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is about to start breaking some dreams, crushing those dreams, and crushing some
keys alongside of it. The intensity is starting to ramp up and everything is
now on the line for some of these teams with time very much running out. You guys
can crack on with the intensity and all that. I'm gonna sit out here. Ah, my cost.
Starting the day with a coffee, a cross-off, and some of the best Dota 2 here at the
at the eSports World Cup. We're live from Paris and we might not know the cross-sumptom
coffee that Chris had but we do have that top tier Dota coming your way today is actually very
special day because it's the final day for Group A and B and that means we got some eliminations,
some advancements, some bloods and tears, some sweat. We got it all coming your way here with
also Lacoste and Seb sitting next to me. Lacoste, how are you doing this morning?
I don't hear you!
Sam, how are you doing?
I mean, I heard him. I can translate or...
You can interview him.
I can interview him. Are you doing pretty good?
Yeah, I'm doing pretty good there. I did have a call.
No, that's it. That's over. That was the only question I asked.
I mean, I'm sure I'll fix it pretty soon.
I'm doing great. I'm doing great. I'm going to give them the...
I'm feeling pretty bad about it, actually. Please, please, express yourself.
I did have a croissant as well. I think every single day that I was here, and they're very buttery, they're nice,
and also the salted butter shiver that you did mention. I took that advice. Feels pretty good with it.
The demi-salted butter that the French do is some of the deepest butter.
I know you might be thinking, like, can butter actually be better than normal butter? Yes, it can. Yes, it can.
We had some some buttery smooth Dota games for some teams yesterday as well. We had some ones and matches
Let's take a look at what happened yesterday with our STC rewind as all our series once again set
Two are now all across the board
I mean the dominating teams are showing up, I think it's it's it's expected
We know you we said it before the tournament started. It's that time of the year the money time of the season
EWCTI, everybody should be peeking by now and I think they're delivering so you love to see it.
I think the Sermon format though is particularly scary because we're gonna start seeing our first
teams getting eliminated and then everything transitions into single-alim which honestly
in Dota anything can happen especially nowadays where the level of competition is so close between
everyone so no team can really lower their guard I feel like even the teams that are dominating the
the group stage. All it all it requires is like a bad matchup, you know, an off-game
and all of a sudden you're all of the tournament. So, yeah, I mean, we've seen yesterday Aurora,
you know, the certain dominance, we've seen Falcons. They're all basically answering the
call.
Yeah, that is right, Schiefer. We've seen some really good data yesterday. And yeah,
with this format as well, you definitely needed to step up in every single game. And
We haven't seen any major upsets, like we've seen some of the underdog stories maybe taking a game, but nothing too crazy that did happen yesterday, I don't know how you feel, but you're the only team that managed to take the game off of 1W team.
Yeah, it's a rocky, bumpy road for OG so far, it's keeping me awake at night because you never know what you're getting.
Sometimes we lose in a pretty sad way and we're also a team that's able to contest Yandex and Yandex and 1W.
They only dropped one map and both were against OG, so maybe some hope moving forward.
moving forward. I do think to me like the biggest surprise of this group stage I have to say
and maybe it's not entirely a surprise but you have to talk about it as Nigma. Yeah.
They're sitting up there in terms of standings with all the
teams that have dominated the Dora scene for the last few years. Obviously Nigma was nowhere to be
seen in these events and tier one and they're back. You know you have the Falcons. I mean you have to
name Falcons. We see them in group A. You know they drop only one map and it's the first map so at
But at this point he doesn't even count.
And then again, Nigma is actually in contest with these top dogs.
It's pretty impressive.
And in group A also, keep in mind that today also tie breakers will be played.
It is looking pretty spicy in the middle of the pack there.
Runeaters and Gamer Legion with the same score of 3 and 5.
So a lot is possible there for you guys's information.
Gamer Legion is going up against BB Team, so that's a tough one there.
Ooh, I wrote Gamer Legion twice. That's a problem.
a problem. Look at that though, I mean this is unheard of, that's why I was
concerned. Like a lot of fans have waited a long time to see you know that
kind of scoreboard in a group stage and it's finally happening. Yes, it's been a
while but also at least to me doesn't come as a big surprise considering that
I was covering the road, the TI as well and they looked super solid, maybe like
Team Liquid slightly underperforming, it might come down to them losing
Tenigma Galaxy and of course the fifth and sixth place for L1 team and level up
they are already out P-Time, cemented themselves they are gonna go to that
survival stage straight away and in the group C, P-Vision pretty much everything
is set in this group because we have the Connix team Nemesis they're already
out, out to Maus and Vici Gaming in the middle of the pack and the last series
that they're gonna be playing is P-Vision against Team Spirit. Yeah that might
still change things at the top. Yes, pretty much whoever kind of wins even if
If Prevision gets a draw in this one, or they get a win against Spirit, they're going to secure themselves in the first spot.
Yeah, and the same thing goes for the Group D.
The Group Dess has two teams at the top, 1W and Yandex.
They will face each other tomorrow in the final match.
So again, a series that will battle it out for who comes out on top.
And if they tie, we'll just have to play a tiebreaker between them.
That's all good. We got tiebreakers potentially coming today.
This is today's schedule. We're starting with the match in Group A,
Stream Gaming vs. Balkans and Aurora Gaming vs. Liquid after that,
with tiebreakers of Group A followed by tiebreakers of Group B and for our Sony story of the day.
We went for that second series, Aurora, taking on Team Liquid 7.
Yeah, it's a pretty good one. Good choice, good pick. I wasn't part of it, but I definitely support it.
I see, like, one of the part of it. The next day I'm just kicked from the
from from from the choice. No, I think it's a good one. Honestly, I think Liquid, this is like a very pivotal moment for them in the tournament.
They started off a little bit shaky. It kind of seemed like they didn't they were pretty sure what their identity should be in their dispatch in this tournament.
But you know, all of a sudden, they're only one or two points away from topping the group. So everything is still up in the air.
I think now they're getting their true tests and you know with Liquid you wouldn't be surprised
that they go from struggling at the beginning of the group stage to beating the number one
team in the group stage.
That wouldn't surprise anyone.
It's just about them finding their form.
So it's going to be a very interesting series.
You mentioned Aurora being like a Dota exam.
So Liquid has a two step exam today.
They've got quite the tests ahead of them and potentially they did their homework in
figuring out which heroes were very good, which heroes are very not good and which heroes
they should be banning. But let's take a look first at the heroes that have been most picked
at this EWC so far. I don't think any of these really comes as a surprise. Lacosta,
I feel like we saw Earth Spirit maybe even fall off a little bit yesterday.
Yeah, maybe some of the games that we've seen, but maybe it was like the
hero-player combination that we have, and she has seen that didn't really work out. But I think
Like we said on day number one that this hero is going to be in the top three picks, coming
through the TI qualifiers, the hero looked insanely strong.
Win Raid definitely shows it.
I think you need to have Earth Spirit specialist coming up from the mid lane and you also need
to have the flex potential.
So your position 4 also needs to be able to play that hero.
Yeah, and I think the odd one out here was the Shadowfiend with a 61% win rate because
not only is he in the list of most picks, he is also in the list of most bans.
Yeah, to me SF is really the standout in the sense that that hero has been tier one for a while now also.
So everyone has more than enough time to try to figure out what they want to play against SF and how to counter it.
So SF sitting at 61% win rate despite the amount of bans and also when it's picked it's been first picked every time.
Because you don't put, I mean the fact that it's also in top bans means that you either pick it right away or you're not gonna get it.
And, you know, despite that, it's still sitting at an impressive rate.
So it seems like this hero is just hard to counter.
Whereas, I guess, like, for heroes like Ursprit, perhaps we'll see the meta develop in a way
where people will end up finding, you know, like, convincing answers.
And the hero could fall off or, you know, kind of go back to something a little bit more average.
Yeah. Later on.
We're going to focus our attention on extreme gaming and Falcons now,
Because those two teams will be joining us on the stage very soon in Extreme Gaming.
And that's the squad that we're focusing on.
First, we have seen them fail their exam yesterday.
And I'm very curious how they feel after their losses yesterday
and how they feel coming into today.
And for that, we are going to check in with Amé.
Hello, Amé here with Amé of Extreme Gaming.
You played more Fling in one of your matches earlier.
I was curious what you thought about the hero
because I haven't seen anybody else play yet.
First of all, let me ask you about this hero, because in this game, you've also selected one player.
But the other teams and other players haven't used this hero yet.
How do you feel about this version of the hero?
It's okay. Maybe he's a bit weak in the beginning.
He's still okay in the mid-game.
I feel that Muffin is still a decent hero. He might be a little weak in the early game,
but once he gets to the mid-late game, I think in terms of power, he's still up there.
Okay, great. You guys have two of the hardest teams in the group to play against other than yourself, of course.
Do you prefer that they're at the end of the group stage, or do you wish it was different?
I don't think it makes much of a difference because we have to face them sooner or later anyway, so we'll face them as they come.
In terms of practice against European teams, obviously it's difficult to scrim against European players from where you live.
Did you get much of a chance before the tournament or were you restricted towards your region?
Because it's hard for your team in China to train or practice with many Western teams.
Before the game, do you have enough time to practice with these Western teams?
Or do you have no time to start the game immediately after coming here?
We've been practicing for two weeks, and the training was pretty good.
But we didn't practice well during the match.
And I think we, which is not performing as well as what we did during our streams and our trainings.
I see. Well, thank you for joining me and good luck in your upcoming matches.
Hopefully they can change that today and they can perform to the level that they want to.
Yesterday wasn't a great example of extremes gaming performance for sure.
Lacoste, how do you, what do you think they should change going in for today?
I want to see some speech here. I feel like this team, like with the hero picks that they did have,
did have, especially for Amé with two games on Terrowblade,
on Morphling, he also talked about it in an interview,
saying that this is a good hero in the mid and late game.
Problem is, how do you get there?
They were unable to get there yesterday
when they played against BB Team,
where they were kind of lacking that punch
that they needed to have in the early stages of the game.
So slightly more focus on the early stages of the game.
Well, they are four and four right now,
and they are going up to the behemoths and falcons.
That is seven and one right now,
only dropping that one game at the very start of the tournament, as Seb already mentioned.
To find out if they're still in Greek spirits and going into today, we're going to produce
something to snaking.
Hey, I'm here with snaking of Team Falcons.
You guys have had a great start to the group so far.
You're on top.
You got XG coming up.
How do you think you're going to fare against them?
I think we probably have a pretty good shot.
I think we can't really underestimate them.
I think they have flaunt there a little bit in the group stage, but they can still be
be a very tough opponent so we just need to keep our focus up.
So I talked to Ami earlier, he said that they arrived two weeks earlier that got to play
a bunch of scrims against European teams.
Did you guys scrim against them before you got here?
I think we did play them a little bit and then we realized they were in our group setting,
we stopped scrimming them.
So I think we played them early on in our boot camp so we haven't really played them
recently so it will be interesting to see if they have changed a lot.
What's it like getting exposure to teams ahead of time?
Do people's, and I'm sure this happens for you guys too, you're probably scrimming at
the team a bunch of times and then you switch it up based on other stuff you learned.
Do people's patterns change?
Does your guys' patterns change a lot between scrims and once you get to the tournament?
I think for the very known teams who have the same type of players, they don't really
change that much.
Maybe they'll add a few heroes to their arsenal and so to speak.
I think the most dangerous teams to kind of prepare for are the ones that you don't really know much about or like some of the
Qualifier teams that you don't really know what they play. You don't really know what their strategies are
It's it's a lot harder to prepare for it like a unknown team than teams that you've
Seen around the block for a long time. That makes a lot of sense
Okay, you guys have been picking a lot of Undyne so far you're picking it early in the draft like it's a flex pick
But then you just keep playing it at some point. They're just gonna be oh, that's their pause five
Are you worried about losing that flex potential you're gonna make a more plate today?
maybe. I mean we'll see because it's obviously a very strong flex a lot of
people play in the offlane and and you know you have to make the enemies guess
so they will have to find out. Nobody's guessing it's been like four times now.
The trick is gone. It's still good here though. The cat is not out of the bag yet.
Okay maybe maybe one time today. Okay that's all I have for questions for you.
Thank you for joining me for the interview and good luck in your match.
We'll find out if Falcons has any surprises in store for us today. I feel
I feel like they're definitely considered the winner here already, a little bit in this group.
What do you hope to see from them today, Sam?
I mean, I just want to highlight, like, nice try snaking, you know, like, keeping us guessing on whether or not we'll play on dying.
I think we'll have the answer to that one, but it's an, you know, fair try.
I mean, what's to expect today? I think it's important that the Falcons can still lose the number one spot in the group to the BB team, so this game matters a lot.
Because again, if you stay top one, you go straight.
Else you have, there's a whole single-elimbrator job to play. It's no joke.
As for Xtreme, they really need to secure the win, because they can still get no talks.
If Gamer Region won their series and they lose theirs, they are going to get no talk at the group.
Yeah, this is a very scary group, so a lot of pressure here for this opening series in Group A.
The last series that these two teams will play, barring time rakers,
to get it started, we're heading over to the stage.
Good morning, EWC!
Good morning, Dota 2 and good morning, Dota fans!
We are here today for a fantastic group stage.
How y'all doing out there?
You live?
You well?
Hello?
Gentlemen, ladies, yes?
Oh, come on. I see you in the car. You give me one yell right there white shirt. Give me one. Ah, give me one
There we go. What thank you very much everybody. Yes
We have an incredible day of Dota here today for you
In fact, we're starting things off pretty high please and gentlemen
We have the grand finals of TI last year coming your way
Extreme gaming versus Falcons. I have been waiting quite some time for such a grand stage as such grand teams
And this time for a long time neither one of them suck. So that's really cool to see yet again
We're gonna have one heck of a first game for you
Hope you guys are ready as we announce and bring to the stage our first team of the day
extreme
gaming
Extreme gaming I am extremely excited to see these guys get their revenge on Falcons today
Now this is a pretty high pressure. Oh, there we go
They won't call for me. They'll come from it. Oh hell. Yeah, the fans are around good to see them out there today
And we are gonna see you guys do extremely well
I do hope should be a heck of a match and we'll see if you guys can get your strength for the groups and beat that
Juggernaut that's standing on that top spot
But who could that juggernaut be if you have horrible memory?
Let me go ahead and remind you ladies and gentlemen put your claws together spread those wings and get ready to
They absolutely love it when you make bird noises for them it fuels them it makes them fiery and today
We will see them come to the stage with the full formation the lion formation
There we go
All right, ladies and gentlemen, Falcons has arrived to make their nest.
I have not thought of many other bird jokes today, but I can tell that they are looking
quite locked in.
In fact, none of them are moving.
They're like statues.
Incredible discipline this team has.
I've never seen anything like it.
Are they even here?
Absolutely they are.
Are you ready to get started, gentlemen?
Are you ready?
No.
All right.
We got one.
All right.
Please put your keys on the location.
Get your keys out there, my friends.
those keys for one of those keys will be crushed one day not today though today
it ain't about crushing key it is about honor it is about respect it's about
victory as they get into their positions looking so high it's not that way yet
shake those hands oh my god a moment for the ages please gentlemen to your
seats you guys don't go anywhere don't get up from your seats and we will see
more of these teams soon but before the action gets started let's head back to
It's a battle, baby.
I'm sure is on with this TI finals rematch, I have to ask, except, I mean we like to hype
these storylines, you know, that's our job.
But as a player, if you play against a team that you face in a grand finals, is there
any special magic or memories that are part of the match up for you?
Of course, I think especially for X-Trim, like for the losing team, like the team that
lost the TI finals, they're never going to let go.
Playing Falcons is always going to mean something special to them, and they're always going
to try to...
You know, the pain never goes away, and that's your medicine, in a way.
That's going to be a little bit of a relief, is like, I don't feel the pain for a little
bit, and then it comes back until they actually settle it in another Grand Finals, and Falcons
should know.
There are no strangers that feeling these players obviously know they're on top of the
but they have, you know, lost before in their careers
and that's how they also improved and got where they are today.
So they know that Xtreme is not going to play around in the series.
They're coming to win.
Does it also maybe change the way we're going to see them play?
Do you feel like Lacoste and, well, obviously the meta changed.
But did the playstyle, like the overall macro playstyle,
these two teams since the grand finals, change a lot their identity?
I don't think so. I think for Falcons,
Maybe for extreme gaming it did. This is a bit of a slower team. They always needed to adjust.
Like if you go back here and a half ago, for example, this is the team that lost the laning stage pretty much every single time.
They were down 5,000 gold and then they made a comeback. I think this is slightly outdated.
They did speed things up, but also they're not on pair with some more like faster teams like Team Liquid, Falcons and the BB team.
For Falcons, it seems like they're just playing the standard stuff, you know,
this is how they came into the scene with the three tanky cores playing a meta did shift
But also I feel like this type of a team also has very strong identity
We are seeing some of the heroes that
They are bringing back
I think Enchantress so far is a very good example because they are playing it from position 5
They're playing it from position 4 as well. Crit prior to this tournament didn't play it for like two and a half years
and this is the only team have in mind that has won the games on Enchantress.
Enchantress has been played 12 times and only Team Falca has managed to get three victories with this hero.
The hero feels very good, I gotta say.
We slightly kind of patched up on it the other day.
It feels very good against certain meta-heroes like Carry Vendranger, Necrophos having that the spell available.
And also Falca has been using this hero as a counter to undying in the lane.
But keep in mind that there is one change that might make the difference here for Extreme
Gaming because we have a different coach for Extreme Gaming compared to what they had at
TI of course with maps joining in.
So they get a little bit of fresh air there and a fresh take on how to take Team Falcons
down.
And I know, as Lax said, that there won't be any kick rushing today.
If...
Things can play out really unfortunate for Extreme Gaming if they are not on their A-game
here today and then we might be talking about crushing keys.
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I believe they're sitting at four points and game region is
sitting at three. So if game region worked to win their series and extreme to lose to
all, then now they're we're talking about them getting knocked out of the group stage.
So and that'll be a huge blunder. I think that team is really the Chinese first hope,
I would say. The Chinese team seen first hope and TI being in China, like everybody expects
that team to deliver results and it starts with this tournament, surely.
With that being said, I don't feel like what is causing the losses to Xtreme is necessarily
them not being on par with the best teams in the world.
I think it's more about strategy and the approach to the meta and how the game is being played
right now.
I do feel like they're quite far behind, I must say, the top teams in that regard.
This tournament, the beauty of the format is that every team gets to play one series a day,
so they have a lot of time to actually recollect, check the replays, dissect what has happened,
also maybe take a look at what other teams are doing.
So we can see a new version of these teams from one day to the other.
It's absolutely not impossible. This is not your typical group stage where teams have to play four series
or three series a day and they're just completely exhausted.
and you know the downtime is only for us like downtime here is to build and to
you know get ready for the next day so I wouldn't be surprised that the extreme
drew the right inclusions from yesterday and come in today with a completely new
outlook on the game and with that team I think would get all of a sudden like a
very significant increase in the level of play. Yeah what gives me hope is what
Amé said in an interview that they've been spending two weeks screaming
against European teams as well and that they had good results so maybe you know
something sometimes they don't click straight away like ideas coming into the
tournament we're working out sometimes like meta shifts in between like the
first two three days you see the things that you've been picking you're like
other teams have a slightly better idea other ideas are working and yours are
not so you have some time to prepare for it and this has been the team that maybe
under a different coach, I would say, especially under Jiao 8, this team, like you would see them
lose a game, they would pick five different heroes, they would lose a game or even win the game and
then pick five different heroes again. This is something that always has been strength between
the coach and the player combination. The players are still there under the different coach but
still feel like they have this mentality that a lot of things need to shift and they've been in
this situation many times where they need to completely shift what they've been picking. So
In that regard, I feel like extreme gaming definitely has something, but so far, their ideas that we have seen
haven't really been working out, and maybe extra bit of a mental damage as well.
Yesterday, when they played against DDT, is when they picked Vayne Marana, they didn't look good,
then they get Vayne Marana on the other team, and they get completely stomped by it in 20 minutes.
So I want to see, you know, maybe some adjustments, maybe what the takeaway is going to be from some of these games,
and what you're going to be able to learn.
To me, the biggest change I'd like to see is the position 2 and 4 picks for X-Games.
I think these have been the most problematic in a sense.
There's always a good reasoning for why they select the heroes.
I'm not saying it's bad or anything like that.
It's always easy to understand why they would go for that,
but I don't think they cover certain angles that you just have to factor them in modern Dota.
in Dota. You need to worry a little bit about your ability to contest runes, your ability
to protect your wisdom, maybe pressure theirs. Like the first basically 10 to 12 minutes
of the game is very crucial in Dota right now. Like who gets to defend their safe lane
tower, you know, take the enemy off lane tower, sometimes even contest the mid, you know,
like apply pressure with the seed creeps, fight for the bar runes, fight for the early wisdom
runes, if your support duo and your mid lane hero do not allow you to do that in any capacity
I think the game is literally unpayable and you can go back to what Arm is playing, whether
he's playing more playing or something faster or same for the offlaners.
At the end of the day I do think it relies much more on both the supports but mainly
the position for.
We've seen Fy play pick early Rubix because he's thinking about the stealing Bane spells
early Mirana and then the lane goes really rough and the mid-matchup has not really been protected.
It gets counterpicked and all of a sudden they just don't get to play the game at all.
So this really needs to change I think for today in order for them to secure like a stable game
so that we can see what they're really good at and what this team is really good at is how they
team-flight, how they play the map, how they scale into the late game, how they buy their items,
how you know the synergy they can build going in the later stages of the game.
I'm very curious in regards to the approach that the opponent of Xtreme is going to take,
I want to compare BB Team to Falcons because yesterday we said we know BB Team is a fast
team. They are known for that, they have been known for that for a very long time.
That's not necessarily the case for Falcons. No, I think there's similarity in a way where they
play very strong in the lanes. This team is not going to get stomped in the first 10-15 minutes,
But sometimes they don't take many risks. They're gonna be like going for that third Roshan fourth Roshan if needed
They like this is pretty much the team like or at least part of the team during the tundra era
Which did invent this type of a play style which chokes you out of the map
They don't want to rush anything and especially in this current meta where like one high ground push
Well, we have let's say only and K gold lead 15 K gold lead with one bad team fight
it can turn the whole fight around so Falcons they they're kind of masters of their craft when it
comes down to closing out the games maybe that's one of the reasons why it takes a slightly longer
might not be the most interactive gameplay to watch sometimes when it goes to like 45-50 minutes
but it gets the job done and it's all about winning so can't really blame them.
Yeah I think it's it's like a better matchup though for extreme innocence because you know that
they're gonna get a little bit more breathing room against Falcons than they would against
the team like BB team. So in that sense, I think it, you know, if they do the proper
adjustments coming into today, and it's a it's a better it's a better fit maybe for
them this the series, we could see a closer match than what we've seen yesterday from
extreme. But at the same time, like I think if you expose yourself early on in the game,
like Falcons, of course, they're great at playing the long game and they're amazing
in the later stages, but they can also dominate the early game.
Like, you're just not allowed to be weak, basically, against that team at any stage, really.
So X-Train, they'll have to cover every single angle.
That's just how it goes when you go versus the best in the world.
All right, so if there is one hero in particular that we don't want to see from X-Train...
That we don't want to see from X-Train.
Mirana
You know I was watching our team play yesterday we first picked Mirana. I almost like I almost fail a little bomb
Yeah, we lost hardly in 20 minutes and well deserved
No, Mirana, please and I'm a big fan of the hero like that's like Mirana's like the Dota hero
It's been there forever. It's always been flashy, you know, they're accuracy you name it, but no Mirana, please please
Yeah, I mean we've seen some mean heroes win like there was a blood seeker attend from
Kristallis the other day we saw a BB team dominate with blood seeker yesterday which
had the great performance but seems like teams they're getting ideas from reddit where they're
like oh they said that blood seeker is a bad hero let's try to win with it and now there's
a new thread yesterday about CK being like the most dog hero in the game maybe someone's
gonna pick it up and get it strong.
Yeah, he did.
I think he played it during the last slam.
It's the thing.
I don't think CK is that bad, actually.
Like, we could take the conversation.
I don't think CK is that bad.
Yeah, he is.
It's one of the hero that's like,
no, I'm not going to go as far as saying I'm a CK fan.
I'm definitely not a fan, but I'm not a hero either.
The chaos is fun.
The chaos is fun.
I think the hero has some arguments.
To be fair, I haven't seen it, so we'll have to double check.
Yeah, he lost that game.
Like when the patch dropped, I'm like, okay, these numbers,
maybe they're not too bad.
The only thing they had to do for me is one game
to realize, yeah, this is not it, Chief.
It's not working out.
The illusions, they just die so quickly.
You know what one hero is that,
I think we saw a band on day one and I'm like,
oh my gosh, it's happening.
It's a hero.
I really enjoy watching, especially in the hands of X-XS.
I think that's one of the heroes that,
when he started this, he was really good.
Adlegent commander.
And we saw potential.
Yes, I did mention that during one of the drafts, both of these teams, like both offlaners, they do enjoy it from time to time.
This is how X-XS came into the scene, playing his Batrider, playing his Legion Commander from the offlane.
But Amar, from time to time, if it's a good game for it, he's going to pick it.
I got him on Elsie, it's amazing. I think it's a great item. We haven't seen it yet enough.
I personally think it's... I'm a big Legion fan, actually.
I think the laning presence is really there, you can itemize a little bit more differently,
I guess, creatively these days.
And again, the ags, we're not seeing it in the meta, but it's gonna come eventually.
I think it's a very interesting hero.
What else will we see, like as a surprise from these teams?
Like I know for a fact that Marine has been practicing a lot IO mid.
I saw it in pubs many times.
I think he was doing pretty fine on the hero, but he's yet to showcase it.
maybe not good enough to his, you know, but he's not level 20 Frank yet.
Not exactly.
Yeah, it probably doesn't have the right to pick it, the Mars is holding it back.
But, you know, if he does all nighters after these group stage games, gets back to driving.
Like your time, yeah, with the format he can grind in, I'd say like good 10, maybe 12 games
of IO per day.
If they get out of the groups on top spots, then yeah, they get two extra bans off basically.
I say off, but we all know that these players are gonna grind by the way
You are aware that at the moment we are having a little bit of tech issue will get that solved as soon as possible
But that is why you're still
without a drone
But it's the casters. It's yeah, it's the SCG. He's always holding us hostage. This is true
What does that mean is it possible? Don't say it if it's not it's good. It's good. It's a
So I participated in a French TV show, but I happened to win actually.
Hey congrats! What was it about?
Representing eSports. It's a game called Werewolves, so I don't know if you've ever thought of it.
It's basically like Mafia.
Yeah, one night Werewolves.
Exactly, so they built like an actual real village, like in the woods.
And the game goes on for two weeks where every night is a real night anyway.
You know I think I came in as a video game like champion or something so I think nobody really expected
They were like this guy has to be harm. We use heroes like you're good at games
They didn't know about all right, so I don't think they were there were only a couple candidates like no ball Dota
So they were very very suspicious of me. They were like well this guy is a menace, but then the other dragon is probably
Just probably an urge, you know like a no big deal and then when the strategies started happening
It was already too late for them. Are you a wolf and they lost no I wasn't but then
the dimension was to one of the strategies that I set up there that he appreciated I guess so
thank you for that but either way this isn't about that this is about Dota, lots of strategies
there too. I mean there's a lot of strategies you can figure out here too. Yeah we talked about
the werewolves there's one hero that's like and close that I think has been slightly underpicked
as well I feel like this hero gives you pretty much everything the two lane push with your summon
with the helm with the shard once you pick it up straight at 15 minutes. I just want to see more
of this here. I think this year is going to be punishing most of the position 5 supports in the
game and a hero that you can always play the lane because like it allows your position 4 to trade
with position 5 or just manipulate the creep wave, get the wave under your tower, drag the creep
wave with the wolves and everything. So it feels like a very natural offlaner. I think Nigma Galaxy,
they played it too, maybe even three towns, one of the reasons why they are so successful
is, a lot of the times people have been saying that you can't really lane. Like the lie said it in
interview that a lot of the times from the off lane you need to have different mentality right
now. This is pretty much what it was back in the days when I was playing where you really couldn't
like every CS that you get it's like a small victory. Like alright let's bang out some fireworks
because this feels really nice and then maybe if you get a kill you're gonna be getting a couple
of extra CS it's uh because this is not an off lane meta. We had off lane meta like in the previous
matches the same pitch chief. Yeah, I remember being coached at some point and the goal was
15 last hits at five minutes. It's rough. It's been rough for offlaners. I think we
desperation, you know, we need therapy at this point, like we just can't even the jungle camps
are not so easy to beat. It's like when everybody else is playing the game and you're struggling
with your jungle camp, you're like, should I get tangos? I'm going to get a salva. I think like
this is pretty rough. Is it worth it because it's so much money? I could just walk back.
You get one back and one stack, that's a bad stack.
You know, it's like, offlaners are playing a game of their own right now.
They don't want to tell about it, isn't it shameful when you hear everybody talk about,
you know, casting spells and outplaying your opponents, you're just sitting there in the
quiet jungle.
But it is what it is, you know, you just have to go with what the game, you know, imposes,
I guess.
Yeah, and it shapes the offlan hero pool for sure as well, because we see a lot of heroes
that rely on levels a lot, or at least are able to tear stacks later on as well.
Everything has an effect on everything.
I have to say that on like the one weakness that I could see talking about heroes on talking
side is I don't think Amar is necessarily playing the meta heroes.
Like, you know, we're talking about like, you know, we've seen a lot of dark
series tournaments, we see a decent amount of Largo.
These are not a more heroes like I don't know he probably can play some of them, but it's definitely not his
Top picks at the same time. He's been known for being so good on what he does that
It's always viable kind of like his timber is will always be met up
We're probably gonna start seeing some Mars too because I think Mars is like one of the best answer to
Largo darts here kind of teamfights again
It's not meta heroes, but when you're on Mars, it's always meta.
So interesting to see if you can force these heroes in the meta this time around.
Yeah, Marshal of Paper kind of looks good because we are in the range threat meta.
And like you can soak up quite a lot of that damage.
And this is our draft, by the way.
So we had a Plaspic Windranger and Centaur.
First pick snaps probably clock into Snaps.
Oh, Aluna.
Sorry, I have to decide for all these sects a little bit.
They have double no, they actually have triple noa on side of extreme gaming. They have x noa. They have noa from Luna and
Super no, but no, yeah, so well, this is a very
Cool approach from extreme innocence. I think they have much more solid lanes and early game presence with this draft
You know Luna Phoenix very strong lane hodling center absolute classics not fire mid nothing can go wrong
We've seen the snap versus Earthspirt which was devastating for Earthspirt.
I think the same might apply against Ember. I mean, Marine actually seemed to have picked Ember into snap,
but I don't think that lane is that easy for Ember.
And definitely not. I want to see more of Luna.
I believe Luna currently is 0-2 when I was checking the stats. Some teams did pick it.
On paper, it kind of looks good against Necro because it's a mixed damage hero.
You can try to burst him down which are eclipse problems
You can't really get that early ads anymore because now the 15th talent
Well now like a couple months ago has been changed to level 20 talent
So like the cooldown reduction the 42nd doesn't feel as good
So I want to see what kind of approach army is gonna have on this Luna
There's like a trend and you know
Hi, I'm a markups on Luna where people actually play off the glaives and they buy blink rather early like I
I haven't seen Manta into Blink or you know you can go Manta, BKB into, eventually the Blink comes
and it's a gameplay where Luna just blinks in with the Glaives, it's really hard to turn on her
because she has the Eclipse going and damage reduction you know it's just too much damage,
you kind of have to run away. It's an interesting approach, I think it's something we could see
especially versus heroes like Wul'Nur'Angel or you know squishy heroes, you get on top of them and
all of a sudden the nature of the teamfight just changes completely.
What do we feel about the two support combinations?
I believe it was a Hoodwink Phoenix versus a Clock Ring Master.
Has anyone seen to say about that?
I'm a big fan of Clock Ring Master.
I think these two heroes kind of naturally played the map.
It gives you save.
It gives you team fight.
We saw great performance yesterday from a save when he kind of, I'm not going to say
solo dominated the game because everybody was dominant, but there was this tier two
push attempt from Extreme Gaming and with one good Wheel of Wonder he completely stopped
that fight and the game completely flipped.
You know, I mentioned a lot of the trio, which what I refer to when I say trio is
like position 5, position 4 and position 2.
And I think you really need to think of how the 3 vs 3 game is going to unfold nowadays in Dota
because these heroes are the ones that connect the most in the early game.
They fight for ruins, they kick smokes to connect to side lanes to either defend towers or attack towers.
Think about the difference here again.
which I think is a little worrisome for Xtreme.
On one side you have Ember, Clock and Ringmaster.
They play together really well.
You have damage, you have control,
you have Ember staying in the front, setting up for the spells.
And on the other side you have the Hoodwing, Snap and Phoenix.
It's like, what are these three heroes supposed to do
when they run into an enemy hero?
Who starts the fight?
None of them really want the frontline.
They don't want to get jumped on either.
Like, anyway.
They need Centaur, for that.
They need Centaur, but Centaur is not going to look to connect early.
Like not sure they can connect to him but center. Yeah center is not gonna come to the rune center is not gonna defend towers
Like he's gonna be doing what centers have been doing these days like by hem of the dome
You know stack rep wave stack for yourself farm the heart and the same with Luna like you don't want to you don't expect
Sure Luna can connect sometimes when it makes sense
But you can't rely on Luna for these kind of play so again
I'm a little bit skeptical on how they select like supports with the mid heroes even though I
I mean, for instance, we've seen talk in the Spirit of Snap mid, right?
And they had two mid support every time.
They had Triant, then they had Tocos.
And then, of course, Cookie is amazing because you have somebody in front of you to use it.
They're tanking damage and, you know, kind of eating the stun for you so you get a full
ulti on.
Now, this Snap is just going to get attacked because it has a hoodwink and a feeling to
it.
So, they also want to throw.
Yeah, it doesn't really have protection and it doesn't have that plus one combo that
the mid-snapfire likes to have anybody that runs in, some clockwork, some dust type of a hero that just initiates the fight for her,
so we're not gonna be seeing that. Not gonna be that easy of a time for the mid-snapfire.
Look at that! We got ourselves a game on the screen, and we're gonna head over to Cap and SG to talk more about all of this.
There's quite a history between extreme gaming and Falcons that is playing out on the screen as the, uh, going into this game immediately Falcons,
both Maureen and Amar, because of course then being the duo that they are, they are quite the schemers,
they started off just immediately tipping their opponent in length.
Is that bad? I don't know.
You're not allowed to do that?
Not a good idea.
I think it's just interesting.
They're just good natured boys.
Yeah, just trying to get in the heads of extreme gaming a little bit.
Maybe trying to get in their hearts, Austin.
The bonds of friendship are formed.
I ended up that.
On the battlefield of Dota, as they say.
13 seconds.
Nothing. There's no game that brings people close to you.
How many friends did you make over the course of your career with, uh...
Many? I made you as a friend?
That's okay. I didn't never play against you in a competitive match.
That's true. That was all formed outside of the game.
Yeah.
Maybe there's something to say about that.
We're not friends in the game all time.
You're friends with Seb now?
With Seb?
Yeah.
Well, yeah.
You took a pause on that one.
Ah, it's two out of two, you know. Everybody's friendly.
It's friendly as game in the world. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Very friendly. Very rude for Falcons here.
And so let's start for them. I think both these drafts are pretty well-rounded.
I get what the panel is talking about in terms of the triangle, the three on three
between the supports in the mids going against each other skirmish-wise. I think it's generally hard
to have a favorable trio against Ember because Ember just sets up any support in the game.
You can literally play anything with this hero and it's pretty reliable as long as he doesn't get
she's on the lane. So in that sense I think it always just looks a little nicer.
But I think Snap can kind of play on the front line on her own if she wins the lane.
I think that can bring range supports into the game. Like I don't mind this
trio from extreme gaming as long as NTS has a good time. Because I think you can kind of run in
sometimes you can just blast cookie yourself or you can just start kills with kisses going in.
And if there's a bush wax, someone dies.
Amar, it's some trouble already. Almost gets burned out.
Fairy Fire will keep him alive for now.
But this high magic damage duo is causing some issues now.
Like, Snowbaugh might be the one to die instead.
He's got another Firefire coming up.
But unfortunately, the cooldown just lasts too long between consumables.
So, he ends up being... He's the one to die.
And this is what we saw yesterday for Max G.
Just a lot of weird deaths.
Not a lot of synergy in the first 10 minutes.
They just seemed off.
That's another death. I just don't think should happen level one
Unless you really get caught out position you have a Luna lane these two lanes are generally really strong
Luna can contribute the beams early fire spirits is very strong level one
Necro is not that great level one
Like this is a hero you should win the first few waves against and try and take advantage of that
So the fact you fit a kill down here not helping your cause
Especially against a boots first clockwork
The lunapix very interesting. We do not see this hero almost at all
Can be a strong hero against Necrophos though.
He hijacked the madstone.
Value right there.
Negative value.
I like seeing Luna come out a little bit more.
See if it works here for Almey. What kind of build he opts for after this.
It is a good mask of madness. Hero mask of madness is pretty strong right now.
And it's a good ancient there from the carry roll, which I feel...
is always pretty valuable to have as you go into that mid-game.
It don't have it on any other roll, so...
Good mid-game killer for certain heroes that can be abused by magic damage like Necrophos can.
Sure, right. You're gonna go to the Mask of Madness, you're gonna go Manta, then you're gonna go Agon and something.
That's been the standard build for a bit.
That's where I'm not sure if you want the Ags this game. You are playing into the Escape Act, which is pretty debilitating for the spell.
There's some mobility here with Ember and Windranger being able to get out of an AoE.
I kind of prefer the physical Luna.
Okay.
just as a concept here. I also think their lineup is very magic damage heavy on the other four heroes.
So if you need sense physical to bounce it out, if he goes aggs, then you're just kind of hauling.
The itemization becomes too easy for Falcons. You're just gonna buy pikes,
you're gonna buy glimmer capes, and what do any of these heroes do against it?
So I'm not sure I want to see the agg built here. I think you just play this Lunar Traditional.
You get some hybrid damage off the Eclipse, that's good enough.
Man, Mar is doing some work in this lane. Considering how low he got,
Almost dying and giving up first blood has now turned into potentially getting two kills as
X-Nova has to pop another fairy fire. Aume is pushed out of position again and again by the
caulk. Samar's gonna get close enough for another round of death pulse with the blood grenade chasing
him down. Another kill in lane. This duo just cannot be defeated it seems. Crit and Amar just
taking the off lane by storm and a meta where we've talked about how the off lane is struggling,
Not for Falcons!
