching me thinking like,
Oh, well, I mean, Necrophos is in like half of these games.
Isn't the hero really good? Well, yeah.
But typically, the hero is picked on the earlier end
and maybe you wind up in a game where the matchups look kind of weird.
This is such a late Necrophos to be looking at a draft being like,
Huh! Necrophos!
It just means that Ysir is hoping to hit some big sites
and essentially roll with the team and do an early advantage, I would think, on the other side of the map.
But, uh, I think the panel bringing up Ryu and his history at TI, and the strengths that he has shown before when the games really matter.
If he could harness that power on the axe, eggs or not, he does have a way to help carry this game because of these sub-strikes.
Like, he's essentially a, like, a bonus axe when you even vote on your team.
Strike lands on to FY
You trying to chase down there realized it's not gonna be able to make anything else happen. And so
Why will for the moment be able to be out of there?
But you can see how much pressure this undying is already just putting on to this timber saw
I mean doesn't get the kill but then he kills the courier which forces his FY to TV all the way back home
Right, and he gets to just stick around right now
Ennis I love a good undying five
One of the best position 5s of tournament for sure, especially the melee heroes.
So don't expect to be running out of the zero anytime soon.
Alright, but back to the axe, the thing that I was thinking about with it too is it's very much like a TI hero.
You know, all the chips are down when there's a big moment happening.
You try and go for that big call to turn it all around or make a kill happen.
And we've seen that many times before.
Uh, you know, nooooo.
That'll be the next one.
I don't know why.
Plana gets taken down there.
Not on any tower.
I mean, shenanigans abound, of course, to try and get your axe up for good lane.
Once the level starts to build up on the axe, once it's a little tankier,
he can do a little bit of creep cutting himself.
Wouldn't be surprised we started seeing some stacks getting built up as well here on this radiant side.
It's Plana's first action upon respawn.
He spawned us to immediately arrow one of the creeps.
Yeah.
Typical Murana player.
I mean, you know, you want to get your mana back.
That makes sense.
FY rejoining the lane, likely going to go
stack right now for his Timbersaw.
Well, see the mid lane matchup.
Pango versus Invoker.
A tail is old this time.
So far, by the way, it does look like
Mekro's having a really good time out of this laning
stage.
I mean, think about the space that he's been giving you.
Yeah.
He is chillin'.
Uh, Timbersaw can't really, you know, I mean he's trying to get some levels to be fair, but he spent so much of his mana on the Undyne.
That, uh, a lot of Freedon's been given to YSR, and now they're gonna drop the Tombstone down bottom, wow!
Down, forcing everybody away from this area, and keeping the pressure on.
Now, there's still a ways away from another creep wave coming in, but X-tier gonna need to deal with this, otherwise there's gonna be zoned completely off of a wave.
Another double decay there and yeah, this this wave is going straight into the tower. That was a crazy team, so
I mean they'll get it back. They're pulling the pulling them all the heck
Dynamic duo of green. Ah
Lean mean green fighting machines and you got a salvo from FY but that entire wave
They're almost being pushed like it's out of XP. Yeah, it's to be clear
They're fully out of the XT range of that wave which means they're getting zero experience with those creeps and X success is back at the neutrals
This is crazy. I don't think that they can stop this. I think this just stays
Like they need more levels to be able to come and contest who's don't back up in 18 seconds. Oh, wow
Yeah, um
Okay problems in the bottom lane. So that's what we're deciding right now
This is how you win with necropos. Yeah, their eyes
This is what they foresaw and they appear to be quite correct at the moment
The freaking ghost zombie lane.
You see, a line was just drawn by Ex-Ex-S.
Yeah.
For FY, he's like, bro, FY, I know, I know that this wasn't from your era.
I need you to go run in circles with the creep wave.
It's this new thing we do.
Yeah.
He's like trying to queue up boots right now.
And now the tombstone is down.
Ex-Ex-S trying to stay survivable here.
He cannot afford to lose another wave to this.
And now the sun strike is going to be a little bit off the mark,
but it almost doesn't matter as Ex-Ex-S is just going to die.
Back behind the tower, they're dropping tombstones, nobody here to help. I mean, FY is grabbing that wave, but...
Oh, he's not. He's grabbing the bounty rune. Oh, no, he didn't get the wave.
No, he did not go for the wave. He's moving towards the mid, and now he gets scanned out coming mid.
This has to work. You gotta find a kill on the invoker here.
What did he get? He got scanned. He's out of there, man.
Yeah, he's gone.
Geez. What an oppressive lane.
FY's taunting. She can't be feeling too bad at least. That's a good sign.
It's the smile through the crying behind the mask.
Exactly.
Yeah.
That's how you know someone's still having fun.
Oh, no.
Yeah, that tower is about to go down bottom.
Yeah, that is insane.
Catabal was doing some work here.
And of course, on Necrophos, this far ahead of you
as Timbersaw, it means that he can just
threat with Scythes for such a long time.
And then if Timbersaw doesn't get to live on his lane
with the threat of, ah, I have level six,
so no one can come that close to me,
then he's not really a hero.
Now, I mean, honestly, the tower going down now means that Timber can maybe have a little bit more of a lane.
Necro's going to be incredibly farmed, hitting jungle camps, but he'll at least be able to farm and get experience under his tier 2.
Yeah, now the question becomes, what power do you have as undying in terms of lane bleed?
Where else can you go in the map now with this upset balance in the bottom lane?
That you can further improve your team's chances.
And look at this now, going immediately onto mid, seeing if they can find that kill, and indeed, they will.
I mean while we've been going crazy over this bottom lane, the Invoker, he's got the same
last as the Timber, now that he said the Timbers are neutral so it's a little bit worse, but
not having a fantastic time maybe, he's doubled up by nothing to say.
I can loop away, FY spots him out, again everybody's so low HP that it doesn't really work.
Now that is going to be a boots kill, but they're setting up for this, like you're
going to need to bring numbers if you want to secure this wisdom.
And they need at least one.
He gets camped here.
They're not going to get it.
Yeah, he was trying to TP into the tier one there and next Nova kind of walked on in.
So.
Alright, I like this counter play from the side of XG.
Seeing how poorly things were going, they just immediately forced stuff mid.
They slowed down that Invoker and so some equally frustrated cores here between the
two teams.
I mean, the flip side though is they did get double wisdoms on resilience.
That's true.
Yeah.
Timbersaw, I mean I guess he's getting some levels now for Exorcist. He's getting closer to six.
It's just a big hill to climb. Oh wow, he's a cube coming in here. He just drops the tombstone. They're going to farm up the dire ancients as they lose their planet.
So that's enough to bring him down. New, making the rotation. Nothing to say. Lift it up.
They have any way to fill him off here though. Not an easy one.
And YSR, as you can see, he used the Tombstone to farm through this big stack that was in
the Dire Jungle.
They can't commit for the ancients or anything because they just don't have the damage of
the efficiency for it, and ZZQ wanted to come join mid at live.
Well, he took that from him.
Did.
Room gone.
Sign up, returns.
Alright, Echoes, what's the plan here?
I'm trying to get in towards the good old fashioned meteor hammer.
It needs a little bit of space.
breathing room here. XG, sad to see that they have lost the stacks they were prepping.
I mean yeah you do see that on the one hand yeah Timbersaw is definitely behind,
Gokar also hurting, but it's just how far ahead the Necro is. It's a real story for me at least,
like yeah, DL Ami is going to come online, but if you see a Necrofos, Weisshard gets into like
a radiance early and starts getting that pressure. I mean he's already got the Talisman,
2300 gold. Yeah, this might be the fastest radiance for an extra post this tournament. I would not be surprised with how this is going
But you know typical XG fashion. We all know what we're waiting for. Yeah, you know the big show the ringmaster himself
This are all me. Yeah, we're gonna wait to see when the items come out for him
When he's gonna get to that big carrying mode that they're so well known for they're so very good at playing around
You know, they have two states in their game getting all me there
and then playing around on me once he gets there you know I see yeah that's a
that's a interesting way to think about it because it's definitely true like if
there's a hero that you would want to have him on it's one of these like late
game carry the game type of heroes the Phantom Lancer if you can get to like
three items or something is gonna be a menace to deal with and probably you
could end up seeing like a decent time notify around on these heroes and this
is another big kill to get they try and bring down new will manage to
finish him off.
Exit S was so ready on that TP too.
He really wanted to be a part of anything that went down near a tower to try and boost
himself back up.
So, I mean he's now ahead of the invoker.
Yeah.
Oh, it's true.
Timbersaw playing catch up.
ISR very uncontested though.
They're letting this last pick just sort of get what he gets.
And I think that's the right decision because honestly there isn't another way to do
it.
Take too long to try and contest him obviously your position one can't do much and nothing to say is not the point yet to help out
Because he's gone for the 4-4 build on pango
So he doesn't have the ultimate and obviously
Pangolars ultimate is not that effective versus next post in general because you can just for this very well rather be immune to all physical damage
One and I'm sure at some point in this game
They're gonna try and go for an all-in-play onto the Necro is FY in trouble
Sunstrike lands, the Zombie Man is going underneath the tower and will kill off the Rubik.
Wow.
Moonlight Shadow used here too.
Now we're coming to finish these ones off.
They're trying to Moonlight their way over to Aumei.
This is a very hard move to make though, alright?
Hey, nothing to say! The hit isn't enough! Got quite!
He manages to get out of there and now maybe an over-exit hit!
Oh, wait!
chance to crowd find for the moment.
Ame in the meantime does die to the Sunslam.
Oh yeah, they were making plays on top.
Can they get anything here to follow up
if they can bring him down to YSR falling?
So it's a one for one exchange.
And ZZQ would be the last one down.
XXS, a little bit of redemption.
Yeah, so there was a lot happening here.
So during the interview with YSR,
he talked about how sometimes we make these plays,
we don't even know how they're working
or why they're working.
I feel like this was kind of one of those moments,
because they went for the moonlight shadow.
While they were making that play-down bottom, they were setting up on Aume in the top lane.
They get on top of him with a bunch of illusions.
They go, once he starts the TP to try and join that fight,
Niu is already on top of him, invisible, calls.
That's where the Sun Strike went, which meant that, you know, you're not using the Sun Strike
to help out with that big play that YS is doing, because you're thinking,
yeah, I'm going to have Scythe in Sun Strike, you know?
And then we can connect with anything we want.
So maybe doing a bit too much at the same time here.
Oh, an important moment right there in the game.
Still shutting down Amé, but losing YSR.
At the very least, he wasn't able to finish off the Radiance, is now queuing up into the
Boots of Travel.
But you can see, like, how, you know, 1066 HP.
This is still a very killable necrophobe.
It's true.
It's finding that damage that they need.
Right.
It'll be a little bit difficult.
New already has blade mail and is halfway to a blink dagger. So
We're gonna have scythe blinking axe and Sun strike that is a horrifying
Combination to have in a game like this especially because you're talking about like the HP of the necrophos
I mean this PL has like less than 1100 HP as well. Yeah, they're both 1066 right now
So pure damage onto the necrophos very good. He doesn't get a chance to heal pure damage onto the PL
Very good as well. And we got our two pure damage heroes that are relevant right now
But I think it does speak to the thing you're talking about which is that like for resilience
The axe is the difference maker. Yeah, if he's able to get that link dagger online get into some early fights
There isn't sort of an equivalent hero for XG
You know Timbersaw can run in and just sort of go ham, but oh my
That's tough. Oh that is frustrating where to go. They're on all me right now, too. I was the perfect fever line
Oh no, I'm running. We'll get away.
Almost far, I'm not bad. I mean, the hero that needs to make stuff happen, it's gotta be nothing to say on the pango.
This is always one thing on pango that I think is difficult, is when you feel like you're really forced to make a bunch of moves,
it can feel very telegraphed, I feel like.
You know? Like, a pango who gets to follow someone like pushing a tower feels very good.
You're like a tower push on your lineup, and Pango just shows up, like towers feel like a great place to fight.
Rolling around, the TPs are coming in, and they just can't contest you.
Because everyone who TPs is, it just instantly gets rolled on top of.
Trying to like, find a random hero to go for a gank on this, uh, the Pangolier can feel pretty ugly sometimes.
Like, he's just been walking back and forth down here by this tower.
Yeah, he's hoping that somebody's gonna make a move down, because they saw the zombie man go through free-fleet.
That's why Hoodwink is sort of, hosting guard over the gate.
And now the link will go through as Amé Pressure's forward.
Blink Dagger, just a couple hundred gold away and with bots.
Yeah, this could potentially be a moment.
I mean, again, you really want the Blink Dagger for Axe before you go for it.
But he is setting a fight right here is excuse dangerous.
This is the end I think gets off the tune show.
And in fact, now the move he seals to K not good enough.
He's very low, ooh, burning down to the urn, he might be brought down eventually, but they will take down FY.
People to survive, it looks like, at the end. And that is Blink Dagger for Noob.
Yeah, I mean, it's tough. It's very difficult to get the tombstone from the undying.
See, he just, like, caught this ulti as well, you know? He's gonna play around that constantly.
Yeah.
All right, back to the jungle.
Almost has the main style done, but this is the first big test.
As it's the TP down bottom, they're gonna try and chase after nothing to say here.
Oh yeah, that's easy.
Jump in, some strike, good damage.
Is it gonna be enough to get him killed though?
It does not look like it.
Oh, no sight available for this one.
So, that was a test run, you know.
Yeah.
That's a pretty good dodge there for them on XG.
It does also mean though that now they know no rolling thunder is available.
So this smoke up with Marana axe gives me a little bit more inclination about where they're
going to try and go.
And they're in the ancients right now, wrapping around towards Pango.
Now it looks like they're going to start heading back down south.
The only hero in this area is the hoodwink of the Rubik, and as Axe runs down,
looking for the big jump finds him immediately, arrow follow-up dead, FY, also in the grave.
You can kind of feel that the XG supports are just trying to like push this game further and further away from their base and their towers.
To try to give this space to Aume and XG to just keep farming, keep trying to get to a really relevant part of this game.
The best place for actually to fight is going to be their own structures or any sort of an objective
because Pangolier and Timbersaw, they don't have the best ways to start these fights until you're going to have a blink dagger on Pango,
but nothing to say is going diffusel into Ag, so they need resilience to go for a play and they have to be counter-initiating for something good to happen.
That's pretty much the only way it's going to go their way.
I mean, at least for now until Ami comes online is the goal.
Um, no, I hear you there and I think that well actually it does look like they're gonna smoke out now
Maybe thinking there's only a couple heroes here, but there are many new blinks away
Like with that moonlight shadow do they think about re-engaging
Fuzz in the area
Doesn't look like it. Yeah, I mean
I think that's the thing right is sort of panelists talking about this to this like lack of push coming out
of resilience that they have and like kind of being on this ever pleasant present clock,
which is why the Necrophos pick works so well when they take that early tower,
but what happens now? Like this stall that happens, it's looking good and these pills are so
important to keep that momentum, but then we got turned into objectives.
Yeah, they have to keep these things going. We did just see a uh,
Crippling Crossbow picked up here, oh yeah, from FY, so he got the greedy on it as well,
very nice. Man, that could be something to catch them a little bit off guard, perhaps.
And the reduction in healing coming from the crippling crossbow gets these heroes very important
Yeah, trying to maybe surprise the necrophos when Wyzer is trying to play on that edge
And he was just looking for the consistency of a BKB to cover himself and he jumps in
Likewise for Ekko's like getting their BKB's, getting the big objectives of Tormenter and Rhoads
They just want to check those off the list and then they want to close out these tier 2's
as many as they can with that first ages obviously not a massive aegis line up
here doable but it's not super simple
other heroes waiting nearby right now to help in case there was a jump again it's
like how do you really even start the fight though for XG it feels very tough
it has to be through like either a rubik lift or the you know hoodwink yeah
some bushwhackers.
Probably a bushwhacker or just like throwing at the Grand Intel canesus is not a Grand
Intel for sure.
Like it is, that's a bad time.
So I mean, nothing to say I think had the correct read that he couldn't just go blink, right?
If he goes to use a blink, his teammates are not ready to fight.
So he gets the eggs, they survive, like 5v3 is not bad right now.
This is actually kind of okay.
And the eggs are going to allow him to keep scaling and keep farming in this downtime.
And now when he gets to the blink dagger, he's hoping that that's going to be the
same time where Almey's ready to join the fight and he can set up for him so
so we can get these ridiculous engagements
with the help of the agonist.
Because if you think about how you play with the PLX,
having a bunch of stun targets means
you can get maximum value out of it.
Able to bounce to and from in the fight,
definitely important.
Sort of being able to go in and out of it.
Now this could be a good one again.
They spot the creeps heading away
and will not actually be able to find anybody there.
What is this smoke up?
Feels like XG had an inkling that this was happening.
Everybody retreats back.
They hit this very deep ward for a long time in the mid,
which I think they're trying to smoke towards,
hoping someone crosses back across it, maybe.
Oh, yeah, by the tier two tower.
Yeah, and now they see where Aume,
and they see his illusions coming down,
so they know Aume's up here.
Oh, this is gonna be their target.
Sunstrike is currently not lost and loaded.
Oh, there he is.
Bought him, doppelganger already used.
Can they get there in time?
I'm looking for the real one, it's not there.
Aume getting some separation just barely away from them all.
And Ex-Nova, gonna try and dodge an arrow,
will be able to, is he's gonna scurry off into the woods.
The big, I mean, even if he dies, he's fine with this.
Yeah, he definitely saves it.
Aume there, yeah.
That's no doubt.
Aume immediately backs to jungle,
he don't seem to get crocured.
Yeah, he posted Zagas.
And this is nice too.
I have a bit of a freebie.
Alright, and you still come across a whaaat?
I mean, he's got, he's got a Y-star there, so.
Oh, that blinds does not get him, but we'll find FY.
Another Reaper kill.
11-8, 7000 gold lead. Resilience.
Very much taking the lead in this one and not looking back.
For everybody that thought this was just going to be a walk for XG, resilience has something to say.
You know, is it kind of crazy that when Tsunami was doing the interview with Fy, Fy's talk
about like past TI, it's his favorite moments and stuff, and he's like, yeah, the 2014,
you know, TI4, it's like 12 years ago this guy was playing Rubik, you know.
Some things never change.
And he's back.
It is very much an interesting time seeing the younger squad come against the older squad.
And at least for now, seeming to be on edge in this somewhat orthodox draft.
I mean, step one's done.
They've got their tormentor, so...
I think it would step two, which could be the Roche, or it could just be straight
up pressuring these tier twos.
Such a high value get for ZZQ.
Yeah.
Yeah, it does a lot for the big save plays.
I'm already playing a bit of a frustrating matchup versus the PL2 though, if it seems a bit spooky.
I'm not there, there it goes, it's going to shove out that lane.
Roche, definitely something that teams are thinking about at the very least, and wanting to ensure they have good vision over.
But, as you mentioned earlier, it's not easy to take for resilience.
If they don't have like your Slardar buddy or something to make it really fast and they have a Lackredy
So you know they could do it if it's really advantageous and like you know as a dead hero or something
But there's also some frustrating heroes to do to get like Tanglier and Timbersaw and hoodwink as we just saw a
Very noble attempts from Team Spirit in the last game to maybe steal with the hoodwink, right?
Well, and also I think this is just one of those types of games to where you get one little
flub and things could start snowballing from there. They note that Echoes is
just walking up here. They saw the wave. There is a sentry here from Ex-Nova but
it doesn't look like he's gonna go hunting. New finishing the BKB they're
right into this area and might find Rubik as he is right by them all
smoked. New able to find the call and another death for FY. Another planet is
Just always there with the arrow, you know.
Keep it simple.
Ah, just wait for the arrow hit.
And every Marana player, by the way, they gotta get it.
They get their one excuse item, like the urn,
and now the Aghanim's already done for Planet.
Yeah, that's nice.
He is really fun.
They're having a good time.
Thumb strikes in to help finish off Rose.
She's got all the heroes in and no interest
in coming to contest this on XG.
So we'll take the Aegis for YSR. Have what it takes to try and close this game
out.
You got to have a little guy. It always feels so bad when it happens. It's like
you're looking somewhere else trying to do something suddenly. I'm not moving
anymore. Oh yeah, yeah. The Ogre Club. Getting broken by one of them too.
That's always a random one. Yeah, all right. Yeah, wasn't paying attention
Thousands old leads smoke up those heroes that are not in the smoke have bots join the fight
Very quickly. All right. Here we go. Echoes walking through the wave. They see him DK be used
Is that enough of a win do you run away now? I mean they're they're looping in behind right now XXS. Oh
It's a little bit scary. This is some great bottom. They spot him and there's the call
Got him immediately. No chance for any response to this.
These are the kind of plays you need because if you look at that death recap,
this is where the Marana is discussed. When you get this Agnum, she just did
1,300 damage to that Timbersaw. It happens real fast. Look at that.
The axe jumps in and you are the secure. It is absolutely ridiculous what you can do
do if you have these guaranteed arrows that are gonna hit when you have this agonon, so
that is the value.
And it's not just that though, right?
It is the use of that moonlight shadow.
It just boosted that smoke attempt.
The youth, like you have to have the strategy and the macro to make the good value of
it, but the way they played that with that wraparound, like this line of the reason
why the panel and us question it at the start is, you can't make any mistakes.
Things can not go south when you are playing this strat, and not only did they absolutely
obliterate that necrophos lane, they haven't made any major mistakes since.
All being said, I still think it's hard to go hot guys this lineup.
I don't know when they're going to do it.
I would still be a little nervous as team resilient right now.
Yeah.
I mean, the moments when nothing can go wrong do not stop now.
It is for a while, nothing can go wrong.
Yeah.
And let's see if he away by FY.
Sneak himself around the tree, get out of there.
Another Sunstrike connection.
New, just building up armor.
It's actually not as much as I would have thought. He's missed a couple dunks there, but helped to secure the kills for the necros.
Of course.
And he's going bots too on Necro next. Never wants to be out of a fight.
Yeah, that's great. I like that.
That means like they're trying to end this, I think. I feel like.
F.Y. found again, caught and killed.
I mean, if you kill both his supports, maybe it starts to feel comfortable.
go up high ground. No, no, no. This is all the tier twos. It's fine. Yeah. YSR. Now you
get it. Look at this insane word that bought them two. I love a good high ground word. Yeah.
This one's okay. Well, this is probably gonna get you worried to be honest. It does spot
where I'm is going, but I'll be treated. They were a little they were a little obvious
I feel like.
I think that one's getting removed.
I love YSR being like next to the tier 3 waiting for the creeps to spawn,
but they're still the tier 2 up.
Yeah, like this is game play today.
X-Nelvin, where are you going, bro?
Gotta run.
Gotta hide. Gotta get out of there.
The Sun Strike.
Ooh, wait a minute now.
Is this the turning point?
FY!
I mean, look it. If it's not now, then when?
You gotta get something with that.
Surely.
I'm just trying to look scary.
Alright, make a bunch of clones.
I'm gonna run after ZZQ right now.
Tickle at him.
We're an opening.
They have this high ground ward.
Oh baby!
Oh my back!
Jump in!
Got him dead!
Ah man, gotta run!
No chance for you here, sir.
Brought down, gone.
I didn't think that ward would last the Oracle,
but it sure did.
It definitely did.
That was crazy.
I'm all the way to get a two-hero call.
And it seems so desperate to go high ground.
You find that, that is insane.
Perfectly played, getting the kill,
making the most of that ward, and they've solved the problem.
Now move in, see if they can get some more here.
They did get the PKB up on XXS,
so they're going too far now.
Lift, YSR, still hunting, already used Ghost Form.
They are in pretty deep.
The high ground, it beckons,
but might be a siren call to them if they're not careful.
Now find another catch.
New, onto one.
They're trying to bring them down.
Will they be able to?
Yes!
Nothing to say is gone.
They do have buyback on Ame.
He's still cooking on Necropos.
See, the full backup to HP.
ZZQ is finally gonna be brought down now.
And immediately gonna respawn again
as they set their sights onto these racks.
Yep, CT's ready to the outpost.
He's a ceaseless dirge indeed.
They got another one.
There's the call to Sunstrike to finish.
Yes, another dunk!
No, you can't stop him!
Bring me some more!
I want that armor!
FY, trying to survive through this
is gonna ice wall down, try to force away,
but no, he too will be brought down and killed.
18,000 gold lead, resilience.
Keeping it strong in this game number one,
trying to pull themselves and upset.
I mean, these little windows, like, you have to find so many of these plays
and these moments and really get the jump on them.
And they've done a fantastic job resilient this game.
Another glyph used here.
Why is that?
He's even walked down.
Oh, he's here.
Walks over a little bit.
The MVP award somehow still stands.
Who plays that one?
Oh, it was good old ZZQ.
Yeah.
Easy peasy.
Good old Mugle award.
Love that.
So with that Tier 3 tower goes down, a little bit of a miss on the Tornado Exnova able to get away.
Can they hold off at all, dude?
Jumps again, Sunstreak there, lay in 3 per sight, out, gone!
Nothing to say, not able to play Dota.
And with another Rax down, surely this is just such an enormous lead right now for resilience.
They could just back out if they wanted, keep pushing for more.
I mean the thing that's stopping them is there's a tier 2 top.
That's a good thing you didn't finish that off earlier.
Ex Nova's sacrifice to the previous site way up there maybe is what did it for them.
Two Chaos Meteors now available for Echoes.
What a beatdown.
This is crazy.
Amé has to find someplace to farm.
He comes out at the bottom part of the map here, gets tornadoed, arrow coming through.
Oh that was close.
Oh, he almost landed back, didn't he?
Yeah, just barely getting away there, gets a vision, runs.
Now, finding...
...you over to the side, new tries to find a call.
Absolutely the MVP so far this game.
Can they get anything done, though, to try and turn their fortune slightly?
Good wing, gone!
WSR still stunned, there's so much damage, but nobody is dying!
The spells are there, the control is there, they don't have enough to kill anybody, though, it feels like.
as planet tries to back out.
Definitely blasts to protect planet as well.
And now we get the blink to try and guarantee some of these arrows through all the PL illusions
and the general mess that is going high ground.
The blink really helps finding arrows that aren't blocked.
Billions just taking the path forward, burning bridges behind them and saying,
we're not crossing the river again.
We're staying on your side.
They burned the boats. They're gone.
24 and 10 no need for a roach apparently a comforting hum of invoker ghost walking
destroying all the creeps it is silly very silly
that's struggling to find answers xg and they're just huddled in their base and
You can't really blame them.
What a brilliant performance for resilience here in this game number one.
I mean, XG, they basically have to just look at this map right now and think, okay,
what item can we get for Aume that maybe could win a fight and they're thinking maybe get into the orchid?
Right.
You know, the the good news is that they've been fighting so much that the
BKB's are are getting somewhat low axes at seven seconds. So, you know, maybe then he can find the orchid. There you go
Yeah, finding the positives
And they also have like
Pango has twice as many sons now he's got basher. Yeah, you know, he's got his blank. Oh
Get a little lucky
So tough, I mean again like so many of these games have been going to like
15 minutes or something like that. You imagine your head, okay, PL, you're gonna be so strong.
But what happens if you don't get there? The arrow lands amongst all the illusions!
Come on now! You gotta be kidding me, it's crazy out here!
Sometimes you're just not meant to win the game, as you...
...pulls back. That Timbersaw now there is gonna be a buyback for Mame.
Have they extended too far? PKB's abused.
Nothing to say roll in kind of find some damage on that because he's just gonna TP out
And now new finds himself another call immediately they're on the xxxx success caught with the Sun strike and the finish from the axe
GG is called
What a beatdown?
Everything went according to plan and of course as expected they dropped the Xiao 8 voice lines
Who I believe is also paneling on the Chinese Dream right now, which is very high.
Such a good performance from resilience and a team that at this point right now, you know,
wants to be able to pull back in and boost up their fortunes right before, you know, we
get into this main event.
If they can find their way there, it would be huge for them.
We're going to head back to the panel, let them break down that action from that
game number one.
fantastic game number one that we got to witness here. We had faith that there was going to
be something coming out from extreme gaming in the later portion of a game number one that this
PL was going to be able to run a bit random. What we didn't factor in for was the three-man
AxeCalls, the Necro being able to invade triangle at like the 10 minute mark. It's just insane
to think what they were able to do on the side of team resilience here. But for yourself,
gonna how amazing was it to see a game one like that for them yeah so I was
worried I was like oh they can't end the game but yeah you can have the game
if you're like 50,000 gold I feel like one item yeah and I think you for me had
a really good performance on the axe it was like there was way too many calls I
think weren't like you shouldn't have a group call it was a group meeting
because everybody from extreme gaming were kind of into it throughout the
whole game yeah I think I was counting I was counting out the end there and I
think new got like six six jumps with like six blink calls at the end and I
mean it was just chain feed after chain feed from the stream so definitely had
a very decisive ending there new being such a I was a sacrificial off-laner I
don't know we saw in the clips just quickly that but um he sacrificed his
Dunk for the Necro to get an exercise stack. That's what you want in an off-lane off. That's what he needs so selfless
That's a bit of a bit of an odd one as an axe
Yeah, you know because Necro he gets priority
So you never get to get the donkey for going on the same target
But I feel like in this one like it never came down to the late here like the one of the biggest issues was they're playing this
Kind of unbeatable lane like we saw that between protectors with shadow fiends
This time around it was undying plus Necrophos in the safe lane, which is just insane amount of harassment to X-XS.
He didn't get to play the game and they also killed the tower 5.5 minutes in, which did open up the map so they can go for the enemy XP shrine
and also had the access to the enemy trying to alter out the whole game because they killed the tier 1 tower in the mid also relatively early on.
Early on and then also necros like your carry doesn't need to care too much about the rotations because you don't have that
Tier one tower to TP to and this has to be like one of the fastest
Tier one towers that the safe lane did kill looking just the ice and fire. Yeah for me
It's some combination of the ping layer and the
PL picks like it's it's the timber sure
But I think it's because they don't take the sardar in that end of the phase for them
They take the peel instead it gets banned they end up not really be able to
sure they get the Timbersaw which looks like it's good in the draft, but I figure
it wasn't enough for them. It was a bit too slow and I can see the potential
with their draft. I just I don't know if they were able to execute it. I also have
a question monkeys around the Rubik too because I was looking it's not getting
picked a crazy amount. It's kind of seen 11 games for itself and it's
mostly our Chinese teams that are all playing it. Extreme gaming and resilience
both while the planet played it earlier today and I know FY does play a good
But it's more when it gets picked in this draft, what it was really offering in this game and why it is only predominantly these two teams that like it.
Why are we seeing it there and what impact is it really having?
I mean, I definitely think it's just a comfort thing. I mean, Chinese teams historically, they've always been Rubik players, or the pause for us have always been Rubik players.
Um, I think, uh, I, I believe you even mentioned there weren't, but best fellas to steal in
this game.
So, you know, it, it was like-
It wasn't me who was gunner, but I'll definitely say it was me, because yeah, thank you.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
We do look very similar.
Yeah.
We were- say my, say my design.
Yeah.
Exactly.
Similar of a mom.
Similar of a ti princess?
Yeah.
Uh, actually I think I've done more than you, but it's okay.
It's close enough.
No one's counting.
Of course I wasn't counting.
Yeah, no.
But I think also a big issue that Extreme had this game was they just didn't really have a hero to go in.
I mean, the pango, obviously you have role, then you can change some people with that role,
but that was pretty much the only thing they were relying on to make plays on Extreme.
And while I also think the inverse is true for resilience,
they kind of were only relying on this axe to have these blink calls and set up the sunsharks and whatnot,
and whatnot. The Axe had a much better early game. He was, you know, active. He was able
to, you know, he was able to find those blink calls. And obviously that's a soundtrack follow-up
damage was way more than enough to, you know, send resilience like way, way in the lead.
One of my bigger questions when I see a Timber and a Phantom Lancer Lacoste is, is it too
greedy? And, you know, Connor was telling me that Phantom Lancer plays a little bit
differently and how much farming needs to be able to join, but there's still
question mark and then you have a Necro that opens up the game so easily is able to invade triangle
so often and is just milking the die aside for all of the gold that they're worth and now it's like
how do you have both a phantom lancer and a timber mix based for themselves and usually it
can work fine i just think the issue is that he got dismantled in the lane phantom lancer of
course being a bit of a slower hero but i think timbersaw is very similar to what necro wants
He wants to be super oppressive, take over the certain area of the map, then continue to farm up,
like push one hero out of the lane completely.
He was kind of on the receiving end this time around. Usually he does this to other heroes
and he never managed to actually recover. We didn't really feel the influence coming out from him.
If you check the damage number, the lowest damage number were coming out,
the numbers from Ame and Ex-Excess in this one. Ame only dealing 6,000 damage.
are dealing 8000 damage so very very difficult I would say matchup for him
and never made the comeback but these are the massive differences that we are
seeing like the start if you look at just the itemization at this time like one
guy has 5,000 gold worth of item the other carry has doesn't even have a
component of a relatively small item which is just Yasha at that time and he
was also putting quite a lot of pressure damage of course PL doesn't really
deal that much damage early on and he was involved in a lot of these kills
because they were diving behind the tower. This is where the massive difference comes from.
At the 11-minute mark, this is that I had to head out of the early game, but there was a moment
just after Gunnar where I was a little bit worried that maybe Team Resilience had overextended,
that they were feeling a little too confident for themselves, that this Nekra was at a point
where, yeah, we're not going to be able to stop him, and they were in that dire triangle.
Yeah, they try to make a kind of cheeky play where they're playing on the very limit of their spells with damage and from the indignable plus the sight and
Little miscalculation not enough and this was I started to get a bit worried for them right here
Because like I said, I thought they did need to close out the game early. They need this early game advantage for resilience
So being able to kind of bounce back from those two deaths in the enemy triangle is was really good for them
I was pretty impressed and it you you wonder it's like if if their draft can't fix a gold lead
With these massive kills in the other game because the neck was up 2,000 gold on the next high seer at that phase
It's it's 11 minutes and he's up that much gold and kill him felt like it was kind of non impactful
I don't even think they lost any of their goldly
So I'm just definitely wondering like you have to look at the lanes you have to look at the draft
You have to look at a lot of these kind of bigger picture things because that mid game that you just
Experienced isn't going to happen again if you just have the same early game
And what about yourself, Monk, is when you do look at this as well, when you go, that
should have been more to capitalize on top of two big kills on an undying and a mechro.
We should have been seeing more from extreme gaming, like what role needs to take charge
of that a little bit more in a lineup like that?
I mean, like again, I think I think it's between mid and off lane.
I mean, if you want to have this PL, you need to give it the space to come
online and eventually be able to do PL things. But I think after they did die twice in the
Tri-Camp, resilience, they still just kept going back to the die or Tri-Camp and they
kept stealing stacks, they kept taking the skull away. And there really just wasn't...
I don't know, there was no space for the PL to become this...
And a punishment from Mixer of Speed, right?
Yeah, exactly. I mean, Aame just never really had a chance to do Aame things, you know, so...
If you go back and look at the draft, I think seeing this Timbersaw, because they didn't see what the matchup is going to be,
because they closed out the whole draft with this Necrophos, maybe they thought, okay, he's going to be able...
Maybe they were expecting a different hero, they didn't maybe expect that Y.S.R. is going to be playing Necro in this one,
that he's going to be getting more out of the lane, because Pango, he was doing quite okay in the mid lane.
He's playing into Invoker matchup. They also made one rotation early on and made sure that they are grabbing the kill on Invoker.
They tried to go for it the second time. Problem is, like, the sidelines, Phantom Lancer, he doesn't join.
Your offlaner got completely sacked, so you'd have to play with the two supports, which are okay in the damage,
or okay with playing with the Pango Lir at the time. It's just the other two sidelines fell apart.
And again, it comes back down to this invoker that we are seeing completely dismantling the side lanes
Even without the real proper setup early on because they didn't really have stuns
They had undying plus necrophos X doesn't really get the call up until like five six seven minutes into the game
But they still did extremely well, you know, I want to bring it back to the very very sort of the draft
Okay, we go back to the hoodwink. It's like the very first pick overall and
Sure, very good hero most picked hero of the year
but it didn't it doesn't feel like it has like the draft impact you'd want from a hero you're first picking first pick in
theories your strongest pick of the draft outside of that one like at the very end and
I
Don't think it really utilizes it. You don't you could take the undying there instead secure safe lane
You can take centaur basically secure off lane and they don't you know was still in the pool
Oh, that secures mid or safe land
Yeah, and they're not really like who doing is not what she used to be in terms of just guaranteeing a one lane
She's like solid. She'll do decent but it didn't really fix their Lenny's stage issues. So for me
I'm hoping that if they end up first pick again
Maybe reevaluate what you want in that phase because the center gets banned the dyeing gets taken
They end up having to do like it's not like they're on the back foot the whole draft. It's like oh they pick a vogue
Or let's pick the pango try to have a solid line version
Let's pick that the PL because it's a carry
We're comfortable into the axe and then I are timbersaw is getting man like they're never
Forcing resilience to be the ones to be like oh, this is what they're doing. Maybe we need to solve the problem
It's all constantly resilient. She's going where to do all of these things
Solve it and extreme didn't sometimes that is a very strong narrative for extreme gaming where they are just a little bit too
Reactionary and when they play their game, that's when they look the best
Hopefully for game to that is something that they're going to take in mind because again
It's elimination best of three but on a slightly more joyous and light enough for you guys watching at home
I secret shop for ti is open. There's so many fun things you can grab yourself
Obviously, every day you've seen me, I have had this giant, frog-link plushie and I refuse to give it up to anyone else on the panel here
because I think it is by far the best thing that you can get.
She's very good.
I am very good.
Look at this small fella.
Look at the child.
Logo.
This is the real Largo.
Can you do your best logo impression?
I don't know if I hit all the timings correctly.
I was putting a new seal and accent, but that didn't even get off.
I think you're gonna work on your rhythm, though, because...
And you guys have the two sides of the cookie cushion?
Yeah, mine's still better.
One's in chat for Invoker 2's and chat for Mortimer.
You're saying Invoker's better than Mortimer?
What did we just see in this last game?
We didn't see Snapfile.
What do you mean what did we see in this game?
We don't see Snapfile for a reason.
Oh, that's a bit harsh.
Literally best hero of the entire year.
But times are gone, old woman.
The time is now for Invoker.
The time is now for Resilience to potentially make a 2-0,
which I wanted to be three games, but after that first one.
Well, before we see if it's a 2-0,
before we see anything else about game 2,
we're actually going to see what Echoes had to say
coming into this CSTI.
Echoes, thank you very much for joining me.
Looking forward to talking to you
and looking forward to celebrating your first-ever TI.
Congratulations.
You've been playing since 2019,
and you're finally being able to show up to a TI.
What was winning that qualification game like?
I feel very happy.
I had a lot of hard times in the past.
