GEST Challenge 2012 Recap December 14th, 2012 06:43 GMT Text by riptide Graphics by shiroiusagi

GEST Challenge 2012 Recap Table of Contents



Civil War

LGD.cn vs LGD.int BRs





BuLba Says

Luna and Nyx Are Coming





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GEST Challenge 2012 Recap

The



In the end, however, it was one team that truly stood out - LGD. Fielding both its Chinese and International lineups in the tournament, the Dota giant did extremely well on both fronts, and it was eventually the two LGD squads that made it to the end, in the process transforming the Grand Finals into a home and home battle.



LGD.cn and LGD.int produced four great games there, and



We hope you enjoy the post!

The Gigabyte E-Sports Tournament (GEST) Challenge was played out last week, and some of Asian Dota's best took part in it. While the likes of Orange didn't perform as expected, MUFC did quite well for themselves to end up in third place.In the end, however, it was one team that truly stood out - LGD. Fielding both its Chinese and International lineups in the tournament, the Dota giant did extremely well on both fronts, and it was eventually the two LGD squads that made it to the end, in the process transforming the Grand Finals into a home and home battle.LGD.cn and LGD.int produced four great games there, and shostakovich and scintilliaSD have gone and written up Battle Reports on all of them . Though these are certainly the focus of this news post, we are also proud to debut a new TL Dota 2 feature in BuLba Says , a Q&A column by our very own Liquid`BuLba.We hope you enjoy the post!



Civil War By shostakovich and scintilliaSD



Though they are essentially the same team, there was nothing friendly about these finals.

While it's not everyday that you get to see some of the best players from both the East and the West play together on the same team, it's even rarer to see them go head to head against each other at a LAN finals. But that's exactly what happened last week at the LGD teamhouse. Separated by a chalkboard and a bonsai plant, LGD.cn and LGD.int went to war.





This is war.



Game 2

+ Show Spoiler +



LGD.cn:



LGD.int:



Just in the beginning, Yao manages to lock Lone Druid's bear in the hills with telekinesis, leaving Lone Druid weaker on his lane for some minutes, but LGD don't profit from it. Rubick goes for the mid pulls and by the time he moves to the top lane, Lone Druid is in position to completely dominate the lane by zoning him out with the bear. At the same time, an aggressive trilane on bottom gives LGD.int the first blood. LGD evens the bottom lane by burning mana and zoning out LGD.int's squad with illuminate, but Luna ends dying one more time.



With Night Stalker joining the ganks, suddenly LGD doesn't have enough damage to win fights. They need all their spells to take down Night Stalker, trading a kill on him for Luna and Clockwerk. More fights erupt on the bottom lane: LGD loses the two supports and Dark Seer, while Luna dies once more. Lone Druid never joined the fight: instead, he's still farming and taking down towers.



Rubick is getting destroyed on the top lane.



On the 11:10 mark, LGD.int's tankiness manifests again when LGD tries to gank Lone Druid but don't have enough damage to bring him down, allowing LGD.int enough time to successfully countergank. LGD.int is ahead on gold and experience and they make use of this advantage by forcing a big exchange on the bottom lane, losing Night Stalker and Dazzle, but wiping LGD from the map and getting a tower.



LGD tries to get back in the game with ganks. They gank Night Stalker on the top lane, and then, with a smoke gang, find Dazzle alone in the woods. But LGD.int continues to gain terrain and claim towers. After mis-initiating a fight on the middle lane, LGD is punished with losing Rubick and Clockwerk, while LGD.int loses only Dark Seer. This opens space for LGD.int to kill Roshan and claim the Aegis. Another mistake gets LGD in a really bad position: Nyx Assassin tries to get himself in a good position with Vendetta, but gets caught as LGD.int had the area covered with sentry wards. The fight escalates quickly and LGD is wiped once again, but are able to hold their base with buybacks. The Chinese manage to gain some space and claim some towers, and the game enters in a farming period. LGD.int's lead is bigger than before, but they act carefully to not lose it.



