Third time was the charm in the case of
ScaryFaceZZZ*, who finally took the MSI Dragon Battle after falling short twice to
Basically Unknown* in #4 and #5.
Mamas Boys* encountered some difficulties at the first hurdle, whilst
Sqreen's Squad made it all the way to the Grand Final. With the ESL One New York qualifiers just around the corner, SFZ looked in good shape to at least pose a threat in EU bracket.
Game 1 of the final between
Sqreen's Squad and
ScaryFaceZZZ* was an interesting affair. During the early-mid game, both teams opted for items that indicated an action-packed battle, with Blink Dagger and Drum being the weapons of choice for SFZ's Tiny 'newplayer-', the star of the show across this series. However, after almost a stalemate in the mid-game, SFZ forced Sqreen's Squad to farm it out to the late-game.
This put newplayer's Tiny, who was an imposing threat to SS throughout with his high damage and mobility as well as
Roman 'RAMZEs' Kushnarev on his Wraith King, up against only
Viktor 'GeneRaL' Nigrini's Ember Spirit in terms of late-game carries.
Through this style of play SFZ turned their narrow early-game advantage (gained through neat play from
Evgeniy 'Sh4dowehh' Alekseev's Bounty Hunter) into two farmed carries, closing out the game with mega creeps on their side.
With a one game buffer, SFZ were feeling adventurous, picking up an almost unheard of mid Ogre Magi for newplayer-. In the notoriously punishing Queen of Pain mid match-up, he showed his pure skill on the surprising pocket-pick by maintaining the top spot in net-worth for the first 25 minutes, controlling the lane with Ignite and pulling off some crazy damage with big Multicasts.
From there the only way seemed to be down for Sqreen's Squad; every kill they attempted led to an overextension and ultimately a considerably shorter game than the first. The series ended with a 2-0 victory for SFZ which secures them 1,500 EUR in prize money, with SS awarded 500 EUR.
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