Invictus Gaming secures spot in the playoffs

Invictus Gaming secures spot in the playoffs

With both teams tied 2:0 in their group it was time to determine who would take top spot and secure a spot in the G-1 League playoffs. The winner will join Orange.NeoEs who had already qualified from their group.

Zenith’s Dark Seer was aggressive early on against the solo Shadow Fiend in the bottom lane and made good use of the haste rune to deny Shadow Fiend the early experience. Dark Seer continued his aggressive streak as he dived into Shadow Fiend near the tower but fortunately, Rubick managed to teleport in time to offer assistance and Invictus Gaming managed to get first blood off Dark Seer. With that early advantage, Shadow Fiend began to dominate the lane.

Invictus Gaming decided to abandon the top lane, with their support heroes choosing to support Shadow Fiend in the bottom lane. Their decision paid off as they took down the bottom tier-1 tower 6 minutes into the game and managed to get another kill off Dark Seer as well.

After 9 minutes, Zenith decided to try and gank Juggernaut in the top lane but Invictus Gaming was ready and would get a kill off Shadow Demon but a missed play by Magnus cost them a kill off Lina and instead gave Zenith the chance to kill Silencer for the revenge kill.

Zenith’s Tinker was not having a great time, getting killed time and time again as Invictus Gaming was not giving him room to farm up Boots of Travel. Whereas Shadow Fiend was hardly harassed and was able to get his Power Threads and Shadow Blade in 12 minutes.

At the 14 minute mark, Invictus Gaming smoked up and went top where they were able to kill Zenith’s support heroes but fortunately for Zenith, Tiny was able to get away.

Zenith was slowly getting back into the game on the back of Tinker’s Boots of Travel and was able to pickoff Shadow Fiend in the Dire jungle.

At the 20 minute mark, Invictus Gaming grouped up in the top lane in an attempt to take down a tower. Zenith tried to defend but Magnus was able to get a two man Reverse Polarity and with itInvictus Gaming managed to take down the top tier-1 tower.

Invictus Gaming just continued to build up their advantage, both item-wise as well as in terms of map control, taking down all of Zenith’s outer towers after 31 minutes and later managed to chip away a huge chunk of life on the top tier-3 tower. 

After 39 minutes, Invictus Gaming decided to focus on pushing the middle lane instead after securing the Aegis of the Immortal. They successfully took down the middle tier-3 tower and finished off the middle barracks in a few minutes. With Zenith getting picked off one by one, they just couldn’t defend despite having Tinker in their line-up and with that, Invictus Gaming took Game 1 of the series.

Zenith surprisingly opted not to ban any heroes and instead baited Invictus Gaming into selecting their usual picks which they were comfortable using, specifically the carries Lone Druid, Magnus and Batrider.

Game 2 started out quite evenly with both teams trying to get decent farms and experience but an early gank by Bane in the middle lane led to a kill off Tinker but unfortunately they had to dive into the tower to do so and Juggernaut went down after claiming first blood.

After 4 minutes, Zenith was able to kill Lone Druid and took down the top tier-1 tower but Tinker managed to take advantage of the time Zenith took to do so and managed to farm up. This time round, Zhou’s Shadow Fiend was not having a good time unlike Game 1 and was struggling to farm up.

Zenith was slowly but clearly building up their lead, out-farming Invictus Gaming who only had Tinker as the only one managing to get his core items with a Boots of Travel and Soul Ring after 13 minutes.

At the 21 minute mark, Invictus Gaming smoked up and decided to push the bottom lane but unfortunately, they would lose a big time fight 3:4 with Tinker even forced to buyback to get their third kill of the fight.

Zenith would secure the Aegis of the Immortal after 26 minutes and later took down the bottom tier-2 tower and proceeded to take down all of Invictus Gaming’s outer towers subsequently.

Zenith looked to secure Game 2 by pushing the mid lane 34 minutes into the game, Invictus Gaming was trying everything to defend even using a Flaming Lasso and Reverse Polarity combination on Lifestealer but unfortunately he was too tanky and Zenith easily took down the heroes of Invictus Gaming without losing any which forced the “GG” call from Invictus Gaming.

Zenith’s decision to use Juggernaut in the off-lane was just not paying off as he couldn’t get in range for experience or gold, forcing him to stack ancients and try to gank the middle lane for a potential first blood only to fail miserably.

Invictus Gaming immediately smoked up to gank the top lane 2 minutes into the game and was able to get a first blood on Naga Siren who was not expecting a gank that early into the game.

Beastmaster rotated top after 6 minutes once he got his Roar and immediately Invictus Gaming got two quick kills off Undying and Dazzle while Lone Druid would get two solo kills on Juggernaut in the bottom lane.

After 11 minutes, Invictus Gaming would group up and push the top lane, managing to down their first tower down of the game easily. While that was happening both Beastmaster and Shadow Demon tried to get a kill off Tinker but unfortunately his Zenith teammates were there and they easily turned the tide, killing Shadow Demon instead. However, Invictus Gaming managed to get swift revenge, killing both Juggernaut and Undying in addition to taking down the tier-1 tower in the middle lane in exchange. They would later rotate to the bottom lane, where they easily took down the tier-2 tower.

With a commanding lead, Invictus Gaming dominated the map and took down all of Zenith’s outer towers after just 19 minutes and would proceed to secure the Aegis of the Immortal.

To add insult to injury, Invictus Gaming would get 5 Dagons to just basically burst down on Zenith’s heroes. They took down the middle barracks subsequently and although Zenith would win a few big team fights on the back of their good combination play, the items gap proved just too great and eventually Zenith found themselves getting slaughtered at the fountain with Invictus Gaming taking the series.