I had a chance to play for TI before,
but I finally made it this year.
I'm very happy.
Who is the first person you called or who is the first person who congratulated you after you qualified?
Amazing. So happy to hear it. How long have you been watching TI's?
And now you're finally getting to be a part of making history.
Do you have a favorite all-time TI moment since TI5 to now?
So you must be very excited that Topson is showing up to this tournament now.
mainly believing in yourself, I like it.
Your team name, I wanted to bring it up.
And English resilience means being able to be sturdy or recover easily.
How accurate do you think that is describing how your team plays?
In many games, when we play in the long run,
I think our personality is not particularly good,
but our goal is to reach the goal of resale.
I hope that we can have hope for our own team.
I feel like I'm in the top of the line. I hope I can have hope for my own team.
Thank you.
of three and right now. Team
resilience have a one game lead
they had a fantastic game number
one at no point did it feel like
extreme gaming had a foot in
that one and coming into game
two. What happened there's a
little bit of a conversation
and a change of tone around how
they want to not only open
bedroft but also progressive
because we weren't really too
really too fond of the hoodwink being their opener monkeys but of course that Rubik had a bit of a
question mark, a PL question mark and then closing their draft with the timber too.
Yeah I really would like to see a more aggressive lineup from Extreme, something that allows them
to play or set the tempo and kind of play their own game. You know maybe consider an early pick
Centaur we've seen some teams doing. I think Earth Spirit was first phase banned last game so
So I can't really go that direction, but, you know, just have this hero that, you know,
is a menace and is able to go in there and kind of force the enemy team to deal with you,
you know?
I think, like, they're still trying to find the identity.
Extreme gaming?
Extreme gaming, yeah.
Especially with the recent changes, with the coach situation and everything.
It's just like most of their ideas are not really working.
It's like individual ideas almost.
Yeah.
There's a lot of you know chefs in the kitchen as they like to say and if you look at the
Games that they won they won against hooligan II and oh
This is the team that only team at TI that went zero and four and they also managed to win only one game against LGD
So that doesn't give me too much like
Confidence confidence coming into this series because I also chose
team resilience as my dark horse. I feel like I've been watching these guys in
different teams and many different iterations of the teams and individually
they looked very good but they also looked very good in the qualifiers.
Yeah before we focus on this game number two draft I do want to remind
everyone else that another elimination best of three is happening. It's over
on the C-stream between OG and Game Legion. I won't give you any results but
I will tell you what's going on as well as a third series happening
between VG and LGD on the D-stream and the B-stream soon to begin their series. But now
we can focus up on out-stream gaming up against team resilience, an Earth spirit, a Shadow
Fiend taking out, a slight adjustment, not letting the invoke get through there at all,
a Trienne, Lone Druid, Ember Spirit and Hoodwink fan, which does mean extreme gaming are
forced by their opponent to have a different opening pick. This time around, it's Wyvern.
I was going to say, it's crazy to me. Two things are crazy to me. One is they
They ban the hoodwink.
I just don't understand.
I want to say they ban the hoodwink and then second it's like they're taking the Wyvern,
which again to me is not this like draft changing hero.
I think a lot of the time in the drafts you really want at these kind of break points
in the draft there's in the second phase that like final pick of the second phase
where you basically get to pick a hero, ban the counters.
First pick overall are the two big ones and then the last pick of the game.
For me those are the three biggest kind of break points of the draft that's
how you want to maneuver it.
And for me Wyvern, sure it's good, it's good this patch, it's solid, it's good versus a
lot of the physical damage that we've been seeing, but is it worth taking over all these
other meta heroes that you see them in the game and they force such a reaction?
To me when you see Wyvern, you can kind of just pick any hero in the game, especially
it opens up the magic damage, which we see a lot of the time, Vessel is a very popular
item, the Crellas, very good versus Wyvern because not only it gives you a theory
Overceral well, I guess technically it purges so it doesn't work that way, but you remove the healing from the cold embrace
so it just to me feels like
Effectively streams playing from second pick on first pick there
They're just delaying whatever they have to deal until residence picks here
I'm like, okay now we respond which I think is the second picks job in the draft
Especially because you don't even get the oomph of having a roll-loss pick that yeah
So it's like you're missing the reason why second pick has some advantage in the draft. Yeah while playing second pick
Yeah, sounds not very good to me. If we look at some of the openers that they did have the most successful
they have been is when they got the hands on Trin protector, which has been banned. They played
against Huligani when they opened up with Darkseer. They immediately responded with Tiny. So which
is fine because it did like you can't die. You don't create a strong illusion out of the wall.
They had the casual Marana opener on 8 which I'm also pretty fine with because you're not revealing too much
But definitely got to agree because we are seeing these meta heroes being popular for a reason
And I don't think they are getting the good trades in this first phase. I
Will say though even though
Resilience you have the coddle the ember and beast master are already removed to very good
with Conalconda, so.
And we've seen this hero a couple of times.
I know Boom Boys is still picking Keeper of the Light.
And it wasn't so much success, I would say,
at least from the games we were able to catch.
So I do wanna see what resilience plans with this hero.
Potentially, it could be mid.
I don't think it's particularly angle towards that
in this patch.
It is a hero that echoes plays from the mid lane
if needed to, because you talked about the Spirit Vessel.
can get it like extremely fast six seven eight minutes into the game you will
pick up this item no matter what you can stack for yourself it can't speed the
tempo and maybe that's the reason why they also went for the last pick Necro in
the previous one being this unkillable body in front that's just gonna be
soaking up all the damage. Coddle in a sense does provide you with the
insane amount of sustain with the blast with the spirits vessel for now
it's just you know a casual coddle but yet to see where it's going to...
With the way that they kind of grouped up last game,
Keeper of the Light does fit in that sense.
Like the games where you're winning if you're
keeping the light, sure, it's like you want these combos.
You want to be able to chakra magic from mid-ember,
who's like running around the game, doing everything.
But at the end of the day, a lot of the drafts
you end up seeing, the guy just presses alt
and presses Q and kills the whole team.
You just give your team health, you give them mana,
you just sit there in the back,
you're really fast, you're hard to catch.
So if that's kind of the play style
that they've determined they wanna play this extreme,
which is kind of what they did in the first game,
right, they picked a Necro and they grouped together,
They just run at you and Extreme didn't have a solution to the first game
So they could be as like all right just kind of run it back with a different flavor. I
Really wouldn't mind seeing the centaur come out for extreme here. I
Like centaur and dark cereal a lot particularly
Yeah, people the light very to heroes that give up like some sort of haste
So you kind of ignore the slow they keep the light that is super annoying to deal with in this midgame
The other solution is Largo potential
Because you buy the Lotus versus the Keeperlight and you have a lick to dispel all the debuffs and
It pairs well with the puck. So I think they have a couple options of how they can I'm surprised that you pick the puck
Yeah, for extreme gaming because you don't really get to
Protect it too much in any way shape or form and then you let resilience have the
Counterpick in the mid as well as potential strong pairing with Cottle without having to feel like you have to blind pick into the mid
So in my mind they're already aiming towards a dark seer for extreme I see they see that the they keep the light
It was the first year we mentioned like dark seer has surge for skillet. It's good
So they want to get this melee position for to pair with it
Puck I would say when puck is countered the biggest thing you have is a damage issue
Usually a lot of the time you see the pucks like we'll go neutral a lot of lane matchups
And they can always do something but they look weak because they don't have damage and dark seer almost always fulfills that from the
the offlane can super like more than enough cover this damage issue and so it's now forcing
resilience to basically pick what two chords are you revealing into the puck and if you
pick your carry into this puck then Darkshaker gets a free game. If you don't pick it then
you get to pick Darkshaker at two points. They use this Earthshaker as a response as
well when they played against LGD. I feel like this hero is very very good right
now they don't see the matchup they don't see what Ami is going to be playing but
These heroes are very good against any carries, because you have this instant stun, instant lockdown, you can one-shot him pretty much
if he's sitting in the creep wave going for the extra wave, and then you also have doom on top of that.
Great matchup against the puck, instant lockdown. Maybe not so good against Vibrant once you go in, your combo gets
split, and maybe not the best against Spirit Breaker. Like if you don't see him,
I want to see because the support duo is
is okay-ish, but this is not on the stronger side on resilience.
Marana rotating, keeper of the light rotating, pre-level six isn't really as good compared
to Spiritbreaker rotating, and we're still even winter-river on top of that.
So I feel like the support duo plus the mid lane in terms of that early engagements
definitely goes to extreme gaming in my opinion.
I'm still thinking about both the Darkshear and the Centaur.
They're both, Darkshear sometimes is bad for Zidoo, if he's the one that gets
himself, but he has the surge for it. And I don't want them to repeat the same mistake from last game,
which is in this position, they took Ames here, they took the carry. I know as a team they do
value Amma having a good pick. They play around them in the game, but specifically drafting wise,
I think that it's much stronger for them to take the hero, especially when they're setting
up for it with the spearbreaker. They can get more awkward if they take the carry, and then
then now they're last for the, ooh, Darkseer's ban, do we have to take some random Viper
offline some death prophet which don't even feel particularly good until like a
doom and it's just hard to say what they're going to do maybe if they have a
lot of confidence in a medusa or some extremely strong carry for ame do you
think there's any potential for avenge against the deal yeah for sure I think
this is the counter I don't know why they took them so long to pick these two
like pick centaur here because I feel like both centaur and Darcy that you
mentioned have been throughout the Dota history one of the best heroes against
Doom because you're either tanking the Doom yourself or you have a save for
whoever is getting Doom you have that surge so in the end they go with the
Centaur. I'm really worried for resilience in this one I feel like
their damage output isn't really gonna be there and we could also
potentially see maybe Centaur picking up a pipe depending on the last pick
overall. I do like your idea about the vengeful spirit. I also like the idea for potentially get
the Medusa on side of the extreme. It's something that Aame did play a lot in 2025. This was his
kind of go-to hero and he did have insane win rate. So, removing Spectre, which means that they
are opting to go for the range carry in this one. What if we run back the IO?
So yeah, he sounds very good. I guess well, it's like you you bet your puck into getting doomed and then you relocate him out
The old bet your teammates try that yeah, that's a really good one on elimination game at the aggregate stage
Sometimes
If you throw if you do the craziest draft here, I'm not going to expect it and then it's a curveball
If you don't know what you're doing, you know the enemies are not gonna know even more like they're gonna get super confused
So they can't really counter it even if you don't know so stay one step ahead
That's like three steps. I think that you're full suck on that point. I like the draw
a
Lot so far yet draws not bad for them and it's
Decent versus doom in the lane they can even pair it with a spearbreaker as the five and put the wyvern as the four
It gives them this like high damage to chip through everything resilience kind of has for them
And there's no I would say the the thing for extreme to think right now is there's no carry that's going to feel good
Okay, it's bad, but it's because urshaker and doom both
Towner a singular strong hero in the draft right urshaker you just echo you and you get doomed and you just died
basically no matter what hero you are and so they just need something that is
is consistently going to be good and help your whole team have impact and that's a hero that will
help your whole team have impact by teleporting around. Yeah, I mean I mentioned it before the
series even began, Nature's Profit I believe is that 8-1 so far this tournament and I really like
this pivot from Extreme I think it's a much more aggressive lineup that will allow them to
play their own game and hopefully have a much better early game.
Oh, sorry.
And, you know, get them into the mid-game, not down 15k.
I like Extreme Draeming's draft a lot.
I feel like it checks most of the boxes.
We've seen Nature's Prophet own so far in this tournament, the amount of farm that
you can get.
We saw Satanic, what he can do, blocking the enemy triangle, putting out these treants,
and then making sure that enemy is also not getting that farm in the trial.
Like what do you do?
You show up in the triangle.
get any gold then you need to walk so basically wasting your time. I feel like
the off lane duo is strong, the safe lane as well. Puck might have been countered by
Ekko's. I guess that's why he called himself Ekko's. Well, he wants to play
Earthshaker, especially at TI, but I feel like something is missing with this
team resilience draft. I do think Kaz has a very good game for himself.
Like he's been set up to have a, he's a good match versus an injured
profit he's very good to be to be carries has percentage interest center and healing has silence for the puck and stun
So in my mind this is kind of a hazardous the world kind of game sure he's back up from urshaker doom
But to me it's a very big
Carry impact game which a lot of the games is to air but I think this one in particular because again on the other side
I'll make could just run the map just cover and off cool down
But I'm definitely looking towards the case to be the impact of this one
And who are you looking towards monkeys? I I gotta believe in the nature's profit
I haven't seen this hero falter yet both on core and support. So I think I think this is just one of those heroes that
Just it opens up T1 towers very quickly you can start to choke out the map very quickly and I think that's something that will
Just benefit extreme, you know a lot of scheme
Especially compared to how game number one went for them where it felt like they had no map for themselves
Hopefully this time around the natives profit aiding and then being able to have a much stronger start to game to a much stronger game
To but will it be enough to avoid elimination? We'll see with lyrical and Trent
Thank you so much Nat in the panel and Trent man. This would be crazy if they lose this game
This would be the lowest placement for Amé ever
It's crazy
DIRLY
Yeah, you think it's gonna happen though, but ah, I mean with this draft they have given themselves a better chance
Okay, let's say this feels a lot better that be said actually wait hold on. Let's not rewrite history
I like their first draft back. I might have liked their first draft even more
I will say I actually like this draft even more than game one, but liking their draft in game one did not help
Yes, that is the problem
I think one of the things that stands out is that last game there was like this X factor of okay
What's gonna happen with this necrophos? And then we saw bottom line like oh god. Oh, no. This is this is a catastrophe
I don't anticipate that we're gonna be seen NP between the you know mid tier one and tier two there or you know
Like lies Kev's doing the same up top. I mean I think part of it
You know looking back with the power of hindsight, which is one of my favorite abilities. So good
You think you know when they when X6 has drew that line for FY
I was like, hey, he could like grab the wave and he didn't, you know what I mean?
Like, I feel like a quicker reaction was necessary in that, right?
I don't know if they were set in their ways and they had a certain plan
how I was going to go.
But outside of just, you know, resilient, doing that lane extremely well,
I feel like X success and FY just did not have a solution quick enough.
Right. And to their credit, it was over at like three minutes.
Well, also a lot of times you like you saw him queuing up the boots.
I mean, again, we're not going to re-litigate last game of the whole time.
But I think all of this to say that there is like a sort of reset button you can hit with a mentally strong enough team,
which I think XG is, which is that last game was a wash, we messed up,
let's go in with something completely different here and we're just gonna run it back.
And I think that this is, if they're able to sort of channel into that mindset,
it's gonna be a healthy way moving forward for them.
Yeah, and if you were gonna try and harness some of that same momentum that you saw at a resilience last game,
I would think it would come from heroes like Spearbreaker, Puck, and Air Profit, like those.
And then the quite literal momentum and speed of a Centaur Warrunner to truly give it to your home speed, your entire team.
Yeah, I think...
Well, that's GG. Fy just walked in first, they bashed Fly's side.
Oh, let's go.
That's, I mean, that's just a good sign. You just know the game's going well once that happens.
I mean, I think it is telling after how many times Fy died that he's like, give me Spearbreaker.
It's like, I don't care if there's a Darkseer or not, I'll play in the Zero.
and is immediately gonna start dragging ways they don't want to deal with why is
R&Z ZQ get out of here and the thing that you and I are both hoping for is
the potential for the planar pocket yes you know if they can get a bit of a
lead maybe on XG and they get the tormentor we get a planar pocket I
want to see some impact there obviously an incredibly valuable and weird spell to
be fair. You need to anticipate who new is going to doom and then you cast it on
his dooming target and then spearbreaker gets doomed. Boom. Yeah, you simply just get
to shift reality and take spells away from the intended target. Next over will be the
first blood. The treants are not threatening enough to drive back the
side of resilience. Trying to get some first blood. And a very, very important
part of this lineup here. You can start getting some stacks built up for
For that Earth Shaker, we've seen that level 1 Echo Slam that he dropped just to clear
out and get all the farm in the world, and it's going to take this one on a long walk
around.
He takes advantage of the fact that Exenova dies to get in there and grab this wave because
oftentimes versus the Wyvern, this is going to be a difficult task to do with the Arctic
Burn.
Another thing about that Shaker, as you were mentioning, like getting these stacks
to give him a good game, he's into this matchup versus the puck, which has
been one of his better matchups.
Like one of the reasons you can see shaker picked like the embers and the fucks did so
Echoes not even really expecting to be that poor this game
So it could get off to a very good start if those stacks go his way
We've also seen I think it was in DCM's game that he did not get his stacks on shaker and it was an outright disaster
I've got even one of the ones we are casting so you could maybe expect to see some vision placed down from XG or
Resilient themselves to ensure that they get this stacks setup for
for a...
Echoes.
Certainly is going to be, already, off to a nice start, Ford denies against the puck,
they're in the mid lane and success in FY, just going to be holding on to this creep wave
back behind the tower, making things a little bit annoying, and it's actually Marana running
all the way over there to pick up a large creep with an arrow.
Stealing away some farm, and oh my god, are they just going to do it again?
There's no way this works.
They have solved laning.
They're like, man, if FYI is not going to go, I mean, FYI has solved it as well though.
Yes, yes.
Yes, he's like, ah, I see.
These people don't want to lane against each other, I guess.
Silence there.
FYI connects the waves.
Extra damage onto the spearbreaker.
It can feel a little bit bad.
But yeah, this will be a double wave pushing into the tower, and we'll have to see
how they deal with that.
We'll come back and watch in a second.
Now, wait till the salve is walked all that damage over time of the kez, very annoying.
But, he'll heal back up and you can keep bullying up top.
Keeper of the light, we have not seen all too much of this tournament, mostly just due to ban.
And this hero is incredibly strong right now, but you and I have not had many opportunities to cast it.
And that salve, instead of considering the pressure up top, rotation mid from Fy, classic move from the spearbreaker,
does cost them the top rune, as easy as you try to move down in time to have an impact.
removes that and likewise planted took the other water room so nothing to say
gets the kill but is low on resources now yeah it's nice though like getting that
little boost after you know several of his creeps being denied out by the
shaker I would say shaker would probably be hoping to be a little bit
further ahead than this right now yeah he is he's now behind nothing to say
gold wise as well I just see what the kill is so
Alright, slow him down some.
Also, of course, the other thing you need to be wary of here, any Dire Hero, is the potential
for Aume to rotate.
That's new, is gonna get on top of him there, they're gonna bring in FY, some good damage
out onto this Doom, who eventually is gonna be brought down by Aume.
And you can breeze to the Nature's Problem, make the move, but the Spearbreaker TP's
down instead.
Spearbreaker, very free for rotating across the map.
You can use your Talbotation Scroll to co-help into the lane, there's Charge
back wherever you wanted to be in the first place so super helpful to to be ready and willing to go
for these engagements whenever you can. Ex Nova he's coming up here he's gonna run into Planet
because they have the stacks on the line yeah yeah shut this down whenever they can and Planet
gonna be in some trouble wants to get to the night and we'll find it from the neutrals very
nice can Ex Nova get the same treatment we'll see there's a lot of creeps around here come on
Please hit me too. Oh, yeah. No, I thought it was pretty sad. That was still the old one
The creeps are not that blood thirsty it appears
You do too and not only did he die he obviously didn't want to plant down a ward right in their face
Or you probably just gonna lose it so they will not gain anything back. Oh echo on a hero level one
Oh and the arrow follow-up is enough for the finish nothing to say a rare sight
I mean it is his namesake it makes sense, but finding an opportunity to use an echo slam at level 6 is pretty out there these days
They didn't want us to be using it on the creeps. Nope, Ex Nova denies the lead gen
Are you sure? Is he up enough to get over the side? No, not gonna happen. FY trying to stop the bleed, but
It's just not gonna happen
Zillian's this team is looking good early game and they keep it up as time goes on
I mean, obviously getting that kill in the puck is huge.
And I think the panel's discussion about Kez was very accurate as well.
This idea of it being a real Kez game, like Doom and Shaker are such good heroes to enable your carry.
They can either set up a little bit of a fight for you to jump in on,
and if you get gone on, they're great counter initiators.
So the various tools and options that the Kez player has,
Those are all hoping to be utilized as much as possible through the overalls of safety and also the stun and lockdown control that you've got from the side of resilience.
Likewise though, on the side of XG, they definitely have the potential for a complete, just blow up on someone, right?
It's like blink silence, blink stomp, into the spear break at charge, nature's profit TP, wrath of nature coming through.
You can very quickly lose 1100 HP at a nowhere.
And the mid-game I'm thinking about just looks terrifying, right?
Because you've got Spirit Breaker charged with an MPTP in,
and like, it huckes very mobile too.
The ability to get away afterwards with the Centaur.
All these things that you're talking about is really scary.
And that all comes down to Echo's Blink Dagger, really.
Because if he has the Blink, that puts a little bit of fear in those rotations.
Right.
Well, his eyes are on it.
The stacks are starting to be built up a little bit here by Planet as well.
So, they're working on it, gonna try and go for another round here, and it doesn't look like XG are gonna be here to interrupt it in time, either.
I'm trying to think of what this would mean for this resilience team to be able to get the victory here.
You know, this is a squad like we saw in that interview just a second ago,
that players started playing in TI9 and to be able to take down,
have a wide deal, take down nothing to say,
to be able to get these kills like this early,
What it would mean for this region even have a young up-and-coming squad kind of crazy
I mean, I'm sure it would mean a lot of new fans in the region. That's for sure
Only if they make it to the main stage
One step at a time buddy. All right, they're taking what they can get right now. Absolutely
Well, I mean it's time me to go for playing the bottom rune is bold at this point the game because you know
There's gonna be one additional hero here from resilience because they're always gonna be stacking for shaker
So that play did not work out too well for XG and the stacks were also secured again by Planet
So but we're building it up that being said he did also utilize the echo obviously for the kill
So, you know, there's the plus. Oh, and I think the stack up messed up because one of the creeps classic. Oh, yeah
That's how they're gonna go now
Or gold
Gotta get a work down there so the MPLT can come through. I'd be pretty. Oh, I love I love that play
We're going to do it. Planet runs into a lot of heroes. XG decides they don't want to be here anymore.
And the TB's are actually going to be cancelled. Not going to say almost. It's caught right there.
Alright, Planet- Xnova has spotted the stacks. He placed his sentry down first.
Alright. He was also nearby and has a doom.
Careful, they now see that sentry. I'll immediately take it out.
finishes the charge, wall-dooms.
But this is going to be a very hurt spearbreaker,
and no Roche nearby to help him out.
Meanwhile though, they drop the coil,
nothing to say going in to fight this
does not have that much backup at all.
Maybe thought NP was coming through.
Yeah, maybe with the wrath of nature
hitting earlier, he was thinking.
But it is not going to be enough there.
Now here comes that ghost.
Okay, on Dean, arrow out.
Gonna be able to jaunt away,
Nothing to say trying to play himself out of this, but this is very scary as I was bells. Yeah, he does not have manna
But they're going in on that goes excuse me. Maybe a chance there to kill him off the least. Oh
They do manage to get that kill so mid for mid
Necessary TP in there from the NP. Yeah, okay, that does salvage a lot
Sure good bash to hit as well
And nothing to say was dancing in there for a while
Of course upon his respawn he will be coming right in there most likely for another stack and a dunk
And you do see immediately the difference this game though for the Marana if they don't have that same setup for those
Yes, you know, there's no axe blink dagger or something throwing a fish or into arrow is not really that real
So they're very confident in their ability to make good use of the moonlight shadow is what I read on this now
New spot FY
I was off the charge before you look at the scan for that. I just dropped as well
Yeah, they're ensuring that no one's nearby leeching in his XP when he goes to that big play in here and
He does have the blink dagger coming out of the courier now, so that goes finds his window
We'll see what they can do with it. It's worth noting
He can make like some plays happen with you know the arrow follow up once he's got the blink dagger done
it's easier. Yep, as Ex Nova is gonna be hit mighty hard and no chance for any
turn around here.
Alright, Blinkin already at 500 gold on top of that, so feeling pretty good as
he's catching back up to nothing to say. We'll be building into the Witchblade
first as your standard puck wants to do, and Doom is returning soon here on
new
on me
Not finding any aggressive potential lately
Right, and we we keep on sort of you know pinging back up there to ysr the
Untouched kez at 12 minutes now
How much danger is he gonna bring a little bit later on that fly cancels that charge?
That's called off and back away
2000 gold leaf for resilience
XG, how are they going to respond to this slightly?
X-XS is kind of in passive mode a little bit, right?
He's got his Helm of the Dominator on the center, so he's just kind of dragging waves around,
farming up a little bit while in the jungle and has his doctoral summoner up here.
Maybe a while before he has so much of an impact on these engagements.
I can't...
I don't know.
I feel like he might have to go blink first this game.
We'll see.
active they really want to be I suppose. But I wouldn't say like slow us on the
network. I don't know if you can greed your way to one of these hearts like yeah
sometimes it's not necessarily greedy like sometimes you can go helm into
heart because you're sitting at the top lane that's your one tower has died and
you own that zone. They do not own that zone. No, he is not able to
sort of deny anything to the Kez right now. Oh and speaking of which look at
this, this hiding in the tree line there is he pops a smoke for YSR and
they want to bring him towards the mid.
They're gonna try and blink kill the puck by the looks of it.
I don't know, it'll be tougher, but they're not leading.
He backs away.
And maybe understanding what could be coming in the direction.
Oh, helm grooves are kind of valued.
Oh, but the puck is back.
I'm gonna say they're thinking about it.
Jump forward.
Echo Lance.
Arrow follow-up.
Gone.
Nothing to say is just, it's not able to have a good game right now.
Now, it's nothing you can do against Blink Echo with an arrow coming.
That's for sure.
And FY, as you can see, he's taking this opportunity to try and get this really deep
ward down, so that's how you can keep playing his spearbreaker to enable your nature's
profit.
But I think he was spotted running in here, so this probably gets de-warded.
Charges out.
See if they're able to find him.
Now, he's de-ease away.
flying hits on the Roshan said. Okay. I'm alive. And that is a deso. It's about 1200
gold away here for YSR. You know the the Kez NP matchup is something that we've
seen a few times and obviously you know you can get on top of nature's
profit quite easily as Kez if you're to find them. But there have been a
couple of times where I've seen like Kez's use all their mobility items and then get stuck in sprout for a while. Yep
Particularly after like we've seen people basically go away from battle fury
So that could be something to watch for as well as you know how YS arm manages his mobility abilities
He just I mean he's got to be one of the heroes with the most tools to deal with it too though
So they really got to be rolling their face on the keyboard. I have nothing left, you know
But you're right it does happen
Sometimes late game with the Agnans as well cuz yeah, they've got a little bit of lockdown can really mess it up as obviously
Well, they're trying to set up on him now. It looks like as
Know the farming patterns for these cores. They're painting back in those creep camps
But maybe an idea that they could be coming his way. Why is our
hiding in the trees
There's no echo for 24. So if they could find this right now be great
they use the ward instead just go for the 3D on this easy to do but
And that's not worth it, especially if they're not losing it.
Echoes on team looking for FY, now they get the dust out.
Throws another round, there's the winter's purse, some good damage onto this
first shaker, now the stampede after the doom backs away, Wyvern might go down here.
I think that you're gonna be thinking of lucky stars if you're XG and not losing
any more after that.
Yeah, so many heroes are losing out here, I mean, Echoes still coming.
I may be still under threat here.
Backs away.
More space for Aame.
Currently taking over the top network.
Oh, that orb comes through.
ISR is still hunting.
This is easy Q.
Vivern is going to be nearby there too.
And he's running through radiant vision right now.
Very active on the Kez, which has given NP now a little bit of an advantage in the last
couple of minutes in terms of farm.
Here it goes.
Trying to cut into this lead.
Deso complete right now.
That is a lot of damage on YSR.
And you know X is getting hungry.
Now, post-level 12, smoking up, they're going to go for a move.
Charge going on to the coddle
The teeth become a sample that's a pushback nice
Yeah, I FY not able to stay on the target
Sports for XG struggling to pull things together here
Damn planets like pushing this wave back from the safety of the shadows
Meanwhile this long smoke down bottom that they have to spend lurking with echoes and ZZQ for a long time to support
why is that taking this tower? This is nice though. They can find them and kill them.
Spearbreaker is still a ways away on the charge. As new tries to escape, they
manage to find that stun. Dust out. Ulti used. Planet moving in. Gets the
heal off there. Are they gonna let him go out? With the fear of
echoes coming in? Yeah, they let him go and here comes the fight.
Oh man, tried for it but not quite able to get it. Echo slam lands on the
They didn't want to drop the curse on you. They were trying to bait out a bigger fight.
They're just like, let's wait, let's wait, let's wait. If they come back in,
this is their chance to get into it. But they failed the gank on the doom.
They just turned around to lose both supports. Doom has a radiance.
He's just going to tear up this jungle now. This dapp is going to keep growing
in favor of Team Resilience right now. And XG are looking all out of sorts this series.
Yeah, they have not been able to get things going. They are struggling to make these kills happen and
If they are not careful, they are gonna be eliminated from the international
And it's not a free puck game and I you get which played blink
It's dangerous, you know that you get the benefit of the supports aren't great
But it's a shaker and you know he's willing to wait for it every time to dunk you
XG, he's getting a little bit of resilience for themselves.
As that goes, jumps in, doesn't even need the arrow.
He's making it happen, owning.
Yeah.
And you can see this with the Maranas, right?
When you have these games with the bad arrow setups, like you don't really want to have
to use two minute echoes to set up for arrows.
He's going for the Yule's earlier instead, just giving himself a little bit of freedom.
It's also just an amazing versus a spearbreaker, game charging at you.
You just toss him off, you can just fill the bulldoze.
Good
There if I don't know if we're gonna get a cleaner pocket this game there, but
Doesn't feel like it's not looking helpful
I mean if it goes late enough you never know but they're gonna need to really pull some things together here
I mean this just cannot afford to happen
Ex-ex-ex stampede tries to get away
Let's get some separation and it looks like resilience are gonna let them go there for their chase
All right, Echos is going for the somewhat greedy choice of eggs next. Yeah
I feel like DKB is like the mega safe one, but eggs is the like we are dominating this game and want to keep dominating this game
But it can cause problems
And to say
It's the blink away. I
Mean look there's still farms right you look at these networks. It's not like anybody is getting completely scumped here
It's mainly the difference in these supports and how much extra value they're getting out of the coddle in the maranet
It feels like how much more farm they're getting
But it just feels like they haven't been able to find a good fight for xg
The vision for how the fight to fly. Oh, no
How do you deal with new charge into a dangerous part of the bath here, buddy?
Gonna drop to do down price double back denied a tormentor. It's not gonna happen. Oh
Man, I could have had the tormentor
Still no tormentor death side was not the right guy turns it
Hey for the Nick. Oh, I heard the the next stage of fantasy is open speaking of well. Hey, there you go
So make sure you guys read a guide or something first. It's my personal recommendation turns out it helps a lot
Or you just click the button a bunch that feels good. That's a good. That's what I went with that's nice
Yeah, maybe trying to set up here into ysr
And PTP men 50 goals from that charge jump in Lee Scott up today
I'm enough to bring down and this has hoping hunting wanting to find the finish
It's not looking like it's gonna happen yet the Perry to walk away the charge finally landing
FY goes in there
Did you see the little bit more damage? Somebody kill this guy!
And finally, nothing to say gets that kill, except that shows up.
Now on DZQ, finding more damage to heal out from Planet, this Coddle, is very annoying.
And as they find another, signs of light for XG desperately needed.
Yeah, that almost didn't happen, you know?
Turn around was there, well done.
Planet almost finding it with the Holy Lock, it saves Topper, but it wasn't that healing.
Also, the way they dealt a split away from the Raptor Dance,
I think it was the big determining factor in that one.
He just couldn't heal himself back up at all.
Right.
And for once, they weren't able to just like connect and instagib someone with the Echo Slam this time.
So it also gives him a little bit of a window here.
75 seconds of no Echo Slam and feeling pretty strong.
Again.
Oh, no.
All right.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Charge, lands, take her way up in the sky and now I'm on to get stunned.
New trying to get some damage in there a little step back away from the arrow
Moonlight shadow do they have detection they do century ward is already down
They don't have puck in this fight though, and now they have to TP away
He'd be out TP out
They got up echoes is it pretty hard. They have the winters curse, but army is gonna be brought down
And you know there are some risks to the axe bill, but if it's a chase that situation
It's hard to beat, like Echoes just keeps chasing and going after them and then a beautiful fish that I catch too, puts them into a free Tormentor.
And now you get an increased heal, already something they're struggling with that's going to get boosted now for Planet on this Keeper of the Life.
That's one of those moments too, right? They had three heroes there by the Tormentor, they didn't bring nothing to say or Aumei, and then they end up being forced to do a weird fight, tough situation.
And Ekko's is gonna have Ekko's land back up in a second,
so they could also just go for another aggressive play,
could go for a smoke.
I got one ready on the caudal.
It does feel a little bit like one step forward,
two steps back a little bit for XD.
They're gonna have the blink dagger on X-XS,
and that feels to me like where they've gotta make something happen.
And resilience on the other side has been very clutched,
although they will find a kill there.
Nothing to say what the amp damage takes on ZZQ.
I feel forced to use the coil, though.
They could probably go for a move, honestly, even without their Marana.
They could have a move, stop.
It goes just, a little tap and then the back away.
Get here by the side of XG.
Okay, so, deep breath.
Alright, you know, life looking a little bit better right now for XG.
Now they don't have that same like momentous build up of the PL where you're like yeah
If we get to this point this game is easy. This man has a heart
Apparently it does not matter
Been a little bit
That's something else eh
Max health as damaged 2.5% that sounds really good versus heart
Yeah, on that Kaz hero, huh?
You're not wrong.
Yeah, it's pretty solid stuff.
Wait, he just TP'd on Ame.
Can he get here in time?
Not gonna say.
Grows out some silence and damage.
Ame cannot be here yet.
He's a little bit of extra time, but they're gonna charge through.
Finds one.
YSR, Lance, FY.
Hitting.
Winters curse connects.
Can they do enough damage right here to take down Echoes?
He's low.
He's low, but he's not low enough.
Not dead.
And Ame cannot be here.
He heals, man.
It's too much. I mean, I don't think the plan was to fight well
I don't know the communication has been an issue for XG. Clearly there's some sort of a problem
They're like I think what's happening is that I'm not gonna fight until Centaur is back up
I don't think anyone thought that I think FY was trying to drag it out
So they could take the fight when Centaur return because they can't win this time with that Centaur
So the plan was delay delay, but they don't get the delay long enough a fight begins without the eagles profit
And then it's really a problem
Well that does also mean that Amé was at least able to get into his BKB now and there's been a good amount of gold gained for XG
Resilience though are still on this windy path right towards moving on in this tournament a
7,000 gold lead at 25 minutes
Yeah, and they're just trying to clear up this mid wave there
They're willing to throw FLI's body just under the bus right now because he's gonna buy back and just insta charge back into the fight
And they're just hoping to set up any sort of a good engagement. Unfortunately now there's an Aegis
So it's getting harder and harder and they're willing to just hang out. Why is that here?
Got forward find one that's there. Oh, they gotta get this one. Come on. There's still a charge through and they'll get him
Planet even tried to help them out with the holy locket
9-19, and we'll see what they're able to get done with this Aegis.
Last game, Resilience completely took over the map.
They took down all of the outer tier 2 towers.
It feels like XG is in a slightly stronger position than we saw last game though, but
it could all come tumbling down.
Yeah, part of that is their ability to push out the lanes a bit stronger as well.
Just the fact that they have the nature's profit and the center with the helm of Dominator has been doing a lot of work this game
I'm asking a lot of units down bottom here. They're actually gonna find planet with the helm
Success the charge through lands on the two and now the puff damage out finds one bias are oh
The echo though comes out just in time now under the livery on f y
So surviving on a turn wants to hit needs to get away from kez trying to get to separation
but he gets out of that sprout, has the BKB,
Ame, Ame, you can't just run, you gotta fight,
but there's gonna be no fighting in YSR,
trying to bait this out though.
Ghost Scepter does some good damage,
we have a detection, and now the Doom is there,
still damage out, and they're gonna lose the Aegis.
Core's gone, nothing to say,
has to hold this one for himself,
as they're trying to stay alive on X-Nova,
will not happen.
See how insane that BKB was from YSR?
That was nice.
He like turned the corner into the center and as the stumps coming down he just clicks it
You know, it's the ages BKB
He's don't really want to use it necessarily but he saw the moment he saw that he gets the kill on all me with that
Can they have enough damage the prasma working? Well echoes tries to get away, but they're gonna let him go on just
two hundred sixty-eight feet
Oh, that's a fantastic pick up and now he has the BKB to so
You're a lot harder on the next go. It's been the story of this game
It feels like her exceed just slightly not enough damage slightly too late in these movements. Yep
The resilience
A couple more towers they can start to build up that lead
It's just the speed at which they're building these leads these two games. It's not something we're seeing a lot in this tournament
No, many of our leads do not get built up and created until like 35 or something more like oh, okay
Someone's ahead and then we still don't know who's gonna win because it has been quite back and forth in a lot of these matches
But they just you can feel the control where it feels like X year just like fighting demons
It feels like it's unfair
Yeah, and one from each team at the same time, on a thought about TPing to the tier 2 bottom.
Now they can smoke into their vision, there's a good ward over here for XG.
It's being pinged by resilience though.
What does a good fight even look like for XG right now?
What's the best that they could hope for?
It's got to be the curse, like that fight where they had the curse on the shaker with the Kez there.
That would be a fantastic thing to happen again.
Okay.
See if they can make it happen.
Well, they might not have a winner's curse available soon, buddy.
Moonlight Shadow jumps in, stuns, lands it onto the puck, he's low, but is he gonna die?
Yes!
He gets brought down, echoes, finds the kill, and gets another one.
They did take down the Murama, but it's a hell of a pure victory.
Do they have anything to break it?
Yes, they do.
A man of the match echoes!
Finds another one.
He's popping off this series.
They are dead for a long time.
The wave is marching down mid.
Do they have any counterplay they can do?
I mean, Aume, much like he has been for the past 60 minutes, is hitting neutrals.
Not wrong.
It's been his series so far.
I mean, we saw his damage numbers at the end of the last game.
It was like 6,500 or something.
It feels like this has been the way that XG has won in the past.
Yep.
You can see more definitely this time around, but they need him to really be able to carry
that load towards the end here.
And he is going for an item to try and deal with at the mellifier, just like if we can
just find a target, I'm hoping that we can actually kill them, right?
