Filipinos fight for their lives in ESL Manila

Coverage by eSports by INQUIRER.net team

Game One: Untranslated Aggression

Drafts:

Mineski.Sports 5 – Queen of Pain, Phantom Lancer, Night Stalker, Witch Doctor, Nature’s Prophet

compLexity Gaming – Invoker, Doom, Slardar, Lich, Axe

Coming into the first elimination match of the day, both Filipino team Mineski.Sports 5 and American team complexity gaming picked unusual heroes for their lineups in the first game of the best-of-three series.

The Filipinos opted for an aggressive lineup banking on Queen of Pain, Nature’s Prophet and Queen of Pain, sending a mid-lane Phantom Lancer against an Invoker. Meanwhile, the American squad went for a clash-oriented lineup with Invoker, Doom, Slardar and a surprise last pick of Axe.

The Filipinos dictated the tempo early in the game after a series of kills on CoL.Swindlezzz’s Slardar in bottom lane. At the seven-minute mark Slardar died for the second time to a well-executed sprout-stun-maledict combination of Mineski.JessieVash.Sports5’s Witch Doctor and Mineski.Bokerino.Sports5’s Nature’s Prophet.

At the eight-minute mark Mineski turns around a clash after CoL’s Doom failed to have a solo kill on Witch Doctor in the radiant side of the bottom lane. Mineski calls in their back-ups killing Doom in the retreat but CoL retaliates. The Americans killed Nature’s Prophet, then catches Mineski.ragingpotato.Sports5’s Queen of Pain in retreat.  CoL denies their Axe while backing home.

Kill score sits at 9-5 in favor of the Filipinos. A three-minute ceasefire between the two teams followed.

At the 11-minute mark, another failed initiation from Doom costed the American squad four heroes in exchange of picking only one from Mineski. Mineski retaliated the initiation with right positioning and proper skill disposals – kill score at 13-6.

From this point forward Mineski found pick-offs after pick-offs all over the map, thanks to well-coordinated ganks from Nature’s Prophet and Night Stalker. The series of pick-offs forced coL to play defensively, trying to evade every possible gank from hereon.

20 minutes into the game, Mineski posed a 21-11 kill lead score with two of their heroes topping the net chart – Phantom Lancer with 8,300 net and Nature’s Prophet with 8,000. Doom trailed by 700 at third spot with 7,300 net worth.

The real problem started to be evident at this point in time. Mineski isn’t translating their kills into objectives. The Filipinos only took down their first tier1 tower of the game at the 13-minute mark, given the presence and lead that they have on their pushing hero – Nature’s Prophet.

The American squad succeeded in stalling the game. At the 23-minute mark, a clash sparked in the middle lane after an initiation from Witch Doctor. However, the Americans had a quick response turning around the clash ending in an exchange favoring them. The kill score now sits at 22-14.

At this point, the Americans started to find their footing back into the game. They utilized their smoke of deceits and looked for quick pick-offs across the map. They found the right opening at the 26-minute mark after Doom initiated an ultimate on Nature’s Prophet in the top lane. Mineski responded, however, it was coL who had the upper-hand of the clash with their Axe securing a double-dunk kill. The Americans trimmed the kill score down to 24-17.

At the 34-minute mark, coL secured their second Roshan kill of the game. They smoked up. The American squad split into two groups invading the Radiant jungle. They found nothing. Ten seconds left into their smoke, coL went to the ancient radiant spot. They found a Nature’s Prophet situated at the cliff ward spot in the ancient radiant spot – 24-9 kill score.

The Americans held their first net worth lead of the game with 3,000 at the 35-minute mark.

At this point, coL had the control of the mid-game. They found series of pick-offs across the map including a crucial one on a retreating Nature’s Prophet at the 43-minute mark, eventually tying the kill score of the game for the first time at 29-all.

The American squad started to force the issue in the middle lane after taking down the tier3 tower and clearing their first set of barracks. Seconds after, they rotated into bottom lane taking down the tier3 tower.

The final clash of the game happened 47 minutes in the game with an initiation from Axe. Axe berserker’s called Phantom Lancer and Nature’s Prophet at the right side of the top lane melee barracks, setting up what would be the finishing touches of the game for their victory.

The Americans held the lead in kills for the first time in the game 33-29. They cleaned the last standing set of barracks in the bottom lane, forcing the Filipinos to tap out of the game at the 48-minute mark.

According to sources close to the Filipino team, Mineski didn’t have a proper practice in the previous days coming into this elimination day.

Game Two: Fighting Back

Drafts:

Mineski.Sports 5 – Puck, Alchemist, Vengeful Spirit, Witch Doctor, Nature’s Prophet

compLexity Gaming – Invoker, Phantom Lancer, Tusk, Batrider, Chen

With only one game away from being eliminated from the tournament, the Filipinos went for an aggressive lineup that involves heavy initiation as well as stuns on their heroes. Meanwhile, compLexity goes for a teamfight-based lineup that can transition into a push.

Mineski immediately got a kill on Batrider before the game started after they went for a five-man smoke gank into the Dire jungle.

The Americans focused on shutting down Puck as they repeatedly ganked him in the bottom lane, killing him multiple times as they tried to delay his Blink Dagger. However, the Alchemist was having the time of his life farming in the midlane, getting an Armlet at the 9-minute mark.

By the 10th minute, coL go for Rosh in order to dictate the tempo of the game. A minute later, both teams take their first towers, indicating that it was going to be a fast-paced game from that point on.

At 11 minutes into the game, the Americans take three towers and were threatening to end the game quickly before the Alchemist gets his items.

Five minutes later, coL gets a 3,000 gold advantage but on the other hand, Mineski’s Alchemist is now online with his items and from that point onward, fights went back-and-forth as both teams went for relentless aggression all over the map.

The breaking point of the game came at the 25th-minute mark when Mineski gets Roshan after compLexity fails to finish their attempt. Mineski translets this into a series of teamfights that sees them barrel down the middle lane and get their first set of barracks by the 27th.

Two minutes later, Mineski wins another huge teamfight at the top lane in order to get their second set of barracks.

By the 33rd-minute mark, compLexity tapped out of the game as the series went for a third game and a final chance for Mineski to continue their ESL One journey.

Game Three: The End

Drafts:

Mineski.Sports 5 –

compLexity Gaming – Tiny, Io

With momentum on their side after their comeback on game 2, Mineski opted to go for a lineup that will allow them to dominate their lanes, while compLexity picked their bread-and-butter pair in the form of Tiny and Io, along with a superior teamfight cast in the form of Mirana, Outworld Destroyer and Beastmaster.

Three minutes into the game, Mineski gets the first blood as they gank on the bottom lane, gaining Beastmaster’s head.  Both teams gained pickoffs until the 10th-minute mark when Io became level 6 and got his Relocate.

Afterwards, it was just a bloodbath for the Americans as they picked kills all over the place while at the same time foiling Mineski’s gank attempts.

At 14 minutes, Tiny got a Godlike Streak and the Americans continued rampaging all over the map.

Mineski tried their utmost best to stay in the game, but the pressure mounted by the North American team was just too hot for them to handle.

With these results, Mineski goes home with $12,500 after finishing joint 7th-8th place in the tournament, while compLexity goes on to face Wings Gaming in the decider match for Group A.

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