LGD.int starts sieging LGD's top lane. After a very messy fight, LGD loses Luna, the tower and the barracks, leading Director8 to call the GG. LGD builds their lineup around LGD.int's carry of choice, Luna, and LGD.int goes for a combination of Night Stalker and Dark Seer. Because Luna is fragile and depends a lot on her movespeed and ability to zone out heroes with lucent beam, LGD is in trouble by having to deal with very mobile and tanky heroes. At the same time, except for Clockwerk, LGD squad is very fragile, while LGD.int is a very durable squad. The Dazzle pick makes LGD.int squad even more durable and makes LGD even more fragile. LGD is heavily dependant on setting Luna up for war.LGD.cn: LGD.int: Just in the beginning, Yao manages to lock Lone Druid's bear in the hills with telekinesis, leaving Lone Druid weaker on his lane for some minutes, but LGD don't profit from it. Rubick goes for the mid pulls and by the time he moves to the top lane, Lone Druid is in position to completely dominate the lane by zoning him out with the bear. At the same time, an aggressive trilane on bottom gives LGD.int the first blood. LGD evens the bottom lane by burning mana and zoning out LGD.int's squad with illuminate, but Luna ends dying one more time.With Night Stalker joining the ganks, suddenly LGD doesn't have enough damage to win fights. They need all their spells to take down Night Stalker, trading a kill on him for Luna and Clockwerk. More fights erupt on the bottom lane: LGD loses the two supports and Dark Seer, while Luna dies once more. Lone Druid never joined the fight: instead, he's still farming and taking down towers.On the 11:10 mark, LGD.int's tankiness manifests again when LGD tries to gank Lone Druid but don't have enough damage to bring him down, allowing LGD.int enough time to successfully countergank. LGD.int is ahead on gold and experience and they make use of this advantage by forcing a big exchange on the bottom lane, losing Night Stalker and Dazzle, but wiping LGD from the map and getting a tower.LGD tries to get back in the game with ganks. They gank Night Stalker on the top lane, and then, with a smoke gang, find Dazzle alone in the woods. But LGD.int continues to gain terrain and claim towers. After mis-initiating a fight on the middle lane, LGD is punished with losing Rubick and Clockwerk, while LGD.int loses only Dark Seer. This opens space for LGD.int to kill Roshan and claim the Aegis. Another mistake gets LGD in a really bad position: Nyx Assassin tries to get himself in a good position with Vendetta, but gets caught as LGD.int had the area covered with sentry wards. The fight escalates quickly and LGD is wiped once again, but are able to hold their base with buybacks. The Chinese manage to gain some space and claim some towers, and the game enters in a farming period. LGD.int's lead is bigger than before, but they act carefully to not lose it.LGD.int starts sieging LGD's top lane. After a very messy fight, LGD loses Luna, the tower and the barracks, leading Director8 to call the GG.



Game 3

+ Show Spoiler +



LGD.int:



LGD.cn:



The early game does not go well for LGD.int. Misery on Enchantress and 1437 on Rubick spend a lot of time waiting for a possible gank mid, but they are thwarted by xiao8's extremely safe play. xiao8 has opted to get Boots before his Bottle on the solo mid Night Stalker so he can be a bit safer against ganks. Meanwhile, Brax gets extremely aggressive with his Batrider on bot lane against Yao's Magnus, but doesn't manage to secure the kill after diving past the tier 2 and instead feeds first blood to Magnus, who escapes with a sliver of his HP thanks to some smart Healing Salve usage. Pajkatt on the solo long lane Juggernaut is unable to get much of anything done against the triple-stun defensive trilane combo of Sven, Nyx and Leshrac. A secondary smoke gank by Misery and 1437 on mid lane fails because of xiao8's Boots first item build.



Some cute play by LGD.int nets them a kill on Nyx Assassin during a fight for the top rune, and a combination of Telekinesis and the Storm Cyclone trap xiao8 on the cliff overlooking the top rune for over a minute. A small skirmish in middle results in another kill on Nyx for LGD.int, and this evens up the score. Shortly after, however, an initiation from Sylar's Sven catches G out in the mid lane, netting an easy kill, and the subsequent engagement at LGD.int's tier 1 in mid lands them a kill on Enchantress as well. They are unable to take the tower, and LGD.int still holds the gold and experience lead at this point largely due to LGD.cn's propensity of sticking together and not finding farm.





Night Stalker decides to take in the scenic view.

On the back of a hasted Panda and Brax on Batrider who has now found his Blink, LGD.int score a quick kill on Sylar underneath LGD.cn's top tier 1. However, Nyx and Magnus immediately turn it around with an Impale -> Skewer -> Reverse Polarity combo. Sven buys back and charges in, and along with Night Stalker, manages to score kills on everyone but Pajkatt, resulting in a 4-for-2 trade in favor of LGD.cn.



Immediately afterwards, Sven calls his team to battle, instantly popping 1437's Rubick with a Storm Bolt, Void and Shockwave combo, but Brax jumps in with a Flamebreak, disrupting the enemy position. A Thunder Clap from G's Brewmaster ensures that they cannot run away from Juggernaut's Blade Fury, netting a quick kill on Night Stalker, and all Magnus's Skewer does is ensure that his entire team gets to stand together in Firefly. G gets overaggressive in the face of xiao8's buyback on Night Stalker and pays for it with his life. Continuing the aggression, Sylar and xiao8 soon try to turn it around on Misery's Enchantress, but her Attendants heal her up, and Sylar falls during the retreat largely due to damage from Impetus.



In what seems to be a never-ending battle for the top tier 1s on both sides, LGD.int attempts a push onto LGD.cn's tier 1 right after the previous engagement. However, Misery gets caught out of position with a Void from xiao8 and immediately falls. Yao Skewers himself in and lands a Reverse Polarity on 1437, ensuring his death as well. Brax and G are there on Batrider and Brewmaster, but even with the enemy team standing in Thunder Clap and Firefly, they are unable to make an impression, and G eventually falls as well.





