Zenith emerges victorious at DotaTalk League

 

 

After an exciting action packed Day 1 of the Dota Talk League where 17 teams competed in their respective groups, Zenith were able to claim over 1,000 Euro worth of SteelSeries products after defeating MiTH-Trust.

 

QUARTER FINALS

First Departure vs NeoEs.Int

First Departure's Phantom Lancer was just unable to farm up because of the aggressive tri-lane of NeoEs.Int's Lifestealer, Lina and Undying especially with the Queen of Pain constantly helping out at bottom.

After taking down the bottom lane, NeoEs.Int decided focus on the other lanes, continuing to win small skirmishes and taking down towers. The game was slowly slipping away from First Departure and unfortunately they could not recover, forcing them to call “GG” at the 34 minute mark. With that said, they were the first team to be eliminated from the playoffs.

 

Zenith vs ForLove

It was a dominat start for ForLove, as they managed to get an early shadow blade on Shadow Fiend while totally shutting down Templar Assassin in mid with the dual lane of Jakiro and Lifestealer. Magnus also managed to get his dagger relatively quickly.

However, Zenith managed to get back to the game with a huge team wipe against ForLove after catching them at the Roshan pit just after Shadow Fiend got the Aegis of the Immortal. After that, the momentum swung Zenith's way and they were eventually able to finish the game after an over-extension by both Lifestealer and Shadow Fiend.
 

MiTH-Trust vs Rising Stars

The game started out quite evenly with both teams trading a few kills but Rising Stars were slowly falling behind in terms of their ability to farm. MiTH-Trust managed to kill four heroes off at the 10 minute mark on the back of an over-extension by Queen of Pain while the rest of his teammates got picked off one by one.

Rising Stars showed how strong their line-up is, with Syllabear, Chen, Queen of Pain, Darkseer and Leviathan, taking down five of the outer towers by the 19 minute mark, whereas MiTH-Trust only managed to take down one tower on the back of a split push by Magina. However, Magina managed to farm up his core items while the rest of his teammates held off Rising Stars. Rising Stars managed to pick-off Magina at the 36 minute mark but had to use their ultimates, Sonic Wave and a questionable Ravage by Leviathan at the end. However, Magina immediately used his buyback and MiTH-Trust forced Rising Stars to defend without the two Ultimates that resulted in MiTH-Trust ending the game in 41 minutes.

 

Orange.NeoEs vs eClub`MuFC

Unfortunately for eClub`MuFC, there was a problem with their fifth member and they could not find a replacement in time which meant that they had to forfeit and gave Orange.NeoEs a free ticket to the Semi-Finals.

 

SEMI-FINALS

MiTH-Trust vs Orange.NeoEs

Orange.NeoEs had a rough start with their Syllabear constantly getting picked-off and Templar Assassin not really having a great time in mid against Queen of Pain. MiTH-Trust on the other hand, had a much better time as Naga Siren and Lifestealer got their core items quickly with Naga Siren making the best of the situation and farmed up Radiance and Heart of Tarasque.

Orange.NeoEs were slowly trying to crawl their way back into the game on the back of Mushi's Templar Assassin and got the chance to take down the middle barracks of MiTH-Trust but with Naga Siren constantly split-pushing, they had to teleport back to prevent a melee barracks going down.

A great pick-off at the 51 minute mark on Templar Assassin with an excellent Sleep by Naga Siren, sealed the deal for MiTH-Trust as Templar Assassin was not able to buyback. With Naga Siren on top lane and the rest in the middle lane, MiTH-Trust managed to take down all the lane barracks before Templar Assassin could revive. Orange.NeoEs would try a final push in mid but unfortunately did not have enough in the tank with MiTH-Trust holding them back long enough for the Mega Creeps to do their part and destroy the throne eventually.

 

NeoEs.Int vs Zenith

The game started out quite evenly with both teams as they exchanged kills all over the map. Even though both teams' hard carries were getting free farms, Lifestealer had to help out on team clashes giving Phantom Lancer some better room to farm up his core items, Radiance and Heart of Tarasque, which was just too much for Neo.Int to handle forcing them to call "GG" at the 27 minute mark.