There you get both.
That's how it just lingers around.
And this is all SATA stacks for a Marcer.
He just gets all his resources refilled instantly.
It feels like the easiest double kill of his life.
He just...
Death Bulls ten times.
Got about a thousand gold out of it.
Already level four.
It's to pull some of this wave.
Lunalane not working out.
And again, how much of that goes back to the early...
Level one misstep.
You feed that kill.
They get some laning in the corner room.
They're able to double wave you into the tower and just abuse Death Bulls.
You can't shove it out fast enough.
Really compounded there, and turned all these small errors adding up for XG, not what they wanted to see on this safe lane.
Man, they were just about to hit level 3 on the Phoenix, where I feel like level 3 Lunon Phoenix is where you really start getting very strong,
and, well, maybe you've already given up too much network to Falcons for that to be the case anymore.
How's our other off-lane doing? 20 and 0, so the Centaur's not doing much better than our Lunon when it comes to CS.
He's chilling though, already has helm.
Won't have to buy any more regen, so his net worth should go up from here pretty considerably.
And the mid lane matchup, NTS and Balvin are neck and neck.
Net worth.
Pretty nice for Malrin.
I think this lane mainly comes down if you can dodge some of the scatter blasts.
If you dodge even one or two, you kind of just reform here.
Pretty much have to land everything as a snapfire to potentially look back.
kill before level 6 even then it's pretty difficult.
I'm extremely already thinking about, okay how are we going to shut this Necrophos down?
Because Amar is jacked man, he's level 5 highest ever within the game, he's 500 up on Skeeter
right now in Necrophos.
Big leg rotation, blood grenade, it's going to land, hit it with the cogs, nothing to
say, another round of cogs lands, he's got a scan of blast coming up in a second but
that will not be up in time to stop Maureen, just rolls on through, and is this going to
be another situation where Ex-Nova just dies alongside his core?
Now Maureen forced out, but still, extreme gaming continue to suffer, and the Sapphire
is going to be late for the Power Rune, so that kind of sets Maureen up for even more
success.
He's going to heal, come back, he's going to be full resources for this fight, including
Ward plus Sentry, or some extra vision control.
Should go this way. It'll be a shield during top.
I don't think F1 is going to be able to deny here.
Kisses raining in on Amar. Amar trying to get close enough that the kiss is at minimum range,
but can't really close that gap fast enough.
So nothing to say makes the most of his death with a good rotation.
For sure.
To try and slow down Amar, who is...
I mean, he almost has boots and travels already.
Somebody had to kill this hero.
He was out of control.
That's a big kill to find in this early game salvage is a bit FY gets a bunch of experience mid Maul ring
Does a smart play pulls the waves. Yeah forces creeps under the tower before and just get back there
And he officially farms little stacks. So super nice little mechanics from him
X-XS not too happy about that as he's still a little ways away from the dominator
Don't be careful about your wisdom shrine here. This is a shield or an ember
Very strong just sitting there with that.
Yeah, how do you fight this? I feel like you have to teleport in Luna or something.
Some cores need to be here otherwise they just have to give this up.
They make the call to give it up.
They maybe give up the kill on X-XS2.
Okay, this is getting way out of control.
Another power shot. It looks like Skeeter may not have enough mana for it.
Snake King is going to be dove and killed.
So, all right, Extreme do get something out of it.
I don't think the trade off is that great, but...
Especially if they lose Aumei Bottom.
Oh yeah, Aumei's being run down.
Looks like that was the cause that already hit him, so...
Aumei's a bit lucky. Spared a bit of damage, but where does he go from here?
Skeeter's already teleporting onto the tower.
Aumei is gonna get sandwiched somewhere in here.
Spot him with off of the rocket flare, and he's just not fast enough.
Repersite will get the kill, and that's a stack for Amar.
Not only did he waste a lot of time there, he ends up dying to the Reaper anyway.
Wage is going to instantly come in so you can just focus by this tower.
Easy tier one rotation for Skeeter.
Things looking solid for Falcons.
Maybe he was stinking again.
Yeah, Falcons just trying to, yeah, be a big greedy and take too much off the map.
Oh, keeping the Ember up here.
Oh, he almost got it with another double edge.
Okay, man.
They got him now, but Maureen shows up, kills Courier, and probably kills Ex Nova too with no dive.
He has no outs here. He's still low level.
A little 4 and a half without getting that wisdom shrine here.
And big trouble here.
We're ulting cool online for Falcons. I have a huge advantage in these early fights.
And the other way to recover level is as a support if you don't get the wisdom shrine stacks.
The Maulmarine already took some of the medium stacks.
Now, Snapfire's gonna clear out the others without the Phoenix being there.
They got a deep work on that triangle ever so even if you go and stack it as
actually it's very contestable here from Falcons embers a very good time.
Which travels on and the creep stays alive long enough from a mar to show up
and now nothing to say she's gonna be run down underneath the tower now
Ami's gonna cut in here he does have the eclipse he goes after a mar but none of
the loosened beams really went to a mar at all they still have the kisses though
and maybe that's enough magic damage the final couple of hits you land crit
nice dive there from Ex-Nova trying to get in front of crit and with the fire
Spirits burning him out. He has a chance here that final one to many resources. Crit has double Lotus
Hasn't had to use any of it off the lane instead. It's ext over to die yet again a bush whack goes out holding back Maureen for a second
They have wise in trouble though a big whiff to bring him down crit threatened
Oh, the cookie action plays against on me as he gets bounced into the cogs
Falcons are low, but extreme gaming do not have the power to stop the retreat
I can't get Maul ring there. If he'd saved Cookie, you might have just been able to kill him.
It's very low on resources.
These skirts out of there. I do like the rotations from Extreme Gaming.
I think this is how you want to abuse Loon in these matches,
to be able to keep her into dives and just to clip people down.
Kind of unfortunate with the beams there.
Kisses are killing this Nectar.
I'm sorry. Oh, Helma dominated. That's like, he's got his Helma died.
So I double-deny on Bounty Runes.
So I was like, what, what just happened?
but it's stacking the way it's top.
So this center will start to pick up the farm rate,
but just a rough early game for Almey.
And I feel like this has been the trend
leaning against Necrophos.
No one's really been able to have a good time against this hero.
And it's part of the strength of the Necrophos
in these early games.
I don't feel like you should start up
with a little bit more like tri-lane action.
That used to be the case, yeah.
That is so momentum-dependent.
Maureen, jumping in fearlessly.
Is that vision still there, by the way?
Yeah.
Yeah, that falcon's just gonna keep playing around it, and he thought it was a high ground
war and they missed it.
Scouting the station stack, Maureen doesn't want to let NTS start to farm it.
It's pretty low right now, too.
Kisses up in ten.
It's a hard fight to take.
Maybe better just to pressure this mid tower some more.
keeps coming back. I mean they gotta know about it at this point. This is getting ridiculous.
Weird vacuum around this mid tier one. Again, the supports for XG are just solo level.
You don't really want to run up and interact with this Ember at all. You're just food.
Is there just kind of watching Maulryn have his way around this mid lane?
Yeah, I think you said XNovo was level four and a half like two minutes ago.
And he's still low. Yeah, he's not got a lot of them.
An early Rod of Aintos trying to sneak a kill onto the Ember Spirit, saved by the box.
He's still caught him in the bush whack, though.
Jumps away to the Redknit.
He's gonna get him out here, and it's the final claim to do the trick.
Nothing to say now with the kids that's ranked down on Skeeter.
Double core kills for Extreme.
That'll bring him back into the game in a big way.
That is just a confusing sequence, because if you're Falcons, you're in a dangle,
your ember like that. Why does he not just have the remnants to get out? Another Rodovitos kill?
Okay, the whip pushed him back, but they have the cookies, still the land, stops the unicycle,
followed up with the pushback. This early Rodovitos has paid off already. I was gonna question if it
was gonna do anything here, but giving a little extra stun power, it's a nice setup stun because
they don't really have the lead off initiation. Like, who starts these chain stuns? NFY with a
very clutch pushback. There's a Remnant out, but that's his last Remnant, so where did all the
the other ones go. You were just dancing with the arcane earlier, I guess? You got to lose
gear on top of it. Pretty much like this Aster for Falcons.
Yeah, they had such a nice lead going in. 2000 plus lead now cut down to pretty much
nothing.
And I do enjoy seeing XG play a little more together and with some decisive moves in this
game that we saw yesterday. They just looked very lethargic yesterday. Especially that
I thought they just tilt it out of that one completely.
Here they're at least, you know, making some moves, joining up, bringing Aume into the
action.
I think they always look best when Aume is not 0-0-0 at 30 minutes.
What?
But that's his signature.
That's not a good signature.
Smoke.
Boy, should whack a little kill here on Crit perhaps.
No, actually, the sharpshooter.
Something that uses wide enough damage.
Crit, he's got, I guess, burn is enough.
that with the neutral item, the polywog charm, he actually chose the HP regen.
Rodovato's on the Ember Spirit, could he get the Ember Spirit again? Another box save,
trying to wield to stop it, but a beautiful hit, the Ties catch it! Three! That is beautiful,
could they fight off this one, especially if Necropo's coming through the back,
they kill Ex-Nova, now run down XXS as well, just like that Falcons is back in control.
That's what I bought that first fight around, Mitchell looks like. When he ever has remnants,
he can get out. He's just baiting you to try and all in him. And if you mess that up you're
going to pay a massive price. He decided to commit here. If you get supernova off this
fight might look a little different, but I think Ember gets out no matter what. This
is the power ringmaster in this game. He can always just bail his heroes out. Snowbug
just definitely didn't even see the necropos come. Beautiful position of snaking. He knows
where to be, who he's supposed to play behind and just bail that entire situation out and
man, ring ass are so strong in these early game fights when you full commit into him.
Especially if he's got multiple saves available, right now he's got a strong man tonic, ready
to go, so what do you think's in that thing?
Probably like the same Gojuice or whatever that's in Fortnite.
Is EWC sponsored by Energy Drink?
Because that's what's in it. If we are, I'll tell you that much.
7-11 Falcons. Gotta be feeling pretty good about this game.
The scale though is not super clear to me. Just because Extreme have Sapphire.
That hero is just goddamn ridiculous.
When you go 8-os first, your scale does become worse.
It's kind of a dead item, scale-wise.
Gives you a lot more early game potential.
It does fit NTS's style within this team, but it is not the hard-scale build-up, either in the magic or the physical.
The Croker, stop into Croker's stun. Very nicely played from X-XS, but once again, lacking in the damage.
Critches has chip-smuff HP to survive.
This clockwork is just a bait. It's not the guy you want to throw big ults on.
FY, he is going to die as well.
No levels of scurry.
Artie is the sharpshooter, so...
Very fast reaction from the Falcons.
They got all five down here quick.
That's the power of the boots to travel.
Necrophos Radiance already up.
Gets another Reaper site stack.
He is vibing in this game right here.
It's going to pose a big scale issue for XG.
If the Necrophos can get to a fast BKB,
your lineup goes nothing against him.
Yeah, all the more reason for Luna not to go the aggs in this game.
I wonder if I'm hiding like this.
It's no good.
Everything for XG points towards him wanting to fight earlier.
We still haven't seen a good supernova.
You have a lot of early in nuke damage.
You went blink on the centaur, not the heart build.
You went eight-toes on the snap, not an early boots travel or something.
So you want to put these items to use.
You need to be finding some kills, getting some sort of chain kill sequence going into
getting on Falcon's side of the map.
This would be the dream, and then Luna can choose to join some of those fights if they look advantageous or just maybe take a free Tier 1 on his own if things are going your way.
Instead, you're kind of bleeding power runes to Maul Ring. These gank attempts aren't working, they're getting turned around by the Ringmaster.
They're going to feel a little bad farming the map right now.
Especially when, you know, Falcons is doing it probably more efficiently.
Two men smoke up Maureen, pushes through the mid lane.
And Crit smokes him after the wave pushes in, Snake King will join them.
Very strong power of nine on both supports.
This connects, kills anybody here.
And they know just where to go.
Ooh, I thought they'd paint it, I thought they were going to go and catch Ame's Luna,
but instead they're gonna set up in the triangle and see if maybe somebody
watched into them and that is going to be on me walking into them.
There goes the wheel, the whip, lands the hip, the ties and he's dead.
Read him like a book. They know that luna farming pattern. It has to be around this ancient camp.
Nowhere else he can be in this game. It's too easy.
And what's the counter on the map in terms of map pressure rate? You have
heroes basically hiding bottom for XG trying to just pick somebody off
who shows on this wave going in a little bit. Yeah, it's like fire spirits from a distance and then
held the Domkriep grabbing waves and pushing them in or whatever, but
X-XS does use his help with Domkriep pretty well. FYI, he's gonna die again again,
still level seven, so still no levels of scurry, still cannot get away.
Well, the repersite stack starting to add up there a little bit.
And they didn't find anything on that bottom play, falcons.
Not showing anybody down here again unless snaking is behind you.
You want to push this dangerously now?
Just sit the ringmaster there and then even if they go on you, you get a good turn around
fight.
Playing this map really smart right now, giving actually no openings.
At some point I think you just have to smoke in deep and get some good wards out or force
the fight on top of a tower if you're that confident in early game spell
powers doable here with a good supernova placement yeah this is maybe
you're you're one chance here torment there's gonna spawn in a minute so if
you don't get something going here our shot goes off scatter blasts so both
sides kind of know there's some enemies lurking in the area the differences
falcons feel very comfortable ember spirits ready to go for a TP to that
bottom tier one tower and necrophos has the boots of travel so they can play the
map more efficiently right now while having this kind of a bit of a stand-up
now worth is slowly going their way able to show on more waves of more heroes
that'll do it here
mars level 16 I use a beast it's not okay it's what the zero does you just
He runs around the map, farms everything, vacuums it up, he gets kills on top of it, he's going to be mega high level.
And his BKB is going to be done, it seems like, before the next fight because the extreme gaming just can't seem to find that fight and make it happen.
Again, dealing with a lot of defintion, at this point, if your moves are seemingly being read all the time,
it might be time to take a cue out of some of the other teams and buy that early gem, you know?
It could be an option here, especially for the Phoenix Nauta here that needs super early
items.
Early smoke from Falcons.
Clear out this bottom area.
If you don't get anything, you can probably still feel confident enough to take Tormentor.
Oh yeah, full meal near on Skiir, you're just going to go in there folks, fire it.
Easy object to take.
Again, I like this kind of smoke. You know, when it doesn't land, you're getting something for your trouble
You're going to a good part of the map right now
To croak or scouting something down here, I don't think it's good to stir falcons budget gold and
Where's Peter going? They are deterred
Interesting. They didn't just pull the trigger on that
They really thought that a
Smoke plate was coming their way. That's the only reason you hesitate there
Yes, I mean they do have very deep vision and somehow they're not seeing any heroes
So I can kind of see how they come to that conclusion. Sure the truth is it's actually just because extreme gaming are all playing the other side of the map
They also just finished the Mars BKB ATVs down here. So maybe they just said, you know, give me 20 more seconds all BKB if they do contest
We're happy to take that fight
That'll be a spotlight for the ringmaster not bad here in Saluna
Sure is a pretty good illusion abuse hero
Not against the spotlight?
Speaking of Luna, we can see Aume's plan for the build up of this game, BKB, Blink Dagger, and MKB.
Why does Blink start hitting the ranger?
I mean, Luna does always kind of have a bit of like, she's fast, but it always feels like it's...
You want to be on top of heroes a little bit faster than she usually can.
Oh, I agree. Swift Blink is super good on some of these.
Split Shot Heroes, Dusa, Gyro, Luna, I think are all natural Swift Blink fires as the game progresses.
And in the games where you don't have it, I think you just feel a little infinite.
Like, how do you get in there and start getting hits all fast enough when the control lands?
So I wouldn't mind the Blink Fagger here.
I just wonder if he's gonna do enough physical DPS to be able to force fights into this BKB timing.
Also, I would say, yeah, is it going to be any good to make that kind of commitment?
Because I don't think you're ever going to start a fight on an important hero with a
stun, right?
Like, all their stuns are pretty well telegraphed.
You can have BKB on this Necrophos.
Well, one option it gives them is, if you're sending the Centaur into initiate fights and
stun, the Lunar can kind of blink past that and look for the Ringmaster who's naturally
going and trying to save this first point of contact.
Sure.
You can jump past the guy, pop BKB Eclipse.
You might just kill Snaking as he's trying to throw out an escape act.
Then you can take the fight off of that.
Just Supernova on top of the Luna, wherever he goes in.
I kind of like that idea here.
If it all comes together, it could be nice.
If Falcons just get the farm to triple BKB, this game is going to become very difficult.
Smoke through to triangle. Extreme gaming, a back down. They're going to make a smoke of their own. It's going to break all the mid lane.
Aame, not going to be hypnotized, but he's going to be slowed down. He needs some heals here. He doesn't want to hop the BKB too early.
the quite the way
It's really building up. He's gonna have to be kbk
And there goes the fight extreme gaming can no longer take it
It's just about trying to get as many heroes out as soon as possible and what will die yet again
That's so annoying if you're all made
You know, he's he's taking the front of this point of attack
And there's just no counterplay like you've landed some soft stuns on this ember
but you can't full commit to him, especially with the skate back behind.
Ringmasters are really causing their lineup a lot of issues.
And some of that is nothing to say about he had to...
Ooh, Radovatos and Stomp both do not land.
And that is a wasted kisses.
So no PKB on Luna, no kisses.
That is a green light to take Roshan.
You're gonna super know where to fight the bit.
You still have Eclipse.
Is that really gonna be enough, though?
You also don't have on me.
He's not coming back.
Ah, just conceding this objective.
I think he's frustrated.
It's like, I just got a farm.
It's scary to get away this objective, though.
Basically, guarantees Falcons can decide when the next fight happens,
and if they want to wait for more BKBs to come out, they can absolutely do that.
As more and more magic resists, enters the playing field here for Falcons,
the fights just become more and more difficult.
I don't disagree, but at the same time, doesn't it already feel like
Do you feel like Falcons are leading that tempo?
Yeah, they are.
Those decisions, you know?
It feels like, in many ways, extreme gaming, the failures of the early game have just left
them with no other choice, but okay, we have to dodge, rat, play for, you know, the game
extending.
That's a wise way to put it, Mr. Walsh.
What?
Nice dog.
Nice bushwhack. Nothing to follow it up with.
Hmm.
Yeah, these goblers kinda suck.
Yeah, they are very suck.
I have no words of advice in this game.
You got back-to-back stuns on two different cores and you could do nothing with it.
There wasn't even the idea of something.
Bombay will take the off-link tower at least, get a little gold in their pocket.
But here comes Falcons and Crit has that combo.
Jetpack plus Blink Dagger they have to fight, there's no way out of this one, they popped
the Eclipse, they can kill Snake King maybe, he actually does die, had a BKB teleport away
from Bombay, a supernova is going to be used trying to protect nothing to say, who also
BKB can also TP away and it'll be X-Novo left behind.
Honestly, that might be about as good as it gets for Extreme.
That was really weird.
Crit had hookshot.
I think he could have just hookshot the Luna.
But they get everybody out, okay?
Not a bad sequence for Extreme gaming.
I mean, considering the fact that they are unlikely to be taking teamfights anyway, it
doesn't really matter if the DKBs are down.
Oh, wait a minute.
And in this storm, I'm saying that Luna can play the zone game against the Ring.
you come in and box guy I'll just kill you here's where yeah I think you just
looked out of there it's good to it and then he hook shots the guy who hasn't
TP kept so I don't know what he was looking at or because I was watching
them like all right there's no way I'm gonna be giving TP out of here because
Chris is gonna sit on the edge of the fight and wait for you to do something
I think actually should have lost more there yeah missed opportunity for sure
maybe some mercy show you know it's like repeat you in the TI grand finals so
I don't want to humiliate you.
I can't no shot on me here. I like him too much, you know.
He's a legend. He's my idol.
My mouse was slippery, guys. I don't know what happened.
He plays Clinks just like me.
That's true.
Another stellar.
I also have never understood that.
How did Critt's favorite hero become Clinks?
You know him from way back.
Where did that start?
So basically when he was playing Ploes and he had to play Core,
play core he had a very small pool of heroes that he would like to play core on and I think
he's kind of that like hipster core player where he doesn't like to play the super meta stuff so
it's this weird pool of like clink's troll and something else I forget the third hero hero attack
fast yes he likes to swing stop comes through they go straight for the win range up but again
the box is there and it stalls up a lot of things Gears still stuck though and he is going to lose
the agents. Okay, now Tripp and just reset. Oh, they got the centaur and they hypnotized the
wheel, clips him. They will lose at least one. Couldn't find Maulry even though he runs out of
remnants. That fight didn't look too bad though. It didn't. The Luna actually looked pretty good
there with the serrated ship getting some extra attack speed as well. Like he did some solid
damage just being in the middle of everybody. If he had MKB, he might kill two more heroes.
I think in many ways they're doing a good job of like trying to dodge and Falcons are so, you
you know, they want to be able to take the fight to them.
They're like, okay, these guys don't want to fight us.
And they're punishing the positioning
that comes out of Falcons extending so far full.
I agree.
I think XG is read of what's going to happen
in the five of fives is spot on.
Like you recognize that this backline is going to come forward
when you go in initially with the Centaur.
And you're kind of not trying to over commit
on that first target,
but kill the supports that come in
or that Necrophos to be overextends.
You just don't have enough staying power right now.
But I still liked our atomization.
They went back for the bots on the snap.
It was pretty necessary in this game.
You have Lotus Orb on Centaur.
You have Grease on Hoodwink and you have Pipe on Phoenix.
So they actually have a decent amount of 5-man utility.
It's making these fights a lot easier even though they're behind.
And that is something I think we should see more against Necro.
Like, Pipe is really good against this hero.
The Glimmers are really good.
The late game Wind Waker's right.
Utility generally ruins this hero.
Offensive utility too in Nullifier.
That's one of the ways, yeah.
Necro's always gonna be super far and super fat.
But if you buy the right items against him,
his network doesn't count for as much as a lot of other heroes
because he's so one-dimensional
sent our cart to begin this game to eventually get there
all yeah that's actually so
i think there are you know this is a necro ringmaster lineup
you will need a nullifier here at some point i don't know who buys it
you're gonna get that
sent our nullifier i don't know what's the plan here policy
with no prior to that might be your best option
there's other quick pick off
snaking during work with this ringmaster
Yeah, it really is. Maureen has his Agenem Scepter, by the way.
I mean, the heroes from what we've casted anyway,
I feel like these are the two bids of the tournament.
Sapphire and Ember Spirit both have some insane timings.
So we've seen Ember Spirit get the AGS, just devastate.
More than like usual, I can't figure out why that is the case,
but it feels like Ember Spirit is doing so much more with the AGS
in this tournament than some previous metas.
There are a lot of ranged supports
that you play right now
Ember, just easy squishy hero
Yeah, you likes being able to just
dunk on some of these crew links and stuff
Yeah
Guitaried heroes are also a little susceptible to, right?
They can be sometimes a bit squishy
especially if they can't hate anything
Sure
They're oftentimes dependent on life steal
for HP
Wonderful see some more Nyx assassins at some point
There's an answer to some of these mobility mids
Sure, I mean it's good versus both of them right? Both Snap and Amber.
It is a hero that's good against Knuckles too, in some ways.
For sure. I'd like to see that hero a little bit more, the Skullfield Nyx or something,
but neither of these teams really play. I guess FYI does play that hero.
What's playing it? Kind of the first half of this year and then it just disappeared.
But these Chinese teams historically do like Nyx's acid. It's a hero that
but can give them some nice map play against the European hems.
Like there's a reason we saw Gintu be really successful with that hero in some big games
later on in lands.
So maybe going back to some of those ideas to help pick some of these heroes off and
give you some nice map play could be interesting.
I'm going to see a quick smoke from Extreme Gaming.
They did get that gem on the Phoenix, giving them a little more vision confidence here.
Oh, you don't want this fight.
You don't want this fight extreme.
I don't know that MKB on the Luna. It's a nice timing. It's an amp damage that Maureen just picked up
Okay, but he is
Sceptically there's no BKB right if you all in him and you catch the ringmaster in a stunt at the same time
It's doable that he gets bursted
Not easy. They see the couriers floating in they're gonna run into Skeeter
But Skeeter's gonna be on the high ground to go out the BKB MKB
No, two men are gonna decent amount of damage right away with a blink forward from a train
But it's not good enough and now they've used their stampede and now they're deep on enemy territory
And Maureen goes straight for the throat. He's got that amp damage. He goes right to the middle, hits a sling.
Chain's still in play. Necrofloat's in the box. You have to get the box though. The box coming out. Here comes the kisses though.
And he's being slowed down. The magic damage. Maureen jumps back in once again. It's that chain. Though he has to be where the Glaze is.
Glaze's a lot of damage. You got him inside the bushwag. Now Avar, he came back in a trade. Help out the Ever-Spirit, but he might just die as well.
That's huge.
That's huge.
Now the heroes start kicking in and looking at these outhealing every bit of damage they
all have to retreat.
There's nothing more extreme gaming can do here.
Every man for himself.
They're going to lose Gem too.
They have no TP's left.
It is going to be three dead on the side.
Oh, that was so close.
There's a lot of things that might have been able to push that fight over the edge for
XG with this beautiful MKB timing.
did so much work there, but some beautiful kiting from Falcons, a very clutch escape
act that bought so much time in that fight, and that Reaper kill landed, it must have
been within a 5% margin or less.
Yeah, that one was pretty close.
So big confirmation, they're all together, this is what you want to see, good egg timing,
you're able to fight around it, if that box doesn't come through this fight, looks way
more one-sided because I think ATF goes down for sure, that's why you need a nullifier
in this game.
nullifier them you win this fight convincingly instead he's gonna get to
regen up a lot he gets to split the damage great re-initiation crit this
footshot cogs does a lot here to buy time for a mar to find the opening and
then once that happens the fights over you cannot win these fights without Luna
on the battlefield it's just impossible we also saw at the beginning of this
clip the hiding they were talking about from falcons they use height really
early on the center I think it was it was pretty ineffective I think it just
They're almost entirely kited, combined with the fact that they actually use BKBs towards
the end of the timing.
I do wonder if that's one of those things that could have changed that fight to the
favor of Extreme, but instead Falcons take it, and they of course in Falcons way are
just going to grow that net worth advantage.
They're up to 19k, have an Aegis, now it feels like a lead that Extreme Gaming.
Even with the specific items that they've grabbed, it's not enough.
It's gonna be rough without nullifier to all in single target burst somebody.
It's still causing them a lot of issues.
X-XS.
And again, I mean he's got that agonim scepter, that stops the reapers psych.
That's hard though.
That's hard to play for.
Yeah.
I think the, it's just not easy to get the cart on the guy right when the reapers about
to connect.
You have to be really close to him, there's an animation.
And there's a whole bunch of weird stuns and slows going around.
There's the cogs, which are really annoying.
We go back to that fight, even if you had axe, what have you been able to cart on?
After the reborn out, no. You could have carted him before that
and kind of prevent you targeting him for 5 seconds already.
So there is... you could be more proactive with it this game, maybe?
And then he can hold this BKB for longer. I kind of like that idea.
it is it's a good item here it's just being falcons shouldn't take this high
ground push for granted no this this push can still go wrong here comes the
fast damage on the windranger almost got the ages do get the ages okay that's the
box down to I don't think it's a good advantage of this more than a going
crazy the whole shot actually put them inside the cart at the same time now
it's a wild one on a they could sense the targeting from Falcons now this is a
It's a bit weird because now it's extreme gaming or lacking in some tools, no BKB man to no cart.
Gotta play through Supernova if you're gonna take this fight.
It's your best chance, but no BKB on Aame.
Super scary for him to go in against the Reaper site.
Constant spam of Amar on the front lines.
The death pulse as he said.
They just don't really have the single target focus without the nullifier.
It's gonna let the lane go.
Yeah, I think Almond made the call. I'm not fighting without PKB.
That's fair. That's fair.
Sheva's done for nothing to say.
And he's got the cookie charges.
Big talent. A lot of damage coming out from that.
And they actually go for the Necrophos. See if they can all win with the Supernova.
The box save does go out, but Amar doesn't go very far here.
He's still burning, but they actually didn't try and keep it going. They
Felt like it wasn't man. They come down to half-health and said no
That is an insanely discipline
said not see that necrophos get low and
Actually make the call the back. Maybe it was the right call, but either way insanely disciplined very hard to know
I can see a world over extending there goes really wrong without PKB on a I don't see a world
you should have just sent it. Maybe that's an opportunity. You won't get back in this game.
If they can connect the stun on the ringmaster when they go in, that's what they're looking for every time.
They've been very close to accomplishing that. That's another instance where they almost had it.
Again, the ideas about the fights have been good for you from extreme gaming.
They're just really difficult to execute. And honestly, snaking has been on point.
I mean, we should give this ringmaster some credit.
It's not easy to position the ringmaster in a game like this with the low
Castering to skate back when there are multiple AOE stuns that can go in so
Boxed in talking to play really well around this hero
He doesn't have an ether lens or anything right?
It's just a blink dagger so he's got a blink in but make sure he doesn't get caught in the stomp doesn't get caught in
The bush whack you're caught in one of these stuns before the box goes out that fight is gonna look very one-sided
So they have this will help them definitely a big item form here
He recognizes the power of escape act in this game without a nullifier on the field, which again who is gonna build one here
I nobody's even eyeing it
They're just gonna try and power through it
Isn't it the idea that what conjures Cat Catalyst definitely helps
The supernovas are gonna be a big deal in this game as we go later later because there's no one who's gonna kill it on
outside of Falcons. It should be guaranteed for Ex Nova. And as a Phoenix player, when
you feel that's the situation, you want to get really aggressive with them.
Right. And then if they do try and turn around, that's a dream opportunity for Luna.
Right, especially with Luna.
Smoke does get broken. Oh, the Hookshot gets blocked. That just gets blinked in and actually
hit the Hookshot. Had it awkward for him. Every first side gets used. Lotusaur bounce
You didn't do anything to the Centaur. That is not good at all for Valkyries.
Maureen still opts to go in. He tried to stop him. He pops BKB, Sunray trying to heal up X-XS,
and he keeps alive. Maureen's trying to get away with the cart. He's out of remage.
But just leave. Maureen is full committed to get this kill on the Centaur.
He's going to get himself killed, and he didn't even get his mark.
And why did he go back in there, right? Why? Why? Yeah, I don't understand because
because best case scenario, even if you somehow kill Centaur and get out, how is that risk
reward ratio in your favor?
Oh yeah.
You're not gaining objectives out of that because the Winter Ranger was so low, you're
going to have to back up there anyways, Falcons.
That just felt like a weird misstep in terms of that Falcon consistency and discipline we're
used to seeing.
And it starts with actually catching them off guard.
They're walking to this base, probably setting some play up and they just get jumped.
A mark throws out a reaper on the Centaur who's getting focused on it, but he's tanking
up to survive.
It actually got loaded back onto him too.
You just have to bail and while you're bailing
I think he felt he was gonna be able to clean him up faster than the BKB TV out
Yeah, and I think that is a reasonable play if you have skewed it but damn that sent our tanky
And again is the risk reward ratio in your paper on that play even if you get a mind probably not
It's a 70 000 network the centaur and you're a 22 000 network exactly right like it's just not that big a deal now all of a sudden
That small mistake is going to compound here, Swift Blink done for Almey, he hit level 25
so he gets the extra Lunar Flushing damage. Plus he rolled the Flare's Boat, his DPS is pretty insane here.
I think you have to Reaper him now. Maybe Skeeter kills him if he can land a good shackle.
That was the other part that he took his fire and Reaper's Scythe on Centaur.
Which just cannot be the play. There's no way you can commit both of those ults to the Centaur, this game is about Luna.
and you need to respect that.
I'm sure Falcons, I mean,
they see all those mistakes,
they're not gonna do it again in the next fight.
No.
It'll definitely change here.
They might also just try and slow this game down
and farm into some more saves,
some more sustainability,
make the teamfights a little easier
for their course to play sitting up there
against some of the wound and burst damage.
Still a lot of item slots to fill here.
fill here they want to slow this game down get another shard why not this will
be the nobody's because they have them all okay just some people will give wisdom
shrine over to the Sapphire nothing say is a bit low level it would love to have
nothing to say to finish up both refresher and be 25
After the Tormentor, Falcons smoke up, and sweep across the whole map and look at Exnova, drawn the line perfectly.
Very good rearing out. They got out some deep vision. They're gonna dodge the smoke ink.
Do you want that kind of deep vision?
I feel like there's deep here.
Yeah, I feel like there's a very good chance that that vision does nothing for you from here on out.
The one thing it could do is scout the setup from Falcons going into a, like, radiant side Roshan
that could have spawned here in these two minutes. It's gonna be a late-row spawn, so it'll actually spawn
pretty much, yeah, it'll spawn bottom, completely, so these wards will not be that effective.
Could have been nice if it had spawned faster.
Well, they're going to try and play two there. They're very deep wards.
X-Nova has the smoke ready to go.
The issue is when there's these gems on the map, you can't really just ward it anywhere casual.
Sure, she has to ward in some weird spot that's going to pay off for that one killer, one fight
that they don't expect, like maybe Amar is farming this camp back here with bots and he's planning to join the team.
I don't think that's an unreasonable assumption.
And they are going to smoke that vision, as you said, so try to take advantage of it.
And now it's this time, it's Sneaking Start to read it perfectly.
The bold teams are not going to be caught by surprise these late game shenanigans though.
Maybe extreme gaming.
Oh, they're going to go up this hill.
That's going to break immediately.
Trying to go for the blind stop.
Exit 6S.
Doesn't really hit anything.
PKB goes out from all-raining.
It's the back line.
The kids is raining in.
Falcon's just trying to juke this as much as possible.
There goes the Supernova.
So Falcon's reset now.
He's got a lot of holes.
Now, wait to go back in with the hookshot landed on the Phoenix. Very nice from Crick.
And they should get at least one kill off of this.
Actually, just bailing. They used Supernova, they used the card, they used Stampede,
they used Kisses, they used Eclipse, what did they not use? Right, only Dom, maybe, maybe...
They blew everything on that attempt to go high ground. Basically connected with nothing.
And now, if I could turn it into a very awkward spot, because they're like,
okay, Roshan, is it up yet? Is it up yet? Still not up yet.
Late Rowshawn, you know a bunch of things are down. There is no Phoenix, but you kind of have to just wait
For ropes because the last thing you want to do is try and hit high ground throw that and give extreme gaming an opportunity
for an extra life on Luna
You already
Need to reaper scythe herb she gets an extra life
That'll be really awkward on the AC's opportunity to swift blink again box box box
It does have buyback available, so you can play a little aggressive here.
Maybe you can use buybacks going into a roach fight and just power through some of these
big focus fire reaper kills.
Yeah, that is an option.
Yeah, outside of reapers Scythe being used kind of early, they don't really have any
ways to control this Luna for too long.
It's kind of very likely you get the DKB Satanic.
Well, the problem for Amé has been actually being able to hit heroes during that Satanic.
And with the hookshot, put him inside the cart, and is... did the cogs...
Yeah, what happened there?
Yeah, does the cog push somehow to build the workforce?
There's no way.
That looks very odd.
I mean, I don't know. What else would it be?
The will of Gabe Newell, I don't know.
Something bugged it out.
Aegis for Skeeter, geez, refresher both on Crit, holding in for some others.
Level 25 is still not acquired for Skeeter, he will have it soon though.
Same for the Sapphire, so some big 25 talents to get in this game.
They do have a refresher on NTS, so that high ground defense is pretty damn strong.
Just what a world of difference it would be if he had two more levels under his belt.
For sure.
And there's the nullifier.
It's coming.
Who?
Who got it?
XXS.
Hey, I knew it.
Nullifier Centaur, let's go.
We'll buy out for it, so he will not have buyback in a high ground push scenario.
Definitely worth it though if you can land some big nullifiers and burst these targets
down particularly for...oh man here he just can't hit people so he needs more
control in this game. Banner gets dropped and the protecting the siege creeps so
he's looking at tier three down. Not really much they could do about it unless
they manage to kill Skeeter and kill him again. Yeah I mean you can swing on those
as much as you want they won't die. Now once the tier three is dead the looks
Looks like the banner runs out shortly ahead of Siege creeps, so they won't be able to
get a free assault on the Barracks or anything off of this.
Got a minute, a minute and a half here.
Look at the wrong banner, brother.
You got Jabaden.
What?
Do you think they dropped the creep wave banner?
No, the banner to the right.
I know, but I'm saying you think he dropped his Clan banner to try and Jabade that it was
a banner.
He ran up to it to hit it and he's like, wait a minute, that's a fake banner.
There's no way I'll make that was the real one, right?
I thought you could get someone once with that.
Maybe you can.
I actually didn't know that banner had a duration to it.
Yeah, it doesn't last forever.
That'd be insanely broken.
What?
I've never seen it expire naturally, have you?
Tier 3 does go down.
And Maureen just jumps to hit the Phoenix, trying to force out the supernova early, but
Exnova holds the trigger.
Too much damage from the Luna, Gretens Maureen's life, he's forced to jump away before the
supernova goes out, so Exnova still holds on to that very important tool.
Very hard to go higher on here for Falcons, could turn into one of their patented 60,000
net worth lead games.
Also, have you ever seen the banner inspire natural?
I think so, a couple of times.
What? There's no way!
Don't ask the question, you don't like the answer, Austin. I don't know what to tell you.
I think you're lying to me.
That's the first time I've ever seen that happen.
Which makes me think that you saying it would be broken if it was indefinite, kind of like...
What?
Rocket Flare true sight.
What a talent.
Crit is trying to get a Wind Waker. I can't believe this.
He's actually put his boots in his backpack.
Is he wants the opportunity to pass over cheese and greater healing lotus?
In a clutch scenario.
Honestly, not a hero that really needs the boots at this point in the game.
Yeah, sure.
Cool idea.
Yeah, I'll make the most out of those item slots as you go into the ultralake here.
It's definitely something they could bait the necropost a bit.
Speaking of him, Amar does have a lot of gold in the bank, 6,300.
He's looking an S and Y next.
So, replace his consecrated ramps, I guess.
No, he's not going to go S and Y.
You don't remember this guy just rebates you with the quick buy.
What would be the best site?
More armor, right?
Get an AC on top of your Sheeva's or what?
