Paparazi is your DAC 2017 Solo Grand Champion

Invictus Gaming Vitality’s Zhang “Paparazi” Chengjun stood tall among seven other competitors to win the 1v1 event at the Dota 2 Asia Championships 2017. Paparazi claimed his semi-final spot after beating Syed Sumail “SumaiL” Hassan in Round 1. In Round 2 he faced Song “Sccc” Chun. The game was pretty one sided as Paparazi was able to bully out Sccc, landing multiple successful Shadow Razes and denying a lot of creeps. The game ended before 6 minutes, where Paparazi killed Sccc and Sccc called “gg.”

In the Best-of-3 Final Round he faced Amer “Miracle-” Al-Barkawi, who defeated Xu “BurNIng” Zhilei. Game 1 was still a Shadow Fiend match. Although both players started with a Wraith Band, Paparazi opted for more stats in Branches, while Miracle bought a Faerie Fire. His gameplan, however, was all messed up because of the smallest mistake. A misstep in his creep block caused a ranged creep to pass through, messing up the wave. Because of this he was not able to last hit properly, and gave leeway for Paparazi to deny most of his creeps. At the 10 minute mark Paparazi saw that Miracle was low on mana and tried his luck with a Raze. After it landed Miracle was dangerously low and decided to fall back but Paparazi chased after, and sniped Miracle with a Raze. Miracle then called “gg.” The game ended with Paparazi being up in last hits 64-27 and had a whopping 40 denies to Miracle’s 4.

Puck vs Puck

The next round allowed the loser of the previous round to pick which hero both players would use. Miracle went with Puck, with whom he had more experience, having 62 games under his belt versus Paparazi’s 20. Paparazi has a better 50% winrate though, as opposed to Miracle’s 48.39%.

Like Game 1, both competitors went with different starting items. Both had a Null Talisman, and Paparazi this time went with the sustain in the form of Tangoes and Miracle went with the Branches. Game 2 was a bit closer in terms of last hits and denies. With the nature of Puck, a much more mobile hero than SF, the match was more exciting, with more opportunities for outplays and trickeries. First blood came almost 12 minutes in after both players traded autos and spells, and both casting Dream Coil. It was a close fight, but Miracle had more Magic Stick charges and survived the fight.

After the first kill, Miracle shifted to a more aggressive playstyle. At around 17 minutes he chased down Paparazi in hopes of getting the second kill and the win. He ended up dying between Paparazi’s tier one and two towers, but did get a courier snipe before going down.

Paparazi took advantage of the free farm, getting a Veil of Discord, which proved vital in the next fight. Paparazi was able to catch out Miracle with low mana, and Miracle called “gg” even before he went down.

Feature photo credits: Wykrhm Reddy 

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