FnaticMSI are World Champions! 3-0s SK

In what was the most anticipated game of HoN history thus far, FnaticMSI brought out the big guns, completely throwing SK Gaming off guard with some very unusual picks relative to their usual style. As a result, FnaticMSI are the World Cup winners in a dominating 3-0 fashion in the Grand Finals.

Game 1 [26597838]
SK Gaming		FnaticMSI
Bans (Legion First)
Picks
/ /		/ /
Lanes
[SK] Testie (Top) [SK] Bdiz (Top) [SK] CarDinaL (Top) [SK] Fogged (Mid) [SK] Tralfamadore (Bot)		[MSI] Freshpro (Top) [MSI] N0tail (Mid) [MSI] Fly (Bot) [MSI] NoVa_ (Bot) [MSI] Trixi (Bot)

Wary that SK Gaming might have something up their sleeve thanks to various pre-game interviews, Fnatic took the initiative and cooked up something of their own. Their aggressive push strategy was revealed from the 1st 2 picks, hence forcing SK's hand to counterpick with some defensive turtling options.

The laning phase started out rather well for SK. They were edging out Fnatic at both top and mid lanes thanks to good roaming by CarDinaL on Behemoth. The only downside was Tralfamadore's Bubbles who was left 1v3 against 3 healers, and by the time Trixi was left to solo his Soul Reaper was strong enough to shut Bubbles down.

Fnatic started pushing from the moment Pollywog hit lvl 6, and took out towers furiously. SK Gaming on the other hand, did a very good job of counterpushing whenever they could, to deny MSI superior map control. Testie on Flint Beastwood was also getting a pretty good farm so it looked as if SK were going to be able to turtle it out.

The problem arised when N0tail finished his Shrunken Head + Portal Key combination. Every single team fight he was able to out initiate SK by just going in on Testie. A nice pick off on Behemoth gave MSI the crucial 3rd Kongor as things looked to get worse for SK. Every single time SK threw something at MSI's push they would just heal up and force themselves in. It was eventually too much pressure on SK's base as bottom and mid lanes were pushed in.

Game 2 [26604552]
FnaticMSI		SK Gaming
Bans (Legion First)
Picks
/ /		/ /
Lanes
[MSI] Fly (Top) [MSI] Freshpro(Top) [MSI] NoVa_ (Top) [MSI] N0tail (Mid) [MSI] Trixi (Bot)		[SK] Bdiz (Top) [SK] Fogged (Top) [SK] Testie (Top) [SK] CarDinaL (Mid) [SK] Tralfamadore (Bot)

Once again another team falls prey to the drafting skills of Fly. From the start of the game, MSI were dominating every single lane. SK's bottom and mid lanes were arguably crushed while Sand Wraith was not getting anywhere near good enough farm to bail them out.

Trixi's Electrician in particular, who opted to go a different playstyle compared to Electrician specialist [IcE] brized was a good tactical pick to completely shutdown SK's long lane solo Bubbles. Rushing out a 6 minute Helm of the Black Legion, Trixi dove behind towers multiple times, creep cutting like a boss despite not getting early mana shield and setting up kills deep within SK territory.

The game was really over by the half hour mark, but some complacent play by Fnatic and desperate buyback defences by Testie dragged the game on. N0tail's Soulstealer ended the game with a Codex lvl 5 and Spellshards lvl 3, quite playfully portraying the level of domination in the game.




Links
GosuGamers.net - Winner's Interview
own3d.tv - Videos on Demand
GosuGamers.net - Loser's Interview