Even though Titan pulled off an incredible comeback in the second game against NewBee, the systematical and merciless playstyle of this Chinese team brought them down. An early Roshan in game three caught Titan by surprise and transitioned into an overwhelming stomp that lasted for merely 18 minutes.
Game 1Game 2Game 3 Pregame Titan0:0NewBee The stakes are high and we feel the tention in the draft as both teams are using a lot of their reserve time for bans. Titan got their hands on the Skywrath Mage and will be focusing their draft around heavy teamfighting, as they've also picked up Brewmaster, Sand King and Bristleback. The Chinese team on the other hand are drafting a very classical NewBee draft, with strong early to midgame heroes like Shadow Demon, Tidehunter, Jakiro (!) and Viper along with a strong lategame core for Hao, in the form of Morphling. We will see a lot of aggression as both teams will want to fight and win the midgame. It the end, all depends on if Morphling will get the space he needs or not.00:00 Titan0:0NewBee The horn has sounded and we see that NewBee is running an aggressive trilane with Jakiro, Viper and Shadow Demon against Titan's Slark. Hao brought the Morphling mid and will brawl it out with kyxy's Brewamaster. The toplane will be a one vs one match-up between xiao8's Tidehunter and Ohy's Bristleback.3:00 Titan0:0NewBee Titan's supports rotate mid, trying to catch the Morphling off guard and bring Hao down. They manage to get him down below 100 hp with Ancient Seal and Burrow Strike. However, great reactions and an instant teleport from SanSheng's Shadow Demon mean that they have to back off withough any kills on their side of the board.6:20 Titan0:3NewBee After another failed attempt to kill Morphling, Titan's game becomes a true nightmare. Morphling manage to chase the trio down with the help from SanSheng and scores a double kill, while the third Titan player dies to neutrals.9:30 Titan2:4NewBee The first real good trade for Titan occurs in the toplane as kyxy releases the Brewlings to pick off Jakiro. Even though Bristleback falls to the rightclick from Viper and Tidehunter, Titan still manages to force out a few teleports from the NewBee members. Nontheless, they will have to more to get this game in their hands, as the Morphling is gaining kills and farm.14:00 Titan5:10NewBee What looks to become a teamfight with a good outcome for Titan, turns into a real disaster. Six kills for two in the favor of NewBee after the greed got the better out of the Titan members. The strength gain Morph from Hao fooled them, as he appeared to be an easy kill.18:00 Titan9:17NewBee NewBee keeps gaining ground as they just brought down the tier two tower midlane, in addition to the already demolished tier one towers. Titan is struggling to keep up with the Chinese who have greater pushing power with Jakiro, who's looking to get his first win in this tournament after seven consecutive losses. Even though Titan managed to deny two of the towers, the mapcontrol NewBee gains gives them a big advantage.26:00 Titan9:19NewBee No real action has occured during the last seven minutes as NewBee felt content with using their time to finish some items and take down Roshan. There's no pressure on them as Titan is far behind and have no means to deal with Hao, who's only going to get stronger at this point. Now is the time to strike though for NewBee, as they easily managed to break highground and bring down the melee barracks top. Titan will need to pull out their a-game and pull out a few incredible teamfights for a shot at bringing the odds back in their favor.32:00 Titan12:20NewBee Speaking of great teamfights, Titan certainly brought it as they battled in the midlane against NewBee. Epicenter along with Mystic Flare brings down Hao instantly and two other NewBee members fall shortly after, as their main carry was out of the picture. Even though this was a big win for Titan, they still didn't gain any objectives from it. NewBee regroups and secure the Roshan when they respawn with no contest.36:50 Titan13:24NewBee Strenghtened by the previous Roshan kill, NewBee proceeds to walk down the botlane and starts to siege the base of Titan. The Malaysian team manages to force them back to the highground around the demolished tier two tower, but makes the mistake of initiating a fight. Sand King falls quickly and