On a Blink-on Skeeter, Maureen, same thing as last time.
Go for Ex-Nova.
See if you can force the Supernova out of him, Ex-Nova, once again.
Able to hold off, but this time the Rage Barracks does die.
You know what I would like to see from Amor?
I think it would be cool if this game is a refresher.
Double Reap, Scythe on Luna?
I don't think it's a very common item on this hero because you're usually looking to just tank up Xist in the fight and win it that way,
but I think having double Reaper in this game could be pretty nasty for XG to deal with.
They have very limited stuns and it's such a single carry lineup.
Maybe you'll worry about Sapphire really later, but...
If it wasn't for Kart, I would agree with that.
Well, he can Reaper and he gets Karting. You can Reaper when he comes out of the Kart.
Yeah, but then he's like he's got satanic and stuff like he's gonna come out of that cart probably perfectly healthy
You can double Reaper people straight up. It's pretty badass right and that's where the cart is the problem
I think the door in the car. You know where the car
Doesn't exist. Here's what you do. You go in great idea. No, no, no you going you Reaper Luna insta refresh Reaper Centaur
See it double play the double pump shotgun. What are they gonna do counter the counter just think about well
We'll put it in our back pocket for now.
OK, that sounds sick.
I'm all for it.
They got a block of cheese.
If a bar pulls that off, I will confidently
say that will be the greatest play in Dota 2 history.
That's just not true.
There's no way that's true, even if he does do it.
Double smoke, and Crick with his jet pack.
Try to use it.
Oh, he got away with the hook shot.
The kisses are too far out.
He ate the block of cheese.
He did eat the block of cheese though.
Yeah, they forced it out of him.
I'll leave your juice out about that.
Oh, nothing to say. You can't afford to die here. He has to BKB.
Teeth me away. Instantly, because he is so close to 25-2.
Hit the soft one. He never speared.
There's that nullifier. There's that nullifier. There's Super Novo over the top.
Maureen has to jump away to his surroundings. He does get out.
The four-staff gets him away as well. Super dangerous.
Close call. Close call.
You are forcing that because you know the snap went to base.
You have a little freedom there with some of those chainstones missing, but man you got to respect the Luna burst damage here
It'll be interesting to see if all they man's up for
Like Daedalus or divine?
slotting out likely
Demand to here maybe also a mind to dot beta more burst in actually bought an SNY. It was consecrated grass. Yeah, that's
That's weird man
Is that even that much of an upgrade? I mean, baby. It feels like every bit of status resistance is worth its weight in gold
I guess
Recreation sure I do like songless hero. It's actually we just don't see a side of a lot on non-right-clickers, I guess
It's important for this hero to move fast it's important for this hero to be able to reach in
Think it kind of works wraps is movespeed though. Don't forget them. Yeah, but you really get anything there
If I had to guess I don't know for sure, but I feel like SNY is probably more movement speed
I think refresher was the item then I'm telling you this is the game for it the double pump like you got to go for
He's lining up now
Okay, well like I mean I bought this useless sny if he sells the s-y visor fresher you owe me lunch or something like that
That is just fine because it's gonna be a refresher. He's gonna put in his backpack
This is seventh item refreshing. Well, then he still should have bought it first
What no
You want your sixth item before your seventh item? That sounds so quick. I don't know what's going on anymore
Agatom scepter is almost done for snaking. So now we will have double box
Very strong eggs in the ultra league. It's so obnoxious to deal with the just multiple boxes coming out
They blink in box embers bear box himself
They do have nullifier though, so you can't really stack them in a sense and they did get to 25 on snap
So he has the conjures catalyst by 25 refresher. They have refresher on the phoenix
Lake him is kind of here for XG. I think they would want one more nullifier hex
So locked up, but it's that this is pretty much as good as gets there's the hex for the hoodwing actually they did get there
So
Yeah, you have a network flee here if you're falcons
But it does not look that easy to win the fight. It is one of those games where it's honestly pretty even in the five on five
Just the strength of the XG spell power is insane if they can make it all work now level of execution
Definitely a lot more difficult version gaming to make it all come together here Mars all over the place
He's broken a part of this and why for a man to style now. Hmm. Oh also, it's slavery. Yes
The refresher on necrophos right yes, you say it's the counter to the counter
potentially. I'm gonna offer you the counter to the counter to the counter.
Well, there's always a counter to the counter. There is a counter to the counter, which is
snapfire axe. Reaper Scythe, you card him. Reaper Scythe again. Wait, Scythe VICE
initiation there is, so Hulkshark goes in, and he really gets met by a big blast of
damage, critical size, not quite though. Meanwhile, Homie's fighting up against two
cores, perfectly fine. He's not killing us. Arch is trying to get something out of them.
Refresh, got the supernova, they're gonna commit for it. Supernova is gonna go down
Okay, and they had damage on army so on they couldn't blink in at that time shackle shot could be bounced back there
So I try turn to nothing say planted the cookies. There's the box going out though
They don't the nullifier to protect them now will hope didn't hit the Luda
They didn't go on I got the hypnotized on him. He's in trouble to give him the cookie
It doesn't get this done, but the folks fires too much three precise to finish them off
And now they're gonna have to play for buybacks and they could even get nothing to say out
That's gonna be multiple buybacks used and they don't have everybody
Did you have the sense are in 10 gold so he will have his up okay okay yeah he was right on the edge on no Phoenix
So 450 gold
The poach here a refresher and never even got to use it the poke game for Falcons is so good
They know how to engage without full committee and force out spells and reset if the Sun Amar needs some help
There's that no fire. He's dead. Okay. That's an opening buybacks get something
They need more though stampede chasing after them Falcons are so damn fast though
They're chasing after a wind ranger and an ember spirit even with stampede
You're not gonna get them Ward spotted the clockwork and now cookie cookie looks like maybe crit dice possible
It's shot can't even get away with goes out look shot lands on the two of them giving them bit of distance
He got all the way even the supports get out
They lost so many buildings to only one war bear extending they used all their core buybacks
Didn't even bide the neck row.
Maybe there could have been some pressure there for Amar to come back in the game with the pods too, but he says,
nah, I'm chillin'.
Don't need to do anything here. Even with Roche up, I think you have to go pressure this Roche now if you're ex-G.
And again, the poke game's so good.
You get this off with Supernova that you can kill and all of a sudden the formation collapses.
You don't have to be giving him all night to bail you out.
I mean, Dylan's back when Clockwork hook shots in. He gets instant sight of the Vist and they couldn't
couldn't blow him up immediately, you know?
His skatebacks are just debilitating in this game.
Nobody is on top of this ringmaster,
and that is going to be your recipe for success here
on the side of Falcons as they are playing for that road shot.
You know what I suggest?
And they went Divide on A. So they're all in full send
with this Divine Luna, give you the extra DPS.
He took out the butterfly.
Hard to find these initiations though.
Falcons are so good at getting vision with this this clockwork
Jetpack blink dagger tough to get the jump on him
She was this gonna spot him though. He's envision on a jumping and going straight for the wind ranger couldn't really get on top
No, I'm scared with the BKB when runs back hit the shackle shot me will supernova is out and that is gonna be defended
It's nice to be on it for a year now on Omar got the null fire on him as well
The Bullshot's stopping Aume. Aume doesn't get a chance to swing on him. Once again, he's being kited around.
He can't hit anything.
He can't hit something, but the Supernovas, they're coming off. They're exploding on nothing.
They've expended so much, and now Falcons back into play once again. Pick up the Phoenix. He's down first. Who's next?
You have to fight here if you're actually... You can only retreat so much in this game.
They jump back to the losing base.
Amar, nullifier on him. Aume actually gets to swing on him a little bit, but the nullifier he expends,
And now they turn around every precise the game is done. They went from the all-in with the divide right here
They had no more lights left no more
Ultimates left no more DKB's refreshers not that extreme gaming use every bit they had and none of it was enough
Beautiful a team fighting for Falcons to me. This is what they are the best in the world that
Is the in and out the late game team fights who's going in how are you resetting?
How are you bailing each other out and picking your moments?
They're not pressured.
They're not forced to use their ults earlier.
They're BKB's early.
They're getting so much out of you,
and you feel so pressured to drop a spell.
And the second you miss, use that one BKB or that one spell.
It's like sharks in the water.
They're just instantly send it.
They know that they're advantage.
It's really difficult to outplay them in this scenario.
And this is why these guys are TI champs.
If they can get to a point in the game
where they're comfortable taking those styles of fight,
they're gonna win it 99 out of 100 times.
Like, there is no other team better at it than them.
So, you have to find ways to force them to fight you on your terms, like you do Roche on and they have to go into you, right?
I would have rather seen XG do the Roche there, not because they necessarily need an Aegis Aluminum and it changes the game or something,
but just to make the team fighting more streamlined.
Make the Supernova actually a common thing.
Exactly.
Either they fight into the Supernova or you get Roche on.
And of course the counterplayers, Valkyries, can just say, yeah, whatever, have Roche, we're not going to take a bad fight to take Roche.
And it's probably the right call, to be honest, but you might get something out of it.
And I think that's the type of position you have to put the steam in.
You have to find ways to force Roshan, force high ground, force them into a bad map state, do tormentor.
Like these types of things where they have to play the fight on your terms.
Because if you let them take these fights on their terms, they're miserable, you have no shot, and it just feels devoralized.
Falcon's certainly showing why they are top of the group, and showing why they are TI winners.
I mean, this was just a fantastic display of late game team fighting from there.
Especially the supports, man. Shout out to Stay King and Crit in this game.
They were owning this game, the initiations, the saves, the boxes were all on point.
This is the ringmaster that will haunt your dreams with that stupid clown face.
Yeah, making ringmaster look pretty good.
This hero has been kind of cropping up more and more.
Strong hero, if you know how to play it well.
I think this hero actually needs a hero specialist.
I don't think you can just throw anybody on this hero.
You need a snanking, you need a save.
But that looks really good.
Uh-oh, banger of the game one, Falcons do walk away the victors, let's head back to the pen.
Yeah, and I was wondering if we were still gonna have some of that TI Grand Finals magic,
even though obviously we were a lot later in the season and things changed and the meta changed,
but I think said we saw some of that magic here because what started up as a seemingly one-sided game turned into quite the game.
Yeah, I think it's kind of meant to happen in this matchup in the sense that Falcons, they like to take it slow,
They they really patient with the mid game and then delay game and I think that that is like we've seen this game too
Like extreme they're off to a rocky start and and the game seems pretty dire
But Falcons at some point they tend to like slow down a little bit
Which I think benefit extreme and this is probably the reason why they actually ended up
It kind of makes you also wonder like what what happens if the game is more stable from the get-go
Is they're able to you know, like challenge Falcons this way?
So to me it's always like a little bit sad that Xtreme don't set themselves up well enough for success
With the laning phase into the early the early to mid game
Yeah, the first 10 15 minutes of the game kind of set you up for like good mid game
And a lot of the times like I thought this has been the identity for the team where they always play with a bit of a deficit
showing that
You know very resilient team and we kind of expected this game to go quite late because of the play styles
they didn't match because this is a very resilient team. We talk about team spirit, you know
Once they're in their prime to be one of the most resilient teams
I think extreme gaming kind of falls into that category as well unless they pull off army like 20 minutes in
This is a team that their team fighting is super strong in the mid and late game
It is very strong that question is I mean, I'm maybe getting ahead of myself, but
As you say, Seb, they don't want to be in that situation. No, surely they don't
To me it really comes down to playability. I think we got to see it in the early game
Like at some point this ember is just unstoppable like he's just running around with ringmaster and and clock
I think snaking played
He played so well in the early game like every single box that he used was
But again, I think like sure fuck this is being amazing, but I don't think extreme have the tools to
To stop it. I really like the ATOS pickup from nothing to say
I think it really gave them a way to play the game because without that if you went for like the regular snap items
I think it was literally unplayable, but it did catch them a little bit of guard.
But again, it's an Ember Spirit that's running around with Max Shield and with the help of the Ringmaster.
It's just too much to handle and not playable, I think, drafting wise.
I think the draft really makes it really hard for Xtreme and I'm really hoping to see them change something
because they're risking their tournament lives at this point.
Yeah, and if the draft was indeed already in a little bit, if he from the get-go,
It's quite impressive across the thing. We're able to make this an hour long game
Yeah, that's just how they play like probably the team that has the longest games in tournaments apart from a
20-minute loss that they had against BB team, which may be maybe someone's gonna take over but I
Just want to see something different
I just want to see them like winning the laning stage and then transition that into this type of a mid game this type of a late game
because this is a team that will also risk it.
A lot of the times you will see Ame pick up Divine Rapier,
great atomization in a sense where they understand,
we need this nullifier.
Who's going to pick it up?
Centaur, not the hero that wants to get it, he gets it anyway
because they definitely need it against the box,
against the macro, still fell short,
but also showing how they're thinking outside of the box,
not the box that they've been put into by Ringmaster,
but also just a crucial thinking
that in these certain situations,
you need to change things up.
Yeah, there was also I want to point out one of the first picks that Falcons went for was the clockwork
And I kind of feel like said this is a hero that crits
Just maybe a little bit too comfortable and especially if you think like okay the games are gonna go late
The vision advantage that he gives I mean it's it's comparable almost to a trend
Yeah, I think you comparable maybe even better in my opinion like I really look at clock as being like the
almost like a daytime night stalker in a way it's that good because
Well, what we don't necessarily see because obviously we're catching the action on the stream
But he's constantly firing rockets around the map and getting info and in the hands of good players
All they need to know is has this can be far and for instance, and then they know exactly what's going on
Like if all of a sudden Luna, let's say is getting close to BKV and you're rocketing the ancients all the time
And that minute the ancient is not being farmed. Well, Luna is in the smoke, right?
Like they're making a they're making a play it becomes really easy on top of that
you have the ability to scout the jetpack. So to me, for a team like Falcon, that is very
methodical around the map and very obsessed with the macro gameplay, Clockwork is just like a cheat
code. Yeah, I feel like take it out, take it for yourself, one of those solutions. I'm
positive, quite positive. And I might also be featured in some of the clips that Lacoste wants
to show us, because you did focus on the Falcons early game, because that was the point where
they were very impressive. Yeah, it looked insanely good, especially like the first rotations. So
So we're going to be seeing the insane dive coming up from Clockwork and Necrophos.
Usually you don't get to use the glyph as an off-lane duo.
A lot of the time it is extremely used, like in most cases, by your mid laner.
But this allows them to dive behind the tower.
You can see already Phoenix is very low, has to pop a fairy fire, has to use the healing cell.
And the amount of gold that they're getting from it afterwards, because Ex-Noah, he's still going to come back.
You can see the efficiency where Marr drives the creep wave into the small camp.
That's going to be extra damage on the tower, extra kill for Ammar.
And also, you are picking up neutral items relatively early on in the draft.
So, a lot of things happen here.
Basically, they are getting the triple value out of it.
And then, to show another efficiency clip is from Maureen,
who's dragging the creep wave from the mid lane,
knowing that there's going to be also rune spawning in 30 seconds.
Plus, on top of that, farming the stack that they have in the jungle.
So, kind of triple dipping on top of that as well.
Plus, controlling the runes, which was secured by double supports again,
and you have shield, plus you have another shield on top of that,
which makes it almost impossible for them to contest in this area of the map,
seeing that Ember Spirit, he's just way too tanky.
While on the other side, there isn't really much pressure happening as well,
and at this stage of the game, like through support duo plus the midlaner,
generally we have enough damage.
I think in a lot of these situations, we would see maybe position one keeping two tower.
This is something that Wids did a couple of times,
and that they're gonna lose another wisdom rune, and also wanted to show Ringmaster.
The power of this hero, I feel like this has been kind of the crucial hero in this draft,
because so many times we've seen them pop like Stampede, they're trying to use a clip from top
of that, a lot of these long cooldown altis, and then one box, great positioning coming up from
staking, unfortunately for him, Boxy Nickname is already taken, so he's gonna need to think of
something else, because he had an amazing game. For me, he has been the MVP so far.
Seeing all those clips is a little baffling knowing that the game went as long as it did.
And I know that Xtreme's got a lot to work on in the break that they have right now,
but I also want to talk about what Falcons should be working on, because I'm sure that
they also don't go into a game like, let's crush the first 10 minutes, and then that's
hardly a while.
And so back.
I think that they have a...
Well, I'm trying to actually think whether or not there's something they're happy with.
I feel like they might be completely okay with it, in a sense, because they're very confident that the more they get from the map, the easier it is for them to win, I think.
And it is more than wishful thinking, they've shown it.
You know, you give net worth to their core players, they all just put it to use.
I think to me, you know, they want CI being the team that excelled at itemizing in the lead game like the refreshers
the A on this the nullifier like you always were
Thinking the team against them. Oh, they actually needed no lead. They actually need that
Fuckins they don't need anything. They're always like one step ahead
They know exactly how the game is about to play out and they have the right items for that right moment
They build up for it. So I think they're very comfortable dragging the game
It's more of a if we go high ground now. We have I don't know 60% chance to take it
Let's let's make it 80. You know, let's make it 90. I mean why not at the end of the day if you're right
Yeah, you're winning you're you're you know, it won you see I why change the formula why change the formula great
Analyzation point because yeah, do you look at a more he has different things queued up and at one point is like
Satanic that's gonna be my item. I just want to be tanky enough
Maybe get couple of right clicks and even though it's not the right clicking hero
Then he decides to switch to SNY, have extra bit of status resistance, knowing that he has been focused pretty heavily.
So extra bit of HP, that status resistance kicks in, extra bit of regeneration amplification on top of that.
And then he's like, yeah, I have that for one fight, but you know what?
I'm gonna disassemble SNY, get Mantis down instead and afterwards try to bait because there was one fight afterwards where he baited
Stampede and he also baited Centaur blank jump, which was on the illusion.
Yeah, it's I think I think of especially a minor in I think scared is also there
But these two are really impressive with their item choices
Especially in the day game because again, this is like a stage of the game that teams don't get to practice so much
Because when you scream it's very often that you call GG when the game is completely out of control
I think it's rare for teams to scream 90 minute games. Yeah, that's not the same stakes
So, you know, yeah, it's not exactly like people are actually more willing to get picked off or make mistakes because they lose focus and
and whatever launch time you name it.
But I feel like Falcons,
they just have experience in long games.
They're much more experienced than any other team in the world.
And that must be like an edge.
So why not use it when you get to these games?
Yeah.
You'd also think that maybe,
because that's also how they want TI.
Normally teams that win TI,
they get an extra bullseye on their backs
and people are trying to copy their style.
But as Siv says,
it's something that you can't really practice too easily.
So you have to experience it.
We have to live it and we know Falcons lives it fairly frequently in their games, this
being one of them.
We're going to find out if game number two will be as much a banger as game number one.
But before we get there, we are going to check in with ExtremeGamies, pro to DWC.
We were there for every click, every clutch, every respawn.
We were there for the years of grind, and we're here now, the proud founding partner
of EWC, powering the biggest event in gaming, shoulder to shoulder with the world's best,
in history.
Brightness deserves a stage.
Lenovo Legion, reach your impossible.
Extreme Gaming has been a powerhouse of Chinese Dota for many years, and they'll remain that
way to this day, with their current roster of AME, nothing to say, XXS, FY, and X-Nova,
which was built in the last few months of 2025.
While Extreme Gaming is an incredibly strong team,
and would be considered by most to be the strongest team
in China by a fairly large margin,
they do struggle against the top teams on a global scale.
It's not come out!
Extreme Gaming!
Even with the extra lives,
they have nothing on the index!
They have a large amount of top five finishes,
but you'd have to go back multiple years
to see big tournament wins for the team.
Their road to the Esports World Cup 2026
was more spread out than almost any other qualifying team.
With no tournament wins to speak of,
the majority of their points instead came
from getting top four in Dream League Season 27,
Dream League Season 28, and even ESL One Birmingham, 2026.
Will extreme gaming finally manage to break free
from their pattern of getting barely within reach
but not one making it to the end?
Tune in and find out here,
the Esports World Cup, 2026.
We're back with the TI finals. Extreme gaming versus Falcons. Avery, we casted that TI finals.
What's going to be different this time around? We did. Well, not as much at stake in this match.
You're not in a game five TI final or everything's on the line, but perhaps just as much pride
between these two squads. Well, there have been both teams have looked a little bit worse this
season. I'll start off with that. I think, in fact, extreme gaming has looked a whole lot worse.
They're in a rut and they're struggling. They need to find some form. This is the series they need to find some form in
And maybe this is just exactly how they get back in a form, right? Get the monkey off the back at G-Valcons. Get the Maureen off the back
That's right
We're getting ready for game number two between Extreme Gaming and Team Falcons and while
these two are battling it out, there's also two other series going on in group A at the
same time and there's some positive news for Extreme Gaming who lost game one to Falcons
and therefore they started as a form-force storyline and they're hoping to stay ahead
of another team that is very much encroaching on their rank which is Gamer Legion but Gamer
religion also lost their first game but they are playing against BB team so you
know a little bit of light in the in the darkness I do want to talk about what
Cap on SPG talked about some because this might be a series that is good for
extreme gaming to find their form do you feel like a game like they just had
could just be enough to kick them into gear oh you should have seen his face
I wish I could answer yes to that question because to be honest
I'm also like I'm a big fan of the extreme game players first of all
I'm also just the big fan of Chinese Dota doing well. I think it's the
Generally just for the whole Dota scene. I think it's it's always more exciting when the Eastern teams are
Strong and you know the I'll never be tired of this West versus East
You know crash like the best European team versus the best Chinese team
And I think the game is just more interesting when the playstyle from every region can like, you know compete at the highest level
Either way like with that being said, I don't think they're there yet
And it's not because of you know, their qualities or potential of the team to me is really tactical mostly
I think there are certain aspects of the game that they don't seem to value for a reason that is unknown to me
And I'm just hoping for it to be fixed. It was the issue yesterday. It was the issue the day before
They came into today doing the exact same mistake in my opinion.
Like, you pick the Sapphire, you don't pick support heroes that complement it at all,
no playability in the early game, you lose double wisdom.
I'm just tired of seeing my Rune play with every single Rune, and I assume they also are tired of that.
And they have Aame, they have X-XS, which I think are two of the most talented side-laners worldwide.
But these guys don't get to play the game because I don't think their team is allowing them to play the game.
So, I really want to see some changes.
Like, they first picked the snap, it's amazing.
It's honestly a great answer.
I think, like, it restricts Marine heroes pulled by a decent amount.
Even though you could argue that they banned the airspread and we've seen snap dominate airspread, but whatever.
Forget about that.
Now he's shown that he can play Amber versus snap pretty effectively because I think he drew the lane.
So maybe that's a ban that's required and then please, you know, select heroes that are going to play well with snapfire in the early game and do your magic.
Yeah, I agree. This clockwork has been a menace. This has been one of the best pairings with the snapfire.
Unfortunately, they're not going to be on the same team, but the vision aspect that you talked about, the super annoying hero,
it kind of stops the kinks as well, which is like having the BKB piercing ability, like you've seen so many times,
they're trying to TP out, he's holding the hookshot, he does have a blink dagger, four staff, like vision game is through the roof,
having Essence Distiller on top of Rockets. This hero has pretty much everything
and it also with this type of itemization it allows you to scale in a
different way where you're getting shard from the tormentors or you're not
investing your gold into it's not like if you're shard when you purchase it
because it's very expensive you don't want to be spending gold on it but once
you get it for free like you are getting quite a lot of value out of it and also
lane is secured with this hero whether we're talking about the off-lane macro
that they did pull out this time around, it's not going to be happening again.
But also something to point out that extreme gaming, they can be the ones playing this
snapfire from two different roles. Yeah, we saw it very successfully for them from the offlane
earlier on in the group stages. Happy to see them ban out the ringmaster and the necrophos,
they addressed those two problems at least as we already talked at length about snake and
stringmaster. Yeah, ringmaster obviously was just very good, very good synergy with clockwork,
We mentioned it in the in the first draft like these yours just play together really well
Clock is a great setup for ringmaster spells clock lacks a lot of damage and ringmaster
I think is one of the highest damage support like from position 5 if you factor in all the spells in the wheel of wonder
So I like the band I like the neck of Antu because this is like the lane that thought has run the most so far like
Offlane duo like clock and Necro because at the end of the day clock is like very disruptive on the lane like he
He basically enables the off-laner for like getting XP and gold, but at some point he just runs out of steam
Like the off-laner still needs to be like a dominant laner in my opinion
Clock is not a hero that can
Basically set up kills or anything like that. He he amplifies what's already there. So great pairing with Necro
We've seen them abuse that lane a bunch now and they're just blind picking it
So they are hurting the clock pick in some sense because he's gonna lose two of his most
Impactful combos I guess.
And it takes a time for Falcons to find their one van they have in this stage of the game.
It's hard to ban at this point considering Snutfire is not really...
She's going to be good regardless.
Doesn't necessarily need a parry or anything like that.
They end up going for the puck van coming out.
Oh, yet to see. Let's see.
If Snaking goes a liar, whether they're going to be playing this Undyne potentially from the offer,
It doesn't strike me in a sense. It does but it also doesn't like how annoying you can be with undying
You can be very unkillable. I think the Necro fits the profile for
the Falcons off-lane for ATF in a way where he's the
Pharmacool he can be on top of the network. He can be unkillable. So he checks a lot of the boxes undying
He doesn't flash farm. That's one of the issues with the hero. Sure. You can go back to stacks
Use the tombstone in the triangle, but it's not very he's not very efficient at farming
He's more like, I want to keep fighting, but for now they are keeping things open.
I go and see you and Marius and I are going to play on the line.
Like, I would be so surprised.
Yeah, yeah, kind of similar vibes that we were seeing from his Largo,
where he played it like once and it's just like, OK, this is not it.
It's not his playstyle.
Yeah, I think it's I think it's not happening.
Do you think the odds are higher that Skeeter plays it?
Yes, but then it's like a mistake or something.
Because the 9 plus 1 doesn't sound appealing at all.
It's going to be a snagging here most likely well luckily for Xtreme they have a pretty
good answer to un-dying in the sense that I think Snapfire's little shredder is one
of the best answers to Toomson so not a bad pick by Falcons because it's one of the few
melee supports that remains and they really enjoy range carries on skitter right now so
it makes a lot of sense and Xtreme they decide to go for the Snapfire mid they're gonna force
And again, like they didn't ban Amber, Malarine just, he just played an Amber game, he drew with the snap, and I think it's a good Amber game again, like Bane, Rubik, these are supports that are too low damage for Amber to care about.
So we'll see if he decides to go around again. I don't think Amber is the best pairing to be fair with Clock on Dying, so, and I know Falcon is very obsessed with like mid and support heroes' pairing, so perhaps not ideal.
not ideal, we'll see what they're out there, what route they go for.
I like the Bane pick though, I think this is one of the few heroes that actually plays well with
Snap from what Xtreme has shown so far. This is the kind of combo I'm talking about,
because you run into a Snap Phoenix, you're just laughing, you run into a Bane Snap,
you're dead. It's very different. I mean, if they want to be running this Core on dying,
maybe there's a chance, because it's such a good silencer game, it's a bit of a meanie one,
because I don't think they can fit into the draft, but maybe something like a Dawnbreaker could work out for them,
seeing that there is Bane, probably as you're playing against Rubik, so that gets stolen almost immediately once you drop,
but we'll have to see.
The silencer value though, when you see Bane snap, and you're like, oh please, one game, just try it, buy Radiance, you'll be fine, we won't say anything.
You can scale, get Echo Saber, Radiance, whatever.
I mean, if he's allowed to buy Radiance, he's probably going to play the Undyne, like...
But if it's a Facebook Splink around the map...
Nah, that's not him.
Yeah, pass.
But a lot of value in silence are probably a really good pick-up floor for Falkhrens, if they grab their hand on it.
They grabbed instead the Ember Spirit.
They go for the Ember, yeah.
Yeah, again, I think it's an...
I don't know. I don't understand why Xtreme is stopping with this, and they don't cover the angle.
like they just played that game and I'm just afraid that this ember is gonna run around
uncontested with a lagging truck. It's three melee heroes but at the same time like it's
so good that ember might almost be fine on his own. He just needs a little bit more help,
a little bit more support and the game will be just fine.
Yeah, we're seeing what extreme gaming wants to go for as their 18th overall pick man and
18 is always one of the most important picks, especially on the side, but at first pick
this is the one that can protect with two bands afterwards.
Yeah, they have a, so there was a Rune Ranger pick on fucking side with Ember, so it's going
to be an undying Rune Ranger lane most likely, and they will be last picking a Mars hero that
will lane with the clock. As for Xtreme, the mid-matchup is decided. It's Sapphire versus
Ember. They have a ban on a Rubik support, then it's either Ame or XSS hero next.
Blade coming out. Yeah they had a great success in the last few days. I made that one game where
he was a 0-2-1 and 30 plus minute game and then the other game was like I'm just not seeing the
synergy between the heroes like what are the timings you did talk a lot about the hero pairings
the 2-4-5 pretty much what they're going to be doing in the game and they can do stuff but also
I feel like this type of a draft is is lacking something. It's also lacking the front line
We have seen in the previous game where
Falkas are masters of the craft like going in and out multiple times
I don't think you can allow yourself to do this with extreme gaming like these heroes once you're in you're kind of in
Yeah, keep in mind for extreme gaming. They can still flex the snaps offline. I don't know if they want to I
already see said shaking his head not gonna happen. I don't think so because
Sure, I mean there are arguments for it, but at the same time they really lack like a bling stun
initiation in like initiation. Think about their lineup like their TB is a range hero when he's
team-fighting. Snap also wants to play off like from distance. Sure, Snap can bling cookie in,
but against these kind of heroes like Snap's gonna want to see what win range is up to,
you know, clock needs to be already also kept busy. You don't just get to enter the fight freely.
if you want to cast your spells and maximize your damage, same for Bane and Rubik, like they
want position, they want the fight to start and them to pick their targets, like Steela spell,
position themselves properly. So there's like a lot of holes in the draft that needs to be like
fixed by xxs0, but again, he's leaning against Undyne Windranger, like not gonna be easy. There's
not a lot of use you can afford to pay on that thing. And I feel like it needs to fix so many
issues. I would say like two would be some Centaur maybe acts as well like acts
because of the creep skipping ability. Centaur can kind of do the same but also
both of them are like not necessarily blade mail buyers. Centaur doesn't really
go for that item build anymore but once you see Windranger you want to be
having a hero like this is the Crimson Buyer this is the Lotus Orb Buyer on a
Centaur which retaliate you're not gonna get heavily focused and I feel like they
need that type of a hero to actually just soak up the damage and be able to
Well, I can tell you that Extreme Gaming has banned out of Timber and the Darkseer, and
Falcons has banned out the Centaur and one more that I'm still waiting for.
Yeah, that's what I was going to say, like it's very unlikely that these heroes make
it through the pool or...
Okay, they actually get their hands on the Axe, which I don't think it's a great Axe
game in the sense that it's, you know, Axe versus Undying, you have the Tombstone save
save at some point. Also just with Tombstone and lying ulti, it's like you have one jump
basically against the side.
Yes, you're not getting out.
You're not getting out against the top and dying. And the Tombstone save, I think, is
very annoying. And Elaine is, again, not ideal. Sure, you can start Cribskipping, but Winner
Inter is actually one of the few carries that will, you know, close the distance and will
chase you even behind the tarp. Pretty easy. She's so mobile. It's decent. I think it's
It's exactly what's required for Xtreme's lineup, not ideal against Falcons.
Let's put it this way.
And Falcons would end up with a Doom, a more Doom that's like an absolute classic.
He's the one that actually made the Radiance build popular.
It's a very solid pick.
I don't think the lane is great, but they can just be pulling waves.
Again, Clock makes it really hard to shut down the offlaner completely.
So in that sense, I like the pick.
It's going to secure them like a...
The win condition essentially, like you don't just TBE and all of a sudden they don't really
have much to play with on the extreme side.
Yeah, they don't have the damage, I feel like a snapfire, the combination is there between
the off laner and the mid laner so they can play together.
It takes a little bit more time, but again I feel like they are having the same issue
that they had in the last four or five games that they played.
It's another great Ember game.
I think it might be the repeat of Game 1 where this Ember is just going to reign supreme around the map with the help of the clock and the undying.
I don't really see Bane, Rubik and Snap contesting this Ember. I don't think it's punishing at all.
But if it's the same as the previous game, I mean of course the lengths then would be very rough for extreme gaming.
But they had a decent shot at fighting back towards the later stage of the game. Do you feel like they have that potential again?
They do but again like what does the later stage of the game look like like how much
They're gonna be 30 K gold behind. Yeah. Well, then they don't
Was asking is like how much gold deficit are we talking?
What are what is the map looking like that you lose sides and they have clockwork? So yeah
No, she's you everywhere 30 people behind you lost two sides. They have a guess
Oh, no, do they have any chance in the late game? The answer is no fever
No chance whatsoever, so it kind of depends like that that's the thing with Dota is like
Thinking about the late game and the team fight condition and the win condition
It's just not enough you have to factor in every stage of the game and it starts
You know the first objective essentially is the four-minute water rune. Let's say I think before that is
Somewhat irrelevant four-minute water rune six minute bar rune seven minutes wisdom rune eight minute bar rune
This is Dota for you know days
It's like there are objectives that you need to factor in your draft and how you approach your lanes
Because if you skip these steps, you don't get to play the game
Simple as that. So we just want to see extreme gaming be aware of those timings and fight for them
And of course the cost come out on top of those fights. Yeah easily said we're gonna be seeing if that's actually doable
I don't want to see them lose the exp rune again
It's like it has been nerfed in the last like four or five months
But it's still such a massive
Objective that you need to contest and they need to find a way because in the previous one like we saw a clip
What Ember Spirit has been doing where he's doing basically three four things at the same time
So I want to see NTS and I try to do the same thing try to contest this and set up his team for success
Well, we're all saying about what extreme gaming needs to do to win this
But let's be real if Falcons win this they claim top of their group can they do so let's head over to cap and SVG for the answer
That's right
These two teams are fighting for very different positions Falcons hoping for the guarantee of top of their group
Meanwhile, there is a weird scenario where extreme union could end up in a tie for that fifth elimination slot. So
Definitely could use a win here even still just getting the better seeding going into the elimination round would do
them some wonders. I would even say just getting a win for Morale's sake would do extreme gaming
a lot of good and getting an early kill on Saking will certainly help with that. First
Blood is available, who's going to take it? Finally they get it. As X-XS comes to collect,
Xenoba is going to be surrounded by too many Falcons here on the Strysphalm, the Fairyfire,
but he will still go down Maureen. Takes the bounty for that one. So Avery, in that case,
You got first blood, but it wasn't on your midlaner, while Maureen did get it.
He got the second kill, and he is the midlaner.
But you got three runes, you denied the fourth.
Okay, alright.
So zero runes for Falcons.
That is a massive win here.
I wanted to see actually come out fast, play for those objectives, as Seb was mentioning.
Well, you're already winning the objective, man.
You are.
So, off to a fast start here.
I think this draft looks a little easier to execute than the first one for them.
The stuns are way more reliable here.
They have more, more laggle chain follow-up, little better catch with the Bane as well.
The one concern I have is their initiation is still pretty dependent on this axe,
and he has to play in some world match-ups. The clock of Dyn are really annoying supports
for him to go in against. He only have one good blade mail call target and it's the
Windranger. I don't know if XSS is gonna maybe go with some like Helmdom, Pipe,
Krimson build or something in this game. That doesn't sound that amazing either,
but his path towards having solid impact off of the single initiation doesn't look great so
I think I actually will have to think about that how they approach fights because that was the
biggest issue in the game one was how do you start a fight and make it work for you against
the falcon squad that is super good at kiting you out picking their moments and turning those
initiations around. You're also playing against the Mardum, he is the best dude of all time basically
So, well, I guess him in 33.
I was about to say, I feel like I would keep 33 that title.
Well, I think they both say they are the greatest team.
So I'll give it to both of them, depends who I'm talking to.
Oh, that's what we got to expect after a lateback.
Uh, it's a pretty nice Doom pick.
Like, you're just going to look to Doom this care blade every time.
Maybe it'll Doom NTS, the situation calls for it.
But it's an anti-carry hero.
And XG are kind of all in on the care blade scale here,
because I don't think the Axe can scale too amazingly in a game like this.
Okay, but we've seen the Sapphire scale, and the Axe can set up the Sapphire.
We had a trade off the top lane on a collect-to-kill Onamar, so...
Not bad.
...four-four support.
That is always the X-Factor.
How much MTS can do on this hero, he has more...
You least out the Axe to go in for him?
But man, I think XG just don't like playing with heroes that go in.
They just constantly pick these Alarms with four to five heroes
that want someone else to do something for them.
And I think it just makes our games so much more difficult to execute
than they need to be.
I mean, they do think at least that the Ember spirit on the other side of things who really
wants to go in, I really like this big pickup to deal with that Ember spirit.
His small read was, for sure, last game he was just jumping in, ranks in the middle of
all their heroes, getting a bunch of information, forcing out Supernova to be used early, sometimes
on Ex-Nova.
Now, Ex-Nova's like, go ahead, jump in, see what happens.
It's always the easiest solution through...
It's not.
Battlehunger has closed.
Quite the issue for snaking.
FY with a little bit of a miss micro there.
Saging's in trouble here.
Yeah, he's...
Oh, Texas, that's not committing.
Yeah, surely you just...
Can make you a flicker.
He doesn't want to miss wave under tower.
Yes.
It's also kind of nice to just leave on dying low.
Yeah, if he's on low on resources.
Again, your goal is not to kill him.
Your goal is not to kill him, your goal is to win the lane, you already have helm online
and you've won the bounty rune so you're up to a fast start across the board here, lanes
are looking really solid for extreme gaming.
First blood, effectively all the runes, you got that extra kill top, you're winning the
CS battle, mid is going a lot better for NTS than the first time around, maybe some of
that extra gold injection, doing some work here and this side lane is going better than
I expected, I think snaking is getting owned pretty hard by this battle hunger on the side,
Didn't really get great trades. You didn't get the tombstone kill sometimes you can just really ruin his axis day
But the fact he got to the helm of iron will so fast. He's got four tangos in the bank
I guess the xxs you about double tango. He was expecting to be
Harassed heavily with decayed power shots and each chilling down here. It's all vacation. Look at him driving
In his lane
Oh, she gets his kill a little bit more blood grenade. We'll get it. Okay, that is
This is like out of control. I did not think I'd see the day where Falcons losing on dying like this hard.
Yeah, but it has gone real wrong. And that shows you the strength of runes in Pro Dota 1.