He was in the Marana, there's the glimmer and the four staff on the keeper of the
light, this might allow him to actually take down one of these two supports before
begin to especially plan at least this is nice though that's very good they needed that real badly
yeah no vkd available for that earth jaker so good timing a lincoln's is gonna be on the doom
though and that will start to solve some of those issues right i'm sure that that was a charge at
some point that they managed to take out but you see you see what's here on f y the planar
pocket's ready to go okay all right so if we see him get doomed yeah it might not
have been intentional jump forward xxs right there on top of a pops a planter
pocket a planter pocket it looks so cool look at that can you guys tell we
don't get to see very often oh wow thinking about a jump though new up on
the high ground nothing to say would be a great get for them if they could find
them get away just barely now the blink tries to run we can charge them
to the Lincoln's though. Nicely done there. Backs away on the Kez and XG they're gonna hold the high ground.
That ghost scepter has been so valued for the Centaur. Yeah that was a really smart pick up.
Breathe. It's a little bit right now while the shaker's dead.
That next roche potentially be up here in a minute and 10 seconds so if you start thinking
about that you start thinking okay where's the fight can happen is it gonna be
bottom of the map top of the map how can we prep for that area with some wards
we give them down now that would be great you we do get a pretty sneaky one
playing by FYI right now in fact by the bottom Roche I'm a bit of a classic
Roche Ward right now we just see the little like curves underneath the
Roche pit all may continues to battle the Crokers
When it's at least you know what there's there's one team he's beating in is the neutrals
Going towards that Daedalus. I mean the neutrals got one kill this game. He's got three
So he triples up on that fair enough. He clears neutrals
Nothing to say. Oh, okay moon like shadow with the evasion now by the way. Okay nice little 15 talent could come into play
buddy
Give SR a chance
out of the reason there are smoke up with three so it looks like they want to
try and fight around YSR he was nearby they also have coddle behind part of it
is the X know that has no tools to make jump in stun don't fight but he got that
link it's off he's chillin there surviving and charge back will it be
enough to get any type of a kill they have the winters curse onto the kids
but he is still very survivable new walking forward also echoes jumps in
Echo on the three.
Okay.
Oh, he did it to him.
Echoes have mercy.
XXS is found and resilience playing
like they want to keep going on at the international.
Has nothing to say.
Nowhere to go.
And it lives.
It gets destroyed.
What a beat down.
The glimmer cape keeps him alive just barely.
He taunts his way off in the merry-go-round.
Why is that on the hog out? What an echo slam there for mechos. I mean, what can you do?
You're on the run back to your base, nothing's working and you're just thinking, alright,
we'll try again next time.
Not the only one that's going to need to try again next time as resilience.
We're on the verge of knocking out XG right now and it has not looked particularly close.
This entire series, they have been one step ahead.
They have come up with the answers.
And this lineup, I mean, again, I think the panel talked about this.
You know, they were whatever, one in three going into this,
but their like map score was five and six.
Yeah, it's a team that you do not want to face in the elimination round.
Yes, but we do know they can, you know, mathematically beat anyone
since they beat this in one game.
So that's, you know, the power of transferring a lot of wet light.
They find him in the trees. Where you going, sir? New is Godlike.
Trying to cut off any hopes of a comeback before they're even beginning to pull a less.
Resilience.
This squad in this game has been absolutely stellar.
X-X-S jumps in, stuns on the two.
Trying to make something happen. Anything here at all.
They move forward, a winters curse, but already dead on the center.
Ame trying to do what he can, but they're all over him!
Run, run back to the fountain!
It's the only place, Slave, as he does miss an echo.
So maybe an opportunity there.
The buyback comes from the Centaur.
Trying to keep this last Rax alive,
but YSR is not gonna be spared as they chase forward.
Buy an X-File, but kill him off too.
The Centaur is done.
Your Rax are gone!
Resilience!
They want to move on!
GG is called!
as resilience take the 2-0!
And respectful tips back and forth, Y-Sera to F-Y, surely.
And resilience, victory indeed.
You may have won a fast win.
Both of these games, like, they just took over
and they never let go of control whatsoever.
I mean, we knew they could beat anyone,
but I wasn't expecting to look like this.
Unbelievable performance as they move on,
resilience dominant in the 2.0.
Absolutely outstanding tour from
resilience there at game number two
in which we thought there was so much
more for extreme gaming to be able to
bring to the table that dropped offering
so much more compared to game one as
well. But at the end of the day they
didn't really show up and unfortunately
that's their run at TI 2026 done and
dusted for them and a big
congratulations to resilience to move
on to look towards that elimination
round for themselves that they're avoiding the one and four school line
that's sitting on two and three here more importantly gonna the way that they
were able to do it it looked fantastic despite what we would have thought was
you know a marginal out draft to the favor of extreme gaming yeah we
definitely liked extreme drafts more than the first game so I was expecting
this game to be at least closer but if anything it was worse than the first
game the earth shaker I think had really good performance he killed the
puck solo level six mid and I just think their whole draft kind of came
together in a really nice way and also I want to say Ami's nature's profit didn't really have the
map maneuverability that we've usually seen this tournament and the bar has been set.
Yeah we saw a number of fights being taken that the nature's profit wasn't at. This isn't one of
them but it is just that question mark of how is that really possible across to how is the
nature's profit so far behind that the farming priority is really taking place rather than
than the fighting priority.
I think it comes down to Earthshaker,
what Decoz was able to do in this game,
what he wasn't really able to replicate
when he played it earlier in the series,
where this time around, he had the full freedom
and we could see this early agonist set
for being picked up.
I think Nation's Prophet,
he's farming in the triangle,
and then if they make a rotation
with Earthshaker with Kes,
who has been very active,
why SR, he has been active early on,
like we've seen this more and more
And these Kez players who get into the enemy triangle, especially if they kill an early tier 1 tower, they take over the map.
Sure, MP he can be anywhere on the map, but also with one bad move, like you can definitely feed.
And I don't think you felt too comfortable getting out on the map knowing how many stuns and how much control they have.
Plus also the impact of the moonlight shadow, you can never underestimate that.
Because if they're missing, like you don't feel too comfortable playing on your side of the map.
there's going to be some defensive vision, you know what we call anti-tinker vision on the other
side of the map that is going to be catch nature's profit. There is a lot around what extreme gaming
unfortunately couldn't do despite having that little bit more of an advantage there in monkeys.
The nature's profit, you were the one giving us the stats, giving us all the hot too. You were
the one that was sitting the benchmark too far up. I mean extreme, I think they picked
They picked Sentar and Nature's two heroes I wanted to see from them and they just weren't
able to play this more aggressive style I feel.
Even when they did have signs of life, they just weren't able to group their heroes in
a way that allowed them to get these pick offs and accelerate the game in the way that
we've seen players like Satanic do on Vision.
I mean, I think they didn't even take this,
the safe and tier one tower from resilience
until 15 minutes or so.
Whereas, you know, you watch Satanic Playlist here,
it's around six, maybe seven minutes though.
No, we even did it.
But yeah, I just, I mean, what can I say?
Resilience is just the better team today.
They just, they did everything they had to do.
And I think they've kind of proven
that they were better than their 1-3 score going into the series.
We know how to point a lot at the draft for me,
but I think it's a lot of individual stuff that happened in the game.
Like they're just out playing the extreme in every single fight.
There's so many times you say like, they're going to a doom and he lives with 300 health
because his team's helping protect him or Earthshaker getting really nice equities.
So on that clip, you got the three men Echo right outside the radiant base.
And for me, it was just a big testament of their skill level.
We've been talking like they're not losing their series.
like, bad. They're 1 and 3, but it's kind of not showing the full picture. And I definitely
saw it in this series that it wasn't a, oh, we out drafted them, we out brained them.
It's, we out clicked our buttons on them. And I think that's really good going forward
because some of the teams here have looked a bit shaky and it's like 2-3-3-2 kind
of area. And I definitely think that this is a team I'm expecting to make it through.
Yeah, I think so too. I think whoever like is going to be sitting at that 3-2
and we'll be choosing the opponents, I don't think you want to be choosing this
team because I think this might be the last depending on some other series
there are maybe like higher caliber teams but as I said for me this is the
dark horse of the tournament this is the team that you said it like the
score doesn't didn't look too good for them but this is the team that in
every single game it was a very competitive dota that they played
maybe they have one game against the index where they lost in 20 minutes
they understood that they lost it but every other game has been pretty
competitive. I do think that there's the inverse to that as well, where there might be some 3-2 teams that got there in different ways than what we would have expected some of the other 3-2 teams to get there, but that's all for later, right? Later in the day, when we get to break it down a bit more, but focusing back on to this game, one of the pivotal moments that you mentioned, Gunnar, and you wanted to look at, Monkeys, was this doom really living on that sliver of health? Because we thought a great move was coming out from extreme gaming after they finally took that tier 1 tower at 17 minutes. They go through gate. This is going to be a fantastic game.
pick off on the doom but at the end of the day they don't get that do pick off
and they end up crumbling yeah I I think that was the main the main point in the
game where extreme could have gotten that momentum and really you know snowballed
into the game a bit more but as you can see here the sprout comes out and it
blocks both centaur and the nature's profit from chasing the doom and you
know spirit breaker comes in you think there might still be some hope but the
The Cottle Heal was the holy locket, they use everything on this Doom, and not only
do they not kill him, FY goes down in addition to that, and then they keep chasing, and they
get the Winter Wyvern as well.
I mean, this is the most disastrous story around, like, that could not have gone worse
for Extreme that.
And you feel so bad because it's like, okay, surely we've got this kill, and then your
poor Spiritbreaker has to overextend before you know, but your support's not really
able to have much impact and looking at the two sides of it, the Wyvern is that question
Mark, right?
Yeah.
Compared to what was occurring on the side of Brazilians.
Something that you said, Gunnarib, was that they didn't really click the buttons really
well.
They started off by losing winter Wyvern immediately in the lane which did transition
into them having that good of a lane.
Keeper of the Light was the one getting the first blood and we could see in the
clip that you played, like the turnaround potential that you are getting from the
heels.
big healing meta that we are seeing at the moment and you could see the blast coming out,
you could see the Holy Locket. So if we bring out the comparison between the two of the supports,
there's going to be a massive difference in terms of what they were able to do in this game because
Planet, he did play with ZZQ, they were moving around the mid lane, putting quite a lot of
pressure onto that puck with the arrow. But the big number for me here is going to be
the healing numbers because if you look at the Holy Locket, if you look at the blast that
He has the defensive capabilities that he does have compared to Wyvern X. No, I did really not have a good game
You have 170 heal coming out from winter violin, which is what basically nothing. It's a police
That's what it says on on the page
Yeah, and then you have a keeper of the light with almost
18,000 healing coming out so massive difference between two of them
And this is something how they played in that game number one where they grew pop
up where they keep using the sustain from the Necro this time around.
It was Keeper of the Light completely blasting using the 4-stab Glimmer Cape,
just resetting the fight multiple times.
And a lot of the times one team runs out of steam in these longer engagements.
It's rough to see, especially now putting that into comparison of just how little that Wyvern was healing.
Yeah, you love to use the curse that way,
but to not really be able to sustain in a fight,
to do what feels like the counterpart of Coddle should be doing for your team as well.
It is a really rough way to say goodbye to Extreme Gaming, but there's still somewhat
of a silver lining here for them looking towards the next season and what could hopefully
be more TI appearances for these players.
Yeah, all these players are very experienced, like you were saying.
They've played in these events, they've lost these events, they've gone through
the cycle of this before, but we can look at resilience as kind of hopefuls for
me because I think there was some worry. I think a lot of the Chinese teams have been
struggling in the event, and I'm pretty happy to see resilience look solid. I was getting
to the point where I was worried it was going to be like, oh, they're all question marks
going into the elimination phase, but again, I'm pretty confident feeling for resilience.
So overall, sad. Aume is not making it to the main event, but happy for resilience.
What about yourself, Monk? You see a look at the elimination of XG and the resilience
continuing on there? Obviously it's always sad to say Baidame, I mean he's gotten second place
so many times at TI so in early I said not even making it to the main stage is definitely
sad to see because he is one of those legends for the Chinese scene but I mean hey room for new
blood you know or well some old blood is so fun. And old blood in a new roster because going
going through qualifiers. Yeah, that's what I'm wondering, at what point do we say, I mean,
Lacoste, you've seen many iterations of older players rebranding, joining new teams, going
on to surpass expectations. Yeah, I mean, we have Poyojo, Erika, YSR, so there's, you
know, you try to rebrand a little bit, and eventually you come out on the top. Of
course, the shuffle probably is going to be coming because this is not the result
which these players are kind of want to have, especially at TI, so we get the seat, but very
happy for Team Resilience that they are very resilient and seems like they are the strongest
Chinese squad so far left at TI.
So is that double-edged sword of getting to see a qualified team go so far? It's unfortunate
that it is at the cost of extreme gaming here, but you would have seen a brief flash
up in there. We got Perch standing by to give us some details about what's been
happening in our other elimination series of game legion up against OG.
Thanks, Nat. It was a big deal for these eliminations here. Both these teams want to go as far as they can.
GameReligion did win game one relatively one-sided, but game number two here, very even at the 15-minute mark,
they had Netsumi's standard carry winranger.
Went for a nice power shot, almost killed Centaur from long range, but as a result he overextended a little bit.
The Ember came from behind, and this is the first really big fight of the game that went well for GameReligion here in game number two.
2. Next clip up here, a little bit later in the game, they've now amassed a 7k gold advantage.
If you take a look at how much net worth there is for the necrophos on top, it's a huge amount.
So the fact that they can go aggressive and continue to find the enemy carry is very, very
bad news for OG. And it wasn't just him. RCY is also hunting for Timbs on the mid lane. He's
going to even get a solo kill after this. So it was kind of like a series of train
cards hitting a wall in some moments here after the first couple kills happened because
because Gamerillegions just kept compounding their advantage here,
finding pick offs on the map, their heroes backing up,
and OG not necessarily responding to it in the perfect ways.
Another kill here for Ghost, and very cool little moment here.
We'll back up just a little bit.
Check us out the little Necro creep here.
Ends up getting stampeded and slows the Slardor,
which allows them to fall up and get a second kill after that first kill.
So they did manage to kill Ember Spirit here, which was fine for OG,
but just a series of defeats as Gamerillegion got more and more advantage
and eventually close out game number two, eliminating OG.
Who would you say Perge was your MVP?
Or you stand out of the whole series
for the side of game and league and getting it to a...
I mean, Ghost has almost doubled the net worth
of some of the enemy cores.
How can you not get it to him?
So, so nice.
It's just as straightforward as the numbers that Perge.
Thank you so much for keeping an eye
on what was happening in the other streams
that are giving us that update as well
of what was happening between OG and game and league.
And so now we have our three eliminated teams.
There's no more eliminations happening today,
but it is a good buy to OG Extreme Gaming
and earlier today Hula Gani,
which is a really tough pill to swallow.
And I was, had a high hopes for OG.
They started this season off to a start.
No one really expected the cost.
There was a small dip for themselves,
but I thought that this was gonna be a corner
they could turn coming into a big event season
with a newer idea after that trial with Toronto Tokyo,
going back more to some of the SEA blood for themselves.
Yeah, that roster didn't really work out.
They were not happy with the results,
decided to go with Raven instead, which did give me quite a lot of hope for the roster.
They looked good in some of the series at DWC. They also bombed out relatively early on, and
you could already see some of the struggles, but it seems like they just didn't have enough
time to fix the issues that they were having because I've been seeing the same issues
in this one, but unfortunately for them, we had to say goodbye. But I'm kind of
glad that we saw Huligani as well who were pretty happy with their performance,
though they still lost. It was a good experience for them being at this TI.
Well, when Hulagani got eliminated, we got to have a chat with one of that players before
they departed TI. We're going to do the same right now with the extreme gaming. It's nothing
to say in period.
Heartbreaking loss there for XG, knocking brother out of the tournament if you like. We're
here with nothing to say from XG. I'd like to ask first of all, what do you think
went wrong in that series in particular?
Very regretful, but I hope you can summarize the main reason for your failure in the last game.
Maybe from the beginning of the game, I've been playing the game for a while.
So I choose the game, not the usual game.
The other side has become much better.
So that's it.
So perhaps from the draft, we denied a lot of the heroes that we are good at and we picked heroes that were not used to playing and the opponent played really well.
They did play well. The follow up question I suppose is, other than this series, what went wrong at this TI overall? There were a lot of expectations. You put a lot of expectations on yourselves. What went wrong at this TI for XG?
You have a lot of expectations for your team, and you have a lot of expectations for yourself.
Can you tell us about the biggest challenge or problem in your team?
I lost two matches, and everyone was in a bad mood.
We didn't perform well, so we should do it.
After losing the first two series, our form might have dropped and slid a lot more than we thought, and we just didn't play at our top shape.
Absolutely, and obviously there's a lot of fans of XG out there that really wanted to see you guys make it to the arena.
Is there anything that you'd like to say to the XG fans out there watching?
Do you have anything to say to your fans?
I'm really sorry that we didn't play as well as we wanted to this year.
Fair enough. Well, we're sorry to see you guys go. Back to you guys.
Thank you so much, period. And of course, nothing to say, taking time out even after
the elimination and a heartbreaking loss there for extreme gaming. And it is really sad to
not get to see them play in front of a Chinese crowd. You know, it's been so long since we've
had a TI in China, and it's felt like an extreme gaming that was powering up, an extreme gaming
that could have made it to main stage, played in front of that crowd. But I know fans
out there still cheering for them, still happy to get to see them, even if it wasn't
necessarily in the form that they were hoping for, Ghana.
Yeah, and it's also sad because I think their tournament results recently have been okay.
Like it's been good enough that I put them to make it to top A.
I was hoping for them to make it through and definitely seeing them, especially with the 1-4,
not even making it to that like tomorrow, the elimination day is definitely very rough
because at least if you make it to the final day, like, okay, we went 2-3, we went 3-2,
and we have this like one final shot to make it, but going out, I think in that 1-4 spot,
definitely is probably one of the worst things you can have.
it definitely hurts because you don't know like what the scrim situation was. Maybe they had like
very good results in those which gave them hope and maybe one of the reasons why NTS said in an
interview was that after losing like first two series they kind of dropped the they kind of felt
maybe like this is not it because all your ideas have been working we only see like the part
of it you only see what they show us here at the international but kind of a little bit sad
that we're not going to be seeing them in front of the crowd especially because these are like
Chinese legends as well and they're always easy to cheer for. They definitely are. Like I said,
moving into the next season we'll still be cheering for them but we're going to change and
shift our tone right now and move on from our one in three teams and look towards our three and
one teams. Right now the only team qualified to the main stage is Team Vision but we're
going to have a look at Liquid up against Aurora because one of these two teams is going to
to be joining them there. Liquid having such a great showing early today for themselves
despite it being a long series of monkey. They put themselves in this position, a 3-in-1.
Yeah, and their road to getting here has not been easy either. I'm trying to, I know
they play it.
BG, Yandex, they did end up losing to Spirit, but then they won this one against Ironwing.
Yeah, which I mean, all of those are great teams. I mean, as you can see here,
you can follow the road.
And I, Liquid is one of those teams that I believe that they've been TI champions before.
And I think they're here to prove themselves again.
And I think the fact that the road, or the fact that their bracket has been so difficult,
I think it's a really good practice for them.
It kind of makes them warm, you know, for moving into the moving into the 3-1 matchup here against Aurora
This is a very different liquid as well
I feel like there is a new hunger in the remaining plays of the roster compared to
Sorry that over from Lost TI. They didn't make it out of groups
We didn't get to see them at main stage and so for those remaining plays
It's we want to reprove ourselves that we are a team that is a TI winner
that TI form and of course them having Ace and Tofu join it was a rough start to this
season and we weren't really sure if the longevity could be seen in that Ross
Delacoste but having won the previous online tournament leading into TI having
some good showings at various events leading up to this. That gives them quite
a lot of confidence showing that your ideas are working again that were
pretty much it's not gonna say the most important tournament before TI
because it was an online tournament still considered a tier one tournament but
the mentality and confidence.
Absolutely.
Like it's a big confidence booster in a sense where you know that like, first of all, the
vibes are going to be good because you're just coming off high off of that win.
And if you look at the results of 2026 season Aurora, they definitely have the upper hand
in terms of like getting so many top four finishes, especially top two finishes, which
they ended up in multiple of those tier one events.
Liquid, they're always kind of there. I think they miss some of the tournaments as well.
They're almost rubber banding for Team Liquid. It's like, first place, second place, first
place, second place, and then...
You didn't qualify!
You didn't qualify. Ninth place, ninth place. Where's the Roars? Definitely more in that
like second through sixth consistently. So I guess for me when I compare these teams,
when Liquid's on a good day, they can be the absolute best. But on a bad day,
it's really rough for them. At least that's how their year's been.
It's like their their floor is quite low, but they're ceiling is incredibly high
Yeah, whereas a roar is definitely I would say consistently a top-16 at top
Maybe even a top-14 listen. I didn't want to reveal any
Some liquid right now
Well, we can talk about a roar we can flip that conversation because we've talked about it so many times second places have always been on the menu for them
It's something that they're no longer satisfied with and of course now being in this interim in the group stage
You're three in one. You're not yet qualified to main stage and you could still see yourself in elimination
This series has so much on the line for them. Yeah, it's one both teams
Want to win the most so it's like you prove you prove a lot, right?
If you make it to this for one, you know, we're one of the best teams of the tournament
We're one of the teams that they get to look forwards to
You could argue it's like oh, it's a break day though. Some sometimes don't like their break days
Yes, I'm doing some and I've even heard in previous tournaments like the teams who win too early and make it through but every team
I think has three break days. So three break days for break days. I it's about the same
I gotta go a little bit back to the previous tournament as well previous land tournament
That's EWC where some of the teams due to the format
They also had insane amount of like five or six days of a break
Yeah
Falcons being one of the teams which Amar in the interview did say that they really did not like that because they had a
a lot of momentum.
I think he said it in a way harsher way.
I don't know if I can repeat those words, but they went up and then just immediately went
back down because they felt like other teams definitely picked up.
So we definitely might be seeing the same thing happening with these teams.
I did have to recall which team went 4-0, lost TI, and where did they end up placing.
It was extreme gaming, they did come second.
So I feel like three or four days might be quite negligible in that regard.
Re-focusing out for liquid in a roar here looking at the carries and their head-to-head
I feel like that's quite a strong narrative
Gonna for how we could see the importance of a draw through the importance of a play style come out for the two
Yeah, they they share some similarities for heroes
But I think actual play style is very different Mickey Leeds more towards he'll show up to every single fight
He'll play these heroes that like the Luna the monkey the kids where he's buying some desolator
He showed him to the fights. He's this explosive early game damage
Whereas you see night falls unique heroes PL which
We said it's like we try to say was like an earlier game hero
But it's still end of the day three items four items that he shows up and all their kind of common heroes
It's expector is like a Sven is like a tiny shot of him
they're all like him the closest to an early game type of heroes the windranger and
When I see nightfall, I think of scaling to mid game to late game
He's making all the calls. He's winning the game for his team there
Whereas making the guys like I'm at this tier one tower at six minutes
I'm killing you and so it's definitely gonna be for me if a roar is able to kind of endure that early game
verse Mickey versus if if liquid is able to kind of utilize that carry potential make some space for Nisha with this draft
It's gonna be a lot on how they for me
I think the draft will matter a lot in a series compared to most well
We do have our game number one draft of our qualification at best of three underway and a couple of picks already
already what has been banned. Logo sent to a Bane, Trident, Spirit, Shadowfiend and Lina
leaving the cuddle to be an opening pick from Liquid and a Roarer's response being the Ember
Spirit.
It does two things. Taking the Ember here, first off it removes that Ember or Keep of
the Light combo and then it also gives you just a really solid mid. The Lina's already
banned, the Shadowfiend is banned. Even the Largo I think is a, we've seen it
as an Ember mid response. So it's already somewhat soft protected. You get another
ban to protect it you can ban maybe like a huskar potentially from because I know
Makoto can play it and it's also just good versus hero pool like he wants to
play the pucks the storms the ember itself so just he's getting that early
for him one thing of liquid has been doing more recently is picking up
auras from the off lane they're like you know what screw this like we don't
want to be playing let's call it meta we're picking up darts here we're
building Guardian Greaves. We're getting pipe. We're building pipe from the off lane as well on other heroes on a Centaur, if necessary,
picking up Tidehunter, the hero that we haven't really seen many other teams trying to utilize this, and
removing this Ursa, this is gonna be the question because Nightfall Ursa, it has been a menace.
This is something that he loves to play, but this also opens up some of these heroes that I mentioned,
especially maybe the Tidehunter, like the Centaur, like the stacking damage against some of these very tanky heroes.
Ursa in theory is very good. Yeah, I find that one a bit odd, right? Yeah
I I would have to assume it's because Aurora is the final pick of this phase. So look what's planning on picking that
tanky hero
Sorry, Slarkman.
Muggies and I look at each other a little bit confused. Like I mean the Slark ban
I know sometimes it's a mid. Yeah, yeah
So sometimes these teams have been doing Slark mid in response to Ember, but still kind of surprised to see the
second phase select then. Maybe they're assuming Nisha's not gonna want a blind
Huskar that he like just pick it early in the draft to get countered. They also
they left Beastmaster and for that the Caudal Beastmaster combo I know Ace
likes playing Beast. I'm a big fan of this combo I think every single time I
see Caudal I mention that hero it's just way too good like the way like
there was one game where boom boys played this combo it was the fastest
Helm of the Overlord ever he got it that I think before 10 minutes the game is just completely over
There's no way you're killing that dragon or whatever creep decides to heat that he decides to pick up because it is just way too strong
You don't have enough damage to kill it. It's constant vision constant go to ghost bush
Tower damage on top of that
We'll see if they decide to go for it and there's gonna be Marana super cheap super easy combo with embers for it
Like we've seen this combo 10 15 years ago ever since embers for it has been added
It just feels like it's it's easy in the mid game fights. It feels really nice
So I want to see if maybe they're gonna be picking up something to potentially break the combo so that
Because we've seen these arrows as well like you land a five second arrow
Suddenly that hero is just straight up dead especially at the late game post
So you're kind of always getting the value out of Murana
Yeah for liquid now for their mid pick it's a bit hard because of this
Yeah, you'd be like, oh, maybe you can storm sure it's not great into ember
but then side chains arrow you're dead so thinking about
Potenti Puck can survive that combo and invoker not great, but you can block the arrow with the forge spirit
So for Nisha if they pick it here
I want something that is able to kind of exist in the mid lane and not just get killed guaranteed and then
Though the support we've seen it pretty much every game. It's unbanned at some point another hoodwink
also I I mean mainly it's boxy playing hoodwink on liquor right it's tofu it's
you know food is not a safe lane but they they have done lane swaps both these
players are played for so it's kind of I think though oh my gosh triple was a
position for yeah at one point you can play hoodwink up there a couple a
couple of position four here is here though so I think that it gives them
nice flexibility I would assume it's a hoodwink in the safe lane and then
Keep the light in the off lane because keep the light doesn't really fulfill that
Like safely in position 5 role with all the way pushing it feels pretty bad for your carry
It's still CS your off laners are you're used to not getting the CS one way or another
So just getting it blasted by your foot position 4 is a okay, and then team the underlord
So avoiding that mid pick till later in the draft
But securing definitely a good hero versus both the ones we see roots very good versus Marana and Ember mobility
He's the hero that's gonna be utilizing chakra magic because two of your spells if you get another fire storm
another bit of mouse. It's not like you need another bit of mouse, especially at the later stages of the game where there's going to be agonist scepters, sometimes even a refresher, that you're seeing it's the whole screen covered up, very difficult to approach it.
I think the stonks for Underlord definitely went up ever since we changed the refresher because this was the item to buy on carries and mid laners, even some off laners where you had double BKB.
Now with only one way of dispelling things, now we're seeing like even Manta, Manta plus VKB combinations
Sometimes being seen like earlier disperser
I think it was the other day Juggernaut to say Tanig that played against Underlord and picked it up relatively early on
It was also a response to Necro
in addition but
Very menacing hero to deal with in the Mid and late game. Also, they protect
They protected the Underlord with the Ursa band earlier too because that that matchup is
No fun for Underlord then.
We saw quickly on the screen as well some stats come up, Underlord being the third most picked Offlaner at this tournament so far.
So it's up there with Doxier and Centaur.
Yeah, I think it just provides a lot of, again, generally for Offlaners you want a neutral lane.
Something you can pick blind and in most battles is going to do acceptable.
And then some sort of like almost global presence, if you think about it, like Centaur has this global presence.
Andor is the obvious one as well with the ult, but the unobvious one would be the Darkseer, I would say he's global by being able to ion-show his teammates, and then they move from him.
So it's like, even though he's not specifically in every single fight, he helps, and I think that's kind of why you see them as like the big three of this tournament.
Rubik's still available if they want to pick it up.
There it is.
I don't know why it took them so long to pick it up.
Usually it is banned. There was a meta when Hoodwink and Rubik back at the start of 2026 were to like best position for heroes
And then the during one of the valakya's there was a little bit of a meta evolving board like
People understood underwink are very good heroes. So every single time you had her like picked the one band to start out of the phase
Picked it to put a lot of pressure on to the enemy team picking up Rubik knowing that they can't get under
So they need to ban it a lot of mind games have been happening, but and everyone knows rubik is yes
I mean legit better win the game hero with the fire storm
Especially at the later portion of the game if you can get to the agonist set that become a pet
Yeah, you've become a better better underlord. Yeah, I I would say the two best heroes to pick rubik and rubik into would be underlord
and jacquero and
Underlord, I mean yeah, as he said pit and fires one fires one allows you to shove out waves from fog
never never showing and
Pit is just pit
It's always there and it's a big seed ember the
They're in the past is like oh, there's necrophos. Oh, there's
Monkey King, but both of those heroes have fallen off a bit from the mid lane
But Huskar has not he's been pretty popular at this event relatively speaking for Huskar
I would say with all the banches because he's pretty solid here not a high win rate
He's one of three so far in the tournament so not doing the best, but
There are a couple of them that will first face picked. I think that there was a lot of you have to put when you look at that
Stop there were a couple of first first picks and this is where he sees rubik that does nothing into him
Rhonda that does nothing to him
Lifesayer, which honestly is not the greatest because you're playing into a silence
I force you into those like mentor BKB and then ember which is
The most basic you know ember hoscar ember is gonna be sad not know what to do
They have one more band left on liquid
They removed wiper which would be very good of course against hoscar
Having a break mechanic against underword in a sense the same way because you can break his atrophy aura doom still in the pool
I assume that's gonna be the last
ban coming out from from them but there's also maybe something trickier that
they could get from the offlane. I think of Timbersaw sometimes when I think of
Huskar you have pure damage and since it's like anti-strength you basically
kill him with one Q when he's around that like 20-30% life total which is what he
wants to play. I think it should also be a good axe game because late mail
buyer you're on a low HP there's no saves whatsoever.
I don't think it's necessarily going to be a hundred percent free Huskar game because he doesn't have save on a support
Like keeper of the light for most other heroes
Is that form of save because they play full health and you know the back to full health?
But for Huskar like he dies in half a second and you do you want that like Oracle in the past you want that shattered
Even you want to something like the full committed you save this guy
Let me this BKB off and I think healing save is not the greatest
So it's gonna be a lot on Nisha how he is able to play this here and for Mickey
I'd be leaning towards definitely an active carry wanting to play with the underlord being that kind of stun
mid laner
Not the strongest here of the patch, but like monkey king has looked good
And if you want to go that double global ability, there's no nature's profit in the pool
I do love me some natures. Maybe even a
I like the scent suggestion. I feel like this hero is good. It gives you protection gives you explosive damage
He's like they have no BKB person ability
Strength and stun it's and with cleave he's basically the same here if you say you're a different model all gives you bonus damage
feels like permanently
And then finally we just have often for Aurora seeing tiny. There's not many that jump out is
Necker's in the pool, right? So
That could be a possibility
Inevitability apparently I was surprisingly there was the tiny which I
Don't know if you'd verse it like rather play that versus timber saw to be honest if you want the tiny
I thought that I think neckers to the stronger here than them timber saw sure
It's like Timbersaw or three strength horse feels bad, but Macroverse is a stronger hero and pretty much feels as bad
They have like good amount of magic damage tiny is a mixed type of a carry
You have underlord of firestorm, which is a percentage based damage hoodwink break mechanic
Maybe like but most of the heroes are strength and it is a very good necro pick
I got to say
Looking at some of these mid game or like maybe more early game engagements
Mikkei, he has been known to make these rotations through the twin gates.
Like, we've seen Tiny's rotate, like, they don't necessarily need to sit in the lane
if they can backstab the enemy carry.
I think Life Stealer is that type of a carry that can't really be ganked by Tiny,
so probably Mikkei is going to be sitting in the lane,
and it needs to be Ember Spirit, because Nekro's going to be sitting in his lane.
He's not going to be moving, same for the Life Stealer,
so he's just going to be two supports playing around Ember Spirit,
and the supports are very good to play with Ember.
I've seen the mid game in the Tiny Necro matchup go
kind of before Ashiva's timing.
Necro has really low armor and the Tiny can kill him on a burst.
If he gets that like really fast Silver Edge blink dagger timing.
So for me it's kind of, is Liquid going to be able to abuse their early game.
Like the Tiny, the Hascar, the winning lanes, the running around the stuns, playing as 5.
And for Aurora, I like their drafts because it's simpler.
For me, if they just play a chill game where they don't make too many mistakes,
they'll just eventually win the game.
Naturally, whereas liquids like you're on this timer. You have like one or two mistakes sure if you don't make them great
You're gonna win the game, but a lot of the time at TI teams do make mistakes
Yeah, and
also, I think the
While I do think the Huskar ember matchup is very Huskar favored embers typically they can do the these lane
Draking shenanigans they can try to find ways into the lane by doing that in addition
the Ember does have this Marana to, you know, set up the arrows. And I think the Ember has an avenue
and to find a way into the game with these arrow setups and hopefully finding kills to, you know,
get into the game. So not all is lost for Aurora, you know, if they don't necessarily have the
winning lane matchups for themselves here, but we'll see which team puts themselves in a better
advantage should be our second team qualifying to main stage as we head on into game number
one of this qualification, best of three with lyrical entrant.
Ah, Lanes, who needs them, right?
Ah, we don't do that anymore.
We don't play the lane, grab a creep up, come here, come here and just lure the man they follow you around.
I mean, it's kind of what you gotta do, though, if it's Husker versus Ember.
Totally. Well, I'm super excited to get into this game because last one, a little bit depressing to see teams leave.
This time, we get to see teams move through.
It's the excitement, the exaltation, the glory of TI.
And a huskar hey yeah, so it's ember versus huskar that really is gonna destroy this game
I would say it's definitely the the first like truth that could come into being right like if the huskar destroys the ember that
That's kind of just that that's a big part of it
It's just like oh our game has now gone from like you know somewhat even to just disaster mode
So it's Makoto though. It is Makoto ember. I mean he's very good at it and on the other side
it's Nisha Huskar in the sense that this is not necessarily you know a Nisha thing. Yeah, you know what I mean?
Like obviously Nisha one of the best Mids of the entire world. No doubt. He's bronze. Yeah. I
Hear you. I think that for those that don't know Makoto
I think he came like one of his first big heroes that everybody started to know him on
was the Ember Spirit back in his sea days and
Also getting to see WS with the last pick is always really nice for those of you that missed it
Oh my god his like in the other day was so sick. Yeah, that was very impressive stuff
And this obviously a slightly more popular hero right now in the next post, but for a good reason
Hero's kind of busted and as the family was kind of telling you it feels like he's walking into a pretty good match up here
You're a getting body blocked by tofu. They move in Mickey wanting to find the finish of the avalanche punch
Oh, the heal is gonna be able to get some separation in Otopu so far.
And Otopu going down when he gets the first blood.
Oh, take that one.
Very good trade there from Otopu.
It was looking rough for a second there, but figured it out.
So it's gonna be the Marana up top, flying with a Necrophos,
and we're gonna carry on that Rubik in the bottom lane with the Life Sealer.
So, I mean, two relatively weak laners overall, you could say, for Aurora.
over or that might be the one downside with their support duo. It can be tough as Gary's
all-game bullied in the river. Oh wow, yeah, it's been brought very low. He needs to get
in there, but not going to be able to get away. So Ace, he can himself another kill
as the creep waves pulled through into the river. Yeah, I thought it was the mid lane
we were looking at a little bit of a beatdown, but so far it's the side lanes where they're
struggling a little bit. So the port's just dropping like flies.
Nice.
In the meantime, Makoto, 4-in-1 versus the 6-in-2 of Nisha, be careful with his positioning obviously.
I like the tiny decision here in terms of carries for Miki.
Miki makes a lot of sense with the pacing that you want to go for in this game, the
ability to just like, to be scrappy.
Oh, oh, getting close, getting close, looking for the face of solo kill!
Makoto!
Oh, he's so good!
So, so necessary, you find a little moment like that.
Oh, if they didn't know now they know.
That is for sure.
That is fantastic stuff right there.
I mean, look, you don't need to be a fan of either team.
It's just cool to see somebody that knows their heroes so well.
Yep, that they understand the exact moment that they can play for it like that.
And you know, Makoto comes back level three.
He's still holding that skill point.
so he hasn't resigned himself to I'm jungling yet, you know?
No, no, he's leaving open the possibility of going for another kill onto the Huskar there.
Yeah, if he dives, you know, maybe I get a friend, something could happen.
Let's keep his options open.
Now, one thing we haven't mentioned, of course, the all-powerful Nightfall built in the Nightfall,
you know, has the rage available this game.
That's true.
he is the world's greatest player at using debuff immune teleportation.
We can do it again here as Ace,
in a little bit of trouble, it's gonna be brought very low and forced to tee back to his tower.
In the meantime, looking back towards mid, Nisha,
somewhat low Makoto thinking about things.
These are great. Gets the wave into the tower, grabs the bottle with the rune.
He's full HP and mana right now, but this is where things get rough. See what Nisha's doing.
I instantly walk. Oh, oh, oh, Makoto. Are you gonna do it again?
He's fine. He has the deck at the bullies coming. Yeah, you know
100%
I'm getting too high. I got a chill out a little bit. Hey, I worked last time. I don't blame you
Denver
In about making that move
But yeah has taken that second point in the shield now also
And that does signal that he's going to be able to jungle up against you.
Wow.
Mira.
But look how aggressive they're playing with this big green wage.
Yeah.
Like, Necropos just feels like at one with all those units.
So he tries to bully and pressure this force of the TP in here.
That leaves Ace completely alone.
He is definitely dead.
Trying to get a last hit before he goes down.
Nightfall comes in for the cleanup.
I mean, it did secure that wave coming in for Mikkei, which is very important for their game, but a little bit of a giveaway there for me is.
It's gonna have to be the sacrificial one, it seems like, as tofu almost gets enough damage there, takes out WS, but it will not happen, and as the hits come in, the era finds the kill.