without the Epicenter, Titan have no chance at all to emerge victorious from the brawl. The set of barracks in botlane falls and Hao seals the deal with a triple kill. Titan calls the GG and will now have to win two games in a row to avoid elimination. Pregame NewBee0:0Titan They may be one game down, but Titan seems to get the best out of this draft as they've intercepted NewBee's plans to pick another Morphling for Hao. The ban on Ancient Apparition from NewBee exposed them and Titan could easily pick it for themselves. They add a fourth pick Batrider to the draft and finished with Earthshaker, who works great with their gameplan that most likely will resemble NewBee's of last game. The Chinese settled for a line-up that excels at pure and ruthless teamfighting with Invoker, Tidehunter, Rubick, Luna and the Banana Enchantress.2:30 NewBee0:1Titan Banana tries a early smoke with his Enchantress after picking up two creeps, but can't seem to find the right opportunity to gank Morphling in the midlane. The first blood goes down in the toplane instead on xiao8's Tidehunter, that falls to the high damage and control from Titan's trilane.5:30 NewBee0:2Titan The early game is in the hands of Titan that scores another kill, this time on Mu's Invoker. The Shackles from Shadow Shaman into Fissure gives him no chance to survive. However, the top net worth belongs to Luna who's farming exceptionally well in the botlane.8:30 NewBee1:4Titan Viper finished Mekansm only six minutes in to the game, a fact that proved fatal to NewBee as they tried to push the top lane tier one tower after a pick-off on Yamateh. He managed to teleport back in time to make use of his Mek and turned a lost tower into two additional kills for his team.12:00 NewBee1:4Titan The Enchantress pick pays off for NewBee as Banana leads his team and brings down the second tower of the game in the midlane. They are still in somewhat of a pinch since they have no means to deal with the initation from Batrider and Titan team that has a Mekansm, are resilient enough to deal with the burst from NewBee.17:30 NewBee4:9Titan Even though NewBee has suffered losses in a few awkward teamfights, they are getting objectives around the map and they're even in towers with Titan. Luna is also equipped with a Black King Bar, which might cause problems for Titan, since they're currently lacking in physical damage. kyxy's Morphling is sitting on 3/1 which looks good with Titan's gameplan in mind, but he's still about 2,000 gold behind NewBee's Luna and Invoker.23:30 NewBee8:10Titan NewBee is staying strong and Titan seems to be losing their ground in this game too, even though they had such a good start. Mu's Invoker is working overtime as he just sniped Shadow Shaman - who creepblocked NewBee's push - by landing a beautiful Sunstrike. Titan's members keeps giving easy pick-offs to NewBee, that effectively utilise every little advantage they get by obtaining objectives.31:30 NewBee16:16Titan Titan earlier managed to defend their barracks as NewBee broke highground and tore down the tier three tower in the midlane. However, NewBee quickly regrouped for round two and managed to bring down the melee barracks this time around. Luna's pushing power and raw physical damage is starting to show as she together with Invoker's Spirits, Necronomicon creeps and the Enchanted creeps of Enchantress, tears down structures with ease.38:30 NewBee17:22Titan Ohy's skills on Batrider clearly shows as he brings Luna on a ride to the highground where the rest of the Titans were waiting. With the Flaming Lasso on cooldown, Luna quickly buys back and rendezvous with his team to pick up an easy Roshan. Titan says no and a huge brawl goes down where Titan wins because of amazing play from Xtinct. He doesn't only interrupt Tidehunter's Ravage, but also lands a great Echo Slam. The comeback is real!42:00 NewBee19:28Titan With newly found momentum, Titan's wants more and proceeds to push out the toplane. Another devastating teamfight for NewBee transitions into a lost pair of barracks and a lot of spilled blood.48:00 NewBee24:31Titan NewBee win their first fight in a long while as they battle Titan around the long gone tier two tower mid of the Dire. However, two buybacks put them in a pinch as the trade turns in favor of Titan. They manage to force a buyback from Luna and their main priority now is to