Image courtesy of PGL and Perfect World
By winning their first tournament in 6 months at the Dota 2 Asia Championships 2018, Mineski secured 750 Dota Pro Circuit points, $370,000 in prize money and fourth place on the DPC Rankings.
Mineski and LGD Gaming gave fans an absolute treat in an engrossing five-game series that matched the pace, tension, and hype of an International tournament. The Chinese powerhouse returned to face the very team that sent them to the lower bracket, where they did the unthinkable and eliminated the formidable Virtus.pro.
The SEA team has now become the first from the region to win a Major championship in not just this season, but also in the history of Dota Majors. They join the ranks of Virtus.pro and Team Secret who propelled to the top 8 of the Dota Pro Circuit Rankings with their Major wins. Unfortunately, LGD Gaming bows out with the silver despite getting the immeasurable support of the home crowd. Although they have climbed up to 7th place in the DPC Rankings, it seems the curse for Chinese teams holds true, as another team from the region places 2nd at a Dota 2 Major for the third time.
Game 1
LGD Gaming showed that they made note of Mineski's capability to cheese their way to victory, with the last ban on Huskar after seeing an Oracle pick in the Game 1 draft. The hero was largely responsible for sending the Chinese into the lower bracket after a blitzkrieg by the SEA team in their first game of the series yesterday. Instead, Mineski tried to push them into unfamiliar territory by picking both of the most recent additions to Captain's Mode, Dark Willow and Pangolier, a first for a professional tournament. The latter was also played for the first time by Mineski's star offlaner Daryl Koh "iceiceice" Pei Xiang. However, LGD proved they had adapted already by winning in a decisive 27 minutes, thanks to the lethal combo of Ancient Apparition and Venomancer.
Game 2
Mineski thought they should bring something new to the board, as the Pangolier clearly wasn't working as well as they had hoped. The revival of Magnus with a Helm of the Dominator build revealed what the team had been hiding up their sleeve. The pick turned out to be the key to their victory in Game 2, as it amplified the already massive damage coming out of Kam "Moon" Boon Seng's mid Tiny. It completely minimized the impact of Yao "Somnus?M" Lu's Shadow Fiend, propelling them to a victory that was just as one-sided as the first game.
Game 3
Things were really starting to heat up, as Mineski showed once again that they were going to shy away from playing dirty, with the last pick Broodmother in Game 3. The hero has been a bane for most teams who have had to face it, especially with no counters at hand. Broodmother is capable of winning almost any lane, sieging towers faster than any hero and farms at an accelerated rate to secure the early game. Strangely, iceiceice went for one of his quirky builds with a Battle Fury on the hero.
While it did allow the Broodmother to stay atop the networth chart for most of the game, it also gave time for Wang "Ame-" Chunyu's Terrorblade to farm six slots of items. Ultimately, he reached a stage where he could stand alone against all of Mineski's cores, with a little help from Kunkka's Ghost Ship, marking the point of no return for Mineski.
Game 4
With only one game away from defeat, Mineski took the risk of going for an aggressive trilane with Chai "Mushi" Yee Fung's Luna in Game 4. The result was a devastating early game for the team, as their position 1 carry died four times in lane, before ultimately abandoning it. All hope was not lost, however, as he recovered with a spectacular comeback. Thanks to the return of iceiceice's Pangolier and a stellar performance on Moon's Dragon Knight, Mineski handled the immense pressure they were under and pushed the series to a fifth game.
Game 5
The fans got what they always hope for in a BO5 Grand Finals series, a Game 5. Mineski topped off their well-rounded draft with Mushi's Lifestealer. LGD on the other hand, aimed towards a 40 to 50-minute late game peak with a surprise Anti-Mage pick on Ame. He managed to farm a 15-minute Battle Fury thanks to a decent laning phase where they managed to shut down iceiceice's Magnus multiple times. The mobile carry continued to farm the map, narrowly avoiding death multiple times in the face of Mineski's Disruptor and Death Prophet, both of which provide great disables against the hero.
However, Mineski showed they were not afraid to go into the late game as they kept the empowered Lifestealer on pace with LGD's Anti-Mage. In a final teamfight during Mineski's high ground siege on LGD's bottom lane of barracks, they managed to kill the Anti-Mage who did not save for buyback. Realising this, the SEA team went straight for the Radiant Ancient as the Chinese could do nothing but watch in stunned disappointment.
With the culmination of the Dota 2 Asia Championships 2018, both Evil Geniuses and Natus Vincere have been kicked out of the top 8 of the DPC Rankings to make place for the two finalists of this tournament. While LGD Gaming did not manage to win and take the 4th place rank, they are in a comfortable 7th place right above VGJ.Thunder.
Mineski, on the other hand, are at the 4th place rank with 3150 DPC points to boot. It has been debated among several analysts and statsmen whether the break off to qualify for The International 2018 is 3200 points. If this holds true, it puts the rejuvenated SEA team very close to achieve the ultimate goal.
The DPC 2017-18 season continues with the StarLadder i-League Invitational Season 5 Minor next week, from the 11th to the 15th of April, with a prize pool of $300,000 and 300 DPC points.