Okay, I mean, again, we're throwing bodies to try and let Mikkei see us under the tower right now.
Now, Thor's mid, Huskar being brought somewhat low by the Ember as he's diving underneath the tower, has a slight a fist again.
Nisha is...
Eh, he's got wand and fairy fire.
I mean, he's still right-clicking underneath the tower, the tower's hitting Makoto!
Did he do the math right?
I'm sorry.
No, no!
I think Nisha was confused on that one.
Makoto's laughing by the way.
Alright, well, he's in high spirits at least.
Okay, this is a problem, you know, you get too hyped up about a killer, then.
And ends up going the other direction as Nikkei is going to eventually be killed in that safe lane the pressure coming from WS is real
Oh fool
Can we get out of here carry stuck around?
Trying to find a cone there. Oh
three down
And Mira lives through it flag ti winner doing this thing
So, so far from Aurora, they have been able to pressure this mid tower, and this is the
second series in a row where we've seen a necrophos lane get a tower at this like 6
minute mark.
Yeah, the catapult pressure is very real with this hero.
And it's going to send Mickey to the jungle on the earlier end with a bracer and a glove
ace.
Not the hero you want to be doing that on.
This is the depressing hero to watch jungle.
Feels bad for Tiny.
He's going to need that wave to shove into him as soon as possible.
And it's going to be on Tofu to kind of run through this jungle and spot attempted
harassment coming his way.
After the death, Makoto has retreated back to the jungle himself.
hits tofu with our storm.
And Makoto level 6 as well, so if he spots an opportunity somewhere they can maybe go for something,
but everything's pretty far pushed in obviously.
Yeah, like if anything, he's gonna need some of that coming in.
And ideally it's gonna be Mira, right?
Like he's open up top.
He's not here right now though, so...
goes onto Boxy and forces out the TP.
The Remnant behind, he's gonna be able to pressure that out.
You can see Nightfall thought about
taking the move over for the Wisdom,
does not do it on the other side of the map.
Of course, Marana, Makoto, Makoto runs through
and grabs the wave, because he's got level six now.
Oh yeah.
So he's able to come up here and abuse this,
counting on knocking chain down.
Don't really think it's possible.
So, gonna gather the wave and do a little partner.
I've been farming up here.
They're coming to try and stop that.
In the meantime, WS is killing Toku over to the side,
has even used the reaper site tofu trying to play his way out and actually did a good job with the slowdown
Eventually, they will secure the kill
In the meantime ember forced to jump away
Teepeed out away from the huskar and the coddle that were chasing him
I mean bright spots for Nisha obviously, but he is a huskar
He's gonna have this lead
Yeah
The Ember's not that far behind, and he's still ahead of the other two cores on your team as Huskar.
So that is not a good sign of this point in the game.
Yeah, that's a good point.
It means that Nisha is not going to have that many friends to play around with.
The good news is that he does have a hoodwink, but Tofu's obviously taking a real beating up top, so that level 6 isn't coming anytime soon.
Yeah, they have awards, so they spotted this move coming in, and can they punish?
That's the other question now.
Looking for K.R.E. finding him now, and he knows he's dead.
and a quick jump and well ATPs out actually.
Alright, I mean one of them was.
Saxes and his Marana instead I suppose.
Someone's getting stunned.
I felt the split was successful as Nikkei begrudgingly gives a camp over to Nisha who
finishes up his armlet with it.
So now he's got some serious damage available and Makoto continues to abuse the fact
that he has remnants and no real worry about being caught out here.
Well, you have no chance for a jump and Nisha has the armlet being brought out to him now.
So you can see Nightfall off to a totally fine set right now.
Second highest on the board, only behind his own Necrophos, and it's going to be a solid ratings timing.
The farm will keep on rolling his way.
WS, would you believe it? Also building a radius.
And I mean, we've gone over this, I'm sure many people have.
I don't care about two radiances anymore guys. It doesn't matter. It's even like more fine. At first it was kind of okay anyway because the map is so big, but now that the evasion is also only on you as the radiance holder, it's even more whatever, you know?
People are still going to be typing low two radiance. And as they should. As is tradition. I'm not saying to stop doing that. I'm just saying don't let it stop if you're buying a second one. You know what? I'd never stop them anyway.
Yeah, right. Two rains is every game. Two sheaves is every game. That's what we're going for here, folks.
WS gets the whole wave, and Nisha, besides, he wants to get a little aggro here.
Now, you do have to be careful. There is a Reaper site that is ready to go.
And yeah, TP out. So, wisely dodging from that one on the other side, though, Vera.
Oh, he's burning, but it's the heal list.
And WS might need to heal him one more time.
How, how, how? Help.
He's fine. He's fine.
So, no chance for a kill.
Liquid failed to connect on that movement.
Yeah, he should really need those right now.
So, look at Makoto. He's completely free.
I mean, how is it that this tower is the one that's struggling right now?
There's a caudal. There was a husk.
Why are you losing your mid-tier one first?
Right? The, the Radiant Tier 1s I haven't touched.
It's barely grazed.
How many games do you think Makoto has been like last picked Huskardians as ember in the pubs?
I've played this a million times
Yeah, I'm sure he's very used to it. That's for sure
I mean it was so comfortable
It's like the way he instantly said are going once he was six as well
Recognizing the complete lack of cats and any sort of threat and also the value that it was gonna give compared to doing anything with his teammates
Yeah, it was very good
Another move up to the north can they catch any of these heroes here?
Here, so far, has been a sacrificial lamb, they do find them.
And with the bushwhack it's enough, can they turn this into a WS kill?
Does he want to walk around the corner? A Reaper's Sight turnaround is a very possible thing.
Disha, turns, Reapers? How you doing, sir?
I don't know what to say.
Okay. If I could see it, he could have, too.
WS is laughing, he doesn't know what happened.
Uh-huh
You know, he's gonna make a name for himself, you know
No, my guy was just rejecting reality and hoping to substitute his own in there, but it did not happen
Wow, okay, Aurora in a very comfortable position after that
Finds the photo again the silence is there arrow a little bit off the mark
Got the lift, the push back, and now he's gonna go through the gate.
Ah, he can't get me!
He just gets out of there, saved by Ace.
We'll see if they're gonna be able to chase him down, but with the Moonlight Shadow, he's getting some more separation.
Tophie's still on the hunt, spots him now, the bushwhash not quite on the mark.
Dodges away again, can he sidestep it?
Yes, he can Aurora he goes back for it. Oh, come on now. Come on now. There's no way
Steals away the sharp shooter kills tofu like what you got to lock in
Oh Roy is just running circles around him. They have got to focus up right now. That's not living
This is getting way out of control
You you are the husker
You are you are the ones who are supposed to be teasing this early game
fastest this tournament
12-28!
It's going quick.
It is going mighty quick.
Every lane winning now, including just about the Ember.
In terms of impact, that's for sure.
Yeah, yeah, no, we can't let the Ember win for sure.
Once the site happened, that was an Ember dub.
And again, they're on this hunt.
They're trying to find...
Earlier, it was Mira who was just standing guard, right?
Like, whenever WS was up here still farming,
there was this annoying Marana in the way
who they didn't care about feeding away now they're smoked up okay this time sir
oh geez another running in for more they're gonna find mckay mckay two is going to drop
w s just keeps getting hand and repersite kills i really believe that i i i so did these
My heart of hearts thought I think he'll be enough. They've got it this time. Oh
But here's the thing they are desperate to make something happen
They know that the game they have to do something as husband, right? He can't play with his tiny right now
Mickey's busy. I mean he tried to join me fair the underlords gonna be a while
So he feels pressured to go and do something the necropos feels like a logical target
But that's this is so needed. Can they get Makoto? No, no, he's a way
Everything seems to be running for Aurora, and Liquid just trying to catch up.
Alright, I have to find a plan here if you're Liquid.
It's going to be Aghanim's first for Ace, that is definitely going to help have an
impact for some of these Huskar plays.
Mikae, yeah, I mean it's the Equisaver into the blink, that's got to be the timing
where they can do it.
try something right like the problem is it's gonna be a very tanky nekros that
point he's gonna have the death seeker as well which is I feel like that's where
the deck first just gets really crazy if you dodges what he's already so tanking
and knowing to kill that if he dodges a spell with decks depth seeker on top of
that it just feels like the fight's over yeah it's Makoto almost level 12
here but oh no are they hunting yeah surprise inside now find base and not
not an easy way out of that one at all.
I mean, the Ursa Band comes out,
but then you just end up with a life stealer anyway,
and it's like, ah, I'm still miserable as underlord.
Oxy, try and pressure out these lanes.
I mean, it really has just got to be
in mass dodge territory now.
You're not seeing them make moves to try and find kills.
They're a full item behind on some of these heroes.
And for Aurora, I mean, what do you
do to try and cement this lead that they've built up?
They've got the Essence Deciller on Mira, right?
That is the more hunting item.
They have the spear vessel, obviously, on Makoto.
How do you play this game as Nisha right now?
You have to get a BKB.
You have no game right now.
You need a BKB.
You need a shard.
If you play it on existing right now, he ain't Oscar.
I'm not sure why you're always playing as,
But it's not Huskar.
And it's gonna be a while.
Finished off their Dragonlance first
and working towards whatever he can get.
But Aurora,
what are they gonna find as the smoke comes out?
tofu, getting the lotuses, they're running into Mickey.
He's right there, the poor old tiny,
they catch sight of him just off the mark.
Mickey needs to run now,
but I don't know if he's gonna be able
to Avalanche. Boss hit, down to half HP on nightfall,
but the arrow follow up is there.
Ace tries to stop it, but it's just
going to be more damage going their direction.
And now they steal also the Q.
Ace falling, dead, Nisha again.
When it rains, it pours for liquid as they kill Boxy 2.
They are owning right now.
They are very confident with the, that's it, call it,
own team voice line being used.
they know. They might not be too far off right now. You can see the ideas that
liquid are going for. You have the cauldron pushing out the mid wave, the
hoodlite pushing out the top wave, and then you're trying to find this safer
farm in your own jungle for Mika, but they weave their way through, right? Between
the Marana with the smokes, it's very hard to lock down exactly where the
enemy team is playing, and they're using that to find where your timing
is. The one hero that gives you hope when he gets blinked, and just keep
Chipping away at that hope until you're broken down. I
Real say they even smoke under this ward right now. Yeah, they know I
Will say that this Aurora lineup is also so cool because it's one of the ones that like also a truly international lineup
players from all over the world coming together and just absolutely
Only making it work a lot of people have their questions about how it was all gonna function, but they're absolutely showing up and
I think most people would agree that they could beat anyone and also maybe even lose
anyone in their recent form and they find Ace kill him again.
Ember in a game where your team is leading and dominating like this is just so hard to
kill him.
He has so many good allies who want to be in these engagements right now, assuming
So many good allies who want to be in these engagements right now, zooming all over the
map.
It's also one of the more successful Rubik's I've been witness to in this tournament,
you know, Kari?
The laning stage started a little bit rough, but obviously so much success pushing across
the whole map and now just threatening with the steals and obviously having a level 4
firestorm doesn't hurt.
Yeah, I mean that's the big one.
They got a completely free Rubik game in a lot of ways and looking so solid as
They're immediately onto the coddle boxy.
They're going to be chased down by this ember.
Free kill.
Yeah.
And if you just remove the Huskar, it's a free ember game, and that's what's happened.
Yes, so.
Yeah, I mean, he's so far away from everything.
All the items that he needs, he is not going to be able to get them before all of the
Tier 2 towers are down at the very least.
to go for the shard first. It's the sort of smaller step along the way. Now the flip side
of that, we have seen some crazy comebacks happen before. I think at this point it would
definitely require a roar for some like pretty massive overextensions. Yeah big time. I mean
right now they're keeping the pressure up with this very deep vision. They've got a ward
inside the base. They've got a ward up top where Tiny's trying to farm and they're
ready for this. Okay this is Liquid's big chance. They are gonna bait out Mickey
And hope for the best all they see them with the wards. It does get you word by tofu was about to expire anyway
So we're not gonna walk into this trap, but there's still a ward up on their high ground for liquid
Yeah, there's still a ward inside there the triangle down bottom by the ancient so
Everything is seen. I mean they have complete. Yeah, there's vision over all of it
We'll get look at this the entire map is open for him. WS is farming on the other side. It's gonna TP in now
now. But the smoke up. It's a
radiant necrophos. It's gonna be
a smoke to try and find a fight.
I mean, probably not without
Nisha. He's just under this ward
right now. Yeah, he's gotta run.
But Nikkei, coming up the high
ground. Now they are gonna see WS
here. They also see the Everett
Makoto. Well, maybe you saw
them as well. Touch the tree
immediately and they land.
They hit the kill onto Nikkei.
They managed to get the lift
Yeah, why now? Let's just go for the road.
I mean, Foxy's in the mid lane trying to kill the creeps within the base. That's the point you're at right now.
Don't look, though.
That definitely hit the wave, I promise.
They already let them know about it.
Oh, geez.
Yeah, he is having a damn good game on this roofing.
More sap done now.
And with this road, you gotta imagine they're at least thinking about high ground.
Boxing is still just blasting waves as they need for our space.
Yeah.
It's really desperate plays happening here.
I mean, look, you know, he's killing the waves, gets a curry or freeze bubble.
Nice.
Keep these out.
That was the shard.
Okay.
Can't really ask for much more from your support, I wouldn't say, honestly.
where they go they just get Max Farm I thought was that he's having fun oh yeah
I think it's a very satisfying running in each a little bit less so it's been a
tough game for for liquid here no doubt about that you did not go the way they
wanted it to ace tries to finish this off and yeah you can see where we're at
2% feels about right
nightfall we're just he decided to go they're going into mid they find him
another stolen firestorm and nightfall will start to hit the tower
Oh my god, he jumps into the get-go!
WS is crazy!
Oh, okay, no Underlord.
Uh, yeah, that's a problem.
Aurora, no mercy right now.
I mean, the Underlord's outside.
He's on Aurora right now, you know?
Dude, WS might be playing the best in all playing in this entire tournament.
This Nectar performance has been super solid, and thinking about that liken that you had
the other night, Aurora is last picking them heroes to win the game for them, and he is
doing it.
And you look at the other cores of Liquid and where they are, right?
Like Nisha's farming the bomb side of the map, Miky was off pushing it to your
one tower up top, and they're using their middle racks, but he was still in your
base.
Looking on the door, 66 AC region with a life stealer inside of him, so I'm hanging out.
He's almost got a heart done now too, and they just do not seem interested at all in
fighting.
Yeah, I would say he doesn't have enough AC region.
That makes sense.
Yeah, definitely.
Makoto takes about a jump, Foxy hides in the shadow and away.
And as they take out another...
Makoto's got a meteor hammer.
That's good, let's get this rolling, I guess.
So for a while Ace leaves the base for just a moment how it's never gonna work as they jump in find their man
Now how they left anybody behind though toss back not fine. Okay. They got him
That's gonna be ages down. Can they do it again? There's no toss. I don't think so
Nice to find that kill under rubik not gonna happen a
heart delivered
The buildings time for them to start to get hit and it's obvious their four staff is dead right now
Oh, Nisha. Be very careful there.
I gotta be real cautious. If you get hit by the steering chains right now, you're gonna get arrowed.
Well, I mean, Poxy's back up now with the four staff, so slightly safer.
My goodness. Aurora.
Coming into this one looking incredibly good.
Yeah, the devastation of the top lane really cannot be understated here and obviously just
the life's still becoming complete free farming down the bottom.
I mean there wasn't a particular move that really I think with the seal on this game
we're gonna be honest and it might have been the Huskar diving in 2WS, that was definitely
a standout moment. It was bold, Lyrical. It was.
They've got a tight gun. They're going to need a whole lot of that.
They find Ace again. Ace in trouble. WS right there.
They're still saving the re-precites, so Nisha can't even feel comfortable right here.
They walk in, find themselves another. Big hits, but still everybody's surviving.
Surviving he's chasing WS on the niche it goes in the ghost route gonna chase him down once it's he be away
Does he have a way out of there? Yes, he does
But it's still looking quite bad double kill for nightfall as three are gone
And they're just pushing in all the waves simultaneously
Trying to end this game and I get the hammer up right now. Nisha daring to step down his stairs
Did it get a BKB but had to use it to escape and now does not have it so WS can catch sight
of him he's gonna be hurt.
I thought he was gonna heal back up so he can rejoin with his AC right now.
Doing his own thing.
You guys wanna end the game?
I'll just do this thing.
Lakota's gonna do it slowly.
Yeah.
It's got his meteor hammer working.
at one step at a time.
Aurora, 27-7, and ready to fight if they feel so inclined.
A hasteroom, it's a nice little cherry on top there.
A delicious sundae for Aurora.
Do you like sundae's trends?
I think most people do.
Tofu, they get him.
maybe there's okay no not a chance big a get brought down low to catch on to both
the two of them and Nisha trying to escape from this one also he doesn't
have his BKB for another seven seconds it means seven more seconds not gonna
happen Gigi is called with the Reaper site to finish it Aurora a big smile
unstoppable yeah I'm here at tip WS he's got a big old smirk on the space oh
boy I will say there is some good news for Lickly is that you get to
Look at that and be like, you know what?
We left in the necrophos, the house guard didn't work.
We tried some of the other bands,
the other bands made sense as well.
But I think there was a clear issue
that contributed to this loss for Liquid
and is definitely draft related.
Unlikely something so catastrophic happens in the next game.
We'll see if they can pull themselves back
and find some other solutions
cause they're gonna need it.
Liquid go down 0-1 Aurora, moving forward so far.
I'm going to say it was a
draft issue KP X coach of
liquid outdraft and car coach
of liquid and blitz. That's it.
That's all you need to know for
game one, at least because there
is still a lot more on the line
there, but that Necro loss pick.
My goodness. What a loss.
That's always been our
question. What is an impactful
loss pick? Is it exactly what
the team needs? I don't think
what the team needs. I don't think you have any questions about that one at all. Yeah, that was
three strength cores, two low damage supports. It's like, it's a free day for this guy.
It's also one of the heroes that has been almost feeling forced to be picked early because it's
so strong and getting it on that final pick of the draft almost feels illegal. Yeah. And also,
I mean, right here is a perfect example. Necro versus Huskar. Huskar loves playing at this
the slow HP below half HP just walks into Necro,
gets refersite, instantly disappears.
It's one of those matchups where Husker is a hero
that wants to snowball, play really aggro,
and when you're playing against this Necro hero,
you have to have this BKB,
otherwise this just happens over and over and over.
You could see it on camera,
that they were having way too much fun.
Like WS is like, okay guys, let's go for it round two.
Let's see if you learned your lesson
because this time around they were even ready
to bring more people to this engagement,
And one thing I really liked is how confident they were playing against Liquid in this one,
because we talked about the bad matchup, potentially for Ember Spirit against Huskar.
He was diving the tower, like he tried to kill it.
He Glyph went under the tower and tried to kill him.
He died, but the vibes were still good.
Like, I was watching him, like, okay, it is what it is,
because they knew that this last pick, Necro, he's doing way too good
and they just didn't have enough to handle it.
Plus also, Nightful, I felt like he didn't really get to play the game,
even though he ended the game with 6, 0, and 8.
He was just, you know, casual.
I feel like this hero could have been anything,
considering how well rounded this draft was,
I think the outcome would still be the same.
Will you say that?
But the Underlord didn't really have much of a game for itself.
So, what is something to be said?
Yeah.
I think he did his job of winning the safe lane.
It was the counter pick.
He was also blind in the sense that there's two cores
that we're able to deal with them with the Husker and the Tiny, but when you're saying
a life-sharing, like, do Husker and Tiny really deal with this hero in the safe end?
It might be not particularly, so our draft felt really good, and I kind of want to give
a shout out to the first phase picks, like, the first picks overall, you have one team
they're picking, Keyboard Light, which has, we've seen mixed results, like, some games
that looks decent, and some games that looks pretty bad, and then the other team
just picks a core, like, straight up they just pick, first pick a core for them,
They pick this Ember Spirit, looks really good.
And so in my eyes, it's like,
we've seen a lot today of these first pick supports
by a lot of the teams and it hasn't really looked that good.
I'm feeling we're at that stage of the tournament
where there are these very strong cores,
heroes like Necrophos, heroes like Ember.
And maybe you kind of want to lean towards
just taking them early in the draft
and leaving the supports a bit later.
I think this Cattle Hero, Keeper of the Light,
it can work as this first pick but you need the combo piece and we're just not
seeing this really prominent combo piece I mean underlord can work I mean fine but
they're not they're not they're not the story guys that are really like well
when you the fight the second that you get chocolate metric oh you press it on
me I'm gonna get two kills instantly they're more like oh you know I'll toss
my spells out maybe I'll get that one kill in the fight because of it but we
won't win due to it? That is such a difficult part especially when it felt
like for Liquid they had the perfect setup you guys talk about it so often
the Beast being a great counterpart it was there but instead they're going for
a much more out-descripted archetype of how they like that draft I mean they're
three in one it's worked for them so far they've gotten to this point for a
reason but in this game specifically it just doesn't work out that way this
Necro is way too difficult to deal with that you do end up regretting
what you start off with, especially when it's as early as a five minutes low cost than a double
kill. Yeah, you can feel that like this lane was over when you saw the icon, but the draft,
but what it shows is that they don't have the damage to kill this hero. This is not going to be
like tiny early on, doesn't really have the damage. Necrophos playing against the melee hero,
he's going to be pushing out. So he gets a kill a couple of seconds later, he's going to be
getting another kill they're gonna be diving the tower and also playing with the catapults like you
can see the other support also coming up making sure that they are going to be having that damage
which is going to be resulting in the tower kill relatively early on this is six minutes we're
talking about something similar happened in the previous series as well which they killed the
tower and it did open up the map a lot this time it was from the off lane so mecha first
knowing that they really don't have enough damage you can easily push through you can
easily connect with the supports as well try to punish this tiny and so they did multiple times then
I I do worry I think their last two picks for me were just
kind of flops if I like sure huskar and theory should be good for summer but again
niche is a great huskar and they've had success but it doesn't feel
like that's what they've kind of done good with at this tournament I think that they've
this success is on different yeah it's like they've looked better when he's on the spirit heroes
these active heroes, the ones that do stuff, maybe the closest to that genre would be the
Lena that a lot of things are seeing success with.
But that hero is just kind of on another level, whereas Huskar, I feel, it was really popular
day one, but it just has not seen the success of all these other mids.
And I also think while Huskar is definitely good against Ember and can be considered
an Ember counter in lane, Ember is this natural spirit vessel buyer and he's able
to scale into the mid game very well against the Husker I feel. And as Lacoste said, this
I'm just trying to even dive the Husker in the laning stage, which while he did dive,
that's really not the, that's not the how you want this, this laning stage to go for
what's quote unquote a counter matchup.
Did the balance is definitely shifted when the Ember feels that it can dive a Husker
there, but there is so much more than just what was the draft, what was the early
game or a leading phase I should say because it also felt like Liquid because we're overextending
themselves in some way. They were making those small mistakes when you're on the verge of qualifying
and you had a little too big for your boat. Yeah, they were also getting quite outplayed in this
one which we've seen some great play so far at TI. I think Natni on Rurubic has been amazing
like that Agile steal that did happen yesterday with the slight. This is also a funny sequence
that did happen. It's something that usually you don't see. Underlord uses twin gates and
then Rubik's like, oh thanks for that. I'll just come up to the other side of the map,
immediately gets the Dakota notices that he's doing a really good job and then Tofu is like,
I'm gonna try to get a kill. Moonlight Shadows about the end and then you see Tofu missing
and then Little Will with sidestep. He tried to go for the vision play but then misses
And what happens in the end, he steals the sharpshooter and they still gonna be able to throw the blood grenade, gets the sharpshooter on him, slows him down, which does allow Nightfall to get the kill.
So like the whole sequence of this event, like you can play any kind of funny music, it's gonna be probably 10 times better, but I gotta say, one of the better plays that I've seen in the eye, like in Betty Hill, you said.
Dude, that's the mental damage when you come up against the rubik. When you die by your own spells, you're like, I'm disconnecting my keyboard, I'm looking off, that's it, I'm done for the night and the game's not even over yet.
Yeah, it's been one of the heroes. I think that the sports have been able to show the most like off that like they're scaling
Like you said not me. He had vision for a second seal side of this gets an ages here
He jukes basically two different cells dodged the ultimate dodged the bush like even dodged the acorn shot
And going through the gates. I just I I like when supports have the ability to show off their skills
Because a lot of time we get to be like wow this carry player was so good
He outformed everyone or the mids playing some spirit he dodges death, but
I mean, you shine some light
on the support there. They're
pretty good too. Well,
unfortunately, we're not going
to be shining any more light on
the supports because standout
player was WS on Necro had a
phenomenal job for himself, but
he was also one of the players
that sat down with us before
T. I began and gave us some of
his thoughts and feelings.
With WS from Aurora, and
we're going to be talking about
his team coming in to T. I
playing this year in this very international team on Aurora?
It is a super good experience. I like the vibes in this team, like people, like they
have, yeah, from Europe and, you know, like different culture, everything.
Brilliant. So who was the most different to how you expected coming into the team?
I think it's Nightfall. Yeah. Yeah. From what I remember, my memories, he's like
kind of toxic guy. After I went to this team, it's kind of different. He's actually a good
guy, kind person.
And in what ways does he kind of show that kindness?
If people are getting lost in scrims or losing games, normally people are getting angry
or tilted, but he's kind of a chill guy.
Sounds okay. Super healthy team. I'm jealous. So what's been your biggest highlight of
the year so far?
X rampage on Blast, I forget which Blast was there but it's against Liquid I guess.
It feels so good to slam 5 heroes to get rampage.
Pretty sick, yeah. I mean, is Axe one of your favourite heroes to play at the moment?
Yeah.
Is there any hero you don't like playing at the moment but you kind of have to because of the meta?
Right now, I would say it's something like Necro and the Lord.
Is that sort of your playstyle then more sort of mobility initiation and is that how you got like really really high MMR?
Basically in this meta I have to adjust to current meta right now which is like Necro, Offlane or some underlords.
It really depends on your team if your mid lane goes bad and your safe lane goes bad basically you can just AFK and farm and you cannot do much.
So a lot of people want to know you know you're really really high MMR playing Offlane.
How was the secret to gaining MMR and climbing the leaderboard as an off-laner?
First, have a good communication with your teams, second, just ask your post-4 pick a strong laner
and you just win the lanes every game, it will make your life a lot easier.
Okay, so don't be toxic and have a good post-4.
Yes, I mean post-4 is very important if you get a random guy playing some patched post-4
Definitely you will not win MMR. Brilliant. So what's your personal goal for this international?
If the goal for sure is champion, but I would say like top four is not a bad result. So top four is fine for me
But for the final goal is still you have to win
Is I mean, I I don't want to get second place. I'm not the second place
There's been a lot of second places. See you guys for sure. Um, why do you think that there's been?
Is it a problem with grand finals? Which do you think you guys have?
I don't know I think we just get like night focus like he just have I think he
attend like nine grand finals and not win a single one so I think we just get
cursed by him. Just a curse nothing you can do about it okay well you know you're
doing any like superstitious things to try to break it for this TI? I would say
like because two years ago also liquid they just get like a lot of
second placement and in the end they win GIs so you know maybe it maybe yeah
this is a place this has been the place where curses are broken I wish you
really good luck WS thank you so much for your talk to me and good luck at the
international thank you
WS alluding to what liquid went through a couple of years ago, all these second places it felt
like victory was never going to be theirs until they ended up one year after that getting a
TI win for themselves. Maybe this is it. Maybe it all starts for Aurora by beating liquid and
then you take their energy of being able to break curses and break one for yourself and
And I mean, that's how it starts with a good group stage with getting to go through qualifications
now in this best of three and get an extra day off Lacoste.
Oh, absolutely.
I mean, this team, they've been nailing it.
A little surprise, he said top four, you know, he said, he said, four, three, not second
first.
Yeah.
Okay.
Because I feel like this team definitely with the mentality that they have something
might be like a mental thing, being able to win the tournaments because they came
in so close so many times in this season but I did put them in my top four I
believe I think that this team can do it. A 4-in-1 you put them as your 4-in-1 too.
Yeah I think this team can definitely like even go clean they did lose one but
I'd also want to talk about WS because this is the guy that is what I call
it relatively new to the scene he came into the professional Dota in 2021
Which in Delta terms is still like relatively young. Yeah, this is when you came in
But because he had the you know, he played for boom shortly
He played for Talon Vichy gaming where he didn't really have the results that he wanted
They got a one-third place in that year one tournament during the Talon time
It was about the Copenegame TI. Yeah, when I think he made a really big mark
His I think it was like specific his timber saw was really big
I know even like liquid was potentially like looking at him for an option for off-lane a lot of the teams were looking at him at that time
Yes, and since then he hasn't really had the most success until Aurora, which then this year. Sure. They haven't won
but again
Consistently a top four at worst top 16 in the world, which your second year after making it to this like international
stage on the the scene it's pretty good
Yeah, for sure. I think I called him multiple times, the most improved player of the season,
even though he was still good.
Not even just off-landing. You think out of every role, he's by far the most improved.
Yes, because before, he didn't really have the results, and then he came into this team,
and he's just the shining star of the team as well.
Also, I just want to say, listening to that interview, he makes winning pub sound so easy.
Just good communication. Tell your boss what a pick is strong.
He'll do the rest from there.
He also talked about Necro as well, where it was in that weird realm of like,
ah, I mean, you kind of just have to adjust to the meta. And like,
I guess he was so blasé about playing Necro.
Brother's getting a five minute double kill in game number one.
And I'm like, is it really? Do you really not that excited to pick Necro?
He's like, ah, you know, I just have to pick this hero.
I guess we can qualify as the main event to play it, I mean it would have been cooler if
I was Timbersaw, unfortunately they did ban it there in that final phase for Liquid.
So well he could get it for game number two though, it's not like it's impossible for
him to qualify to main event without Timbersaw so there is a potential there but we should
also change our conversation to Liquid a little bit here because this wasn't again
a liquid showing that we expected so often it feels like if they have good early game aggression,
they win the game. If they get a playmaker on Nisha, they can win the game. They didn't have any of
that for game one. Yeah, I'm definitely looking towards, I almost want to say like our entire
switch up of their draft. Like I really don't think- Every single hero. The order. Yeah.
Oh. I think a lot of it for me is the order. Sure. It's like the keepers
the underword. These heroes could make sense in the draft and I don't think they're necessarily
bad but I don't like the way that they order and their kind of responses to
everything. Like again sure Huskar is a response to Ember. It's very good you
counter him in the lane and theory you should snowball up to that but you're
playing to a last pick off lane, countering your carry and just like for
again the first pick keep the light. I think that there are a lot of different
options that they can have this draft that maybe the heroes will end up
similar but it'll feel a lot better because maybe now instead of this
Huskar you first picked some ember spirit some earth spirit some really strong core in the first day even maybe a
First pick just to give them a very solid off lane because ace kind of struggled in this one
so just I'm hoping for
Just a big change up and then for Aurora
Do the same thing just pick a strong core early pick supports that enable this guy
I pick a carry that's gonna be stealing lane and it seems like you just give WS
Whatever he wants the last week and I'm cook
Yeah, I also think that this was not the lineup that they wanted to go with
There's a lot of counterpicking coming into the series. You do quite a lot of preparation what they're gonna be picking how you're gonna counter it
But you can't cover all the angles sometimes
You end up with like how this really looks good here
Maybe in that moment and those 30 seconds up to a minute and then you end up with a lot of counter picks
But you don't really have like the cohesion
Maybe some of the strats that you were preparing for it
you don't end up going for it because there is this like casual first two
supports that they picked up the keeper of the light and hoodwink and then
Underworld was kind of response to the ember and morana and then huskar in the
last phase was a response to this ember spirit as well and casual tiny so I
kind of feel like we're gonna be seeing four maybe even all five different
heroes from liquid I do I do also want to give credit to Aurora because I
mean all you are saying give me should this playmaker I believe Earth
Spirit was first phase band and they first pick the Ember which Nisha is known for. So Aurora kind of
taking these avenues away from Nisha and you know making them kind of draft the way they want to
or they want them to you know. Yeah I definitely think that the Ember's response was really smart
by Aurora. It's again kind of what we were saying it's you're taking it away from a Coddle
pairing and you're taking away from Nisha with the Earth Spirit band. The midfielder to me
definitely feels limited at this TI I would say there's like five or six
heroes that are extremely strong and then they all get banned because they're so
strong and they have to go to this next like tier which doesn't feel that good
you do have to reason like Huskar pocket the snap used to be very popular but
picked with a decent one right but people don't feel the confidence to it's
not the same as like this Ember Urspirit Lena or like these big three
and then maybe an invoker you throw in there so I just want to see Nisha on
something that makes me feel like I want to wow us right the liquid does the best
as a team whenever Nisha's almost like the star of the team and he makes everyone
look good around him because they all not necessarily rely on him but he does the
playmaking for them yet we're seeing a game number two draw off to coming up
on our screens and before we dive deep into it and look at it we want to
remind you guys that there are all the streams going on I know yandex and
iron wing have their series going on boom boys and falcons still have
I believe Nigma Galaxy and Spirit are just about to begin this so there's three other stream for you guys
But when it comes to this drop, we're gonna do something a little bit different on the mainstream
We're gonna jump to our cost
Is it gonna walk you through the draft as we do have lyrical and Trent for liquid and Aurora?
Thank you so much Nat. That's right
We're just gonna talk a little bit about what we're seeing Trent and my goodness they get the Lena
This was banned out. I believe in the last
game. But definitely, to me at least, this is the type of dynamic where you feel like you need to just sort of put that entire game behind you, call it a draft loss, and then we're going to do better next time.
Yeah, that's certainly named the game and the draft here, 14 liquid. In terms of Aurora, I mean, first pick, this is, ended up being a very powerful hero, obviously. You guys have seen many inspiring performances on the Lina,
especially today and when you pick her this early in the draft you can't really
counter her mid and in the entire draft you're just thinking all right this
might be the carry lane. Most notably I was just going to say this guy is still
in the tree protector because for the you know when you have the lean at this
one the number one heroes you want to get for yourself as a melee support to
help her in the in the safe lane or even just to aid her in the mid for
any sort of like dives and trades and whatnot but team liquid with quite
signature hero for this team for sure. Yeah, a nice one to pick up. And I think that also kind
of sets the tempo for your game that you can, you know, run this in there, you're going to be able
to eventually get into a blink dagger, most likely stop that Lena that just wants to be this turret.
And it is interesting, right? Because there's that duality of like, is it a turret Lena right
clicking from all over, or is it going to end up being like that sort of magical burst type
of hero in either case you need to find heroes that can both get on top of her and then also hold
that hero in place. That's also interesting when you have presumably Makoto being shown so early here
in the lina. One thing like liquid I feel like have two strategies. One is like get Nisha his like
winning lane and you know Nisha goes crazy does Nisha things but I think they're more successful
more common strategies often showing Nisha's hero earlier and worrying less about him being
countered out in this idea of just, you know, Nisha will get his stuff. Let's focus more on
enabling our two side lanes. That's the opposite, obviously, of what happened last game. Last game
was like, we're picking the hot scar. This is like, we've got to win that lane. Yeah. There's
important unnecessarily that used to like going mid, I feel like. Well, and this is the other
thing too is like, they've been really trying to, it seems like, secure aces hero early,
Hence the like Ursa ban last time into the Underlord pick this time
They're not going to be able to run that same strategy and there is still the potential
For the linear so it's sort of weird right because like I think that there's a pool of hero that pool of heroes that ace is really
Comfortable on and looks very good on and when he's not on those heroes what happens then so you kind of got to get him early, too
yeah
Well much like the success of WS though
you know ace has got a pretty mean lichen maybe they could find something a
little bit more out there does as you can see he doesn't he's got a decently
wide pool so many of those heroes still remaining here your dark seer by the
boys was seeing a ton of play today I feel like for a while there every
stream I looked at there was a dark seer but not being relevant in our last two
series so far put away from it a bit I will say that any of those types of
heroes, you end up in a situation against Alina where you just get blown up, you can
be very susceptible to that. They're spending a lot of time on this.
It's got to be the center. Like they got to be thinking like what's
happening with center. So they're willing to leave the center. They pan the
Marana despite having presumably a mid that has no impact with it. So that's
a ton of respect just to the way that Aurora are using it. I mean Mira
was insane. He played so well last game, specifically against the hoodwink.
He had so many nasty quelling play plays to chop the tree down before the bushwhack could take hold
Right, and I guess if you already have the lean-in then you can just take one other set up stun for the arrow
And then either you're gonna get arrowed or you're gonna have to bkb on whatever the core is from
Liquid otherwise you get exploded. So it does make sense
There aren't many other heroes that have that like if you get caught by it
You're probably just dead that stat maybe coming to play that we just saw there the two and three for tofu in the one
to know for boxies. Hey, it's looking like you got to pass the controller over to your
older sibling on this one, and the boxy might be taking the hoodwink for a ride. There is
a chance that that might happen. And okay, we had a Kaori game, guys. Okay, he's playing
this Shakiro. They got no stuns. No stuns. They had no way to start a fight. It was impossible.
And I was like, lyrical, man, this game looks really hard for Kaori. Like, what are
they going to do? They had Marana Arrow. Yeah, Kaori just ice-pathed everyone.
Yeah, just blind.
Just raw.
He just caught every important kill the entire game with just a raw ice path.
My guy, he was like a shadow in the woods.
He was the hoodwink.
Honestly.
He was like flying hoodwink, but having ice path.
Yeah.
It was unbelievable.
Another thing that I think has been talked about a bit, but is always also nice is the dynamic here of KP facing off against Blitz.
Mm-hmm.
former assistant coach facing off against the main coach again and at least so far Aurora have come
up with some very good answers they're gonna take the lion again a hero that we don't see all the time
okay he's been quite absent this tournament despite being relatively consistent i would say
throughout most of the year right and there it is so they do get back around and ask to pick
the center for themselves i think that's kind of a miracle honestly that you still managed
to get the Centaur at this point. I think they've got to be very happy about that. Sure,
they're 0-2 with it, but you guys have all seen Centaur. This hero is absolutely ridiculous
right now. And it's great versus the Lena too, in terms of just like how Lena wants to
play the game. You know that the entire team collapsing in on you is going to be a bad
time. They're going to comp it up with the Invoker, a timeless duo, Centaur stomp
into Sunstrike, got a little bushwhack, got overgrowth. They have a lot of tools
to enable the invoker of this game. A tremendous amount of teamfight, on team liquid. On the
side of Aurora, they have a decent amount as well. I mean, if they paired together like
Alaspec Darkseer or something for Aurora, they would be like massively winning the teamfight,
but right now at least it feels a little bit more bursty, right? You got Laguna Blade,
you got Finger of Death. They also have just these like walls that go up, but things
like checking out like Earth Spikes, throwing down ice paths. So when the Stampede is
coming and checking out the avalanche a lot of these ideas are just like oh let's run on top of
them aren't really viable yeah just a lot of good defensive spells to help slow that down and give
more space to their their lina here and uh cute little kitty nice next up they they got to figure
out who their offlaner is going to be and as we saw earlier the pool pretty much wide open at
at this point, like Largo Underlord Bando,
but I mean, your dooms still remain.
