LGD nets the gold and 20,000 RMB in StarsWar 6

It's over. Today, we witnessed a battle between old giants, a match-up that has replayed itself repeatedly since the start of 2010. In true glory and style, LGD has emerged triumphant in this clash of the titans and are officially the grand champions of StarsWar 6!

The matches were played on the map version 6.71b and in a 'best of three' format.

Game 1:
LGD.sGty	EHOME
Bans
Picks
Sentinel LGD.ChuaN (Top) LGD.YYF (Mid) LGD.chisbug (Jungle) LGD.830 (Jungle) LGD.ZSMJ (Bot)	Scourge EH.GIGABYTE.X!! (Top) EH.GIGABYTE.357 (Top) EH.GIGABYTE.820 (Top) EH.GIGABYTE.PLT (Mid) EH.GIGABYTE.LDD (Bot)

LGD started the game looking to establish early dominance. Running enchantress and vengeful spirit jungling in the woods, they managed to net LGD a couple of kills on clockwerk and weaver, including scoring first blood. By 10 minutes, it seemed like the jungle roaming strategy of enchantress and vengeful spirit was really paying off.

And, as a result, YYF's doom was looking incredibly promising, already having phase boots, vanguard and a bottle at 12 minutes and 700g in his bank account. Then, almost out of a sudden, YYF surprised the audience who erupted into applause when he added a relic to his inventory at 18 minutes. At the same time, bounty hunter completed his battlefury along with threads while broodmother got her black king bar. The score is 10-7 at 20 minutes in LGD's favor.

Once doom finished his radiance, LGD looked to push EHOME's towers, taking down both their middle and bottom outer towers by 30 minutes. Then, a big team clash happens at scourge's middle rax which lasts for a full 2 minutes. LGD initiates with yet another crucial swap which clears four heroes, losing none. However, EHOME bounced back with four straight buybacks, teleporting straight to middle and killing off their entire squad.

EHOME took down roshan, and for a moment it seemed as though it was enough to fight off the pressure from LGD, who constantly sought to break their middle barracks.

At 35 minutes, LGD saw their break. A smoke gank at scourge's middle secret shop takes out crystal maiden and windrunner with a sweet blink initiation from puck. EHOME decides not to contest LGD and they saw their middle and bottom barracks fall.

A few minutes later, another brilliant swap takes out broodmother and LGD immediately pushed into EHOME's bottom barracks. A teamfight takes place after an initiation by vengeful spirit which kills windrunner and broodmother. Bounty hunter falls but immediately buys back and returns to the battlefield after buying a boots of travel.

EHOME are unable to defend and the throne falls to LGD. The 'GG' call is heard at 38 minutes.

MVP: YYF's Doom (with a 12/1/15 K/D/A) and 830's VS

Click here to catch the vod of game 1.

Game 2:
EHOME	LGD.sGty
Bans
Picks
Sentinel EH.GIGABYTE.357 (Mid) EH.GIGABYTE.X!! (Mid) EH.GIGABYTE.820 (Bot) EH.GIGABYTE.LDD (Top) EH.GIGABYTE.PLT (Roaming)	Scourge LGD.830 (Jungle) LGD.chisbug (Jungle) LGD.ChuaN (Top) LGD.YYF (Mid) LGD.ZSMJ (Bot)

With this lineup, it looked like LGD were once again relying on the early dominance of vengeful spirit and enchantress roaming the woods. First blood was played spectacularly by ChuaN at scourge's top forest. With the help of vengeful spirit, enchantress and her creeps, he made a ground-target stun through the trees after eating two tangoes (so his stun had enough range) to kill 357's earthshaker.

Top lane was not left to its devices as we saw vengeful spirit and enchantress constantly looking to gank top with smoke. Priestess of the Moon could not farm up at all due to the constant pressure from the roaming junglers. The score at the 10th minute was 2-8 in LGD's favor.