Yao leads the charge.

The aggression finally subsides as the Chinese team has decided that they've had enough of all the kill trading going on, and both teams realize that their buybacks are on cooldown. During this lull, LGD.int decide to try for the tier 1 top again and successfully down it, but LGD.cn respond by demolishing the tier 1 mid. After a bit of posturing near LGD.cn's tier 2 top, both teams retreat towards the middle lane.



ddc gets a little aggressive with his Vendetta usage in the middle lane, and sixth sense Sentry placement from 1437 plus the Batrider initiation lands them an easy kill. G uses his ultimate and lands a stun onto Magnus, who quickly falls to an Omnislash from Pajkatt. The rest of LGD.int siege the tier 1 in mid and take it down while G's spirits keep the rest of LGD.cn at bay. Eventually the tier 1 falls, although G sacrifices himself as a distraction.



Unfazed by that small misstep, LGD.cn try to return the top lane tier 1 yet again with a four-man push, but smart glyph usage from the international team combined with a Blink initiation from Brax's Batrider lands them an important kill on Sylar, who, because of the constant aggression and buybacks, has not managed to even come close to finishing his BKB at 20 minutes.



More aggression is soon seen at LGD.int's top tier 1 as LGD.cn finally manage to take it down. It seems that this will not be without its cost, as another quick Blink initiation from Batrider drags xiao8 away from his team and the rest of LGD.int jump on him and kill him. They give chase to the remainder of LGD.cn, almost landing a kill on Sc's Leshrac, but they are driven far away by a Skewer -> Reverse Polarity from Magnus. Sven, seeking retribution for his deaths so far, follows Magnus into the fray, landing a quick double kill on the Enchantress and Juggernaut who are caught by Reverse Polarity, and with a Warcry, they end up chasing down Rubick for another kill. Meanwhile, G's ultimate wears off, and Sc manages to kite away just long enough for xiao8's buyback to come and save him, ending G once his retinue disperses. At the end of this engagement, 4 members of LGD.int have fallen for the cost of a Night Stalker plus his buyback, and LGD.cn take LGD.int's top tier 2 with little resistance.





The turn of the tide.

LGD.cn make a marathon run to LGD.int's bottom tier 1 and start to hammer away at it. Brax jumps in and initiates on xiao8, only to find that the support for his initiation is not there. Pajkatt teleports in and forces the Chinese to disperse with his Blade Fury, but once that ends, LGD.cn immediately turn around and engage on the now full international squad. Sylar immediately opens up on Batrider with a Storm Hammer, cutting him down with the help of xiao8, who takes the opportunity to silence Rubick. Thus, 1437 is unable to participate in the fight. LGD.int attempts to scramble back into position, but Yao catches Enchantress, Rubick and Juggernaut with a Reverse Polarity, which seals the international team's fate as Sven manages to cleave down G as well.



LGD.int attempt to make their last stand with a push up the middle lane, and initially it seems like it will go well for them. Batrider even blinks up to the high ground and manages to catch Magnus in his ultimate, but a well-timed Impale from Nyx prevents him from dragging Magnus back to their team. Omnislash isn't able to do enough damage to the now too-tanky Chinese squad, and once G goes down without using his ultimate, Pajkatt calls gg for his team.





