posted by woodshrew,
CDEC pushes EG to the breaking point--and then beyond
[color=gold]In Game 1, CDEC Gaming demonstrated their impressive ability to play from behind and of course, their signature brand of blunt aggression.[/color] Evil Geniuses opened up the draft with a straight ban on Sun 'Agressif' Zheng's Gyro--if they were going to lose, they were not going to lose huddled in the treelines of their safelane, cowering from a rocket barrage. This gave way to CDEC calmly picking two heroes with the top 10 highest pick and ban rates: Undying and Tusk.
Facing one of these heroes is a challenge for most teams. Two? That's another story. In conjunction they bring sheer chaos to teamfights, with huge AOE slows from Tombstone/Sigil and potent defensive counters as well in Soul Rip/Snowball.
EG's draft had answers to the CDEC lineup. The Naga Song of the Siren gave them a way to focus down the Tombstone, as well as setup many of their main weapons: Sand King's Epicenter, Shadow Fiend's Requiem, as well as a long duration Razor Link.
The game startd with EG taking a big lead in the laning phase, after a Hasted Kurtis 'Aui_2000' Ling Naga sniped off CDEC's bottle and courier, cutting down their Templar Assasin in the midlane. Sumail 'SumaiL' Syed Hassan, recognizing his opening, opened up on the TA and forced her out of lane. Giving such a strong start to the young star seemed like a big win, but CDEC responded.
This Q guys a genius. Gonna be a hard fight for another shot at CdEc GGs— Peter Dager (@ppdDota) August 7, 2015
[color=gold] Huang 'Shiki' Jiwei's TA fought back into the game with strong rotations into EG's safe lane, taking down Clinton 'Fear' Loomis's Razor who was one of the most farmed and levelled heroes in the game at that point[/color]. Utilising smokes and also Tusk Snowballs (which are difficult to scout out from afar, especially at night), CDEC caught back up, and hit a mid-game stride.
CDEC's lineup flourished in long-drawn out engagements, since many of their damage sources came from low-cooldown high impact spells. EG on the other hand had to follow their team-fight script with their long-cooldown chanelling ultimates. For this reason, EG had a much smaller margin of error to prevail at even strength. [color=gold]But this is what CDEC does best: they don't let you fight in even numbers, or on even ground. They rotate with intelligent smoke movement, leveraging objectives such as towers, Roshan and farm. [/color]
They build their Game 1 win around Roshan, where they took their first major teamfight win. They succesfully disrupted EG's chain of spells, mostly thanks to Chen 'xz' Zezhi's clutch Ice Shards keeping CDEC's lineup out of reach during the Naga Song. But xiaozhi was not done--his finest moment came soon after.
CDEC and EG were able to take small victories, but nothing so far as a full team wipe. CDEC forced the issue off of an extremely quick Roshan attempt thanks to TA's Meld and Desolator, and seized the oppurtunity with a smoke gank. They found Sumail, hungry for one more wave of creeps in the middle lane, and jumped in.
Aui appeared to have saved his midlaner, and caught CDEC out. Songing into all five of CDEC's heroes, and saving Sumail, and which Universe setting up a multi-hero Burrowstrike, EG was in a strong position to counter. Sumail raised his hands channeling his Requiem, ready to wipe CDEC off the map...
[color=gold]But xiaozhi came to the rescue with a huge snowball, which protected nearly all of CDEC's heroes from the EG spell followup. They turned the fight around, and with Aegis in hand, tore down two of EG's barracks. [/color]
With such an early raxxing for CDEC, they were in complete control. EG did mount an impressive defence at their final tier two tower in the top lane, but they were simply so far behind. Unable to farm, and unable to contest Rosh with waves of creeps laying waste to their base, EG lost Game 1, giving away a great chance to strike first.
20 minutes later, CDEC are headed to the Grand Finals
A slow start, in which there were a total of only four kills at the ten minute mark, gave way to another CDEC track meet. [color=gold]They ran circles around EG's slow tank lineup, with Bounty Hunter Track, Phantom Lancer Phantom Rush and Tusk Snowballs kiting and dodging around the battlefield. [/color]
With BH on the side of CDEC, each fight that went the way of the Chinese squad built their Net Worth advantage even more. Coming into the match, they were (5-1) with Bounty Hunter in TI5, and that may have been what many on the analyst desk considered an overeaction.
Chen 'xz' Zezhi played a very passive early game on Bounty, rather than playing into Aui's Spirit Breaker. Stealing experience from the safelane and Universe's jungling Dark Seer, he simply sat back and waited for CDEC's signature early skirmishes (of course, in the enemy safe-lane).
It took only one fight before we'd find out how the two lineups matched up. CDEC invaded EG's safelane as expected with their Track on BH, and caught ppd out of position with their sentries. By taking out their teamfight controller, they let loose on EG's heroes one by one, kiting out spells and throwing out nukes with Lina and PL. They were able to take four Track kills, and at such an early point of the game, the advantage they built was simply too much to overcome.
"(CDEC) could kill 15 heroes like this" -7ckingMad, re-watching the series-ending teamfight in EG's safelane
Aui on Spirit Breaker, the last of the four track kills to secure CDEC's victory
ppd forfeited the match in 20 minutes, recognizing that he had drafted into CDEC's hands. With limited options to fight back from behind and no direct counters to the Phantom Lancer's illusion army, EG bowed out of the series, and gave CDEC their third straight 2-0 sweep in the Main Event of Key Arena. EG now will face the victor of LGD v. VG, which will be the last series of the day.
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