Day 2: A look at Orange.NeoES’s road to the GEST Final

 

 

 

After two days of pure action brought about by these four incredibly talented teams, we are now awaiting the best-of-five Grand Final where we saw Orange.NeoES taking on the Loser Bracket challenger, LGD.Int (Orange took the series 3-0). LGD.Int had to settle for second place after taking out Invasion[MUFC].Armaggeddon in a close 2-1 matchup.

 

ViCi Gaming vs Invasion [MUFC].Armaggeddon

GAME 1

A two man Chrono by Faceless Void on Lifestealer and Queen of Pain

 

It was yet another another epic match much like the 80 minute game between Invictus Gaming and LGD.Int we experienced in the G-League. The GEST Challenge heated up right off the bat with a 70 minute game on the first match of the day, between the new MUFC lineup and ViCi Gaming.

Even with ViCI Gaming taking down the mid and bottom barracks by the 38 minute mark, it was still hard for them to finish the game off because of the massive AoE spells and DPS that MUFC's lineup had. Even after picking off 1 or 2 MUFC heroes, they still hesistated to push because of their respect for the blink Reverse Polarity and Timewalk and Chronosphere combination on MUFC’s side that could easily end in a team wipe.

The final push by ViCI Gaming at the 70 minute mark was the deciding point of the game, after an outstanding defensive stand by MUFC that resulted to a four man kill without losing a single hero basically forcing ViCI Gaming to call "GG".

 

GAME 2

 

MUFC's full force on Lone Druid

 

This game was dominated by MUFC, notably by both Queen of Pain and Templar Assassin, getting easy kills all over the map. MUFC slowly took down the outer towers one by one, eventually taking all the outer towers within 21 minutes, giving them more map control and limiting the places for ViCi Gaming to farm. As the game progressed, there was just no way for ViCi Gaming to make a comeback and they were forced to tap-out just 27 minutes into the game.

 

LGD.International vs Orange.NeoEs

GAME 1

 

Luna Moonfang and co. taking down the bottom barracks

 

The game started out in favour of LGD.Int as they shut down Luna Moonfang and Lone Druid. However, Pandaren Brewmaster managed to fair better than his teammates and was basically keeping Orange.NeoES in the game with a lot of big plays with the use of Primal Split. This allowed Luna Moonfang and Lone Druid to farm up their core items.

LGD.Int realized that they could not fight head on against Orange.NeoES so they just went for complete split-push, pressuring lanes that were not occupied by Orange.NeoES forcing them to teleport back.

In spite of LGD.Int's valiant efforts, Orange.NeoES were just taking down barracks too quickly because of their line-up and finished the game in 50 minutes.

 

This game started out quite evenly with both teams trading kills but Orange.NeoEs were edging ahead in terms of net-worth and experience.  This time it was LGD.Int who needed someone to step-up and Anti-mage answered the call. Split-pushing was his solution to basically farm up his core items and pressure lanes to get Orange.NeoES out of their comfort zone.

There was not much action going on with both teams just focused on farming. A Roshan attempt by Orange.NeoEs at the 39 minute mark, prompted a huge clash with a successful Aegis steal by Anti-Mage as everything seemed to be going well for LGD.Int.

Later in the game, the item locked Shadow Fiend was just too much for the item locked Anti-Mage to handle. With the Scythe of Vyse locking him down, Orange.NeoEs eventually took Game 2 and the series.

 

LGD.International vs ViCi Gaming

(Losers' Bracket First Round)

GAME 1

 

Shadow Fiend focusing down the range barracks

 

A game went ViCi Gaming's way as they gathered momentum on the back of Cty's Shadow Fiend getting a great start and farming up his items really fast. There were a few moments that LGD.Int would get a chance for a comeback but Shadow Fiend's insane DPS was just too much for them to handle.

After ViCi Gaming took the Aegis of the Immortal, they would later on take down bottom barracks 32 minutes in. LGD.Int decided to go for a revenge hit but failed miserably and later on tapped out.

 

GAME 2

 

Queen of Pain doing her best to hold off LGD.Int but just not enough

 

In this game it went well for LGD.Int in the early part of the game, dominating the tri-lane that led to an early radiance for Nerubian Weaver. However, Queen of Pain was keeping ViCi Gaming in the game after getting an early Orchid of Malevolence on the back of an ultra kill which eventually made it easy for them to kill Nerubian Weaver, who went with a Radiance instead of Manta Style or Linken's Sphere.

With LGD.Int's support Gyrocopter getting more farmed up than a carry because of an incredible start in the tri-lane, it allowed him to make his presence felt on each and every clash that occurred. A notable team wipe at the 29 minute mark on the back of an Aegis on Gyrocopter gave them an even greater lead. Yet another team wipe just a few minutes later forced ViCI Gaming into acceptiing defeat and eventually calling "GG".

 

GAME 3

 

LGD.Int’s final siege at top lane

 

This game saw LGD.Int get their hands on a line-up that they were comfortable with, allowing them to take down towers early. Lycanthrope, Chen and Leshrac took down the two outer towers in the bottom lane, took down Roshan after 8 minutes and took down the first tower in both top and mid lanes. By the 15 minute mark, they had already taken down all of ViCi Gaming's outer towers.

Sensing that ViCi Gaming's Anti-Mage was close to getting his Battlefury, they quickly took down the Barracks in the bottom lane after 17 minutes, middle barracks after 20 minutes and eventually a mega creeps in just 22 minutes. LGD.Int would continue on in the tournament whereas ViCi Gaming were eliminated.

 

Orange.NeoES vs MUFC

 

 

Right of the bat, Orange.NeoEs got first blood on Queen of Pain before the creeps even spawned. Later, they managed to neutralise MUFC's observer ward near the bottom rune. They would later on demolish MUFC's tri-lane and won the other lanes as well.

MUFC slowly turned things around by getting 5 quick kills between the 12-14 minute mark. However, Orange.NeoEs stormed back by taking down multiple heroes and winning the subsequent clashes, with Lina playing a huge role with her burst damage.

 

 

Lifestealer focusing on both Queen of Pain and Faceless Void

 

There was just no way for MUFC to mount a comback even with huge AoE spells like Chronosphere, Reverse Polarity, Sonic Wave and Macropyre and were forced to call "GG" after 30 minutes.

 

 

Game 2 started out with both teams deciding to abandon the suicide lane.The first action of the game came at the 5 minute mark where both Magnus and Darkseer would get the first blood on Templar Assassin with MUFC immediately getting a revenge kill on Magnus. While that was unfolding, the tri-lane of Orange.NeoEs would quickly take down both the first and second towers in the bottom lane, while MUFC took the top first tower.

A huge team fight at the 11 minute mark would eventually be won by Orange.NeoEs after Mushi killed Enigma and a great Reverse Polarity by Magnus on three heroes and would later take down the first tower. MUFC won the next big clash in the Dire jungle and killed 4 heroes but could not take down any towers and press home the advantage.

A small skirmish occurred a few minutes later but after that, it seemed as though a cease-fire was in place for both teams. The next team fight would occur at the 22 minute mark after MUFC decided to take down the mid first tower. They succeeded but the attempt eventually led to a team wipe by Orange.NeoEs who would later win two more team fights and take down the third mid tower.

 

 Fountain diving by Mushi at the end

 

Orange.NeoEs returned to press home the advantage by taking down the mid barracks after acquiring the Aegis from Roshan and finished the game in 30 minutes.

 

Bracket status at the end of Day 2

 

Stay tuned for tomorrow's writeup of the Grand Final!