Moscow Five win joinDOTA Masters X

It was East versus West in the Grand Final of the joinDOTA Masters X as the legendary lineup of Moscow Five took on the rising stars in POTM Bottom, who overcame Mousesports and Quantic Gaming respectively in today's semi finals. The Grand Final went all the way to the third game as both teams came close to pushing the other over the edge, but in the end, the might of the Russians saw them emerge victorious over the Americans.



Semi Final 1 – Moscow Five vs. mousesports

mouz sprang a surprise on their opponents as they took Rubick as their last pick, the spell-stealing hero who has only just been added to the Captain's Mode pool this week. Although their signature Kunkka and Shadow Demon combo secured them an early first blood, M5 stuck to their aggressive style and imposed themselves early on. Even with no recognisable hard carry, the Russians had superior pushing and killing power in the early stages, and they came out on top in most engagements.

A complete team wipe of mouz in the 21st minute truly tipped the scales in M5's favour, and things only spiralled out of all control for mouz from there on. The Russians had a commanding lead of over 20 kills by the 33rd minute, with a 30,000 experience and 20,000 gold advantage. mouz understandably called "GG" only a few minutes later.

Semi Final 2 - POTM Bottom vs. Quantic Gaming

Both teams were quite balanced overall, especially as PB picked their signature Lone Druid and Quantic took Lycanthrope for them. However, PB showed to have more synergy and quicker reflexes as they managed to not only secure a pre-creep spawn first blood, but also continuously gank their opponents. Quantic returned fire on several occasions, but despite PB's early tower and kill advantage, Quantic were growing in power the longer the game went on.

While Quantic held their line against PB's full team pushes, Lycanthrope was destroying towers and endangering the Radiant base. However, the unexpected for Quantic happened when shortly after using Smoke of Deceit to gank, they met with their opponent's full team head-on at the 26th minute and the clash ended badly for them, as Quantic lost all of their barracks in a matter of seconds and ultimately lost.

Grand Final - Moscow Five vs. POTM Bottom

Game 1

Unsurprisingly, M5 set themselves up offensively once again, with their Chen and Shadow Demon roaming back and forth between the top and middle lanes via their opponent's jungle, and wreaking havoc upon PB whenever they encountered each other. M5's aggressive play allowed them to storm into the ascendancy, leading 16-6 within 9 minutes, with an advantage of over 5000 more in gold both and experience gain. They more than doubled their lead in the next 5 minutes, and PB, unable to bear any more suffering, conceded defeat in only the 14 minutes.

Game 2

In contrast to the first game, PB had the early advantage and repeatedly forced skirmishes with M5. A very action-packed match, kills were happenning left and right, with heroes dying and quickly coming back into the fray, but it was PB who quickly gained the upper hand. The standout performance was from PB's Invoker, whose amazing map awareness meant he cast Sun Strikes with impeccable precision, including one which killed a hero who had just finished teleporting back to their fountain. Both teams took a while to push their lanes, but when the first came down, the others quickly followed, especially for M5's side. They lost control of the map and were constantly overpowered by PB's plays, who in the end won the game convincingly.

Game 3

PB got off to a flying start, unexpectedly taking down Roshan completely uncontested before the creeps even spawned, using Lone Druid's Spirit Bear to tank the damage, with Dark Seer's Ion Shell to do the damage. Even with that disadvantageous start, it was M5 who took first blood, with their plethora of single-target disables scoring them an easy kill on the defenceless Lone Druid. PB went ahead in the early phase of the game, but M5 always remained within touching distance, and after the first 15 minutes, things were practically even between the two teams.

PB again moved into the ascendancy as the game progressed into the middle period, but after a crazy series of team clashes around and then for Roshan, the pendulum swung back M5's way, and they promptly took down PB's middle barracks after acquiring Aegis of the Immortal and Cheese. The momentum now with them, all it took for M5 was one more decimation of their opponents when they assaulted PB's base on the back of Chaos Knight's brutal power. That was enough for the Americans to concede deaft, and so the Russians were crowned as the 10th champions of the joinDOTA Masters and pocketed the 500€ prize.