The final stand. Down two games thanks to LGD.int's one game advantage from the winners bracket, LGD.cn sought to defend themselves from elimination in this game. With an Undying and Luna ban, LGD.int showed that they were not afraid to face Magnus or Sven. They opted to pick Batrider first, and then supplemented this pick with an Enchantress jungle and Rubick support. LGD.cn came right out of the gates with aggression, aggression, aggression with their first three picks of Magnus, Nyx Assassin and Night Stalker, all trademark heroes of the new extremely aggressive Chinese playstyle. LGD.int rounded out their picks with a Brewmaster and Juggernaut, providing strong team fight control and damage output, while LGD.cn picked up Leshrac and the mighty Sven to round out their extremely aggressive lineup.LGD.int: LGD.cn: The early game does not go well for LGD.int. Misery on Enchantress and 1437 on Rubick spend a lot of time waiting for a possible gank mid, but they are thwarted by xiao8's extremely safe play. xiao8 has opted to get Boots before his Bottle on the solo mid Night Stalker so he can be a bit safer against ganks. Meanwhile, Brax gets extremely aggressive with his Batrider on bot lane against Yao's Magnus, but doesn't manage to secure the kill after diving past the tier 2 and instead feeds first blood to Magnus, who escapes with a sliver of his HP thanks to some smart Healing Salve usage. Pajkatt on the solo long lane Juggernaut is unable to get much of anything done against the triple-stun defensive trilane combo of Sven, Nyx and Leshrac. A secondary smoke gank by Misery and 1437 on mid lane fails because of xiao8's Boots first item build.Some cute play by LGD.int nets them a kill on Nyx Assassin during a fight for the top rune, and a combination of Telekinesis and the Storm Cyclone trap xiao8 on the cliff overlooking the top rune for over a minute. A small skirmish in middle results in another kill on Nyx for LGD.int, and this evens up the score. Shortly after, however, an initiation from Sylar's Sven catches G out in the mid lane, netting an easy kill, and the subsequent engagement at LGD.int's tier 1 in mid lands them a kill on Enchantress as well. They are unable to take the tower, and LGD.int still holds the gold and experience lead at this point largely due to LGD.cn's propensity of sticking together and not finding farm.On the back of a hasted Panda and Brax on Batrider who has now found his Blink, LGD.int score a quick kill on Sylar underneath LGD.cn's top tier 1. However, Nyx and Magnus immediately turn it around with an Impale -> Skewer -> Reverse Polarity combo. Sven buys back and charges in, and along with Night Stalker, manages to score kills on everyone but Pajkatt, resulting in a 4-for-2 trade in favor of LGD.cn.Immediately afterwards, Sven calls his team to battle, instantly popping 1437's Rubick with a Storm Bolt, Void and Shockwave combo, but Brax jumps in with a Flamebreak, disrupting the enemy position. A Thunder Clap from G's Brewmaster ensures that they cannot run away from Juggernaut's Blade Fury, netting a quick kill on Night Stalker, and all Magnus's Skewer does is ensure that his entire team gets to stand together in Firefly. G gets overaggressive in the face of xiao8's buyback on Night Stalker and pays for it with his life. Continuing the aggression, Sylar and xiao8 soon try to turn it around on Misery's Enchantress, but her Attendants heal her up, and Sylar falls during the retreat largely due to damage from Impetus.In what seems to be a never-ending battle for the top tier 1s on both sides, LGD.int attempts a push onto LGD.cn's tier 1 right after the previous engagement. However, Misery gets caught out of position with a Void from xiao8 and immediately falls. Yao Skewers himself in and lands a Reverse Polarity on 1437, ensuring his death as well. Brax and G are there on Batrider and Brewmaster, but even with the enemy team standing in Thunder Clap and Firefly, they are unable to make an impression, and G eventually falls as well.The aggression finally subsides as the Chinese team has decided that they've had enough of all the kill trading going on, and both teams realize that their buybacks are on cooldown. During this lull, LGD.int decide to try for the tier 1 top again and successfully down it, but LGD.cn respond by demolishing the tier 1 mid. After a bit of posturing near LGD.cn's tier 2 top, both teams retreat towards the middle lane.ddc gets a little aggressive with his Vendetta usage in the middle lane, and sixth sense Sentry placement from 1437 plus the Batrider initiation lands them an easy kill. G uses his ultimate and lands a stun onto Magnus, who quickly falls to an Omnislash from Pajkatt. The rest of LGD.int siege the tier 1 in mid and take it down while G's spirits keep the rest of LGD.cn at bay. Eventually the tier 1 falls, although G sacrifices himself as a distraction.Unfazed by that small misstep, LGD.cn try to return the top lane tier 1 yet again with a four-man push, but smart glyph usage from the international team combined with a Blink initiation from Brax's Batrider lands them an important kill on Sylar, who, because of the constant aggression and buybacks, has not managed to even come close to finishing his BKB at 20 minutes.More aggression is soon seen at LGD.int's top tier 1 as LGD.cn finally manage to take it down. It seems that this will not be without its cost, as another quick Blink initiation from Batrider drags xiao8 away from his team and the rest of LGD.int jump on him and kill him. They give chase to the remainder of LGD.cn, almost landing a kill on Sc's Leshrac, but they are driven far away by a Skewer -> Reverse Polarity from Magnus. Sven, seeking retribution for his deaths so far, follows Magnus into the fray, landing a quick double kill on the Enchantress and Juggernaut who are caught by Reverse Polarity, and with a Warcry, they end up chasing down Rubick for another kill. Meanwhile, G's ultimate wears off, and Sc manages to kite away just long enough for xiao8's buyback to come and save him, ending G once his retinue disperses. At the end of this engagement, 4 members of LGD.int have fallen for the cost of a Night Stalker plus his buyback, and LGD.cn take LGD.int's top tier 2 with little resistance.LGD.cn make a marathon run to LGD.int's bottom tier 1 and start to hammer away at it. Brax jumps in and initiates on xiao8, only to find that the support for his initiation is not there. Pajkatt teleports in and forces the Chinese to disperse with his Blade Fury, but once that ends, LGD.cn immediately turn around and engage on the now full international squad. Sylar immediately opens up on Batrider with a Storm Hammer, cutting him down with the help of xiao8, who takes the opportunity to silence Rubick. Thus, 1437 is unable to participate in the fight. LGD.int attempts to scramble back into position, but Yao catches Enchantress, Rubick and Juggernaut with a Reverse Polarity, which seals the international team's fate as Sven manages to cleave down G as well.LGD.int attempt to make their last stand with a push up the middle lane, and initially it seems like it will go well for them. Batrider even blinks up to the high ground and manages to catch Magnus in his ultimate, but a well-timed Impale from Nyx prevents him from dragging Magnus back to their team. Omnislash isn't able to do enough damage to the now too-tanky Chinese squad, and once G goes down without using his ultimate, Pajkatt calls gg for his team.



