Going in to the tournament we were quietly confident of upsetting some of the stronger teams. In the weeks prior, we had great success in scrims against a variety of opponents and placed top 4 in the ESL One Aegis Challenge, which was filled with teams who, on paper, were much stronger than us.

We knew that epicLAN would not have as strong teams as that tournament, yet it was the most competitive epicLAN that there perhaps has ever been. Senses with iSeries-winners Rime and Kundral, Choke picking up an EU stack who practiced hard and were difficulty to play against, Anime looking to continue their dominance of epicLAN, and you can never rule out Dreadstack with Gronors causing an upset.

We were seeded 4th, and 4th was the bare minimum we would accept going in to the tournament. Any less would be a failure like our last outing at iSeries last December, but we were confident that at as long as we drafted well we could take anybody down.

The group stage was generally kind to us, with the strongest teams being Ionic and Choke. Avoiding Senses and the under-seeded Anime was certainly something to be thankful for. We managed to dispatch Ionic with little fuss, which was reassuring considering they could have been a stumbling block for us, and our final game was a bo1 against Choke. Unfortunately for us, Choke played an excellent game and got very comfortable picks from their draft and ultimately we could not get going in the game. Though we played well, inevitably we lost the bo1 and finished 2nd in the group.

Our first upper bracket match was against Dreadstack, who we have actually never beaten in a competitive setting since first playing over 12 months ago. It's very strange to have gone so long without playing and the teams have both come a long way in the meantime, so it was nice to get a chance to play them, especially considering their star player Gronors was responsible to setting us on the path to elimination at our last LAN event when he was playing with a different team. Thankfully this time, after a long well-fought game we managed to pull through. It was actually a very interesting game with our team stacking a lot of magic damage, winning the early game, but then having a tough midgame when Dreadstack hit BKB timings giving them periodic magic immunity. We managed to play around them well enough to take it late, and sealed the win late on.

The next series however would be the standout for the tournament from a spectator's point of view, with a bo3 against Anime. We convincingly took the first game with an aggressive strategy, before having two long and well-fought games each being an hour long. Unfortunately we didn't manage to take either of those two games to win the series, but our efforts were not unnoticed and we received plaudits for our plays and approach.

At this stage of the tournament it is especially important to consider the picks and bans of the draft. Anime learned quickly to ban Death Prophet, a hero which our mid player Rothwell was bossing games with. Our first lower-bracket opponents (Ionic) also decided to ban Death Prophet (though they got beat by it in the group stages so learned the hard way then), but ultimately we were too strong for them. However, team Senses, led by Rime, let Death Prophet through and allowed us to pick it. An unconventional Earth Shaker offlane for SweetNothing worked out exceptionally well for us, and with Magic Turtle giving us the confidence boost we needed, Senses were taken down in fairly convincing fashion. It was a huge relief to get through the lower bracket bo1s relatively unscathed, and top 3 was guaranteed.

We wanted another chance to beat Choke and Anime, and with Anime beating Choke in the upper bracket we had to play Choke in the lower bracket final, a bo3. Having reviewed our lost game against them earlier, we knew their style much better and worked out a draft which took game one in convincing fashion. However, game two we did not respect another comfort pick for their mid player, Rabbit, who when isn't playing Timbersaw, loves taking Juggernaut. Similar to the groups, we found ourselves struggling to assert dominance and despite our best efforts, could not swing the tides of the game. Demotivated by the loss, we had to pick ourselves back up and simply ban Timbersaw and Juggernaut in the first ban phase to throw Choke out of their comfort zone, and in the end we did not encounter any more real troubles and took the series. It goes to show that you must respect your opponents and adapt throughout the tournament.

The grand final against Anime started off with a very strong game one from ourselves, where we raced in to a commanding lead, but completely ruined the final killing blow against their lineup. We have replayed the moment in our head so many times, but ultimately you cannot change the past and undo your throws. From a default 1-0 lead they went 2-0 up, and in the final closing game we drafted too safely and went out with a whimper. Still, throughout the tournament we were the only team to take a game off of the eventual winners, so 2nd place is well-deserved and Anime were the strongest team overall and are fully deserving of their win. They told us we were the only team to really challenge them, so after all of our work in recent months, it was really great to end on such a high note. The win wasn't to be, but we are very pleased nonetheless.

Now the scene will inevitably reshuffle. We have been fortunate to have kept the same core of the team for a long amount of time, and this result justifies us staying together. However, with personal commitments for some of the team, changes are inevitable and we do not know how Devine Dota 2 will look in the future. One thing's for certain though - no one will write us off any more.