Dota League Masters - Grand Final

finally Dota-League Masters concludes successfully with 2 matches played - the Loser bracket final and the Grand Final. SK.Gaming who lost their first match against MYM and knocked into the loser bracket march through the rest of the teams in the loser bracket to book another fateful encounter with MYM, who lost to KS.Int in the winner bracket final.

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Loser Bracket Final, SK.Gaming vs MYM

bans:
SK: SA, Chen, CM, Puck
MYM: Naix, Brood, Spectre, NA

SK Gaming, Sentinel

[earthshaker] SK.KwoM (Top)
[potm] SK.Hailo (Top)
[visage] SK.Loda (Middle)
[lich] SK.Tompa (Bottom)
[Admiral] SK.Snow (Bottom)

MeetYourMakers, Scourge

[sandking] MYM|MN (Top)
[warlock] MYM|PUSHERSTREET (Top)
[krobelus] MYM|Mlk (Middle)
[kotl] MYM|Hanni (Bottom)
[zeus] MYM|PlaymatE (Bottom)

replay download [here]

match comment: looking at the pick sequence, during MYM first 4 picks, I was left wondering what would be their last pick, because they didn't pick any late hero yet (zeus+warlock, kotl+sk as their first 2 picks). And then they last pick Krobelus... to be honest I failed to see this push strat coming because of Earthskater's existence on SK side, but I forgot that MYM push strat is not based on unit numbers.
And MYM carry their pushing strat to perfection. At bottom lane, Zeus with unlimited mana thanks to KotL, keep Lich and Admiral busy to back off due to harassment from Arc Lighning. Maelk did well mid lane too. Overall SK's lack of AOE to fend off MYM push (ES, Admiral and PotM barely able to defend against thousands of nukes coming towards them) decided the game. MYM won the game and went to the Grand Final, where the team that beat them previously, KS. Int waiting.

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DLM Grand Final, KS.Int vs MYM

Map Version: v6.57b
Mode: -CM Captain's Mode
Format: Best of 3

Bans:
KS.Int: Zeus Chen Puck Kotl
MYM: Naix Spectre Meepo Admiral

Kingsurf.International, Sentinel

[tinker] Ks^KuroKy (Top)
[krobelus] Ks^joliE (Middle)
[earthshaker] Ks^Puppey (Middle)
[CM] Ks^Miracle (Bottom)
[NA] Ks^LevenT (Bottom)

MeetYourMakers, Scourge

[SA] MYM|PlaymatE (Top)
[Warlock] MYM|PUSHERSTREET (Top)
[Sandking] MYM|MN (Middle)
[Lina] MYM|Mlk (Middle)
[Brood] MYM|Hanni (Bottom)

replay download: [here]

match comment: KS.Int have 1:0 advantage due to coming from winner bracket, so a win is enough for them to become the champion of DLM.
Smart move by KS.Int to ban KotL, seeing how effectively MYM used him in the LB final against SK. KS.Int use the strat that MYM used to beat SK - pushing with CM as the mana fountain. Seeing Kuroky as Tinker, I can safely say that the game almost certain belong to KS.Int. And he didn't dissappoint as usual, with quick BoT, BKB and Shiva within 25-30 minutes.
Puppey played a roaming ES, helping each lane to get kills. There's some funnily missed fissure from him too :)) Bottom lane, Playmate had a hard time dealing with NA+CM combo, although he eventually still able to farm a BKB. Mid lane, although SK+Lina dual stun combo manage to get First Blood on Jolie's Krobelus, after that they failed to put enough pressure on him. As a result, KS.Int with the help of Krobelus pushing power manage to get all MYM outer tower, while losing only one. The game has been decided since then; outplayed and underfarmed, MYM couldn't hold against the push and lose the game. Well played by KS.Int.
Not the most interesting Grand Final game if I would say, because It is pretty much a one sided game past the laning phase.

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overall tournament impression - Although I am quite happy to see KS.Int won the tournament, I am a little disappointed with that the lack of evenly matched game. In fact, I hardly recall any balanced game where both team fought evenly, except maybe the first game of MYM vs SK. While MYM showed their prowess by beating most of the team in the tournament easily, they still unable to beat KS.Int, and the two matches they had were not even considered as evenly match games, because KS.int outclassed them in every single aspects.

For me, this tournament also showed how strong KS.Int is, even without vigoss. Their level of teamplay is simply far above everyone else. Vigoss never seem to be missed in this tournament, in fact IMO Jolie seems to add more depth to their playstyle.

Nevertheless, congratulations to Kingsurf.International for winning Dota-League Masters Offline Tournament.

links:

www.DotA-League.com - Event Coverage
www.DotA-League.com - Event Bracket
www.DotA-League.com - Event Replays