Game 4

+ Show Spoiler +



LGD.cn:



LGD.int:



With an offensive trilane bottom, LGD.int claims the first blood. At the middle lane, the combination of Leshrac and Sven forces Night Stalker to play very carefully. The fight between Luna and Undying on the top lane is in favor of the later. A rotation from the bottom lane to the mid by Shadow Demon and Lina opens an opportunity for gank and Sven is killed. The rotation continues to the top lane to force Undying away and create space for Luna. Before night-time, LGD forces small fights on mid and bottom lane, killing Night Stalker and Clockwerk. The game is even.



LGD.int tries to dive and kill LGD under their tower, but Undying is there to lay the Tombstone and stop the enemy offensive. The counterattack costs LGD.int two heroes, giving LGD a small lead in experience. Night Stalker is killed one more time minutes after, crippling LGD.int tempo and giving LGD a lot of control and momentum. LGD.int tries to find kills with Clockwerk hitting a hook near the Radiant jungle, but lacks the mana to use Power Cogs. Luna and everyone else joins the fight, but Leshrac is the only victim, ending in LGD.int wasting time.





Night Stalker ganked even at night.

The fight moves to the middle lane around the 11 minute mark, with LGD winning an exchange by killing three heroes and claiming the tower, but losing Faceless Void. Both teams rotate to the top lane, and Luna is caught offguard by a smoke gang. She's saved by a defensive Disruption, but not for long as she ends dying inside Faceless Void's Chronosphere. LGD charges and kills other three heroes, building a considerable lead. Both on level six, Lina and Shadow Demon are getting outleved by the level 8 LGD supports. LGD.int loses another fight in the mid lane, costing them the second tier tower.



LGD.int tries to recover. A clutch initiation by Brax sets up two kills for the international squad, but that doesn't stop the Chinese from claiming towers on the bottom lane. Both teams dance close to the Dire mid barracks and a big fight explodes. LGD fakes a retreat and starts fighting again once Night Stalker chases, and the result is a 4-1 win for the Chinese squad. LGD.int buys back and starts chasing LGD. They run to the high ground and lay a trap for LGD.int, killing Clockwerk once he moves there and getting other two kills with Chronosphere.



Another big fight erupts on the middle lane around the 26 minute mark. A good hook from Brax allows LGD to quickly kill Undying and Jakiro, but Faceless Void is allowed to swing his mace around freely and deal damage, killing Luna and Shadow Demon. In the end, LGD.int exchanges two heroes for three, but LGD.int's carry died in the fight, while LGD's carries didn't. LGD.int increments their advantage even more by killing Roshan and getting the Aegis.





LGD.int trying to hook their way back into the game.

After a small farming window, LGD starts pushing the third tier mid tower. A precise chronosphere on LGD.int supports wins the fight for LGD, allowing them to freely destroy the tower and the barracks. The fight doesn't stop there, as LGD rotates top to destroy the barracks and claim the top melee barracks. LGD.int calls the GG after being defeated once more in a team-fight. After a small farming window, LGD starts pushing the third tier mid tower. A precise chronosphere on LGD.int supports wins the fight for LGD, allowing them to freely destroy the tower and the barracks. The fight doesn't stop there, as LGD rotates top to destroy the barracks and claim the top melee barracks. LGD.int calls the GG after being defeated once more in a team-fight. While LGD.int is allowed to run their Luna, LGD goes for Undying and Sven. Curiously, neither team wanted Bounty Hunter and he managed to get banned in the second ban phase. LGD completes their lineup with a lot of AoE coming from Sylar and Jakiro, while LGD.int has two tanky heroes - Night Stalker and Clockwerk - and a lot of magical damage coming from Luna. Surprisingly, Sylar isn't playing Jakiro.LGD.cn: LGD.int: With an offensive trilane bottom, LGD.int claims the first blood. At the middle lane, the combination of Leshrac and Sven forces Night Stalker to play very carefully. The fight between Luna and Undying on the top lane is in favor of the later. A rotation from the bottom lane to the mid by Shadow Demon and Lina opens an opportunity for gank and Sven is killed. The rotation continues to the top lane to force Undying away and create space for Luna. Before night-time, LGD forces small fights on mid and bottom lane, killing Night Stalker and Clockwerk. The game is even.LGD.int tries to dive and kill LGD under their tower, but Undying is there to lay the Tombstone and stop the enemy offensive. The counterattack costs LGD.int two heroes, giving LGD a small lead in experience. Night Stalker is killed one more time minutes after, crippling LGD.int tempo and giving LGD a lot of control and momentum. LGD.int tries to find kills with Clockwerk hitting a hook near the Radiant jungle, but lacks the mana to use Power Cogs. Luna and everyone else joins the fight, but Leshrac is the only victim, ending in LGD.int wasting time.The fight moves to the middle lane around the 11 minute mark, with LGD winning an exchange by killing three heroes and claiming the tower, but losing Faceless Void. Both teams rotate to the top lane, and Luna is caught offguard by a smoke gang. She's saved by a defensive Disruption, but not for long as she ends dying inside Faceless Void's Chronosphere. LGD charges and kills other three heroes, building a considerable lead. Both on level six, Lina and Shadow Demon are getting outleved by the level 8 LGD supports. LGD.int loses another fight in the mid lane, costing them the second tier tower.LGD.int tries to recover. A clutch initiation by Brax sets up two kills for the international squad, but that doesn't stop the Chinese from claiming towers on the bottom lane. Both teams dance close to the Dire mid barracks and a big fight explodes. LGD fakes a retreat and starts fighting again once Night Stalker chases, and the result is a 4-1 win for the Chinese squad. LGD.int buys back and starts chasing LGD. They run to the high ground and lay a trap for LGD.int, killing Clockwerk once he moves there and getting other two kills with Chronosphere.Another big fight erupts on the middle lane around the 26 minute mark. A good hook from Brax allows LGD to quickly kill Undying and Jakiro, but Faceless Void is allowed to swing his mace around freely and deal damage, killing Luna and Shadow Demon. In the end, LGD.int exchanges two heroes for three, but LGD.int's carry died in the fight, while LGD's carries didn't. LGD.int increments their advantage even more by killing Roshan and getting the Aegis.



