International Qualifiers: mTw vs VP

mTw's strategy revolves around mostly squishy heroes, with the Lich and Faceless Void dual lane; fragile yet consistent. syndereN chooses not to face Dark Seer and Broodmother for their sheer sidelane control, as well as Queen of Pain with her team-wiping nukes.

With his Invoker in hand, syndereN finds the game already more to his liking. mTw now picks team fights heroes, with strong lane presence while Tinker is the only one with more of a late game purpose. NS does not risk the same strategy and goes for a more lategame lineup with Faceless Void plus four other heroes to support him.

Tinker is an interesting pick because the Dire team also is composed mostly of squishy heroes, he can force teambattles under the March of Machines and is very likely to be effective against this kind of lineup.

Windrunner takes the role of the 'suicide' solo for the Radiant team on the top lane, facing none other than Leshrac, along with Enchantress support from the jungle. As expected, but to mTw misfortune, Windrunner isn't much lucky in this situation and gets killed a couple times.

Faceless Void claims the middle lane to farm, supported by the Lich, oposed by the Invoker. Earthshaker covers the middle lane with his roaming pattern, protecting Invoker to some extent. Both heroes get some farm, nothing exceptional, Faceless Void though is not of much help until not he gets his Battlefury.

Beastmaster, and his signature bottom lane, pulling ancients with his Quillboar, sort of goes suicide solo against Tinker, supported by the jungling Enigma. Beastmaster performs well, doesn't get much luck with his ancient pull as the game decides to only spawn golems, which tend to block themselves a lot, instead of dragons that simply fly. Beastmaster does get outfarmed eventually by the Tinker, which wasn't unexpected, and gets killed by Enigma's Black Hole, but only once though.

Heavy farming and not much action define this game, with mostly heroes bound to their lanes without looking for important clashes. VP seems to be in control of the game. Enigma is, much to the contrary of Enchantress, focusing on farming as much as he can, while NS on the other hand is trying to be as helpful as possible to pressure the Windrunner lane. As soon as Enigma gets his Mekansm, mTw proceeds to push the top lane as much as it can.

9:20: Enchantress gets ganked on the top jungle, but Lich quickly rotates top to defend and Leshrac gets the best out of the situation, getting kills on Earthshaker, Windrunner and Enigma.

12:50: A coordinated effort by mTw after executing a gank on Invoker gets two kills on Enchantress and Leshrac.

The Radiant team works toward more map control to deny as much space as it can; this ultimately slows Faceless Void's farm. mTw keeps pushing on the top lane and gets both towers down, as well as the tier one mid tower.

19:00: Void lands a decent Chronosphere, followed by Lich's Chain Frost, but mTw players are still able to retaliate against three heroes; VP only gets one killed.

VP gets pressured heavily by the Tinker jumping around and pushing, but they are still able to stabilize the game while Faceless Void keeps farming. With little to no oportunities to take advantage of, mTw is forced back to just farm: Kuroky is simply having the time of his life.

31:05: Enigma gets initiated and goes down before he can even react. VP gets three hero kills.

33:00: mTw gets wiped near Dire base and allows VP to go Roshan.

42:00: After successfully taking Tinker off-guard, VP goes for the winning push.

If anything, Faceless Void was an decisive hero. For as much mid-game potential as mTw players apparently had, they never got any real initiation running and just watched as Faceless Void farmed away. Windrunner was rendered useless after being defeated so heavily on the top lane and as much as Tinker farmed, he couldn't deal with the game by himself.

As far as the first bans go, nothing new but the Shadow Demon instead of Queen of Pain, who gets picked by VP later. Tinker gets banned, as well as Lich, heroes that worked so well in the last game got a special spot on the bans.

NS goes with the Leshrac again and allows syndereN the opportunity to have his Invoker, along with Enchantress. Sand King gets picked and VP aims for a very aggressive trilane on bottom lane, leaving the Windrunner solo top, to face the Lone Druid.

VP players still have not picked any carry heroes; they go with Queen of Pain, as well as the Lifestealer. mTw notices the aggressive bottom lane NS prepared and go with Crystal Maiden and Night Stalker to face it right away. This time, syndereN won't risk not having heroes engaging the teambattle head on; this time they intend to take enemy heroes off-guard and farm on VP's mistakes. However NS chooses to let the Lifestealer jungle, therefore the bottom lane gold farm is not so much split. VP wants to drag the game again to possibly late game with Lifestealer causing major trouble when he gets some farm and with Queen of Pain dominating teambattles.

Aggressive trilane by both teams on the bottom lane, with Lifestealer jungling on the Radiant side and Enchantress basically just roaming the map, both teams land two kills by the minute three. The Enchantress though manages to help the Lone Druid at top lane get ahead of the Windrunner and later even kill her himself. syndereN gets to play his Invoker once again in this game and is able to put up a decent fight against blowyourbrain's QOP on the middle lane.

6:00: Enchantress is ganked when moving from Radiant jungle to mid, which extends to a two for two trade, accounting the Lone Druid kill on the Windrunner at the top lane.

