Invictus Gaming wins $32,000 G-League Finals

 

 

Invictus Gaming were the favourites against LGD.Int going into the G-League Grand Final as we breakdown the action below.

 

 

Game 1 – iG emerges with the lead

FIRST BANNING PHASE

With LGD.Int getting the chance to pick first, they decided to ban the game breaking heroes Magnus and Rubick. These two heroes, if used well, could execute great initiations that can catch a team off guard, while Invictus Gaming decided to ban LGD.Int’s Dark Seer and Chen.

 

FIRST PICKING PHASE

LGD.Int opted to pick Batrider first and later picked up Naix and Enchantress, leaving Nyx Assassin in the hero pool. iG did not let him slip away, along with the Keeper of the Light and Phantom Lancer duo. With the picks so far, iG looked to already have the stronger line-up.

 

SECOND BANNING PHASE

LGD.Int  banned iG’s Pandaren Brewmaster and Beastmaster, to deny the counter picks for Naix, as well as Nerubian Weaver, while iG decided to ban Shadow Demon, Syllabear and Luna Moonfang, heroes that LGD.Int usually loved to pick up.

 

SECOND PICKING PHASE

LGD.Int immediately went for Crystal Maiden, a hero that was really easy to take down, even though iG had already picked heroes than can kill her in a split second. They later picked up Night Stalker to counter the Queen of Pain, while iG went with Queen of Pain and Clockwerk hoping to counter LGD.Int’s Naix.

 

LANINGS

LGD.International (Radiant)		Invictus Gaming (Dire)
TOP	Naix	TOP	PL/Nyx/KOTL
MID	Night Stalker	MID	Queen of Pain
BOTTOM	Batrider	BOTTOM	Clockwerk
JUNGLE/ROAMING	Enchantress/Crystal Maiden	JUNGLE/ROAMING	-

 

GAME ANALYSIS

Batrider was able to free farm in the bottom lane while Phantom Lancer was doing the same in top lane. After Night Stalker bought his bottle and started roaming with Enchantress and Crystal Maiden, it became hard for Queen of Pain to advance in the mid lane. Invictus Gaming drew first blood when Enchantress decided to go for a Dire neutral camp and did not see iG closing in on her. 

 

The action was intense from the get-go and this was definitely a game without a dull moment. LGD.Int would get a kill and win clashes and iG would reciprocate and do likewise in a see-saw battle. A huge team clash at the 22^nd minute mark saw iG take down 4 of LGD.Int’s heroes without losing any. They went on to take down the bottom tier one tower simply because of good ward placement by iG at the bottom hill near Roshan. 

 

Even though the kill score was quite even, the big problem for LGD.Int was iG’s Phantom Lancer, who got his core items within 30 minutes – Drums, Level 2 Diffusal Blade and Heart of Tarasque. On the other hand, LGD.Int’s carry, Naix (Phase boots, Drums, and Armlet of Mordrigan) and Night Stalker (Treads and Black King Bar) simply could not match up.

Invictus Gaming took down Roshan at the 33^rd minute mark without any resistance and thereafter won a huge clash in the top lane where 3 LGD.Int heroes died without any casualties on iG’s side forcing LGD.Int tap out.

 

 

Invictus Gaming takes a commanding 2-0 lead

 

 

FIRST BANNING PHASE

Invictus Gaming continued to ban Chen and Dark Seer while this time LGD.int banned the Batrider and Nyx Assassin which made it hard to roam around in the previous game.

 

FIRST PICKING PHASE

This time Invictus Gaming went with a whole new line-up, LGD.Int may have banned out Nyx Assassin but left Magnus in the hero pool and iG gladly accepted, along with Naix and Syllabear, while LGD.int decided to go with Keeper of the Light for a stronger line-up at the laning stage and took rubick for a possible  reverse polarity steal and finishing with Nerubian Weaver.

 

SECOND BANNING PHASE

LGD.Int banned Shadow Demon which was a good initiator as well as a direct counter against their Nerubian Weaver. They also banned Chuan’s Sand King and Faith’s Disruptor. Invictus Gaming chose to ban Phantom Lancer in order for their Lifestealer to have an easier time, especially in the late game. They also banned Pandaren Brewmaster and Queen of Pain.

