Wings take their first ever LAN victory by destroying Team Liquid 3-0.
Wings Gaming have been playing together for about a year now and haven't won anything till now. This is also their second LAN ever, with the previous being WCA, where their achievement was getting a win against Team Secret.
The organisation started in 2014 and their current Dota 2 squad was formed after the TI5 reshuffle and has been together ever since. Their team chemistry is great and their style favors early game agression and pushing. You can find out more about them in the interview GosuGamers did with them a week before the ESL One Manila kicked off.
Game One:
Game one started well for Wings, with them getting first blood and later trading the Batrider for two bot, while the Bounty Hunter got the courier mid. From then on things slowly but surely fell apart for Team Liquid. Wings dominated the early game and slowed down to get some extra farm on the Phantom Lancer. Liquid used this alongside a lucky pickoff on the Bounty Hunter to take a quick Rosh in an attempt to get back into the game. The Aegis went to Adrian 'Fata' Trinks, who traded his two lives to create enough space for Kuro 'KuroKy' Salehi Takhasomi to get a kill on Shadow’s PL. This set Wings back even more on their farm, slowing down the game even further. Liquid pressured the bot T3 and got it, but at the cost of their own top T3 and Melee Rax, including giving some kills to Wings on their way out.
Next Rosh was the key to this match. Liquid attempted to get it twice, with the second time ending in disaster with wings getting three kills and the Aegis for PL. With all that advantage they pressured and took bot T3 along with Melee Rax and the slow siege mid started. With Bounty Hunter’s vision and the tactics of sending PL illusions, coupled with a Mana Leak from KotL, Enigma didn’t have the mana or opportunity to initiate. After the T3 dropped, it was time for a desperate move. Jesse 'JerAx' Vainikka aggressive swap started the last fight of the game. Both teams lost heroes and Wings saw that they could end the game, so they bought back on PL, KotL, and Batrider. With Black Hole used to get the PL, Liquid was running out of damage. Enigma died back, Fata dropped, and Liquid called the GG for game one.
GameTwo:
Game began a lot better for Liquid with PL evading jungle invasion and JerAx successfully rotating top to get the first blood on Beastmaster. The Earth Spirit rotations weren’t as fruitful as the first one, but after saving Tidehunter bot, Liquid got a kill on Slark, while the bear and Enigma dropped in the jungle. Both PL and Lone Druid were on top with farm, but Wings had the early game lead. Tidehunter dropped bot, but bought enough time for Enigma to rotate for the counter kill. Kuro narrowly missed the first Black Hole of the game and Slark survived by the skin of his teeth.
Wings pushed their advantage by taking the T1 top and forcing rotations for the T2. A fight broke out mid, with Liquid getting a pickoff and using Enigma as bait for Wings to overcommit. The Ravage came out and Wings was on the run, losing three, but a good Sun Strike claimed the Lone Druid, making it an even trade. With the Ravage down, Wings pressed for T3 top, keeping mid pushed by getting both towers. Liquid slowed the game down, waiting for mistakes and capitalizing on them when they happened, forcing a buyback from Wings to secure Rosh. After pressuring mid and top, Liquid found the opening they needed. Shadow burned all of his mana, forcing him to use his Aegis, but the Black Hole was waiting for him. It was interrupted by a fissure, but Wings was already in a really bad position, resulting in a triple kill for the Phantom Lancer. Wings was relentless though; they kept on pushing and throwing heroes at the mid Rax till it went down at 33 minute, leaving the score 25 to 19 in their favor.
Wings lost their Shaker, but didn’t stop their push, overcommitting on the Tidehunter only to get a Ravage just as the Invoker BKB ran out. This let Liquid take a four kills and forced the buyback on Invoker so that Wings could at least secure the next Rosh. Liquid pushed T2 bot, but ended up in a bad fight mid, expending the ravage and the Black Hole, but only taking Slark down. Shortly after the bot lane was gone and even the Refresher on Tidehunter wasn’t enough to hold back the last push so Liquid called GG for game two.
Game Three:
Game three started with a bloodbath at the bot rune resulting in 1-3 score for Wings before the first minute of the game, with first blood going to Team Liquid. It continued in the same fashion with kills going bot and mid. Wings took a lot, but then gave up three kills mid, bringing the score to 7-6 at 5 minutes for Liquid. They took charge and ramped up the aggression, rotating the Doom and using Specter's ultimate, solidifying their dominance in the early game. Liquid used their ults one after the other, getting kill after kill with a score of 24-13 at 23 minutes. They finally make a mistake after diving T3 bot to kill Tusk, and drop three on the way out. They lost the gem, and their T2 mid, giving a lot of gold to Wings. Despite the commotion, Alchemist was still on top of the farm chart with two times more net worth than the second place Outworld Devourer.
Next big fight also went the way of Wings as they killed three and got Rosh, along with a ton of track gold. With that advantage, Wings decided it was time for all in. They fought Liquid in front of their base, then dove in all the way to the ancient getting four kills with only Matumbaman surviving. Wings wasn't done, managing to regroup and get three kills. This time they focused on getting some objectives - both bot and mid.
Last push began top with a big fight ending badly for Liquid. They lost top rax too, but they wouldn’t give up. With buybacks and their base on the line the fight went on and on, but in the end it wasn’t enough. Liquid called the GG and Wings Gaming took ESL One Manila Grand Finals 3-0.
