posted by Sun_Tzu,
After the Grand Finals for the DreamHack Invitational had to be postponed, today it was time for se The Alliance to take on us Team Dignitas, in a best-of-five series for $2,500 in prize money for the winner as well as a direct invite to the DreamHack Summer tournament.

Note: The Alliance already have an invite to DreamHack Summer as the reigning champions.


se The Alliance vs. us Team Dignitas



Game 1


The Alliance picked up a pushing lineup with a specific timing window against a greedy Dignitas draft. However, Dignitas had a PLAN. And that plan was to feed. No, not like that. They took slightly weaker trades, however slowing down the Alliance push enough for their multiple core heroes to drag the game past the wanted timing window. This is turn allowed us JingJun 'Sneyking' Wu on Magnus to land big Reverse Polarities and managing to catch the ever elusive Chen in them as well, winning them important teamfights and setting Dignitas ahead and allowing the Americans to claim the first game.

Game 2


Dignitas looked good for the early game, with ca Kurtis 'Aui_2000' Ling out-cs'ing se Jonathan 'Loda' Berg on Alchemist as well as Dignitas finding farm on all of their greedy four core lineup. However, as se Gustav 's4' Magnusson once more took to his namesake hero, his amazing mid game plays allowed the Alliance to find great openings and forcing Dignitas into bad fights, allowing the Swedes to build up their strength and eventually establish a clear lead. As Dignitas felt that they were falling behind and had to do something, they made the decision to pick up a Divine Rapier for Aui_2000, and as the saying goes, in for a penny in for a pound, they also bought up Scythe of Vyse on Queen of Pain and Nature's Prophet, disregarding buybacks entirely as they knew the whole game would be decided by the next Roshan engagement. As Dignitas smoked up and tried to sneak into Roshan, they were soon greated by a unpleasant announcement that Roshan had already fallen to the Dire, followed by se Joakim 'Akke' Akterhall scouting out the Gyrocopter, getting off his Gale and slowing him down, forcing a fight where in he had no element of surprise and without also any of the typical defensive items of lifesteal of Butterfly, the Alliance were able to jump on him and finish him off, losing the Divine Rapier and the game.

Game 3


Dignitas went for a super tanky lineup, getting their hands on Lone Druid, Lifestealer, Magnus, Undying and Jakiro. The response from the Swedes was a surprising global strategy with Nature's Prophet and Chen as well as Spectre. While there was a thought behind what Alliance were trying to do, to play as similarly active Spectre as they had during the StarLadder finals, the offensive trilane from Dignitas forced Alliance to dodge, and slowly but surely they got left behind on the lanes and never really recovered, as they simply did not have the damage to keep Dignitas from forcing their base and taking one Barracks after another.

Game 4


The Alliance went for a offensive trilane along with the hero they brought into the meta game, Ogre Magi, who was setting up for Gyrocopter and Leshrac. This trilane turned out to be super effective, as Tiny was entirely shut down in the early game along with Alliance picking up several kills on the trilane. The one glimmer of hope for Dignitas turned out to be Sneyking on Storm Spirit, who was able to find a few kills in early skirmishes. While this did give Dignitas a moment to catch their breaths, soon enough the timing push for Alliance kicked in, as the combination of Bloodlust and Empower on the Spirit Bear got them an entirely uncontested lane of Barracks at 17 minutes, followed by a rotation soon after to mid, and with two lanes down, Dignitas called the 'GG'.

Game 5


Neither team felt like keeping up going for the offensive trilanes, which allowed the Alliance supports instead to do some roaming in the early game, finding a few kills while Loda farmed away on Anti-mage. While things were looking good for the Swedes, as they felt ready to abandon the lanes, Dignitas were able to put on their trademark mid game aggression, finding kills all over the place with very active play from Brewmaster and Nature's Prophet. But as Alliance fought back, finding kills as Loda began to play a more active role in the game, Dignitas felt the advantage slipping away. Suddenly, Aui_2000 sold half of the makings of his Monkey King Bar, deciding to change direction as Dignitas smoked in to take the next Roshan, and with the Aegis of Immortality, it was time for Divine Rapier Gyrocopter once more at 28 minutes. With Alliance unable to contest the push in at mid, Dignitas claimed a free Melee Barracks before falling back, only to return soon after to take the top lane. However, Loda was having none of it, instead taking his own counter Barracks and going straight for the Throne, and as such, the two teams were in a base race, and even without a Glyph available, Alliance still managed to out-push their opponents as they teleported Magnus and Leshrac back, landing a big Reverse Polarity crucially catching out Gyrocopter and following it up with the Split Earth, claiming them the victory.

The Alliance take the Grand Finals 3-2 over Team Dignitas.

Results and Grid



1st - se The Alliance - $2,500 (Already invited as defending champions)
2nd - us Team Dignitas - $1,500 + DreamHack Summer Invitation
3rd-4th - eu Fnatic.EU & us Team Liquid - $1,000



Comments