Table of Contents



Finals Recap

By Vykromond



Recommended Games

By Vykromond



Tongfu Dissected

By k-poptosis



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Liquipedia





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AMD Premier League S1

Recaps

Finals Recap By Vykromond

Recommended Games By Vykromond

(Quarterfinals) Zenith vs RattleSnake - Game 2





(Rd. of 16) Netolic.SG vs Zenith - Game 1



Watch live video from beyondthesummit2 on TwitchTV

(Rd. of 16) Vici Gaming 2 vs Mineski - Game 1





TongFu Dissected By k-poptosis



This is not a boyband - This is not a boyband - TongFu , winners of AMDPL S1.

A Barrage of Artillery

Early Game Pushing

Support Versatility

Writers: Vykromond, k-poptosis

Gfx: Hawaiianpig, riptide

Editors: Firebolt145



A rogues' gallery of top Asian teams and a bevy of up-and-coming contenders made for a handful of close series in the AMDPL playoffs. Teams like Orange, RisingStars, MUFC, and Zenith looked dominant one day and hapless the next, with only 2 of 8 series longer than Best of 1 not ending in sweeps.Nonetheless, a variety of Asian Dota styles were shown off at the tournament. In the end TongFu was the team that looked one notch more invincible than any other , strongly bolstering their claim to the TI3 invite vacated by LGD.CN. Special mention also goes to Zenith and RattleSnake, who played out a game epic enough to stand with any in the last month MUFC tries TFG's Axe once again, with worse results than in the semifinal against Zenith. Xiaotuji's Anti-Mage finds totally uncontested farm and eventually allows RisingStars to coast to a 1-0 lead over MUFC's underleveled heroes.MUFC makes a more concerted effort to deny the Anti-Fun by putting Sven, Lina, and Rubick in an aggressive trilane and supplementing it with teleport assistance from TFG on Nature's Prophet. FzFz has a very quiet game as QOP in mid and Rstars keeps the kills close, but MUFC's deathball push at 25 minutes proves unstoppable.RisingStars drafts an unexpected last-pick Io with only a Juggernaut as far as Relocate buddies go. MUFC surprisingly chooses not to contest the trilane, giving up both Dire bottom towers in 5 minutes while focusing on denying Mofi farm on Lone Druid and leveling up Winter's Sand King to hit a quick Epicenter timing. It's not until the 12.5 minute mark that RStars so much as has Relocate available, and by that point the opportunities for easy pickoffs are slim. Xiaotuji is able to dominate in kills but not get the farm to tip the scales when his entire team melts early in teamfights. Finding a pickoff on Mofi's bear with no resummon available allows MUFC to take the high ground at bottom and close out the series to take 3rd place in the tournament.Zenith earns somewhat of an advantage early in the tri vs tri, securing a first blood with Tinker's Laser on Hao while developing the solo lanes. But trouble begins to arise when Mu's Magnus in middle earns three skillful kills on Yamateh's QOP. Without Yamateh to open up the map Zenith is forced to play much more cagey - reconfirmed by a disastrous teamfight at tier 1 bot - giving Hao time to make up for his early Anti-Mage shortfall. TongFu knows that the opponents can't punish Hao or win a teamfight and so take their time building dream item compositions for their heroes.If Mu's Magnus play in game 1 was impressive, his solo mid Clockwerk in game 2 is nothing short of mind-melting. Bolstered by free farm in the laning stage by being paired against Zenith's surprise xy Phantom Assassin, Mu's reign of terror begins with a swift gank on Bane, followed by a truly insane sequential double kill on PA and Magnus that one must see to believe . Other stuff of note probably happened in this brief game, but all eyes were on Mu as his 13-0-1 Clock prompted a GG at the 17 minute mark by Zenith and a first round ban of Clockwerk in game 3.If they feel pressure with their backs to the wall, Zenith doesn't show it, grabbing a first blood and a three-kill lead before the opening bell. Zenith continues to pressure each lane and the outer towers as xy farms hard for Gyrocopter. Slowly, methodically, TongFu assembles their counterargument, adding BKBs of their own for every BKB Zenith picks up and rushing Hao to the critical level 16 Frost Dragon. Roshan gives TongFu map control, which the team uses to create a ballooning level lead that blows up in Zenith's face in the ensuing fights as xy is no longer far enough ahead. Refresher for Mu seals the deal, and TongFu sweep Zenith to become the Season 1 champions of the AMD Premier League.RattleSnake reprises their solo mid Alchemist from Game 1, while Zenith reaches deep into the bag and pulls out a Tidehunter and Spectre. The game that follows is long, tense, with some passive play, some slaughterfest-style team fights, multiple Refresher Orbs, maxed heroes on both sides duelling, and a surprisingly long defense against mega creeps.To show the newer Singaporean collective who's boss, Zenith deploys a Drow Ranger. A surprisingly tight game with some big swings.A game best described, in stream chat parlance, as "clowny," but an entertaining romp nonetheless. See if you can guess beforehand which hero gets the most kills.TongFu finished the AMDPL undefeated in the eight matches they played in, winning against quality teams such as Zenith, Rising Stars, and MiTH-Trust. Many were surprised by just how dominant TongFu performed, considering the stiff competition. However, if we look at TongFu’s games, there are some things that we can pinpoint that they excelled at. By analyzing these points, we can gain some insight into how they performed as well as they did.Every single draft TongFu participated in saw Clockwerk and Gyrocopter either picked or banned, and for good reason. Across the five games TongFu was able to pick up Rattletrap, the hero averaged a ridiculous KDA of 6.2/1.2/10.2 with an ungodly Assist-to-Death ratio of 8.5. Mu handled the responsibilities of playing Clockwerk most often, but KingJ played him in a match as well, showcasing the hero’s versatility as well as his effectiveness. With regards to Gyrocopter, Tongfu was able to pick him up five times. In four games they placed him in the 1 position with Hao at the helm, where he averaged a KDA of 8.25/1/6.5 and a GPM of 660. Beware of Keenfolk in machinery.A couple of weeks ago, I analyzed the correlation between taking down early towers and winning games in the G-1 Western Qualifiers . There I found that in 78% of games, the team who took down the first tower went on to win the game. Here, despite getting First Blood in only 3 games in the AMDPL, TongFu pushed down the first tower very effectively, doing so in 6 (75%) of their games. By valuing towers and prioritizing killing them, TongFu was able to secure map control and gain Gold and Experience advantages in the early game even when down in kills.Across the tournament, Banana and SanSheng, TongFu’s supports, played nine different heroes. Sansheng actually only played one hero, Shadow Demon, more than once. Besides the usual suspects of Lina, Keeper of the Light, and Bane, TongFu picked up several more niche supports such as Sven, Silencer, and Earthshaker and excelled with them. By showing skill with such a large pool of support heroes, Banana and SanSheng showed they can come out of any draft with confidence.When looking at these numbers, TongFu's dominance of the competition in the AMDPL makes a lot of sense. Their strong play with initiators and carries such as Gyrocopter and Clockwerk, their prioritization of early tower kills to gain a quick farm and experience advantage, as well as the large pool of support heroes they can play effectively has helped them 1-up their adversaries. Moving forward, TongFu will continue to compete in the Dota 2 Super League as well as the Rapture League. They also have the International 3 to look forward to, as they were named the replacement for the automatic invite to Seattle when LGD.cn's lineup change dropped them down to the qualifiers. A lot of tests are coming up for TongFu, and it will be exciting to see if they can continue this success.