These little things make a big difference. You get to level 2 first, you know, have to have that first blood as well.
So you were saying, yeah, while you got the kill mid and first blood went to the axe, does that really get good for XG?
Well, if he gets a fast helm and he can do this, it's going to make a world of difference because he is your one initiator in this game.
You can bring the line up together here.
We have seen, uh, it was extreme gaming, right?
Struggled before in the solo initiator for X-XS.
We've struggled in that situation.
If I could teleport away in close call, it makes...
That teleport felt real long.
That was me after playing 10 poke games in a row.
These are all...
Very good.
It's not like you can really punish the axe at all, while the Rippec is away.
Crit rotates since the mid lane.
He can kind of rotate, but what is an undying thing?
You're left in a lane you can have zero impact in.
Can you rotate, draw a tombstone on the other one, or just stack?
Just go farm a camp with Decay. Not a lot, honestly.
It feels real bad right now for snaking on the map.
It's always been one of the weaknesses of the hero.
That's why that early portion of the lane is really important for the hero.
Because now you're just watching X-Rex do this and you're like,
uh, can't do anything to them, guys.
You're going to go look for the six minute power room.
That is something you can do.
Oh, nice TP, nerd.
In this room, we'll be scared.
Amar, try to pressure Amé.
I can't believe on they came back to this lane. He was already hitting neutrals
Him and the vein were together and he actually walked back into this lane without his bay
It's a rough kill to give up
All right, well, they do up level six on nothing to say cookie into oh miss the cookie
Still can go for the kisses which is why Marsha's gonna turn just chase after the snapfire trying to do as much damage
you can while they also get the kill. XXS does give up his killing spree, and we're getting a little
weird now for Xtreme. They had a nice lead off this slaying phase, can't afford to give too much of it away.
Died to level 5 win rangers, so there's no focus fired down here, just got decayed Tombstone
power shot. Oh, weird death. Brexit's a bad death for Aume, double wisdom. I think there's no way you
should be losing double wisdom trying this game, right? There's no way. If you go look at this
net worth chart and you told me the dire lost both wisdom shrines here i tell you
who you who you're trying to pull you know what's going on what are you trying to pull
whose leg are you trying to pull there's a mixture of a couple things that you don't
much to buy but you get my point like that this is not an early game you should be losing trying
to not at all top net worth on all three cores you have a self-sufficient axe or it should be
Self-sufficient with his helmet Dominator nice toss back into the call into the centaur stump very nice
There's a dog calling play to get the dunk. You're still looking real pretty here
Like you should not let this phase you the XP is fine. It's not as if you're behind on it
That was just some recovery for Falcons. And of course, you're still dominating lanes. So
Yeah, it just would have been nice to have the faster level six on the bay
And of course clockwork just sit there not able to be the initiator
he wants to be because he doesn't have level six yet, but double wisdom shrine goes a long ways to
fixing that FY gets shut down in the river while Aame has made the rotation through the gate hard
to be in that safe lane better to be in the enemy safe. I will say I do agree with 7th point and
I don't know XG are just allergic to power runes or something. Give it all of them already,
they give every rune up and then he just uses them to bring the gate back and
and he's just there thinking like what?
Surely we can stop him getting some of these, you know?
Yeah, sometimes you get unlucky.
Yeah, it's more difficult against Ember
because he can go to one run and steal her,
but you have Bane who can fight that.
You have instant stuns here in this game.
Undying clock are not the scariest heroes
to skirmish on the rune.
Right, you might go there and lose the rune,
but you shouldn't die to it.
Instant doom put onto the Bane because Amar knows
he gets nightmare and he's gonna die.
A Sunder Shave.
He used to save the vein!
A bold move from Amé!
He can't quite get the kill with Amar unless he kisses land.
Oh, he's dodging, he's dodging!
But it's not quite good enough.
Crit attempted to stop it with the cogs hit.
But I think Exinova ran in front of the cogs.
Is that what I saw?
Had to wait.
Medic Amé.
Doctor Amé healing the boys.
What a nice guy.
Maybe it was a misclick.
We'll never know.
I don't give NTS a fast boot to travel here. This is where you want the mid-stapire to be.
Bowning the lane, getting some extra kills with kisses, all cool down.
Very fast boot to travel, and then you can kind of control the map.
You're also going to be able to bot into that axe, Dom Creek.
Could be a really nice combo of this game.
Might let X-X-S play a little more aggressive in enemy jungle.
Still looking very solid. This is probably the best early game we've seen from extreme gaming.
Can they get this power?
Maureen jumps and it does spawn top so he gets an illusion.
Flameguard making FY significantly tankier, but Maureen kind of has infinite chase potential right now, especially with Sneaking behind him.
FY dies. Now Skeeter also rotated into mid lane. No wonder Maureen was being super aggro.
grow this is one of those place from falcons where they just bring everybody
to the mid tower to take it gotta respect the the European mid lane it
quickly turns into a quad lane we're not careful about it
there's gonna be a focus fire committed it's not flesh gold available no tombstone
no can definitely fight this if you're actually so that is not the way you want
Let's start.
Got the cookie stone on Maureen.
Half health.
XXS shows up at the teleport.
He's going to sit on this remnant.
So if they can actually force Maureen to jump to that remnant,
XXS can get the kill.
But Maureen looks like he might just be able to run away.
No, he actually does jump back.
He immediately gets called by XXS, and he claims the kill.
Didn't use the calling blade for it.
He used that extra movement speed.
Now he moves to the next hero.
Hope shotguns pop.
But that stopped the kisses.
Who cares?
Snakey's already dead.
And now Critt has put himself in the danger zone.
XXS ran away with this game.
Having himself a performance here, he is 6-2, might make it 7-2.
Hard to get him some Culling Blade stacks early.
Kicked him another shot.
Oh, he missed two different Culling Blade opportunities here.
Well, that's a little disappointing, but his net worth is not disappointing right now.
He is soaking up the farm in this early game.
This is an axe that got picked into an enthined win range, right?
Your expectations for how his early game should look
were not this good.
A fast overperformance here if I just power XG to a game to win if he keeps still walling.
Nowhere from all ring to go.
Straight into the arms.
An axe.
Man, it's funny, I think he thought he was going to get pay bolted.
So that's why he jumped to the red knit, but FYI was actually short on mana.
He was seven mana short of a, of a fade bolt there.
I really just slow down.
The slow motion of what?
Jack Jackson's failure?
Come on.
Oh, look at the mouse turn.
That's an exacerbated king.
Yeah, let's turn that back.
That's a good little slow motion right there.
That's a pro player equivalent of hands off the keyboard.
When the mouse comes up, things aren't looking good.
They're not going well.
The mouse comes up, shit's going back.
That's equivalent of a belt.
In these two terms.
Ove is dead.
They're going to pump the doom on him just to make sure.
And Exnova, who thought he would help,
actually waited it right there underneath the tier two tower.
Fiendscript on the other, didn't get something off of this one.
Surely underneath the tier two tower with stuns.
Amar, they're trading off. The glit finally gets pumped,
but it's a bit too late.
Ex-Ex-S coming in from behind.
Amar's making a run for it down the river.
He's not going to be able to hit it.
Now Maureen is chasing in to after nothing to say still underneath the Tier 2
power shot does not land onto the Sapphire huddle underneath their Tier 2
falcons managed to win a fight this deep onto the enemy map that is concerning.
And they got Aume in the process the last year you weren't going down right now
he should just be accelerating in the jungle with all the space being created
instead you're losing your hard carry to the doom counter pick you get nothing in
return you brought everybody up there you lost your axe courier as well and you
I don't know why Austin, because he had another power rune on Ember, he's just living the life region, did so much work there for Maury.
Somebody's gonna stop us.
At this point, you can bring five heroes to the next rune.
Send a message.
You'll probably still get it. Those slight stealer.
Look at a wisdom shrine though.
baiting him and if it spawned top and he don't take success you can cut the jump on him but instead it's a free rune on him
he just can't get one
it is inevitable
well time to just chill out a little bit
you're extreme
let's just get that blink dagger underway
while that early lead is gone though
Falcons with a net worth of damage here after how rough that early game was.
That's a nice trajectory for them.
They can get one more teamfight going into a tower.
They're going to be sitting pretty.
I'm not as convinced that this tearblade has a free go at it in the late game here.
They have a lot of spellcasters, a lot of disruption.
The Winranger matchup's pretty good.
The Doom matchup's pretty good.
You need all of your cores to be scaling here if you're extreme.
We need a lot of couriers too. Yeah, solid team gold.
Still extreme, do have a very slight net worth lead.
And the Blink Tagger stun, Frax's access, the Blink Tagger for the...
I was gonna say the Sapphire, he's gonna build Blink Tagger next.
What, opted to buy the shard early?
That's where setting up on NTS with that deep ward from Crit.
I don't know if he can make it out of this one.
A backstabbing.
Has no cookie to hop over the cliff.
He is surrounded.
Very easy kill.
Another power rune, another kill for Maul Ring.
Does this feel like there's maybe a bit of a correlation there?
I don't know.
It's doing some work.
So, it's a nice angle.
Nice deep ward.
to try and continue to protect this and use it and get another core kill off it even if
it dies it will have paid for itself.
Some more stacks being created by snaking, it's done a decent job making sure these ancients
are getting beat up for somebody.
Alright who's gonna clear those?
Not the most efficient?
Probably them are.
It's usually what it comes down to.
Get a radiance on doom.
There's your ancient clear.
This ward's doing so much work right now.
Yeah.
You have an empty image on X-X, so he won a power room.
They did it.
Oh my god.
They did it.
Incredibly useless.
But the Ember doesn't have it.
That is true.
And that's a win.
It's a moral victory.
That's some pretty good Rubik games.
This tournament, and it's an FY Rubik.
He's got some good seal opportunities here.
Yeah, I would love to see him actually get that net worth up.
See if he can just start farming some waves somewhere or something.
Okay, so get some fights going.
That's what the hero really wants.
I think XGR are tentative to run into this mid-term one with you and dying around there.
It's a tough fight to take aggressively.
Yeah, forcing Falcon's stuff like you is easier said than done.
They are very good at dodging you when they want to.
We're only giving you just a single hero pick-off, some support that dies or something.
I like the smoke bottom. It's not gonna land here.
Still, getting the vision down here to find the Winter Ranger later on is super nice.
I might should be able to get a tier 2 off of this.
I think there was a decent chance you found Skeeter down here.
It was just a little too quick for it.
How fast does all may take this tier 2? Pretty damn fast.
If you can't find kills, get towers.
Pretty nice early objective to take in this game.
Can open up that outpost.
Push this lane in, super deep.
And CS being hunted down.
Team gonna teleport for him, little hop.
Nice teaming.
The vision for both teams is pretty concentrated in these enemy jungles.
So you really have to be wary about going into the dark zones here
and just feeding some bad kill that's gonna break open the stalemate right now.
Nothing to say, he fills his bottle with the power room.
Now that's a win.
Pretty good one too here. Shield rune. When you're looking to break this tail wing for some
fight mid or something, they find a Mar. Mar's very tanky.
Getting decayed, he's getting hit.
With the battlehunter slowing him down, it's pretty easy to hit those shots.
Pretty easy to hit those shots. There we go.
Probably ran back into it and burned.
Exnova nightmare, getting the plus one.
Cooky makes it easy. X6S actually made the jump there.
They had the opportunity to maybe get even more on it.
Get off I go Bobby just chase after snaking. All right one turns to three
Slight misstep by ATF gets punished pretty damn hard as XG they're just they were looking for this fight
Mid they just didn't know how to get it gets gifted to him
That's gonna break this game open considerably now. They're invading any ancients. They still have all these deep boards bottom
Lot of map control to play with right now. It's nighttime with the bane. He acts as a big threat
And I don't want to jinx it, Avery, but dare I say it, I think extreme gaming, they could maybe get, not just some power runes, but maybe even a tormentor.
Okay, you're pushing it now.
Got another initiation!
Chain it with the telekinesis. Sadly, Ex-Nova felt like the quick heat was in forward.
The hookshot with the rending.
Yeah, that's kind of awkward. Cogs does go out. FY steals it.
Tombstone shard. Puts him inside of the tombstone. Really weird.
What a centaur stall. Nice centaur stall that actually gets snapped by her a little bit of distance away from Amar.
Amar's still gonna try and hunt him down here.
It's him with the blade does not commit the doom though. Not sure if he can get the kill. Now with the shackle shot though
I think they've got it.
Doesn't even have to use the doom.
It's all a chase down. That is definitely something this lineup has in spades between their three cores.
You even have the speed aura on the doom that Amar really likes for some extra.
I run at you and you die and here comes the smoke sweep to the tormentor side of the map
Here's this off lane tier one tower is still up so they can't take like a whole lot of map here
Can make the die pass the tower anyway spotting X Nova coming in from behind two-man call
XXS plus FY setting it up with the con steel now doom is gonna be put on the XXS
But he's gonna say that's worth it man. I got the kill I was looking for that's the win ranger down
FY oh
Doesn't quite make it out couldn't get that doom steal either nice cover from Amar
Is that worth it well, it wasn't worth it in the end
That's for sure XXS. He did get the 3x streak on Skeeter, but you had a 5x streak that went to Amar
So now all of a sudden this doom is the highest and we're here on the game as he usually ends up
Well, Ame didn't have a TP. Maybe they thought Ame could TP in.
Like, XXF sees a two-man call next to a tower, like, he's like,
Ah, sure.
Have to take this, right?
Sapphire not being there for that call hurts them a lot.
Like, that's her big follow-up in these fights.
Does the axe call come through?
And then, Sapphire spells come on top, Rubik, Bane can control the doom or the ember,
and you get to isolate some of these heroes. That's the dream.
That has to all be there at the start.
They do defend their wisdom shrine,
or they're still available.
Not the worst.
A lot of gold for a mar.
That's going to be the scary part here.
Getting that streak.
That pushes him towards a BKB.
At least you have some BKB controls, game.
That was a big issue in game one.
Oh, no doubt.
You have the grip, you have the call.
You have the tear blade that can just kind of swing into you.
That's good enough.
TB can maybe build a Scotty at some point in the game.
For sure.
I end up in early MKB again.
He really likes itemizing just to punish this Winter Ranger.
I can kind of see because so much of Windrangers gameplay, these carry Windrangers, they just
hunt down the enemy carry, right?
It's like every single fight they just windrun in, focus fire the enemy carry.
That's their gesture.
So if you actually have a way to hit back, then what is Windranger to then?
He has to run.
Getting earlier, so he can't hit or something.
I don't know how Maulrin got out of that smoke play, but he managed it.
Yeah, completely surrounded by heroes on all sides, TPs out.
And they get a Torbid doing it, got it!
He did it!
Object is falling for extreme gaming this time around.
And actually giving extreme gaming...
...pain chart with lead.
What they give a bro shot for.
Even when you win against Falcons, you still lose.
That is annoying.
I don't think this is that
Aegis is solid here. You're gonna give it to Mauryan for spirit ages. For sure. It's annoying. You can still fight into this though
See the supports positioning to make sure they block any maybe smoke play
playing these high grounds.
I think you're just waiting for Almay, MKB, XXS, BKB, then you're gonna take some fights.
That's your next timing.
If you get there and they still have Aegis, you can force that fight anyway if the Falcons
give it to you.
I will say another thing that makes me more hopeful for Xtreme in this game is Snapfire
levels.
Level 15 at 23 minutes, nothing to say is I think making better progression than he
did in game one.
Yeah, better early game.
Yeah, it helps that he also didn't go for the Rodovitos build.
Right, yeah.
Straight to Boots of Travel, so he was able to play the map a lot better.
It's gonna scale off faster, a lot better.
I think the Vitos...
They're not being pretty solid.
It works, there's no doubt about it.
Yeah, it's just a mixed item.
Maybe if the game...
Or maybe if the early game hadn't gone so badly,
maybe he wouldn't have had to go Rodovitos.
Right, just to try and salvage things.
That's how I knew it.
Double power rune ballerine.
He's arcane with a shield rune.
He is amped the hell up.
Ex-Nilba is dead.
FYI, I'm quickly retreating back to the base as they know Falcons are going to be searching
for more.
That's fine.
Sacrifice that to the power runes and the Aegis timing.
Get it to tower steal, that's some extra gold on the map.
Still trying to get to the axe, BKB.
Now that's how you can farm.
Oh yeah. And look at this early Ags for Crit.
He usually goes blink on the zero.
There's another vision mechanism.
Yeah, why do you go early Ags on Clockwork?
What are you looking to achieve for it?
Isn't it about the spanning rocket flares to push out lanes?
Is this a map play?
I'm trying to think of why he wanted this game in particular.
So I've not seen him buy this early in any other game.
I think his, here's my theory.
Extreme gaming, the way their lineup functions, they have to be as fine.
So I think splitting the map is more effective here.
Could be an idea to improve their catch.
I also think he just wants a lot of the rocket players in the fight just to be able to span
them out. Get vision on these two supports, get vision on the snap. It's a little extra
hay-o-wee for this Terrorblade.
I think this guy's pretty close to his base here.
Yeah, you're not.
Oh, Stim to use BKB.
Now Chasing there.
Aye.
That does not feel like good for Falak's, so I mean, what are you accomplishing up here
in terms of objectives and you're watching your other two lanes get shoved in?
Especially since it is... there he is just timing a guest, Helikies. Turn around, Maureen.
Gonna be beaten in the first light.
Now, Extreme still need a retreat here.
Unless Almey can get a Sunder on somebody.
Nice call on the Doom, but he stopped the TerriBlake.
The TerriBlake, the TerriBlake!
Got the Sunder.
Sunder!
It goes off barely.
They still come into him.
He's still going to be in trouble.
He's still going to die to the Doom.
Maybe he can get enough damage to kill him, or he does.
He got that much.
FY with the stolen remnants.
He's got one out.
He'll jump to it.
Maureen's going to chase.
There's Crit on the other side.
Telekinesis running down the river.
Nicely played, but FY, he doesn't really have it out here.
Give him enough time to buy out his shard though, so he won't lose too much gold.
There was an excess though.
That's rough.
On top of popping that initial 9 second PKB, rough fight for him, he had to try and do something to buy some time for Hame.
You just only have a little bit of a window there.
He beat it by that ages a little bit.
Hame pushing in that fear too, lingered a little too long, you get caught.
Now you have to commit to try and salvage this situation and it ends up costing you a lot.
I by recall it was pretty low on mana too.
It's not even like you have that much resources for his first life.
It was almost like they would get nothing.
If they don't get off that sundry then a mar doesn't die.
They chase down, for sure, maybe even more heroes, or at least more efficiently.
Clockwork causing him problems again.
And the locket flare slows, the catch, the claws.
You just can't escape from this hero.
so hard to disengage against 10 man battle plan.
Yeah, would you agree that it feels like Clockwork,
maybe it's crit, but I also feel like the Clockwork
is more effective against Extreme.
I would agree.
Okay, well, this is gonna sound a little mean,
but I think Clockwork is better against teams
that don't have like 100% discipline
flowing in the teamfights, you know?
If you're mis-stepping in the teamfights a little bit, like that full fight starts with Almond just getting a tier 2.
Those kind of sequences, Clockwork, takes advantage of.
Great slowdown by Zagatim Scepter. Might just be in range, X-XS, the smoke broke, but they don't see him because it's nighttime, and it took Link on top.
But I'm okay, so they do get it a little.
You get stolen cogs too, which is pretty big here.
And it's Steal the Wisdom, which pushes the Sapphire up to level 18.
Pretty nice.
We got some tower damage too, mom is sitting here with this MKBE, takes buildings and heroes very quickly, you can connect on them.
It does feel like extreme gaming, their smokes are landing better and they're in better positions to take the pressure, gives afterwards.
I think it's just more straightforward for them, they smoke in X-X as they're gonna jump somebody, then you have follow up stuns.
It's a lot easier than that game one.
We'll see if they can catch the ember, there's the axe from all ring, could be equally as elusive as game.
That's a nice tool to potentially catch him, you're gonna have to execute that.
Oh, hello, Snake King!
Goodbye, Snake King.
That's a Breedy.
You're not keeping out of that.
No, it does so much damage with the rushed MKB.
Got that gunpowder all too.
Feels good.
That's crazy, he went from level 17 to level 19.
He's quite far now.
Stealing wisdom, or taking wisdom and then killing undying.
He did get a lot of gold for killing Amar in that fight. Yeah Amar had a
killing spree right? Yeah it was 500 gold and so I'll say it wasn't the worst
exchange for him. Looking at his position now he's probably feeling pretty
confident in this game. If you can get to, he's eyeing up Scotty and you talk about
how good Scotty is here for fighting some of these heroes or just pelting into
the doom. If you can get to that plus a survival item, I want to say Lincoln's
does look pretty juicy this game. He might just opt for more damage though,
some butterfly, dados, whatever.
Yeah, what's the thought process?
Lincoln versus Lotus in this game?
Because XXS, he's going to go Lotus.
I don't like Lotus as much.
I think you'd rather block this doom than reflect it.
I would also argue that Shiva's in a way also lets you...
It kind of accomplishes some of what you want,
which is like that A we hit,
maybe hits these heroes that maybe want to blink in
or slows them down at least,
which helps the TV maintain that distance anyway.
That's where you need to decide how these fights are going to go
and what they're going to try and aim for.
If they want to just send their frontliners in
and that's going to create space for the Terrablade,
I'll make an itemize for higher TPS
and you can just buy zone control items on the side of X6S.
And to say his blink tagger is on cooldown right now,
this is going to be awkward. Hit by the hook shot,
bounce back by the cogs.
He has a BKB, but it's been chain stunned up
and he can't get out. Too much damage is done.
That is so bad. He was just slightly separated from his team.
The rest of the extreme gaming were on the other side of the river.
Maybe they get something cheeky here.
Another setup where maybe somebody walks into them for the fiend's grip.
There's no doom available. That is a big opening for Almey.
They're gonna go after the Windrage or see if they can call him.
Snaking has to get the tombstone saved.
No chance, he got slept.
He got hatchmared immediately. Really well played by Ex-Nobah.
They'll go for the kill.
Silva, Maureen, he's dicing about something fierce though.
He quickly kills the Bane. Snaking lives for a little while.
Almey, he just under.
Okay, Sunder... Oh, forstaffy goes into it! Not a big Sunder, though!
Still at half HP, still with nobody out. He has to turn around and swing. There's no other way out.
He's not gonna lead. He just has to try and do damage. It won't be enough for the kill, though.
Another extreme gaming fight.
They choose to take it, and they still end up on the losing side. Two for five!
How'd that go so bad?
They slept the Unvime, they killed the Windranger. That fight should be good at that point. There's no Doom available.
You aren't missing Snapfire and that's a huge portion of your follow-up DPS here.
Still, it felt like it should have gone better. It's just...
Ember, TV is slicing everybody up.
Bradshaw to Magic Damage, right?
I agree, but that's...
This is the game you picked it into.
This is what I'm saying, like, these matchups for TV aren't that great, right?
Ember's always been a pretty good matchup.
The Winter Ranger is a good matchup.
Dooms a good matchup.
He, in theory, doesn't really have any favorable core-to-core.
So you're worried about a lot.
And he doesn't have a defensive item.
There's no Satanic, there's no BKB.
Doesn't have that Scotty yet.
He's still pretty fragile
Flesh golem hitting cogs that's pretty nice. It's Amar who gets all those kills at the end too though
Amar grows bigger and bigger. Oh, yeah
Cheetahs and he is gonna go the Agathams build
Let's look for that big a we doom if they don't have ways to disengage within which they will they do have cookie
cookie charges in particulars a really good way to get out of the a we have
doomed
I think the damage is gonna happen too fast that's the issue
don't think you're wrong if you get out of it fuck it's still just charging
work man that needs really bad acts rushy it's gotten a lot of farm for you
and the login player span he is real fat maybe Kurt was just feeling himself
after game one said damn I'm good you know what I should have more for a
I should have more items to play with. I'm too good.
He should be. I think he has looked like D best clockwork in this tournament.
The amount of work he does and how consistent it is every game and he doesn't feed.
I think a lot of clocks where you see you have like seven, eight, nine deaths, whatever your creating space.
He has very low death count and extremely high impact in every team fight.
With the level 15, he's got the battery assault damage to AWE off the agatum scepter is pretty good.
Call goes out and Maureen dodged it with a slight there.
Yes, it's well, so might get caught.
You can land some kisses and throw in kisses on Skeeter instead.
Well, that's kisses on cooldown.
Is that enough for Falcons to finish up Roshan with confidence?
They are spelled meta.
I only thought meta here.
Oh, yeah, that you're not doing.
You're not doing anything.
I mean, Falcons are actually pushing the fight.
Oh, Maureen, imagine kill X over right in front of X.
He's taking space, he's taking off the jump onto the terror blade, do a tough nose thunder,
and this is all bad for extreme gaming. Hooks shots keep you away, they might just get wiped here.
Maureen, are you gonna go for that last one?
A blink away from X6S, get some enough distance, he will not collect on the final kill, but four for nothing.
Again, it's the same paradigm as Game 1.
You bait him in a little bit, they miss one jump, they misuse one spell, the clock is ticking on the meta,
they're trying to disengage you find an opening there's just no organization in
this teamfight for XG as falcons pick them apart they just make it look so easy
don't even need to do the roast they can take the mid lane of barracks and go
back for it as extreme gaming or respawning I'll say this axe clockwork
is also really nice with you you get initial vision mechanisms but if you
do somebody and you just start laying all these rocket flares into him and you get slowed down it
helps him get another help you just can't escape the doom basically it's obnoxious
xxs playing a dangerous game right now he knows
tensions definitely coming his way cuts the way farms and neutrals blinks away
They've lost his Lotus on Courier.
He's getting the spiraling quickly.
They've tripled Sheeva's by the way.
I don't know if I've ever seen that.
Yeah, I did notice that.
There is more value to having multiple Sheeva's.
For sure.
In previous.
They're a little overlapped now.
And in this game, if it's just the TV, if you just need armor, Sheeva's kind of the
best item for it, right?
these spellcasters for sure especially if you benefit from the AoE. Yeah you don't really have
any AC heroes so just a good item right now. Feels good on so many heroes.
Other Aegis into the hands of Falcons. Give it to Skeeter here who can go straight to the
Daedalus and be a massive damage threat. 20 problems to solve for extreme gaming right now.
We're running out of time to solve them. Once you scan the trade off Roshan for Tormenter,
extreme gaming party at both parties are side of that
don't even get the this the shard that's kind of sad
could've used it they are so close to scottie on on it now i don't know how
much that changes because it kind of seems like they just
man up on him and do them and kill him and they
don't have a way to stop that they will never potentially have a way to stop
that because nobody's doing things
You can always just find your mark.
You can go on the tune if a mark gives it to you.
Maybe he lags out.
That's the hope. There goes Small Reed. Spotted a support. Yeah, look at him go. Gets the kill.
Gets slept pretty deep, but he has a hand disk here. Yeah. He's gonna have a chance to throw that
that remnant out and he is almost level 25 off of that kill so all the remnant he
expected if he got level 25 and he would be back in his pocket pretty quickly we've
got cut nice play by x6s so guarantee his low to sword breeze spawns off the
courier they finished the scotty for Ami they did get to their next set of items
can look to take a team fight when the age expires here still three minutes for
Falcons, however, gives them a
decent opportunity to try and find something into some more building damage.
They're on the right side of the map.
Extreme gaming, likely to push out somewhere, so they smoke sweep to the left.
See who shows, and it's gonna be on me. On me shows on the career.
Oh, no.
It's him.
Not like this. It is exactly like this. He can live, right?
Cover your eyes, Avery.
It's all bad business here for Xtreme.
Quick little TP to the other side of the map, make sure, okay?
Now when we take a left side of the map, let's re-secure the right side.
Just don't let Xtreme gamey get out there.
Because there is a possibility.
Again, it's a Sapphire.
If he can get to site the Bice, he's got the cookie charges.
If they can get the initiation, a lot of ifs.
But it is possible for Xtreme to win a fight.
Not without the Terrablade though.
So that's gonna be a free high ground hit.
Two lanes of barracks should be acquired here for...
Fuck it.
It's a nasty combo.
Rocket flares just given the...
Not only just canceling blink daggers, given the information for the Ember Spirit, he then
can go in deep, catch those heroes before their blink comes back up.
I think Falcons use this hero better than almost any other team I've seen.
They have very good conceptual understanding of what the clockwork gives you other than,
you know, Cods are broken, like, whatever.
You can see that about any spell.
They use a lot of the utility of this hero in really smart ways.
Rockethers are constantly scouting gang targets or threatening heroes on lanes.
It gets giving you vision initiation in the fight for your other chords
But it's not necessarily the clock we're going to himself and then I feel when Falcons do play around the serial in the teamfights
The
Cogs are always creating some sort of disjoint. It's splitting the fight up
Yeah, where you have like half of the half of XG in this game on one side of the Cogs hookshot
The other half on the other half and Falcons. They're so good at picking heroes apart
Displacing them with a lot of their lineups or failing someone out
It's like half your team is dying, and you're caged off from that half, and you're watching them die.
It's really obnoxious.
It's also great here to re-initiate. If you kite out the first half of the fight and then want to go back in,
there's almost no better support at guaranteeing that you can find a catch in that situation than the clockwork.
So it actually really fits a lot of the things they look for.
I'm surprised to see that first pick at every game that's available.
available. This might be a hurry up the ban against his team and just let something else
through that is more one-dimensional. Because the other issue with this type of abuse is
it's very hard to cope with solutions for it. You can't really itemize against Clockwork,
you know? What do you bind to deal with Hookshot Cogs, Rocket Flayers, that? It's not a hero
where, oh I'm playing against Viper, I can buy Disbells and Hurricane Bikes and stuff.
It's not even loan drew it, I think in some ways is a little easier to itemize.
Is that a weird statement?
I guess that's the only makes no sense.
You're also kind of comparing apples to oranges.
Yeah, that's why it makes no sense.
I still needs to stop something on the background.
Unfortunately, into damage over time is still too much.
Doom is, by the way, ridiculous.
66 damage level 20 town was that necessary? Oh, yeah, it's juicy
Always need to make sure this hero is viable
Too much
20k neverth lead what the extra get to they got to
Expert and yes, okay, and they got the ads on X Nova. So there's your increase in control
They are nice control mechanisms if you can land them
Little worried about what December's going to do with A on this, level 25, double slid of fist, all those remnants to work with, very hard to...
...Nab Maureen here, he's just going in.
I'm getting that, hello Ex-Nobah!
Got Hexed?
He does get Hexed, gets Cookie, gets controlled up, and this is going to pop, they have to follow up Disables, the team's crippled, they're going to turn the disk!
There's the Cookie follow-up, Ex-Nobah's even going to die!
Okay, he almost died there.
I had to wait a little longer.
Just a little bit longer or maybe the cookie follows up the fiend's grip a little bit faster. It's the status-resist. We gotcha
Still it's on cool, and you could smoke here trying to surprise jump falcons
But look so we're breaking it Falcons against this lock right clock work
No chance. You do manage to get the telekinesis toss back so maybe they can kill the clock
So take it look at go man. So take it
And the Dome Goddess initiates it.
Amar fighting Mark once again.
Level 25, DOOM applies Mute.
And, well, Turbling's dead for 80 seconds, so...
You can try and live.
But your base is still free for the taking.
You have no damage dealer left to defend all this.
Falcons will get their 2-0, and they will claim Top Spot in Group B.
They are looking like a force to be reckoned with.
Uh, they are fighting their form again.
Fighting some heroes that work for them in this patch too.
Some big threats, right?
The embers.
Feels like a must-ban.
The clockwork feels like a must-ban.
This and I have been working out well for them in the Necrophos from Game 1.
This a lot of Necros.
It's a problem.
I think if it's that category of these anti-carry heroes like the Doomlike, the Bikers, then
it's just a style to a team.
Too many problems to solve in the drafts, and I think teams are having an issue formalizing
how you want a team by Falcons right now.
How do you maintain your formation? How do you deal with the front line collapsing so quickly?
How do you propose something against them that is a threat that they have to deal with?
It feels like they're just kind of shrugging everything off and getting their lineups and then going,
Yeah, you beat us. You know, we're not going to worry about what you're doing. We're going to make you beat us.
I haven't really seen a team challenge them on some of those areas yet.
So it'll be interesting to see how they fare against some of the other top dogs in this event, draft-wise.
And if they can continue to adapt. But man, the gameplay is looking pretty solid.
If you're XG, there's a lot of holes in the ship right now that you have to plug.
It feels way too one dimensional to me.
I think they're just going back to this, not 4x1, but a lot of the eggs in the anime basket.
He's not in a game where this carry has good core matches a lot of times, makes it harder.
It feels like they always have this support tool that just doesn't play with NTS2O.
We're joking about losing all the powers and stuff, but I think that as a symptom of they don't feel natural going to this mid-NCS hero with the support to and making something happen around the map.
Oh, but it's made in Sapphire, like, shit, that's a combo of sorts.
I'm not saying that heroes aren't a true, I'm saying it's their idea of what these heroes are doing together.
You can't make it work with anything you go with them.
If you understand, I'm gonna, you know, let's use blood grenades or some angle or whatever.
Yeah, you're just not doing it.
So either that means their idea of it isn't correct or they're not picking heroes where they understand how to do it.
but something has to be adjusted there because man when you lose like 20 power rooms and wisdom shrines
and all these small things the game just becomes incrementally harder to play your mythos behind
bears get to head and this game they won all the runes and first blood hey what everything
2-0 for falcons thank you so much our fantastic casters over there spg and cap we are here with
ATF sir what an honor it is to see you win that game
I'm only gonna ask this because I feel like we have a relationship
We've known each other a long time. Does it feel good to know that you guys are good again?
Well, first of all, we're still bad. Okay, just operate. It's nothing. It's almost
Yeah, it's not an achievement. So we still have to win four more series. So I don't know how much is let's see
No, three. I don't know so
But it's good to, you know, like, first seed, move out fast, not like make stress and yeah.
Well, you've been doing a lot better than what I've seen from you guys over the course of the year.
Don't be offended. It feels like you guys are back in your groove.
You know, everything's kind of clicking. It doesn't feel that way playing. There's still much more to do.
Well, I mean, last year, surely, like, we didn't win anything and then we got second into first.
But the thing is, luckily last year our heroes were good, but this year I'm playing Necrophos,
so I'm not sure what's happening.
I do want to talk to you about that. This Necrophos hero is crazy.
Now, in the beginning of the tournament, we saw you get a little bit out of position, you know,
picked off sometimes when your teammates weren't, but now you seem to have a mastery of the hero.
It is actually looking broken. Is that how it feels to you? Do you feel like this hero is 2-OP?
No, it's a very bad hero, I would say. It loses only games. It's very low on it.
But it's my best hero, that's why. I just play this hero every game. I first pick it, I don't care.
My team knows I want to play Necro every game.
So, something appealing about this hero to you? I mean, I missed the whole March Day.
Snapfire is so big now. You know, you'd feel like March would be good too. Why is it appealed to you?
I mean, well, Valve just decided like, March, Timber and Razor are my three best heroes.
Heroes are not gonna have facets, you know. You'll have to buy Agony more, Shardor, maybe it doesn't even exist.
So yeah, I have to like find new heroes and like luckily I found some.
Yeah, absolutely. And I want to talk to you about your very interesting flag text that we saw on this one.
When you were going uphill in game one, you had the Roshan banner, but you put your little flag down instead.
Maybe that was to trick him, was that on purpose?
I mean this trick usually works on lands more like you just put the creep in front of the melee or the range.
And then it actually gets confused.
Like they just see a fucking creep flag, you know, and it was like, what's it doing even there?
Now I just want to ask you about your second flag trick, where at the end of the game you put the flag in the enemy fountain.
What is the purpose of that maneuver?
We conquered their territory.
Okay.
Well, there's a lot of different games here at EWZ. There you go. We're playing a bit of an RTS here.
But thank you so much for an incredible series. It was an honor and pleasure to watch you guys absolutely nail it.
They had a great time, we loved watching it, and we'll see if our panel can break it down and get us to the next one.
Thank you very much, Slax and Amar.
And Amar not too impressed with that, he will make it to the playoffs, which is rightfully so.
We expect Falcons to be in the playoffs, and Amar is expecting his team to be in the playoffs.
This was just another step in the direction that they already knew Lacoste were going to be in.
Yeah, it seems so but not satisfied it could have been better
There's always room to improve even for the winning teams as we see like Amar is a big troll
but let's
Say that friends because this guy top of the time. You don't know if he's being sarcastic if he's joking
Now that's what we love about it
But also like the fact that this guy's trolling always finding a new way to troll enemies better with you know
Maybe some spicy all chat maybe with mantles maybe potentially with the flags now
He always finds something that these guys are very creative when it comes down to gameplay
But also very creative when it comes down to this like mental warfare. I mean said you probably know like what a few things about it
Oh, I enjoy that always I think it actually matters
Like it's true as some players don't get affected and you feel it but some players I can promise you you feel it
Right away like their kicks start becoming shaky
They get overly aggressive so often that you use a voice line or you you spray the ground or something
and then you feel like, wait, why is he trying to harass me?
Like, he should not be doing that, then you know that it's just emotions.
And this is when the fun starts, really.
So, I mean, you should use every tool that's available in the game, in my opinion.
I don't think Alar is overdoing it or doing it in a way that's disrespectful.
I think he's doing it in a pretty relaxed way, actually.
He could even tone it up, if I'm honest.
But it's cool. I always enjoy to see it.
I mean, the best way to answer that is to just beat him.
If you're not good enough, you just have to just accept it.
Yeah, which extreme did not do in this series?
This game, no, this game, too.
It didn't look hopeless.
I feel like the better starts.
Yeah, first blood, you know, a couple of runes here and there
and the relatively strong laning stage.
But again, we come down to them having this issue.
We've talked about it multiple times
where the team just doesn't play that much around NTS
where he isn't really getting priority.
I feel like a lot of the times you will see these four protect one strategies that
Still a lot of that like focus goes on to army where I feel like it needs to be NTS
Well, like you need to have that bearing you need to be controlling the runes because a lot of the time
Like you are playing it's not like you're playing conca so you don't care too much about the runes
You're not playing nature's profit made that one game where he dominated you are playing heroes that you want to be getting off
Terrain, you want to be getting cased so you can gank the side lane,
maybe amplify damage to have that extra bit of a damage
that you need to kill certain heroes on the map,
but we really haven't seen that from extreme gaming.
I'm just worried for that team, to be honest,
because I don't think they're drawing the right conclusions
from the games that they're playing.
They just keep showing up,
and they follow up to the same thing every time.