Both teams just trade kills and get some farm, trying not to overextend and stay safe in the game. mTw players are pressured to win this one if they don't want to go to the lower brackets, which they do not.

17:57: Dire beats Roshan and land a kill on Leshrac, it's now 10-11. Both teams have already taken their enemy's tier one towers away.

21:00: Sand King and Windrunner get a initiation going on Invoker, who buybacks and turns the fight against VP. The Radiant courier also takes a dive.

Slowly, but consistently, mTw rebuild their game and contests VP with their supperior teambattle development, thanks in part to the Night Stalker and the Invoker. Enchantress is able to pressure both the top lane and the bottom lane, the Lone Druid is now pretty farmed and the Invoker manages to control the teamfights against the Radiant line-up.

26:00: VP attempts to ambush mTw, but a quick retaliation with the BKB Night Stalker on the front line earns the Dire's side the victory. Radiant is wiped out and forfeits.

Lifestealer, albeit a strong hero, doesn't seem to pay off well when the opposition is able to mantain close control of the game, as was the case here. VP players weren't able to open up space during teambattles for Queen of Pain to shine and they paid the dire price.

This game demonstrated the power of the Lone Druid, outlaning the Windrunner and dominating every clash he took part in. It's now 1-1 and we still have the third game ahead.

VP members definitely do not want to face Lone Druid again, they make sure he is banned as well as Tinker. The latter however is only banned on the second round of bans. They also allow Invoker to be in the pool and pick him first.

Again we see the Beastmaster being picked to lane on bottom lane on the Dire side. VP goes with five intelligence heroes, aiming to establish solid map control, aiming to push fast and dominate team battles. Instead mTw chooses a more turtling strategy, taking bets on a safer lineup with Chen and Vengeful Spirit, as well as the Shadow Fiend to take the carry role in this game.

Invoker claims the mid lane on the Radiant side and is basically supported full time by the Crystal Maiden, both land several kills on the Pugna. mTw chooses not to contest the mid lane as much, leaving the Chen and Vengeful secure top lane while the Shadow Fiend farms as much as he possibly can.

Death Prophet takes the bottom Radiant lane against the Beastmaster, who doesn't really put up a fight, rather just stacks ancients over and over. Enigma farms in the Jungle, and later pushes with the Death Prophet. And finally the Windrunner gets the top lane.

5:52: SF gets picked up on top lane by the high level Crystal Maiden, as well as the Windrunner.

8:50: Beastmaster and the tier one tower are overwhelmed by the VP push.

10:18: An important kill on Death Prophet lands a couple gold and a lot of experience for the mTw team.

15:02: VP continues to push at the bottom lane, getting another Beastmaster kill, along with the tier two tower.

22:20: Big team fight for mTw: Beastmaster initiates on Death Prophet, Shadow Fiend ulties and Vengeful Spirit doesn't allow the target to escape. Windrunner and Crystal Maiden also go down, with no casualty on the Dire side. Shadow Fiend gets a significant buff, lands the Roshan kill and takes the Aegis.

25:22: Shadow Fiend finds himself in a bad position and loses the Aegis. Both teams stall against each other, trying to the best of their habilities to not let the other get any advantage over them.

mTw closes the experience gap and both teams go farming. The Dire team allows Vengeful Spirit to get to level 11, meaning a higher range Nether Swap. VP still has some gold advantage: the Enigma is farmed as well as the Crystal Maiden, who spends some time laning now and starts to build items such as Force Staff and Ghost Scepter.

35:13: VP players are forced to defend the top lane as they are being pushed by Shadow Fiend illusions. Crystal Maiden teleports there and denies the tower, but mTw lands another Roshan kill, as well as Aegis again on the Shadow Fiend.

46:00: mTw players make their way to the Radiant base, manage to kill Enigma and go back safely. Vengeful Spirit ports back to base safely after swapping Beastmaster out of danger. Roshan goes down for the third time, Aegis for the Beastmaster and Cheese for the Shadow Fiend.

48:10: mTw overextends too much after killing the Crystal Maiden, Death Prophet is able to receive the heal from her ultimate and get to full life again, landing a kill on both supports and the Beastmaster on the way back.

Both teams now are getting ready for the late game, building big items to survive and prepare for clashes to happen soon.

MVP: Invoker and Crystal Maiden, able to prevent Pugna from developing into a major threat and secure mTw's mid game, land several kills and take the best of teambattles. VP stood its ground and played a very safe game: VP heroes had a good farm and took out towers soon enough.

mTw players chose to turtle the game to a point where Chen got useless; sure they had the Shadow Fiend, but his BKB can't last forever. And allowing all that time for him to farm also meant their downfall as the Radiant heroes also farmed up a lot, with even the Crystal Maiden being safe to just stack gold and build items, while Chen and Vengeful Spirit had nothing but assist gold.

When VP started to claim tier three towers and barracks it was too late to react, mTw didn't even succeed pushing with five heroes against the few who were able to buyback from VP. The Russian team gets to enjoy the winner bracket for a while, leaving mTw to struggle on the lower.