posted by Sun_Tzu,

The Alienware Cup heads into it's final stretch, as DK faced off against Invictus Gaming a day after their absolute slaughter at the hands of TongFu in the Dota 2 Super League, followed by the winner bracket finals between Na`Vi and LGD.Cn.

The loser bracket finals will be coming up tomorrow, Monday 8th of July at 13:00 CEST.

Invictus Gaming vs. DK

Game 1

Both teams started out safe, with DK taking to the top lane with

Zhilei 'BurNing' Xu on Gyrocopter backed up by Rubick and Visage against the Nature's Prophet of

Jiang 'YYF' Cen, while on the bottom lane

Chen 'Zhou' Yao took to the Doom, backed up by a Shadow Demon with

Wong Hock 'Chuan' Chuan taking to the safe jungle on Chen, giving some opening for

Fan 'r0tk' Bai on Clockwerk to get into experience range on the offlane. This left

Luo 'Ferrari_430' Feichi on the Templar Assassin against the Storm Spirit of

Junhao 'Super' Xie.

While r0tk clearly had not recovered from his drubbing yesterday, he played too far up, trying to get some farm instead of just focusing on getting the levels, which ended up costing him his life and the first blood at just over a minute into the game, and also quickly turning the offlane into a far more dangerous environment for him than it should have been. However the real story of the game was to unfold at mid lane.

DK has previously had issues with drafting heroes that don't fit Super, and this game felt a lot like that. While Super was getting good farm in mid, which he by no means should have against the far superior last hitting of Templar Assassin, there was no reaction from him as Chuan and

Zeng 'Faith' Hongda dropped off the map and no defensive ward spotting them coming in under smoke, forfeiting Super's life at 3 minutes. When he died a second time to a Chuan rotation two minutes later, teleported in as he respawned and died a third time before 6 minutes, things were looking terrible. Another two deaths by 8 minutes and Super's game was over, being level 5 against Ferrari's level 9 and 3,000 net worth behind.

The rest of the game was little more than a formality, as iG ripped DK to pieces, forcing the 'GG' call just before 15 minutes, with 13-2 in kills. Super and r0tk were responsible for a combined 0/9/0 score.

Game 1 End Screen

Game 2

Mindgames were in full effect by iG in game two, as they sent Ferrari to the bottom lane with the Outworld Devourer backed up by Living Armor provided by Faith against r0tk's Queen of Pain, sending YYF on Bounty hunter to the mid lane against Super's Nyx Assassin. This meant DK ended up running a BurNing Gyrocopter on the offensive trilane together with Naga Siren and Leshrac against the Lifestealer of Zhou backed up by Rubick and Treant Protector.

While r0tk did a good job early on, eventually the superior lane control of Outworld Devourer allowed Ferrari to take over the lane and force him off it, ending up rotating all the way to the top lane in order to gank. While iG saw it coming and rotated YYF up to help, they still ended up losing two for nothing, with Zhou coming back in to feed another before r0tk backed off to the mid lane, where Super had been happily increasing on his already huge advantage over YYF in terms of last hitting.

While Super had a great start, he had been largely locked to his lane by the Track of YYF, but with r0tk coming in and forcing the lanes to start moving around, Super got some freedom to start roaming, which did not work out well at all, first giving up a single hero on top as Faith used Overgrowth in order to allow iG to escape the gank, and then trying to gank Ferrari in the jungle at just shy of 15 minutes, only to have it turned around on him and DK losing three heroes due to the power of Living Armor and early Mekansm.

Things kept on going against DK, as not a single gank from Super was wable to connect and even the Outworld Devourer he was supposed to counter just got too big too fast for him to deal with. DK wasted large amounts of times only to get baited into engagements they would end up loosing, giving away Track gold to iG, or to try and gank Zhou but jumping the gun, allowing him to Rage and Teleport out on multiple occasions. At 26 minutes iG took yet another fight 3-0, opening it up for them to claim the first Roshan of the game, giving them all the momentum they could hope for.

At 32 minutes DK messed up another fight badly at top lane, as r0tk blinked in and threw his Sonic Wave just as

Zeng Rong 'MMY!' Lei used the Song of the Siren, causing it to do no damage while Ferrari went on a rampage as he had gotten his Black King Bar off before the fight began. While iG eventually gave up their fourth and fifth death of the game on the back end of the fight, the result was still 4-2 in their favour, as both Zhou and YYF were now matching BurNing on farm while Ferrari was leading the way a good 3,000 ahead of the rest.

By 40 minutes in iG were happily diving around the base of DK, forcing out the begrudging 'GG' call for BurNing after his entire team dropped out of the game after being manhandled 27-5.

Game 2 End Screen

Invictus Gaming deapen the despair of DK beating them 2-0, making it now a five consecutive game losing streak accross two matches.