 

THIRD PLACE DECIDER

Orange.NeoEs vs NeoEs.int

GAME 1: This was a game for Orange.NeoEs to lose, after a great start with their 4-1 strategy buying Shadow Fiend time to farm up his Shadow Blade. NeoEs.Int was just unable to take up great positions during clashes, especially their Magnus, with Puck and Pandaren Brewmaster both having a Dagger of their own and Shadow Fiend with his Shadow blade. With that said, NeoEs.Int just did not have enough left to defend and Orange.NeoEs took Game 1 in 27 minutes.

GAME 2: It was a different story in Game 2 as NeoEs.Int had the better start compared to Orange.NeoEs with their Dragon Knight getting a Hand of Midas after just 4 minutes and getting most of the kills going their way. Fortunately for Orange.NeoEs, they were not far behind NeoEs.Int, with Luna Moonfang edging Dragon Knight in terms of farm whilst winning small skirmishes of their own. The 5 minute period at the 13 minute mark saw the first notable action of the game, where both teams were aggressively trying to gain an advantage. The end result after this 5 minute period saw the kills 6:4 going Orange.NeoEs' way.

After that, the momentum shifted back to Orange.NeoEs' way, with Night Stalker and Bounty Hunter constantly picking off opponent heroes together. Coupled with an over-farmed Luna Moonfang, Orange.NeoEs was simply the better team and NeoEs.Int was forced to tap-out at the 32 minute mark.

 

GRAND FINAL

 

 

MiTH-Trust decided to dual lane in middle after sensing that Zenith would be going aggressive tri-lane at top. However, the dual lane did not bother Invoker, who even got first blood on the Anti-Mage while Shadow Demon was checking the bottom rune. With Zenith getting kills from the other lanes, a kill on Queen of Pain and a kill on Dark Seer, this gave them a really good start. Anti-Mage, coul no’t find a place to farm as he got killed in the Dire jungle. Zenith was totally controlling the tempo of the game with continuous aggression all over the map, especially some huge Sunstrikes by Invoker, taking MiTH-Trust out of their comfort zones.

 

 

There was just no way MiTH-Trust could recover with the massive lead Zenith had, so they were forced to tap-out after 27 minutes, hoping to comeback on Game 2.

 

 

 

The story for Lakelz this time was different, as Zenith decided to abandon bottom lane allowing him to free farm with his Morphling. When Zenith made a move to take down the top tier one tower 3 minutes into the game, Lakelz and company saw an opening with Zenith over-extended. Morphling teleported to the top lane, denying the tower and killing Warlock along with it. After that it was an even game for both teams but Zenith was still leading in terms of progression, Blink Dagger, Ogre axe on Puck, Maelstrom and Plate Mail on Syllabear and Mekansm and Hood of Defiance on Dark Seer. Morphling, on the other hand, had his Linken’s Sphere, Mekansm on Magnus and Orchid of Malevolence on Queen of Pain

Zenith managed to claim the Aegis of the Immortal at the 23 minute mark and won the clash as MiTH-Trust tried to deny them Roshan but ultimately failing miserably, losing Magnus, Queen of Pain and Leshrac.

Zenith would later on take down the second tower in the middle lane, leaving Morphling an opening to take the bottom first tower, giving him more time and gold to get him closer to his Manta Style. Lakelz would continue split-pushing, a strategy he loved, which forced Zenith to teleport back and defend towers.

A huge team fight at the 33 minute mark with Rubick stealing Reverse Polarity and coupled with the other nukes, led to a four man death on the side of MiTH-Trust. This allowed Zenith to take down the third mid tower and dishing out considerable damage on the melee barracks leaving it vulnerable to a potential quick back-door. However, Zenith had to retreat when all of MiTH-Trust’s heroes revived. Morphling was basically keeping them in the game after MiTH-Trust defended the middle barracks.

 

A questionable 3 man clash by MiTH-Trust at the 42 minute mark saw them try to catch Zenith off-guard in mid but led to their deaths and allowed Zenith to finish the game off.

Zenith would finish the tournament without dropping a single game and took home 5 x Steelseries Siberia.

 

FINAL STANDINGS:

1^st Place – Zenith – 5 x Steelseries Siberia

2^nd Place – MiTH-Trust – 5 x Steelseries apex

3^rd Place – Orange.NeoEs –  5x Steelseries Raw