And now it happened, like, it's even worse than that,
like, because it happened twice in the exact same manner.
Like they lost the game to an Ember Spirit that they could not stop,
that was getting every single rune and that was making all the space on the map
that was required for Farting.
It was like, this Ember is enabling a Mjolnir, Windranger on one side
and a Radiance Hero on the other side of the map.
And it did the same in the game one.
They have Necro that is farming the entire map, Skrider doing the same.
Like, when are you going to adjust that?
Like, I feel like you don't get to play the game and they, not on,
I mean, they had a great start, but they also played their lanes awesome this game like extreme.
They, they crushed three lanes essentially.
And even though that happens, they still can't play the game.
Like I'm really looking forward to see that team change that.
Cause I think if they don't, I, I don't expect much anymore in the playoffs.
If, if, if, if they don't change that at this point, modern Dota is this is just part of the game at this point.
You just can't ignore it.
There was a point that SVG made during the cast regarding the clockwork and how, of course, it's really good on the clockwork.
But he said the cost that he found clockwork especially good against teams like Extreme Gaming and that clockwork is just really good at beating.
He said it nicer but less good teams.
Yeah, I can see that. I mean, this is the hero that I used twice today.
It looked extremely good completely different itemization as well when we like compare game number one to game number two where he is playing
That's slightly but quite a lot greedier compared to what he was building into game number one and
Kind of hoping to go for himself the rocket spam it gets pretty annoying good
We talked about division that this hero provides it gets pretty insane at the later stages of the game and the
Tool kit that this hero has it has everything like good stuff BKB's like and something that he pointed out like what are you even buying in that situation?
because it doesn't feel like you have the clear item, like Rubik, he picks up the shards and he can lift you out of the cogs.
But this hero has multiple rounds of spells that he can go in, get out with the four staff if he's buying to protect himself, protect allies and also getting the jetpack on top of that.
So very annoying hero, vision hero. He checks a lot of the boxes pretty similar to how I would compare Tuss.
Tuss doesn't maybe have the vision aspect, but very well rounded position 4 slash 5 hero.
Yeah, it worked out great for Falcons.
Two games in a row, and I'm sure we're going to see them in the Crit's hands more often
if they don't ban it time and time again.
We can take a look at where this leaves Group A, because Group A is done.
And better yet, Group A is completely solved.
We have no tiebreakers in this group.
It is, as you see it, with Falcons securing the top spot, and because BB Team was able
to 2-0 their opponents in Gamer Legion and because RuneAgers was able to 2-0 the rangers,
it is Gamer Legion and the rangers that will be eliminated, Seb.
I mean, for poor rangers, I dare to say it's no surprise.
I think they're the least experienced team here and, you know, I didn't catch all their
games, but them being able to take a game off of one of the teams and gathering a bunch
of knowledge on what happens in these tier one tournaments, I'm sure they're going to
walk away feeling grateful that they participated. Obviously, you feel bad and it's a disappointment,
but yeah. As for game religion, I think the disappointment is a little bit bigger because
they really showed that they were on par. It's like you think of extreme and a Varun
years that made it through and you think of the game religion, it's like, are they really worse?
I'm not even sure. Like, if anything, I could make arguments for why I think game religion
could challenge some of the top teams more than Xtreme would at this point. So it's obviously,
it's the cruelty of group stage. Every map matters, which is also at the same time,
it's difficult because you play so many games, but every point matters. It came down to one
this time around. And I think we sat at this very spot when we watched extreme gaming take on
game religions and game religion let lunder it through two games in a row and they did so well
and then later on in the game they still couldn't make it again like it just takes it just takes
one game. Yeah that one game they would be potentially in the tiebreaker scenario they
could have to be honest won both of these games considering like the mid game that they had maybe
some decision-making wasn't really there and also they started pretty strong like they started with
with the 2-0 and then still managed to get only one dub,
but the games they played, they looked pretty good.
Like I gotta agree, I have to feel bad about the team
because they have so much more to offer.
And maybe it comes down to also root eaters,
a team that not many people expect to have this good
of a result because they are slightly overperforming.
Yeah, and nobody can really expect what's coming
with all these groups and so many games
being played at the same time.
But that's what that is.
It's brutal at times for those two teams.
Of course, it is for some teams.
It's not that brutal for some teams.
It's a joy.
And it was a joy today watching twice.
Maureen play Ember Spirit,
and that is why he gets our MVP.
Yeah, I mean, 100%, well deserved.
Definitely the best player,
the most impact in the series.
I think he, I dare to say,
he actually carried them in game two straight up.
I think not only in the early game,
but also the team fight game one was a little bit more
Like even in a sense, but his performance has been crazy good.
And he mentioned it in one of the interviews that we, you know, he gave here where he didn't get to play the last tournament with them.
And he feels like he's not sure he's like, you know, warmed up basically for these kind of events.
So he said that he needs a little bit more time.
I can feel the difference in his play, like the amount of confidence that he has in these like latest group stage games compared to the first ones.
So I'm very happy to see him pick up some steam as for the teams. He's gonna be facing
Yeah, good luck to all of them because when this guy is on is he's really really hard to stop
Yeah, and there's already so many heroes. We don't want to see him play and yeah
He gets his hand on the atmosphere and then you're like, that's another one
We maybe should be adding to the list of heroes to ban
Team Falcons, but there is just so many heroes you you want to remove and that's what him losing is lame
That's what happens when you win the lane against him.
Just imagine if he wins the lane, which happens very often.
Beyond Godlight, yeah.
I think it also comes down to this being a carry meta.
So a lot of the times in the first, the bands,
you really don't see a lot of mid laners.
So it opens up the other mid laners as well.
Yeah, and that was our series one for the day.
That was our group A for the day.
And that means we are moving forward
because we are about to find out what's happening
in group B. We are on this stream going to be watching Aurora versus Team Liquid. I just also
want to give a quick shout out that on the B stream you'll have Nick my Galaxy taking on
playtime. That's another buyer and also so important for these standings as well and we'll
tell you all about that in a bit. But first we're going to check in with our commentary duo who also
or something to say about the series.
In your every move.
Group B currently has a tie going on, but that could be Sol dinner upcoming match, Liquid
vs Aurora.
Avery, Liquid hasn't looked in the best form, but they have beaten Aurora in the past.
True.
Could have a good match up here.
I think it's all about Nisha.
Which Nisha shows up today?
Good Nisha, Evil Nisha, Terrible Nisha, Wash Nisha, Garbage Nisha, what the hell Nisha?
What a bad Nisha.
What a bad Nisha.
Why do great Nisha?
Oh, that's good, Nisha.
There could be a lot.
Yeah.
Maybe we'll go to multiple Nishas, multiple personality Nisha.
Well, all it takes is one win to be able to ruin Aurora's current standing in the groups
because Nigma Galaxy is also standing there with one loss.
Meanwhile, Liquid, they can't get eliminated off this series.
That's the upside, but they also can't really get top of their group either.
It's looking a little weird for them.
Yeah.
I think they would agree with that.
I think if you asked every member on that team where they stand right now, they'd be
like, eww, we don't know.
So, a lot to prove in this series, I think Aurora is cooking.
I expect them to continue to cook.
Chef Nightfall, delivering his master course.
Hmm.
He thinks he can come in here and play my game!
He knows nothing but...
No!
Tyler Wine, we're done.
Rawr, rawr, rawr, rawr!
And I'm seeing how the blood house is!
The Esports World Cup is basically nerd Mecca and it's being held here for the first time
in Paris unlike previous years where it was in Saudi Arabia near actual Mecca.
But this core pillar of Esports history dates all the way back
to 2024.
Okay, fine, it hasn't been around for that long, but since its inception, we've already
had historic upsets, big victories, and of course, moments like this.
I'm 35.
Too many people say I'm older.
I can't win anymore.
But today, I pulled myself.
And outside the shock of someone over the age of 35 accomplishing anything, the emphasis
This has, and always will be, on the winners.
But what about the losers?
Who tells their story?
To learn more about the art of losing,
I decided to consult the experts.
The French.
Wait, do you actually want me to say this?
Have you seen the French on social media?
I'm gonna get destroyed on Twitter.
You have me in a beret.
But there's a lot that we can learn from losers.
So who exactly are they?
Well, according to my mother,
it's everyone in this industry.
But when it comes to the tournament,
It's a little bit more nuanced than that.
There can only be one EWC champion.
And in order to win that title,
they have to accumulate points across a series
of 24 different games.
So series contenders are going to want
to field a lot of teams.
It's like the great Canadian hockey player,
Wayne Gretzky once said,
I don't even like Poutine.
I know it's supposed to be our country's thing, but...
This isn't the right...
Can you pull up the right one?
Yeah, thank you.
and miss 100% of the shots that you don't take.
So there you have it.
So you might be asking yourself,
well, why don't these clubs just field
as many teams as possible?
Well, the answer's a little complicated,
but the technical term is that it's expensive.
Hey, anyone got a euro?
I'm trying to buy an eSports team.
I just need a couple million.
Anyways, here's a copyright free version of WonderFall.
I said, well, maybe I'm gonna buy a e-sports team game,
and after that, I'm gonna buy a laundry mat.
But does it actually work?
Let's say that the results are mixed.
For example, in 2024, Twisted Minds qualified 12 teams for EWC, but seven of them didn't
even register a single point.
And not one of those teams found a tournament win,
which if my math is correct,
that leads us to, uh-huh,
and the same number of wins my grandma had that year.
Now in 2025, Virtus.Pro registered 18 teams.
And because I'm such a huge supporter of eSports,
I pledged that for every win they got,
I would rescue a cat from an animal shelter.
No meow meows were saved that year.
I would have been better off pledging to Verstappen Sim Racing.
I mean, look at these guys, specialized sniper clubs.
One shot, one kill.
That's gotta be better, right?
Well, sort of.
In 2025, Twisted Minds doubled down on EWC, bringing 14 teams, but 8 of them didn't register
a single point.
However, they were able to move up into the standings to fourth place.
With millions of people from around the world tuning in to this year's eSports World Cup,
the pressure of winning is at an all-time high, with the threat of losing even higher.
So who's going to be taking home the World Cup this year?
Do any of us even still have jobs after this?
Have the KC fans already found my hotel?
Find out the answer to all these questions and more at the Esports World Cup.
Virtus.pro catching strays a little bit there from Upli that they already doing a little
rough here in the Dota 2 and another kitten doesn't get adopted.
That's very sad.
But we're going to focus on a different group.
Group B here for Dota 2.
No Virtus.pro in this group.
We're going to focus on, well, a potential awesome tiebreaker.
I know.
We're going to talk about it in here at Lacoste and Seb.
And this group, you would think Lacoste that it's kinda solved, but is it really?
Not really.
We have a level-up team, an L1 team being already eliminated, the P-Time, they cemented themselves
with that third slash fourth spot, which means that they're gonna have to go to two rounds
of BO3s through the survival mode because they will have to, you know, get in there somehow.
This is a team that does deserve it.
And today they are gonna be playing against the Nigma Galaxy, which is not gonna be an
easy one by any means. So this is a pretty difficult matchup. Nigma Galaxy gotta be looking for those
extra points because right now they are sitting at 7 and 1, sharing the first spot with Aurora gaming.
So a lot to decide and if Team Liquid, for example, drops only one game, they are not
going to be contender for that first spot. I think that if, as we see the points, if Liquid
2-0 Aurora, then both of them are 7 and 3, and then P-Time, 2-0 Nigma Galaxy, and then
Nigma is also 7 and 3. We've got ourselves a three-way tie, and we could be infinitely
watching Nigma Galaxy and Aurora and to look at playoff against each other. That sounds
wonderful, Seth.
So I stopped listening at the fourth if...
What?
The chance of this happening, probably with the current strength of the teams that we
are going to be seeing, very long, in my opinion.
I mean, yeah, to answer your question is like, it would be a lot of fun to see these three
teams battle it out.
At the same time, quite unlikely, I would say.
Maybe.
I feel like Nigma...
Maybe I feel like calling them the most convincing team of that group.
I mean, definitely there's an argument with Aurora, and maybe I'm biased.
But if I had to pick the strongest team so far in that group, I would maybe pick Nigma.
And these are the two teams that are trying to challenge them,
Aurora way more stable, way more clear on their identity than Team Liquid.
But we didn't catch the Team Liquid game yesterday on this stream,
but they looked much more solid in the sense that they had their strategies figured out, I feel.
I think they're picking up some steam and better understanding on what they should be playing in this patch and in this meta.
So I'm pretty hopeful that they can bring a real challenge to Aurora today.
Arora, they looked much more stable, like with the picks, with the execution of their drafts,
we talked about how strong they are in the laning stage. Liquid, they were having some
of the issues, like coming into this tournament, you know, maybe not the team that you would
like expect to be, the top contender straight away, this is the team that does tend to power up,
and yeah, seems like Blitz has been carrying them pretty heavily, and now they have to take
care of him boxy does the 360 I thought it was gonna be 360 flint like it'd be much better
you know just for the camera but I feel like there's gonna be maybe there's gonna be solving
some issues from the offline that they didn't have in the last couple of games but that's yet
to be seen there's also of course a bit of history team liquid ti winning team you know when they
want to die when they had an extra coach added to the mix and that extra coach was the coach
of now Aurora. So focusing in on Aurora, we are going to hear something from said coach
KP who's talking to purge. I'm here with KP team Aurora's coach. Now your players have been
dodging my interviews a lot. What's going on with that? They're just shy boys. Yeah. And I'm not that
shy so but it's their job they get paid the same whether they do this or not so
they just choose not to so I got a pressure them more effectively is what
you're saying all right that makes sense you guys have been slapping late you've
been doing really well what's been the big difference it's you probably right
yeah of course I saw me like what else but now I was like seriously I think
after our roster change I think I'm not sure what it was but like maybe we have
like this honeymoon period and we're kind of still riding off of it and I think my players
are just really talented like nothing too special. I draft like okay like just make
them play the heroes and they just play the game and you know.
Well it's working that's really good for you guys. You've got Liquid coming up the
scores decent but they're like on that edge of being like maybe topping the group if they
beat you guys and Nigma falls down or something. Do you ever like look at moments like this
in a tournament where you're like here's a great team I could break their morale and do like try
harder in hopes that like you're gonna be the one that like crushes them and like they go into
lower bracket and then they like flame out before they see you guys again. Uh not really. Is that too
elaborate? Yeah it's too elaborate I think not really but there is one thing though since we're
playing Liquid I'm gonna try extra hard because okay just because because they're my ex and you
have to try hard to be your ex. Every time you see your ex you're like I'm gonna make sure I do my
hair that day. You have to like make some jealous you have to like you know show them
the best version of yourself while they're sad that night when they lost
they're gonna be like maybe KP was a good fit yeah you know like but yeah just
aside nothing really like too special I'd say like every team we're gonna try
hard as hell like we're gonna go all out every team every day you know that's
very liquid maybe I spend like an extra like ten more minutes ten minutes oh yeah
How much of that is daydreaming me about your nice times with them though?
Maybe like eight minutes
We all do that right what player on your team are you most proud to have who's like really impressing you lately?
Lately I think
Let me I think the code has been playing really well. Yes. Yeah is my
My topic for now. You're new your new girlfriend. Yeah, my new girlfriend, but I
Well, I can always change the gophing like next week. Maybe it's like nightfall week after maybe like K.Lori
The benefit would be in the coach. Yeah. Yeah, you have to instruct everybody equally understand. Otherwise they get jealous
Yeah, okay. Well, thank you for joining me for the interview and good luck in your match. Thank you
There's one point in particular that stood out to me there KP says, you know ever since our new additions
We've been in a honeymoon phase
That's six months ago. How long can a honeymoon last?
A lot of people would dream on going on a six-month honeymoon.
Forever with the right person and it's like they found their favorite persons to play with.
Give me a ticket, can I be part of this?
I mean this cannot just be the honeymoon phase, right?
This team has been very solid and very stable as well.
I think it's being very humble.
Obviously they're way past the honeymoon period and it's much more than just coincidental
or you know kind of circumstances helping them perform.
At this point, this is a group that, well, first of all, seems to gel together really
well and their ideas are correct, their approach to the game and everything they do.
Because at the end of the day, performing at the highest level of Dota is not just about
being good at Dota.
It's much more than that.
It's being a good teammate, you know, being a professional, what happens inside and outside
the game.
So in order for them to be so stable, I guess, and so good, they must be doing all of that
very, very well.
professional I will actually gonna ask if we can get Lacoste camera shot for a
second see if we have the tech there speaking of the first actually Lacoste
can you lean a little bit to your right or left doesn't matter other way other
way other way other way little more non-fall what's happening over there
behind you I don't know you tell me here I can't see anything someone's just
lane down. Oh, it's Blitz. It's just resting. It's just resting. Thank you for that. There's
no sound something interesting on his phone and he's interesting as well. No, I don't think
he's they were carrying him in the wheelchair. They took it away from him and they just left
him there and he just stuck like somebody helped the guy out like you just can't stand up again.
You can't stand up. I thank you for that like cost. We are going to focus on the team. We're
We're going to focus on Team Liquid, of course, as they are the X of KP.
KP is looking to impress them.
But I'm sure the feeling might just be mutual.
Don't take my work for it, though.
Maybe Ace has something to say about that.
I'm here with Ace of Team Liquid.
Now, Ace, I talked to you earlier in the tournament.
You guys were feeling pretty decent about how you expected things to go.
You're about halfway through the group stage.
Your score is pretty decent, but how are you feeling as a whole?
Like I would also say decent, feel decent, don't feel amazing, because like we would
like to be like on the top spot, but we're still in a good spot, you know, we can maybe
still make top, but it's like unlikely I guess to get to one of the pins.
You'd have to beat Aurora I think, and then the other two, which is Nigma, would have
to lose their final series against P-Times, so it's like maybe, but...
Stars would have to align a bit, and then we would probably also have to win some tiebreakers
and stuff.
I could see that, yeah.
I mean...
What happened?
in terms of like how groups to playoffs usually ends up going in a term I've heard before that you guys collect a lot of strats while you're playing you figure your stuff out group stages are for learning do you still view it that way?
Oh yeah for sure I feel like from what we have prepped from bootcamp in terms of like heroes and stuff it has changed a lot already like in these days honestly some heroes popped off that we were like not sure was that like strong and like just need to adapt to like what else are bringing to the table kind of.
How do you get do you get opportunities? Are you gathering this information like the stuff you just said?
Are you getting that from games you're playing? Is it from scrims? Is it from watching other teams play?
I think it's just mostly from our own games like mostly the officials over there
But also scrims. Are you getting enough of that from your officials though? Because there's only one series a day
Yeah, you have to that pretty pretty fast
But I mean I feel like we can adapt pretty fast
But also I mean there's also some tournaments that you can you can kind of like try to like get some info from
But yeah, like a bit of a mix so what do you what's your confidence against Aurora where do you talk to you?
They might be hard to get top group, but you could be them. Hey, like basically, I feel like it we can definitely win like if you go
Either way, we know they're also strong
But yeah, I don't know like I think we're strong. We can we can beat them. Okay. Well, so it happens
Well, thanks for joining me and good luck in your match. Thank you
We will see what happens me and I'm a little worried of
of the way he describes that how he deals with how they deal with group stages learning a lot of strategies from the group stages
This is a very difficult format or at least risky format the cost to do that with yeah
You play one series a day
That's like you prepared a wrong strat
Maybe something that we've seen when they were playing against nigma galaxy and where nigma galaxy they came much more prepared where they had a bit
Of this like healing strat and then the second one they really stepped it up
So got to be slightly more careful.
Definitely how you're going to be approaching it.
And then single elimination after that.
So yeah, there's no lower bracket.
Yeah, exactly.
So there's only lower bracket.
Maybe they're just going to go with that.
So that's just lower bracket.
Is everything lower bracket?
That's all you think about it, honestly.
I mean, why not?
And Liquid is no stranger to lower bracket around.
So they're not going to get intimidated by this.
OK, so let's talk about the matchup
because we're feeling that Aurora is on top of their game.
They're doing so well, only dropping that single game against NIGMA Galaxy, whereas Liquid seals
seems to be searching. You mentioned their series yesterday that they looked better,
but at the same time they were up against L1, which is a team that's obviously at a different
caliber than both of these teams on the stage. But I think the drafting part and the strategy part
is what looked better, because honestly I felt the shakiness of Liquid just from the draft before
Of course, even seeing them play, and if that already is better, then the hopes are much higher.
I think generally speaking throughout the season, and the peak level of both these teams, they're on par.
If I would maybe even give an edge to Liquid in general, but in this state, at this point, in this tournament,
they're definitely the challengers going into it.
Yeah, I kind of have to agree with this, because Liquid had a bit of a mixed results as well,
But this is also a team that, on a good day, like, with Nisha speaking, they, like,
Asher talked about it, that Nisha, he looked very, very stable,
and he's gonna be the driving force for the team once again.
Yeah, it all depends on how they wake up.
Did they enjoy their lunch properly?
Did they have a good rest?
All that will come into play in the upcoming match.
That's it, over to the stage.
To start.
Absolutely.
We'll see if Team Liquid has woken up yet,
but I know that you guys are waking up as well
as we are getting ready for this banger of a match
coming your way.
Now last series, I know a bit of a stump, if you may.
Falcons came out swinging,
but this one is guaranteed to be something
a little bit spicier.
We have the top team in the groups
facing off against the team.
That is notorious for taking early groups
a little bit easy,
and then really locking in towards the end.
So let's get this party started with our first team
Headed to the stage, allow me to welcome Aurora Gaming!
That is right, nobody seems to be able to stop these boys
as they have survived quite a difficult group
getting into that top spot.
They got fans in the crowd,
they've got the boys walking out
and full confidence on that stride.
You can tell they've been practicing that walkout.
It was like seeing assassins come to the stage,
Absolutely beautiful job, and now we will see their opponents. Will these boys actually be able to pick it up?
Will they stop pretending and will they finally get their coach off of the stage who's been laying in the corner for the last 20 minutes?
Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce Team Liquid!
Now Team Liquid has been pretending, if you will, they've been losing some games that
perhaps they should not have lost.
But now the time for joking is over.
It's time to stop playing with your food and destroy the biggest team in the groups.
We all know Liquid could do it.
We all love to cheer for them when they are.
And we have to see if they have brought their A game today and if they have learned any
lessons from this very competitive group stage.
Rory, you guys ready to put that key down?
They're ready.
Liquid, are you ready?
Let me see it.
All right.
Gentlemen, please, your keys to your stations, get onto those computers, and let's get a
nice handshake out from you as well.
I know there's a very heated rivalry.
Here we go.
And beautiful handshake.
All right.
This match is about to begin.
I hope you guys are ready for what could be the greatest match of today.
Might be the last one too. Let's find out as we head into the match and back to the panel.
Thank you very much, Lax. We are very ready for Aurora vs Liquid.
The history of these two teams is mostly Aurora's favorite.
Actually, in this year it is a 3-2 in terms of series, but the most recent two series both went the way of Aurora.
So, having a little bit more of a fresher experience with beating Team Liquid.
We're expecting the Liquid to power up and I feel like we say that a lot because they do that in tournaments.
But are there any signs in this game, in this draft that we're going to look for that will be the proof?
I'm looking at the Offlane. I want to see Ace on a...
It's very hard to dominate the Offlane right now. He has been known to dominate the Offlane,
turned that throughout his whole career into these auras, into these winning conditions for his team, wherever he was playing on.
And now, I think every off-laner struggles, like it's very difficult to adapt and they were struggling to find what's really good for him.
And if you see the adaptation after they lost to Nigma Galaxy, you can already see the off-lane winners.
He is playing Nigma, he is playing these relatively easy matchups for him.
He's playing that against the Life Stealer, then he's playing Lycan into Drawranger.
Again, a winning matchup for him throughout the laning stage, throughout the whole game pretty much.
So the adaptations definitely were made compared to what he was playing against in the Galaxy,
where he was kind of completely shut down, that he wasn't able to play the game, and
even in the meta that is dominated by the carries, you still need to have your offlaner be able to
do offlane things. Yeah, and I feel like Ace has always been like a big identity of the teams he
was part of, you know, you go back to being gladiator days, like they had a lot of strategies,
like based around him and he was always like a spacemaker in the draft in the sense like you
knew what to expect like they're gonna pick his underlord they first pick it they know exactly
like how to lane it you know back then it was with tofu on the lane and they were just impossible
to stop basically I don't think they have the same in liquid yet they didn't manage to fit him in
that well I would say and and and they still end up in the often in a draft situation where the
The conversation must be about, hey, what do you want to play here, that kind of stuff,
and they have to figure it out on the spot, but it doesn't feel as good.
So I hope that they went back to the drawing board, figured out, okay, this is what we want to do,
like Ace and Boxid, this is how we want to approach the game.
We're going to, this is the kind of hero pairings we're going to go for.
And it's just so that it gives them a little bit more stability and confidence also going into the game.
Because that that that that shakiness can translate to the other names too, and to the entire team.
And now with the addition of gates, I think when you lose one of the side lanes, very often it also hurts the other lane.
Yeah. Do you think that because you're explaining how Ace and how he had an impact on previous teams,
do you think that the current way the offline works because it's a safe lane?
Patch. That patch just also makes that he can't be the leading team and he can't be the person in the game that you wanted to be.
Not necessarily. I think it's just a matter of like being on the same page essentially.
Like if you think of Aurora for instance, we saw Mira play the other day and he had like nine stacks
for instance, right? So they were not playing up on the lane. They got what they wanted to get
and he was also stacking knowing that at some point WS is gonna go back to the jungle.
He's gonna be wanting to clear some stacks because he's not gonna be able to enter the lane and
like the wave anymore. They need to be on the same page with that because you know we saw Ace and
and boxy try to dive the tower for instance and it didn't work like you're like maybe
this is a little bit outdated like or maybe it isn't I don't know but it's mostly about
being on the same page you can decide to lane and apply pressure you can decide to creep
script you can decide to you know fall back to something way more defensive like we saw
yesterday it was on group D where Netta he's started jungling level one with Arcee and
R he actually started with the windlays you can tell they're on the same page right because
He like the position for both items to try to get what he could on the wave because they knew that hey
I'm not gonna be naming or maybe depending on what they do
I might linger a waiver too, but no matter what I'm falling back to the jungle. So I
Really want them to build their approach to how to play the off lane together
In this patch and to stick to it
Do you think that the off laners like the players that played off lane who were more like
Sacrificial compared to the off lane dominators are gonna be shining more in this meta because they're like the
teams that have used to play around off-laners who don't get as much farm are gonna be having an
easier time in the meta? I think naturally they will but again like these players are you know
star players like world-class players you shouldn't be needing more than than a week so that it's
like okay you figure it out you draw the right conclusions you get to practice and then you
fix it like this is these players have been around forever like they've seen that in the past this is
like no revolution or anything like that. It's just like you have to change your mindset,
change your hero picks probably, and also break it down to your team because it has a lot of impact
on many other things. Like for instance, when you're jungling, it's much easier to connect to
runes because, you know, you're not being like, you're not in range of getting hit by stuns,
you're not, you're closest to the runes, closer to the runes also just physically.
Anyways, there's a bunch of stuff on the map that change.
It's all about theory-crafting it as a team and making it happen in the games.
If you have to figure it out on the spot, I think it's really, really difficult.
Well, let's hope they don't have to figure out this draft on the spot as we are in it.
We got Team Liquid on the dire side with First Pick, and they went for the Earth Spirit.
On dying was the answer by Aurora, and in terms of usual suspects that we see banned.
Maybe interesting to note that the Drow Ranger is untouched.
At the games that we've seen, Drawranger, at least the ones that we were covering, a lot of times Drawranger, she's stuck in the base for like good 20 minutes defending and then losing the game.
So I'm not very...
It's great.
Yeah, I'm not... It's good. I think it's good for meta. Like, all we have to do is get rid of Shed of Fiend and we're going to be having a normal game.
I also got to say that I've been very impressed not just by WS
I've been very impressed by undying from the offline from position 5 as well
But from the offlane with the blink dagger pick up the DKB this arrow feels extremely strong and it also could be potentially
Like an answer to this earth's grid that has been contested in almost every single game because of the low cooldown
Heal that you have in six second cooldown up to 10 units, which is 500 max heal
it goes up even higher once you get to level 15. So you can outheal magnetized damage that's going
to be very annoying for Earth Spirit. Yeah, it's a very good hero. It's been really looking strong
and as you said it's flexible so that also gives you some agility in the drafting phase which is
very precious especially when you're first pick because I'm just actually looking I'm okay for
For some reason, my brain was telling me that Liquid would have banned Invoker, because
Invoker is one of the answers that Liquid decided was good against Earthspirit, like
we've seen them pick Invoker twice yesterday or the day before against Earthspirit teams.
So maybe this is also why Aurora, now that they banned Invoker, Liquid were like, well,
that's a free entry for first pick Earthspirit, so they're going to be pretty happy with this
first phase on Team Liquid.
Nibbana, the Centaur on the side of Aurora with the Lion and the Keeper of the Light removed on the side of Liquid.
So we're moving a couple of position 4s that would be very good with Undying offlane.
Mira's Lion, it's getting a lot of respect so far in the tournament.
It's either banned, sometimes it's snatched by the other team.
And Caudal is just because Caudal on Dying is such a toxic lane.
It's probably one of the strongest we've seen, like the Colt of Pairings or the Undying Pairing, for that matter.
Good amount of damage, but this who I think doesn't really say anything, this is the hero that is going to be Formira.
This is not a hero that Keori does play.
We've seen also Keori getting a little bit of priority in some of the drafts, saving his pick up until the last one where they picked Jakiro
and he completely dominated that game with Jakiro, getting quite a lot of priority,
and also showing that some of these forgotten heroes are still relatively good at meta in the right hands,
where he's still banging up the warlock, securing the lane for Nightfall,
or even Jakiro, where they can kill a hero from 100 to 0 easily.
And you see the difference, right, with teams' stakes on hero matchups,
and somebody is wrong, not everybody can be right, because like yesterday we saw P-Time against Aurora,
and they twice picked Earth Spirit against Ember.
This time around, Liquid is banning Ember's Spirit, so it's like one team seems to think that Ember is a Conner, and the other team seems to think otherwise.
All these things are going to be settled, once we're past the group stage in a sense, because the teams with the superior ideas are going to be the teams going through, and the others are going to go home.
This is a flex pick for Liquid, I think it could very well be Boxy and it could also
be Mike on Windranger.
I quite like the Windranger against Undying on the lane personally, I think it's pretty
chill especially if your position 5 is also aggressive.
Maybe another Witch Doctor actually, maybe that's not the best pairing.
Witch Doctor, very good hero against Undying in my opinion, I mean it goes both ways but
It is one way to make sure that this online is not going to rain supremely in the team fight.
Just get on top of him, check the meta deck, whatever happens next is usually what's going to be dying.
He got the job done.
Yes, he's going to be taken down with you.
Yeah, he's okay to die with the Grigri extra bit of a gold.
I like how Liquid approached us.
They were picking up the position 5 here.
At this stage, making sure that they can still flex them in the Ranger
and potentially get maybe a very good answer to the enemy carry hero.
potentially pick up some Spectre, like the amount of damage, it's a good laning partner
for Spectre because Spectre needs some kind of sustain in the lane.
Like this hero is not self-sustainable and with the addition of which Docter increased
AoE on the heal by 150 AoE, it makes it so good.
Yeah, that's another answer we've seen to the Earth Spirit so far.
To the Earth Spirit mid, which is the most dominant hero of the tournament, we were showing
this morning the most picked heroes and Earth Spirit was pretty much number one.
We've seen Largo Mids, we've seen Ember Spirit, we've seen Invoker, and we've seen Lina come up.
I think the hero is at 80% win rate or something like that.
It's played like 6 or 7 games and won 80 or 90% of these games.
So it's too early to say whether Lina is the top hero in this meta, but it's definitely effective in some games.
And this could be one of them.
You have an Undying Position 3, so you have a natural frontline, and especially the way WS is playing this hero,
He's super reckless, like he goes blink first item, blinks and clicks ulti, tick, clink stomps on.
He kind of forces the enemy team to look at him, so that's going to give a lot of space to Mikoto to, you know, pay Lina, which is what the hero needs.
Do we feel confident about where Windranger and Urskirt are going to go in terms of mid carry four options, or do you feel like they're leaving it open more?
Well, it's hard to say. I guess Winranger plus 4 is acceptable versus Jukiro. I don't think it's amazing that Jukiro still wins the trade and maybe you want to think of pulling waves against this Jukiro plus corner pick because they also have the ultimate last pick if I'm not wrong on Aurora so it's going to be a very tough safe thing to go to.
So in that sense, do you really want a win ranger there because rune ranger is kind of designed to lane or are you happy just
Putting it on position one. I try to damage control the undying hood wing lane
I don't think it's a clear win for rune ranger which doctor, but it's a stable lane
It kind of depends on what ace wants to play I
Couldn't see ace maybe pick up something like a night stalker darts here these type of heroes that can get on top of like
it's a bit this is also good because it gives you like the blink blade mail it
has always been good against Lena they have no saves up till a point where
maybe I'm dying gets a shard but core on dying they're really not buying it might
need to buy it might need to get sleights of more priority in this one and again
we talked about the ways how they can make ace lane easier and X is gonna be
that type of a picker not the easiest lane to lane for him because you're
of landing into Jakiro, you're never going to be having that good of a time, and you
can always try to creep skip.
So yet to see what Nightfall is going to be playing, and they are removing one of his
classics, removing Kery Doom.
I don't think we've seen Kery Doom on the games that we have so far covered, but it
does feel like it's still very good.
We've seen a couple of respect fans coming out.
Yeah, it is very good.
And I personally, I'm not the biggest fan of the Axe, like it's okay, like it's an
acceptable pick, but I don't think it's amazing by any means, like the lane is going to be
really rough.
I don't think it's a great Axe team either, to be honest.
Not that I've seen the amount of heals and dying he's also able to provide.
He has the tombstone, like he has the shard, the heals, he has a lot of counter plays against
Axe.
Axe calling in the undying is most of the time a disaster also, when he has the ulti form
you just die basically from calling him.
So essentially this axe is a little bit, if in my opinion, I think it's going to leave
Liquid in a weird spot because their teamfight potential, I think it's kind of out of the
window.
I feel like Aurora already have a big teamfight advantage even though they have the ultimate
aspect.
What would you prefer?
I guess Pec was.
I think that like, I think a Lycan for instance would have been amazing, like all these heroes
are really bad versus summons, and Lycan is actually also terrible versus summons.
this hero doesn't buy armor before like he goes they go bling they go BKB like it
takes a while before they actually get an armor item so they die really quick to
some some lichen or or or some beasts I mean beasts would have been harder to
lane but as we said lichen is a lichen is a cheater because he can always pull
the wave so he doesn't really need to bump his head against the wall but I mean
we'll see how he plays out for them axe is never bad pick this hero is very solid
very stable but I think I always smiling like that's the second time not a
that depicts Jukiro and he has a midi position 3 coming to his lane, on liquid side they
decided to remove the alt that we've seen in Aurora play yesterday was very good, again
as we said it's going to be hard to pressure Nightfall because this Jukiro is going to
reign supreme on the safe lane, I could see like a tiny 4-a-rore last pick, I think it
fits their lineup really well, very good against Axe, decent matchup also versus Urspirit,
you're just too tanky basically to care about the spells, it's also a bit of a mix damage
having status resistance feels really nice and as you said super tanky, stabilize the
lane, gives you kill threat. Nightfall, like a lot of his hero have been also banned out
and he has interesting hero pool as well, maybe something like, okay, this is like what's
classic. Okay, we'll go back to that. It's a really
good hero against the lane on the lane, by the way, like it's one of the counters. I
I think 1 on dying plus 3 was popular, TA also became popular, super good lane.
You can always blink out, kite him with your traps.
It's quite solid actually, the C.A. Pick.
I really like it.
Also very good against Lina.
Lina is very susceptible to physical damage, TA gets on top of Lina at all stage of the
game.
We were yet to see enough Lina's, but it's a lot of split push like travel, agonims,
they clear waves from the fog.
If she ever steps on the TA trap, she will just die.
What about Nightfall, PA, PL?
Yeah, there he comes.
It's very good.
I would just say PL or Naga Siren carry
would look insanely well.
Because of the items that you're buying,
you don't care at all about the battle hunger in the lane.
It's very good.
Like you have a dispel mechanic,
double dispel mechanic against Earth Spirit.
It feels really nice.
You can pretty much dodge anything.
We're talking about one of the best PL players in the world.
And we've seen PL, I believe,
three times and he didn't lose a single game yet.
I thought TLP is rough.
Ay, ay, ay.
If I'm liquid, I'm a little bit worried.
You're on a timer.
You're on a massive timer.
But you have really good heroes to accelerate the game.
Like Earth Spirit, super fast-paced, very, very active.
Same with T.A.
T.A. objective-taking hero turn mentor, Rosh.
It can happen real quick.
And same for Axe.
I mean, Axe, if he's really, like, if he wins this lane,
somehow and starts to creep skip we could be like you can hit some crazy item timings so but yeah liquid
Cannot allow a slow game because as soon as night falls online
I don't want to say CG but it's as close as it gets
There was a time like maybe a year ago where I think it was Mickey who first started this
It's not gonna call it Mjolnir Mjolnir TA because you're playing against the illusions and you need to adapt somehow
and you don't have enough AoE so I want to see if Mickey is maybe gonna go and find that route because I
Don't see the other answers interesting. I mean you can get a Shiva's from the earth spirits. You could get a Mjolnir TA
I still think they want to win the game before it gets to that point, but
interesting yeah, he actually
Started against illo heroes and I think he realized well
This is this is actually just good and he started doing it in games where they weren't even illos
So perhaps still viable we'll have to see his axe not also considered somewhat viable to PL
I mean you jump in you call you kind of know who the real one is if you get to call him
It's amazing
But the thing is that good P up there should never let you call him always
He will always double like they're gonna pair on the Invis like the shard. It's
You know and and what is lined up?
There's gonna be an underlying starting the fight like the PL will should have enough freedom to kite the axe around
And in this game, it's pretty simple like axe is the only hero he has to worry. So
Yeah, be sure that he'll have his screen, his camera on the axe, and he will just...
And you're going to get the value out of SoulRip, because you have PL, so with all these extra units you're always going to get the max amount of heal with the 10 units, so there's going to be 500 heal on hero like PL that gets it on low cooldown.
It's going to feel really nice knowing that you can't really die that easily from 100 to 0.
PL on dying combo, look at that.
Yeah, it's quite the treat for Aurora fans here. They look solid in their draft.
they just have to make sure that they don't give Liquid too much.
