ESWC Day 3: DotA Grand Final

Here is it. After 2 days of what said to be a very competitive tournament so far, ESWC has finally reach its final day with the Grand Final match for DotA division, between Malaysian team Kingsurf and Singaporean team Zenith. This is definitely the moment awaited by many dota fans, especially the fans of these two team (like myself). Too bad the match started around this morning so I couldn't follow the match update live, considering I have classes started at 9 am.

coverage: ESWC at myMYM

Nevertheless, before that, the consolation match for 3rd and 4th place between MYM and EG took place before the main event.

Teams Meet Your Makers and Evil Geniuses will be squaring off in what promises to be an interesting clash that both teams should be looking forward to. In their last match at ESWC Masters, EG emerged victorious with a 1-0 victory, and this tournament although they eventually lost to KS in the semi-finals, they managed a 4-1 group stage record, including toppling SK-Gaming. MYM shared the same record exiting GS2, showing teams that its lineup had potential and that Merlini and Fear were more than prepared to demonstrate their reborn prowess to the world. With a lot of pride and 3rd place on the line, both teams should give us an excellent match.

Consolation Prize: MYM (Denmark) vs EG (USA)

Meet Your Makers, Sentinel
[terrorblade] MYMFear (Top/Middle)
[spectre] MYMMaNia- (Middle/Top)
[thd] MYMPusHer (Middle/Top)
[chen] MYMMaelk (Jungle)
[qop] MYMMerlini (Bottom)

Evil Geniuses, Scourge
[necrolyte] EG.King (Top)
[lion] EG.HiT0Mi (Middle)
[leoric] EG.Remstar (Middle)
[lich] EG.Whisper (Bottom)
[puck] EG.DOGKaiser (Bottom)

[end game screenshot]

looking at the lineup, one might be impressed with the approach MYM tries to take - 2 heavy carry heroes supported by chen, qop and thd. Or specifically, spectre as late game hero, while terrorblade as backup for late game, but also as a convenient pusher. Anyway, the match is spectacular as usual, with EG seems to have the upper hand at first but somehow MYM manage to keep up with their opponent and eventually win the game. Merlini touch as QoP seems a bit rusty, it seems like he doesn't quite perform at his best standard.
With that, MYM win the 3rd place of the first ever DotA division in ESWC, with EG placed 4th. Next, the Grand Final, just a few hours after EG-MYM match.

....................................

Then, 2 hours that, we will have the long-awaited Asian team clash of Kingsurf and Zenith. Both teams have proved that they belong in the stage of world-class in DotA, and it is likely that many players and fans have been surprised about how successful they can be. The teams have clashed in EVO, ADC and are longtime rivals. It is likely that this match will have enormous viewership and following and should be quite idealistic in both a competitive DotA (for the players and fans) and a commercial sense (for the sponsors). The prize money is impressive, but it likely has become secondary in the eyes of these two teams. Get ready for an impressive and unforgettable finals.

ESWC Grand Final: Kingsurf (Malaysia) vs Zenith (Singapore)

Kingsurf, Sentinel
[warlock] Ks ` xaOmA (Top)
[qop] Ks ` papaxiong (Middle)
[terrorblade] Ks ` xiaogui (Jungle)
[thd] Ks ` SakuRa (Bottom)
[weaver] Ks ` YamateH (Bottom)

Zenith, Scourge
[necrolyte] ZENITH MUJI RSC (Top)
[beastmaster] ZENITH MAG3 RSC (Jungle)
[luna] ZENITH KING RSC (Middle)
[puck] ZENITH HYHY RSC (Bottom)
[lion] ZENITH TOFU RSC (Bottom)

[end game screenshot]

the anticipated final match turned out not to be that spectacular. At least many think so. With the picks of BM and Weaver, we can somehow predict what would be the outcome - map control war. Zenith started the match with massive wards across the map, countered partially by KS wards. It was until around 20 minutes when BM bought a gem and wiped out all KS wards/watchers that the match turned into an unlikely direction - a farmfest. 30 minutes into the game, there's so little kill counts from both side, although KS did a better job, killing more than their opponent. And the match is pretty much even out until at one point when zenith pushed mid to the base, and KS did some crucial mistakes that cost them both mid and top rax. KS however still manage to hold the game for more than 20 minutes, defending the base before they were finally unable to defend the bottom rax. mega creep. gg. With that, Zenith won the match and become the first ever champion of ESWC DotA. That's quite an accomplishment.
Anyway although the final match isn't that interesting with all those ricing fest, there's still some interesting highlights:
-Luna Moonfang, using her dominated creep, did an Ancient pulling at scourge side starting around 25th minute, stacking Ancients after Ancients and around 36th minute, started killing all those MASSIVE stack of Ancients. That easily gave her close to 1500 gold.
-Around 65th minute, Yamateh' Weaver ran away from Necrolyte' Death Pulse with ~150 hp, running half a map before safely reach the base. That Pulse definitely would have killed him if he failed to flee from the chase :3

Overall ESWC has been one of the better tournament, offering manyexciting matches for dota fan. The level of play were indeed top notch with various strategy demosntrated by the participated teams, although some matches did turn into farmfest (*coughfinalcough*).