Game 5

+ Show Spoiler +



LGD.int:



LGD.cn:



LGD.int send an aggressive group into the enemy jungle at the start of the laning phase with Misery on Chen and 1437 on Rubick. LGD.cn sniff this out and send Vengeful Spirit and Venomancer through the jungle to attempt and intercept, but even with xiao8's support from mid, they are unable to catch up with the Chen, who does a long loop through the Dire secret shop and out near the Roshan pit to safety without so much as a single right-click hit.



Meanwhile, G is farming mid lane freely on his Batrider, but he is caught out by a Void from Night Stalker. He quickly falls to the quick follow up from Vengeful Spirit and Venomancer, who decided to stick around mid lane after their long chase of Chen. All is not lost for the Radiant, however, as 1437 sneakily snipes the ground courier that was trotting mid to try to deliver xiao8 his Boots.





I'm sorry, did you need that?

Chen, his pet Ursa and Tidehunter start playing slapfights with Sylar's Faceless Void up top, and Sylar gets aggressive once he sees the support from Vengeful Spirit and Venomancer rotating up from the mid lane, using his Time Walk to ensure Venomancer lands his Gale. However, Chen and Tidehunter turn the damage around onto Sylar and manage to snipe him off now that his escape mechanism is down, and the slap fights continue up top with both of the Chinese supports having to retreat under the might of Tidehunter's anchor and the Ursa's paws.



LGD.int's lane choices are working extremely well for them at this point. Anchor Smash is deterring Faceless Void from freely last hitting, the offensive jungle from Rubick and Chen is keeping Venomancer and Vengeful Spirit on their toes, Batrider has largely shut down Night Stalker in mid, and Luna is freefarming bot against a Magnus who is ill-equipped to stop her. LGD.int manage to eke out another victory in the top lane, as all six heroes up there engage on each other. LGD.int manage to snipe off Venomancer, and then manage to deny Chen as well, sapping LGD.cn of an even trade.





Close, but no cigar.

LGD.int teleport Luna top and rotate Batrider from middle as well and get a quick kill on Sylar's Faceless Void through a Flaming Lasso. They continue to mull around the area for quite some time, slowly putting pressure on the tower, until they decide to be aggressive. Batrider, Rubick and Tidehunter enter the lane from behind the Dire tier 1 tower, but LGD.cn split themselves up and deprive them of an initiation opportunity. 1437 dies immediately to a set of nukes from Night Stalker and Magnus, and Batrider ends up getting himself caught once his Firefly ends as well.



Still intently focused on their goal of the top tower, LGD.int push it down as soon as their fallen brethren respawn, and continue putting pressure on LGD.cn. They snipe Venomancer from beneath LGD.cn's top tier 2 while LGD.cn are desperately trying to find farm and levels for the heroes that need it. The two teams stalemate near the top tier 2 for a bit, and once Batrider blows his ultimate on Magnus and the international team fail to kill him before he Skewers away, the international team decides to give up their dreams of the top tier 2 for the much easier to destroy middle tier 1.



While making their trip through the Dire jungle, Misery and Pajkatt manage to find Yao's Magnus rotating down to defend, and a quick Eclipse ends his dreams of doing so before he could even Skewer to react. The posturing for the tier 1 continues, however, with Batrider making the long trip all the way through the Dire secret shop to initiate with his Haste rune. He doesn't manage to catch anyone, and Brax's Ravage even misses due to LGD.cn's smart disengage. The Haste rune eventually lets G catch Venge and take her down. Sylar catches 4 members of LGD.int in a Chronosphere, but the followup Shockwave and Skewer only manage to kill Chen. Pajkatt, in the midst of all this, manages to teleport away despite being under assault by the weapons of Night Stalker, Faceless Void and Magnus.