 

SECOND PICKING PHASE

In the second picking phase, iG took Jakiro and rounded up their line-up with lion in a big to counter Nerubian Weaver. LGD.Int decided to go for the forgotten Sven and Pugna to try and take down towers early in the game.

 

LANINGS

Invictus Gaming (Radiant)		LGD.International (Dire)
TOP	Syllabear	TOP	Nerubian Weaver
MID	Magnus	MID	Pugna
BOTTOM	Naix/Lion/Jakiro	BOTTOM	Sven/KOTL/Rubick
JUNGLE/ROAMING	-	JUNGLE/ROAMING	-

 

GAME ANALYSIS

While Pugna was out-farming Magnus in the middle lane and getting an early Mekansm, iG’s Syllabear made use of some strategically placed sentries to dominate the solo Nerubian Weaver. This forced Rubick to leave the bottom lane and try and gank Syllabear up top. Unfortunately, the move backfired as it allowed iG’s Syllabear to entangle Nerubian Weaver and get ‘first blood’.

 

At the 8^th minute mark,iG won a major clash by killing 4 heroes and just losing Jakiro in exchange but LGD.Int came back later to kill 2 of iG’s heroes and continued to take down iG’s bottom tower. Just like in Game 1, Game 2 was very even in terms of the kill score but Invictus Gaming pulled away slowly in terms of hero experience and items.

 

At the 13^th minute mark, LGD.Int took down the top tier one tower but at the cost of the lives of 4 of their heroes on the back of a huge 3 man Reverse Polarity executed by Magnus. iG chased down another hero and before proceeding to take down LGD.Int’s top tier one tower to cancel out the advantage. A similar situation presented itself when LGD.Int decided to try and take down the tier one mid tower but this time they did not succeed after yet another huge Reverse Polarity by Magnus catching out 4 LGD.Int heroes.

 

Another of Magnus’ Reverse Polarity at the 28^th minute mark saw iG take down one set of barracks as they tried to force LGD.Int to tap out. They finally put an end to LGD.Int’s suffering by taking down a second set of barracks at the 32^nd minute mark to take a commanding 2-0 lead.

 

LGD.Int secures Game 3 to stay alive

 

 

FIRST BANNING PHASE

Game 3 was going to take on a different stance as both Nyx Assassin and Magnus were both banned, along with Dark Seer and Batrider.

 

FIRST PICKING PHASE

iG opted for yet another Syllarbear and Naix combination and added Chen as well while LGD.Int went for Rubick and Nerubian Weaver again and added a familiar LGD.Int pick in Enchantress, in a bid to counter Chen.

 

SECOND BANNING PHASE

iG denied LGD.Int the additional pushing power by banning Nature’s Prophet as well as Pandaren Brewmaster and Templar Assassin for good measure. LGD.Int, countered by banning Keeper of the Light to deny iG the possibility of easily defending lanes as well as Shadow Demon who is known to be good at defensive disruption for early kills.

 

SECOND PICKING PHASE

iG opted for their usual Shadow Shaman pick and opted for Puck basically counter Nerubian Weaver, whereas LGD.Int continued to stick with their fast game line-up, picking up Lycanthrope and Beastmaster.

 

LANINGS

LGD.International (Radiant)		Invictus Gaming (Dire)
TOP	Nerubian Weaver	TOP	Naix/Shadow Shaman
MID	Beastmaster	MID	Puck
BOTTOM	Lycanthrope	BOTTOM	Syllabear
JUNGLE/ROAMING	Enchantress/Rubick	JUNGLE/ROAMING	Chen

 

GAME ANALYSIS

LGD.Int’s line-up was clearly set up for taking down towers quickly and hopefully finish the game early and deny iG’s Syllabear and Naix picks any late game advantage. When Enchantress managed to use a troll warlord to take out the opposing courier in the mid lane, this made it difficult for Puck to lane effectively against Beastmaster.

 

By the 8^th minute mark, LGD.Int had already managed to take down 4 of iG’s towers although 2 were denied. Even though iG’s line-up had the potential to take down towers, they needed their Shadow Shaman and Syllabear to level up and Chen to have been able to control at least 3 creeps.

 

Following that, LGD.Int suddenly lost momentum as they could not keep up the pressure and take down more towers as iG were slowly farming up their core items specially on Naix and Syllabear. In a game without huge AoE skills in their line-up, iG were limited to picking up the odd hero kill instead of the massive team clashes that characterized the previous 2 games. 