But Liquid doesn't run away with the game because if they get a big lead and can force
the game to close out early, then they are definitely having a good shot here.
So it's a little bit of a race against the clock, if you will.
The main question is, can Team Liquid win that race against the clock?
Do they have the tools to do so? Do we think they can, Seth?
They can. They can for sure.
It's going to come down to the day, honestly, but my only concern is that Nisha's playing
a losing matchup.
No matter how good you are, I don't want to say it's unplayable, but Lina is going
to bully you.
There's no way around it.
So in that sense, the biggest tempo controller is going to be slowed down, so it will have
have to come from maybe Mickey finding some, you know, some clutch moves early in the game.
Same with Ace, like he has to play a fast-paced style. We'll have to see.
We'll have to see and we will see as it is time for game number one between Aurora and
Liquid with Cap and SCG.
Finally, we get a chance to witness the greatest Phantom Lancer player of all time.
The people have been picking it.
You saw Yandex have already won two games with it.
BB Team followed suit with the pick up themselves.
Aurora have picked the Phantom Lancer
in other tournaments, but here at EWC,
the first time we get to witness it.
Avery, I see that he's the best Phantom Lancer player
in the world with confidence
because he's got the stats to back it up.
What would you guess that his win rate is on this era?
In professional gameplay?
In professional gameplay.
Probably 77%
80%? Over 80% with 52 matches, that might be the highest player hero combination win rate with over 50 games
That's crazy hot
Is he beating up milkmen or though? I mean, you know, who's he playing against?
Well, two years ago, he actually played against Liquid
Yeah, so, I say I'm not that lost to it
Yeah
It is a scary player here a combination that is for sure. Let's be honest the greatest pl player in the world is
The guy who's in your last pub that guy is the greatest pl player in the world. He's well
I'm not zero untouchable on the enemy. Yes. I'm saying the last guy you played against a pub
Professional gameplay it might be nightfall right now very well. Probably he's nightfall right now
There are some minor counters outside of liquid axe is a top three stack counter to this hero. I think it's
It's mainly pub-driven stats, definitely not as good in Protota.
If the PL player knows where the axe is, if you double dodge, he doesn't do a lot, but
you can't go to the sags, you reduce heal, he looks cool down.
You get a larger AoE call now.
The shard can be interesting for some extra melt.
Like, you have more tools against the PL.
I don't know how much it changes your actual win chance, but I could see a popping off
be a really good start.
And of course the lane can be very good for you on Axe, you get a fast vanguard, PL doesn't
touch you too much.
Earth Spirit can also be okay, but generally you're not doing anything to him.
You just dispel your magnetize and he's just running around the fight and you're sitting
there like wishing you had better A-way spells.
So again I think Liquid's answers are really about being ahead, like that is generally
the best way to keep PL, you just get ahead and you can kind of just run down with anything.
This is really a true game of that nature where your your soft counters are not going
to do the job unless you have a net worth advantage in this game because the TA matchup
is a hundred to zero.
There is no way out of this matchup for Micae.
He needs another two cores to pick it up.
What do you think about the Mjolnir build as it's not an answer, not a hard answer, but
irrelevant.
Mjolnir doesn't touch the zero anymore.
Okay.
Those days are gone.
You have to be able to chunk him down.
He's going to get tanky.
He's going to have three, four thousand HP right.
Crocking me on your twice is completely relevant. We're talking about an extra hundred damage or something sure
So better just to go a normal build and play burn tempo
Yes, big fast road son, so if you want to go to the other build because he likes it then it's fine
But you're not doing it because you're against PL here in my mind. It makes no difference. I
Am excited to see more linear. I'm really big on this hero. Yeah, I think we should see this role a lot
I think it is a
I'll make a bold statement here. I think Lena is a top 20 hero in this batch.
Top 20?
Just in raw power.
Basically, you're saying it should be in every draft.
Pick or ban.
It should top 20.
Okay, so the thing about Lena is she is a little one-dimensional,
which I think hurts her draft potential.
Okay, all right.
Like, even when she's broken, you're not going to see her in every draft,
just because it's rare the hero can't get countered in some way.
He's already back at a link.
But I will say this hero has a lot of build flexibility now it can become insanely tanky, and I think people
Still don't understand the truly broken builds on this hero. I'm gonna say I'm gonna I'm gonna say it there
So I think if we see players develop this hero more and understand what it can do and how you can scale with it
It's we're gonna see a lot more. It's really scary in the late game
It sounds like liquid should hire you as the third coach to teach them how to
I only do second or fourth coach slots, so I'm sorry, I'm lucky.
They gotta fire one or higher another. They don't consider the option.
Well baby, Aurora can pick you up.
They don't need me there. They're doing quite fine.
That is true. They are looking very good so far.
Ace, who's been doing some back-laning, they're actually gonna make an effort here to chase him out of it.
I mean, it is actually working.
Meanwhile, mid lane matchup talking about that lead and Makoto is killing it in CS 22 and 11.
He's destroying Nisha. I mean, we did a little pre-record earlier, talked about what kind of Nisha are we going to see today.
Well, this is not the Nisha the Liquid wanted to see, at least not so far.
Rough matchup for him.
We haven't really seen our spirit win lanes unless you dominate the CS early.
There we go, let's get some Mal-Reen tricks in here.
Just, you know, the lane's not good.
Don't late at all.
Range creep?
Oh, we got it.
Very nice.
Very well played.
I'll give him a little respite here.
Probably go to base.
As Mikoto is full resources, he has a vibing in this lane.
Going to get real fat.
This is a great boots travel hero.
One of the fastest farmers in the game
when you get your build online.
It sucks that it's, uh, for liquid, anyway.
It sucks that it is a safe lane, Jekiro,
making it a whole lot harder because they do have to back lane
because Jekiro's quite the laner.
And as a result, Nightfall is getting great CS.
So the threat, they're gonna have to hit them,
it gained real hard because they are not shutting them down
in the laning phase.
It's a product of WinRanger just not being able to
synergize with Axe that well in the lane and exert some sort
of aggressive presence against Jekiro in particular.
It is a very clutch pick of five or,
to see this hero come back a little bit as the doctor gets soul ripped into oblivion.
Yeah, they uh, I don't know if they buff soul rip or something, but I've been seeing this soul rip
built up by these Korontines. It's actually insane how much damage it does.
It does a lot. I'm surprised.
You used to have the max units cap. The fact that it's always 10 now is a pretty big deal.
Right. Especially you just drop tombstone zombies pop out. You soul rip somebody,
It's guaranteed max it's a lot of burst damage in these fights
It's a very local down spell always been a very good spell at level 4. Yeah, 80 mana for 140 damage
That sounds like a great trade-off. That was like a timber saw spell for eight years. That's true
Sounds unbelievable trouble great push whack from Mira. Is that enough to save Makoto Makoto turns back around look good
Oh, we're dead base of tofu tofu with the yields will not be able to live long enough carry should be able to get away here
No problems
All right, Makoto survives, gets a power rune.
I do think the weakness of Lina is the roaming, skirmishing against us here early.
He's really susceptible to just getting going and dying because you're not that mobile,
you're not that survivable compared to almost any other mid you're going to pick.
If you can ruin his early game a little bit, you set all his timings back and then it can
be a slow crawl to get there.
You can see these Lina games where you have four, five, six deaths, even if you're winning
the lane, just because you stuck it in chain game.
So the fact that Makoto can survive that is pretty big.
Simultaneously though, these Urspirit builds where they don't go any of the rolling boulder
early on means that you're less effective at being able to go for that all-in kill, right?
Definitely hurts you, your potential in this matchup.
So you split the Wisdom Shrines.
PL free farming. Vanguard is done for ace. You can start to get a little more aggressive down here.
And this is the point where Liquid would want to bring heroes into this lane and start ruining Nightfall's time.
They need the extra magic damage to kill this Vanguard axe, so they bring in Mira.
Oh, he dies here.
He is definitely dead. It's just a question of how much damage can they do.
Kari is probably going to die at the Maladik, but Nightfall is getting three swings on Tofu.
He doesn't opt to chase it down, just accepts the 1 for 1 trade off, which is still to their favor.
48 and 13 is his CS.
gets to be a part of the kill, didn't get the last hit, but now he's got his level six.
So even if the Axe were to start asserting himself in this lane and start kicking him out,
well, he's already got juxtaposed to farm up neutrals just fine. Jump the gun a little bit there,
if you're ace. You need the supports with you to take the fight into this Phantom Lancer and
roar. They were ready for that play. Preemptively there with supports, get a big kill that's going
to keep Nightfall on this lane, sets the Axe back considerably. No aggressive potential coming out
this lane, that is bad news for Liquid, because now you're playing against the last pick-fantal
lancer that is not getting pressured in lane. In fact, he is the most farm hero out of this
lane phase, and he has an absolutely free carry matchup. So what's the game plan here?
Well, that was a question awesome. What's the game plan? Back to the mid game where you get
Blink Dagger on axe, and you go from an even game, and then in 10 minutes you've won the game.
And if you don't do it in that 10-minute window, then you've lost.
That was like the most optimistic game plan I've ever heard.
You asked me for a game, but then I gave you one.
Get Blink Tire, then win the game in 10 minutes?
Yeah, pretty much.
Do you disagree? That's not like...
I don't think that's physically possible in modern Dota.
But I think that's the best game plan they have.
You know, you should be a coach. You're a great coach.
Thank you.
Little sarcasm.
I choose, I'm gonna optimistically believe that that was not sarcasm, that you are genuine
about your feelings.
That's how you'd make a great coach.
I have a political prep.
Very optimistic.
Thank you.
Sometimes that's what a team needs.
A roar are chilling right now.
There's no pressure on them to make any sort of moves.
The more this PL gets to sit bottom, the happier they are, same with the leaner mid.
These are two heroes that just won.
They just want to sit for 12, 13 minutes.
You know, get the first little farming item up, the Boots of Travel, the Osh, whatever it is, have a nice slow-paced game, there's no ganks going into your vibe, and you're getting levels.
Levels are super big on this, Lena. So every time you don't die, that means you're getting XP on the map, that means you're progressing your game plan.
They're feeling very comfortable right now.
I mean, legitimately, when would you say the timer is that Aurora have, like, let's say a 93% chance to win the game?
Like, what items does Phantom Lancer get to that it's like,
oh, okay, Liquid you probably have lost.
If he has Manta, Ag's,
and he has highest network in this game,
I think that is the point.
Okay, I don't think it takes much if he's the highest network, right?
That almost sounds like the Axis needs to get a blink tagger and,
and win the game in 10 minutes, otherwise he'll get those items,
but the game is pretty much over.
There's gonna have to be something.
That's for sure. It has to be from the Earth Spirit and the Axe.
If, again, we go another 10 minutes and your Earth Spirit and Axe are combined like 0-1-1 or something.
I just don't see a panning out.
Of course anything can happen in the world of Dota 2, but I think this is a war's game plan and it's falling into place for him right now.
See if Liquid can get something going. You always have that TA wildcard if Micae can find some good early teamfights.
Gotta snowball the game into an early deso, early roche.
Could do some serious work here.
Liquid looking to find something on top of the magnetized, but once again a roar, just
already set up for this move.
They're one step ahead in this game, it feels like.
Yeah, without it like, not being able to win the lanes super heavily, and then now going
into the situation where in some of these early games, skirmishes, you're fighting into
What a dying very tough hero to fight into just doesn't really look like liquid has a chance of
You know being up 510 K the first 20 minutes. They just kind of have to sit back
Hit their timing and hit it really hard
Tower down for nothing nightfall just goes back through the gate
No pressure on any of these objectives.
Shackle Shot to this land on WS here.
They do not really have anything to follow that up, though.
Really annoying trying to go into this undying when he has the Cecil Sturge anyway.
There's not even gaining map control or anything.
My best guess is you should be killing this Lena mid.
Yeah, well that's what they just smoked to, but the rune spawned bottom.
If it spawned top and Lena goes for it, then maybe they had a chance to get a kill there,
Instead, they're gonna have to go deeper into the map, which is a dangerous proposition.
This can, Makoto. If you get on top of Lina, it's a free kill every time.
Amp damage on Nisha is also super value here. We'd love to take a fight.
But once more, the move is red. You miss your opportunity.
Yeah, you're just gonna have to take the consolation prize, which is gonna be going for the support that's showing mid.
Vera, we'll die to the amp damage from Nisha.
You hit this tower? Not really, have you seen?
One dragon slave and you're pushing the desk.
Alright, well, you're getting to the Dessau on Mickey.
I think that's when we will see Liquid try and do something more drastic.
You should have your blink dagger on the axe as well.
You can make a nice smoke move into mid.
You just jump Lena, bring him down with Dessau, hit, take a tower.
You can start to snowball this game in your favor.
We'll see if Aurora can read that move as well.
Because right now, if all I'm thinking about if I'm Aurora is protecting my Lena, protecting my tier ones,
let the PL do his thing solo.
So we're just trying to read the moves going into this mid area of the map.
And you should have a pretty good time defensively here.
Sad parties, these supports have nothing to do with liquid.
At least Aurora, you can confidently make some moves because your heroes are actually quite good versus TA.
You can burn through that refraction pretty quickly, and with WS picking up the Blink Tagger joining in on that kill, nice and easy.
Nisha, he tried to show off to help, but he does get a really good magnetize. Melee threatened by the Laguna Blade.
LSA does land for the Shackle Shot. Holds him back. Nisha trying to survive against the zombies, but it's too much. They overwhelm him, and Liquid will get nothing out of that.
Not a...
Boxing might die here too, this one dines really fast.
Yeah, he is with the Blink Tagger, push back lands, and a soul rip.
Woo! That's max level right there.
That's the only thing, you can go 4-4s-1 on this hero as an offlaner.
You don't need to play around the tombstone that much, just drop it as a nuisance and then you're just soulworking people for days.
500 damage max level.
Rough fight for liquid. Losing your cores like that for nothing.
This Nina is fat, this PL is fat.
Stacks are being made. It's coming up all Aurora right now.
Manta done a nightfall as well and is way to an aggro sector.
You would probably say that's done in what? Less than 10 minutes?
Oh for sure. It should be done... 6 or 7 here.
Okay, so top net worth Manta axe.
Maybe not even that long. We'll see how fast you can farm.
You have your blink on axe.
Yeah, and he's not doing nothing with it.
It kind of needs to blade mail too to be a threat to these heroes.
Part of the issue.
I guess.
You just keep doing the one more item thing, then you're just going to one more item yourself out of this game, right?
Let's let's we just it liquid as a very little situation if they're acts you kind of need you need to get on acts in some games
Yeah, we've all been there. Yeah, what do you want to do?
Okay, let's put it this way his play mail effective in killing Phantom monster a little bit here a little bit
It's all it he doesn't be some of that too so I
I would say realistically what's more likely to kill him is just getting that locked out in the first place and then liquid rolling in
Getting some follow up Gary
Trying to play pretty deep here with some vision here comes WS though drop the tombstone right on a full supports are already down my
We go couldn't even I didn't even get the calling plate. He's maybe got the choppy so slow that you run down right next to the rest
I'm gonna ask a bold question
uh go ahead is this game over like it feels yeah it does really feel like i
mean these these two fights are just not it's playing with your food you saw
fast boxy disappeared you got sword sharp shot this hero just disappeared and
what is the threat you're focus firing for a maledict with an axe call without
blade mail we don't pass these supports that you know yeah you had a shop on a
a jacquero, but how are you taking the long fight here? Do you want to roll in this as an Earth spirit?
No, there's no way I want to roll into any of this.
All right, I just think when you're not going on Aurora, Aurora is going to eventually set up
on you and you don't really win that fight. And when you're talking about it, it's if, like,
Liquid needs to take the tempo. Right now, a big Aurora look like they're the one with the tempo draft.
Well, still having this very spooky panel answer who is 10,000 net worth.
And he is 1000 gold away from an Agnus Scepter.
Big problems here to solve.
It has to be the TA getting involved now.
You have to win some fight where Mikay can stay alive, coming clean 3 or 4 heroes up
get there.
So charge into Roshan.
That is your way back in this game.
Trying to do just that, Mikkei can connect to this fight.
Could be a great one.
Gonna have to just like initiate these,
do spot the hoodwink, walks into him.
Don't get the chop, unfortunately,
and they also only get one support pick off.
You have to keep going here.
You have to just keep pushing forward.
Either gotta feel that's enough for you
to be able to do Roshan or keep getting kills
or get a tower off of this.
At least you get a D-ward.
Loose haste for him to Makoto.
That kind of sucks.
Well, can you do about it?
If Roche were top, maybe they would have just done it there.
Little awkward on the timings.
Nightfall, he's chat wheeling, tells you how comfortable he is right now.
This is an average hub for him.
WS with the early BKB, just one more item, just one more pick up to make sure it's okay.
Liquid, they're gonna have a really tough time.
We're running us over in this window
They're gonna have the ads on the code or two I
Don't know liquid just not playing it within the urgency which says me that they have a different read of the game
So I would say tells me they don't know what they don't see an opening
It's hard to play there and see if you don't see a play
X1, X2. Both being done. Phantom Lancer and Lina. We'll both collect their big super-charged
items. And, uh, well, I believe that says Phantom Lancer is top-netware, so Avery, you
said that that's, uh, what, 93% chance? I think they are extremely favorite given this
map state. Dota plus, it says 83%. Yeah. I wonder how much that'll take down with the TA lineup,
not getting Roshan. It's smoke up and it's been too late.
Well, he feels flying in for the axe. It does up your kill threat a lot, especially if you
can land a call on either the Lina or the Phantom Lancer. Aegis on Nightfall,
He's just gonna run into him. He's breaking the smoke. He's spot on the first running it down with the agon interceptor
But he doesn't want to go too far
You're double blade male on your initiators you got to get something done right now
Even Mickey's trying to open praying that Makoto will walk into them here nice idea
Fortunately
Koto's not walking into anything right now
Yeah, because in Parakeet you can walk anywhere he wants to, he's got boots to travel.
He can take the long way around, he can teleport somewhere else around the map, he doesn't
have to play in this triangle area.
Wisdom Shrine spawning, potentially a point of attack here.
Torments are still available too, or eyeing up that bottom.
So they're going to concede a wisdom shrine to take Tormentor, something going liquid's
way because I don't think they're getting Tormentor regardless.
I see them.
Be conceding all objectives.
Boxing is going to try and take the mid tower.
Makoto's going to pop out which way it doesn't land.
Tower will still fall at some point.
44 HP.
Good data.
Strong gust of wind at this point.
We get the boomerang too.
Very nice, not a land club, the lean is damaged.
Oh yeah.
Very deadly combination, just the two of them. Kill anything in this game.
So you're not gonna reevaluate this at all?
Revaluate what?
I don't know, matchup.
The language has seemed unconcerned about this.
You really think they're so...
I like what if even if you don't feel like you know exactly what to do like you still have the general idea of like
Okay, we have to force a fight someone. I would have urgency
I'm a I'm an observer, you know, maybe the game feels fine
Curious
They're gonna rat him a little bit
Here comes the Phantom Lancer though, and he is not to be tripled with, especially with an Aegis, still real robotic.
He's working towards a Scotty, which is gonna make things a little rough for TA.
Could just... hey, you're gonna go in the fight and just axe, call Nightfall every time.
You can fall out of with other stuns, you will be able to kill him.
Maybe the confidence is there. Maybe Ace is like,
I'm gonna have this guy's number.
I'll sweat it.
Foxy getting a blink dagger, certainly gonna help with that.
Ooh, nice little snake.
Two-man HK carry.
Okay.
There's the call on WS, and now we can see that DSL put to use
quick little calling blade to chop him down.
Yeah, there's a lot of gold for that kill.
Oh, yeah.
Aurora is up in net worth right now,
and he had a dominating kill streak, so.
It does instantly respawn here,
but you get all the goodies.
And that chance for Ace to move along to his BKB.
Got to wait to see some sort of item queued up that it's like, oh, OK.
Now I can see how they're going to deal with Final Answer.
And Melt Pit wasn't particularly inspiring.
It's got to be Axe BKB, Axe at some point.
I have to believe Axe is one of your best tools here.
Okay, yeah.
Refresher, you could double-call him with infinite spin.
Sounds kinda like the lawnmower.
I was gonna say the ballerina, but lawnmower's probably more fitting.
Missed pushback mid.
Here's spin fishing for these.
Here comes Nightball.
Oh!
Click away. Run away! Everybody run! The call!
He actually went for the call!
Still as ages, you don't want to fall for it.
Trying to get these side blade hits on the real one.
Need a wall tofu. That position will be left behind.
A rough one for the doctor, but he's got his gree-greed going, so...
It's not all lost here. 700 in the bank.
When do you pop the gree-greed?
Not for a long time.
I'm waiting till that baby's got 3,000 on it.
Aisha has to BKB offensively. That is one thing.
This lineup does not have a way to stop BKB T-pills.
And they will almost never, unless the leader or the fan amongst them want to get a basher.
Which they might if you come to them with a problem.
Yeah, P.L. can buy it.
I don't think they really care about it.
You just keep pressuring the map, force them out of areas. You're gonna continue farming and scaling here.
You could see that lake in a bisole for nightfall.
I think you will want...
just Scotty butterfly, Bloodthorn.
Something of this nature. Bloodthorn's just too good on this hero.
I'm not gonna lie, this is a boring ass game. Both teams just settled into farming, Aurora
are obviously very comfortable with it, and Liquid seemingly are okay with it. They're
gonna set up for the top tower. This is a great setup. He's gonna be pulling blade. Too
They actually jumped as early as they did. It would have been nice to get both supports there, but they can get another objective now.
Okay, liquid.
Finding some openings here, getting a couple axe calls, and this on towers.
It's not all doom and gloom. They have a gem running on the Windranger. Pretty hard hero to kill, unless the Lena finds him.
Get a lot of map control off this.
Work towards your BKBs, and
Should have a pretty nice triple BKB timing. I guess maybe Mikke won't want this game if he thinks he just needs to go as much damage as possible
Yeah, that certainly seems to be the case building up the Daedalus now
She was for the big bad on dying
We saw him, you know, he had a problem with that direct damage earlier when he got called shackled
The TA killed him pretty quickly, but that Shiva's armor will definitely make a big difference.
Quick smoke from Liquid trying to catch the P.L. Top.
He vacated that area a while ago.
Nisha, just going Kaya Sange, not the real special there.
No.
Well, I know one of the reasons you're a big fan of Lina is this hero's scale, kinda out
of control.
Oh yeah.
It's real juicy.
Level 8 team, going for Kaya Gasha and Link Dagger.
You get some of those later towns to level 25,
WS leading charge with the Sheevis.
Blitz in, plus golem.
Boxie is already gone.
TP way six.
Oh, not successful.
Mira catches him right on the edge.
What a huge pick.
That is going to feel real good for Aurora.
You get the carry, and you get the gem out
of the Winranger's hands.
Makoto with a fast BKB, a flame cloak pop.
He's untouchable unless you get Axe called there.
That's probably the two best picks they could possibly get, right?
Because that Jem pays dividends for them
by being able to clear all these TA traps,
let's Liquid not be able to play the map as well.
You almost rather lose anybody else's game
than those two right there for free.
They got nothing out of that, right?
And Alex just isn't even here.
So this is kind of a doomed fight if Aurora run into you.
I don't know how that's done,
but that was kind of a fake pushback, to be honest.
He's a two-time TI champ, so who am I to say?
He doesn't have a chasm stone, right?
No, I just checked that.
Oof.
There's a rough one right now.
Oh, here it comes.
Aurora feeling like three Adam Phantom line, sir, is enough.
Trying to deal with the rats on the map, though.
Lina's pretty good at being able to deal with that.
Flies off the clip area, Nisha.
Hope zeroes it back on Makoto, hoping to catch him on awareness.
Makoto definitely dodges that one.
Topu running down the river, meanwhile Ace, BKB, make a run for it.
Shackle shot, hoping to hold back the real P up, but there's just too many illusions.
And he's going to chase them down all the way behind the tier three.
Look at him go.
It's like, what can you do about this?
LSA stops the witch doctors.
Topu did not make it out.
And there's two teamfights happening this game, and look at her losing both right now.
So, pick one, try and commit to it, make something happen here, nice shot, I'm going to get him.
Got a sound on the WPL somehow.
There's so much armor here.
There you go.
Nice side blade hit.
Side blade hit, saw off the TA traps.
Some deso charges, level 20 now.
Extra armor reduction.
Kai, saunge for Nisha.
start to power up a little bit. If he can call this PL into the chainsaw, the TIA hitting
him, he can die. And that can open up the fight.
Ororor the good picks though, between the leases.
It's easier, yeah. Mira having a blink dagger, getting that close range push whack. And then
That immediately just...
Largs are going off, Nightfall is hitting base.
It's pretty free.
Oh, a nice little Arcane Room bottom.
Save that one for the Lena.
Ooh, got given the gem by the way, so Makoto's just running around and I'm killing all these traps.
He doesn't have to worry about T.A. jumping in.
What some vision he's not aware of.
Pretty big for him. Rosh spawn in two seconds. Will they see it? Don't leave the pit.
Liquid R smoked up. Rora's gonna happen. You have to contest this. And they have a chance to get in here.
Let's see if Rora is lazy in their position. Power shot on through.
Rora start leaving the pit. Ace is gonna go in, hits the call. Find out the real Phantom Lancer.
No follow-up from the team and the old scepter quickly stops any damage from the blade mail.
Now he pops the BKB and teleports away and the LSA on tofu. He's dead slow down on the Templar assassin. He's got BKB
Is he gonna be able to know the shot?
So much DPS coming out from the PL when all those illusions surround you
Right through the refraction pretty quickly. He's just going for an agent still though
The second he blinks in and sees that roaches alone up these already knows
He's just gonna try and bail out of the situation. You're not taking the fight without the air spirit
Don't have enough damage to all in this final answer
I will say that the peel on dying synergies is kind of nice.
You just guarantee max soul warps and you just heal this guy throughout the fight.
The cooldowns kind of align nicely.
You just perm a doppling, perm a soul warping.
Really annoying, actually.
Now he has a heart, so he doesn't need anymore sustain.
His tanky is how 4200 HP Phantom Lancer.
That is some damage right there.
My call is, uh, ushered Boxing back to his fountain while he hits the tier three at the
same time, sent all his illusions running after him.
And liquid.
They're looking at us.
As well as hell.
They're just farming up some bits of the map.
So we're not the Greek girl, though.
So true, that's true.
1100, 50 on the Greek, or he's getting up there.
You could pop that way later on for surprise hacks, you never know.
Yeah, another 80 minutes and maybe a sneaky divine wraith here.
Mmm, I like where that's going.
Alright, nightfall verse 5, let's go.
They actually could.
Let's go.
He's already killed Tofu.
They got the Malodict on him.
He's going, 1v5, into the fountain, all of his illusions hitting all of the heroes on Liquid while he himself ducks away.
Man, this hero's so dirty, man.
It is pretty damn good.
He is one of the true dirtiest heroes in the history of this game.
He's gonna keep throwing illusions at Ace, keeps delaying the Blink Dagger initiation.
Oh, 1v5 again, into the tier 4s. Man, just don't care.
An attempted shackle.
That's gonna be a tough one to land, I'm not gonna lie.
Oh, I don't even know what the opening looks like, exactly.
They're all kind of waiting around, but I don't know for what.
Lena pops out from the side, look good at play, but flies away.
Actually, the flying didn't expire. He's going to have to TP out.
Meanwhile, Ace, though, through a BKB, he dies.
It's just too much physical damage at this point.
Misha has to pop his own BKB.
KB. Nightfall is sticking to him. No, he's gonna go after Tofu again. Why not kill this
doctor one more time? Send him back to the fountain. Scythe is done for WS. They didn't
need initiation, but they have it.
You're going to get back here pretty quickly. They want to continue the siege. Still have
ages for two minutes here. The most casual two lanes to bear, see you'll ever see. He's
just zoning them to the fountain. This is disgusting.
Yeah, I feel like this is very inefficient from Nightfall, but it's really funny.
He's probably enjoying himself.
That's what counts.
Oh, they found the TA.
Goodbye.
That might do it here.
Austin, I don't know if this game has too much more in the tank.
So Liquid, all the talk about what they might need to do or anything, they're gonna GG out
without a team fight, without a single initiation from Axe into an Earth Spirit roll-in, and
T8 jumps in after it, you're just going to go out to Phantom Lancer slowly hitting buildings
and running illusions, actually.
Well, we saw this in the other elastic PL game, who was that?
EDT.
Yeah, who did you explain that?
But who are they playing against?
Because basically the same thing happened, they got elastic PL and we just never really
You saw them try anything?
It might have been...
I don't remember who that was.
And it's the last fight we'll commence here.
It's hard to...
It's hard to look at this team fight with any real, uh...
Oh, yeah, but no shot at doing anything here.
Pisha...
See if he can roll out.
It's pretty much...
Will Liquid survive after going in?
Shackle?
It's actually low off of that shackle,
but, uh, yeah, there it is.
GZ.
Okay!
Wow!
Hmm.
That was one of the games of all time.
It'll add to Nightfall's PL record.
He's instantly out of there.
He said, don't you ever disrespect me again
by giving me an elastic fan away.
It's sort of no counter.
And that is a demoralizer right there, man.
It was an extreme gaming.
That's who I thought was extreme yet.
It was a very similar thing where they're just farming
and they're buying a couple of items that in theory
are doing this PL, but really are they?
Yeah, we all know where this is.
Yeah.
The thing about the hero is you can just go this build
where you just get really tanky.
You're not even building damage.
You're just a super high HP total and you kill off the strength of the illusions having a minimum DPS now and
What are you gonna do even if you ask play the call this guy he feels like 300 damage to himself
You know congrats. There is no counter. So let me just get cheese and dota
Sometimes you get last pick panel answer. You got to be able to write it off go next game reset the mentality
It's always tough to do because you just feel like you never had a chance to win this game
Is there a chance? Yes, technically. I don't know how feasible it is
Maybe you're just supposed to start running at this PL from like minute five and just play super chaotic though
I'm trying to like bring Nick a through the gate four times in the first ten minutes
You know some wild shit like this actually think the real opportunity in this game was probably mid
I think you're supposed to chain gank this we know and I think you have to take an early point in role if you're Nisha
Sure, this is not able to be up. Yes. It's not a default build
You don't feel good doing it in terms of your game efficiency, but I think it's one of those games that is
so lopsided you need to make something happen very early and just outskill your
opponents and drag them into bad plays, free up space on the sidelines and the
way you do that is I think you just start rolling on the Zeno like a little four
or five and bring supports in. Like none of these things are things you want to
have to do. Yeah, but if you do nothing and you just let this game progress and you
let the peel on the uniform, you're losing this game. I refuse to see a win
condition in this scenario. It's just not doable. So this is the conversation you
You and Seb are actually having backstage. We've talked about modern team teams, they're better than they've ever been in many ways, in particular efficiency, but are they worse at improv and creative?
I think sometimes. I think sometimes you get stuck in these efficiency modes where you're just defaulting to like, what is best for my hero, what's best for my team, and you lose sight of the bigger picture.
Well, the bigger picture is there is still a second game, because Liquid had no chance to game one.
They did not, they got that overall last pick PL on Aurora and let's be real we
can already saw the running on the wall then. A lot to break down here with this
game one nonetheless and also maybe some extra information. The game is still
going on my right but P-Time is in the lead against the Galaxy and that is
also having an impact on the teams here on the stage. I'm here with Lacoste and
and said, Lacoste, this game, the PO overall last pick, what can you do?
Well, not much here, it's one of those things that it does happen,
maybe they didn't see it coming, but I feel like the chances of them winning the game
after seeing the draft are like sub 10% because of the higher caliber team that they are playing as
well. Maybe, you know, if Liquid is playing some qualified team that doesn't really know how to
to close out these game, how to utilize the map and everything. I would give them higher chances,
but this isn't very experienced. This is the PL guy. This is the nightfall on one of his favorite
heroes. If you're an Eastern European carry, you need to know how to play TB, Naga Siren, PL.
That's how you come into the scene pretty much. Pretty solid performance, nothing too crazy. It
seems like they had it in the bag since they started playing with the Chakiro as well. I really
I love the fact that they are utilizing these more like untraditional position fives like
Jukiro, Warlock, these are heroes from the previous patches but they're still finding
a good way to use them.
Yeah, for sure and I think one thing to add too is I feel like this on-dying first pick
is not really answered in a sense because when you think about it like they started on-dying
and it felt unbeatable in the game, right?
And I think usually, from a draft student perspective, you have to go back to that.
It's not normal.
Like it's not okay.
Like usually when you first pick a hero, unless the hero is absolutely broken, which I don't
believe in dying is broken.
I think it's very strong, but it should pay the price, right?
Like it should be a hard game for him or have less impact, because sure, the PL carried
the game, but I feel like even before the PL came online, they hadn't dying issues.
That's what it felt like.
He was clicking Tomb, he was thinking of the fight in their Triangle, sure there's a PL there, but realistically how much did PL do?
I think it was much more of the Undying, just like pressing his spells and everybody has to run away.
And just, if you look at their lineup, there's like a TA, but TA is playing versus PL, so Endric Hero, so TA is playing quite careful.
I feel like it's an axe, Earth Spirit teamfight versus Undying, this is what Undying loves.
So in that sense, I think some teams have to go back to the drawing board in trying to address the underlying
But maybe it's just that good, you know, but I'll only
Will be my conclusion once I see like a proper attempt at countering it because I don't think
these heroes
Do the job. Yeah, I think this year was also not
Countered by what we call traditional counters anymore. This is not like I'm gonna pick Marana snap for a killer to some
This hero is not about the tombstone anymore, it's more about decay and soul red being on low cooldown,
picking up the blink dagger and walking onto a target, creating bazillion zombies, amplifying that damage.
I think I need to kill on dying. I was looking at the game more closely,
because I'm getting upset at this hero, like, dominating game, so I'm like, what could beat it?
And it's sitting on 1.9k HP, minute 35. It's actually super squishy, like, it's deceptive.
You feel like this hero doesn't die, it dies. It actually dies. It gets bursted,
or it's very susceptible to physical damage.
So I'd like to see teams starting to theory-craft a little bit,
like, how do we counter this on dying?
Because I think it can be countered.
And the thing, if you counter on dying,
all of a sudden, all their teamfight is gone.
Because the hero doesn't really, like...
You know, it doesn't play the map, essentially.
If you're playing on dying and you can't fight, it's the most miserable.
Level up on their first game, I don't know why, so I see a big one.
That's a level up.
Yeah, quite level up there.
They won against L1T.
And Lora now on top of the group has said that my galaxy is still playing against P-Time right now.
Oh my god, I glanced over to the side and I don't, I know you don't see it, but they showed the graph.
And I said P-Time was winning and then they see the biggest, biggest roller coaster drop down coming out from that graph in favor of the galaxy.
So it's still going on.
What are you, sometimes I'm wondering, I'm hoping that you guys have two streams at the same time, because quite a math one.
But, this game in particular, you guys talked a lot about the Undying, that was not overall
First Pick, it was actually the Earth Spirit, and Earth Spirit was kind of countered by
the Lina.
Could this have all been solved?
Just all been solved by just having a Sapphire First Pick instead?
Instead of the Earth Spirit?
Yeah.
I mean, what have been different games?
I like the Earth Spirit First Pick, I wouldn't take it away.
I think it's a very strong hero right now, it was Connored, but at the same time, again,
I'm going to go back to the Undying because I don't think Lina was the issue.
But Snufffire counters Undying.
Yes, it does, but...
And it doesn't.
It corners Tumson, but as Lacoste mentioned, I feel like there's another aspect of Undying
that's maybe even more oppressive to play against.
He's just blinking on top of you with ulti on, and you have to run.
And I think either you should be able to run more effectively, so I don't know.
Stampede, some of the siren, there are tools in the order.
Or you need to not have to run, which again, there are heroes to do so, so it needs to be addressed.
But essentially, Earth Spirit had a slower game, it's meant to be.
Again, it was Earth Spirit, so it was punished.
So it's not a classic, perfect Earth Spirit game, it's a little bit slower.
But still, it had some impact. I think it was the only hope in anything for Liquid that game.
Okay, we're going to talk more about Zombieman because Lacoste has found some highlightable actions.
Yeah, Zombieman, he seems very strong in this current meta shiver because I believe we're going to be able to pull up the clip
because this is a smoke that is happening and Team Liquid, they're going to get approached by Mira,
who kind of gets his smoke broken, immediately pick off, like they have very good heroes against the TA throughout the whole game.
And then you see the power of Lina, this is level 1 rolling boulder, rolling in, Nisha, like he just doesn't have it on the short pull down
and then they drop the tombstone, you can see Boxy, this is not a core of Inventor by any means
and I feel like this Eldan Undying is just super policy, multiple zombies chasing him down
and then he blanks in, decay and there's so many units around him and all you got is like
zombie, zombie, every single time, it's just not fun to play against because you don't have to
disengage. There's gonna be another clip that you did mention in the Triangle which is gonna be
where Jacarro, he runs in, he's under the vision of the enemy team.
Maybe I need another head to be Jacarro in the enemy team, but yeah, we're gonna see it again.
I can go back real quickly. Here we go. And Jacarro is under the vision of the enemy team,
and they are gonna get initiated. Like they're gonna initiate on him straight away,
and then again, he blinks him tombstone down. There's a bazillion zombies around him. Sure,
you got a dunk on Jacarro, but what's gonna be the price that you're gonna be paying?
For Aurora, this is a type of gank that I call K.O.R.R.I.P or K.O.R.R.I.P
because he's the only one who dies and the rest of the team is going to be able to clean up.
It's disgusting actually. They're not dying like that.
There are some Connors, there are some Connors, there are some Connors.
No, you don't have to ban it. Just beat it.
Like, Elu Heroes, Summons, Naga Siren, like there are some heavy, heavy Connors
So in the game of Tour2, it is time to pull them out.
And it's not Wichita, because obviously that is about seeing a tribe with a Wichita.
Yeah, Wichita on the line is decent, but not in the game.
I mean, you can't expect a position 5 to fix the teamfight.
It's like you're asking too much from your 5 at this point.
It's like, come on, all my gold is going into support items,
and you also want me to be able to outfight them.
Like, get yourself some core players.
Easy. It sounds like such an easy solution. Unfortunately, for Team Liquid, with them losing this game, the chance is to force out a 3-way tie at the top of the bracket.
Gone. They no longer have a chance to do so. So they're going to be playing in the survival stage.
But I think that they will be still, actually, they will probably still be, they'll be third.