LGD.int have to retreat after all of this, however, and LGD.cn attempt to take advantage of the situation by putting their own pressure on the middle tier 1. However, a brilliant Flamebreak from G's Batrider knocks three members of LGD.cn out of position and straight into the Lucent Beams, Gushes and Anchor Smashes from the international squad, who immediately pick off Venomancer, Magnus and Night Stalker. The ensuing chase secures kills on Faceless Void and Vengeful Spirit as well, resulting in a clean 5-0 sweep for LGD.int.





Where do you think you're going?

Continued fighting underneath the Dire tier 1 results in a death from xiao8. G and Brax charge forward with the hopes of securing a kill on Sc's Venomancer, but are unable to do so. When Yao's Magnus turns around and tries to fight, G and Brax almost escape until Magnus decides to use his Reverse Polarity on Tidehunter alone, securing the kill and forcing LGD.int away from the tier 1. The fights for the middle tier 1 never stop, as Rubick steals Time Walk and uses it to initiate on ddc's Vengeful Spirit in the middle lane. The follow up damage from Luna is not enough, however, and 1437 gets Skewered back into the tower when he attempts to escape, turning the engagement around for LGD.cn and netting them a free kill.



LGD.int finally manage to take down the Dire tier 1 middle after a prolonged series of engagements, and they turn their attention back towards the Dire tier 2 top immediately. G's Batrider Blinks underneath the tower and gets a quick kill on Venomancer, but ddc spits his Poison Nova out before he dies, forcing the LGD.int squad back temporarily. Yet another engagement happens shortly thereafter though, with G's Flamebreak knocking Venomancer into a Luna Eclipse. LGD.int continues fighting underneath the tower, immediately sniping Sylar when he arrives via TP scroll. A well-placed Flamebreak from G knocks two of the retreating members into Tidehunter's Ravage, securing two remaining kills, and Rubick chases down Vengeful Spirit for the final kill before dying to a solo Chronosphere cast by Sylar, who bought back.



After cleaning up the tier 2 in top lane, LGD.int moves to the still pristine bottom lane and takes out the tier 1 tower there with no rebuttal from the Chinese team at all. The push for the tier 2 is stymied slightly by the presence of the Chinese team, but as soon as Sylar oversteps his boundaries by a little bit, Batrider Blinks in and initiates. Sylar almost manages to escape, but 1437 steals Time Walk and goes back in immediately to finish him off. Sylar is granted a temporary reprieve by Vengeful Spirit, who sacrifices herself to save his life, and Yao lands an excellent Skewer + Reverse Polarity, setting Sylar up for a perfect 5-man Chronosphere...



During which he is unable to even take down 1437. Once the Chronosphere ends, Mek and Hand of God are popped from Misery, and the international squad chase the tattered remnants of the Chinese squad all the way underneath their barracks, sealing the game and the series for the international team.