 

At the 24^th minute mark, Lycanthrope’s split-pushing at the bottom lane forced Syllabear to teleport back and LGD.Int immediately initiated a clash against iG which saw they winning the clash with a 3:1 hero kill advantage. They won another huge clash at the 31^st minute mark that saw them destroy both top and middle barracks to secure Game 3.

 

Invictus Gaming defeats LGD.Int 3:1 after an epic Game 4

 

 

FIRST BANNING PHASE

iG continued to ban Chen and Dark Seer, while this time LGD.int banned Naix and Magnus, which were recurring picks for iG, as they did not want to face them again.

 

FIRST PICKING PHASE

With Nyx Assassin available, LGD.Int took him without hesitation, along with Rubick and surpisingly, Juggernaut. iG decided to take Batrider and the Keeper of the Light and Phantom Lancer combination again.

 

SECOND BANNING PHASE

iG decided to ban the previous trio of Lycanthrope, Nerubian Weaver and Enchantress to take  LGD.Int out of their comfort zones. LGD.Int on the other hand, decided to ban Pandaren Brewmaster and Beastmaster to basically take out heroes with skills that ignore the Black King Bar’s protection.

 

SECOND PICKING PHASE

Invictus Gaming picked up Sandking and stole Nightstalker away from LGD.Int, while LGD.Int got their hands on Syllabear and Shadow Demon to in an attempt to counter Phantom Lancer in the late game.

 

LANINGS

Invictus Gaming (Radiant)		LGD.International (Dire)
TOP	Batrider	TOP	Syllabear
MID	NightStalker	MID	Nyx Assassin
BOTTOM	PL/KOTL/Sandking	BOTTOM	Juggernaut/Rubick/ ShadowDemon
JUNGLE/ROAMING	-	JUNGLE/ROAMING	-

 

GAME ANALYSIS

LGD.Int had the better start once again and despite Batrider getting first blood on Syllabear, Syllabear was still out-farming and out-leveling Batrider. With Nyx Assassin laning in mid and earning his Vendetta ability early on, this allowed him to pick off Keeper of the Light and other heroes who were caught alone.

 

With LGD.Int’s line-up, they took down all of iG’s outer towers by the 24^th minute mark, while iG only managed to take down 2. The Keeper of the Light and Phantom Lancer combo did not work as well this time around, as they were punished by LGD.Int’s tri-lane. It was difficult for Keeper of the Light to defend against the Null Field of Rubick, Mekansm on Nyx Assassin and the healing ward of Juggernaut.

 

At the 33^rd minute mark, LGD.Int decided to push the bottom lane and hopefully destroy a set of barracks. They managed to take down the tower but unfortunately for them, iG defended well thus buying their Phantom Lancer more time to farm and later proceeded to win another huge clash after pushing out the bottom lane. Batrider was executing his initiations perfectly, first on Nyx Assassin and then on Shadow Demon giving iG the advantage.

 

After LGD.Int took down Roshan at the 56^th minute mark, they not only had the Aegis but two cheeses as well. However, both teams were extremely cautious as they knew that any mistake could cost them the game, especially so for LGD.Int.

 

With the match going into the 66^th minute mark, iG got the chance to take the fifth spawning of Roshan with Phantom Lancer getting the Aegis and the cheese going to Night Stalker. With the tide turning, it was now LGD.Int who were unable to leave their base, instead of iG just moments before, because of the constant illusion push from Phantom Lancer that led to an LGD.Int top barracks going down.

 

Batrider initiated a clash which led to a huge team fight. iG fought without Phantom Lancer who continued to push the top lane and subsequently took down the melee barracks as well as the mid melee barracks. LGD.Int managed to win the team fight and countered by pushing the mid lane to even the odds, taking down the mid melee barracks and both top barracks. However, iG once again managed to hold out and took down Roshan once again to secure a 6^th Aegis.

 

 

Invictus Gaming went for a final push where they would win the biggest clash of the game forcing buybacks by LGD.Int. However, iG was simply the better team, coming out on top behind Zhou’s Phantom Lancer. With this win, they took home $32,000 while LGD.Int had to settle for a lesser sum of $8,000.

 

Final Standings:

Champions - iG                        - $32,000

1^st Runners-up - LGD.int        - $8,000

2^nd Runners-up - LGD.cn        - $1,600

4^th Place - TongFu                    - $1,600