bring down the Roshan.53:00 NewBee24:36Titan The Roshan falls before the Titans who greets the newly arrived team NewBee with some friendly punches in the face. A few NewBee heroes falls and that allows Titan to rush down the midlane and kills off the tier three tower and the barracks. However, it didn't take long before it was NewBee's turn to go on the warpath and they run into the midlane to finish the full set of barracks. They go all out after that and tries to finish off the base, but Titan is on the defense and forces them back. Luna and Invoker buys back.55:25 NewBee27:38Titan The tide has turned again and now Titan sieged the Radiant base with full force. Another great initation from the Batrider who found Luna finishes the job, as she falls. Without Luna's Buyback there was nothing more for NewBee to do, but to concede and move on to game three. Pregame Titan0:0NewBee Viper goes through the banning phase and makes a third appearence in this series, as Titan pick him up as first pick. They will be running a heavy control and magic damage line-up with Leshrac, Dark Seer and Sand King the righclick from Viper and potential rightclick and Radiance damage from Naga Siren. NewBee is going full rat and structure damage with DK, Luna and Nature's Prophet.0:00 Titan0:0NewBee NewBee pulls a very classy move as they go straight for Roshan after they've spawned. Titan can't seem to smell it out and NewBee gets to start their game off with a solid experience and gold lead and not to mention the Aegis of Immortal that got picked up by Dragon Knight.0:50 Titan0:1NewBee The travesty is real for Titan as they not only lose Roshan early, but also the first blood. NewBee's trilane caught Ohy's Dark Seer off guard and got an easy kill with Lucent Beam and the Chilling Touch.3:50 Titan0:1NewBee There's no mercy coming out from NewBee as they keep the pace high and starts a four man push on the botlane tower. The tier one goes down and the Chinese squad are sitting on a 3,000 advantage in gold.6:50 Titan0:1NewBee With Elder Dragon Form up and running on Mu, the last tier one tower on the map for Titan falls quickly. There's no hesitation fron NewBee and they just keep going and the tier two tower mid gets teared down shortly after.11:00 Titan0:4NewBee NewBee are running away with this game in what appears to be one of the best gameplan executions so far in the tournament. Two second tier towers are down and Roshan number two of the game falls before them. Their gold lead will soon reach the 10,000 mark and the experience advantage is on it's way to 5,000.13:00 Titan0:8NewBee Poor Titan can do nothing but watch as NewBee strolls up the midlane and destroys their tier three tower, shortly followed by the full set of barracks. Any attempts to defend are quickly countered with death.15:00 Titan0:13NewBee It's a wonder that GG is yet to be called by Titan, who are holding on to their TI dream by a thin thread. Two sets of barracks are down after merely 15 minutes and the only thing on Titan's scoreboard is a tier one tower.18:26 Titan2:21NewBee Titan bravely tries to make a move and grabs their first two kills of the game while NewBee pushes the toplane to get the last standing structure, besides the tier four towers and the Ancient. Unfourtunately, the damage is already done and NewBee get megacreeps. The GG is called 18 minutes into the game and Titan is now out of the tournament.
Titan admits defeat, losing 2 games to 1 after a mindblowing and flawless performance from NewBee in the last and deciding game. Titan put up a good fight, especially in the second game where great individual plays from the members kept them in the game and they managed to pull off an incredible comeback. Nonetheless, the systematical playstyle from NewBee got the best of them in the end.
The Chinese juggernaut have with this win secured a well-deserved spot in the top 8 and proceeds to face Na'Vi in our next best of three series of the day.
This article was written by John Wimarsson, joinDOTA's Writer.Jooehn is a gaming enthusiast who only recently fell head over heels for Dota 2 after watching TI3. If he's not playing his guitar, writing for jD or lying on his couch dreaming about space, he's probably in solo queue trying to reach the 5K MMR dream.Location: Västervik, SwedenFollow him on @Jooehn.
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