TNC Predator (Philippines) won the Grand Finals by 2-1 in which 496 Gaming (Vietnam) were almost capable of winning the third game and causing a major upset.

Game 1:

Game 1 Picks and Bans

496 Gaming made no mistakes in the draft while banning all the strong heroes of TNC. TNC went for a full team-fight draft with lots of AOE abilities and a good advantage with the draft in terms of early or late game.

TNC had a good start at the lanes but they lost their advantage during mid-game when they decided to kill Roshan and 496 Gaming had no intention of letting them. TNC’s Enigma didn’t have enough mana to cast a Blackhole and that resulted in a team fight loss that could have been won. Although Vladmir on Enigma is a helpful life-stealing item in team fights, but Soul Ring or Guardian Greeves would have given the required mana and the game would have been different.

Nonetheless, TNC kept on farming efficiently but 496 Gaming ganked very effectively and never allowed TNC to make a big difference. At 39th minute the networth difference was closer to 1000 gold and at 41st minute the game was over after a huge team fight with multiple buybacks by both the teams.





Game 2:

Game 2 Picks and Bans

496 Gaming’s Monkey King was heavily countered by TNC with the help of their three super durable cores: Dragon Knight, Templar Assassin and Abaddon. If that wasn’t enough then KOTL’s blinding light prevented hundred of physical attacks and Mirana’s Moonlight Shadow allowed TNC to escape and reposition themselves. Puck pick by 496 Gaming didn’t work out as much as they wanted and due to that Monkey King at safe lane had a very tough time. Rubick proved to be very useful at keeping his teammates alive during team fights while stealing Abaddon’s spells.

TNC were efficient at stacking camps for Mirana and 496 Gaming didn’t want to allow Templar Assassin to get that many stacks hence they decided to fight under TNC’s top shrine and lost a lot in the early game itself.

TNC’s cores were extremely durable leaving no chance for 496 Gaming to make an impact in the game.

Game 3:

Game 3: Picks and Bans

TNC picked their most comfortable heroes in this draft and 496 Gaming tried to counter it as best as they could. This draft was yet again full of AOE abilities whereas any team could win any team-fight and the game was would be purely dependable on the game-play rather than the draft.

Game 3 was a marvelous game and it looked as if 496 Gaming was team OG. The early game aggression was ruthless and scary in which there were a total of 18 kills at the 14th minute!

The mid-game was so intense and it appeared as if TNC were on the edge to lose the game after losing 2 big team-fights in a couple of minutes. The first big team-fight defeat was when TNC were ganked near their Ancients and decided to fight using Naga Siren’s ultimate to setup but they got destroyed by Sand King’s three-man Burrow Strike and huge AOE damage by 496 Gaming.

Just after a couple of minutes 496 Gaming ganked at the same area and destroyed TNC. Although this time Naga’s ultimate was used to escape, but 496 Gaming had good chasing abilities to prevent an escape.

A huge blunder on top of a small blunder caused 496 Gaming to lose the entire game when they decided to prevent TNC from killing Roshan. Ember Spirit was dead and 496 Gaming thought TNC would back off even though they were only four but the Gyrocopter went so far ahead that TNC were comfortable enough to kill him within just a few seconds which in turn allowed TNC to get the Aegis. This advantage could have been fought back later on but Gyrocopter bought back and 496 Gaming decided to take a team-fight while TNC had all the buybacks and Aegis. TNC destroyed them in the final fight and ended the game soon after.

Watch the Highlights of all three games here:

A tip for young players:

Never rush and gamble by a huge margin when you still have a good farm and good late game heroes. If 496 Gaming had some patience then they would have surely created a better chance to win the game.