Just be one of the bigger ones, of course.
I like the idea of more teamfight, as you were mentioning,
just like another body, like Doom can do,
just to provide more space for the Lena,
because looking at their lineup,
no matter where the Lena goes,
in terms of, you know, laning or whatever,
she's gonna be the game winner.
Right, it does feel to me more like this is now
going to be a mid-Lena with the safe lane Tiny.
That's tended to be the direction
that those two picks have gone.
Yeah.
And then the flip side to that too though is WS,
I think is the type of player that is willing to reach
a little bit outside the box if it's the right pick for it.
And we talked about the Lycan,
obviously it's both for ace,
but for WS it could be interesting to pair together
with the bite onto the tiny.
It would be a very, yeah, that would be a wild combo.
It would be a very kind of like quick chase down style,
less locked down.
I think the axe kind of style is definitely
the safer way to go, which is why they put
like they can see that that just like links together very nicely, but you know
very similarly to like the team resilience draft where we're like oh
this color is hard they're gonna be like so quick and so fast but you see that
when that execution comes together those kind of drafts can work extremely well
and again just to sort of reiterate the stakes of this game right now that
we're going into Aurora one away from being into the international having a
day off before they well the rest of the teams are having to play and
And if Liquid drop down, there's a lot of dangerous teams in that elimination round
that they might not want to face off against.
It's very possible that you could just get knocked out on one bad day of play.
Yeah, you want to hit the eject button here, man.
Like, get me out of this group stage.
Absolutely.
It is ferocious in there.
You look at all the teams, there's killers everywhere.
A couple of carry bans there, as you can see.
It's Liquid, and you know, we're talking a lot about a Rose Offlane pick.
The response is going to be there from Liquid.
they're going to see what this offline matchup is going to be before they choose what their
option will be. And plenty of position one heroes also left in the pool right now.
I kind of like a monkey. I saw Mickey playing it earlier. I don't know. To me, there's elements
out of the like, if this lean is just sort of standing there, drop down on top of her,
maybe you can hunt a little bit more. I also just think that in general, I like
Mickey monkey king. It feels like it fits with the way that he plays often.
Fast tempo carries are also very good with the invoker, right? Because like,
Invoker kind of becomes like this sort of a carry unit in your lineup, right?
Like you're trying to enable his Sunstrikes and everything,
and you want him to become this big, growing beast.
So if you're getting up and involved as you're tiny, as you're monkeying,
those are the heroes that can really make the Invoker have a great game,
because that's who you want to base everything around with.
You've already got all this nice team fight and Sunstrike setup.
Like, keep going with that, I think.
Remember who the liquid last pick was?
I'll have to check it later,
but I'm also seeing that this is going to be Mickey responding to the last pick of Aurora,
and he's going to get the counter pick in lane.
Considering that Aurora have like consistently given the off-laner last pick, it's interesting to watch.
And the Dawnbreaker, this year has been all over the place today.
You were kind of a hater earlier, you know?
I'm a hater.
You're not a Dawnbreaker fan.
I'm a Dawnbreaker fan.
I mean, I can see the value.
You know, when she has her good game, she does look really strong.
But I like it in this sense of it's being picked very late in the draft.
Okay.
That I can definitely get around it a little bit more.
And so far so good, obviously.
You know, she's positive four and three.
What does it do this game? It doesn't really give them that team fight in terms of like additional control or anything
But you know if they're trying to set up these Sunstrike kills if they're diving in deep into your territory
Don't break who's gonna be there to help you that being said
If she gets caught out like often don't breakers like to play a little bit alone because they're trying to farm up
But by themselves and then they react and join in with the solar guardians
Maybe she gets caught out by some of these plays like if there's like a shadowblade hero or something to come out last
On the carry that could be coming kind of interesting
see indeed where they decide to go with it. I know the panel wants Faceless Boy.
I would say it's not going to go with that. Yeah, it's not going to be the Faceless Boy with the Invoker
because that would be very exciting. Instead it's going to be the Luna, so classic
Nikkei. Oh no. Oh no, 0% win rate. Look at Nightfall Go. Oh, he's talking. He is
planning out the entire game right now. You're going to do this? I'm going to do this.
Holy. Yeah, he's ready. One, two, three. Well, the talking speed is
definitely into the favor of Aurora. It's not even close. Words per minute. But the facial
expressions always go niche this way. You got to watch his player camp guys. If there's anyone
you're going to pay attention to. The eyebrow raises. They're great. He's always got the best faces.
Maybe not in that last one with the husk. Well, actually the face probably was very good,
honestly. Yeah, we'll have to check that out later, see if we can get that on the highlights.
Regardless, it is going to be game number two Aurora facing off against Team Liquid
in a match that could send them directly into their international
unless the other match that's on the other side of the stream is cleaned up.
That would be the second team through then.
I think going to the main stage sounds like a good idea.
You know, making your way up into the top eight.
All right.
Sounds like a solid plan.
Mira, headset's still off.
Who are you favoring?
We're not used to this.
We're not.
We're not using the panel.
Well, we are on the other stream.
That's true.
So we actually are used to this.
We actually do this really often.
I don't know what you're talking about.
So who do you favor in though?
I like the idea of the comfort of the Luna,
but she's certainly not still one of my favorite heroes.
But I think they are a team who understands the hero very well.
So if they believe that it's here that can give them a chance here,
then I can understand the logic to it.
Overall though, with the way Aurora played Game 1,
with their lineup looking very cohesive and everything,
I do think they're well set up for Game 2.
them a slight edge.
Okay.
I'm kind of of the same mind as you.
I like, I mean the only thing that I'll say is I don't feel like the Dawnbreaker gives
them a ton.
I'm curious to see what they're thinking they're going to get out of it and what this sort
of lineup looks like.
But to me at least I kind of liked all the four heroes before the Dawnbreaker.
And then I liked the Luna more.
So cover her up.
We just don't look at that one.
Yeah, exactly.
I don't believe it.
You know, I equally dislike both of the last picks.
That sounds like a panelist thing to say.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.
And who knows who's gonna win?
You know, anything can happen, anything is possible.
That is definitely true and we've learned that a lot
so far in this tournament.
So, I mean, you get aggressive, you get moving,
set up for some solar guardian plays.
I just wanna see Dawnbreaker like fighting.
I don't like the Dawnbreakers
who are just like off doing their own thing.
I like them getting involved with the solar guardians early.
It is like a classic call, which is like, you know,
your team tells you to group up
and then you're like, I got ulti, I got ulti.
Man, I'll be there, I'll be there.
Forget that there's a silencer in the game.
Oh, no.
Well, I'll just keep hitting this neutral camp.
And in these creeps.
What can you do?
They're not going to kill themselves.
I just assumed that it's like a spectre player who
is at a role token.
Oh, yeah.
That's who I think is picking Dawnbreaker every time.
That's a fair point.
Now, Aurora, heading down here to begin the deforestation
process.
But look at this.
Trent.
What?
Are they prepared?
Have they seen into the future? Do they know where Aurora is going?
Will they be able to catch any of these heroes?
I mean, they're looking, looking, looking. Oh, no, there's no trees.
Were they, were they going to plant a tree?
Like, what do you think they had the plan to use a branch or something?
I don't know.
It kind of looked like, and they just didn't quite get the timing right.
Whatever the case is, Liquid not quite able to connect there with Foxy.
They'll do a late smoke has has become custom
See if they find anybody WS smoke breaks
Broke on tofu
Now we step forward stun onto to big stunt follow-up from WS tofu in trouble does he manage to get out?
No, Makoto draws first blood. I
Mean, she's a pretty solid level one here. I'll tell you that much
You got a full star breaker on to somebody? That's a lot of damage.
Very nice stuff. You can see the bounty runes going there into the favor of Aurora with
the first blood. A big lead to start the game with, man.
Now, but it is Trion Protector. One of the best supports in the game. Waiting for
the gold to be there for his Luna to buy the next round of tangos before teething
back. He knows his job. Yep. Very wise. Oh, whoops. Raps around. Hits now onto Mira, but the stun is
still there. Mid-K takes a bit of a beating, as will Mira. And this is part of the the draft.
One would assume is having the Lucent Team, right? We're talking about the Dawnbreaker.
Nice fall. That is not where he wants to be. Tried to go through, but will not happen.
Cowrie now, hitting on the boxy, won't be quite enough damage there. Does he have
having a stomp race, yes he will.
All right, gets hit, bushwack, dead.
I like the call coming in from Makoto saying,
hey, does the sun strike.
Like, he saw Nisha, so that's why he did the reverse there.
But at least they don't give the gold to the evoker.
Right, right, so.
Got that going for him.
But yeah, this pick on the Luna,
definitely part of their logic, right?
It's like, I want a stun on my carry,
I can stop the hammer coming in from the dawn,
but if they just set up with the earth spike every time,
it might not be that reliable.
Be a nice answer to it for sure.
And you can see Makoto trying to play the impressive style that he tends to with that
Lena.
You cannot afford to die right now.
Push back lands.
Ace is going to be forced back for a moment.
They fall, pushing out the wave.
They do have access to the small camp.
Box is going to try and mess with them a little bit here, but it's going to get
stacked up and that's a little bit dangerous.
Surely he won't get killed in it, you know, twice in a row.
No, of course not.
He's got a branch tango going, he's got a water room, he'll be alright.
And Tobu is level 2, so living in Iron Man now gets leveled.
But you know, all for my Luna for now.
Another game though that I could have probably gonna wind up on the slower pace
like
The Luna, you know that this the exact opposite of what I was discussing in terms of you know
You brought the monkey king for Mickey or like, you know any hero that can be a little bit active early and help set up for Sunstrike
Luna is the exact opposite
She is playing her own game and now we're just putting more pressure on the other three heroes of liquid to try and set up
For these skills are gonna accelerate your invoker into being that
You're trying to, you know, just sort of hit creeps, hay-of-kay, as much as possible, and...
Yeah, it's not great.
9 and 4 versus 19 and 6 and Makoto has been taken, Nisha, to task.
I know at least one of those denies for the Forge Spear as well.
Watch for how he handles this pressure.
I mean, what can you do against Lena, right?
You guys see what's happening.
You know, he's got two points for the dragon slave.
He just guarantees those two CS, that pushes you back.
She gets the third lasso.
Now you're under a tower, you're being pelted from a million miles away.
And it's denied out too.
I mean, the only plus side to this is he can't do that one either.
Like, hopefully he's going to, I swear, he's going to get stunned for a moment,
back away the the only thing that he can do eventually is like go for the
Ford spirit deny on the rune but that might not be super possible either he's
going to make it in time yeah we're going to stand there he can't get it
wow okay yeah and again the Sun strikes out if the Sun strikes aren't there it's
gonna start looking like last game yeah no it's this is gonna be a serious
Oh, man, but kids stop watching so look yikes, man. Yikes. All right. He got one
28 and 10 just get beat down by this Lena man sending the forge spirit over. He's not gonna get there
He's like he's like this is more worth it. Yes. Yes. That's that's what you got to do. You know, I'll nightfall
Somehow back behind his own tower. Okay. I mean this you know, we're paying attention to the midway
Look what's happening up here. All right, the Tide he's having some issues. I mean he's got decent lashes, but
At the very least the Centaur is having a good start. The way he's been pulled back here
Every time I look the creep wave has been pretty close to Ace's tower. So he's doing just fine
He's even with Nightfall. Mickey is even with WS
Feel like our Lunas can often get a little bullied in the first couple levels that didn't necessarily happen
He did retreat back to the jungle it looks like. Yes, I did just notice the net worth slightly lower
Yeah, so he's not having like a great time, but it's also not completely terrible.
WS holding this wave up here though is a bit of a...
Oh, Makoto mid.
This is a good play if they can get it.
They need this so badly and they will manage to get them.
And Nisha actually is the one that gets molested with the cold snap damage.
And they don't get a punish, right?
Like, Shree has run mid.
Yeah.
And Luna was able to clear up a small camp down there
and then also farm through some other neutrals.
That is fantastic.
Thumb strike.
Again, nightfall.
Not going to get killed by that one,
but we'll die to Ace after the fact.
All right, there we go.
Mid lane, unfortunately,
they immediately do the counter play right back at them.
Yeah, Mira had come through.
He had equally ditched his lane
to secure the kill mid.
That's a six minute rune.
It's an end-is, not the best one.
WS boldly runs into the load as well to give it up.
And they are just staying mid right now though, keeping up the pressure with the level 2 liquid fire, K.O.R.E.
At least only person I've seen picking this hero, maybe someone else has been.
But he's very confident with the capabilities of J'Kuro, forcing out T.P. back up top as well.
Well, Tofu's coming in right now, so...
They might be able to go. They're taking that tower, but the bigger play is on tonight fall.
3 heroes, open in, trying to take him out, and I call almost dead, needs another hit and we'll get it!
Foxy gets that finish, so they sacrifice their Tiny to take the tier 1 mid, possibly their Lion as well by the luxury of Bushwax back out.
This guy's going down too.
So it is a choice where you're giving up something for it, but getting that mid tower will make this invoker feel that much less safe.
less safe. Likewise, WS. Are they coming through the gate to try and make something happen here?
Good thing Makoto had the invoker in, though. He just gets meatballs by Nisha. It's forced to pop it, throws the Laguna
Blade back on him. He's just trying to be equally miserable.
An invoker with no tower and 19 last hits at 7 minutes. I think we know who Aurora
wanted to focus in this series. I mean, it's double the net worth right now on the
over to the Invoker. They have done everything they can to try and shut down
Nisha and it has worked. The question is how can he recover and who else can
step up on his team? That's the other question. What can you get done with
Ace? What kind of a build does he go for right after this health? I think there's a
lot of questions. I mean that's the problem right? Centaur really has not
been that hero that makes moves on this. Like this is setting him up to have more
stuff later so they're gonna need to find it out of their supports they're gonna
need to potentially get some kills and some sun strikes and ace making moves
I guess punishing nightfall that type of move that they've been doing is the
best that they can hope for. Yeah I mean they tend to use Stampede to save
Mikkei down balling on her, she was about to die at the dawn breaker.
a second tower. Aurora just smelling blood in the water and going after it. WLAS gets
hit. They do have the tree to try and keep this tower alive. Not sure if he was gonna
be able to make much happen there and Mikae tries to interrupt. There's a T-ball coming
in. He just shows up in the Lakuta Blade. He's just gone. Oh no, this is gone completely
South, Thornisha, they thought they were going to set up a gank, but everybody is dying.
Another ice pad.
Koto, look in, Foxy just out of range.
But Makoto is there with the chase, does not have LSA, push whack out.
A few more right clicks, and Foxy will be able to escape from that one.
Alright, chase back in.
Hour alive.
Go through.
Oh, good cuts.
Now they turn back in.
Dawnbreaker, looking forward.
Finally brought down!
Uh, burns down.
Mikkei and Tufu now back down here, though.
They don't want to give up this tower.
I mean, they have three points in the Living Armor, so...
It's tempting to hold on to it for as long as possible.
Yeah, I mean, it looks bad,
but if they can manage somehow to keep this tower alive,
maybe it's worth it.
But WS stuck around after Solar Guardian, like...
Yeah, it's just so...
All right, he just got level six on Mikkei,
and he's coming in.
This might be for the game.
Makoto, they gotta get something there. Laguna blade out. Damage, Sunstrike, can't guess! They got him!
Oh, every little bit of that was necessary, and now they find WS.
Don't ever count them out.
As they drop the Overgrowth, Tofu gets level 6, they find a third, Liquid.
They're packed up against the wall, they needed that.
Somehow they stop this Boulder that's rolling downhill.
All together they manage to find everything perfectly in sync. The level 6 onto the Luna.
The kill cement the level six for the tree which helps get the final kill there as well
three heroes to fall of big gold swing puts this back to just being a slightly down for Aurora and
Once again salvaging that bottom tower to give some space here to make a cuz they cannot afford to have an invoker and a Luna
Farming the same space in their jungle right now that that I mean the measured
Defeats retreats when they needed to because I but you can't afford to die right here now
They threw bodies for this and it worked
Bushwack out cuts the tree now the hit sharpshooter damage some strike trying to connect will be enough to take down Kory
Likewise tofu is a double the hill actually though
How is this working they're finding the magic, but look out this friend. Oh, that's not good at all
Oh, well you saved your tree to kill your Luna pretty much on that one unfortunately with the way it all shook out
I mean how the pressure is just back down bottom with a catapult
They're committing for this and they are not willing to let this tower stand
So that finally should be the tower brought down as nightfall makes the move
But this has been a lot of time centaur very very far and Tisha has started to catch up a bit
Yeah towards that meteor hammer. Yeah, it is done now. He's got the recipe as well. So
And finish that up ace you heard the panel talking about this the these team items the
Oras something that a lot of teams aren't opting for
Ace sensing in this game that they might need it on the earlier end is tofu again
Not to tax but an hammer to fell this tree. It's century Ward place down
Recognizing that he was gonna try and set up on him
What a good job.
I tried to go onto Makoto.
I put the Sampeet out, might be able to, has an ant damage.
Nice.
Won't matter.
Good plays here.
Okay, deep observer ward here, spots Mikkei, friendly with his mask, Matt, it's another
thing you can do about it when the heroes are dead right now.
That's commitment.
Mirrors nearby.
Lion, ready to go.
There's not enough mana for the Solar Dragon right now either.
So even if, you know, they have additional heroes, not much they can do.
So, Vengeance finally had here by Liquid, they will get their first tower of the game in 12 and a half minutes.
And they're moving in to Aurora's territory.
Burn the jungle. Lion is nearby and looking for a fight.
They go into the Centaur, tries to find a kill on the ace.
He got to the stop but won't be enough.
Same time they were trying to find WS with three heroes but they just don't get the connection.
Although they will take an ancient stack in trade.
Meteor Hammer and the Meatball roll through for Anisha.
So they get quite a good juicy bounty up there.
WS very wary of coming out from this tower to farm this wave.
He can sense that with what else is going on on the map they might be lurking near him right now.
And they have a ward also on the Luna this move right here is a little bit sketch though, right like
We're getting close to the 14 minute wisdom our liquid gonna try and bring numbers to either here to defend it
Or are they gonna maybe try and steal the other one?
I mean if W said man, I would be down for an aggressive play on the top one, but
Yeah, he's not available for a solar guardian right now. All right
Solving into solar guardian is not that inspiring, you know
if you're not gonna have your other spells when you show up. Fair enough. Looks
like they're just going to leave that one. Could we all grab their own?
I think Tofu didn't end up playing aggressive. He might have to steal this one.
WS will return there just to double-check just in time so wouldn't
matter anyway. Mid lane? Find them. Meteor Hammer connects. Stampede run away.
Kari burning down. Nisha. They drop the ulti and cannot keep him alive. And not enough
heal available. The meatball and the meteor hammers is too much. Keep finding something
and making it out of nothing. And nice ball of course. Can't really threaten this center
with a lot of health. They're bringing in the lion. Now the lunipsy piece in. An opportunity.
He is also here, though.
Stun connects, Laguna blade out, ace in trouble.
Damage, is it gonna be enough?
Yes, they got him.
And now, get the sharpshooter onto the tiny.
Tree realizes he does not wanna be here anymore
and as Boxy runs away, they manage to find the Stun.
LSA and Boxy is gone.
That's one of those moments
where you just get punished for being good at Dota
because he's playing onto that wave
because he knows Avalanche isn't back
for a few more seconds and then he's gonna retreat
But he gets caught by the Lightstrike Array out of the trees from the TPing Lena.
It's just like, ah, what can you do?
You know, then you get confident and avalanche, and down you go.
So this big, beefy center.
We said he needed a lot of help on Knifehall to get that kill.
The help arrived.
Pretty quick play coming from both squads here.
And liquid.
Feel like now with a Meteor Hammer in tow.
Ooh, follow the creep.
Dude, he spotted it, and now Mira hit off to the side.
Cold snap is going to get an item delivered,
but is going to be hurting for it.
Sun strike and the right clicks coming in from the forward spirit.
Just like consuming.
Oh, Lotus, magic watch, save me.
Ophu, find him.
Nightfall, avalanche toss, moving in with the sentry.
They get the overgrowth.
Oh, no.
Nightfall is going to be found in another one.
Misha, getting involved with the team.
Standard from the bottom, now he's here. 8k net worth, second highest in the game right now.
A terrifying landing stage for Nisha. Couldn't get a creep to save his life. Lost his tower nice and early.
But, big bounce backs here with the six kills.
Now I'm bottom. I mean they have hit this ward down here for the longest time.
Trying to track the Luna's positioning and it's not even enough to get Tofu on the tree and protect himself.
Liquid manages to slip through a lot of this choking grasp of Aurora this time.
Last game it was like the opposite.
They got into this part of the map and they never left.
And there was no space for Liquid whatsoever.
Part of this is definitely the Trian effect, not only from slowing down some of that tower
pressure with the living armor, but just the nonstop vision that you get from the
Strotas wandering around through the trees.
Sofu now getting a very quick blink dagger, 16 minutes because of how much he's been involved in these fights.
And also going forward immediately after the brown boots because he recognizes that Aurora want to play aggressive right now.
They wanted to be moving under your side of the map so there's going to be very good opportunities where, you know,
solo grinding is coming in and right after it's like, boom, overgrowth.
Another one, they find a nightfall in trouble.
Sharpshooter there didn't have vision can't quite get the kill so we'll manage to escape
They're looking to enter a very annoying mode here soon has the shark you'd up next
So with him and boxy roaming on this side of the map
I want to just keep slowing down make a rather night ball as much as they can to keep Mickey far ahead on the Luna
Definitely you can see like that net worth change over the last five minutes.
How much Mickey has just been able to free farm and sort of stay out of the limelight,
make sure that he's still getting his items and building towards becoming that carry.
And I think that so far at least, Liquid very happy with the way that this game has
gone.
The early part sketchy, but the last like, you know, seven minutes or so has looked
very very good yeah they avoided the threat of possibly just losing if they
had lost like that right down bottom when they get the triple kill that was massive for them
a little miss oh wow what's interesting is how aces build has worked out as well right because
one thing that we're seeing a lot he's sent to her struggle with is they go for this heart
and at this point he would be close to getting his heart right now but then he would still be
very far from his blink dagger instead of by going for this pipe he's opening up the
I think the blink tagger a little bit earlier. Nice soundtrack connection.
And so we'll have to watch like as that blink tagger arrives,
like, could you've had time to get the heart?
Cause you would have rather had it.
That century is going to give vision here. I'm WS obviously.
Yeah. Very interesting.
Okay. It's going to hit away at this tower.
Yeah. A bit of a risky observer to go for as a tree,
just very likely and ends up being de-warded here, but had they come to defend, obviously, it could have resulted in an insanely good fight for Liquid, but...
Ace is working his way towards his Blink Dagger and Aurora, very much just struggling to get things done.
I think partially because, you know, Liquid know that they were looking to find some fights and they were able to dodge them pretty effectively.
But a Dragon Lance now done for the Lena.
Yeah, good opportunities there.
They've got to be pretty scared to show their faces here though, because Anisha can't just
blow you up if he hits you with that ATOS.
Are they going to try and go onto the dong right now?
Well, they're moving up with Hoodwink, but decide not to.
Very grouped together on mid is Aurora.
Looking like they might be set for a smoke or something.
Yeah, they have an odds near the... pretty intense drop zone.
4 mentor, quickly being jumped upon here by liquid, very quick and will manage to take
this one down, the eyes in the forest would be awesome, I think either one pretty good
and I'd almost prefer the boomerang with the invoker players and everything but the way
they play around this vision and with the goals that they have for Aurora right now
The eyes might actually be the better one.
I mean, it also might mean, you know, you're getting into territory.
We can find those pick offs.
We've seen how much revision can matter.
We have these types of hero, Anisha, not with the team that's smoking.
And they're heading over towards the Lena.
Kari just dying up top.
There he was just sitting for smokes.
Yeah, you know, his tiny was in behind him a little bit.
His Lena as well.
So hit his job, didn't necessarily want to die, but just trying to create
as much space possible for its course in farming.
Bottom, Tofu has done an excellent job
as they will see that sentry ward and now take it out.
Tofu jumps in overgrowth, WS pops the BKB,
thinking about a finger of death.
Now they decide to show up.
Wait a minute, look who's there!
Wow, I don't even know what happened there.
They pressed every button for the tree.
It's this ward still in behind from Tofu.
Oh my god
They find any way to get the rest of these heroes out of here that was crazy
You're in the back if the fist of death tail under the tree though, and now he's maybe too far
I'll simply out a bit too much. So does the pipe to pop. Okay, it's coming
They do decide to back out. Yeah, I think
The pipe to make him plenty tanky. You'll be all right. So again, they overgrowth
Lena tipis in then liquid catch and kill the Lena while everybody else runs away
Yeah, you feel very pressured to commit to that play when your Dawnbreaker uses her BKB.
Yeah.
I feel like Azalina, or Azalina rather.
But a very quick response to there from Liquid.
And now it's Aurora who are feeling pressured.
They're gonna smoke up with their Invisarune and Shadowblade of Tiny.
They're trying to find this invoker.
They ping, they know.
Yeah, they just saw him invising on the creep wave.
Okay, so...
Now we'll boxy intercept this smoke gang.
tofu tofu is there now they'll find him and boxy thought about fighting that they
tried the essence is there are they gonna go for okay slow down they're already
dying to that now pops is he gonna chase down looking for the finish some
strike yes he shot gets the tornado lift up onto one and now the chase ace is
there too they find the lion pipe out trying to stay alive don't break her
The end ace is going to be too far, but big case also showed up and now on the WS. They back away though
Okay, not enough a lack of Luna don't have the full control to get it
So despite fighting into an obscensory they had they end up losing it on that fight is liquid a big win for a rura
taking down that centaur
Unexpected not quite as many of our centers of course at this point because of this fight build
I know Makoto, but we'll be passing by a century and yeah, they see him so
We'll not be able to make any move there interesting window the game now where we don't oh, that's a ob-century combo a little bit there
lose from Nisha
This is a no BKB Lena. So Nisha doing the math right now. Oh, dude. Nisha's thinking about it doing it
He's under mission calculating under mission. They got him there
there. They came in and smoked up. Looking for Mira. Link Dagger 2, 1. Oh, I'm so close.
They find Gator at the other side of the trees though. And we'll be able to get the disarmed
chase down. So, managed to get one out of it.
Boxie up ahead still with that smoke. Trying to find another hero to grab.
Gonna find WS, the dawn breaker.
Yeah, he runs though.
The friends are too far.
Misha, mid lane, gonna run into night ball, passing through each other.
The footsteps.
I won't be able to do anything there.
3000 gold lead, it's still very, very even at this point in the game.
Obviously, favoring liquid, but not by an insane margin.
We'll go to the edge here.
Every second appears to be getting a larger and larger lead, so we'll see what that means.
It means they want more and more aggression, that's for sure for liquid here.
They are just running straight into this fight.
That's Indarin. I think I might have been my goodness something's happening over on the B string
Very loud you're a spots Nisha look at the statistic. That's nice
Now they know I don't end up there on purpose. That's for sure
They find it
Stampede looking for more finding kory
Beyond God like think about how Nisha's game started in that laning stage and then
This is what we knew could always end up happening. No surrender button and then it's well that's crazy
And it's not like they have like the most insane
You know set up here. I guess the hood wakes pretty good
I mean it's less of a like individual thing. It's the team effort around invokers what that stuff
Yes
Like ensuring that they're gonna hit that it's really all to the zero
So into the pit they will go and Luna very happy whenever she's able to get herself an
Aegis.
Well, especially with how far away that BKB was looking for a while there.
Yeah.
Now you can very safely farm into your BKB with this Aegis.
They're pinging Mickey.
Oh, they're going for the insta kill.
Oh, interesting.
Well, if they could find her.
I've seen the Luna allusions, Nightfall on the hunt, guesses down when she went up and
now is going to run into Tofu instead, so they'll get themselves a one, but it does feel consistently
like it's just been these supports and Aurora, the exception of that one kill onto Ace, have
not really been able to take down a core.
They're hitting your mid tier too, there's an Amplified damage on the Invoker, knocking
end up being a positive trade here for Aurora.
It's Liquid, they love this Luna hero and they really are hitting their peak with it right now.
Holding the high ground in Aurora's territory, wanting them to walk back in that
op-centric comp is still up here, spotting where the Tiny's moving to.
Ace, looking, punching, stomping, there, flying to the side.
Don't mind him, big stun, nightfall hanging onto it.
The sides have finally popped and turned and now the DM is out.
He's so low a slow but not low enough to be brought down dead they TP out on WS
In fact realizing this fight is over and he gets left behind. You know
Does not have a way out does he hide in the trees do they know oh
Stay very quiet WS to scan mist. Oh, geez. Okay, so with that he's out now
Imagine though imagine he gets the wisdom. Oh, he's like I got nothing else to do
He doesn't have a TP. Yeah, what else am I gonna do? I have 40 seconds. He might get to dude. He's gonna get there with it
I think so
And then they still haven't seen him they might be believing you're still around there
Wow, well regardless ace pinged it. Nisha drew it
But then I'm gonna go back for it
less
Hahahahaha...
Very happy.
His courier is running through, bro!
Don't give away the game, man!
There's no fear at all.
Zero fear.
I like- yeah, if I could have that courier, please.
I'll just let it wander back home.
Homeward bound is the courier story.
That's an old one.
Liquid contents still stick around up top here.
Maybe hoping someone is greedy and has to be farming back here.
But the creeps are already gone.
But look at the way they're doing this too with the Luna illusion with the Invis and Volkring
in case it pops a smoke.
Yeah.
Just some greedy stuff.
That's nice.
I love to see it.
Nick gate.
Alright, gonna take the easy path forward here, take that tier 2.
They're looking towards mid though.
The Nightfall Blink Dagger is a massive change that is Spike's work, but someone's
losing your Lena right away.
Okay, Mike, didn't BKB, didn't BKB!
Oh, pops it now, does he have a way out?
Now the stun on the 8th, good damage,
BK walking into Lackretty, the hits, the glaives,
they're gonna do a good amount of damage,
but do they have enough to get any more of these heroes?
Nice hard blow.
So far, it's one, I mean,
Luna's getting somewhat low,
does obviously still have that Aegis.
So they're gonna take down WS.
I think once the Tiny blinks in
and casts the spells on the Centaur,
you're kind of just like, ah, this fight will be okay.
You know what I mean?
I think if it's not on to the invoker
or instantly blowing up something like the hoodwink,
I just don't think it's gonna matter
because we're just piling all our damage in the center.
Man, I think said, there goes the hoodwink.
That's what they were more looking for.
And Aurora, not giving this up quietly,
when you're seeing these big blows
and haymakers coming from liquid,
Aurora's trying to get in at the end
a little bit there with these little jabs.
They're taking out these supports whenever they can.
It's keeping the network somewhat even, but it does continue to feel like liquid are the ones that are just getting a little bit more out of it.
I mean, Aurora have gone for this gem to try and clean up some of these eyes of the force that's been being dropped around.
Mikae has his own blink dagger now on that Luna, so wants to play a bit aggressive, apparently just chilling out of Courier.
And Tofu hoping to set up those plays by wandering through their territory. Also gonna maybe grab the O-Post.
about it. Well dangerous. You know, I do think also this has been a pretty high kill game.
25 to 17 at 30 minutes. There's been a lot of these that have been going late that don't
really feel like this. Much more active gameplay. Or watching this take form here. They send
in nightfall. Waiting, waiting 10 seconds until he just finds one, immediately gets tornadoed!
Misha finds it and now they hit, they find him caught, rooted, bound, he need to get out of there,
not gonna happen. Nightfall, get chased, get killed and well, the hits they keep on coming.
That was crazy. That's where he just absolutely ruined everything he was going for there.
And now Centaur, you know having to get the pipe early to just bolster their defense in case they got run over by Aurora
He now has the heart. This is the Centaur you're much more used to
We're hitting high ground
This is where Luna loves to be even without the ages
Feeling pretty good and no tiny for 45 seconds. There's no buyback. This could be so much
I mean, oh look, keep going. Do we have it like Luna?
If there's no buyback here, he's going to take the ton.
Lackardy, bouncing glaives.
I mean, can Makoto stop this? They've got to take the fight, otherwise they're going to lose a second set of racks.
I don't think they can. Yeah, they're just going to lose, too.
Yeah. They can try and poke and brawl and slow it down, but you're not winning the fight without your timing.
This is what Luna loves to do, is just take a fight win and turn it into objectives.
Absolutely key for that hero.
This is walking away full HP.
Yeah.
No real threat.
Suddenly a 16k, 17k gold lead.
WS is trying to roll the dice.
He needs about a nat 20, I would say, on this one.
Oh yeah.
Yeah, if you want to win this with a Skullbatcher.
I will say, like, this is what you want to see out of a match
It's to qualify for TI both teams pushing it to a third game
The first one giving up on about this one going the other way. I stopped giving up
You know pushing it to a third game here to here first
No cast or curses on this screen. I promise you that I'm sorry any liquid fans out there. If it doesn't happen
It wasn't me
swear
Well, but we all just heard it. I don't know what you're talking about
It's gonna deny reality for a little bit here
Ok, so we're starting to move into those higher damage numbers with the right clicks with the chrysalis.
They're going to go through that gate.
I think it's not.
Swift Blink.
Luna approaching very quickly, of course, then into the satanic will be the next item.
Do you have any options to slow that down in this game?
Not really, right? Like the healing is just going to be healing.
Crossbows or anything, nothing to...
Stop that. I guess really it's a some sort of a bash or something through the PKB once you hear the satanic
But that's always difficult without the Abyssal obviously
Talk to Rain done as well for Nisha
the gem on the ground
Very very farmed on all the heroes for liquid still Aurora have some options. Tossback is always a little bit scary
If they can defend their high ground
Okay, not with the team right now, wants to keep on farming, get towards his items.
Roche, a minute before it's capable of responding, even buying an A on him.
Safety first, you know, buckle the C felt, says Nisha.
Just making sure it's going to be okay.
That's a nice way of doing it.
Yeah, I mean, it really is like the one problem that could happen, right?
It's like, Nightfall jumps in, our invoker is blowing up right away.
Just don't let that happen.
Uh, the gem isn't on Nethyl anymore.
Oh, yeah. And they popped dust a little late.
I didn't realize you'd lost it. And instead now...
That is really a... that... I mean, if they could have even propped the Aeon disc right there, that would have been a win.
Yeah. Now, smoked up on the side of the liquid.
They have some good vision on the bomb side of the map. They see that the lean is playing down here.
They could probably run up, plant a ward, and just go for an insta-jump.
Oh if anyone comes down these mid-stairs they are really dead.
WS leaves the bay. He gets stunned the batch!
He randomly gets bashed by Mika right on top of Makoto.
Oh god, he gotta run. It's not gonna happen.
Dead, no buyback.
And even though Roshis spawn here, it doesn't feel like it matters that much.
As they take out the Lion 2, Gigi is called liquid.
Push it to game number three.
Very nice slick maneuvers there coming out instantly smoking towards mid
knowing that someone was going to have to answer that creep wave,
and they just jumped.
The bash almost ruined things, but confidence there
from Micae in his team and in themselves
has just jumped to the high ground and blow
Belina right away.
She's trying to go for the Daedalus.
No buyback.
That's game.
Smile from Toph with the smiles are extra large
after that game, one, I'm sure.
Absolutely.
Feeling like they take care of business.
A little bit of a wipe of the brow,
maybe a little bit concerned.
It points never in doubt as we get ready to go into the game
three, but first we're going to head back to that panel.
I thought we were going to get a bigger smile coming out of Mikkei considering that Lunar
win rate from 0 to 33 percent.
The first win that Lunar has gotten for herself there, but it is from Mikkei, someone who
was the first one to pick it at this TI in the group stage, and so he finally gets a win
for himself.
And we finally see what she's able to do, Lacoste.
Yeah, I mean, Mikkei started a bit of a new trend.
He picked it against Team Spirit, then Team Spirit picked it, both of these Lunars
lost.
But you can definitely feel the strength of the hero, especially when she is paired up
with the invoker, having the Lackery, the extra bit of the damage.
And he played a very, very strong, like, laning phase that we're playing around in him and
Tofu.
Tofu was getting quite a lot from some of these early engagements, and also getting
levels like CD angle that Luna is approaching, getting the kill.
It was an action-packed game, like, I was kind of expecting considering the heroes
that he did have in this one.
But Luna, she looked very good and I think the matchups against certain carries in this meta could be, I think this hero is definitely more pickable considering like that we're only seeing her for the third time.
She's got a great supporting heart around her when you look at those supports, but more importantly, the tree out of those two supports because we saw that swap happened between essentially two meta or two or four broken heroes, monkeys of Alina for a can.
And even though we didn't get the trouble of the draft, you said to me, I would much rather
than trade it in that trade-off.
Yeah, I think the hero, it's just a win lane hero, really.
It's very strong in lane, and again it has that global living armor, so it can help other
lanes, and also they end up going into that invoker, which Triant can be that setup
for Sunstrike from a support role, which I think is very, very value.
Invoker is, you know, a niche of specials.
So being able to enable Nisha and allow him to kind of pop off on the 0, I mean, as you
can see, 15-2-8, he certainly, he had a much, much better game in this game than...
I think at least 12 of those are from Sunstrike.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, I mean, his lane was not going well early on, but he, he Sunstruck his way into
the game, truly.
Straighten the victory.
Straighten the victory. I mean speaking of that mid lane matchup and Voker up against Lina. I
Don't know how to wear this nicely Ghana
So I'm gonna make you do it, but a Dakota leaner the way that he played that lane in the words of Jenkins
It was a shellacking
It was it was really bad for him. It was almost like tripling the CS and denies
For the lean of us in Voker and we're kind of watching like it's not necessary
It's supposed to be the strongest in Voker lane
But it's supposed to be a linear pick and a linear because you're like I'll go slightly worse than even
And that was significantly worse than even that is not I was supposed to go
Thankfully for him. He was able to get the Sun Strikes
I think there was a static 10 and a 12 in the early game were all hit by him
So he was able to get all their recover goal, but at five minutes
I was worried that this would just be kind of Gigi because he didn't hit the Sun Strikes in the early game
Really, he they started adding up later
And if you look at the last bits and designs five minutes
This is just five minutes of the game.
35 to 10 is just crazy.
