One more NA team fell behind today at the Manila Major, this time compLexity, who lost 0 - 2 to the main favorites for the Reaver trophy.
After their top six finish at the Shanghai Major, compLexity will have to develop more strategies and get a firmer grip on the current meta for the upcoming International following at 12th-placed finish at the Major.
Mainly focused on signature heroes in both games, the first round of bans was identical for the two games. Team Liquid denied compLexity’s Dark Seer and Enigma while Kyle 'swindlemelonzz' Freedman took Earth Spirit and Lycan out of the picture. But despite not having their two most known heroes, Liquid had an amazing series with Lasse 'MATUMBAMAN' Urpalainen on Lifestealer.
Game One
For the first game compLexity went with a heavy push strategy and sustain provided by Death Prophet’s Exorcism used on cool down to take objectives. The game looked to be a continuous back and forth fight with coL having a slight advantage with their Dazzle and Juggernaut healing ward, but their downfall started at the 22 minute mark when Liquid found the radiant Ancient stack and tried to steal it. compLexity immediately engaged to defend but lost Juggernaut, which enabled Liquid to take a free Roshan one minute later. With the Aegis placed on Lifestealer they started to play much more aggressively and forced coL into a defensive stance.
Ten minutes later coL found the opportunity to push the high ground while Liquid was again in the Roshan pit and took top lane tier three tower along with the melee barracks, but once Liquid got back to their base, three heroes hit the deck on the side of compLexity and the push was stopped. From then on Liquid kept the pressure on and forced high ground fights until they took down all the buildings to end the game with a rampage for Matumbaman.
Game Two
The same pushing strategy was adopted in the second game of the series by compLexity, but this time around with a Nature Prophet for Swindlezz and the healing bomb combo Phantom Lancer- Dazzle. Built to also fight, their draft ended with a surprising Legion Commander for Linus Limmp Blomdin and they once again perfectly executed the early game push. Ten minutes into the game Liquid was left without any tier one towers and were already looking to defend high ground top lane.
Regardless of the huge map control coL gained, the Europeans found the space to farm their Alchemist and Lifestealer and started to become relevant around the twenty minute mark when both their cores became impossible to be picked off. This time, it was coL’s turn to get hunted down by Liquid with Kuro’s Night Stalker vision advantage. The end of compLexity’s journey at Manila Major came at the 29 minute mark when it was obvious that they simply don’t have the manpower to defend the base.
title and headline image source: @compLexityLive
