Image courtesy of Team Secret
After a brutal 3-0 blitzkrieg, Team Secret secured their third LAN win this season with relative ease by ending Fnatic's impressive run through the lower bracket in the Grand Finals today.
After two months of average to below average results at LAN tournaments, since their last win at the DreamLeague Season 8 Major, Team Secret returned to the Swedish based LAN in its 9th Season. Securing 150 DPC points and the $150,000 prize in an absolutely dominant fashion, Secret emerged as victors without dropping a single game in the entire tournament. By doing so, they have inched even closer to Team Liquid on the Dota Pro Circuit Rankings, and have crushed Fnatic's hopes of tying with Na'Vi at 8th place.
Game 1: Fnatic 4 - 25 Team Secret
If their undefeated streak to the Grand Finals were not enough indication as to how strong Secret was, the score of the first game would provide enough evidence to the case. They granted their midlaner Nai "MidOne" Zheng Yeik one of his unusual core Visage picks, who despite losing his lane, came out on top in spectacular fashion. They also went for the rare long range, right-clicking build on Marcus "Ace" Hoelgaard's Lone Druid rather than the traditional Radiance Spirit Bear build. Despite losing a few towers and a slight deficit in networth in the early game, Secret turned it around in the Roshan fight at the 15-minute mark. The Lone Druid's snatch on the Aegis despite missing the kill on Roshan proved to be a pivotal point as they used its leverage to destroy both the top lane barracks and mid melee barracks. Winning fight after fight, while rarely ever giving a kill away to the already crumbling Fnatic, Secret forced the GG out of them as the last lane of barracks was taken not long after.
Game 2: Fnatic 18 - 31 Team Secret
Fnatic's cheeky response to Secret was a deny pick on both of their support's signature heroes, Clement "Puppey" Ivanov's Chen and Yazied "YapzOr" Jaradat's Rubick. They also stole the Lone Druid for themselves on Jacky "EternalEnvy" Mao who went for the old-school Radiance Spirit Bear build. Secret's last pick Bristleback was responded with a Timbersaw pick for star midlaner Abed "Abed" Yosup. The draft seemed to work, as Fnatic won the laning phase with their strong rotations, but lost it in a teamfight at the 15-minute mark. Securing Roshan twice after consistently getting pickoffs with little to no trade-offs, Team Secret plowed through Fnatic with their Phantom Lancer equipped with the Aegis.
Game 3: Fnatic 18 - 35 Team Secret
With confidence levels at a low point, Fnatic could not force a game 4 out of Secret, as they succumbed to the European elites in a completely one-sided final game of the series. Finally getting their hands on YapzOr's Rubick and Puppey's Bounty Hunter, Secret secured an advantage in the early game with impeccable rotations and effective ganks. Once again, their captain respected their midlaner MidOne's thirst for niche picks with a core Kunkka. 30 minutes in, with a sizeable lead following a teamfight where they traded only their carry Tiny for most of Fnatic's heroes, they cleared the mid barracks. Not long after, in the finishing move to force GG out of them, Secret went for a bottom barracks siege, baiting them as their Tiny resurrected to his 2nd life. The 3k+ HP stone man on a sliver of health forced the Radiant heroes too far out of their base. His ultimate sacrifice allowed them to seal the victory as they casually camped outside the Radiant fountain with no remorse.
With the culmination of this Minor, we have now reached the halfway point of the Dota Pro Circuit Season 2017-18, having distributed 46,266 out of the total 90,516 points. However, this is an indication that a majority of the points are condensed towards the final few events of the season, seeing as 15 LANs have concluded and only 7 are yet to take place.
We will continue with this jam-packed season with the Dota 2 Asia Championships 2018 Major that is scheduled to begin on the 30th of March and has a prize pool of $1 Million and 1500 DPC points.