So they will play and they won't, because Nigma Galaxy is still ahead on points, depending
on how the game goes as well.
But yeah, so they, they're going to be playing those survival stages and that's really going
to be spooky.
And, you know, what better practice than playing against the number one team again on stage.
Aurora definitely still lot to play for because they want to be number one in the group and there
are still chances for them to be forced to play tiebreakers against Nick McAllister depending on
the result. Well Nick McAllister versus P-Time. This game in particular what do you want to see
change Lacoste because it can't just we can't just all focus on the undying we want to see something
maybe because at the start of the series we said we wanted to see them all on the same page
on the side of Team Liquid.
Yeah, I mean, we saw some disconnect from the offlane as well in the previous games that they
did play in this one. There also wasn't really that much. They weren't really oppressive in the lane.
It's quite difficult. It's not a traditional turret hero that we are seeing, but again, we are going
back to them switching up the melee range combinations instead of playing the melee
5 with the range position 1. They are going for the other way around picking up these
stronger laners from the previous patches and I want to see maybe Team Liquid also going in a bit
of a like different direction because I feel like this is something right up their alley,
some blast on the past bringing in Temporal Assassin but doesn't seem to be fitting in.
I know that some teams have tried it, it does look good in some situations but we also talked
about potentially maybe Spectre coming out on this pick because it's strong with Witch Doctor
yet to see what they're going to be able to bang out in the second game.
Yeah, we're gonna find out what they're gonna pick after in the second game.
If you're wondering like what is she talking about all the time with potential time breakers
and groups and stuff like that and survival stage, what is she talking about? Don't worry,
we got you covered.
This year, the EWC Dota 2 format is more cutthroat than ever.
This is how it's going to go down.
The tournament starts with the group stage.
The teams will be split into 4 groups of 6, where they'll play in a round robin format.
The top teams of each group qualify straight to the playoffs, and the bottom two are eliminated.
The remaining teams move on to the survival stage, which is a single elimination, best
of three gauntlet style bracket, the team's final chance of survival.
The first round of the gauntlet bracket starts with the third and fourth placing teams from
the group stage.
The winner will meet the second place team from group stage in round two.
Only four teams will move on from the survival stage to the playoffs.
The playoffs are a best of three single elimination bracket, where a single mistake can be the
difference between moving on and being eliminated from the tournament.
A third place decider will be played for a bigger chunk of the prize pool, as well as
valuable club championship points.
The Grand Finals match is the best of five for the two teams that have fought their way
through each stage of the tournament.
Only one of them will remain undefeated and claim the EWC 2026 Dota 2 trophy.
The Esports World Cup.
The most elite competition in the world.
Its trophy system is built to match.
The Club Championship Trophy.
Awarded to the one club that rose above the rest and reigned supreme across all EWC games.
Every participant earns a key engraved with their name.
That's their right to compete.
Raining champions hold a key unlike any other.
The Game Trophy is the ultimate prize for every game's champion.
Incomplete until a champion's key is inserted.
The champion's key frame is locked into the totem.
A stone marker of legacy.
Etched with every EWC champion.
The losing keys are crushed.
The champion claims three, a personal reminder of who they defeated.
The rest are preserved beneath the totem in resin.
Every fallen contender captured forever.
Will you be remembered or forgotten beneath the totem?
At EWC, nothing is granted. Everything is earned.
You are watching Dota 2 at the eSports World Cup.
We're live from Paris and we're getting ready for game number two between Aurora and Team
Liquid.
The first game is going away of Aurora and the second game.
Well, we'll just have to wait and see.
And we're hoping to see some adjustments coming out from Team Liquid who has had a rocky laning
group stage, laning stage actually also, so both are correct.
Rocket group stage here in Paris and normally we see them fix stuff during a group stage
but we haven't seen enough of them yet to say that they really have.
No, I would agree with that. They need a little bit more time, as it seems.
Again, they have secured themselves away out of the group, so that is the positive.
They got a couple crucial wins that is not going to threaten their tournament life.
So they're going to have more time.
I actually think that them playing an extra stage is a good news, almost at this point.
I think they need the time to figure things out better for themselves.
Again, this is a team that...
Yeah, what are we...
Sorry!
Yeah, go for it, go for it.
I guess that saw and got news that Nigma Galaxy did win their first game after being completely down and almost out, but P-Time floundered a little bit and therefore Nigma also wins.
Therefore, then and Aurora still tied for first place in this group.
So a lot of extra pressure on Aurora coming into this game.
How many times can you beat back actually because Nigma they have been back like literally 20 times so far and they're back again
They're like Hobbits, you know back and then back again or like Lyon from Dota back to hell and back again
It doesn't feel like this team definitely powered up
But yeah most definitely a lot of pressure on Aurora and they're gonna be seeing the ending off that
Apparently crazy game that we're gonna need to rewatch because there is a 60 plus minute game and I see some male just
machine gunning down the throne.
You know, they won with an aided admiration, guys.
You see the body language from the players.
Like, they were...
There's like extra happiness for the team,
especially for group stage games.
I can only assume that this was like an epic game to play and to watch.
Yeah, I can only imagine.
I saw the seats in front of the B stage,
where they're on, were completely filled during the game as well.
A treat to watch.
We're hoping to have a similar type of blockbuster
coming out from these two teams.
But one team is just at the moment delivering, and the other one is not.
And I feel like that shouldn't be the case.
Is it?
It's not.
Because we talked about this before the series.
We talked about the offlane and how Ace has been struggling to find his footing a little
bit.
But it can't just be the offlane.
It feels like it's the whole team a little bit.
No, it's not the team Liquid that is on top of their game right now.
You know, you have ups and downs, peaking at the right moments,
going to be the big thing.
But this time around, Team Liquid, they had it a little bit rough.
A lot of times you would see them maybe fix some of these mistakes
that they've been making right now.
I don't feel like they are having the solutions.
It seems like the other teams are slightly more prepared in a way
where they are bringing some, like, new crazy ideas to the table as well.
And also, like, you are playing against Aurora.
I would say that Aurora is the best Largo team.
out there and you are gonna have to face like different issues whether you're
gonna be playing against this undying that you didn't have answered to in the
first game or potentially you're gonna need to give them this Largo which also
looks pretty unstoppable in their hands. I like the first phase ban for Mora a lot
this time around I think they're threatening the Ember or the Earth
pretty early in the drafts because I think the common corners are not that
effective I mean there's like still the niche of SlotR on liquid side that could
come against these heroes, but no Invoker, no Caz, no Housecar Caz could also be Mikes of course,
but I think Aurora, it seems actually the way the meta is developing that whoever has the
first pick has a decent edge. Actually never mind, they go for the puck, this is interesting.
So they will tank the puck versus Earthspirt in that shot. I wonder if Liquid's gonna grab it,
we've seen Earthspirt have a lot of success, they were willing to first pick it like Blindly
last game so there should be no reason for them to shy away from it.
I think the hero has a really low 1-rated tournament.
He does.
It's like sub 30% or something.
Yeah.
I'm quite surprised by this.
I think it's...
Yeah.
And they go to Amber.
Like both heroes are really good against Puck.
Both the Amber and the Earth Spirit.
And we've seen even Aurora actually prioritize the Amber a lot.
I'm quite speechless actually by this Puck's first play.
I don't know.
I don't really know what motivated it.
I would have been okay if they picked up Largo instead of Puck, because this is the hero that we've seen.
Teams also flexed from the mid lane as well.
It could be potentially a good response to Ember Spirit in the mid lane.
Like you talked a lot about the matchup Largo in the mid lane against this Earth Spirit.
You can't shut him down, you have a lick.
It's very good against Ember Spirit throughout the whole game.
Did they spell?
Yeah, they maxed Shield of the Glamor also.
Very annoying for Ember to pick against.
And Puck is sitting, as you said, she's at some 30% win rate, 29% to be exact.
This hero also, I think, if we go back to the previous Halakia,
Mikoto, Puck, one of the best ones out there, like Nisha, Puck, Mikoto, Puck,
definitely gonna be up there.
The chances of, because I did the stats, the chances of him winning the game
when picked in the first phase compared to the second and third phase,
it, they drop off pretty, pretty dramatically, I would say.
You're curious also what's coming in our second phase of this draft, but before we get there
We know for this group that the top is very heavy and we are very excited to see what's gonna happen there
But we already know what's gonna happen at the very bottom as we are seeing these our first keys getting crushed
L1 and level up are having their keys properly demolished
It feels extra hours, I mean losing feels bad, but then you see that extra step of like
seeing something that's taken away from you, it's like golden, it's shiny, they take it
and they just crush it.
You got to have it for the whole time, I'm glad I'm retired, I can't take it.
They put a lot of everything in there, you can take your key, leave it to me, I won't
be coming tomorrow, I won't be coming in this season.
Yeah, I'm feeling sick. I don't want to watch this, your dreams getting crushed as well.
Yeah, I think there are the two heroes that we also mentioned that are going to be causing quite a lot of issues for them.
So, picking up removing Largo and removing Undying, which I think is the correct step for Team Liquid.
And also picking up Tiny for themselves. So, opening up with two cores straight away.
There's a slight chance that you might play Tiny from the position 4 if you have Darks here,
but maybe Enigma, but the chances are quite low.
And it's also a very good answer for Puck throughout the whole game,
like this hero doesn't really have that much survivability
if he gets initiated on.
Quite an early tiny pick, but again, if they did the researches,
perhaps WS's hero pull is not that punishing against Tiny.
And as you said, maybe it's also Flex.
Obviously great against Puck, so I don't mind the pick so much.
It's kind of funny to note that they exchanged second-phase bans in a sense.
I think it was Liquid that banned Cautal Lion last game and now it's Aurora banning Cautal Lion themselves.
Obviously, Cautal Ember, a very strong combination of heroes and the Lion would have been a pretty
straightforward answer to the puck. Given that, I think Ember has a slight edge like mid against Puck,
but then obviously Puck, they just sit down and start farming back up into the game against
and it's much harder to scale.
The Mirror of Hoodwing, which we've seen already, very good, very efficient.
Pairs pretty well with the puck, make sure you land your spells under the coil.
Very good setup for the Hoodwing spells.
So pretty solid opening from both teams, I have to say so far.
It upsets up a lot of these position 5s that are very good against puck
and leaning towards Vayne who's still in the pool for Liquid
Liquid just one nightmare with the fiend script for two seconds. It gives you just enough to kill the hero
I think they have like a relatively good amount and Aurora are not gonna be fixing anything
Because they feel like the supports that they did have going back to Jakiro one more time
This team is probably the only team that has been picking up this hero and also having great success with it
It looks great every time they play this game
Maybe it will be stolen by other teams because no reason not to do so
So I'm just a little bit curious to...
Actually, would this be the first time Earth Spirit is not picked or banned?
I mean, all the games I've seen, it was always contested.
It's completely ignored in this draft. That's pretty funny.
Both teams decided, you know what, let's just have a one game break.
Gentleman's agreement, no Earth Spirit allowed.
Let's play something else, you know?
That would be cool. I mean, I guess we have the mid laners already in attention.
Oh, it's coming.
You know what though when you were talking earlier and I know this is to do about the undying
It was already happening
You know you need a way to run you named not another song and Sam Pete and I'm like
Actually, it's not about actually
No, no, no, I think you're I never mind. That's not ignore anymore. It's in the bowl or spit
I was just kidding, but um, no, you know what? I think you have a pretty good point here
There's no one dying!
Yeah right there, of course there's no one dying.
Wait, well you baited me into jumping on board and then you just leave me there.
I'm so sorry!
Okay, so it is bad, it is bad.
I mean Mirana, the problem with the heroes is that what it brings is a little bit lackluster.
Honestly, what does a hero do besides maybe stunning a hero for a while?
It's a free smoke, I think this is the biggest part of the hero.
Free smoke, yeah.
every two minutes doesn't even have salamane anymore like I think the hero
was really allowed to be in a good spot when you were getting that extra first
it was 20% which was kind of bad but then with the 50% bonuses on Lotus it's
quite a lot of increase and now that's gone as well so I feel like that also
that the hero lost that part it feels really bad and this is another issue
that's gonna be thrown at them I feel like when we talk about like the big
boy Timbersoft players and ETS always gonna you know be in their XXS but WS
this is one of his most successful heroes that I've seen him play and he
always delivers. Yeah and Mirana Thailand sounds like a really really good lane for
Timber to go to I don't think they can stop them whatsoever. One thing to
mention also is I've been quite impressed with Mirra's ability to wall I mean lane
and secure stable lane for his offlaner but also stack he's been stacking a lot
on his heroes. I think every game I watch him he has like eight or nine stacks in the early game
like his mid laner is constantly clearing stacks. It's disgusting. This is an amazing game for that
like both Buck and Timber are gonna enjoy clearing stacks in the triangle and I don't think he needs
to lane too long. They should be able to you know walk away from the lane pretty early on and leave
the timber on his own. Do they need another playmaker from the offlane? I feel like this
could be a very very good night stalker game if they could potentially bang it up because I feel
like in terms of the damage that they have and control they have enough. It's just like I'm just
looking at this earth spirit and looking at this zukiro and from an offlaner perspective you know
what's going to happen like at some point your spirit is going to be like good luck good luck to
you i'm out of here which again could work but you really need to make sure you have a like a
fallback plan on the offlaner because there's no such thing as thing in lane one versus two against
joker lane like you just can't enter so you need to start jungling i guess so night stalker i think
is good for the game but is it is it playable against what they have i guess that's my name banata
on Nigma and Darkseer because both of those could potentially help themselves out in the jungle.
So what else is there for Ace? All the honest offlaners, like the Axes and the Centaurs,
they kind of need some laning time. They can't just jungle straight away.
Darkseer is out as you mentioned, and Nigma is out. I think the pull is quite limited.
One hero we haven't seen so much. Okay, yeah, it's Jikkyo Windranger. Yeah, well,
Yeah, I'm happy I'm not playing this game.
There's nothing.
You know what?
You don't see it.
You don't see it way out.
I'm just, you know, I'm just putting my mind to try to figure it out.
And I'm like, you know what?
I'm not going to figure it out.
I'm just going to sit and watch.
What about some like dawn break or just throw it in there?
I don't think this is an easy pick by any means.
Also the combination on the liquid shirts.
I don't think we've seen these four, even like three heroes paired up together.
because to me, I look at the icons of the heroes, I'm like, yeah, I haven't seen this before, at least in this meta.
At this point pick another spirit and hope that something happens in the game when you have the three spirits of the United or something.
You don't know, maybe you just instill in or something like that. Just pick Storm. That's what I would do with the voice spirit.
Voice spirit for the color scheme.
I was going to say, if you were going to go for the magic effect, you need to have all four, surely.
Yeah, but that's too late. But I guess if you get voice spirit color-wise, it looks really cool. I think there's something intimidating.
Oh, it's really, is it that bad? There's nothing that you're seeing.
I'm in the mood.
It's a really tough one. I don't blame them for using a lot of time.
Maybe some like doom as well could come out.
You see, how do you lay in this Jokuro?
You don't, that's the easy question.
You don't in this meta.
I think jungle.
Yeah, the Venom jungle, X jungle level one.
They need to be pulling waves, but I think pulling wave against the Jokuro is not that simple,
I would say I think it's pretty toxic even if he could even buy boots the lane is that free that he could just buy
Boots on jokero and just run around you know bullying people
Yeah, nigma is out. It's not a good batch game. I think bad could lane, but it's it's not good. Oh
This is a this is a tough one did they have enough there this is all their time going
Yeah, they will go for center. It was on the dot right like they used all the reaction on this one
I don't blame them. I think this was a very very tricky pick and I don't think they're super happy with this one
The bright side of Centaur is that it's a decent hero versus win ranger, but it's only decent if you have
Some sort of equivalent
If yeah, if you're sitting at 2k networks in rangers at 6, it's not decent at all. It's super bad
This is double melee lane against
Jackiro and win ranger. You're gonna get click to oblivion. I can assure you that Kailori
must be having like the biggest and most nicest smile on the face yeah he's gonna be happy he's
like oh my jokiro is gonna cook once again they're just gonna sit there and thank my right clicks
and my spells and i'm going to love it they got great disengage this game unlike with them except
there is something called coil which will not let them disengage but if you kill the puck and run
I guess that is the plan, so the plan is laid out for the future.
I'm looking for like, Sparks and Light.
No, good attempt, but not good enough.
Something else, please.
Oh, they actually have a lot of disables this game.
They do?
They do.
They could kill Pock.
They could kill Pock, but the problem is WS on Timber.
So you have Centaur, you have Tiny.
This hero shreds through these heroes,
and he's also not really affected by these heroes.
It's not like an explosive damage they do have.
So I feel like it's a very, very good Timber game.
Listen, drafts against drafts, yeah, the timber is an issue, but let, or yeah, amber vessel, something, something, magic, magic, they can handle it.
They have some good arguments, if the game is equal and stable, there's like a massive laning issue.
But at the same time, liquid players are more classed players, they can outplay, they can outmaneuver.
If there's a game where it's going to be required, I feel like it is this one.
This is where they show that they can pick it up at a group stage.
Yeah, they need to overperform, in a sense, because tough side lanes and I don't think it's the easiest Ember game either.
Not the worst matchup for Nisha, with that being said, I think Ember vs Buc is pretty favorable for Ember.
So perhaps he can be the one putting his team on his shoulders in the early game.
Let's talk happy things.
Happy things.
Aurora!
They look very good. This draft was definitely the extra 10 minutes that KP took to prepare for this match compared to others
I think it really showed. I feel like they cornered Liquid and they got a well-rounded nice draft
They did and also have in mind that this is I would say the best when Ranger team in the world from the carry position
And the hits nightfall again. They are giving him priority
It showed in game number one with PL. It's it's gonna probably show in this one as well considering that it's a very good windranger game
It is a very good windranger game
I'm sure a knife will gonna pop off on this one as we're gonna find out how it will play out exactly with cap and escagene
Game one was insanely rough if you are a liquid fan
Avery is there hope in game two always hoping game to you can make some adjustments reset your mentality come in and just play better
better, and it can't get much worse.
That is most definitely true.
I do still favor Aurora here, I think their draft just, I would rather play their lineup
in liquids, I think this Timbersaw looks really devastating in this game, I don't know how
they're going to deal with him.
They did answer the puck pretty well, I liked the opener for Liquid, I think trading puck
for Embers completely fine, you get a really solid hero for Nisha that he can just 1v5
with, and I think this is the hero that I want to see Liquid play through, I think if
If they play through the Nisha Ember, he gets rolling, it's going to bring the Marana into the game.
You have a lot of chain disable with the Urspir coming in on top of it.
Puck can die in this game. Winter Ranger can die in this game, so of course, he can feed in this game.
You have to get that snowball rolling, and then I'll see this draft come together.
Well, the biggest question about these lanes, how do you fix the off-lane scenario?
Liquid needs to fix their off-lane, which is super scary to Kiro, Winter Ranger.
Are they gonna be able to get poles off? I mean that's definitely the most ideal scenario and then
In their safe lane lane can they kick out the timber saw somehow slow him down because he will be a massive threat throughout the rest
Look to boxy
For those ideas you can pull waste hop set the center up successfully
And then do the classic like keeping the fog roll on somebody bottom or roll on the plug mid at the opportunity somehow presents
So you can dominate some of these games near spirit
Boxy tries to roll in
Whiffs gets the range creep denied. They get the lane back super fast here with some of the aggro pulls. That's gonna help a lot
So you don't have to go pull waves here
Centaur's
In a good spot, you know, they're rolling. Nice rolling another stomp bit of right-click damage not enough to commit for the kill
Well, Boxing maybe thinks otherwise.
Very good harass though.
Another roll up in three seconds, but now he's going to be slid down by the Bloodcurdane.
I mean he threw himself so far out there he's going to have to roll away to escape, but
he does have a healing self.
And again, more space for Ace.
More time for him to get Retaliate, which he's now got level two.
Tough sideline to Liquid.
You will lose this top lane over time, it's just inevitable.
The Tiny Marana is not really going to pressure this Timber over the long run.
Maybe get a Sheiky kill on him with some chain-stump potential before he gets too tanky.
I think WS should have a good time down here.
If you manage to get some sort of pull or something like that, do you think Boxy thinks
about rotating to that lane?
Avalanche, Aero lands onto WS instead of Mira, their intended target.
Very close.
Nisha, low, gets hit by the orb.
No commitment though from Lakoto.
I want to see Nisha step up here.
He has a match that will be super comfortable in on a hero that is...
Prime Nisha territory.
He can do some work in this game.
Is it the freest Ember game of all time? No, but it's pretty good here.
If you just get a fast Veselin, start running around.
You have solid follow-up. I always like this Marana-Ember combination.
It's just very simple, very straightforward.
Very low risk, low cooldown, direct around the map.
Got its range creep tonight.
It's been a minute since we've seen a Nisha pop-off game.
It just doesn't seem like he's in that zone right now.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He's going okay for Liquid right now.
I think top lane is going better than I expected.
They got the equalry in a really good spot really early
and had some favorable trades against the Jekiro.
They're only now getting a stack pull off.
Oh, Boxy, half-second late to stop being the Lotus.
It would have been a sick play.
Roll in kick them out take the Lotus run away with it. They're winning this I know you're getting ace to the helm
Which means you can kind of let him solo slash jungle and roam this earth spirit. That's the biggest goal up here
We'll get this big Ursa Smasher. Oh, yeah, that's juicy right there
Fortune I couldn't get any part of the poll
17, 18, and 6 for Makoto versus the 12 and 1 for Nisha.
He's really cooking a bit.
Just straight up dominating this lane with the puck. It's not just the CS, it's the resources.
Another range creep to die. Nisha is going to be so far behind in experience.
It's not often you win early denies with puck. That's just not supposed to happen.
Sure.
He is really cooking. He's going to kill me.
If he goes off, slight trying to dodge the orb.
That was a necessary dodge. You die. You don't dodge there, so living life on the edge.
And you get your water rune stolen by a damn jikiro, so Nisha's gonna have to go to base here.
Yeah, a lot more freedom for Kari than there is Voxy, who's just trying to get Ace over that line.
That helm of Iron Will will finally be bought now.
The craziest part of this game to me is Aurora have three Grand Master tier heroes.
And this is Puck Timber Hoodling.
Oh yeah they do.
Oh wow.
I'm sure J'Kyro's effectively a Grand Master tier for Kauri.
Meanwhile, only the one for Liquid.
Well, Nisha doesn't use Dota boss.
Eh, that's also true.
Yeah, I would consider that a Grand Master tier.
Of course you're right.
a comfortable lineup for Aurora as it always is.
Seem to stay with their greatest heads.
Can be a strength, can be a weakness.
That's why you use it here.
Double blocking out camps,
boxy really making an effort
that there's not gonna be any pulls here.
That was fun.
I feel that silencer liquid honestly went better
than I thought they would in the first five minutes here.
They're doing a nice job controlling equilibrium,
controlling the pulls.
Yeah, it's only definite up here.
It's only you could say the same about mid.
This one, the other side.
Yeah, it's the opposite way.
Makoto.
Scott is level six already.
Neisha, half a level away from getting his remnants.
What do you think about Rape and all those huts?
He's trying to get some extra armor in here
against the Ember match.
Yeah, I like it.
Pretty cool.
I think this is one of those things
I feel if you asked Quinn, you'd be like,
this is absolute dog.
First blood, collected, Boxy eventually was going to step out too far, it was just inevitable.
Again, he's just trying to create opportunities for Ace where he can.
The sooner they can get that helmet dominated, the sooner that Boxy can get the hell out of there.
Cole does get used to mid lane, Nisha's just going to hold out underneath the tower here,
push back attempted, nice dodge with the slight though, and cleans up Mira.
Instead, roll in from Boxy, will catch Makoto, not the roll in itself, but the slowdown of the boulder.
He has to waning Rift up to the high ground.
Arrow almost lands but a phase shift to dodge just to make sure and he will walk away with an amp damage an opportunity in the
Future or maybe an opportunity right now as ace is in so deep and the call has been made
Aurora says okay this enough is enough we gotta we gotta punish this with an amp damage on a puck
It's made a whole lot easier to do so
Not just unlucky for ace that that mid sequence point that way
Or it's efficient for my code to come up here with the amp damage
Otherwise, I think even if you lay the stuns to TP out the game is dead
That is the timbersaw in action able to get the kill before he hits level six. That's how you know you're in real trouble
Shit, look don't push the wave in
Rolling death after rolling death and this is my biggest concern in this game. Honestly is I think yeah, it's the timber
I think the other heroes can be addressed here from liquid. I
Think WS is just gonna run this game over if you get tanky on this hero
Who's outputting any sort of big chunks of physical against you?
That we're used to seeing like there's no, there's no direct timber counter in this game for me.
And I think when that happens WS tends to make the most of the situation.
Another dive on Mikyay, I mean he TP'd back into this, he really cannot afford what's happening right now.
But nobody on the team is going to rotate to help him.
Good again
Hey throws out some damage maybe they can get the kill on mirror and return tofu jumps in for it
But the Lotus gets fed over and over Lotus. It's half health now
It starts up almost still got him surprising
But Mira survives all the same W as picks up the double kill. He's still at two more Lorduses
Yeah, that's what happens when you've got a winning lane like that, right?
You could just don't have to use those resources. That's a great move from Arora.
Recognize as Tiny is always gonna tip you back into this lane, and you have to chock him.
You have the level advantage down here, just bring the supports, run him down.
Tiny's not great at fighting early, right? You have one point plus one point average.
Here's the body. Arana not great at failing. He's kind of dives out either. It's often pretty
difficult to find connections with the arrow.
Oh, he's saying he's smiling while Big K's, please, you should save me.
Just now.
No, I'm going to stay mid.
I'm going to get my iron first.
He's having the best game of anybody here.
And he is now, yeah.
Oh, it has to go through the ember of this game.
There's no way around it.
But he's having the best game, and Makoto is still ahead of him in that one.
He says a lot about the other two cores, who are over a thousand net worth, almost
1500 behind their compatriots. This is a... rough position to be in, no doubt.
The thing is, this is a position that Liquid knew was likely going to be the case.
And when you walk into these two sidelines, you know your top lane is a sacked lane.
Yes. And you kind of assume that this Timber Tiny is not really going to go your way with
the Morana support. There's a little outplay potential. Maybe you didn't expect it to go this
bad, but you should kind of assume it's the case. So I would have expected Liquid to crash
mid-harder here. That's a third death for Mickey's, he gets clipped.
Where do you go from here if you're Mickey? Boxing is gonna get run down with a focus fire
as Jeff is already here for Nightfall. Now, here comes the remnant, Nisha has to make a move.
Chains up into the stump. The kill on Nightfall would be worth it all if they can actually get him.
What a timely ice man. Oh, he's not gonna get close enough. He has no more remnants.
slight too long of a cooldown at level one. That was a big committal from Nisha.
Didn't get earn charges, used all of his remnants out of resource on the map.
That's gonna open up an attack for Aurora around mid. I push it in.
The Foxy does manage to grab the aggro. Still gets grabbed with a bushwag though.
Pulled into Makoto's embrace. Just style it all. There you are.
Look at like a pub game out here.
Get the arrow on the catapult, that's pretty nice.
We'll not save you there.
With my Shadow, Nisha, they're just trying to get pickoffs on supports at this point.
Anything to get an earn charge for Nisha.
They'll get one, one way or the other.
We're lying for death.
Two earn charges for him to work off of.
Now can they get core kills somewhere on the map with that?
Another stampede up in 12 seconds.
They're going to need something because there's heavy pressure on the top lane.
The other focus fire is up.
The siege wagon push in.
Do you have the helm of the dom creep trying to draw aggro?
Too hard to stop this one against three points of liquid fire.
No, it's just dead.
No ability for the tower to defend itself.
And then you have to imagine a roar or putting your sights on this last tier one in that middle lane for sure.
Sure, Kroken Carrier is going to be making that rotation pretty soon.
Oh yeah, I'd be looking at it.
Get some resources on the Kodo.
Bring some heroes in his lane. You can even rotate the timber.
WS feels like his presence is needed and just...
slay whoever decides to show.
We're also eyeing a smoke towards bottom.
Thrap's trying to...
ruin Mickey's game one last time.
Yeah, keep playing through the timber saw.
The catch of the coil ensures that WS comes in, delivers the damage, seems pretty simple.
But Liquid is playing hyper defensive.
Which usually means you end up conceding objectives somewhere.
Nisha does spoil some of this smoke, does not get caught, mid tower is under assault.
Arcane rune is on bottom too.
Unfortunately, rune that Nisha just cannot get here.
Close to vessel.
Big pickup for Makoto with coil off cooldown.
See your heavily incentivized to make a play now.
WS is clearing out the entirety of the radiant jungle.
He's gonna have a very fast.
Uh, Kaisanj?
So far.
What?
He's almost doubling this tiny.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, smoke before the vessel is done.
Man, weird timing.
Tempersauce can't even out here.
Well, the slight change arrow tried to use the sharpshooter to get out of position.
Pretty fast kill, so you're not losing too much here.
You get to push some waves with the ember as well.
Kind of stacking the core's bottom, that's the only downside.
But this gets you to your vessel and you're gonna have three charges to work with here
So this is where you can run the map with the ember and the morana
Pretty decent kill thread on just about anybody other than the puck face shift and yours have stampede the bailiata things get weird
Should be very confident right now in this kill combination
Nice path into coil they're all the way breaks the coil box. He's too far out now the punish
With no coil to stop him, Nisha feels like this is going to be pretty free.
They cut down the tree there. That was close, close, Stampeed.
Mid-Gay hits the Avalanche on the clock top of the air.
There it was going to land, but a big move. Liquid.
Now hunt for more, but Nisha got to be careful that focused fire.
And, well, there's the Timbersaw there. You're not fighting into that guy.
Game is flowing through the Ember, though. Perfect connection for Mid-Gay.
That's the power of the Tiny in this game.
You can always join these fights and make Makoto's life hard.
Chains on two, roll in. Oh, Chakramola's going to come on.
But yeah, with a McIntyne's and an avalanche looking pretty good.
WS is still a problem though, and Boxy will experience that problem.
Oh, ADF, he's killed.
He's shot 80, finish him off.
WS is so low, once again, a hero is going to flip through his fingers.
So close, but he's out of remnants.
No slight.
The last take, he's out.
Power shot, got three different heroes low.
Can McCleod chase?
Worried about the avalanche turnaround.
Fair enough, another slight change, some long distance.
The arrow to finish him off.
As you said, laying through the Ember Spirit.
Oh yeah, it's juicy this game.
You have so much long-range chains dump potential
that every chains is a massive threat against Aurora.
And they have no spellings or two.
And look at the space above for Ace.
Ace is going to get the tower last hit off of his Helma Dom creeps.
So he's farmed up neutrals and taking towers at the same time.
Here's sequence for Liquid.
You go from potentially being 8k behind in this game to only down two.
So massive pickups for them.
You get the timber here.
That's the cherry on top the last vessel all those did the job
Treats roll hit him he just lives on 20 HP so close
That an eight region counting for a lot and again lotuses. There were some stored lotuses for Aurora. They got pumped into that timber
Can't forget about yeah, I feel like that's a bit of progression over time teams
Holding on to lotuses and playing with them more and more in the mid to late game
Especially if you're winning the lanes, you don't have to use them in the lane. Yeah
You just save them up. They're huge in the big game
What do you think about this?
Second item heart. That's the palma thom in the heart. This is the scaling center build
Yeah, that's the big question is this the game for the heart build I
Actually don't mind it here. Okay. I think this is right because I think the way you win this game
You're not gonna tempo this game right? I
I think the way you win this game is you just scale alter your force together into the light game
The team's gonna be playing through the ember spirit. That's your initiates like chains into arrow
He can stampede into that just as easily as blank
I think it's fine. Okay. I'm on board. It also created potentially very
very nice timing around
Like ember BKB plus sent our heart with a moonlight shadow going in the Earth spirit guarantees of initiation use
Some pretty tanky heroes on the side of the lane, but all these cores are gonna be kind of tough to bring down.
And it's not gonna be the easiest for a Windranger, but that's where the Timbersaw is supposed to excel, right?
Makes tanky heroes a lot squishier.
WS has some work to do for him in this game, in terms of cutting these big boys down the side.
If he gets bursted at first, that's gonna open the fight a lot to Liquid.
And that can always happen because they have so much chains done on the side of the lane.
Now, he is trying to get a Lotus, which will deal with the slight chain setup.
But of course there's plenty more opportunity to add a lamp set up into arrow.
Link's already online for Mickey. If you get caught by chains and just tiny combo it into arrow,
you're probably dead off that. I'm trying to think if there's any way of war I can itemize their way against this kind of
kill threat from the long range follow-up on the chains.
Dispels are nice. You get out of the chains. If you get tiny comboed, of course that's...
Maybe?
That can help you get the Abelange hits, maybe you can force staff before the toss.
Get away from the arrow positioning.
I guess just the Acclomerate 4 staff is your best option.
It is a good Climbertape game too.
WS might be able to survive.
They're all in.
Chainsaw if he's climbered.
I could see it.
Game definitely slowed down for a while.
that one kill chain kill sequence for liquid did a lot of work to stem the
bleeding here
not glad I don't love this trend of these morana supports
he just goes straight agg in him scepter I feel like that doesn't bode well for
pubs supports that don't buy any actual support items that's a classic
Mira, some good moves. Not gonna let him live, but it was nice.
We're just getting the puck on this camp. Mickey might be able to get a sick jump here.
It would be massive with the Invisroon. Close to smoke, but...
We're a very good dodging that move.
Yeah, definitely could have lost some extra heroes there.
So we'll finish the heart for the Centaur.
We'll push Nisha very close to that BKB, so we're getting to that mid game timing where
Liquid are going to be pretty strong in the 505, especially with Moonlight Shadow.
Letting you close the gap a lot easier.
Micky might skip the Shadow Blade this game.
Let's go for some more tank and right-click if you can abuse this moonlight shadow a little bit for threat around the map.
It'll be some nice little synergy as Aurora are done messing around, they're just gonna force the Roshan.
Interesting plate call, huh?
I don't think they're stronger in a true 505 right now, if Liquid were able to get there, but they're just nowhere close to it on the map.
And positioning being on this side of the map.
Because it's the Tampor saw area, Liquid really haven't spent too many...
Too many minutes in this area, so it's kind of owned by Aurora. They take the Roche for free.
He's so high level. 16 already.
5-0. So, if you bring this Timber down, he's gonna be worth a lot.
I'm looking at him be number one right here.
It's gonna go for Agony Deceptor. They do not have a nullifier here. Nope.
This, my worry, is the Timber. I think he is the true carry for Aurora in this game.
If he gets 5 or 6 slots, he's gonna be a massive problem.
Tormentor? Available. Nightfall making his way downtown.
Arora, probably a little bit frustrated because Nisha cut their lane and he's got another
to do it again at some point.
Good shards to pick up here.
Pretty happy with either one. You'll get the boomerang.
Not too bad.
With the BKB being completed on the Emmer Spirit right now, do you think Liquid still fights into Aurora
off of this timing?
Even though they have Aegis?
They absolutely can if they get good initiations.
It's all about being able to jump one of these core heroes.
He's kind of a sick smoke if it lands.
No BKB on Nightfall.
Oh yeah.
And at the same time, the Emberspirit also killed the hoodwink off of that Redmond placement familiar.
That was kind of sick as well.
Yeah, they did a nice little sandwich here in this area, get two pickoffs.
And all this attention, Nisha has the BKB, they have nothing to stop him,
unless he gets surprised by a stun they can do enough damage.
But it doesn't look like they can.
He doesn't have a teleport.
He's all in.
He's all in. He's going back in. He's gonna get both these kills.
Silent though.
Can he get out after the puck on the second life?
Lakota's gonna chase after him.
With my shadow, he has no detection. You could just walk this off.
And he does have a Lotus still on Nisha. A great healing Lotus.
So he was actually willing to keep that fight going potentially.
Mira just teleported into a moonlight shadow, tiny, instantly kills him.
So back-to-back test for Mira against sneaky cores.
And now here comes a public enemy number one, the Timbersaw.
And the liquid are like, all right, we've got enough pick-offs. That's great for us.
But we'll just brought this back to an even game.
Sick move from Liquid.
You should just stiling on with a surprise remnant on the backside of that map.
Effectively killing three heroes on his own.
And then this is the power of Moonlight Shadow in a game like this.
Because you have so much chainstone potential of any initiator,
the threat is insanely high across the map every time this Moonlight goes off.
Very nice spell for the Tiny to play off of it for the other two cores as well.
To the Surge Spirit to get in there and look for some role initiations.
They quit making this lineup work right now.
Bring this game back to even.
They go for the Tiny.
He harpoons himself away.
Stampede trying to get him out.
Coil is going to delay that retreat a bit.
Can the rest of the war get here in time?
The Avalanche is going to cover too.
Oh, he has the deciler.
Yeah, the deciler is going to stop the blink away.
really have a chance to get this, keep the damage on him,
and other ice pass lands, and that's
going to be the death of him.
Really well played by Aurora, keeping that damage on him.
WS did lose his courier, though.
Expensive courier.
Had the full axe finish on him.
Yeah, that would have been a massive pickup.
Also, Liquid is going to lose their wisdom shrine, it seems.
And WS is going to chase Tophu out of here,
force him to expend his leaps.
Agatomceptor is done on the Marana,
so is this looking like a bit of a rat game?
Boxy finds the opening carry on the bottom lane, suddenly they are splitting Aurora apart and getting these little pick offs.
I like it.
This is where the moronic can shine.
These types of lineups, just guerrilla warfare across the map.
This is another reason I like the heart on these.
Because I think this is the one you wanted the game to turn into.
And now he's going to be able to keep up and form.
Continue to scale really well here.
And be able to put some pressure on Aurora in terms of what this late game looks like.
I don't think you wanted Centaur involved in all these plays. There would have been too many heroes running around the map.
You need some heroes that are gonna farm push waves, clear those ancients.
It's more a style too. Yeah. There.
And now it's, you know, you're gonna have a triple BKB timing for liquid. And Timbersaw is not nearly the same kind of threat
he was five minutes ago. Still insanely far. Yes, no doubt about that. Missing some of that on the courier.
I don't know if he cares. He's also insanely high level.
Aurora also don't have, like, the best initiation against BKB, so if the puck gets caught for that kill, that is...
See ya.
Ooooooh!
Oof, Aurora.
They thought it was just casual, a little pick off on the Marana, but this tiny continues to ruin Aurora's plans, man.
Everywhere he goes, I mean, he doesn't need a Shadowplay.
They just keep on finding openings off this Moonlight Shadow.
