Mineski became the first team from SEA to claim a Dota 2 Major when they defeated LGD Gaming 3-2 in the Grand finals of the Dota 2 Asia Championships 2018 held in Shanghai. Two very unexpected finalists, Mineski and LGD uprooted a lot of powerhouses in their road to the grand finals. As it stands now, Mineski are 4th in the rankings with 3150 points while LGD are 7th with 1821 points.

Coming to the final between these two behemoths, it was a 5 game affair which went all the way and produced some top quality Dota. A sort of internal meta was created between these two teams and along with their coaches, the two tried to outsmart each other in the drafting phases of the game. Let us try to decipher what went on in their minds during those tense moments!

Stats before the Grand Final

Total heroes picked in the tournament: 92

Most played heroes: Sand King (47 games, win rate 48.94 %), Gyrocopter (45 games, win rate 44.44 %), Tusk (39 games, win rate 38.46 %)

Mineski

Total games played at DAC 2018: 14

Games won: 12

Win rate: 85.71 %

Heroes played: 32

Most played heroes: Gyrocopter, Dragon Knight, Vengeful Spirit (5 games), Death Prophet, Rubik, Outworld Devourer, Disruptor (4 games)

LGD Gaming

Total games played at DAC 2018: 21

Games won: 13

Win rate: 61.90 %

Heroes played: 42

Most played heroes: Disruptor (9 games, win rate 66.67 %), Tusk (7 games, win rate 57.14 %), Beastmaster (6 games, win rate 66.67 %)

Game 1

First Phase:

Both teams started off the DAC 2018 Grand finals by banning out successful opposition heroes. Beastmaster was a mainstay for Chalice in the tournament. Terrorblade is currently the best carry in Dota 2 and Underlord is a hero who had a lot of success at DAC as well. LGD showed that against Virtus Pro in game three of the lower bracket finals and Mineski, quite rightly, took it out. LGD, on the other hand, banned Nature’s Prophet, with whom Mineski won 3 out of 3 games before the Grand finals. Nyx had the exact same stats for Mineski and it counters the Death Prophet, which is a meta hero and Leshrac, a hero LFG like to put Maybe on. Omni was taken out for the sheer quality of the hero. 20 games, 12 wins (60 % win rate) before the final contest made it a ban worthy hero.

Mineski had first pick and opened with DP. LGD replied with what Kyle ‘melonzz’ Freedman (former Complexity Gaming captain) believes is currently the strongest opening in Dota 2 – Tiny and AA. AA is a classic DP counter as Ice Blast makes Spirit Siphon completely useless. Tiny provides burst damage, which is the best way to take out a DP who has already used Exorcism. Mineski picked up the Pangolier for iceiceice, a hero not many teams play or have even fully understood, but one that Mineski are comfortable with. They showed against Team Secret in the group stages what they could do with it. LGD maybe let it through thinking they could beat it and once they did, Mineski would not experiment it with it again.

Second Phase:

In the second phase, Mineski targeted Ame’s heroes – Faceless Void and Monkey King. Some good Chronosperes from Ame secured the win against Virtus Pro. LGD banned out the Outworld Devourer, which is a menace for Tiny to deal with in the mid lane, not to mention the fact Mineski had won all games with him till then (4 out of 4). The Earth Spirit ban was a respect ban against Jabz, who made life difficult for them in the upper bracket finals with ES. Additionally, when a melee hero like Tiny is going mid, it makes the mid player more susceptible to ganks for an Earth Spirit.

LGD picked up the Slardar for fy. Corrosive Haze goes through Pangolier’s Rolling Thunder, making it possible to kill him while he rolls. Mineski picked up the oracle, which is good against AA. When False Promised, a heroes HP does not go down even when hit by Ice Blast. Unless the hero is below the threshold limit, Oracle can pull off the save. LGD followed that up with a Phantom Assasin! PA works great with Slardar. As the Corrosive Haze armor reduction allows PA to forgo the Desolator. And again, a physical damage hero to deal with Pango. Mineski’s fourth pick was the Dark Willow, which does have a bit of Synergy with Oracle as both heroes have roots. But picking a Dark Willow in Slardar, who has an AoE stun to deal with her in Shadow Realm, was a bit of a questionable decision.

Third Phase:

The Clockewerk ban from Mineski was perhaps to prevent a Pangolier counter. If while using Rolling Thunder, Pango gets trapped in the Cogs, that’s the end of the fight for him. He will keep bouncing in the cogs, unable to stun anyone else. Reminiscing the first game of the upper bracket, LGD banned out the Huskar as Oracle had already been picked by Mineski.

