Vega Squadron emerged victorious and crowned themselves as the winner of ESL One New York against all odds.
Led by Puppey, one of the fan favorites Team Secret successfully landed themselves in the finals, in which they faced off against Vega Squadron. Vega’s run in this tournament had been extremely impressive, first fighting through the Europe qualifiers and then defeating Team Evil Geniuses and Invictus Gaming here at Madison Square Garden. After a grusome three-game series, the Russian powerhouse defeated Team Secret in the finals and crowned themselves as the ESL One New York 2015 Champion.
WHAT A PERFORMANCE! @VegaSquadron are the #ESLOne New York Champions! Congratulations on an amazing finals! pic.twitter.com/ClTavZ70e3
— ESL (@ESL) October 5, 2015
Game One
Vega managed to snatch their favorite combo, the Tiny Wisp, which was banned in all the games during this tournament against Vega. However Secret’s draft was also extremely powerful as they have a strong four man team fight potential that could drag the game onwards until the Anti Mage comes online.
Windranger is one of the heroes that has much more survivability against the Tiny Wisp combination. Therefore the mid-lane was likely to be a stalemate unless other supports decided to rotate. Both offlaners could soak up a lot of experience because of the passive matchups. But two mistakes coming from Misery was devastating for him, dying once in the rune spot and getting Glimpsed after teleporting back. The aggression began during the laning phase with several effective rotations coming from the Tiny Wisp. Their relentless aggression did not end there, taking advantage of the farming Anti Mage, Vega Squadron had completely dismantled Team Secret by minute 13 with a score of 17:3. The only thing that seemed to be going well for Secret is that Anti Mage managed to have a good Battle Fury timing, allowing him to start flash farming his way back into the game which is one step away from a devastating defeat. However, Vega’s advantage in this game is still extremely obvious, and they made good use of it as well, killing Anti Mage twice and securing tower after tower. Despite two successful defense from Team Secret and a Divine Rapier purchase from Anti Mage, this game could not be salvaged and Vega Squadron dominated game one.
Game Two
The draft quickly spiced up when Secret picked Meepo in the first phase in game two whereas Vega grabbed their two most successful heroes in their run here at ESL – Broodmother and Queen of Pain. From there on it could be easily observed that Vega tried to counter Meepo with every hero picking up heroes with extremely potent AOE damage such as Gyrocopter and Disruptor. On the other side Secret surprised everyone last picking Enchantress, a signature hero for Puppey.
Vega again took the aggressive stance and decided to form an aggressive tri-lane against the Ember Spirit, with w33haa playing mid with his Meepo. But this aggressive tri-lane was ineffective due to the help of the Enchantress. Team Secret had a victorious laning phase due to the active rotations coming from the Bounty Hunter and the Enchantress. Secret capitalized on their advantage getting on kill after another, but Vega was no pushover, they managed to retaliate with a team wipe on the top lane, equalizing the disadvantage they had. With the Track gold from Bounty Hunter, Secret remained in the lead in terms of gold advantage. Secret began to pull ahead after securing the Aegis and using this Aegis Secret team wipes Vega on the top lane and secured themselves their first lane of barracks and game two not long after. Secret equalizes the series and the series will proceed to a decisive game three.
Game Three
Secret finally got their Naga Siren after getting banned earlier in the series. Vega this time wanted the Ember Spirit themselves and to deny Secret from picking it at the same time. Secret also picked up Mirana as a strong disable with the setup of the Song of the Siren. With the Razor, Team Secret secured themselves a sustainable team fight lineup and potential burst damage from the Templar Assassin. Vega again grabbed the Clockwerk for Mag after his impressive performance earlier in game one, and a signature Shadow Fiend for No[o]ne-.
The laning phase was calm on both sides with all sides just trying to secure farm. However, Vega once again began their aggression early with a rotation from Mag onto the Crystal Maiden, but was denied by the ancients. Although Vega managed to smoke gank the Templar Assassin, Secret retaliates with four heroes rotating to the ancients counter-wiping Vega, Secret pulled ahead once again. Because of the amount of gold Shadow Fiend was able to accumulate early on from stacks, his Mekansm helped Vega sustain in the mid-lane team fight, Vega wipes out three heroes and takes their first tower in mid. But their aggression did not stop there. Vega made great use of their advantage and proceeds to take the second tower at bottom but this time they overstayed their welcome getting demolished by Razor’s huge amount of damage. Secret proceeds to take Roshan, securing a decisive lead. The back and forth continued as both teams team wipe each other again and again. Every time Vega managed to pull ahead, Secret avenged with another team wipe. Vega’s momentum began to accumulate after their successful team fight in mid, taking the first lane of barracks. The fight does not end there, both teams collided again at the Roshan pit with Vega winning the team fight once again. After this Vega cruised along the bottom lane securing themselves the second lane of barracks. The final encounter happened on top, the lead on Vega’s side was simply too big and Secret could not hold this final push any longer, Vega Squadron is the champion of ESL One New York!
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