Another reason that this timber really needs to pop off, because I think Liquid did a very nice job at countering this first pickpock.
There's just no way Makoto's going to have a good time in this game.
He's going third item A on this, which is effectively first item A on a puck because
you're always going blinks, witchblade, and then you decide, you know, how am I going
to finish him?
He's just going A on because he feels so insanely pressured by the kill combinations
here.
Yeah, you know it's bad when it's not even BKB.
It's good.
So you cannot rely on this first hit puck to really do anything in this game relative
to what you're used to.
It's going to have to be the other two ports picking up the slack and Liquid can continue
abuse that. Obviously their position doesn't look too bad. Now how far in this timber is I think
they've done a decent job debilitating the other heroes, creating a scary map state for Aurora,
winning the vision battle. They have a lot of room to work with here.
Definitely looks like they are projected to gain a net worth leap over the next five to
ten minutes over the course of all the split pushing and pick offs that they're getting like
carry in the bottom lane here. Question is, is that enough for them? Like, at least scaling-wise,
is that gonna work, Tofu? Arrow off of the shackles. I'm not gonna lie, it actually feels like Aurora
is a bit lost, and it just seemed like, what do we do about this slight chain setup? What do we do
about this moonlight shadow? All of this is looking too easy, quickly. You have to create a threat
somewhere, because plays like these are not enough to win you map control. You've got a shackle on
He's going to pop his BKB. He still has the Lotus to work with. He's played a dangerous game.
He did not make a clean escape, but the Moonlight Shadow, the extra bit of HP he has, and they're going to go for the Simbersaw.
WS is finally going to die. They have the magic damage. You knew it was coming eventually.
Liquid, they had the pieces together. Five heroes converge.
All the heroes on top of the Simbersaw to get the kill.
street boxing 700 gold for that wicked sick. These supports are insanely far
for Liquid. All this pick-off gold, he has a full PTB, she's got 60 more hundred in the bank,
this AXE Marana starting to farm the map. They had the roar of supports of the ones being picked
off so they have gained nothing over the last 10 minutes. I think they need to bring the Timbersaw
into more of these plays. They need to put the supports behind WS and try and threaten
something on the map right now. Go for Ace! This is top hero to go for! I mean the
Focus Fire will kill Centaur before it kills the Windranger for sure.
Nightfall has already taken a hefty amount of damage.
Liquid are a bit slow to get here though, and they can't really punish, so...
The thing is, you see the instant backup, they don't know where the Tiny is.
Yeah, yeah.
It might have seen him on the ward, but every time Mikkei is just kind of looming
around the fighter, you don't know where he is, you cannot overextend on these heroes.
Especially when your BKB is on cooldown, just Nightfall.
You see this earlier.
And there's the four staff for the hoodwink.
Well, hoodwink's getting four staff, you know it's a good four staff game.
More necessary one, let's say.
They're slowly getting to you, Julie, on the supports, but the damage is done here.
Liquid got a lot of this mid-game they were looking for.
Their supports can push waves now.
The cores can kind of solo threaten these enemy supports.
You can't babysit each other forever here.
If you are a war, you have to make a decisive move at some point.
And it has to be through the timber.
And he has so much of your advantage and your strength right now, already level 20.
Oh, look at, look at Tofu, man.
He picked up Nimble enchantment, and he also took the leap attack speed.
So, what an avalanche on two!
Nice setup. Here comes the arrow.
Almost tanks carry, which would have been the death of a boxy.
He's still going to be hunting, but inside the pit, he has teleported away.
Meanwhile, Misha runs down Mira. Shackleshot does land.
playing BKB goes out with a focus fire.
Now it's remnant, he's gonna jump too far away.
Maybe Makoto can still get him, they kick him away.
And he's just still alive for now,
stunned up by the broken coil.
Makoto feels like he cannot keep the chase going though.
Even with a shield through and an A on disc,
he likely just wouldn't have the damage to finish him off.
Lockdown issues for Aurora right now.
Having issues stunning these heroes,
particularly in the BKB, they have zero control for it.
You can always just BKB stamp it away and these fights.
things are looking a little murky. Yeah, they... Aurora, all of these fights they're just going to
have to like jump in, force the BKBs, reset. But then how do you keep that fight going in a second
round, right? They may have very mobile heroes, but Liquid, as you said, they have Stampede to just
get completely out of the fight if they don't feel it's worth. Maybe Hurley Hex on the Timbersaw
Gives you more options in a game like this.
Okay, we're ready to go about it.
More damage will also help on Nightfall.
Nightfall can get to the point where his focus fire is just killing you through Stamped PP, which is a real possibility.
You don't need as much reliable lock down here.
So, the Aghanim Scepter initially on the Timbersault looks really good, right?
No nullifier hero. It's gonna be, you know, pretty decent for the entire game, but...
It was also like, he was kind of unkillable at that time anyway.
I agree with you that it feels like they needed better lockdown options, better initiation options, Pocky's dead again.
Rough game for Makoto because Liquid made it that way with their drafts, so not much he could do.
You know, Mira, you don't want to show against this Ember Spirit.
This has been a tournament of Ember Spirits.
Kind of really being able to chase after squishy supports.
Toss up in the air, carry.
Gonna be caught by Tofu's, Yul's, Arrow, Combo, and Mira is still gonna die as they catch up to him.
With Mikae, Liquid are just sweeping across the map, they're gonna force Nightfall.
Maybe have to use BKB, yeah, there it goes, BKB, TP out.
It's all retreat.
Tigger chain, breaks the Harpoon pullback there.
Diagonum Scepter preventing any damage from being done.
Because he's still gonna get this kill, but he's already blinked away.
You get forced to your base here in 30 minutes, and what is the turn around potential?
So many BKBs already online for Liquid, they're so strong in the ball with the high HP pools.
Timber is normally the hero you want in these situations as he can chunk these heroes down
to size, but he cannot just stand on the frontline on his own.
Makoto just has no game.
I feel like if you go first item A on disc like he has,
there's almost no point in me doing it, because...
Okay, let's say you can survive these random games with A.M.
You're not doing any damage, you're not threatening anybody in this game.
Yeah, it's the items that aren't scaling with you.
It's only good if you're like, you're in the position to rat the game
And you're you know killing creep waves they go on you the andus lets you live and then you keep that going for some sort of
Hard carry that's going to win you the game, but that's not the case. I don't think so
This is not a last pick PL type situation. No that you had in game one. You're gonna have to win the teamfights
BKB timber definitely helps here. What's your trade BKB durations keeps a timber on the front line again?
Though I go back to how do you control heroes if you're a roar?
What do the initiations look like? How do they start a fight? You can't just go in and coil somebody. This is not a real threat.
And Moonlight Shadow is making your life very difficult in this game.
As liquid, setting a trap for the power int.
WS leading that charge.
On the front lines with self-lotus, get rid of the chains, doesn't activate the aggs, doesn't pull the trigger on the BKB.
But this is, uh, kinda, I feel like, almost a bluff. I mean, Nightfall is showing in the top lane.
You- If you're Aurora, I don't think you could take the fight without him. He is too essential for damage.
Very precarious moment in this game for Aurora. If they wanna try and bring it back, it's gonna have to be some 16-fight execution.
Arrow, what an arrow.
Stank WS?
Standoff around Roshan.
Liquid, it feel like they're in no rush.
They've got 900 gold, so Nisha has his Agatum scepter,
but they're gonna smoke up anyway.
Nullifier, Viboxi.
Great item here.
Wow.
Okay, well, I guess there's your Nullifier, Bayer.
Wow.
I like it.
Four stack, others hang on.
Another LWF on WS, are they gonna go for that?
No, they hit the back line instead go for the puck. They try to hit him with the nullifier
But I did manage to get out. Nisha though is still pretty untouchable in these fights. He's just hunting down supports
Got carry now. He's gonna catch Mira and nightfall isn't even going to turn and look behind him
He just heads for the hills or heads for the gate specifically
He's gonna play around. Yeah, they should know that right?
Somebody click on Nightfall.
Oh, he's screwed.
Yeah, spotted by the decider.
He's gonna BKB us to fight his way out.
Hope he gets some sort of kill, and he does.
Nicely played.
He gets in front of Boxing.
That'll be fun.
He gets something for his efforts.
I mean, there was...
It was either you're dead or you die with honor.
He died with honor.
That's for sure.
And he died quite fast.
You have to just go hex timber and try and play off that.
There's no other way to combat liquids frontline with any sort of threat right now.
With that in mind, do you dislike the Parasma being completed for Makoto?
Like, do you think he... How many... How many sites do we need here?
Do they need more than one? No, he needs damage in this game.
Okay. This puck has to become a damage start too.
There's a lot of issues to solve. And usually that means liquids should be able to take advantage of it.
This isn't Aegis, they can...
They can go high ground with Aegis Banner here.
They can head this game.
Actually getting the benefits of Aurora's early roast.
For sure.
Backfire pretty hard in this one.
Dude, Ember Spirit's killing supports.
Oh man, it just looks so free for them in every game.
And maybe WS is free as well.
Chain's stunned up, didn't manage to get off the BKB acronym scepter.
Mckay, one up the gate.
Yeah, this is up. Not good for Mckay.
He might be in a weird position where he loses his ages for this, but I guess no one's there to punish him.
Nightfall's in the area, but Nightfall doesn't have his BKB, so Nightfall can't commit.
He is so weird in terms of how fat this Timber is and how irrelevant he is.
Yeah, yeah.
Man...
It's like the, uh...
I feel like it's a similar playstyle that no way on a Bicodo not get spotted.
I feel like it's a similar playstyle from Game 1, from Liquid, it's just like this time around they're avoiding
what they were doing, just trying to farm up their items actually led them to a wing condition where it wasn't possible in Game 1.
They also had a lot more catch and stun capability in this game.
I think this team prefers to play with the ability to threaten heroes on lanes and connect quickly especially their support duo.
They have it in spades.
Stuns will do that for you, right?
Ember Spirit makes the game easy, man.
If you don't know what's going on in the meta, just pick Ember Spirit.
Stuns will take any two supports behind him, and you're likely going to have some gameplay.
We'll see how Aurora adapts to a similar precarious position that Liquid was in in Game 1.
Liquid 8000 net worth lead and potential high ground push.
Aurora do have a very farmed win ranger with Daedalus.
They have very poor supports, who will continue to die around the map.
At what point did you stop going out there, you know?
At what point is it not even worth to leave the base?
Nightfall? With the Nightfall?
See ya.
I'm trying to see if there's any talents that are near or something, I don't know.
It's just not much or much better for Aurora in the short term.
I think you're gonna have to find a way to push this ultralate.
I'd be really surprised if Liquid don't try to go higher on the stages.
Yeah, just get Pop, Smilifier, hits, but it's kind of already too late.
Puck his face shifted, should be able to- Oh, did not get a chance to blink away!
He's already used his orb, just on the outside of the coil range here.
That's okay.
He gets all good.
And he's saving him in some of these instances.
It is, it is.
And he's actually almost made his way to another item.
He almost has Oct'Rink.
So Makoto's recovery arc has begun.
A long road.
Yeah, no doubt.
My name pack, especially with the loss of that 25 talent, this is one of those games
where you really needed that debuff piercing dream coil.
Alright, so you talked about this Marana Ags and it really hits its peak when it level
20.
37 minutes as a support is a level 20. How do you keep building this up from here?
Like he's gonna have so much for for the rest of game. I mean he's keeping you know pace with Makoto at this point
You can either go back for more utility. Okay, so I'm gonna take Marana. Yeah, Scythe Wind Waker
Even like glimmer force is still viable at this point
You can't go off the ring and play for the level 25 multi-shot arrows with a super low cooldown. We have incredibly toxic build
E-Blade. Oh, it gets very dying again.
Yeah, I see that one.
I mean, poor guy.
Again, there's not much you can do against December Spirit.
I would probably just go Octo-Reep on Topa.
Okay.
Yeah, just go up the span of air.
I mean, there's a couple factors.
Like, the Aerospan when you get to 25 is insane.
Lowering the cooldown on your Moonlight is huge this game.
Right, sure.
And Octo-Reep combined with the 25 talent.
They have a Hex on WS.
Doesn't get a good chance to make his initiation though, Timber Chain tries to chase.
Does hit the site onto Midgate, of course Midgate is the one with the Aegis.
So not the best, Atlan stopping the retreat here.
This is a problem, no fire placed onto the puck.
Leave all the Ember Spirit, jumps away from that focus fire.
Time and time again, Nightfall is forced to try and focus fire Nisha just to keep him off the back line.
But then he just gets away and there goes Makoto, 1500 damage, ace.
It's a stomp under WS, but the rest of the team has called it quits.
They said, okay, we got the Poclet, let's reset here.
Ace with his heart is healing up pretty good.
WS really can't threaten him, the Whirling Death.
He needs a number of Whirling Deaths in that entire time.
The hard to ask is healing Centaur up.
You always have the GMI, I gotta grip the value out too.
That's true.
Such a broken hero in these positions
where you have tanky frontliners.
He just gonna expire in three seconds.
They can draw this out a little bit.
Oh, it's gonna be close.
He's really close, he's trying to pull him away, kick him out, he does hard put down to low ground,
he just need one hit, power shot, it does hit 60 HP!
The sharpshooter, the sharpshooter shot!
Mira!
Hits the goal!
Is that the opening?
A massive pick up with no Tiny.
Now all hell is broken, Loose and Aurora are gonna try and grab as many heroes as they possibly can.
But there are more multiple threats here besides the Tiny.
He should go back in, kills Mira.
Moxie, rolling after Karrie as well, they're not gonna deal with the Tamperson,
They're just going to dance around him, kill all the supporting cast.
Once again, Curry's dead.
Now they go back for WS.
He blinks away.
Aurora thought, oh, this is our chance.
We've killed the tiny liquids running.
But it was false.
Yul's arrow goes out, forced a buyback out of Mira.
You still have to look for something to hear if you're Aurora.
Kind of do, right?
You've had very few moments in this game
with any sort of advantage.
Tiny off the map for this long.
If you just sit in your base, it's
going to feel real bad.
WS trying to bait something out for some action.
Please go on me, but Ace, he disregards that.
He goes straight to the back line again.
Here's gonna be a dive back.
BKB before the Yule goes off.
Ace secures the kill.
Oh, they found the puck again.
Hellfire goes out.
He blinks back to safety.
WS.
Timber chained down.
They're poking at him.
He's got to be careful.
And Agatomceptor is not a...
It's not a saving grace against an old fire from Boxy.
And now you've got 60 seconds where it's a 4 vs 5, Tiny's gonna be up, and can teleport onto the outpost.
That shows you the strength of this liquid lineup.
You lose your Tiny.
In a situation where Aurora did kinda outplay them with the expiry of that Aegis, they got it right on the edge.
Yeah, it was beautiful timing. Really well played by Aurora to make that happen.
and you still couldn't take the bike you still couldn't take the bike shackles
oh no focus fire when I fall almost kills himself on that one hey hi he does
die how did he die there actually towards the end
star store oh it was profits pendulum he had already
himself from his focus fire no wait low he's oh yeah right and then the
profits pendulum kicks in and all you said oh wait whatever I'm sure how
Someone dies, it's always profit-spendulence.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
That is not the hero you want to be focus firing,
if you don't have safety in it.
Well, now you don't want to focus fire anybody.
Centaur has Retaliate Aura.
So everybody is going to be a bad focus fire.
Hmm.
It's tough.
It is real tough in this game.
I dare say it's impossible.
Liquid.
Start taking away the buildings.
WS is farming for some sort of item.
I mean, all the- all the farm in the world, still top net worth.
You- Liquid is up 26,000.
Off of his recent building, they'll all jump ahead of him, but he was still top net worth.
Yeah, that's crazy.
At the end of that fight, and he cannot find an item that is a solution.
I really thought everyone was gonna be able to do more in this game.
She's a shooter.
That did not.
Yeah.
They're doing a very nice job of not over-focusing him.
Hell yeah.
Just killing supports every time.
They just walk past him for like 95% of the game, and then every once in a while.
You know, they're like, okay, throw every stun at Timbersaw, 100 to 0.
They have tanking up heroes, they can just absorb some of his spells
and kill Aurora fast enough.
You have a double heart centaur, by the way.
This can't be the build, but it is badass, out of this for sure.
Okay.
Isn't it kind of the build against Windranger, though?
Yeah, it's very good, this game, I will say.
Actually, it's maybe the only time where it is the build.
The regen's insane.
And then he's gonna get yet another reaver with the overwhelming blink.
Okay, I'm on all aboard for this. Yeah, I mean it's the retaliate audience
That's true. No Dora is based on other heroes train
Still good though
Agatom scepter for carry on surprise the god an item frankly
12 des zero 12 and 8
It's not been a fun time, but it does up the damage.
They have to make something happen before this rush goes liquids way.
It's a level 3 macro player.
So if they could somehow...
Yeah, it's liquid all standing in the macro for 10 seconds.
Yeah, I was gonna say maybe like puck a little 20, oh well that's not even a talent anymore,
never mind.
That's Scythe on the Ember, hold away by the Geo Magnetic Grip, kicked away, pick up
the Stomp.
They got the chain stun!
Nightfall gone?
No chance to nightfall here today!
Dies without the BKB being used.
That's the fight.
That's probably the game at this point.
Liquid gonna try and run down the other two.
But even if they don't, that's another lane of barracks.
That's gonna probably be Naga's.
They can go back and do Roshan if they want to be ultra safe about it.
Huck!
Come on, jump to the orb.
Did not jump to the orb.
Link's away.
Back to Timbersaw, Timbersaw making a run for it.
He also gets out.
But now you've got 50 seconds with no Windranger.
Go back for Roche.
Nah, you end the game.
Put that center on the front line.
What are you gonna do?
Nikkei got his level 25.
He went for his favorite talent, the Avalanche cooldown one.
Very good in this game.
Yeah, yeah, especially if he holds it there.
Now, let's see if Liquid does end the game here to go back to Roche, be super safe.
Oh, Roche even does anything, like no one's dying.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
InferSphere has 4,000 HP.
That's the thing about the signup, they're all so dantanky.
There is no easy target.
In that sense, I think it's a pretty bad winner in your game.
Yeah.
There was maybe a potential to do his thing, but when you're playing against these really tanky lineups and there's a bad match up
Tiny's kind of a bad match up to be honest like it can go both ways
But it's like you don't run out of damage to kill tiny but it also kind of takes too long to guess
At the point where you're killing him easily you're probably just killing anybody in the game
I think time is a better chance of causing you issues
He forces your BKB early to because he either starts the fight from a shadow way position in this or he's avalanche
And then you have to pop the key beer you're just getting changed on a hundred zero like we saw in that fight, right?
Well the tiny creates an issue for you. I think that's pretty damn nice. I got a reward Mira
Starts it on ace
And I ace is going wait a minute. Why am I turning I've got 6600 HP
Stampede goes out to get tofu away to safety. They just jump the jacquero for kibori man
Every fight coil on to oh the old scepter stop at the timber saw
He was just about to get on top of these heroes instead. He's gonna be ulting to an arrow and killed
No buy available
Chainsaw around Aurora are gonna call the GG. They will take the loss against liquid
And that may have just lost them top spot in this group B
That was a game they're gonna look back on just ask what the hell happened here because I don't think that is how that game
Progresses clearly from the draft maybe liquid understood that game better than we all did
But I honestly think they just severely outplayed him there.
They turned it up, Nisha had a perfect game, 14-0, 18 on this Ember.
Maybe another conclusion is Ember Spirit is broken.
I think he's a good player.
Dude, Ember Spirit looks broken.
I mean, teams are not respecting him, right?
And the thing about this hero is that his biggest weakness is the mid lane matchup if
he gets cheesed.
If he does not get cheesed, he's always a powerhouse of a hero on the map.
He enables your support through his shutdown enemy supports.
It just gives you such huge advantage.
And they got this puck ember trade. That's why I really like that first exchange
Like I'll almost take liquid in that draft based on the putt first ember based on what we've seen in this tournament
regardless of the other picks because I think it just sets you up so well and we saw the damage afflicted here
Seems deep to respect what the serial is doing in terms of the supports on supports bringing these duos into the game
He is just decimating back on
Liquid apparently they told Nick Mcalaxy. Don't worry. We'll take a game off of Aurora
And after that game one was starting. I was like really sure you could be able to do that
Well, they proved it was absolutely the case. They do have the power to do so and
Nick McAlessie a believer looking good to get first in their group
Hope their boys out right big fans of that team. I think there's also a necessary win for liquid just from a moral standpoint
if you got
To a yesterday to a today in the fashion they did where some of these games just fell
really lackluster. I think your hopes to go deep in this tournament do end up pretty quickly.
You're not gonna have the confidence going into the next stage here. You win that game,
you win it in a stylistic fashion against the top team. You outplay him. We can win with any draft.
To me that's like a draft independently. Not that the draft's bad, but it's like we just make good
moves. We play fast. We connect. This is what the liquid you want to see, right? Make a game
involved in these fights. You should have in a perfect game. That's what we want to see from the
Alright, well, beautiful game from Liquid in Game 2 and we can talk about it with slacks on stage with Boxy.
Thank you so much Cap. Yes, I am here with Boxy. Boxy, you've got to feel a little bad about that game.
I mean, your spirit going in, just ignoring Timbersaw, just attacking the supports.
Do you feel any kind of guilt about what you just transpired against Steve Aurora?
My start was so bad this game, but I don't know. I was like happy when I got to farm for 10 minutes
Thank you my team. That was really nice. And once I had my BKB, I was like, okay guys
I'm ready to fight. I'll grab the mic. Hey, man, I'll hold the mic. Okay, go ahead. No, no, no. What are you asking?
Okay, okay. Thank you very much
Ember Spirit should anyone get this hero again? I saw you guys gave Makoto one of his favorite heroes
You give them punk just for the ember and the ember goes absolutely bonkers
Did you do that trade on purpose? Is that where you're hoping to do?
I'm not too involved in the draft process, but I think we were like, okay, we're first big ember and I was like, yeah, ember is good
That sounds good, you know
I guess we also lost to ember last game. We were like, yeah, ember is pretty pretty good. Yeah
So yeah
You guys are very famous for doing kind of decent in the early group stage then learning lessons and going forward
Who is really doing that? Is that your guys's experiences in the game?
Is that bullets who's making that process happen for you guys? I
Think everyone just gives their inputs on what I think is good. What is that?
Obviously like bits and tofu does the drafting. Yeah, but they also asked like, you know
It can't be like two people and five people don't give any opinions. That's not a team
I've heard of teams like that before there have been teams where they just I'm gonna take it back
Where they just ignore people and just get their opinions out of that, you know, pot.
Is that you? Do you ever make suggestions? They say, like, shut up, Oksin.
No. Or are you highly respected on this team?
I think leadership is kind of about ignoring a lot of suggestions.
And, like, making sure that everyone, like everyone that brings suggestions,
that the ones that go together work.
I don't have any idea maybe what other people are suggesting, you know.
Alright, Boxy, well you did an absolutely fantastic series, it's really good to see you again.
I haven't given this opportunity to anybody yet, but now that we have seen Liquid back,
any words to the fans watching? I mean we've been waiting to see a big success like this
in the entirety of the group stage.
Yeah, I mean thanks for watching and supporting us. It's still the group stage, you know.
We'll be better for the playoffs, so don't do so.
I'm feeling it.
I'm feeling it, baby! All right, David.
Oh, my boy right there! That is it!
Thank you so much, Boxy, for an incredible interview.
Incredible series.
We'll go back to our incredible panel to talk to you all about it.
Thank you very much, Slacks.
And of course, Boxy as Team Liquid is the second team
to take a game off of Aurora here on stage just now.
There's a lot to break down.
And at the same time there is still a game going on that might still have an impact on Aurora's future here.
But of course this game, I am just wanting to update you guys that Ember Spirit has a 63% win rate,
whereas Puck has a now 28% win rate.
And this was an overall first pick Puck and I don't know why.
Stats don't lie, Shiver.
They don't.
Stats don't lie.
So that's never life. Ever.
Yeah, I mean, for a good reason.
Coming into this tournament, I think people did expect Tender Spirit to be highly
contested, but it's doing much better than people would kind of also expect,
especially because he buys Spirit, doesn't he?
He shuts down quite a lot of these heroes, like these
network forces that are super imbalanced, you know, that we talk about the healing
reduction, like the heal strat that a lot of teams are bringing to the table,
and the eShop, he was set up for a perfect game.
Out of England asked for anything better than this, we talked about Nisha being also in his prime again,
because even in the games that Team Liquid was losing, he still looks like a menace, he still looks like on top of his game,
he's ready to carry Team Liquid, and the rest of the team this time around, they really stepped it up.
They did really step it up. I think this was the first time we saw the power that Team Liquid has to offer in this tournament.
Yeah, and honestly, I don't think their drafts was very convincing in a way.
I don't think they won out of strategy, I think this was an outplay, more than an outplay.
I think they just played better, they clicked their buttons better.
I think the plays were faster, more impactful.
This was just simply showing that we're a bunch of really, really good players and it doesn't really matter
the strategy or what happens in the lanes.
Remember that this was like a reminder of like, hey, this this can always happen to you when you play against us.
So it kind of keeps you guessing, like it keeps you wondering what happens if they have a better draft, let's say, or it's pretty scary.
And what happens if there's Lacoste in the not playoff stage yet, because they have to go through the survival stage first.
But what happens when there's best of threes? Because maybe there that's an even scarier team liquid.
Yeah, for sure. This is the team. Let's say this is a B out of three.
I would even give a slight edge to Team Liquid, especially if they lose game one, then win
game two, and then they come to the third game, that would definitely, at least to my
opinion, would have an upper hand because this team knows how to adjust.
There's no straight up out play.
I mean, if you look at this court board, there's one guy that stands out the most.
That's going to be Nisha with 14-0 and 18.
It's just insane what he could do, but I'm also really glad that the rest of the team
also played around him.
It seems like a lot of the times you see them like put a lot of trust in each other
That's like this team was so successful ace
However, very interesting guy to build come out from him with the double heart. You see when Ranger just straight up killing herself on the
With the focus fire, which was funny to watch
Yeah, we have of course selected me chance the MVP because this was this was a masterclass
It was very enjoyable
I'm not complaining about seeing so much Ember Spirit and seeing him do well because he is such a fun hero to watch and a
hero that if played at the highest level everywhere he's everywhere and it's a
fun hero to watch and it's a really hard hero to play like very hard to master I
think what Nisha is able to do on this hero is absolutely incredible like it's
work class I mean it's a reason for why this this guy has been
dominating every single season of Dota with this Ember Spirit and I think he
showcased once again that he is a menace on the hero and if the hero is meta
than Liquid is in a good state, you know, like Nisha Ember is an absolute classic, like he really,
what a statement, you know, because they just lost to Ember, he lost to Ember,
also like having a pretty rough lane, and now he kind of showcased that, yeah,
you know, I'm not impressed, you're just playing a broken hero, all this work I can do with it.
Yeah, we heard SPG say it this morning before the series even started, he is like one of the
main questions he had going into this, which Nisha is going to show up, because we know he has
An incredibly high ceiling, but not every game he is able to hit that.
This game though, we saw why we have such high expectations of him.
Yeah, I think even though they lost a couple of games, like the score isn't the greatest for Team Liquid,
probably expected a better result overall.
Like Nisha in every single game that we've seen him play, he looked very, very stable, like he did perform.
And every single time Nisha does well, the rest of the team also does extremely well.
They really do, and we're not done talking about Nisha yet, I think, because I think
you're something to show us regarding him.
Yeah, I mean, I think there were moments of a game that were absolutely amazing.
I really want to show the sequence, because this is like, to me, this is almost unheard
of.
Like, the Wizard rune is coming.
It's a pretty rough early game for Liquid, as you can see, Nisha has decided to contest
the rune by himself.
He has an arcane rune, of course.
His team is nowhere to help him, because they're making their own tree on the winranger, and
they get the kill.
At the same time, Nisha gets to kill the Huzzuink, and now he's trying to get the wisdom.
And since, you know, Aura got the memo that, well, they're not ready to help him.
This guy is actually alone, we have Aegis, they start contesting, look at Nisha.
His team is not there, like they just went away.
He's taking the fight, 1 vs 2, 1 vs 3, and this is what's amazing about this guy is that
he just, he's in the zone.
You know, like, this takes the highest level of focus.
Nobody's talking to him, you can be sure.
He's just full choir doing his thing on the map, you know, battling out versus three heroes,
gets two kills.
He's going to get rid of the Aegis, get two kills, force TP's, get out.
It's like, what else do you need?
You need coffee, like how can I help you?
Cheat liquid?
Like, he's just doing so much with so little at this point, you know, like they lost their
healing phase, he has no teammate to connect.
This is the kind of overperformance that you expect from a world class player like Nisha
and you give that kind of space to the MiK, the Aces, the Toffos of the world.
All of a sudden you secured yourself a map win.
Yeah, for Team Liquid, of course this game is very good and I think it was very needed as well
for a boost going into the survival stage.
But they do have to go into the survival stage because they needed this to be a 2-0.
If they wanted to have a shot at the tiebreakers to see if they could force out the first place
For themselves in group B. They don't do so, but they are I think we're cost very happy with this result either way
Yeah, for sure. I mean this this group looked extremely stronger like people talked about, you know being good
Maybe the group D being good group of that because you have one W have the index
LGD a lot of strong teams, but after seeing how it unfolded
I would say this was the strongest group because Enigma Galaxy they showed up to their full potential like this is the theme that
Maybe not everybody expected to be so back like they're definitely back and they're back in very convincing fashion because of the
Strategy that they've been bringing to the table the gameplay and of course the lovable players that we kind of like to see back on the top
Yeah, and I don't know if you guys heard it but while you were talking there was also a cheer happening on my right because that's where the
B stages. I've got a great vantage point here where a spoiler alert, I did just see who won the game
between NIGMA Galaxy and P-Time and that was of course NIGMA Galaxy. They two owned that series
and therefore the only one game that they have dropped this entire group stage as steps at the
biggest surprise of the group stage to be able to keep consistent at that top level. The only
All they're going to drop was against Aurora, but this is Nigma Galaxy peak time and it's
super impressive and we know they can take games off the best of them.
They just haven't shown us this year that they can do so consistently.
Yeah, but what a time to do so.
I mean, this is the timing, it's the only thing that matters.
If you want to peak, if you want to find your form, this is the best time and the only time
of the year to do so.
So I'm just really happy for them.
You know, if you're a Nigma fan, you're probably vibing.
Don't get carried away.
don't get yourself carried away. Remember the years of pain and suffering. Fingers snapped
and we're back there. So let's just take it one step at a time. Winning the group, very
nice, very impressive one step at a time, please.
Well, they didn't want to play tie breakers, so maybe it was worth it.
Fine by me, but one step at a time.
One step at a time, but they do skip that survival stage step. So congratulations to
it does mean that we have group B sorted out without any tiebreakers Lacoste.
Is that a surprise?
So not have any tiebreakers on this entire day?
Definitely.
It looked like the group B had a lot of chances to have tiebreakers,
a lot of mutations as well.
It didn't happen in the end,
but let's see what happened in this game.
She wrote, I'm going to just wait it out because I saw the draft and it looked dirty.
And this is like kind of a lion's type of a draft back from Lichenundry.
That's almost a lot of push.
It's a it's a lot of dirtiness combined together.
And the Nygma Galaxy, I got to say that they have impressed me
the most with the drafts that they did have.
Like you saw quite a lot of healing strats.
They're bringing back the alchemist to bring out some basil as well.
Keeper of the light, a lot of lichens and cooking with the drafts.
Like this is the draft that not many other teams are willing to pick
and also execute because this type of draft needs high level execution.
That's one way to shut down a draw ranger when like 20 minutes in you have like a profit
to liken in a laundry and you know knocking at your base is like what are you gonna do?
It's almost illegal I have to say like I think this is uh you know you want to send the Dora
police on this because it's too much like too too much too much zoo too many summons not cool.
Not cool indeed but probably something that we might see more often because if it works
Come on, you're going to still pick it.
I'm going to also have some final thoughts on Aurora that we just saw on stage because
obviously we can say high prices for a team liquid with Aurora coming second in this group.
Definitely also have to put some respect there.
How come it didn't work out for them in this game?
Is it just the cost you feel like they got a little bit figured out in the drafts also
with the puck or were there other issues for them?
Maybe it's the puck issue.
The hero just doesn't feel as strong compared to two, three months ago where the hero like
you could straight up first face it and hear what dominated the game.
The meta did shift, it shifted like multiple times.
But it seems like maybe Team Liquid also overperforming.
Like they definitely didn't have the better draft,
but they had overall better gameplay and they like everything jumped together for them.
And it seems like they were just in the zone
and it didn't feel like that for Aurora in the second game.
I think WS got baited.
Like he gave an interview and he said,
you know, I went back to see and I'm playing Timber and I'm owning and then I come back to Europe.
And then it doesn't work.
And next thing you know, he's just winning every game
and the group said, like, you know what?
I think this is a timber game.
And then he lost.
And I think that's it.
He's like, well, sorry, my bad guys.
I should have learned my lesson.
He probably didn't write it down in his notes.
And now, so I think the draft was
like so optimal in a sense.
I mean, it was cool.
They were cool ideas.
It made sense why they would pick these heroes.
But as I've said, these are non-Meta heroes for reason,
perhaps.
So probably something to go back on
and then reconsider your hero priority.
But they played really well nonetheless.
I think very dominant performance from them
in the group stage and well deserved second place.
Yeah, and second place means that they go to the survival
stage, but not the first day of it, but the second day.
They get to skip one round there.
Let's take a look at what happened today,
because we got group A and group B finished up today.
Two series were shown.
We had a two all across the board, actually,
for group A in our first series of the day.
And yeah, we have Aurora Liquid with the tie,
and we have Nick McGalaxy with the 2-0 on the B-String.
We also, today, LaCosta, our first keys crushed.
Yeah, it's always devastating.
Like, it's a really fun factor that we added,
and you can definitely tell that, you know,
some are enjoying it more,
especially the winners are gonna be enjoying it more,
but also the fact that you can also take some of the keys,
like, and three of them, I believe.
So maybe some grudges from the pub matches and stuff like that,
maybe some arch nemesis that you do have something that you lost
in some big tournaments and you're going to be having extra eye on those kids.
Yeah, we're going to have an eye on a key that will no longer be key very soon.
They all they all crush a little bit different as well.
And you just there's like all these little things as well.
But I mean, it's a good thing that there's like one of the safety things around
that because that's the gold in your eye.
I don't think that's what you want.
I didn't look at it.
I didn't look at it.
Too painful.
Too recent, too painful, but it's like maybe in 10 years.
Alright, let's take a look at some group standings then as we are going for group A first.
That was the first group to be solved and here it is.
We got two teams eliminated in Gamer Legion, poor Rangers, Falcons top in the group with
only dropping that one game and we keep bringing it up.
It was the one game that they were meant to lose in order to rise to the top because
because that was the very first game of the tournament without fail.
They dropped that game to BB Team who came second.
We got Runeer's Extreme there also, the third, fourth,
that we will see again in the survival stage
as we're going to take a look at Group B,
the one that just got solved just a second ago.
MiGmaGalaxy, I know, Sev, you never doubted this for a second.
Yes, that statement is entirely true.
But I have been impressed as soon as I got to see them play here with their level.
And as Lacoste mentioned, also the drafting, which I think is very innovative.
I mean, compared to what the other teams are doing, I think it's quite disruptive.
And it's really paying off, so good of them.
I mean, if they can, you know, draft these kind of strategies and execute them the way they are executing them.
I think this team is really a menace, and especially in a single-in-limb tournament.
I think it's very scary to go up against Tigma right now, for anyone really, even for the most accomplished dominating teams of the scene.
Yeah, I mean, P-Time was about to win Game 1 and they were able to claw back and you don't want to give them any opening cost.
No, I mean, I covered their series in TI qualifiers and I was like, I'm pretty impressed.
I don't know if this is some honeymoon phase, I don't know like if things are clicking for them because they definitely were.
because they look like I've never seen this nigma and then I've seen in the scene like that for a
really long time I got the hopes up every single time I get disappointed it's just a roller coaster
keeps going keeps going but I think they found stability and that's what really matters to them
yep this roller coaster goes just a little bit higher than the rest and maybe with a
little bit more of a longer runway there at the top but that is group A and group B done
there is one day of group stages left of course and that's tomorrow we can take a look at what's
coming your way because that is when group C and D will be solved. We will start the day with P vision
versus team spirit. Now I'll be already spoiling you guys that is group C and in group C there is no
chance for a tiebreaker. P vision and team spirit are basically fighting for who comes out on top
of their group with P vision right now in the Lito spirit needs to 2-0 them in order to kick them
from their first place and then the last series of the day and 1W and Yandex and it's very simple
We need a clear winner. If they tie, it's not enough.
We need one of these two teams to 2-0 and if they tie, they will go again, said.
I mean, these two matches could be grandfiles.
Like, this is how good all of these four teams are right now.
It's going to be two-bangers, honestly.
Like, it's really hard to predict who's going to come out on top.
I think we've seen all these teams kind of dominate the rest of the competition so far,
and it kind of keeps wondering who's better.
You know, I think, like, that's just the discussion.
The 1W is better than Yandex, now Yandex is better than P-Vision.
Tomorrow all these questions are going to start getting answered.
Because it is still group stage.
I think they are also at a stage of determination where they could be deciding to hold back a little bit.
I'm not going to fall into the hiding strategy kind of thing.
But you could decide to not show everything you get to show, especially in single-elimpt tournament.
I think it makes a lot of sense.
So we'll have to see how they approach this series.
Yeah, and it is very important to count first place though.
because you skip a whole stage and you're instantly top 8, so there's a lot on the line for those series.
But no thoughts for you, Lacoste.
Very impressed by Dota that we have seen because you know, day one, we haven't really seen anything too spicy.
Day two and three, I think, thanks to Nigma Galaxy and thanks to some other teams as well.
We are seeing new ideas coming in and some teams also talked about in the interviews that,
you know, maybe the meta changed, like they prepared certain stuff, so it's going to be,
Again, about the teams who can adapt quickly, like the fastest current meta, and that's what I'm about to see.
Well, just good Dota, and so far, I'm very impressed.
Yeah, and it's promising to have some good Dota coming your way tomorrow, as well as you already heard from the guys.
Thank you so much for your thoughts, gentlemen.
This was it for today. We had two great series, and of course tomorrow can only be greater with what's on the menu.
If you missed any of today's action though, I mean this was it for us, but we are not going to leave you empty-handed.
We'll be back tomorrow, but for now, here are the SEC recap.