Written by: meruna and ReiNNNN
DD.Dota and Mouz have guaranteed their spot to Seattle by reaching the grand final of the western qualifiers of The International 3. Both teams will battle tomorrow to determine who is worthy to receive the invitation to compete in The International 3. The second placer will also be going to Seattle as the wildcard team.
Bracket
Today's matches
[Match 1] RoX.KIS vs DD.Dota
Game one
On the top lane, Nature's Prophet was going up against a solo Lifestealer while in mid, Magnus and Outworld Devourer were battling it out. On bottom lane, the two tri lanes met -- DD let their Tinker, RoX their Gyrocopter farm. With an incredible score of 42-27 only seven minutes in, OD managed to outlane Solo's Magnus by far. However, the rest of the early game was played rather passive from both sides. With RoX.KIS not fearing to use Magnus' Reverse Polarity on only one or two heroes, they started to pull ahead in terms of kills and gold. After 20 minutes, only nine kills have happened in total as both sides prefer to farm items on their heroes with good late game potential.
Although Tinker is spamming his March of the Machines in all lanes and smaller fights, RoX.KIS have more damage at this point as OD has not build up enough intelligence points yet to deal a massive amount of damage with his ultimate. Nevertheless, DD tried to take Roshan but lose a fight to a blink and Reverse Polarity and decent damage by Gyrocopter. RoX continued to expand their lead, and with an Orchid up on the Nature's Prophet, both Tinker and OD became less dangerous. A strange but smart item choice comes out from Solo as he starts to build a Hex on the Magnus.
DD's strategy with Dazzle did not seem to work out like they expected as he has not been part of a single kill after 35 minutes. Only two minutes later and after losing another engagement at the Roshan pit, DD calls the GG.
Game two
In the middle lane, this game's surprise pick Zeus was going up against Luna; Batrider and Weaver were laning top. Just like last game, the tri-on-tri lane is the bottom lane with a farming Lone Druid for DD and a farming Lifestealer for RoX.KIS. Eight minutes in, Solo has died three times in the middle lane; apart from that, the early game is rather passive once again.
With Luna and Zeus being the core heroes for the respective teams, some minor pick offs happened over the next minutes, but with no towers fallen yet, the overall gold difference is neglectable. 23 minutes in and with a kill score of 13-11 in favour of DD, RoX.KIS decides to go for Roshan. DD's Luna picked the Aegis during a team fight but died shortly after. Gold, experience and amout of towers were almost even at that point of the game. After farming for ten minutes straight, DD pulled ahead in farm and showed their newly gained strength in a team fight at Roshan. They prodeeded to take the middle barracks. After another team wipe and a triple kill by Luna, RoX.KIS surrenders.
Game three
On top, Lone Druid was playing against a defensive tri-lane consisting of Alchemist, KoTL and Shadow Demon. In mid, Batrider went up against yet another Magnus and on bottom, Dread's Clockwerk has to battle against three of DD's heroes, PL, Treant and Bane. Like in the previous two games, the early game is passive with RoX.KIS slightly outfarming DD because of Greevil's Greed. Alchemist decided to build a Radiance and got it only 14 minutes in. DD, however, were making good use of their Blink plus Force Staff Batrider and got a full team wipe in the middle lane without losing a single hero.
The gold difference jumped to 4,000 in DD's favour and gives them good experience. When DD's Phantom Lancer reached level 17, Clockwerk and KoTL were level nine, SD level eight. With their lead, DD took the bottom barracks and had to buy back some heroes after overextending. Although Alchemist bought an MKB and was able to easily chop through DD's supports, Phantom Lancer's illusions take top barracks and gives his team mega creeps. DD takes game three after 40 minutes and moves into the Grand Final. This secures them a trip to Seattle. RoX.KIS needs to play mousesports now in the loser bracket final.
[Match 2] RoX.KIS vs Mousesports
Game one
Both teams ran unconventional dual lanes in the first game of the loser bracket final with RoX.KIS placing their Phantom Lancer and Juggernaut on the off-lane while Mousesports had Lifestealer and Bane Elemental on their off-lane. The silence of the game was broken 4 minutes into the game when the Anti-Mage was able to pick off the Silencer who was a little out of position, contesting the Ursa neutral camp. As a result, RoX.KIS moved their Phantom Lancer to the bottom lane and rotated Dark Seer top.
Despite the rotation, the kills kept on piling for the Germans as they killed 7 of RoX.KIS at 10 minutes without any casualties. This ended in a 3,000 lead in experience as Mousesports took another crucial fight on the bottom lane.
In a desparate need to make something happen, RoX.KIS mounted for a push on the top lane but was met with heavy resistance. Off a fantastic Dream Coil from Fata, catching out three heroes, Mouz was able to destroy RoX.KIS again in convincing fashion. RoX.KIS had enough at that point and called the 18 minutes gg.
Game two
No exchanges in kill were given by both teams in the laning phase considering the Living Armor from Treant Protector and Disruption from Shadow Demon were sufficient in keeping the Anti-Mage alive against Mouz's offensive trilane. The First Blood came only eight minutes into the game when RoX.KIS initiated on Mouz's safe lane Lone Druid. It was turned around with Puck flying into the battlefield with Haste on and Puck got two kills off the counter-attack.
After a few fights which resulted mostly in favour of Mouz, the Germans found themselves leading in kills, gold and experience. 14 minutes into the game, Mouz took a huge fight contesting the tier-one tower on the top lane simply off on how tanky their heroes are and built a 9-1 lead in score. With the big lead in farm and kills, Mouz grouped up as five and travelled lane to lane pushing down RoX.KIS' towers.
RoX.KIS' efforts to protect their outer towers were futile and only resulted in Mouz getting fatter and fatter from the kills they get diving the tower. Mouz eventually took down Roshan and continued sieging RoX.KIS till they gave up. Pleasant words were exchanged at the end of the game to signify that Mousesports has secured their spot to go to Seattle.
Headline image by EMS One