Mineski rounded up their draft with a Vengeful Spirit, a hero they run core quite often with Mushi playing it. Swap provides a good save for the False Promised target. Another reason might have been that Pangolier takes up quite a bit of farm and they did not want to pick up another farm intensive core. LGD last picked the Venomancer, a hero that has been revived by Team Liquid. Veno and AA work great in combination with each other. If a hero gets hit with Poison Nova and Ice Blast, there’s a good chance he’s going down. Additionally, the magic damage gets amplified with AA’s Ice Vortex.

Game 2

First Phase:

The first phase bans were pretty much the same. OD replaced the Underlord.

LGD had first pick in game 2. With the Underlord still in the pool, LGD picked him up for Chalice. Mineski retorted with LGD’s opening from game 1 – Tiny and AA. LGD picked up the Disruptor, who was surprisingly ignored in game 1. There is a bit of combo potential here with Pit of Malice providing a setup for Static Storm into Kinetic Field. Another major advantage of Underlord is he opens up Roshan early for the team. As Firestorm is percentage based damage, Rosh goes down quite fast.

Second Phase:

Standard bans coming out from both teams the second phase. Tidehunter was banned out for a potential Ravage into Ice Blast combo. Tide is also a natural Pipe builder, which mitigates a lot of Underlord’s damage.

Mineski picked up Naga Siren, which signaled the will to team fight. LGD went for Maybe’s Shadow Fiend. SF and Underlord can massively reduce enemy damage with the Requiem and Atrophy Aura. You can BKB and fight, but you won’t be damaging anything! Gyro was picked up for Mushi which synergizes well with the Naga for fighting as five. LGD went for the fy Tusk, which provides good saves against Gyro as well as the Naga sleep. And with a player like fy on it, you can bet the save will take place!

Third Phase:

Lifestealer was banned out by Mineski. LS is a good counter to Tiny, unaffected by Avalanche or Toss in Rage and can chomp down strength heroes like the stone giant. LGD took out the Enigma, for making sure they did not get nightmares of Song of the Siren into multiple hero Blackholes.

Troll was the call for Ame, who’s natural BKB builder (which was necessary against this Mineski lineup). Beserker’s Rage also facilitates SF’s right clicks. Mineski surprised everyone with the last pick Magnus for icex3. Magnus not only provides a disable going through magic immunity, Empower is a good way to farm as well as make up for the damage lost due to Atrophy Aura and Requiem of Souls.

Game 3

First Phase:

Similar bans came out at the start of game 3. LGD had the first pick so Mineski banned out the Tiny. The stone giant dominated both games 1 and 2 (one for either side) and Mineski did not want to make it a hattrick. But that meant Terrorblade would be getting through for the first time!

LGD first picked the TB, which shows how good this hero is at the moment. Mineski retaliated with AA and DK, although AA isn’t the best pick against TB. Even when hit by Ice Blast, Sunder works normally. LGD got the Veno for the offlane.

Second Phase:

Mineski banned the Leshrac. Combination of Leshrac and Venomancer is devastating amounts of magic damage. An important ban LGD made was Timbersaw, a hero who’s good against TB and Veno. It’s not every day you pick two cores in the first phase, so it is important to protect them.

Mineski got their hands on the Earthshaker, which was probably not the best pick considering Veno had been pick. In retrospect, it could have been a block pick to secure the Brood’s game. Veno usually spams wards around the area a team fight might occur and one hit disables the Blink Dagger. Without a Blink Dagger, Earthshaker might as well not play. LGD went with Vengie and Kunka, which at the time could have looked as supports. Winter on the English panel at DAC predicted it could be a good Brood game for Mineski, and reading into that, LGD probably went for the Kunka which later turned out to be a core. Gyro worked well for Mineski in game 2 and they saw it fit to get it here as well.

Third Phase:

The Sand King ban from Mineski was suggestive that they were going for the last pick Brood. SK has a lot of AoE which can easily get rid of the spiders. LGD took out the Pango. There is a possibility they knew about the incoming Brood pick and actually wanted Mineski to go for it.

LGD’s Clock pick made it clear that the Kunka would be a mid Kunkka. Clockwerk’s cogs can be a great setup for the Torrent and Ghost Ship. Even though Mineski now knew it would be a core Kunka going mid, they decided to got with the Brood pick.

Game 4

First Phase:

Having lost to the TB and Veno, Mineski banned them out, which means Tiny went through. That’s the advantage of having first pick, you always get the most sought after pick that remains.

LGD got the Tiny and Mineski went for the Naga Siren and DK. There is a reason Naga is picked up a lot and it’s not just the Song of the Siren. Ensnare is a 5 second root that goes through magic immunity and has a 12 second cooldown. A lot of value right there! AA was the choice of hero for xNova and LGD again, got the best sort of opening according to Kyle.

