DK crushes Zenith to secure final spot at the G-1 LAN Finals

 

 

Both teams came into this match looking to take the final spot at the G-1 Champions League LAN Finals with DK fresh from their win over LGD.Int earlier. They had one last obstacle in Zenith in order to join iG, Orange.Neolution Esports and LGD.cn who have already secured their tickets to the LAN Finals.

 

Game 1

 

Both teams engaged in a team fight right off the bat in the Radiant jungle which saw Zenith get an early advantage by killing Kunkka and Nyx Assassin in exchange for Dragon Knight. Settling into the laning phase, the two supports of DK rotated to the top lane forcing Batrider to leave the lane and farm in their jungle instead.

 

As both teams concentrated on farming, the game only woke up when Kunkka tried to gank Morphling 11 minutes into the game but saw Sven in the jungle and ended up killing him instead with the help of Weaver. DK would later get the kill off the free-farming Morphling. Meanwhile, Zenith tried to take the middle tier-1 tower but unfortunately DK defended it well which led to a three-hero massacre allowing DK to gradually take control of the game, getting pick-offs all over the map. Zenith, clearly aware of the deficit, instantly retreated whenever DK’s heroes went missing on the map. Batrider tried to disrupt DK to allow Morphling a little bit more of room to farm by constantly presenting himself in the top lane, chipping off a little bit of the tier-2 tower’s hit points.

 

At the 21 minute mark, DK smoked up and went to the Radiant jungle and was able to kill three of Zenith's heroes. Zenith would later smoke up themselves to try and pick off Queen of Pain in the middle lane but her teammates were ready with backup which led to two Zenith deaths. DK would secure the Aegis of the Immortal a few minutes later to compound matters.

 

After 39 minutes, DK had taken down all of Zenith's outer towers, whereas Zenith had only taken down 2 towers. Feeling confident, DK grouped up and secured the Aegis of the Immortal again shortly after. With Dragon Knight severely under-farmed, Zenith was forced to rely heavily on Morphling but he opted for the more defensive build of Linken's Sphere, Black King Bar and Eye of Skadi.

 

At the 43 minute mark, DK took down the bottom barracks easily after picking off the helpless Dragon Knight. Zenith immediately engaged after Dragon Knight respawned and impressively got a team wipe on the back of Morphling. Both teams slowed down the pace and continued to farm while waiting for Roshan to respawn a third time.

 

 

At the 50 minute mark, Zenith smoked up and immediately went to the Roshan pit to challenge DK but unfortunately DK just outplayed them after Zenith initiated and ending up wiping out Zenith's entire lineup leaving the Aegis of the Immortal and Cheese for DK and proceeded to push down the middle lane. Zenith was able to get a quick pick-off on Queen of Pain but at a heavy price as three of their heroes and the middle barracks went down. Zenith would later call out "GG" after giving up a few more kills and losing the top barracks giving DK a 1-0 series lead.

 

Game 2

 

Zenith went for an unusual Axe and Warlock combination pick with a possible plan of trying to interrupt the creepwaves on DK's trilane. While DK got their hands on Magnus, Nyx Assassin and BurNing's signature Anti-Mage.

 

The start of Game 2 was similar to Game 1 as both teams immediately engaged in a 3v3 team fight which saw Anti-Mage get first blood off Warlock. With the bad start that Zenith had, their aggressive tri-lane of Axe, Chen and Warlock was forced to farm in the Radiant’s jungle.

 

After 6 minutes, DK decided to disrupt Zenith’s gameplan once again as they targeted Zenith's jungling trio, killing both support heroes. After 11 minutes, Queen of Pain rotated to bottom lane and Zenith was able to kill both DK support heroes while Anti-Mage would help DK get their second tower deny of the game after earlier denying the bottom tier-1 tower.

 

Zenith secured the Aegis of the Immortal after 17 minute minutes and DK immediately engaged with Clockwerk’s Hookshot and got a 3 for 3 hero trade. Overall it was a decent trade for DK because Queen of Pain was forced to buyback despite having the Aegis of the Immortal which delayed her Orchid of Malevolence even further.

 

Even with Zenith having better map control after taking down all of DK's outer towers after 24 minutes, Anti-Mage was getting farmed up to the point where Zenith could not handle him anymore. 28 minutes into the game, Zenith would secure their second Aegis of the Immortal of the game but lost two of their teir-1 towers doing so. Zenith decided to push the middle lane after 31 minutes but unfortunately failed to do so and had to pay for the lives of Axe, Lone Druid and Chen.

 

 

DK decided to finish the game off 32 minutes into the game after catching Lone Druid in the Dire jungle and killing him off easily and proceeded to take down both the middle and top barracks to unleash mega creeps for DK as Zenith did not even try to defend. Zenith would later accept defeat, calling out 'GG' 37 minutes into the game. DK took the series 2-0, thus booking their place in the LAN Finals of the G-1 Champions League, along with LGD.cn, iG and Orange.NeoEs.