And also just the net worth over doubling the net worth
as well at five minutes is not really that that is not
how it doesn't happen, especially against Nisha.
But Mikoto Lena, like this was the guy that played Lena
when Lena was not meta.
This is his highest win rate hero in professional career
sitting at almost 62% win rate.
So that's not really a surprise.
So he knows these matchups in and out.
I think the hardest part as well though is we see that at five minutes and I think literally at 508
Both supports rotate bit and I mean it's a true testament to what you were saying because it's a Makoto
Especially even when leaner isn't necessarily in the patch
So these two supports being well aware of how you have to help your mid lane of a more important
They also try and shut down that Makoto leaner and they end up ganking and they end up killing in there
And then this leaner does falter a little bit
It feels like her transition out of lane and into that early game isn't as strong as we could have seen
Yeah, for me it was the kill on the Lina mid and then it was like four or five minutes later when the Lina makes the move
Bought and then the tree and the Luna did do that rapper and we saw in the highlights
Invoker got the Sunshike kill on the Lina
So I think those two deaths on the Lina the kill on the Invoker was really
Fixed the early game from liquid if they didn't really get those two kills
I could have definitely have seen this like a bit slower game, but a win for
Yeah, I I think one of the things about dominating your lane so hard is it just makes you give
so much more gold if you die. And the Lena did die two, three times in the early mid-game,
and even though at five minutes, Nisha was so far behind, I believe at 20, 21 minutes
somewhere around there, he's the highest net worth here in the game. So, you know, he certainly
turned the entire game around for himself through the sun strikes, through meteor hammering
those towers, opening up the map and just making the game a lot easier for Liquid.
Pretty much. I mean, he has a lot of ways to set the Sun Strikes up. We saw the stats
on the screen at one point in the game. He did have over 80%. He had 10 out of 12, and
I think you said he always uses one Sun Strike on a range creep, so that would have
been even like a hundred percent Sun Strike ratio in that one because it does feel like whenever you
have this hero you need something on the sides and I also want to talk about ace, his itemization.
I'm really glad that we're seeing Centaur's not going for straight up heart. It is kind of the
the most broken item currently in the patch because of like if you want to be tanky enough
that's the item to buy. We saw this item being bought in position five on dying as well
and I do feel like in this one he opted to go for the pipe, he also goes for the
Sol Ring in case he doesn't have mana, in case he's playing against Lion, so if he's
mana against Rain it is pretty mana-intense hero, doesn't have much mana pull to start with,
and then goes back to Heart afterwards, so I feel like in a lot of these situations the
more experienced players are going to be going for what's needed for the game rather than just
going for the meta. We can talk about this Liquid and Aurora game a little bit more,
but I want to divert our attention towards what is also happening on our other streams because
whilst we're having our qualification you know three and one team best of three here happened
between these two there is also some important series happening in a different way. I know everyone
wants to look at who's going to go through between Liquid Aurora, the Nigma Galaxy and Spirit Series
has also started over on the D stream. That one is unbelievably high up of what's going on right
right now. I don't want to spoil anything as it is still on playing. We go boom boys up against Falcons is still going on there in their third game. We obviously saw LGD be able to take a tour of VG and Yandex and iron wing just conclude their second game. That one's a one one. Now this is important for a number of reasons. If you're a three and two team, you get to pick who you're going up against in the elimination stage. That's the modified version of this with bracket. It isn't done by seeding. So we could have repeat matchups of what happened back then.
of what happened back in round one back in round two and you really want to make
sure that if you're winning your 2-2 series you're winning it either 2-0 or
the team that you are winning against has better wins as well. There's a lot of
different maps and different ways that it can play out there but you might not
think that the 2-2s are important but they're incredibly important when it
comes to potentially qualifying to main stage. Yeah being able to pick your
matchup there's a lot of information we don't know as as panelists
There's all these scrims that the teams have you can have some screw record where you sure
There's a team that in theory is the best in the world
But for some reason you just destroy them every single game in scrims you're like we can take them
so a lot of these are three two matchups for me are
Gonna be really important to see kind of I always think it's interesting to see like what they pick and who they pick for
If they have reasons or not now I am I feel like I didn't really hop you up enough look
I see I didn't really get a reaction out of you. It's gonna be picked
live with slacks. We're going to have all of you.
Well, now I'm hyped up. When you said slacks, I'm right.
Okay. I'm completely down for it.
I think it's a very, very good idea.
You know, it's just that brings like another level of hype to it,
knowing that maybe there's going to be some grudges from before
seeing that, you know, we can beat this team.
Like we want to revenge for certain things that did happen.
But definitely a thing that very nice addition.
Nice addition I gotta say and also as you said Gunnar, I think we don't have all the info
and some of the matchups as well through like 2026, 2025 when we talk about certain matchups
some teams definitely have it easier than the others, something might have changed recently
in the scrims but being able to choose and pick who you're gonna be playing against is
a big advantage.
I'm not totally having slacks off the line.
Yeah, I was gonna say I think it's cool because in previous years it's kind of been between two options
We had like the groups of four where the two winning teams the winner would pick from the bottom two of a different group
So and a lot of the times I think the teams kind of copped out
They'd be like we'll flip a coin and we'll just I don't think some I think every I think it's almost every single team
Which is like oh we flip the coin because mentally you're like oh
I don't want to pick a team and then lose to it because it's so bad for the mental
But here's like you got to pick if you are that first you have to pick options one through five
So I think it's much cooler because we actually get to see who they think is the bad team
Wrong gunner, but I believe that the team spirit
And we did
Sometimes you don't have to pick the NA team there if our gamer leaders that's up two and three
would potentially suggest you do avoid them. Especially if you're f**king Falcons,
prove your TA winners, not a good track code.
If you had to get to pick it up, pick Gavily.
Is it really so that other monkeys you were saying where it's like,
ah, I could maybe give you a hint? Don't pick them? They're way stronger than they look?
Yeah, I think 2-3 does not represent their skill at all yet.
And I think also the fact that they are going to be, or the 3-2 teams are going to be
picking if the two or three teams upset, upset as you're saying, the three two teams, it's it
makes for a great storyline for the main stage as well. You're going in with a chip in your shoulders
and I'm going to teach you a lesson or do that, but that's going to happen when all of our final
best of threes concludes. That's going to be at the end of the day that we're going to have
10 representatives, five of them picking in the three two teams up against the two three
teams. You guys have something to stick around for when our best of threes do end, but
But before we even get into our game number three here between Liquid and Aurora, we're
going to see how Tofua felt coming into this year's TI 2026.
Tofua, I was hoping to go through what your past season has been like, but specifically
for you, your season has begun, I guess, a little bit over a year ago, because last
TI you didn't have the opportunity to play your TI, and I was wondering how much
How much time did you spend grieving that versus moving on,
I need to go to the next thing?
I mean, it's quite a while ago already,
where I think I'm more like living in the moments usually.
So, I mean, it was definitely a rather shit period,
so to say, I was still at TI in Hamburg that time,
just to like watch and connect, talk with people,
Also, enjoy a lot of time off, even though it was just like,
I don't know, two weeks earlier prior to TI,
before it was a lot of grinding and playing.
But any time you get off during the year,
it's like precious, valuable time,
because there just isn't many breaks at all.
But also, with every less time of playing,
you get more motivated and fired up to be playing again.
Because I don't know, that's just what we do.
I don't know, I guess it's a good mix of some time off, but also motivation and hunger to be coming back.
You guys have proven that you can bounce back very quickly. How does that momentum feel good coming into Shanghai now?
That feels good, even though through the events, some mixed results of how we do things, how we improve.
Is it good enough where we lost to Falcons before, where in scrims we were doing really well against them?
Then was it like upper bracket final? I think we played and then we lost 0-2.
And suddenly things felt like out of place again.
I don't know, people like disappointed. We re-talk about things.
I don't know, come back the next day and there's like new energy, everyone's feeling good again.
we play, we get into the finals, we sweep them over and we're like back, we're sometimes
even small things don't click and you give it some time, it might just move over because
we've talked about these things, we've had the situation before, we've tried this before
and something didn't work out where, I don't know, I think we spend a lot of the season
trying, adjusting, getting used to each other and it just feels good when things
like click. Not going to imagine. Also everyone has one number of events, everyone's been
at many TI's. Our team is probably also the oldest in terms of age at this event
in average and everyone's really experienced. Unfortunately we missed
out on the last year, but also the two previous ones. We got second place twice already with
Ace and me also losing to Liquid, but one against us in the finals. So I think we're good on
that front and everyone just wants to prove themselves again.
So then my last question would be for this TI specifically, given the competition throughout
the entire year, I think the last two years have been the most well-rounded that
There's not just one team, such as your team, consistently dominating for every single major, every single event.
But it's been quite spread out. Everyone's been getting trophies.
So how do you feel about the competition coming into this TI versus maybe 2023 or 2022?
Having a break or things of like burning out or just can't put as much energy in any more.
There's also like so many good players and teams that will sweep you off if you're like just being lazy a little.
And I think right now also there's many teams that can take it.
There's probably like three teams, more favourites to end up in the finals,
at least what people think from predictions or play.
But then, I don't know, there's still TI magic where whatever happens,
the team will try to pull out their best.
And you can never underestimate any team really that comes in
and whatever teams go into the playoffs.
I feel like all have a fair chance of making a run.
The TI magic is what we live for, Tofu.
Congratulations on making it to TI.
Can't wait to see how well Liquid do.
Thank you.
Pausunami would be very happy at how well Liquid are doing right now.
They could be doing a little bit better if Game 1 has had more of a subsidence for them there,
but we're looking at a Game 3,
between Liquid and Aurora for qualifying to the main event.
You get an extra day off compared to the rest of the teams.
You get to just sit and enjoy and really embrace
what Tofu was talking about of having that high energy,
of having that high spirit that clearly Liquid love
to thrive on.
It's something that they need to be bringing into their series
into their events and hopefully into a game number three
against Aurora as well, of course.
Yeah, this is a good vibes team whenever you see them
camera like they're kind of chilling you'd never see them in bad spirits I would say like one of
the favorite things to see on camera is Nisha's big smile when this being doing well you know it just
always feels good like you want to see the personality you want to see the good vibes and
that's definitely what the Team Liquid is bringing so I want to see what they're going to be
cooking for this one to keep those good vibes because the previous draft looked very very good
But for them, we said that they're going to be changing out things, that they're going
to be potentially changing out the whole draft.
They did swap four out of five players.
I mean, first phase band Ember and Volker really, really eliminating Nisha's hero pool
here.
I mean, for a good reason.
He had an insanely good game on it and I feel like this hero is going to become
even more contested, especially in the good hands if you're playing against Chara
Junior.
know that this hero is going to come out if it's a good game for it.
Nisha's Invoker has been classic for a while, so definitely a hero that they
need to keep an eyes on and this time around they will get the lean up for
themselves again. It's interesting to me that they didn't think Tree was a
problem, they think Invoker was the problem. The Sun Shrikes were
the main issue. They even though most teams are considering Tree to be one
of these mountains of a hero that you can't really overcome. Aurora is sitting here going,
ah, no sunshine, don't worry.
Well, it's also, it was the Lena response. So it's another way to be like, okay, the
Lena is really hard to deal with already. Ember is a response band. Voker is a response
band. I'm sure it's not a response, but good in the game versus an Esso band. So
now for me, Liquid again, needs you to take a mid right here as opposed to doing
this thing where they wait later for the draft for a Huskar, like a super big counter pick,
just like something acceptable. I would go back to Snap. Lina was kind of originated in the meta
as a snap counter, but you get into this awkward spot the later in the draft you go where it
feels like there's not many heroes that you feel comfortable picking for Anisha. Yeah, there was
a little bit of a time when, I mean, a good amount of time when Snap was popular, so people
try to theorycraft what's good we saw linas we saw then Zeus being also another
hero that doesn't really interact because both of them are kind of keeping the
distance it could potentially happen I don't know like how highly they're
thinking about the hero there was a Zeus pick the other day when Thompson
played it it stops and so anything is playable what we're talking about some
pugna some Ricky's the dragonites made I think we just saw him play troll
many old man. Yeah, I totally trolling old prediction. It's gonna be a niche, a tinker game.
What? I think that a lot of the mids are going to get banned. And they're going to end up being like,
okay, centers in the pool, let's just take center out of the face with the tree. And
that niche is going to get to some later pick. And someone on the team is gonna be like,
not see a hero. They're going to say tinker. And he's gonna be like, sure, I can play that.
They're going to crush. You'll give that cheeky niche a smile that you're doing about
Yeah, for sure. He definitely can't pull off some of these crazier things, and I think in a series like this where it's only one game getting you potentially to the main stage, you want to be pulling out the big guns.
And speaking of big guns, Tinker does have some guns. He does have some big rockets. This new spell is very annoying to play against.
Yeah those the rocket it pushes you so far it feels there's many times that I've been playing versus a tinker and I'm like
Oh, we're finally gonna get in any like pushes up a cliff
Rear arms does it again. Sure. Good. Just you explaining the feeling of it again
Like it's too this you're my favorite. It's my favorite part of the hero. It's that the the warp also lowers your cast range and attack range
So it's like even if you have a stun and you have vision of them
You just can't come to me any mini version your hero a fun hero
And this is the least toxic version of the hero that has been in a while considering all the toolkit that he has had over time
I miss rockets
I never thought I would say I miss heat seeking missiles, but
You have no idea how good you have right now
That's downtown at 25
That was a little too much, but pre-stunt town
That's what
goes out to you.
Well, these two teams are taking a lot of time on these second phases of bands, and I
don't necessarily blame them because this is where it really makes or breaks your draft
and it was prevalent in game number two, where they had answers for these first phase picks,
but this seems a little longer than average.
Yeah, I think there's a lot of thinking going on because it's not just one pick
and you can see the lifestealer being removed under Lord as well, which means that
They are looking to pick the melee strength offlaner for Ace, Underlord would definitely
be a good pick.
He was counter picked in that game, number one, didn't really have much of an impact.
But there is still Centaur available, if I am seeing correctly, and Leicester has been
used very well for now.
It's going to be the same support duo for Team Liquid.
It does for me the only concern I have with this in quotes is it leaves the center open
for Aurora.
To me this is like such a hero that has so much impact in drafts in the games.
Swizzly for me against Alina because it gives you the stampede, this full team just like
running at Alina lets you catch the Alina off guard in the fights.
And so now in the reverse you have a stampede to protect your Alina.
So I think and the lifestyles ban there's a lot of setup.
Or inverse. In my Polina inverse. That's her name.
You're such a troll, so does it, Orest.
Okay, then let's say our inverse is questioned on you.
What are we going to pick now here for a war? It's not the Centaur.
Well, I thought Liquid's going to pick Centaur out of the phase, but they didn't.
So, I mean, I'm...
That's the first one! I agree.
That's Orest. That's where we get you on the panel, brother.
Hey, you guys want a fun little fact about what's been happening over the last few days
that I've noticed?
There is something going on with Eastern European teams, ego-picking carries that they beat
to then lose on.
They beat Lunar or Igor.
Well, that also happened just then, right?
That's an Eastern European name.
That's the name of Nightfall.
Of Nightfall.
Yeah.
But Spirit beat Lunar, pick it, lose with it yesterday.
We just saw Aurora beat Tiny, pick it, lose with it, and over on Falcons, up against Boom
Boys, Falcons picked Sven, Boom Boys beat it, picked it, and lost with it.
What is going on?
I'm just getting inspired by the enemy.
Who's thinking?
I'm a better player than him.
I can win on that.
There's just something about carry players where they need to prove that they can do
it better.
It's happened so much over the last, okay, not so much, I'm thinking three examples,
but...
There's a lot.
There is a lot.
We take a lot from three games and only one wins.
We do see Axe and Dark Willow coming out for Aurora here,
a very strong, off-lane duo.
Axe gives Aurora that initiator role, fills that role very well.
Dark Willow, you know, big, big damage dealer from the support role,
one of one of the more popular ones of the tournament, as you can see there.
They'd receive some good buffs in the patch before this one with the AoE increase on her spells. Very annoying to deal with, Liquid.
I picked up Windranger, so that means it's gonna be a core Windranger. We saw it being played by some male brushing, uh,
uh, Breath, uh, the new Hydra's Red. There we go.
I don't know where you're going with that story, guys.
When was the specialist raid, bro?
Specialist raid?
Yeah, but he just rushed it and picked up a Blader, so definitely playable from the mid lane as well, if necessary.
Keeping a little bit of a flex open. Tango can also be played in two different roles.
It's not like Ace's most played hero. I don't think he has the most success with the hero, but still keeping that flex potentially open.
We even saw during EWC, Amar played the offline Windranger when it was a, quote unquote, good game for it.
I believe they lost it, but the hero...
I'd be surprised if it's not a carry win.
Yeah, because it's like you see the axe you know this guy's offline you have this one position to pick a really strong carry
versus
And the lean is a flex so it's like way more awkward to be like let's try to double counter pick the lean amid and yeah
Safe lane versus, you know, it's like I'll just one to one
I am a bit scared of the win match versus axe
I was gonna say like axe is really strong as a blind pick often because it feels very hard to actually beat him in the
and when sometimes just gets like you died of a blame it was not really tanky enough they removed the
Physical resistance from act the eggs a long time ago
So now it feels a lot squishier than it used to in the past sure this universal here
And you can go these that kind of stat items here going like satanic honor at some point
But it still is in threat of being jumped in like with the lean-up burst and now with a tiny burst
It I do see some concerns with the window and no real save you have living armor
But I don't think that's gonna get you out of the trouble concerning the burst damage that they have
It's a lot of mixed damage as well between the two cores on Aurora because both Lina and Tiny both of these heroes have
Physical and magical damage you can go both routes tiny of course will go for it because it is a carry tiny and Lina
She can also itemize differently even with the magic damage build. She still deals good amount of right-click
and also while I do think living armor is
One of the most OP abilities in the current patch
there are a lot of damage instances from Aurora, so they can get through that
living armor and also you know, Lena attacks very quickly in addition to that.
Yes, it's taken like true through that armor pretty quickly and the overgrowth
is it's a pretty hard overgrowth game I'd say like Tiny has the status
resistance so he's able to ignore it. Lena is always in the outskirts so it's
gonna be a lot of work on the tree to be able to catch these heroes, but if
If he does, he does a follow-up damage, it just again, I am sort of seeing signs of the
first game of the series that it just feels a roar's draft is so easy to execute.
You tell your mid like, okay, Makoto, just play Lina, stay in the backline, cast your
spells.
Give these two tanky cores that are going to provide vision, stuns for him.
He has supports that are very easy to execute spells throwing into the fight.
Whereas, sure, Liquid kind of has most of that as a baseline, but if you get caught,
It's much easier for the Hoosier to get caught by the Tiny in the Axe, and it's a lot harder
for them to survive getting caught compared to the Tiny in the Axe.
Yeah, for sure.
It's a good pipe game if Ace wants to buy it.
I mean, there is insane amount of magic damage coming out early on.
There is still Centaur available.
It's not a save.
I think one of the reasons why they left it in the pool is it doesn't save against
Avalanche.
You can't really get out.
It doesn't save against the call.
on you can save your course picking up the card but Liquid they don't have much time left.
They do not bat all in so a last hit dawn breaker.
They were inspired by what happened in the previous game.
Well we're just going to add another stat this time it's not just carries it's also
off any. It's good it's good I liked it as a response in one of the games when Axe was picked
I felt like this is one of the counters where you just go in as a follow-up onto pango like
You join the fights have that extra bit of oomph that on top of the living armor might give you enough time
Give you enough hp for you to survive
Yeah, I just worry
you're you're picking it into not necessarily the easiest lane and
Generally the
Carries you want to play versus a downbreaker are the ones with stuns. Yes
So you're picking it into like a pretty stunned carry with the tiny sure it does have that counter potential verse the
The axe but I've even seen earlier in this tournament
The leaner vs. Donberk could be really hard like you ult into an LSA you get instantly stunned
You know presses all are spells in union in this early mid game
You don't have the help to survive it and we even have to see like the Donberk is going hard to ask just to kind of survive
This like initial go and when you're building this here that in my opinion is most successful going like the desolators the
Hi there, it's AC getting in there, once you're in there with your Q and Niagara League.
Alright guys, I gotta go heart just to survive it.
That's why I just have concerns with it.
You're also setting things up for Avalanche, for two-man call, once you save somebody,
Icepat on top of that, LSA, anything from Darkwell.
So basically every single hero in the game has something to throw into that Dawnbreaker
ulti when she comes in.
I will also say there are two global healing abilities now.
living armor and don burger out so there is the potential for them to
completely turn a fight if someone does get initiated on but at the same time
Aurora has a lot of burst damage between axe dark willow Lena and
eventually tiny once he wants to start getting involved in the fights hey
big shout out this game I want to say quick Crella is super good item for
Aurora it's all physical damage cores for liquid with healing that global
healing like you said so it could be cool I don't know who by don't know
I don't know if you really want to make your acts ethereal, but I actually have one quick question before we go and then I wanted to ask you.
Is the mid matchup, does this go better for Nisha compared to last time in game two when he went up against me?
I mean, I hope so. I think it's true. Payne is definitely a stronger laner than Invoker.
So I'm expecting, you know, maybe 30 to 20, not 30.
Oh, okay. So we're still giving heavy favorite to Makoto's Lita.
We're giving it the respect it's to that.
thinking is going to be a more even match up in that mid lane or maybe even just a more even match
up overall. It's a game number three. Winner qualifies to main stage of TI and walking you through it
is lyrical entrant. Thank you so much Nat. Oh, we got it. Down to one final game. I can't wait.
Behind the magic, they get to come here because we're actually at the arena right now.
That's right. That's where they get to come. You doxed us. They win this game. Unbelievable.
They haven't seen the glory at the stage.
We haven't either.
Nobody can talk about the edge.
No, we haven't.
They're going to come in and take it out.
They're going to come in and take it out.
That's illegal.
But yeah, they're heading out across the map right now, Aurora facing off against Team
Liquid.
One way to guarantee them through, Aurora is able to come away with that one and
Liquid as you can see running out early, hoping to catch some of these heroes laying
down some wards, cutting down some trees.
They will smoke right now outside of vision 2. Can they catch them?
They probably feel pretty safe right now. Oh, look what are going back the other way
What's happening they're coming for the the bounty room backstab play, you know
They're trying to catch them over there. Then they can play this way
Do you uh, do you think the panelists are?
You know keen on joining my dawn breaker hate club
I mean it seemed like it a little dawn breaker hate fan club, you know
There's that moment before the last pick comes out where everybody's getting excited like who what's gonna be and then you hurt like a
deflation on the dawn breaker pick like oh
They're hoping to do it better and there is the bounty room backstab hey they never see it coming I fall
Some trouble gets caught with the stun an ace now
Now this is pretty much where Dawnbreaker peeked last game, which was doing like a ton of damage on the Bounty Room fight.
So Ace hoping to keep things moving his way this game instead.
Actually to be fair, it was rated like the like 6 minute mark, where Sarah going downhill for the Dawnbreaker.
Before that though, she was crushing for Aurora.
I liked there at the end also the tip to Tofu, which to me at least tells me like that was Tofu's idea.
You know what I mean?
Okay, yeah, alright.
Or at least he can claim that right now.
Uh, I am really am surprised, speaking of Tofu, that they gave him the tree again.
Yeah.
I feel like this hero is what made everything so annoying in the first game.
He plays it incredibly well.
He gives so much vision and knowledge to his team.
It's such a ridiculous amount of respect to Nisha's mid and late game Invoker that
they banned that, because they already knew they could deal with the laning stage.
Alright, and it tells me that Aurora is saying, basically, with that, that we feel like his ability to still have influence in other lanes.
Some strikes and such was enough so that they want to try and shut down Nisha even further.
But we'll see how the pango does.
I feel like it was like a mentality ban from K.P.
He's like, he's getting rid of the boogeyman.
That is the Nisha invoker.
As these lanes start out, it does appear at least that things looking a little bit more
even out of that mid lane than we had last time around, and to make a plane on this wind
ranger with the help of Tofu, to try and force them back haste, taking some damage already
from Nightfall and Gyori, is Jakiro still just a menace on the safe lane.
It doesn't matter how many nerfs he gets, it's very annoying to play, yeah.
You are 100% correct there, and I gotta say, if I'm in a match that really matters, and I'm team liquid, I really want to make a win.
Yeah, right, it's gotta be one of the player hero combos that are most confident in all stages of the game, he's got something to do.
He knows the right items to buy in every situation.
He's played so many different matchups that he's got that experience that he can focus more on the actual game at hand compared to just how his hero fits into it.
In the meantime, they do appear to have some good team fight capabilities, but for Aurora,
you've got a couple of heroes that can fight early and often, and we've tended to see
them try and get into the bot boots of travel, obviously, on the Linus, if she can show
up to engagements.
What do you think the axe is going to try and do?
How early are we going to see him get involved?
That's your question.
Right now, he's currently on the old blade mail first.
There's a lot of choices on Axe.
That's one thing that's always interesting about this hero is like, you got your blade
mail, you got your helms potentially, you got your, and then obviously like, the blink
daggers are the decider of what I want to play in the game, it's very, despite being
a very annoying hero, Lane gets, it's taken down as that coverage of the stun, not
there.
They find him a moment where he's away from Nightfall.
The avalanche can't come through to save him from the hammer and he's just pretty
pickets.
Now, even stepping over there a little bit, he basically gave up on the Lotus almost instantly,
but we're still able to get close and center.
That pressure happened, but as has been the case so far,
Aurora winning their lane is pretty hard, and now Hisha moves forward,
trying to find Makoto, do they have enough to kill?
What? Oh, he stepped back!
He just...misclet?
I mean, the mid lane TP for Blood Grenade is crazy.
And that's wild maneuver to have to make as a tree.
The only thing I can think is a misclick, right?
I'm not sure why.
Yeah, step back there.
That must have been it.
Regardless, Nick Day will get hit by the Root, and it's still a big win, right?
Like he's forcing them all the way back to base, Koto has to get out of there,
and Isha will get the Water Root.
We'll likely be able to take another one away from him by a Molina.
I mean, good chance I've hurt Mikkei as well, I'm sure he probably missed a Lassiter too.
Did it losing his tree though? Yeah, so it does come at a cost.
But Nisha at least keeping that momentum on his side by playing aggressive, getting a level 3 shield crash
and just trying to keep his XP leaving the match up now, having to center back to the base.
It also shows how quickly things can turn around in that mid lane if you do get a good TV rotation from some supports.
Now one of the parts of this game is fairly similar.
I think it'll last here either, so I'm down a little bit.
Yeah, I mean obviously same sport though, so same maneuvers happening here on the side of Liquid and they move in on Nikkei, don't hit the Bramble though, I mean that is always the big difference maker on this deck below, likewise down bottom, nighttime is fight time.
Oh, yeah. Get after him, Kaori. Ace.
Oh, a little bit of a misclick there too,
and that might be enough to keep Kaori alive.
Does have the Starbreaker in a moment,
but there will also be an Avalanche.
A hit. Ace turns, punches, gets him.
Nice. And now Nightfall trying to find a way to catch up to Ace.
Oh, what? Oh, he gets caught after this in the end.
Oh, almost able to reach at it, but not enough there.
himself doesn't eventually get his kill but unfortunately has to die for it
this is hold the weight and seems to powers here I mean I'd like to see some
stacks get set up here for the ax obviously in WS that would be a solid
time Makoto did a very good job of making moves in the early game last
game the level six roll always time skill built oh what's the
Power shot eats another hit, Lakuna Blight out, but he gets him.
Nisha brought him down and killed a little bit of help from his friends,
and another power shot lands.
And the neutral creep denied by Boxy, kind of an interesting...
goes in, finishes the job,
and there he's gonna move over and hope gets another one of the shield crash.
That barrier, keeping him alive.
Another power shot, Nikkei! He's doing everything!
All the things that he can, he's looking for angle, wants it so badly, but nightfall getting away
and gets up to high ground to stay alive, throws out the tree, not gonna be enough.
There's too much here, another comes through with some burning.
Nightfall is here, everybody cover to the mid lane, okay.
Tries to get out, gets the living armor and it's gonna be enough to keep him surviving too.
Oh, wait, the burn, the burn?
Ooh, it's enough!
Oh, he got him!
All right, this has been a hype start to this game so far
Nine kills in seven minutes everyone coming to the mid lane at WS very happy with the situation by the way
He's at 48 lassits now because they just ditched off and he is just absorbing everything
Very very nice indeed and all of that and Don McGregor just hit six unfortunately
So she could come up here if the play happens up top and he's needed
And holding the Shadow Realm a lot in these engagements, realizing that it's got some
pretty high potential in these fights.
Guys need to kind of play around the windrun if it does decide to go onto Micke.
They might try a Solar Gardening play here onto Makoto.
He's pretty low HP.
They just have to get the roll to hit once.
That shows another Laguna Blade used that does need to get the roll to hit once though.
Yeah, that is...
Oh, there it is! Hey, he got him!
They move in.
Alright, who's to get it? The rest of Aurora shows up.
They want to find something that's not really going their direction though.
Regen for Mira, now Nisha gets away and comes and stales the kill.
Now, see, at first you're thinking, wow, Nisha needs driver's ed.
But no, what actually happens is he took so long on the kill, it drew in Aurora to respond,
and then he picks up a second kill, gets out.
It's the next level played for Nisha.
So, a very back and forth game so far, Lina, you know, still ahead of the pango, just in
terms of network, how do you think both of these teams are feeling about this game right
now?
Yeah, how are the vibes for the Lina though?
I know, that's the thing.
You know, the vibes didn't feel very good there.
You got another thousand gold to go before you boost the travel, so you're kind of
just stuck staying mid.
Now, McOtter's always looking over his shoulder, you know?
A tree moves?
Is that a tree?
Who is it?
of which, WS, they find him there, doesn't get the bound, and they caught him on the
backside, and they still manage to get on to Tofu.
As the root comes out, Mickey cannot chase any further, and Liquid loses their tree from
the rest of Aurora back away.
It was a good tree cut, but there is still one that was just a little far away.
They're very much playing the numbers right now with Liquid.
Really just trying to bring everybody to every engagement and they keep doing so, so
we're grinding back up in another 14 seconds.
Trying to finish through the Fusal Blade.
As the Dark Will and Jekiro get them set up for a fight up on top, Red Lane, they're
trying to settle up here.
Oh, they got Makoto with the Mislak.
Now the roll, Foxy, eating the Laguna Blade.
I haven't seen a lot of Laguna Blades hit and not a ton of heroes die from them.
Can they bring down Makoto? Yes!
Nice confidence there that he's got that kill, doesn't need the Solar Guardian.
Foxy also retreating back behind the tower.
Very good spread of the resources here from Liquid.
Unfortunately, despite all of this, Andy's kill is happening.
They're still very far down the radio.
Yeah, they're having very good games. Yeah, I mean there's been these like random deaths and stuff like that or you know
Ganks that haven't worked perfectly, but it's been a steady farm for
WS who's getting closer and closer to that blade mount. I feel like this is one of the larger gaps
We've seen in terms of supports versus cores. That's really in the game
So that crossed the whole board like it's been rare to see like 4k 4k in the lowest course and still on the once
At the highest supports. Yeah supports doing a lot of rotating around
maybe not getting a lot of the kill bounties a little further behind than
usual and level wise as well like you're always not level six yet
Willow's on it, no one's on it, yeah.
Aisha, Manta's, backs away, WS, all about a hunt not gonna be able to do it.
Yeah a lot of TPs.
Definitely want this ancient sack to get up here.
Take this one down.
Get involved.
So they will clear through that and WS blink dagger next on the dock after the blade mill is completed.
And that'll synergize with Nightfall's second item here.
He's got his Echo Saber.
He's to the side.
He wants Shadowblade or Blink Dagger next.
Now they see Toku.
They'll get him.
But yeah, Nightfall.
Hewing up the Shadowblade Silver Edge it looks like.
I mean, I guess with the axe going blink, Alina having to go to travel feels like it's good
enough to go for the Shadowblade again.
Obviously, better scaling wise, right.
Always feels a little better.
It has some attack speed while you're roaming around, it's compared to a blink dagger.
With all the action and the carries rotating around a decent amount,
it has really been these off-laners that are sort of leading the charge in terms of farm.
Ace also has the Echo Saber coming out to him right now.
So, back in the axe.
Oh, again, onto Makoto here.
Finds him! Nisha right there!
Turn to the tables here, the previous matches.
I'm gonna get Nisha ahead of early for once instead and taking away some of the
stocks that were built up here. A lot that comes down to again the trees
because Tofu was way back here earlier and planted this ward in between the
tier one and the tier two tower in the mid-lane.
Not quite able to get there with the brambles.
Tofu setting up with Mikae. Goes for the blade mail. Tofu looking for the
bound. Now they move in with Nightfall. Here it dies on the other side of the map
as they have to dawn break rolls in how much they have left in the tank and they do end up there
Okay, where are you down? They get the kill on the mickey ace tries to escape, but the pause forward
Ws on days. This is the off-laner battle, but they brought more cores and a double for Ws
There's just no getting away from the battlehunker level four, you know
If you're not facing acts you're not going anywhere
anywhere. Walk them down right after that and not the
solar generating return play that you're hoping to have.
Well, and that's the difference right there of Galena, you know, having the boots to travel
versus the refusal blade for the pango. If pango can't be there, it's going to be a
tough fight for them. Yeah, it's such an awkward time for this
hero. He feels very strong, like almost before the refusal. And then they spend almost
time getting defusal and then it feels like they can't do anything with it until
they get a blink yeah and then sometimes you get the agonist first and they become
so dependent on their allies setting things up and tofu he is level six now
so he is a little bit more capable of actually creating good opportunities for
his team he's also gonna get the wisdom shrine to boxy level seven and three
quarter here as they're gonna smoke up there making the move WS rate of blink
on somebody Kodo standing in the mid lane does have an amp damage and let's
See if Boxy pops the smoke and lives or if he dies.
How good is the guest from WS?
I instantly hit some of the essence to Seller.
Very nice.
I'll blink for you.
And now, are they gonna be able to keep this tower alive?
I mean, they're tree armoring it, there's no way.
Now, there's no solar guardian for another 12 seconds, so.
No saving at this time, but nobody dies for free.
So, good positioning there from Boxy.
Nice use of the ward, doesn't end up getting
So they'll still linger around and yet got a lot of farm on your cores in the meantime, so.
Big rotations from Aurora.
In the end, probably Liquid win.
This is a very scary time for Liquid, and I feel like for Aurora you want to take full advantage, right?
You just got that blink dagger on axe.
You can show up to almost any fight with the Lena.
So finding these heroes is a pretty high priority.
Much like the ace pipe last game, I really like to see Nisha going for the blink dagger next.
I don't want to see the diffusal in the Agnes, so I think it's gonna make them too slow.
And he won't be ready to engage for the... I think they really need this blink dagger to play the fight, don't do it Nisha.
You know, I have to make you do the axe.
He's got the blink first.
I know, but it wasn't even there before.
That worries me, alright?
Get the blink!
So, Aurora...
shoving out lanes
I mean that is something that's a little bit annoying like jikiro can push lanes pretty quick, but
Lilo's not really able to that much
Ward firstly planted up top there from tofu to spot where they're moving hunting for Mickey
That's why he's just moving back into this part of the jungle a little safer. So
Last game Aurora. Oh nice catch finds their man. What can they get? Oh the big get Nisha
rolling in, finding Makoto.
Does he have enough damage though?
Oh, as he rolls back, yes, gets back Bill.
WS is going to be tagging Boxer.
He tries to get denied by the agents.
Will not happen.
I'm kind of flabbergasted that they don't Solar Guardian there.
I mean, it's the right call, but it
felt like it was going to be necessary to get
that Lena for a moment there.
But they really just have no current phase right now.
He just needs one little tap onto that Lena.
Obviously, still pretty low HP, and she just goes down.
Yeah, any type of glimmer or, you know, a force staff and might have been able to get
out of that one, but no such luck.
And there's the point dagger indeed for Nisha, so he's going to keep that rolling, Tofu
stalking WS right now, catch him on this wave with the wind ranger.
Man, if we had a set that made him a giant thing of broccoli, we could talk about him
stalking him. That would be awesome. I mean he shaped like broccoli already. He is just a giant
crown of broccoli. WS, they're gonna try and hunt him. They jump in with Nisha. Find him there.
Push back out. Now the Laguna Blade to try and turn this one but it's not gonna happen.
Meanwhile they show up actually find themselves one on the mirror but he's gonna die immediately.
Whoa! Topu almost got Makoto. That was close.
Noble effort there. Easily could have been another one there with a blink dagger available for Nisha.
So, Liquid taking a firm control of this game.
Been a little bit middling for a while, but I think Mikkei has a full Mioh near done.
So his farm is going to be taking a big leap forward now.
Hopefully to surpass that Tiny.
And Nightfall though, with that Shadowblade, would love to find some sort of an aggressive play.
play. Nisha ends up canceling the TP. He was going to leave Toph. I'm not sure. I think he was worried that they might be smoked there or something.
Okay.
Maybe then his allies were going to create an engagement, so.
And he is right. Nightfall is now moving through that wave. He's going to run into Nisha.
Finds him here. This would be a huge get. And he just did it. Avalanche! Does he have to toss? Yes! Got him!
I mean, finding him immediately after a swashbuckle is very fortuitous.
very fortuitous. Yeah, that was exactly what they needed.
Hey Ori, gotta run into Tofu here to see if, oh I didn't see him.
The night vision.
Just out of range, Foxy gets away, now the hunt, can't get him.
Close.
What's interesting here is that, yeah, Mickey's ping, he's like, hey, they have a ward here.
They actually don't, like, they don't have a, I mean they have a ward near the swing gate,
but they had a lot of vision last game, stalking Mickey's Luna.
This game hasn't been quite as spread out.
And on the other side, you kind of look in that area and Liquid sort of has vision all over.
Yeah, which is interesting.
The left-hand side of the map, kind of taking the triangle over there.
Aurora...
...enaging to find that kill on Denisha definitely set things a little bit more right.
WS.
Dangerous for Carmenus Wavis.
He's just gonna TP down here. It's a tumble his way out.
Lots of liquid heroes, but that Ward giving him all kinds of information to who's around they're gonna go in on this, okay?
Get ready for the boots of travel. He's prepared in the fountain regenning out tofu up on high ground finds them. Oh
Yeah, they got him behind the tree
So we'll manage to take oh my god
They're turning the overgrowth with the fear comes out and now the Sun
Ace in a little bit of trouble these are rolling back and forth on to WS
but Nightfall has found Ace.
We'll get a three-hero stun, but it's not enough.
The rest of Liquid is showing up too late, Esha.
Managed to find a snipe on the Kaori.
They also take down the Hoodwink.
But a big fight win there for Aurora.
Why, let him go, guys.
I think I tend to just solo-guarding the tree.