Second Phase:

In game 2, Moon’s Tiny snowballed with a decent amount of help from the Empower. Magnus ban ensured that would not happen and an OD ban would ensure a good lane for the Tiny at mid. Mineski took out the Clockwerk. Not only had they just lost to the hero in game 3, but Clockwerk and AA make a lethal duo which can kill off cores as well. Once Clock gets a Blademail (or even without a Blademail), a Hookshot into Cogs with Battery Assault running always gets the kill with a follow up Ice Blast. Void is a comfort pick for Ame and provides a sure fire Ice Blast target with the Chrono, which made sense in banning him.

Disruptor – Naga, the combo that brought Naga Siren into the meta, came to the fore in Mineski’s draft. LGD responded with a Tide. Tide is a good frontliner and builder sustain inventories like Pipe and Guardian Greaves. Another thought could be if everyone is grouped together in Naga’s sleep, Tidehunter can Ravage right after the sleep ends and buy some time for the team to take the necessary actions. Mienski brought back the Pango for game 4, a must win game for them. Naga Siren is Pango’s biggest counter as an Ensnare while Rolling Thunder is active signals the end of most of Pango’s effectiveness. With Naga already picked up, Mineski saw it safe to get the hero. LGD reacted a bit rashly, getting the PA which had worked against the Pangolier in game 1. Only this time, they did not have the Slardar for the armor reduction.

Third Phase:

Mineski realized immediately what LGD were thinking off and took the Slardar out of the pool. LGD responded with a Vengie ban, although it’s hard to pinpoint the reason behind it.

Rubik saw the first appearance in the Grand finals in the final pick phase of game 4. Ensnare, Song of the Siren, Glimpse, Static Storm coupled with fy playing it made the Rubik a decent choice here. Rubik, AA and PA also constitute a strong trilane which secures PA’s farm offers kill potential as well. Cold Feet into Telekinesis is a guaranteed stun. Mineski, like the Magnus pick in game 2, went for a hero no one could have easily predicted in the form of Luna. Luna – DK make a formidable pushing force and Naga’s sleep gives the Luna enough time to position herself for a good Eclipse. It could also be on the lines of a comfort pick for Mushi.

Game 5

First Phase:

Final game of the best of 5! Mineski stuck to their bans but LGD brought in Tiny into the bans with Underlord making it through.

The SEA team surprised the Chinese a bit by neglecting Underlord completely and made a go for the Naga Siren and Disruptor, which had won them game 4. LGD brought out the big guns with fy’s Tusk and Maybe’s Leshrac. Two reasons why the Leshrac was good here: The Nyx was banned out in phase one, which is a major counter to Leshrac and Tusk and Lesh are a great combo. Diabolic Edict and Supernova continue to pump out the damage when Tusk takes Leshrac into a Snowball. A defensive Snowball can turn offensive very quickly!

Second Phase:

Mineski, like they had done throughout the series, made sure Ame didn’t get his hands on to Void or MK. The Chrono is a great setup for Leshrac’s spells and that was the combo that won LGD the final game against Virtus Pro. LGD realized iceiceice Pango was not to be messed with in the final game and got rid of it along with the OD. A not on the OD here: the hero got banned in literally every game of the Grand finals. Understandable when Tiny is planning to go mid, but even when Tiny was banned, OD did not make it though. Shows how highly the two teams rate the hero.

LGD got their hands on the Underlord, who surprisingly made it through two ban phases. Mineski got the DP for Moon which was answered by the Lion. Finger’s burst potential is a good counter to the DP. Mineski finally revealed why they kept ignoring the Underlord: they had their eyes on the Magnus! Magnus doesn’t offer anything to the Death Prophet, but Mineski still had the position pick to go. The Empower, as mentioned earlier, is a good way to balance the scales against Atrophy Aura.

Third Phase:

LGD feared an Empowered PA hacking them down and banned her. Mineski followed up with a CK ban, which is not something I could comprehend. They did have the RP to counter the hero, but maybe it was for DP. With 4-5 CKs in the midst, the Exorcism damage does not harm CK too much and he can get rid of the DP with a Reality Rift into multiple horsemen.

Final pick. The pick that would make or break the game! Mineski decided Lifestealer was that pick for them. Lifestealer is good against this lineup for multiple reasons. It is one of the heroes that really benefit from Empower. Feast is a great tool for killing off strength heroes like Tusk and Underlord. And most importantly, Leshrac is rendered completely ineffective during the time Rage is active. This time, it was LGD’s turn to go the surprise route. Anti Mage! The hero is good against Lifestealer, just as most agility carries are. AM can blink out when Open Wounds is cast on him. But LGD did not take a couple of things into consideration. Usually, AM outfarms a Lifestealer. But with the Empower, LS can stand toe to toe in farm with AM. Also, Mineski’s lineup had two silences: DP’s silence and Disruptor’s Static Storm. So even though they were looking at the Lifestealer, maybe they should have taken into account other disables to AM.

Feature image credit: Perfect World