Secret likely to begin Main Event in the lower bracket after 2-0 loss to Newbee

Secret likely to begin Main Event in the lower bracket after 2-0 loss to Newbee
posted by guardiangel07,
Secret, who needed at least a win this series to be able to have a chance at fighting for a spot in the upper bracket, find themselves in danger of having to play the best-of-one in the lower brackets at the Main Event after their defeat to Newbee.


kpii's sacrifice for his carries' farm pays off



eu Team Secret began their first series of the day drafting an early Elder Titan and Mirana in Game 1. However, this Mirana, who is usually played by ca Artour 'Arteezy' Babaev, was instead played by se Johan 'pieliedie' Åström. Secret's Razor pick proved to be an issue for the Chinese mid laner as the damage gained and lost through Static Link made the laning phase a tough one.

But the Chinese decided to push forward with their plans, giving cn Chen 'Hao' Zhihao the Juggernaut and cn Zhang 'Mu' Pan the mid Timbersaw. As to be expected, the Timbersaw did struggle laning against ca Jacky 'EternaLEnVy' Mao's Razor but with Mu's high level of individual skill, he managed to stand his ground and still get a decent amount of farm.

Team Secret (Image:Source)


The true star of the game was au Damien 'kpii' Chok, who was playing the Nyx Assassin. The casters commented at the start of the game that an offlane Nyx usually struggles in the laning phase due to its inability to fall back to the jungle. Notwithstanding that, kpii played a lesser farm dependent offlaner but instead focused on giving vision and harassing the opponents.

This allowed Newbee to be able to always keep a constant eye on Secret's movements and taking the opportunity for a favourable team fight when it arises. Newbee's strategy was to allow their carry and mid laner farm up as much as they can, even if it cost the rest their farm.

But this was not something that disadvantaged Newbee. The supports' sacrifices all paid off when their two cores' net worth was so far ahead that Secret could not even defend their base without losing heroes. Secret were then forced to concede defeat and were standing on thin ice.



Chuan's quick reactions on his signature Lion kills Secret's hopes for Upper Bracket spot



Draskyl, who casted the game with ODPixel, explained that Secret needed to win this game in order to have a fighting chance for a possible tie-breaker. With so much on the line, Puppey decided to fall back on comfort picks, with his Chen and Arteezy's Invoker.

Newbee too fell back to their comfort picks, drafting cn Chen 'Hao' Zhihao's signature Spectre as well as my Wong Hock 'Chuan' Chuan's signature Lion. Draskyl noted that the Spectre pick was a very risky one because even though the hero is great with the Desolate and Dispersion, the hero is not the best in coming back if she has a bad start.




The game began in Secret's favour, with Puppey's rotations giving Arteezy an early 2 kills as well as putting him ahead of cn Zhang 'Mu' Pan's Batrider in terms of last hits. us Sam 'Bulba' Sosale also had quite a good laning phase, being able to control the creep wave and maximise the amount of farm and experience he could gain from the lane. At that point, it really seemed as if Secret could have gone on to win the game.

However, Chuan was quick with his reactions on his Lion. His quick Hex on the teleported support allowed him to disable any form of assistance while his carry took the kill.

His Blink, Earth Spike, Hex, and Finger of Death was timed so perfectly that it was used to control the team fights rather than ensure kills. More than that, Chuan exemplified his depth of experience on the hero pre-empting ca Jacky 'EternaLEnVy' Mao's movements to ambush and kill his Luna time and again.




By that time, Hao was already very farmed on his Spectre. As the Chinese began to move around as together and with the threat of Spectre being able to jump into the fight at any time, Secret were being picked off one after another. They were no longer able to convincingly win team fights nor could they push down the towers as quickly as they would wanted to.

Newbee had effectively slowed down the team's farm that the European team had to call 'gg' realising that they could not outfarm their Chinese counterparts anymore.

Secret might still have a chance at a tie-breaker depending on how the next series pan out.




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