I kind of see the idea, and to keep the moment,
it's like, OK, well, yeah, my tree's probably going to die.
But my Pango can go right in.
all be on top of them with the heal, this is gonna work out.
But this is what when the panel is lined with this idea of all this massive amounts of AA
from Aurora, we've reached that point in the game now.
The spells are all at a higher level.
You are coming into this awkward point of the game where you don't have enough HP on Dawn
to deal with the level of spells that your opponents have
that are just being flooded into the zone.
Yeah.
And if there's already one person caught, like, you know, even if it's a tree,
the fact of the matter is that they didn't have, you know,
Mickey nearby to be dealing damage wall that you were just sort of a sponge of damage for the dawnbreaker
Yeah, it's one thing if dawnbreakers getting hit and then you know Mickey is killing somebody if that's not happening
The fight's gonna be a loss. Yeah
1900 damage in spells that are in an AOE
So that that's a big chunk
Getting into that BKB next understanding the assignment
But a very contentious back-and-forth game number three exactly what we would have wanted.
Again, winner of this is going to be moving on to the main event of TI.
It does not have to play through the elimination stages that are happening tomorrow.
The DKB done for the Axe.
Okay, he's the first one to get there.
very big powers fight because initiations four staff now as well from here
the fights are going to get real messy the yule's from kore the four staff from
here the bkb from the axe four staff from galina gotta be very cautious about
your chain stuns on the side of liquid I don't even know I guess so many of
these fights have started kind of weird because like they've been smoke running
into other hero and then they're having to guess where that hero is and
And so, like, spells are kind of getting expended in weird ways, it feels like.
I'm not sure what an actual 5-on-5 teamfight is gonna look like in this one.
There's enough AoE damage that Boxy's only treads right now in his hoodwink.
Oh, okay. That's awesome, so...
He wants to get a little chunky.
Level 2, we'll see from Kaori, is they're thinking about going up this hill.
Mikae, back together with Boxy, they are going to smoke up also and fighting around this vision, this area, WS, first person forwards as he finds it, he catches the ball, oh the clock, he did manage to get the roll up first, and now WS being chased by Mikae, did he have enough damage, not quite.
Aisha, Yule Scepter, lift up, still down.
Aisha barely gets the ability off
and then the poor staff down to the low ground.
Oh, Aisha did not get to play that fight at all.
They do kill WS, but now the control is there for Mikke.
Is there anybody that can save him?
Ace trying desperately to keep his carrier alive.
The stun is there.
Ace is making it happen.
Salvaging that one for Mikke.
What a fight.
Ace does it, but now Nightfall,
Avatar lives. He keeps going for more the dawn has broken and ace is the one that's making it happen
Ultra kill for the dawn
He gets the ultra kill the reason they win this fight is that roll up. I I cannot believe he got the roll up off
That was unbelievable. He should have been dead
I like these you should have died in that call and it said he tanked so much in that fight for them
Take a look at this play.
Like, all of this right beforehand, he's...
And new, those coming up his way.
And look at that, like, the barrier, all the layered stuns coming out,
all this game resisted, then he tanks the ULZ as well,
and then all the right clicks from Bocoto.
There's nothing left in the tank for 8-2,
just starts to, like, clean up as the Moth and Bucket of this fight afterwards.
It was really good stuff.
And right here, I mean, look at this.
You know, completely isolated, changes targets over to Mira,
manages to find that stun.
And yeah, of course needed to be able to make sure that they could get in range and find those kills
Whoo close
We'll see you Jeff. It's just that nice
Well, they'll only 2k gold lead. Oh, yeah, no, it's it's very very even right now and we just go back to like
I mean, you know, slower gratings back up and this one the game the dawn feels pretty good
Yeah, like the fights get a little more spread out
Move into the tormentor here
I'll tell Foo.
Careful, he's got you.
He's fine!
And that was no use of the BKBE for Ace, so...
He is incredibly strong at the moment.
By far the highest net worth of the game after that ultra kill.
35 minutes, 36 kills.
Roche starts heading down south, both teams probably starting to think about that.
Jules and four steps up for Kaori, Aghanim's getting there, Fornisha, with a thousand gold
to farm up and he'll have it.
Yeah, we're starting to move into the later stages.
Our other two games felt very decided at this point.
Yes.
Where they were just moving in the direction of like, you know, fairly certain who was
going to win.
This game, not so much WS, brother.
confident in this war that he has. You should not be alive as well he should be. He's now
out of there. I think to me he has been the standout player from this roster. I mean it
felt like he should have won that fight. He earned the win, you know, if it just wasn't
for that roll up. It has been the stream A standing for Axe today. The evening shift.
It's true. An incredible axe performance thus far.
Good deep ward, laid down there.
See if that can translate into some lids, potentially later on, as ace.
Killing himself a little bit there. Couldn't quite get the stun in time, though.
So Mira will manage to get out, and away.
But yeah, this ward actually might be a difference maker.
The fact that that's down now and can scout the movements of Axe and the other heroes that
pass through this way.
Gotcha.
Running into the Jigiro up top.
And it's actually gonna roll forward.
Get the jewels after the pass.
But yeah, it's gonna be easy though.
Oh, stuck.
Come on, Tree.
out of there. Nightfall. Finding one. They're going to pop it, actually. The fear immediately
comes out and now Nightfall turns on Anisha. Tofu there with the lift up. WS catches only
onto one. Not quite good enough, but can they bring down Tofu nonetheless? Yes! Ace
Big Heel from that Starbreaker. Thought about chasing besides Natsu, but that's
They do indeed want to chase us that liquid though photo backing away
John
Understands the assignment didn't see Makoto head first. We knew he went the other way that ward
Pan off for what it didn't see is what it did
Very close on the bush back there. Yeah, the vision game has been unreal honestly from both teams like
Each team constantly has tons of vision on the other side of the map
And the big part of that obviously, Tramp and Hoodwink, both very slippery heroes for putting these wards down.
28 minutes. And actually, Liquid are going to be the first ones to venture into the road today.
So in they will go.
Alicia getting the haste run.
Nightfall.
funds this way this boxy know what's going on they see nightfall now did they
get here in time only gets time to the low ground
I'm not gonna go through on here they're bringing into hero and Dakota as well if
this rolling thunder and they realize it's way too risky yeah but another kill
go in the way of liquid.
I don't want to force anything into this age, it's definitely not going to be worth it.
I'm making any use of this to really start pulling away, catching back up to his glorious
dawnbreaker already in net worth and it's going to surely be surpassing pretty soon.
And as every item starts to stack up on Wind Ranger, it's a little crazier and crazier.
here. It's a a man to for WS and then afterwards he's going for the
closure. So I can't talk about it. It's a good call.
Definitely right on that one. WS.
Realizing that there could be an issue right there.
The rest of the team moving in a BKB TV out overgrown views.
And WS stopped his tracks. Big pickup there.
I mean, you know, you're playing a little risky anyway, right?
Because reward though, spots where Makoto just went.
they didn't start moving that fast.
But yeah, they're moving very aggressively on the map right now because they have this
Aegis and on the same side as Aurora they're just saying we've got to just push and push
and push as much as we can.
We've got to get too much of this.
Keeping this courier close just in case the gem becomes an issue.
And a full AC done Dawnbreaker.
Highest net worth hero of the game right now.
Ace is making this hero look very good.
If Nikkei actually goes for Satanic next, this Kralos could just be like the craziest
pick up ever.
Yeah, they already was looking pretty wild, but this would really cement it.
I think all the difference in the world, 28% probability is where we're at right now
is tofu.
Again, this tree, how many time?
I don't know, it's just crazy.
It's set up for a kill.
Has the right on top of me are dead.
He drops a pretty greedy AWP sentry as he's dying, but it looks like he goes unnoticed here, okay?
I'll see if Boxie passes back over with the gem
He's just trying to get vision down so they can play for the creep cutting
All going into MKB for himself. Perry is gonna take this one out
Mickey and ace in the area so need to be wary of their positioning
I try to realize that they definitely have a damage problem.
Same thing was nice about it.
It's a very heavy focus on to make a MKBs for both Helena and the Tiny needed.
And it just takes so long to build them up.
And it feels so bad on the Tiny too.
I mean, that is not horrible, but not great.
But the flip side to that too is that if you do get that closure done,
and it acts ever calls,
Okay
He's gonna make a fight with his agents apparently he's like kill me I dare you he really is baiting hard here
They have to axe done send out those alugies
But yeah, sort of just trying to dodge out this Aegis for a little while longer on Aurora.
Nobody being completely knocked out at this point, the tree is definitely getting a ton
out of the map though.
Look at that network, almost 10k.
Yeah?
That's okay.
out some h-grasp rambles, walking wherever he feels like.
Donbreaker is just roaming the dire side of the map as Donbreaker tends to do, maybe they
can try and find some sort of a crazy smoke plane to her if they get some d4s and track
her movements but right now they just still see anything so they can't even offer that
and obviously they don't think they want any of these dire heroes even outside the
ages there's still the solar guardian there to worry about so we're just dodging farming
as much as they can they now have that MKB so a post-age of smoke would not be the craziest idea
how do you laminate it just is focus firing the backdoor protective power he eventually made
it through but okay this is very fun yeah this is a scary window 18 seconds he's so alone right now
i mean he has an aux they're not gonna go riding the wind right out of there
smoke up as four. Now Aurora gonna see if they can catch somebody on the other side of the
map. Nightfall does not have detection right now and it's gonna run right into the tree.
Now they know where he's at. Gem on the dark willow. Scan connects. He's over there.
Yeah, I mean
If tofu stays here, he's gonna die jump forward call dust out
Lifted and yeah, there's no way out
But that's not a lot you want no no it's certainly not does not make you feel much better about the current situation that you're in
Especially when he's leaving some sentient trees near base. I assume they're sentient
Do you think they're sentient trees when they have the other eyes of the force?
What does the lore say it's either sentient or they're like infected and it says enchanted tree with grants him
Uninstructed vision, but the tree does not have the vision
That makes sense, so I mean that's good. Otherwise. He just be like sending trees to their demise
And that that does not what you I mean he already causes enough deforestation
How many people just cut down the entire lane of trees?
Though well, I mean it's his presence. They caused it. That's true. If you just stay at home
Possible. Jump forward. Where they find a nightfall, realizes something could be coming his way, pops the BKB.
Is he gonna try and get out? No, jump forward, call. Now Dawnbreaker ulti, news, backs out with WS.
Looking for a second initiation. Mira low, Esha jumps. They get on top of him again. Now the avatars onto Ace,
but Ace is so damn tanky. He still runs forward onto WS, trying to get away from there desperately.
Desperately the terrorized connects, but they still managed to get that kill
And Toph is still lurking nearby there with a tenter for a blink as well, but if they are that's enough
Get the next wave down here. It's gonna enchant the tree on the high ground as well
They maintain their gem at least as
Nira did not die, but liquid seem to be coming up with all of the answers as they are finding the right fights
And now Yulis after lift up, can the rest of the squad get here?
Does not look like it.
Axe still dead for 30 seconds.
I mean every fight has gone arore, or has gone liquids way it feels like.
Yeah, it is trending and trending that way, and Foxy wants to keep it going here.
He's picking up the Blink Dagger next on the hood wings.
Pull on the Grashen Blink Dagger, onto Mickei too.
So if this row spawns quick, and they grab it, they are just ready to end this game honestly.
Liquid pretty heavily outdrafted in Game 1 of Comeback, with a solid two games and on
the precipice of moving on to the main stage of DI.
Dora still have some tricks up their sleeves, but they're going to need to be pretty
perfect.
do a good job of keeping the farm up on the two biggest cores of the tiny and
the Lena axe you know you kind of already have what you need the Crell is
would be nice but he's got the tools he needs to actually set up good fights
for the squad already right so it's more important they try and scale
this lean in this tiny to try and get that oomph damage they really need I
mean if he could get to the Prozier it would definitely be big but it's
It's taken a while, almost done with that full Silver Edge for the tiny as well.
Liquid.
Likely just waiting for this next pages, like 14 seconds from it being back up again.
Yeah, not the easiest one to scout for the side of Aurora either.
got it completely done a pistol plate ace is so huge yeah now the solar
grinding trap feels a lot realer yeah when that pops down you know there's a
DKB piercing stun coming down with it yeah a lot more frightening to try and
stick it out we're bobbling oh we're bobbling who'd be bobbling okay win
ranger really where's your confidence you're ending this game you're bobbling
It's always good.
Rosh Arora.
Okay, this could be the one.
Big wrapper. They were in a good spot.
I didn't even think the roar would be enough to get in here in time.
Foxy, Foxy, he breaks right there.
They see it now.
Oh, a timely invisor in here for WS.
Back in a way, Rosh is low.
It's not low enough that you could try and sneak it as liquid.
Or really Arora.
I'm still two minutes away from it moving.
Do they have any other smokes?
They have one more on Mira. Part of the problem is the tofu link overgrowth because there's only the manta on the axe
Yeah, so if you catch the lina or the tiny they have to make a very quick decision of what they're gonna do
They're backing out and actually continuing to farm now Aurora. Well, they have the illusion in the pit
Okay, the axe is still you know the illusion was still there just saying hey, they're not in here
So they're trying to get set up I guess for when it goes up to the north side
I mean there this is kind of a bait by Aurora because they have such good vision around here that they're they're saying yeah
Go on in and see if you can do it
But liquid are not going to and it's keep power shotting it right now
Not a bait a bluff. Excuse me. Oh annotated. Don't worry. We're fine
Get back into this
26
Liquid even though Aurora is on the opposite side of the map
Are not gonna be making that move over
Feels like Aurora is waiting for them to like the Kodo shows now
Okay, they now go for a power shot. Yeah, now they're gonna go back in properly. I smoked up
They're checking all around the pillow while Mickey does it the roar happens
Did they have enough time to get back here? I don't think so
They're moving in with the axe is a little ways away sending them forward with the illusion
They know it's not real because of the smoke and I think they just give this up now
Nicky, you get it!
Oh, lurking a little nearby here, but yeah.
They did get a lot of farm on Aurora during that, I will say. Like, the Axe illusions were going pretty deep.
Nightfall was kind of flying wherever he wanted.
Essence is still here, he gets the go-tseptor off, saving that DKB for now.
Now they move in with the Dawnbreaker, WS still trying to get out Eman-totages!
Oh no, the stud!
And then it's just a sep away for a moment.
Overgrowth comes out too.
If they only lose to his hero, it's good for the big stun!
Wonder if they can be mkp!
But the U.S. Scepter comes out!
Does he have any way to kill Mikkei?
Oh, that is not quite what they were hoping for.
Nightfall, Avalanche, Paws.
Almost enough for the kill, and yes,
they burned through the A.
Jealous? He's got it, back in the way.
Come on in, the water's fine.
Hey, hits now onto Makoto, the stun.
Avalanche, Paws, no!
He's gonna fall as well.
Dead for 80 seconds of nightfall.
Nowhere left to go. Liquid.
They got the Hs. They're pushing WS back.
They are going to take it.
Four dead and Bill needs to hit.
Okay, Tubbo hit. He's just gotten that win waker there, too.
Unbelievable performance as they catch
and cut him out of trouble keeping Mikkei alive.
They might have been able to turn it.
They're hoping to tempt them into the well with that buyback, but they're not going to bite.
Still so long, and yeah, Nikkei eyes on the prize, understands what time it is, is going straight for the tier 4 towers.
There are no buybacks on these heroes.
Can they last 40 seconds?
Oh, it feels really difficult to make that work.
A root is there, buying a deso even.
There's a lot of predictions running on this high ground, of course I can feel it.
Oh, Nikkei.
I see you all looking in your Dota client.
Nisha goes forward, now the Shackle latches and Mira is going to die. Dead for 70, Liquid, they understand the time is now.
They want to play on the main stage of TI, and I think they have an understanding that they didn't.
CG is called Team Liquid on the main stage.
Coming to the arena in Shanghai with a pretty dominant performance, particularly in the second half of this game.
the team. They're going to be
there. Foxy removes his beer to
show his beautiful self as they
take the win. Absolutely looking
happy as can be right now for
that victory is we had on back
to the panel. Yeah they're just
bounding with joy that team
liquid. I tell you right there
and look over it sucks to not
qualify today for themselves.
They do have to play in
elimination around tomorrow,
any means. However, on the side of Liquid, yeah, it should definitely be biggest miles
there because after how game one ended up, I was wondering how much more they had for
themselves in the tank in this best of three. Well, there was plenty in game two and even
more in game number three here. And the mid-match up going significantly better for Nisha.
And most of Liquid just having a significantly better game for themselves off of that.
Yeah. I also respect them for letting this Lina, especially the Kodos, Lina go
through his highest winrate hero and also showing that it can be beaten and also in ways that it
can be beaten because in the first one he completely dominated the matchup in the second one they were
playing like all around this pangalir there's going to be multiple rotations coming in
ace i think he had an amazing performance as well where he was just kind of carrying from the
off lane. I know that a lot of the times that people use him as an excuse when things don't go
too well, but in this one Ace, I think he's my MVP because of the like how he played in the lane
and what he managed to transition that into the mid and late game fights and also just able to be
like the kind of body for the team and he comes into the fight immediately multiple saves
that were coming out from him. We saw Crellis as he tried to be the response to it, coming
out from the axe to steal some of that regen to remove the healing, but nice idea, but it
didn't work out.
When it got to that later part of the axe having Crellis though, I actually noticed
Ace was a little bit more triggered disciplined when it came to pressing that ult, because
multiple times he was waiting until the loss or the second-last pulse of Crellis
before he actually ended up ulting on his teammate, obviously if they weren't about to die.
But yeah, it was very impressive. This is one of those factors that Trello's done.
Yeah, and I think a lot of it goes to that one big fight in Tricamp,
where it honestly looked really bad for Liquid at the start, but then Ace somehow just managed to
get an ultra kill, turns the game around, and I also was really impressed by Dawnbreaker.
In this game, I do think a Roar's draft is still easier to execute
than Liquid, but I think that Liquid played this like mid game perfectly with playing their heroes
in the fights that the Winnerner is not dying, and then they did get to that point to the late game
where you see in these fights, every single one of their heroes is pretty much full HD. They're
not taking any damage. There's a fighter on this tier two top where they cast like all BKBs,
they cast all their spells. He Laguna Bladed a Peniel and the Peniel drops like 90% health
after the shield crash and it definitely hit a point where I think a roared made a couple
too many mistakes that just you you can't really afford to make them you're facing these top tier
teams. A couple of all it took was one Dornwyn monkeys and he was willing to praise the hero.
Yeah I mean while we've kind of talked about Dawnbreaker not maybe not feeling or looking
the best so far. I think Dawnbreaker plus Trian is just a combo that the amount of global save,
global heal, in addition to that pango barrier from his W, there's just so much HP coming out of
nowhere for Liquid. And I think that that goes a long way. It just makes them so hard to kill
and they're able to play really aggressive, especially with the Dawnbreaker coming in at
any moments notice and I think a lot of these fights it just showed how much healing really does
just change the course of the game. Well for sure and also it's the fact that you need to bring
an extra hero to a lot of these engagements knowing that Living Armor, that Dawnbreaker
Alti is going to come through which means that you're also like not showing in one of those
lanes because it means that if you need like two heroes most of the time you need three
three heroes to be able to get the kill. So it's kind of obvious when you're making good
move and a lot of the times with these professional e-gamers, they will know. You see they see
the extra hero missing, they know something's cooking.
I was surprised at how brawly this game was in the earlier portion of it. I thought this
was going to be maybe a slower, more methodical take to the game knowing that you could
potentially be going to the main stage if it's a game that you end up winning.
instead everyone's rotating everywhere and I mean literally everyone because we had the carries
coming mid as early as the six minute mark there to try and help their mid laners.
I think I think whenever teams have this much on the line such as making it to the main stage
that's when that's when players really want to rotate a lot and they want to they want to
be involved in the game and they don't want any mistakes that happen for their players
especially for Nisha. I think Mikkei in his mind, he's just like, if I TP mid and I enable Nisha,
this guy's gonna carry me, you know? So that's why he comes, Nightfall responds to Mikkei TPing,
and I mean, as you can see, there's just a complete brawl fest, and while Mikkei does die,
I mean, Nisha, this sets up Nisha to just have such a great game.
Who also just lives with the shield crash, by the way. I was like, surely he's able to
get him. Nope, classic pangor things gonna. Yeah, pangor greatest hero in the game for the last
three years every single game just consistent hero and big shots of liquid I think the kind of
change your path for the first game they did pick him the huskar there and it didn't really I think
fit their vibe whereas now in games two and three they pick him more I feel like Nisha-esque
heroes that let him pop off and look really good especially in the early to mid game and
I definitely think that those factors plus also being able to get that tree early
I think is a bit more impactful than the keep of the light just for drafting for gameplay
So I do really like how they change up their drafts
I did slow down a little bit after that
We saw some more action move towards the top portion of it
But the moment in which we're talking about Locust where we see this impact of the dawn really start to take place
Is the later portion about 23 minutes where we see a lot of Aurora's heroes
hoping to be able to chase to something there in this dire part of the jungle.
Yeah, this is where WS, he gets a really good initiation, even though he does have DKB available,
it's still Dawn Alti, goes to debuff immunity, and for whatever reason, Nightfall is like,
you know what, Jakiro, even though you have wings, you still need to fly, tosses him in,
which ends up in kind of a disastrous fight here for Team Aurora, because at this point it
It still looks kinda okay, and you can see that Nightfall, he's going onto Windrangers,
he still has the Windrun afterwards, and then the real carry of this game comes in, and
that's Ace, and he's gonna be cleaning up, getting the Ultra Kill as well, because if
you leave this hero uncompressed, especially with this type of a build, he doesn't have
BKB available, but he does have Eco Saber, he does have neutral item as well, if you
hit him back, he's gonna hit you basically three times, it's gonna proc the extra
bit of a healing on top of that. It's just very difficult and this hero is naturally tanky,
has a lot of strength gain and with this let's call it a bit of a newer build where you are
going for the Harpoon, getting the BKB. It makes you super tanky and you are survivable
in a fight but that counter initiation on the Axe Call, that's why they picked it.
Well it's pretty much the nature's profit from the off lane when you describe it like
that.
With the healing and stun.
Yeah, so actually better in Zillway shape or form, they're definitely better for
liquid and their lineup and their result here they qualified to the main stage
and with that win for themselves and making it that much further in TI we do
have a winners interview it's Nomad with the coach of liquid Blitz.
Thank you very much yes indeed I mean well firstly what's going through your
mind right now you know you guys have done it you've qualified to the main
stage it's unbelievable it actually feels very similar to when we won TI
like it's just a lot of like relief, a lot of emotion.
I start to realize like after seeing a lot of teams here
that you can't really take it for granted
and especially, you know, it's just,
it's always tough to get to this phase in the first place.
So yeah, just a lot of relief.
For sure.
I mean, it's a really, really competitive pool
this year for sure.
I mean, obviously you won two years ago
and then the year after that
you didn't make it in the eliminations.
What was that like for you?
Honestly, it was like the toughest period.
I think you take success for granted in this field
is something I really realize.
It's like, I see all these talented players around me
and I just think like, oh, for sure, we deserve
to be a top A team.
And you get this mindset really quickly.
You deserve your place.
Everybody should let you just get through.
And that's never the reality.
Ultimately, there's a team that's
hungrier than you, that wants it more than you.
And you have to respect that.
And you have to learn to earn it again.
because I think a lot of things, like the number one thing that happens to TI winning teams is that complacency, that whole, like, oh, of course we're better than you, but that only lasts for a week, and then suddenly you get to the next tournament in your trash can.
So, yeah, it's really humbling, and it was a good reminder to, like, check myself and remind myself that, like, it's hard work that got me here, not, like, luck or arrogance or anything like that.
It's just belief and just, like, keep working at it.
And now that comes full circle in being able to skip that elimination phase this year as well
I mean how is that for you and also for the team as well to be able to have that extra day?
Honestly, it's wonderful because I was telling my boss actually Victor that like
Ti just makes me like a nervous like anxious wreck like my stomach hurts. I'm just I don't sleep very well
I'm just really stressed and I just like never feel that good physically and so to get one day of just like
I think we're going to go out and eat tomorrow, explore Shanghai a bit, and enjoy what we've earned the first part of anyways.
For sure. So looking back on the series you just played, I mean, no one will talk about your strategy so much because you may come against them again.
What do you think their strategy was for you?
I think after game one they were just like, these guys are complete bots. Like anything will work against these guys.
No, I think like their idea was, I mean we've scrimmed them some and I think they really
wanted to try and make this Lena Hero work, probably just for like the future of the tournament
and stuff like that.
And we just took a lot of gambles I think in this series that they didn't necessarily
expect and some trades that they didn't think we would make and we kind of fraud
checked some stuff not to hurt them so I won't say too much or like, yeah as I
was a little bit surprised that they decided to just kind of like run it back and
like, okay, let's do it again then.
All right, well, final question then.
I mean, how much do you feel like the meta of the groups
kind of has shifted over the past few days?
Cause everybody always talks about the TI meta evolving.
I mean, it's hard to say because like certain heroes,
I think are just like busted obviously.
Like I think the Selena heroes are obviously really good.
Some stuff is like coming up like nature's profit,
heroes like that.
I feel like this TI has a lot of flavor to it
because every off laner is a little bit different
in the stuff that they like.
So I think that part is really interesting.
And yeah, I think this TI meta really rewards creativity.
I actually feel like that's a large reason
why teams like Nigma and LGD, you know,
who look kind of bad day one.
I think they're doing well because, you know,
they're willing to be creative
and they're willing to do some odd things
to try and get like the extra stuff.
Well, some stuff.
Well, I mean, again, congratulations,
huge congratulations on making it through
to the main stage of the international.
I'm so excited.
Can I say one thing?
Of course.
give a shout out to everybody that you know obviously the team deserves all the
glory and the success and all that and they're like the hardest workers but I
think it's worth mentioning everybody behind the stage everybody a team
liquid Victor John Cav Joey who came everybody watching back home I'm sure
there's a lot it really means a lot to me that you know you have an
organization that's always willing to stand by you last year was really tough
and you know EWC won really poorly for me and I never felt that pressure
It was always just like what can we do to help you retool?
And I think when you know you have a support system like that in place it means the absolute world to me
That there's no pressure put on me to perform
It's always just like hey, however you do we're gonna be proud and we're gonna just like keep looking forward
And so I just I really want to give a deep shout out to Team Liquid because I felt pretty supported during this period
And I think that should be acknowledged. Oh, yeah, dude. That's what makes wins. Well, thank you so much. Good luck
a big thank you to both Nomad and Blitz there, but obviously thinking liquid a lot, but it's
great to see what's happened in 12 months for liquid here and to go from not qualifying
to main stage in a heartbreaking elimination to even a pretty difficult start to the season
for themselves and really ramp up when it matters. It's nice to be able to see a
team like that and the acknowledgement go that way as well, but I just like, but
just still a little a little love himself showing their reviews we kind of
fraud checked a couple things of Aurora and I feel like that's either the leaner
the tiny or the jacquero there's nothing else really on the rustle because he was
talking about jacquero even though this is something here he loves to play
this is how he came into the scene I'm playing for lock and jacquero but I think
he was referring to leaner and something I said is that you know after
seeing what happened in game two I was also a little bit surprised that
in Game 3 that decided to go for it again. Maybe they thought the laning stage that he did have
was like so good, but wasn't able to replicate. They thought the invoker was the problem after
that, so they banned it, but they also found a really good replacement. They put a pango,
and also the shout-out to two supports of Liquid who made this kind of happen,
where they put quite a lot of pressure onto this. Lena and Lena didn't get to shine in the
third game. I also think part of it is Aurora letting Trient through two games in a row, which
is considered one I think the most banned hero of the tournament, so possibly a bit of overconfidence
there from Aurora. Just after that game won, you know, Blitz sent Aurora maybe thought they
looked like bots and were like, maybe you can just beat the good heroes against them.
Game 1 was a bit of a question mark from side of the liquid though. I can't necessarily blame
overall but creativity for sure being gifted, not gifted sorry, creativity being rewarded
here at TI. It is a lot of fun to get to see some new things happening whether it's a win
or a loss but a lot of changes happening through the last three days here and there are going
to be some newer things happening at this TI but someone to help us break it all down,
walk through it all is none other than Purge. Thank you Nat and we have a great show coming
up later tonight when these teams end up picking who they want their opponents to be, but to
get there we have to understand how the format works. I know it's a little opaque sometimes
for people so I'm going to explain some of those details to you guys get a picture.
This isn't exactly what the team records are going to be, but basically these teams
are going to be picking what opponents that they want to play against and how you decide
who's in the lead comes down to these little rules. Now the first ones are pretty simple.
This is just, did you win a lot of games? This one is, you know, 4 and 0 is better
than 4-1. This third one is a little bit spicy though and this is where things get a little
complicated. Did you beat the weaker teams? Did you beat OG for example? Or did you play
against OG who only scored two points? Did you play against the hooligans who only got
two points? Those guys are going to be weaker and then if you're still tied then it's
what percentage of games did you win? Did you get lots of 2-0s or did you get 2-1s?
Then there's percentage of games won by 1 points plays. It gets farther down all
the way into coin toss but realistically it's going to stop probably about at
line three and then ultimately who'd you choose to play against now this
seeding was super important because whoever got first gets to pick any of
these five teams that they want panel which team would you pick if you were
Aurora here wait I want to I want to clarify team resilience can we read
that graphic up very quickly again is team resilience actually highest-aided
is your two three teams done in seeding orders okay
It's very complicated, okay
Because their placement isn't finalized spirits down. Okay, okay, and wing is still playing yandex is still who knows what's gonna happen there
So we have you can't modify like all the possible graphics in ours that you couldn't
Okay, and so much so who'd you guys pick for Aurora if you were first seed Aurora, which team would you want to play boom boys?
They destroyed them in a tour this morning. You think boom boys? Yes. That's dangerous
That's like where's that that arrow pointing towards?
Third place at the either we see why did you make monkeys?
That's my dark horse at the tournament bird. All right, let's say your team spirit in game relations already been picked monkey
down down down down. Yeah.
I believe so. That does seem
like the right choice. All
right. And now you're kind of
screwed because the last three
teams are all really, really
good, right? So the seating
really matters based on that
previous start. What do you
pick here? I don't know. I'm
telling you, I don't think
we're picking team a legion.
You don't think so? I don't
know. I think there's a chance
they don't. I think if
they're on top, I do think
it's kind of a flex if they
do choose a team like boom
They did have a very convincing winner over them and imagine imagine boom boys not making
Top 8 and the main event. I mean that it
By would just my little bit of a rage and bias. They're all friends, you know
LGD they had a boom boys yandex and VG to pick from yeah
Those are the the last bad choices because a lot of these guys we're expecting to go top four top six at least
I thought you annex and boom boys would be top six for sure
I think they could get eliminated here. I don't know. I think they pick resilience
I don't think it's a good take but I think that's what they will pick if this is how it plays out
And then whoever's last he gets the best team of the two three teams and there's quite a good a few good ones
So I don't know it's gonna be hard choices later tonight. We're gonna see that with slacks after all the games are done
Okay, do you want to?
and you can you take a bite of your own
okay see bro
i actually just wanted to talk to you more
i mean games are still going on what else are we going to do you know
okay we can talk to you
what's up
how's your shanghai experience
what was talking about how he was going to go explore some shanghai with his team
you got you had any chance to see anything around you
i did not go 4-in-1 today
so i actually have to work tomorrow
oh i'm so sorry about that
you went 4-in-1 in my heart
oh thank you i appreciate that
Oh, wow.
He lost one.
He lost one.
Okay.
Well, we will say goodbye to you now, Ferg.
I'll let you enjoy whatever's left of staying high, but we are going to have a lot of fun
with Slikes later on when we do get to our pick show, our draft show, however you would
like to coin it.
Therefore, the elimination round because it is going to be so pivotal as to what's
happening.
I do know that the action over on StreamC has just concluded.
I'm going to spoil it for you guys.
Maybe you're already watching it on the side.
It is iron wing who ended up waiting for themselves.
So at least one of those permutations
that Perge presented with us is correct there,
but there is still action happening on the D stream.
That's in my galaxy up against spirits.
So we're gonna jump on into it so you guys can try
and grab the ending of what is game two.
Orphan.
It's a male, actually on the high ground,
the trience one that is on the edges,
banner for the creeps, get the ranged ones alive.
They're starting on some male
with a bit of poke from the high ground.
That's one Aida. Sharpshooter, mana burn from the EMP, puts him pretty uncomfortable to just go high ground into this draft though.
There's a lot of combos. I just fairly want to just hard shove it.
At the same time, the moment you don't, the bear is about pushing lanes.
And lucky for anyone who splits up.
Actually, they've done a great job on Nygma to protect each other.
It's so easy when you play against a farm longer to just have your supports dying non-stop.
Like it's not like they have a farmed POSP 4 and 5 duo, like the clockwork only has
Yule Scepter and Shard, or only had that for a long time, he's a coupling tagger
now.
And even the basketballs staying alive against the Shadowblade Bear can be a real challenge.
Yes, that ability is like turn on a dime and change the dynamic of the game very quickly.
I think that's the thing we were talking about previously, that ability to first of all play
very quickly in one of their games and play fast, straight out of the gates.
Then game two can slow things down and realize, okay, we have to wait for our timing a little
bit later.
Here they're doing a similar thing, where it's like, okay, when we need to go for
the bear, we are all five together.
You know, like you say, keeping everyone safe and sound is the thought of not dying,
Also, catching the bear and not getting split pushed by the bear at the same time while grouping his five is a difficult thing to do.
Like, you're playing the map and you're balling.
Yeah, it's so hard. Usually you get ratted, you lose your tier to towers,
but right now I'm looking around and all their tier to towers are looking fairly healthy.
The bottom one is the lowest HP, sitting at about half HP a little bit lower,
but top one is pretty much pristine and mid is also looking fine.
It's just kudos to Nigma, this is, you know, it looks trivial but they're making it work,
man.
It is effort to deal with this laundry, and that's her always angling, trying to find
whatever weakness he can.
So far there has been no weakness, Nigma got, the bear is drunk in the jungle by
the way, he's flailing around.
Oh no.
Down.
Just flaming around.
Just flailing in the jungle.
Oh, look at that move coming in behind the onto the hoodling quickly.
Ah, they're gonna get the catch.
Rue immediately blown up.
It's a male.
They keep it in pretty deep there and they're trying to turn back to catch the bear.
You know, throw it in the silver edge.
They're geming.
They're gonna expire pretty quickly and yeah, the gem, they've got reveal now.
Send everybody in under the Yathrow there, is there a hookshot and he stuns to stop him? Omar can't quite get there
Unfortunately already spent had the hookshot cooled down otherwise he would definitely have used it
But that's a D to be spent just to keep the bear alive and for anyone joining us just now in this cast
This has been a game where Nikola have played really impressive Dota
Keeping change spirit at bay despite the early free farm on the London
And with all the net worth he has he's only one two and three as he's KDA on London
has not really been able to push towers, not really able to fight kills.
This bear has been neutralized a lot of times.
And Neymar goes in with a great jump tracking back on it.
A pest control in full effect.
So male, now having an incredible game on this nature's profit.
35 counts of net worth, top of the pot.
Feeling very good with his performance through this group stage already.
Six-slotted Furion ready to strike.
That close not to the map.
The Ember as well, getting closer to fresher.
Fokker goes in, goes fishing, trying to find someone.
Negg is proper teaching even deeper.
Dark Willow's been somewhat isolated in the middle, but Collapse makes the jump on just
a male.
The Blink berserk is called a Dysfunctional Combo, not enough.
So worry this Negg is proper too much, because look at Lorna.
She was diving into the middle of them, zoning away the Dark Willow, dealing with
Larl.
On Nigma Galaxy, they're on the bear.
Yataro's going to lose it.
Ah, poor little body should get critted down by the next prophet.
Spirit wants to continue. They're hiding in the trees looking for a blink call on someone,
but the reaction is completely immediate.
Snatch disabled. Collapse can't make the proper jump, and he's going to have to force that down to low ground.
Get saved up. The bear is on some mail though. They've got the graves, keeping the prophet alive.
Do they have life steal or regen? Anything to heal him? The bash is a landing.
The heal comes in. The spell strikes to the up, be off the mark.
The small yachter over there is chasing, but he's being healed up.
Oh my god, they can't save him!
Low and Druid, the bear kills off the nature's prophet.
Animal versus Druid.
The animal kills him on top.
Oh no, he's out of remnantism. One more.
He's not got any life, though.
Low enough down, low on Rue, both very low HP.
Yasuo picks up the double kill and collapse with a buyback.
Wanting to make something more happen, but the TP from Omar completes.
Look at Rue and also on Invoker's HP,
HP low and Rue both cutting it close there some crazy amount of space being created by the ember
But didn't really have quite enough help to bring people down. He did a lot of damage
But that kind of a lot as well as he didn't really have much disabled. He nearly did 10,000 damage remember Jesus
Insane number being posted up blind also
I realized now the fight recap does not credit the bear for how much damage it does. This is longer. It did 708 damage
I can personally testify that there was more than that being held to the four nages profit in that fight
But I get thousands of damage just to the nages profit. Yeah
I have a high ground push tier three tower falls. They're not pulling buyback triggers. They're actually letting the racks go it feels like
Well, I'm pushed with a lacquery on the bear
It's not worth buying back for one lane, but losing the second lane would not be okay.
The Lekkerz is falling fast. Holy crap, the tower's gone.
The Toretius replay was too long. The Spirit is killing off buildings. It's not going
to have a link back on the bear.
Kill with his goddamn spirit bear, try and kill it off, but he's got to get spare feet to finish off the buildings.
Yattaro gets two lanes, and the bear is still alive, the hookshot comes in from Omar, they need to finish this damping off.
Yeah, to kill the bear if I immediately, it's resummoned again.
Pig win there for Team Spirit.
They win a long and hard fought battle, and then immediately claim two lanes of racks without even leaving the comfort of their own home, Gareth.
is working from home. You're just sending voker and a bear. They deal with it.
The rest of them all stay there when they're trying to go on farming.
Oh, they're gonna get the bear again. Oh no, it's a fresh one. This is the recent one.
No bear for a minute and a half. If this one dies, it looks like it might.
Yachter's gonna try and turn and fight, but it's sprouted up and killed off.
And now, he went down to Ohio's net worth here at a sporty cane net worth down the drain.
90 seconds of it being gone and he's buying a swift blink on the bear. He's not going for a fresher.
oh boy that's just Roshan for Nygma Galathe
you have to take them for now
I don't think you can fight me
maybe we can at least try something
scan on scan scan one of them turns red I
don't know who's somebody must be to die
scan turns red on axe they know something's
coming Roshan's low about to die outside
the pit he's picked up by Lorinov
Nygma Galathe got what they came for
axe meant to jump into the back but
Omar is so near about the cheese will
send to the other side and collapse
I'm just going to BKB TP!