Na`Vi vs. LGD.Cn

Game 1

Na`Vi saw the LGD.Cn offensive trilane coming, dodging up to the top lane with

Alexander 'XBOCT' Dashkevich on the Alchemist backed up by Io and

Clement 'Puppey' Ivanov on the offensive jungle Enigma, making for a rough time for

Lio 'Sylar' Jiajun. This meant that

Gleb 'Funn1k' Lipatnikov on the Dark Seer faced off against the trilane of

Yao 'Yao' Zhengzheng on the Gyrocopter backed up by Leshrac and Naga Siren, who were joined by Sylar in order to push down the Tier 1 Tower before rotating to the top lane, where Na`Vi had claimed the Tier 1 Tower as well in Sylar's absence. This left

Danil 'Dendi' Ishutin on the Puck against

Zhang 'xiao8' Ning on Beastmaster at mid lane.

When the LGD trilane arrived up top they tried to put on some aggression, however had it turned around on them as Na`Vi claimed the first blood, losing Io on the retreat but getting XBOCT out. A further kill on Yao a bit later as well as their effective farming on all lanes kept LGD chasing them all over the map, trying to find either kills or some farm but coming up slightly short, especially given the jungler advantage which Na`Vi brought to the table.

Early aggression was all over the place, as both teams suddenly decided to start fighting all over the map. As teamfight followed teamfight, LGD did hamper the start of XBOCT, but at the cost of coming up slightly behind in the engagements as Puppey was able to find several big Black Holes while Dendi was all over the fights and Funn1k did his usual thing, nibbling down players with the Ion Shell and and bringing his early Mekansm to the fight. Because of this, Na`Vi had a fair amount of control going into the mid game, sporting no less than four of the top five in terms of net worth.

While LGD managed to snipe off a Roshan kill, it did them little good as they lost a teamfight at 26 minutes, losing their Aegis and giving Na`Vi free reign to run up the mid lane, claiming the first Barracks of the game, retreating out beore re-engaging in the style that many CIS teams love to do, in order to clean up the emboldened LGD players and force the 'GG' call at 28 minutes.

Game 1 End Screen

Game 2

Na`Vi went for the Phantom Lancer for XBOCT, sticking Puppey on his signature Chen in the safelane jungle while

Kuro 'KuroKy' Takhasomi was stacking with the Rubick and Funn1k abandoned his offlane in order to jungle with the Dark Seer as well, making for a fairly cramped top lane against LGD's xiao8 on the offlane Nature's Prophet. At the mid lane Dendi played a Beastmaster against the Dragon Knight of Yao, leaving the bottom lane free for LGD to abuse, as Sylar played a Lycanthrope backed up by Nyx Assassin and Visage, which ended up trying to push early on but being stopped by Puppey who rotated in with his Wildwing Ripper, using the Tornado to stall the push.

While Puppey was doing a lot of work, being a complete nuisance all over the map and sacrificing some of his own early development, it was paying off for Na`Vi who were getting great farm on their cores and great levels, causing LGD to try and improve their lot through some early aggression, which worked out fairly well for them, getting Yao a better position at mid and getting them the bottom Tier 1 Tower as well as two early kills on Funn1k, making up for some of the great start XBOCT was having.

LGD kept on racking up the early kills, punishing the weaker than normal Chen and using the power of the short cooldown Dragon Tail stun to chase and get kills, opening it up for LGD to take the first Roshan of the game at 13 minutes in, giving Sylar his Aegis of Immortality. But shortly after as LGD tried to gank XBOCT's top lane, his early Vladimir's Offering item build kicked in, allowing Na`Vi to trade even in the fight while XBOCT stayed alive and kept on snowballing with his early Hand of Midas and now having participated in all five kills of Na`Vi without dying.

After getting picked off out of position once more, Funn1k was sidelined and allowed LGD.Cn to punish the mid lane, although they eventually backed off before claiming the mid Barracks. But the respite was short lived, as at 21 minutes LGD took to the high ground again, and while the Wall of Replica stalled the game for a bit LGD were able to pick off Dendi and force XBOCT to fall back to the fountain, causing them to lose their mid lane as well as half of the top lane before LGD backed off the push.

The final nail came at 25 minutes into the game, as Dendi initiated with the Primal Roar in the river, only to have it turned around on them with the Black King Bar from Yao on the Dragon Knight and Sylar on the Lycanthrope going berserk on the ranks of Na`Vi, forcing out the 'GG' after a very one-sided mid game.

Game 2 End Screen

Game 3

Changing up things after the non-existant performance of Dendi in game two, Na`Vi gave him a Shadow Fiend for mid lane up against the xiao8 Magnus, helping to give him a situation where he could get out of control. Meanwhile XBOCT got to play the Dragon Knight on the bottom lane, with Puppey again taking up the jungle with Chen followed along by Kuroky on Lina, aiming to deny Yao's Bounty Hunter levels, with meager success. Far more effectively shut down early on was Funn1k on the offlane Weaver, who could not get in experience range for the longest time, with Sylar farming up freely on his Gyrocopter backed up by the Rubick and Visage supports.

xiao8 was getting absolutely murdered by Dendi at mid lane, causing Yao to try and rotate in to help get a kill and slow him down at least somewhat, but fortunately Puppey rotated in at the same time, finding out Yao and getting the kill at the very edge of a Sentry Ward with the Wildwing Ripper's Tornado, allowing Dendi to keep on keeping on, leading Na`Vi into a early game lead.

