The Mars Dota 2 League 2017 grand finals pitted the two LGD squads against each other with the older sister, LGD Gaming, claiming the title at the end of a hard fought series.
Game One
In the opening game of the best-of-five series, LGD Gaming secured a Broodmother, Queen of Pain, Shadow Shaman lineup to pressure LFY and take objectives as fast as possible. They ran an aggro trilane to make sure that LFY’s Bristleback wouldn’t get any laning advantage and after securing the first two kills of the game on the quill spraying porcupine, they rotated their carry Gyrocopter into the safe lane and brought the Broodmother bottom to do what she does best, push the towers, invade the enemy jungle and take all the possible resources from them.
At the 23 minute mark LGD were already poking the tier three tower top lane, however they were not strong enough to take a full high ground battle and resisted the temptation of diving LFY in their base to secure just a tower kill. LGD’s almost too disciplined actions nearly got them in trouble, as LFY managed to claim a Roshan kill at the 30 minute mark and with the Aegis placed on the Bristleback, and a Shadow Blade finished on Drow Ranger, LFY were looking to catch their sister team on the wrong foot. LGD read their adversaries' plan perfectly and only four minutes after the aegis was claimed, LFY was wiped out, Bristle going down twice, losing the Aegis as well. With only him having the buyback available, LFY lost the entire mid lane barracks, and the game a few minutes later, when LGD finally felt comfortable to go for the GG push.
Game Two
Both teams went with pushing oriented drafts, LFY relying on Lycan and Queen of Pain and LGD going with a mix of big ultimates that would give them the upper hand in team fights, ganks and ultimately better game control. With Death Prophet, Ancient Apparition, Faceless Void and Enigma on their side, LGD was able to create a nice rotation for the big cooldown ultimates to secure each and every team fight. Well-timed Ice Blasts on top of two-three man Chronos while continuing the push with the DP ultimate and still having Enigma in the back lines ready to ensure a finishing move with a Black Hole, allowed LGD to secure the win without having to worry too much about LFY’s Lycan’s efforts to split push the map.
Game Three
A loss in this third game of the grand finals would have meant a disastrous 3-0 defeat for LFY. So, with their backs against the wall they tried to match LGD’s play style and went with a surprise Pugna last pick which was sent mid lane. With LGD running a mid lane Earth Shaker that would become a problem for the LFY Chaos Knight, LFY went for an aggressive trilane (Ancient Apparition, Night Stalker, Chaos Knight) to ensure that LGD’s Shadow Shaman wouldn't find his levels too fast, nor that the Troll would get his items for a sneaky early Roshan. But even so, Troll still finished the Mask of Madness at the 12 minute mark, and was able to claim the Aegis for himself three minutes later. The advantage he managed to get in spite of all the LFY efforts to keep him behind was quickly nullified only a minute after he got the Aegis as he was caught farming ancients and lost both of his lives and LGD got fully wiped in their attempt to avenge their carry's death. From that moment on, LFY built on their momentum and kept on pressuring LGD’s buildings to force a game four from their sister team.
Game Four
After three fast paced games, both LGDs changed the tactics in game four as both secured late game scenarios. LFY chose a last pick Morphling while LGD prepared a Drow Ranger strategy with a Medusa last pick. The laning stage was a back and forth battle in which both teams tried to establish the early lead but LFY’s level six Dragon Knight was able to place his team ahead in both objectives and kill trades. While the Dragon Knight became bigger and bigger, Morphling was not needed to take a part in the early pushes and he was able to free farm his lane, only to join the team fights once he had the Ethereal Blade completed. A rushed Heaven's Halberd on the DK made LGD’s Medusa-Drow combo futile and any good Chrono was not enough for LGD to cut through the tanky front liners of LFY. At the end of 50 minutes of struggle, LGD were finally wiped multiple times in their own base and the grand finals were pushed to a decisive game five.
Game Five
With the last game of the series LGD Gaming did a great job of making LFY think that they want to play the same late game strategy. They drafted an extremely greedy lineup with Anti-Mage, Ursa and Tidehunter but instead of going for a farming game, they continuously pressured the LFY with both Ursa and Anti-Mage in the same lane. Twelve minutes in, the Anti-Mage already farmed a full Treads - Battle Fury build and he was left to push one lane alone while the rest of his team were pushing somewhere else. Seriously out drafted and outmaneuvered, LFY lost the battle in under 30 minutes to a lineup that in theory was meant to shine in the super late game stages.