I've got a grave on Omar to keep him alive.
Loran off again going deep into the mail to try and find the back lines.
There are no more kills to be had though, which is a willow dead for 60.
She's dead for 16, no buyback.
But more importantly, the bear is still dead for 40.
Don't think they're going to punish that timing though.
It looks like they're just going to fix the lanes, get them out meanwhile.
Loran going for the top.
Pushing towards tower.
my hands are sweaty. I can't imagine making my galaxy in this kind of game where they're pulling
all the strings, fighting the bear, fighting back, then losing a lot of barracks, and finding another
way to return into the game with an Aegis and the hands of Loronov.
They need to go. Even though the bear is back, it's only one life.
That's true. Even if you fight here, kill the bear at a single time and you might just win the game.
That is the big win condition for them.
So much long range popes to come out with his spirit slide to hold them back.
They've got hoodwinkin' and bokeh to keep on spanning and a bear to kill off the banner.
Yattaro, that's his one bear to take forward.
And it might be dying, but he's got a BKB and a 4 staff. Hookshot misses, they don't land it.
The bear gets out of there, but now you've lost your tier 3 tower.
Laurenoff getting hexed and meatballs. Terrorized gonna try and fly in,
he's getting licked around and dragged from side to side.
Terrorized was just a fake pump.
momentary respite for spirit. The push will halt for now. So difficult to go forward now with the
hex over on the Largo as well. Doctoring core force for extra cooldown reduction on it.
Only a 15 second cooldown on that hex. Go a little bit too close and you immediately get
chain stunned up. Get back for mid. One minute timing until he has a second bare life.
He still has the first one alive, but soon he'll have the double life on it.
And maybe guys have some good heroes to keep his push going.
Ember and Nature's Prophet can return to Phampton, come back to the fight.
Largo and Dazzle keep the sustained going to keep the creep waves alive.
They're still into content with all the meatball and Ice Wall spam that's coming out of this invoker.
But for now, it's at Lornoff, up at the front.
Hitting the buildings as a blink call comes his way.
One lick forward, then a tornado to follow.
It gets a little bit annoying, some toxic stuff being chucked at low enough, but he's being saved up again by Dubai.
Ember Spirit is perfectly fine, and he has a second life, so he can keep chipping away and harassing this Team Spirit backline.
That's Nick McGarxy.
Now a return fire from the Dark Willow trying to maybe scare them into re-initiating, but nothing happens.
Now it's good MP there, burning a lot of their mana, but still can't really force them to stick around.
around they just walk away still have the ages for two minutes so plenty of time
to make more power plays on this region run and now it's woke up by team spirit
I think smoking behind the bear might be a really smart play they're going for that
they know the bears been picked off a lot of times in the moment they see the
bear people have been very happy to gank it showing some serious efforts to
shutting it down are they going down here are they going down mids we're
back to two bears now, swift blink bear.
After he keeps his hero to the far left,
the rest of the team stir it all the way
to the right-hand side.
And that's the swift blink at Bistol,
so this bear is designed to murder G.H.
Unfortunately, G.H. has an A on this,
so he's pretty well-protected.
Yeah, A on disc, mech, holy locket.
He's got a lot of time to handle.
Oh, they're ganking the bear now,
and the setup is behind it.
Ooh, this could backfire for Nigma.
He's blinked, he's blinked back.
So the male has gone forward, the full brunt of the force of the bear, straight on the
niggas' prophet, he's been graved up, they're trying to kill him, but it doesn't give a
dunk though, it fails!
So the male is still alive, he'll sustain unless you love now to deal with the bear,
oh my, I'm gonna refresh back up to get on to not me.
Bear down, dunk missed, and I'll buy back from Clockwork, leave the niggas' galaxy
charging out, looking for any bonus targets, I won't find the two to the south, gee,
tries to go north as the duck willow is left alone, not me stranded out here and
dead.
gem drops on the ground, they ping it up, it's the male spotted on the ground as Omar
turns around and gets that.
Man, that almost worked out beautifully.
I'm baiting with the bear, but the dunk just barely missed.
If that dunk lands, Nature's Prophet would have to make a hard call for whether or
not he wants to buy back into that fight.
Yeah.
Yeah, such a close one.
And the Heal's aim, a wild Nigma Galaxy, like the sustain that saves the Heals keeping
people alive.
It almost feels destined, like Nygma are meant to win this.
Team Spirit are fighting it, the fighting fate itself.
Just waiting for one of those three sisters in the underworld to snip the thread of Spirit, you know?
But it's a strong thread, they're like trying to cut it.
They're holding on, you know, it's that little potion.
The Godly strength they've got inside of them.
That would be the hardest one to get rid of.
They're definitely offsprings of Zeus, aren't they, Team Spirit?
They've got some of that bloodline in them.
Certainly do.
What's... Oh my god, what's heaven?
It's not the Acropolis, what's the heaven called?
Olympus?
Olympus, man, Olympus, that's...
Yeah, yeah, Olympus.
London Red soon has the entire refresher, by the way.
500 gold and you'll have the refresher for the extra life.
On the bear.
That's where the difference at this stage is kind of whatever 9k lead doesn't really mean anything one way or another
It's all about who can come up with the smarter angle
Who falls for the base last time make my felt for the base, but they survived
Quite often we have a lot of these games and team fights where it's down to that one bit of vision that one big jump
Right there the climbers move which crushes the opponents
This has been so much more nuanced and back and forth. You have the first jump in the second than this other there with the rocket
Are they gonna find him? Yeah, so I show is on the wave
I start out with a slug over a word savage roar. He's gonna break free with the bear
Access the bigger targets trying to chase safety gets away and collapse will blink out
Amber was looking for a long distance remnant jump on him
A little bit surprised they didn't go with the mail, but perhaps they felt, you know,
Axe was the bait this time and everyone was smoked next to him.
A lot of mind games going on here.
52 minutes.
Spirit with a 10k lead.
You just know if that one bottom tier 2 tower opens up, the bear will have free access
to go into the enemy base.
Suddenly any single creep wave could open up your your mega creeps coming in
That tier two tower is the last defender the last bastion
That's the barrier keep out the floods
Team spirit a little bit of wiggle room here just to get a bit of gold into these next big items
acts looking for boots to travel
It's laundry and wanting the disperser invoker now there is and what he wants to go for
Yeah invoker
Does have a lot of items already did backpack for staff
Hard to say what he should be purchasing at this point a
Bear going on the clockwork, but not everybody's here immediately
Yeah, they're on the bear you went on me we go on you
It's so convenient to have a nature's profit you can TP and globally
Anytime anywhere and help when the bear shows up. Oh the bears go in the clockwork
Dazzle graves it and they turn it around immediately and nature's profit just brings it down
Yeah, the difference between having a less cohesive draft and the bear just totally kills everything
Yeah, I mean nature's profit and ember both right having that maneuverability across the map gives them so much freedom
That's why even though the two lanes of rats down. It still feels like they've got a good shout in this game
Team Spirit are hovering over the top area and Rosh could spawn any moment like you mentioned.
Amber going pretty far out.
Just carrying them away with the Nature's Prophet come faking TP down bottom instead.
Yeah, he invoked them.
Oh wait, look at me.
Yes, hook shot.
And the damage from the high grounds the male is there to lay in the scuddy hits.
And invoke a refresh.
That's on cooldown.
We're dead for 90 seconds.
Now we're looking at Lornoff getting in our caneroon.
The violence of the male defend the base, push out that top and middle wave.
Gather up the farm and maybe look at this mid lane as Yattrow is bare.
And it'll be emerging shortly, but it's protected by a collapse axe.
Well, look at this canary to go.
Very dangerous. If you get called next to the bear, the DPS is definitely there.
MKB on it. Abyssal Blade player changed on.
Margot gonna be the target, the triplet.
Pretty hard to aim.
They've suddenly dog piled on the bear. They've surrounded him. Yatter will lose it again.
it again. So quickly they come out and find him while collapsed is being eyed up by some
male TP'd forward but doesn't have any ways to stop him.
You know I can't wait to look at the post game stats for how much gold the bear has
given this game is actually giving away quite a bit of gold. They killed it so many times
it's like 400 something gold now per kill.
So that was the first bear. Now we're on the second and the refresher will be
the third if he needs it.
Yeah, so currently he only has two lives on the long road.
Little Super Mario Life counter, you know?
Two lives for him.
A couple of one-ups.
And there we go, and he's still trying to get across the river and find a way towards
this radiant base.
It's just a non-stop fight to keep the lanes out, find the bear, and then think
about this Roshan take.
So we have fully gear-slotted up or a snail in this game.
He's got moonshotted, consumed agonist after, can't get any bigger, smoke comes in, they
want to contest this, and they're trying to approach, and collapse trying to jump.
Look at Lornoff, he's dancing around in front of them, he's got like all the moonshotted
up, the nature's profit in every spirit, they've nuked him down to half HP, but before the
fight even begun, Lobo throws the spells at the snail, some strikes can come and
try and land on the nature's prophet but he's pretty fine to stay sustained through it all
and ruin not being a fall and Lord of picked up a double kill. That's just beautifully executed
by the galaxy. This ember spirit's right on them. Sits on Team Spirit, they can't bloody move.
Stairs in the rest, sit down, you don't go anywhere.
Oh, I need to see the damage. Holy crap, I okay dude. 10,470 damage, the remnants. He
He's sent 9 remnants out or he activated 9 times rather.
He's sent even more I think because he refreshed just flying remnants all over the place.
That's more than something to do with the whole last game!
Yeah, it's wild.
Noronov is playing like a god for sure.
10 out of 10 performance.
I'm now in the galaxy finally back to where they feel they belonged at the enemy base
killing buildings. Malarax falling, and Tylane gone and they shift down to bottom. They fall
bybacks out of Not-Me and Rue, waiting for Invoker and axe to maybe spend theirs. They've got them.
Yeah, they could spend them, but they have Tier 2 Tower top. They know this is not going to be
Mega Creeps, but I also don't think the push is going anywhere. If you don't buy back,
I think the guy keep going then. Aegis, they're just going to go for the Tier 2 Tower up top,
Open up the road to the mega creeps. What a journey this game has been. Do they find the DD?
Amplify damage top rune spot. 30 seconds. I think it's under radiant vision, right? But not under dire vision
Yeah, yeah, they should barely see it
So Spirit knows but Nigma Galaxy do not lacking critical information currently
DD rune is about to expire the best before date is in 10 seconds
Not the usual, mate.
Tester 4 is made up, doesn't mean any.
So seriously, the best 4 days invented, so shops can sell you more stuff.
The actual expiry date is anything that matters, and even that is contested.
The four capitalism match, lady.
High ground we go.
So, mail clicking into that tier 3.
Very far back, Roche banner as well, to keep that creep wave alive.
range. Team spirit tried to drag the wave back, put the bear on the tier three down to the top
trades. Does somebody creep still? Does it still float? Hook shot missing, low enough,
and he's got tornadoed up with a lick of oil down to the low ground. Terrorists chucked in to try
and deal with the ember spirit, but his low then vogue was already very low and if he gets
chased he'll die. Low enough is trying to get there. Ah, can't go past the barracks though,
respecting team spirit in their hold. He's got the range back, bear is dying to the creeps?
I just kept it.
I keep the creeps under family.
Not me, just dying in the base.
Nice fall, and then Vogue has had to buy back.
Yeah, Barracks are falling in his top lane, and Nigma guards here doing it.
And what happened to the Bears just died?
Where is it? Try to get back down to the collapse.
Jump on Sturmaille, the Bears come forward, trying to get there.
He's got the missile plate stunned, but the Lick Bag will save him.
Sturmaille has ages as well, don't forget that second life.
Ruin collapse, looking for an angle as they lose their buildings to buy and learn off.
Just Invoker, Axe pulls the trigger on the buyback.
Looking to catch anyone, but they just smoke reposition.
Stabilize, it's stabilized the game right now.
Nigma have a fantastic lead.
They should be going before the barrel respawns are up.
They're gonna go for it.
It's rapier time for Sumail, bloodthorn on the Ember Spirit.
They want to shut the door on this one.
They're looking at this race with victory within reach.
Lawloss Ember Spirit, basically fountain diving them,
Keeping them all hemmed back.
You are sheep.
I am sheepdog.
Stay in founds and sit down now.
Nigma Galaxy looking for tier four towers
and Team Spirit, they cannot advance.
Blend's being canceled.
No movement possible.
Cannot move forward.
Your throne is calling.
You do not have a glim either.
Do you have to make a play?
Yathrow gets on the divide with a bear.
Lot of stoning them back, but the throne is done.
Nigma Galaxy getting close to it,
but now Lot of Dev is in for two minutes
and collapse.
He's got to make a lot of plays for the damage.
It's too much! The bear tries to kill an Aegis prophet. He's got the first life down. Throne, 1400 health remaining.
Low enough to try to finish the job. The bear bats me up some mail. They can't quite kill the ancient yet.
They need Omona and all to do the funnel for the damage. They've got it now! The throne's within reach!
The damage is done and the game is won! Nygma Galaxy! Two Zimberos over here! Spirit!
I think we've lost Gareth at this point.
I think he needs the break after this one.
Holy hell, NIGVA Galaxy with the 2-0 against Team Spirit.
It isn't just a series win for NIGVA Galaxy here, but that's that qualification to the
main stage for TI 2026 in Shanghai.
They are our third and last in qualifying today to that main stage.
And what a fashion they did it in two games in this best of three.
the absolute barn burners both of them going the distance back and forth and
honestly until the ancient falls you had no idea who was gonna come out on top
absolutely I mean this is enigma galaxy peak they had a greater result last year
but also this year they really struggled and ever since this new squad has
been formed we're like okay this looks really good on paper during EWC they
looked extremely good top their group they brought new strategies to the
table at the recent online tournament. They didn't do as good. So that also, I think,
put a lot of people, again, having doubts. It's always a roller coaster with Nigma Galaxy.
They're up there down. You never know where they are. But it seems like they're so back
this time.
Their game number one was pretty much that definition. Lacoste was a roller coaster
and I know a lot of you guys here in the mainstream wouldn't have been able to
grab all of the action that was happening across all our streams at the time because
we were still in our Liquid and Aurora series. But this was game one of Nigma Galaxy
up against Spirit and for so long Spirit were in the lead. It was a massive fight from the side of
Nigma Galaxy that put them back in this position. You get into the later portions of the game.
It's dead even. Nigma Galaxy end up coming on top and that feels like it's just a tale of back-to-back
games with them where they aren't necessarily favored monkeys but they do end up being able to
to get the victory to a yeah and what a story for them I mean they started 0-2
and this this bracket and then they win eight games in a row so that's another
week in the office and we got some boys and I mean some could argue three three
of their wins you know their team their matchups maybe weren't weren't the
hardest of the tournament. I mean you compare their matchups to liquids matchups.
If anyone's questioning their run, they started off against Ironwing, that's where they got
their first O and two, those two losses, their only two losses. They then had a two O up
against OG, a two O up against LDD, a two O up against VG, but a two O up against Spirit,
you can like, Hanmenhaar all you want about the previous frans if you so wish, but
to 2-0 Spirit in this fashion that you cannot take away from them.
Yeah, with how Spirit was looking, right?
Like, we thought they were going to make the main event today, earlier this morning, and
then now being dropped down to the elimination stage, just really impressed by Nigma, because
this team was, I feel like a lot of people did not have them even making it to the
main event, let alone 4-1.
I'm going to be real, I did not have them making it to the main event.
I'm going to be so honest there, am I going to get a little bit of flak for
it?
you're saying because you never know what sort of thing the galaxy is going to show up when
you look at that previous tournament efforts, it's kind of pushed to the wayside a bit.
You go, maybe this isn't a roster that can have longevity in it, but I'm so happy they
could prove me and anyone else who doubted them wrong.
It's all been scripted through the year.
The galaxy, of course, you know, they want their fans never to feel secure.
They want the roller coaster of emotions and they deliver this.
That's why this team has such a massive fan base because they love to see the boys play
Sumail in the team as well and something Sumail also said is that this could potentially
be his last TI unless maybe he wins it then you might see him again.
Maybe that reignites the spark.
We don't know necessarily how the main stage is going to play out for them but we know
that they've qualified and they know they've done it in such a considerable fashion
And it's Sumail himself who is standing by with Nomad that give us a winners interview.
Thank you. Yes, indeed.
I mean, Sumail Farsi, congratulations on making it to the main stage.
Thanks, man. No worries.
I mean, last year you made it to the main stage and then to be fair,
it was a rough year for you guys, you know, ups and downs.
So how does it feel to get back into and how have you done it?
I mean, to be honest, the way that we made it this time,
it's pretty fun to be honest.
We lost first series 0-2 and then after that we have been just sleeping everyone and I
Mean we did play a bit worse teams not gonna lie
So it was like a bit if even for myself I had it in my mind, but then we tool spirits, so it feels really good
For sure. You definitely proved yourselves in this series leaving no doubts there
You've been playing at TI now for 10 years. I mean, how have you changed as a player over those years? I
don't know it's
It's the best thing for me to do every year. To be honest, this DI, I'm just waiting, it doesn't matter.
It's unrelated to Priceful. Something in the air about this event, it just makes you feel so good.
So, I'm actually just grateful to be playing it again.
For sure. I mean, do you have a particular highlight from this series, which you're looking back on a particular moment in the game,
where you feel it's kind of summed up Nygma Galaxy's journey here?
Yeah, me dying bottom to Windranger Doomlin. That was pretty fucking bad, but that's life.
I mean these games have been crazy. I know every single game it feels like is going 60 plus minutes.
How have you adjusted to be able to survive in these long games and how are the stress levels?
I don't know. I just feel good playing late game, mid game. Especially with Doronov. This guy's like super...
He thrives on late game. So we have one guy and I've been enjoying it myself since searching to carry.
So actually, we are just a lead game player at this point.
Well, that suits this matter for sure.
Was there a particular moment in this game that was particularly stressful when we were playing against the Druid, for example?
Were you starting to worry about this guy taking over the map a bit?
The Druid? No, it's trash here.
Alrighty, you ready? Folks, don't pick it.
So, I mean, it's been a fantastic journey for you, you know, this way through the groups.
So starting out you did have that loss. How have you adjusted since then and you know, what were your thoughts the conversations that happened after that?
I think the first loss was just unrelated to our gameplay. It was more about like choking
We just choked forward in the theories and we know if you just step step up like the mental
Yeah, that was it actually just mental
All right. Well, you have managed to skip those elimination games
Which is going to be nice to you guys. Is there any team in those elimination games that you're looking at that you're hoping does well?
Not really don't care. I'm gonna care about yourself. Can they yeah, that's very cool
Alrighty, well any message for the fans? I mean you have so many of them over the years
And they now get to watch you play out yet another ti
I mean I would say it again
This game if we don't have the fans it's just like a video game
So they make it what it is they make ti what it is so
So I appreciate you guys, as always, to be honest.
That's another talking to you, and it's
going to be an honor to watch you play on that main stage.
Smell, thank you so much, and good luck.
He's talking to you, Gunna, right there.
He's looking down that camera, and he's saying,
you know what, for fans like you,
we wouldn't have the game that we would have.
I mean, he's not wrong.
It is always so enjoyable.
There is something different in the air when it comes to TI,
but now we're going to have such veteran names walking
out on stage as well for Shanghai.
We only know three of our main stage teams here,
but I'm so happy to see that Nick Mcgalaxy
is one of them LaCrosse.
However, driving in late game, it's shifting a bit.
The game average is going down.
It's going down slowly.
Yeah, they're the only team keeping it alive
in the higher ends of it.
Yeah, we're down to 47 minutes at the moment,
but the late game go-to has always been the crazes.
That's what the fans want to see.
That's what pretty much all of us want to see.
And one thing that I got to say in his interview,
I love that he's very grateful about the community,
about the game.
This is what we want to see from the players.
And also high praises for Warnoff,
because this coming out from the king himself,
being one of the goats from the mid lane,
it's a pretty high praise.
And I was a little surprised throughout this season
that nobody picked this guy up.
He was pretty much the ultimate mercenary,
the ultimate standing for most of these teams.
When people talk about Warnoff,
because whenever he joins the team, the team is doing well,
and we can see the same magic happening here now,
him being official part of the team.
Yeah, he wasn't getting picked up,
and then you move roles to essentially what feels like
a mixed space for him in your roster.
You become a 4-1 team runner,
and you qualify to main stage TI,
2-0 in spirit in your last iteration,
which now puts spirit in the elimination round,
despite the fact that they literally went up
against Team Vision today to be the first foreigner team.
Yeah, it is one of those days where a team sure it's gonna just
Not have a good night to sleep tonight
But they're gonna have to make their choice today on what team they're gonna play later and that is still just I mean
It's so rough for them, right? Like you you wake up this morning
Maybe if there's a part of you feeling like you know what we've been good vision is really good
But we've been looking super good as teams here, too. And I don't know the I
Think the mentality for them has to be probably
it's definitely not like the
worst or in shambles, but it's
definitely not what it was
yesterday. It's low. That's
for sure because it's crazy to
think that at the start of a
Saturday morning, you could be
to foreign or team and
potentially by the end of
Sunday night, you're an
eliminated team in group stage.
Of course we're hanging around
because there is going to be
a picture. We're going to have
slacks with 10
representatives, one
representative from each of the
10 teams. Five of them are
going to get to pick there in
two and three teams that are available there for that elimination round and so it's a lot
of fun modified Swiss stage bracket monkeys where in the past it's always been this crazy.
Okay, we want to try and not have repeat matchups and this and that, but you're rewarded for
doing well even if you end up in the elimination round because you're rewarded. You get to
pick from those two and three teams. Yeah, and I'm really excited for it personally.
I mean, you can infer so much from these decisions.
You were, maybe there's going to be grudges.
You're going to see which three two teams think the two, which two, three teams
they, they think in their heads, oh, we can beat you.
For all that.
They're a lobbyist, don't play us.
So it's just, it's an exciting addition to TI, honestly.
And I'm just looking forward to it.
If you were in the shoes of a three, two team, specifically, maybe more one
of those teams that's in the fourth or fifth position,
I think that's where Falcons, LGD,
you might be looking at themselves.
Who would you be hoping is left over?
Like, who would you want to grab yourself?
Cause you're probably not going to get the quote unquote
easier teams in either resilience or game allegiance
that people might have on paper.
Yeah. I mean, there are a lot of good teams.
There is a team Yandex who's also two and three.
I think a lot of the teams are going to be like,
yeah, let's skip that one because they were able
to do in this season. But team resilience, for example, this is also the team that I
don't think you want to be picking up, especially as your early pick. This is the team that
is their score was seven and six. LGD Gaming, for example, they're three and two, who also
has seven and six scores. So in terms of like how well they played, this team definitely
better than what it seems on the paper.
We were looking at it when Pedra's here just before and it talked about like how
How many games you had won, how many games you had lost, and then like a percentage based
on your opponents.
And because of that, I do believe Falcons end up just that, oh my God, that's Quinn.
I was not expecting to see him on camera.
Hey Quinn, what's up?
Sitting with Allie there because Falcons end up, I think sitting just above them because
they have eight wins and seven losses.
So I think that that's the wins being a little bit more.
And so they're writing down on paper, I was like, oh, what team would we potentially
want to pick if they end up in that two and three slot for themselves?
If they had first choice, yes. I don't know who. I think they are seated a little bit higher than some other teams, but I don't know what the seeding is by any means there.
Yeah. My prediction is I think Yandex is probably the last pick team. So whoever is in that fifth seed of the three twos is going to pick Yandex.
They're not going to pick them.
Well, there's a nice little pick.
For the probably probably boom boys is the fourth
Unless someone feels really good about boom boys
Yeah, boom boys did have a pretty rough day for themselves today as well because they lost against Aurora and yeah, but it's like who would you?
Rather play than boo. Oh, it's tea. I bro. I think everyone's a little shaky right now
Everyone's got the nervous pencil for elimination round. I know we talked about resilience is this team that's like
Looking good and scary, but I think from a player perspective
You don't they don't have the history. Yeah, and I think a lot of Dota players heads
You think of like what's been happening over the year the past sure
There's a little bit of oh what's happening in this current tournament, but it's so much easier to say, okay
We've seen boom boys win tournaments. We seem to get top two. We've seen yandex when tournaments
What's a little resistance in this dry layer? We can take them also with resilience while they have taken games off of good teams
teams. They got 18 minute GG'd, I believe.
Yeah, what's the point, Monkey? They're trying to see a connection here.
I think when they show up, they really show up. But I think there is kind of a lack of
consistency there, so that may be something that these three two teams are going to
consider for the picking.
Again, all of these teams are two and three for a reason. There is a variation in the
opponents that they came up against, but that adds all to the three and two team seedings.
And I do have that for you guys. Would you like to know who's going to be our first
team to pick?
Yes, please.
It's going to be Spirit, even though they just lost against the Galaxy because of
the higher seeded teams that they came up against, and Yada Yada, Brandon Matz, no
one cares about. They do get that first pick. So they get the pick of the litter
when it comes to the two three teams.
A nice position to put yourself in.
Yeah, and the I think Team Spirit probably gonna go with either
feature gaming or gamer legion. That's that's gonna be my guess. I think gamer legion.
My predictions that's a relatively easy choice for a first pick for a lot of these teams.
Should we approach back in here please? We need someone to draw the arrows on the screen.
I mean yeah it's like gamer legion has shown the potential that they can win these games
But unfortunately for them, they also have shown the history of not being able to actually
close out these best of three, not be able to consistently make it through.
And that's kind of been their MO this full season.
I don't want to also point out that this is the correct seating.
So it will be Spirit, Ironwing, Falcons, and then Aurora and LGD for themselves.
So the left-hand siding seating matters.
The right-hand side, not as much because they're not going to have a say in what
happens in their future when it comes to the elimination rounds.
just gonna have to accept their opponent and study up do some research and do some prep monkeys
Yeah, and I I mean say gamer Legion they just they took a game off of Falcons
I mean, I I do understand what you're saying
I don't think he realizes he can't pick LGD
It's might have been before okay, what two days ago? Yeah
But I do I do think gamer legion they while they may they may struggle and falter a bit and closing out these
Bo3's I I I don't think personally. I wouldn't put them as the weakest team of the k-3's
You wouldn't.
We've got to think of this as the perfect game.
The mindset of the Brooklyn is, yeah, okay.
I just had to double check because in my mind, game of the legend, they were doing okay.
They were.
Team Spirit in 2026, and they did beat them at Valakia Season 8.
Well, they're not picking them then, are they?
They did beat them at Premier Series.
They did draw during the Dream League Season 28, so I did lose that one way.
You should run down there.
I just wouldn't put them at bottom of the barrel, you know?
You know, but I also do think that team spirit that they're methodical
Strategical team, but this is a team that is not really afraid of of many teams. Yeah
I mean, maybe there was an NA team one day
Of happening for spirit they've been here they've done that it's maybe maybe they do it a dog
Yeah, it seems there's some
We run it back. We see if another at a team is gonna put it in the low bracket
Or they could get over their demons, take out NA, get revenge for the past.
I don't really show, because there is that consideration as well. Sometimes familiarity is key.
We've seen it many times before in groups where a higher seeded team or a team that you think should have an easy 2-0
really struggles in the first game or really struggles even closing out a series
because drafts don't play out the way they expect.
There are these random back pocket picks that you're not expecting because you don't screen them
and you're rarely coming up against them in international events.
Exactly. That's why I keep mentioning Team Rosiland.
This is not a team that you had the chance to play in the season
because they didn't qualify for the Lens.
And there's a little bit of an enigma when it comes down
how they're going to be drafting, what they're going to be playing.
Is that a hint to what they'll play tomorrow?
I think there's a high chance
that a lot of teams will skip this
and go with something that they're familiar with.
Also, Team Sure Will Pick Yandex,
because they're going to be like,
You know what we've seen them in the
Information on them I'm pressing X right now real hot hard guarantee a very
Match for the fans, right like teams here knows there's a chance one or both of them are eliminated. So why not have a hype match?
They're all about giving the hype matches, but we're not gonna theory car out to anymore
We've given you the order in which these teams are gonna pick which five teams they could pick from
And so all that's left to do is actually see who they end up picking and taking us through that is gonna be none other than the one in
at least slacks
Everybody and welcome to the elimination draft show that is right
We are gonna make this a little bit more interesting this year and do this bad boy live
It's time to find out who is playing against who and who will be the pickers and the choosers to my left
You have all the teams that will be picking their opponents. We're gonna go down the line from the highest scoring teams
All the way down you all have lists that you have already prepared should be pretty exciting pretty fun
Gentlemen, please get ready to be picked. It should be quite interesting. And if you want to follow the action
Don't forget go to two comm slash e-sports first up
Miposhka come on up my made the highest gore day. Yes, the crowd goes wild
That is there certainly at home sir the time has come
Have you thought long and hard about your decision of who you'd like to face?
It was hard to choose, but I decided that we would like to play a game.
Whoa, we got a little hype around here.
Gentlemen, you ready? The first pick will be drumroll.
Who do you choose?
Team Resilience, our crowd calls correctly, I don't know.
Team Resilience, that's going to be Ted. Come on up.
Team Resilience. Helen, if you could please join us on the stage, our translator here.
Now, if you would be so kind, why did you choose team resilience?
I mean, I think we just know them a bit, we played some con wars, so I just think that our game would be interesting and comfortable for us.
Interesting, comfortable, entertaining, to be sure. What are your reactions here?
Are we ready to be chosen?
You are ready to be chosen, are you ready to win?
Perhaps? Well, let us perhaps this indeed. I'm going to shake some hands, my friends,
it is time if you could please exit the stage together. Thank you so much for our first chance.
There we go. Perhaps we will see it. Mr. Moon Meander, come on up. Our iron wing representative.
Mr. Moon, were you surprised by his choice? I was really surprised, not gonna lie. But
you have something definitely in yours. Are you going with your first choice then?
He did not take your first choice?
We are going on our first choice, yeah.
Okay, gentlemen, please get ready.
We have many eligible bachelors here.
Who would you like to choose, Moon?
I'd like to choose...
It's your boy, Speedoda.
Speed is not here, but we do have...
We do have a go-to.
How you doing, sir?
I knew Spirit were going to be afraid and not get us, so I kind of expected this.
Wow, you can talk smack right there.
looking at you, shaking his head, my goodness gracious. Why did you choose this strong man?
Look at him, he's ripped as hell. I mean, this is for scouting. This is team USA versus
team Canada. My team was like, pick the Americans, pick the Americans, get them out.
All right, well, it should be a whole of a match. Please enjoy your game together.
A shake of the hands, please, from the same generalized region. If you two could
please exit the stage. Thank you so much. Things are getting less and less, Mr.
Come on up, please.
Alley 2000, the Billion TI winner, come again to win his Billions.
Who would you like to choose?
Any words to these boys?
Do I just pick now?
No, you could say something like,
Boy oh boy, so good to see you guys.
Anything you want?
Nice to see you guys.
Boy oh boy, so good to see you guys.
Who would you like, Alley?
We'd like to play Vici Gaming.
Vici Gaming.
Oh, Lee Moley, Mr. Buck. It's been a quite some time. Welcome back. So good to see you. Were you expecting this?
Yeah, this is in my expectation.
Okay, why is that? Why would he expect that, Owie?
Well, they knocked us out of EWC and PGL, so we'd like some revenge and we're scared of the other teams.
Okay, well fear from the other teams and revenge coming. Enjoy your game together, please. A little handshake between you two.
Thank you so much. If you could exit the stage as it is starting to get to our last decision here
Mr. KP come to the front here. You only have two victims to choose
Enemies to choose. I mean other teams to choose from who would you like from your list?
I would like to pick mr. Mier. Oh
Okay, Mier. There we go. Were you expecting this? You made it quite far, sir
Yes, we expected it. We enjoyed the play against our friends.
Oh friends, that's good!
We literally just played today.
Oh, what wonderful! I'm glad that you guys are so close.
May one of you enjoy your game and the other one be thinking about it for the rest of their lives.
Please exit the stage, thank you so much.
And what do you know, our last two, come on up!
We got a delegate, yeah that's you, you did it!
Okay, you're a scary team, of course they're not choosing you, you know?
But they're set to not be choosing, like, on October, you know?
Well, in our hearts we have chosen you, and KJ, you have chosen to come here.
Thank you so much for coming.
Thank you. Can we see your list, by the way?
Would you mind showing the camera real quick?
Okay, let's relax there, KJ.
How does it feel to be going up against Mr. Yandex himself?
I think a lot of people didn't expect Yandex to be here in this position,
been chosen and it looks like you don't have what it takes to win this TI, so if you don't
better just do it.
Okay, thank you so much Kaja, this was supposed to be a friendly thing, but that's fine, you
took your own, any responses to that?
Yeah, we'll regret this Chase.
Okay, you will regret this.
Joe, please shake your hands, off you go, we're all having fun here, thank you so
much, and that was a blast.
We hope that you guys enjoy the games that will be happening tomorrow
Don't forget to keep up with all this action over at Dota 2
Slash eSports will throw it back to the cat panel for their reactions on that incredible draft
They use so much slacks, but also the 10 participants there playing it up having a lot of fun there
I don't know if my push go black had amnesia for one second and for God who it was originally gonna say
I thought it was going to be game a legion and then maybe
And then he goes flashbacks to Seattle TI and he's like oh actually no
It was the classic game switch
Ghana oh
Good choice good choice from them dodging and they that's a scary match for them
And I think most of them were kind of what we expected to see so
So good predictions by us guys were very
Yeah, can we just bring Purge back?
Because I'm pretty sure he was flaming me
Saying that Aurora wouldn't pick Boom Boys
But here we are, Aurora and Boom Boys going up against each other
A little cost
Yeah, it's going to be an interesting one for sure
The one that I was looking at the most
Is LGD against Yandex because they didn't get to choose who they want to pick
They didn't get the priority
They had the nostrils
like, Oh, we're gonna beat you like that's why we're supposed to be the Falcons one, right?
They're revenge. We lost you in two different tournaments. We want to beat you in this one,
like, sure, but then that was like, Oh, we're forced to play at you. But yeah, no, you guys
can't win TI. You're in this position of being chosen because you can't win TI. Damn,
the mental burden there. But yeah, Alia 2000 coming out with the revenge for the Falcons.
I'm actually a little bit surprised because we were saying, do you do something that's familiar
even if you might not have the good head to head record against the monkeys? Or do you go
for something that's like on paper, you should have the significant advantage over them? And
Falcons gave us that answer. And at the end of the day, you got to play someone. And
And it's just, I think, I think revenge is a great motivator and for Falcons, I, especially
with Amar, Amar, I feel like Amar comes off of losses really, really well and he, he strives
to be better and the best all the time.
Obviously, all Falcons strives to do that, but I don't know, I've met, I've met a
a couple of those players on the really shortest time to do that one.
But I think, I think having some personal investment in the matchup definitely, it goes
a long way.
It could be the reason why Aurora chose Boom Boys because, you know, Nightfall being the
most vocal guy on the team, he did play for Boom Boys before.
I don't know if the terms were good or bad, but, you know, could have something
to it.
I've never seen them in the same room in an event, so I'm going to say the
Vibes are up to your own judgments that the other one that we had iron wing picking game
allegiance. It feels like again, I think a lot of teams were looking towards that game
religion pick, you know, not, not the flame in a, but I think it was probably like the
easier pick because usually they've been again struggling in this tournament. They,
they get close, but they, since they have been able to really constantly win these
plus or threes, it feels easier to be like, okay, this is a team that we probably
can and should be but a lot of the mentality for teams I know pretty much
like every team kind of has this mentality it's like no matter what team we play
against if we can't be specifically the teams that are kind of in this like
struggling position in the tournament we're not going to win TI so at the end
of the day some of the teams are gonna be like it doesn't really matter who we
play because if we can't win versus these bottom five-ish teams we can't
win at all. They're rather all kind of in a struggling. Yeah they are a lot of struggling and it is much better to get top in at TI than get eliminated here so there's definitely some
like some good points to pick a weaker team, but I do think that again, we heard it with
a blitzes interview when they ended up qualifying to main stage just a couple of hours ago,
but creativity is really rewarded so far, not only at TI, but in this better. And that's
what I'm hoping happens for elimination round as well is, okay, we're going up against
a familiar opponent, but this time, we're going to have a different outlook. You're
going to be a little bit more creative for themselves. And I think that is going
to be so many different bangers and hopefully some different showings as well Lacoste, but
you guys at home are probably still sticking around because you want to see when these
teams will be playing. Now that we already know who they will be going up against, we're
going to be condensing our group stage down from four streams to two streams. So over
on B Stream, you guys are going to get to see Aurora up against Boom Boys, Iron
up against Gamer Legion and then Stream A, we have the three last remaining best of
threes for ourselves in that elimination round. It's gonna be starting off with
Falcons up against VG, Spirit up against Resilience and closing out on what is
sure to be that Brawl Fest, LGD up against Yandex. All right, the most
excited for LGD against Team Yandex without a doubt. First of all, because
it stops and we want to see him play what he's gonna be cooking, especially
after these words have been said.
But also him playing for LGD as an organization,
TI8, TI9, he eliminated them.
They got the left the ages, the other team didn't.
So it'd be a very, very good storyline
if he can make it, especially as the last minute standing.
What about for yourself, Gunner?
Is there a specific matchup you're really looking forward to?
I think the Falcons Vici, kind of like the comeback.
Hopefully Falcons does beat their demons.
They get that win.
I think it would definitely be a really sore kind of end of the season that they do get made from a third tournament by the same team
So hopefully for them, it's positive
But again for each you also kind of feel good because you do have that good track record
There's some VG is the team that they got an 11 minute and 20 second GG win against those
So this is what I'm saying they had to head back and forth back and forth there
So I also agree to you that one is my personal. What about yourself monkeys?
Well, I am obviously excited for the game. Releasing
I I must say the most hyped to me would be Aurora vs boom boys one of those two teams not making it to the top eight
Was not on my bingo card for this ti
and
while
while Aurora did
convincingly beat boom boys today, I think
both of those teams are just fantastic and it will be a shame to send one of them home.
There's going to be adjustments made from both teams when it comes to that Aurora and Boomboy's
matchup specifically, but obviously all 10 of our remaining teams that are currently
still in TI. We've had a crazy day today. We've said a welcome to the main stage for
three of our teams, Vision being 4-0, Liquid winning as well as Nigma Galaxy. We've
We've had to also unfortunately say goodbye to Hula Ghani, OG as well as XG there.
And so tomorrow we have 10 remaining teams, half of them unfortunately and their TI run.
Half of them will make it to the main stage and make sure you guys tune in.
Same time as always, 10am CST for our last day of group stage here for TI 2026.