LGD managed to find some ganks by grouping up and smoking as five, crucially on both XBOCT and Dendi, even though they ended up giving away their Gyrocopter for the effort. While these track kills helped quite a bit for the ailing LGD team, they also freed Funn1k up to start his mid game comeback, as he already passed Yao on net worth, leaving three LGD heroes in the bottom four as once more the Ukrainian team proved that they are indeed one of the best teams at farming all over the map.

After a long stand-off as neither team wanted to commit to fighting head on, it was Dendi who got caught out of position at mid lane 26 minutes in, as xiao8 managed to Skewer him back under their Tier 2 Tower, killing him off and killing off Funn1k who was hanging around trying to save his friends life. However their gank attempt a few minutes later on the far tankier XBOCT with both Drum's of Endurance and Black King Bar up already was less succesfull, resulting in no kills for either side, signaling that they needed to keep on focusing on squishier targets for now.

After giving up an attempted Roshan kill due to Puppey sending in a Hellbear Smasher, LGD returned a while later with a Double Damage rune, sniping off the Roshan for free at 36 minutes in as Na`Vi were not in position to contest it. This allowed them to play a bit more active on the map, pressuring down their second Tier 2 Tower, evening out the map control between the two teams, while Na`Vi were happy to keep on playing passive, aiming to take the game into the super late stages.

Finally at 45 minutes the teams were ready to fight again, as XBOCT walked into LGD in the Dire jungle, popping his Black King Bar and forcing the engage, taking a 3-1 fight which allowed Na`Vi to claim the Aegis of Immortality for Dendi. With this Na`Vi returned to the top lane, finding out xiao8 who did not have buyback, killing him off before LGD could react, however nothing came of it as XBOCT was caught slightly out of position, allowing

Xie 'DD' Bin on the Rubick to use Telekinesis in order to drop him out of position, allowing Sylar to kill him off and force the end to the push.

Another big fight came down at middle lane around 50 minutes, going back and forth early on between the Refresher Reverse Polarity of xiao8 and the tanky damage potential of XBOCT, but with LGD buying back Sylar and Yao they were able to turn the fight around especially with DD having stolen Dragon Tail and doing a lot of work, allowing LGD to kill off Dendi twice, and forcing all of the cores of Na`Vi to buy back, as LGD got a strong win even though they were unable to convert it into any further momentum on the map.

LGD tried to take the Roshan at 58 minutes, claiming it and giving it over to xiao8 just as XBOCT walked in and tanked with his face. As xiao8 missed everyone with his Reverse Polarity, the fight turned against LGD who ended up losing Sylar, forcing the buyback and dying again. However Na`Vi were unable to capitalize on it, only taking the Tier 3 Tower at mid as XBOCT tried to tank it up with his face after Dendi died, dying just short of taking out the first Barracks of the game.

Once all of LGD were back they managed to find a big Reverse Polarity outside of the Na`Vi base, allowing them to kill off XBOCT who did not have his buyback, causing LGD to finally claim the first Barracks of the game at 63 minutes before backing off, playing it safe.

After a failed dual Reverse Polarity fight at bottom lane 67 minutes in LGD had to fall back, opening it up for Na`Vi to take Roshan, putting the Aegis of Immortality on Funn1k and the Cheese on XBOCT, while only losing the second half of their mid lane Barracks set. With this advantage, Na`Vi started up a siege at mid lane, still playing it safe and not committing for fear of the Reverse Polarity which was back up by now.

After backing off for a bit, Na`Vi returned to go up the high ground at 71 minutes, but xiao8 found out Funn1k with his first Reverse Polarity, claiming the Aegis and causing Na`Vi to engage as well, allowing xiao8 to hit his second Reverse Polarity, this time on the entire Na`Vi team, allowing LGD to claim a 4-0 fight and forcing Dendi to buy back into the game in order to defend their base along with Funn1k. With this opening LGD managed to claim the bottom Barracks before Na`Vi were back up, rotating top and slow sieging it.

As xiao8 found Dendi out of position once again without the ability to buy back, LGD had their opening to take the top Barracks and the Throne, ending the game at 74 minutes in.

Game 3 End Screen

LGD.Cn overcome a loss in game one to drop Na`Vi down to the lower bracket finals with a 2-1 score.

Coming Up Next!

Has Na`Vi finally been stopped? Their run in Alienware Cup playoffs has been cut short after trying to turtle it out against LGD.Cn, one of the best turtling teams in the world. While Na`Vi certainly don't look as if they are always firing on all cylinders right now, especially with Dendi looking fairly weak at times and getting picked off in poor positions, this does give openings for iG to give them a run for their money in the lower bracket finals.

Meanwhile iG's Ferrari_430 has also been looking off, as his laning just hasn't been very impressive. If his team can deliver him early kills he is still able to snowball and take over the game, but against such an active team as Na`Vi, the question will be if they will have the space to do so? One thing is for sure, iG will be relying on their supporting cast in order to set up their game for them, while Na`Vi will be looking to Dendi and XBOCT in order to step it up and keep them going in the Alienware Cup.