Beastmaster bought an early gem at 9 minutes, which helped take out broodmother at bottom lane with earthshaker's well-placed fissure. Although EHOME seemed to come back on the scoreboard with a couple of well-played teamfights, they were burdened by a seemingly 'bare' PotM, who had only threads and a couple of branches at 16 minutes.

Losing his gem to a gank, enchantress now possessed beastmaster's gem and LGD took down roshan at 21 minutes. Lion took the aegis. Another fight at mid lost beastmaster and PotM, and it was here when we noticed EHOME's teamfight deficiency due to PotM, who was struggling with a black king bar and threads at 30 minutes.

An excellent smoke gank by the entire LGD squad on weaver at 32 minutes allowed LGD to take down roshan once again uncontested, with the aegis going to lion. Pushing into EHOME's base, a teamfight occured, and EHOME got teamwiped while the three supports (lion, enchantress and vengeful spirit) survived to clean up the mess and take middle barracks.

Late game, LGD looked like they were in a good position, with all their carries having luxury items and even enchantress having an aghanim's scepter and a dagger in her inventory. On the other hand, PotM could barely complete her yasha to go with her black king bar and threads at 40 minutes.

The crowd was anticipating the end. At 42 minutes into the game, LGD stormed bottom barracks; an initiation by lion led to a teamwipe. The crowd went wild.

At 14:40 CET, EHOME called out 'GG'.

LGD are the first ever grand champions of StarsWar 6.

Click here to catch the vod of game 2.

Showmatch
Favorites	Fans
Picks
EH.GIGABYTE.820 (Top) EH.GIGABYTE.X!! (Top) LGD.ZSMJ (Mid) LGD.ChuaN (Roaming) LGD.YYF (Bot)	零九 (2009) (Top) tongjidx415 (Mid) AIsome (Bot) PrinceBo (Bot) eh_157 (Bot)

A separate showmatch was played at 5:10 CET today where the top five Pro players in an online poll were selected to play as the 'Favorites' against the 'Fans'. Ex-LGD veteran 2009, who now manages WE and occasionally moonlights as a shoutcaster, led the fans and was also in charge of picking four of the sentinel's lineup. The last pick, Pit Lord, was decided by the favorites to complete their four melee late-game lineup.

The game started off well for the Favorites, with ChuaN picking up a 0 minute double-damage rune and netting a double kill at bottom lane. Things went too well for the Favorites, who extended their score by more than ten kills in early game on the back of a roaming Troll Warlord by ChuaN.

The pushing lineup failed to upset the Favorites and the commentators eventually had to change the rules to allow the Fans a win if they managed to get at least 3 kills or 1 tier two tower on the scoreboard, the former of which they did soon after getting team-wiped three times.

The players decided to play until the throne was down, and it was all cheers and no spills whenever the Favorites pulled off a remarkable kill or whenever one of them fell to the Fans. The game ended in less than 30 minutes with a final score of 57-8. 820's Phantom Assassin ended the game with almost 20 kills, including three triple kills.

Click here to catch the vod of the Fans vs Favorites match.

Final Standings
First Place	LGD.sGty	20,000 RMB
Second Place	EHOME	10,000 RMB
Third Place	TyLoo	5,000 RMB
Fourth Place	CCM	-

With this competition over, we are now allowed to ponder about the state of Chinese competitive DotA. CCM dominated the scene early in the year, but it seems like they are now falling behind. EHOME are doing well with their roster changes but will it be enough to earn back their former glory? LGD.sGty are once again extending their dominance over the Chinese scene, and last but not least, it seems like TyLoo are doing fine after the loss of Seaking and Yueru to Nirvana.cn.

How will this all play out? Well, we still have the G-League finals ahead of us. And, it looks like the Chinese DotA scene still have many more surprises in store for us.

*Update: Included the vods of Game 1 and 2 of finals. Replays have not yet been released by the organizing committee of StarsWar 6.