Where's the damage!? Fighting with their backs against the wall against the momentum of LGD.cn, who have taken the last two games in a row, LGD.int respond strongly by banning Sven in the first set of bans, along with their signature Undying ban. LGD.cn opt to ban Templar Assassin and Dark Seer for their first set of bans, leaving the possibility of Magnus open for the international team. The international team doesn't bite, however, and opens up with their favored Batrider pick, and they are immediately responded to with the Magnus/Night Stalker combination that did the Chinese squad well in game 3. LGD.int pick up Rubick for a support and quickly pick up Pajkatt's Luna, and LGD.cn respond by picking up Sylar's Faceless Void. As expected, the second round of bans is pointed at all the major support heroes, and LGD.int round out their early to mid-game push-centric lineup with Chen and Tidehunter while LGD.cn attempt to prevent them with Vengeful Spirit and Venomancer as their chosen supports.LGD.int: LGD.cn: LGD.int send an aggressive group into the enemy jungle at the start of the laning phase with Misery on Chen and 1437 on Rubick. LGD.cn sniff this out and send Vengeful Spirit and Venomancer through the jungle to attempt and intercept, but even with xiao8's support from mid, they are unable to catch up with the Chen, who does a long loop through the Dire secret shop and out near the Roshan pit to safety without so much as a single right-click hit.Meanwhile, G is farming mid lane freely on his Batrider, but he is caught out by a Void from Night Stalker. He quickly falls to the quick follow up from Vengeful Spirit and Venomancer, who decided to stick around mid lane after their long chase of Chen. All is not lost for the Radiant, however, as 1437 sneakily snipes the ground courier that was trotting mid to try to deliver xiao8 his Boots.Chen, his pet Ursa and Tidehunter start playing slapfights with Sylar's Faceless Void up top, and Sylar gets aggressive once he sees the support from Vengeful Spirit and Venomancer rotating up from the mid lane, using his Time Walk to ensure Venomancer lands his Gale. However, Chen and Tidehunter turn the damage around onto Sylar and manage to snipe him off now that his escape mechanism is down, and the slap fights continue up top with both of the Chinese supports having to retreat under the might of Tidehunter's anchor and the Ursa's paws.LGD.int's lane choices are working extremely well for them at this point. Anchor Smash is deterring Faceless Void from freely last hitting, the offensive jungle from Rubick and Chen is keeping Venomancer and Vengeful Spirit on their toes, Batrider has largely shut down Night Stalker in mid, and Luna is freefarming bot against a Magnus who is ill-equipped to stop her. LGD.int manage to eke out another victory in the top lane, as all six heroes up there engage on each other. LGD.int manage to snipe off Venomancer, and then manage to deny Chen as well, sapping LGD.cn of an even trade.LGD.int teleport Luna top and rotate Batrider from middle as well and get a quick kill on Sylar's Faceless Void through a Flaming Lasso. They continue to mull around the area for quite some time, slowly putting pressure on the tower, until they decide to be aggressive. Batrider, Rubick and Tidehunter enter the lane from behind the Dire tier 1 tower, but LGD.cn split themselves up and deprive them of an initiation opportunity. 1437 dies immediately to a set of nukes from Night Stalker and Magnus, and Batrider ends up getting himself caught once his Firefly ends as well.Still intently focused on their goal of the top tower, LGD.int push it down as soon as their fallen brethren respawn, and continue putting pressure on LGD.cn. They snipe Venomancer from beneath LGD.cn's top tier 2 while LGD.cn are desperately trying to find farm and levels for the heroes that need it. The two teams stalemate near the top tier 2 for a bit, and once Batrider blows his ultimate on Magnus and the international team fail to kill him before he Skewers away, the international team decides to give up their dreams of the top tier 2 for the much easier to destroy middle tier 1.While making their trip through the Dire jungle, Misery and Pajkatt manage to find Yao's Magnus rotating down to defend, and a quick Eclipse ends his dreams of doing so before he could even Skewer to react. The posturing for the tier 1 continues, however, with Batrider making the long trip all the way through the Dire secret shop to initiate with his Haste rune. He doesn't manage to catch anyone, and Brax's Ravage even misses due to LGD.cn's smart disengage. The Haste rune eventually lets G catch Venge and take her down. Sylar catches 4 members of LGD.int in a Chronosphere, but the followup Shockwave and Skewer only manage to kill Chen. Pajkatt, in the midst of all this, manages to teleport away despite being under assault by the weapons of Night Stalker, Faceless Void and Magnus.LGD.int have to retreat after all of this, however, and LGD.cn attempt to take advantage of the situation by putting their own pressure on the middle tier 1. However, a brilliant Flamebreak from G's Batrider knocks three members of LGD.cn out of position and straight into the Lucent Beams, Gushes and Anchor Smashes from the international squad, who immediately pick off Venomancer, Magnus and Night Stalker. The ensuing chase secures kills on Faceless Void and Vengeful Spirit as well, resulting in a clean 5-0 sweep for LGD.int.Continued fighting underneath the Dire tier 1 results in a death from xiao8. G and Brax charge forward with the hopes of securing a kill on Sc's Venomancer, but are unable to do so. When Yao's Magnus turns around and tries to fight, G and Brax almost escape until Magnus decides to use his Reverse Polarity on Tidehunter alone, securing the kill and forcing LGD.int away from the tier 1. The fights for the middle tier 1 never stop, as Rubick steals Time Walk and uses it to initiate on ddc's Vengeful Spirit in the middle lane. The follow up damage from Luna is not enough, however, and 1437 gets Skewered back into the tower when he attempts to escape, turning the engagement around for LGD.cn and netting them a free kill.LGD.int finally manage to take down the Dire tier 1 middle after a prolonged series of engagements, and they turn their attention back towards the Dire tier 2 top immediately. G's Batrider Blinks underneath the tower and gets a quick kill on Venomancer, but ddc spits his Poison Nova out before he dies, forcing the LGD.int squad back temporarily. Yet another engagement happens shortly thereafter though, with G's Flamebreak knocking Venomancer into a Luna Eclipse. LGD.int continues fighting underneath the tower, immediately sniping Sylar when he arrives via TP scroll. A well-placed Flamebreak from G knocks two of the retreating members into Tidehunter's Ravage, securing two remaining kills, and Rubick chases down Vengeful Spirit for the final kill before dying to a solo Chronosphere cast by Sylar, who bought back.After cleaning up the tier 2 in top lane, LGD.int moves to the still pristine bottom lane and takes out the tier 1 tower there with no rebuttal from the Chinese team at all. The push for the tier 2 is stymied slightly by the presence of the Chinese team, but as soon as Sylar oversteps his boundaries by a little bit, Batrider Blinks in and initiates. Sylar almost manages to escape, but 1437 steals Time Walk and goes back in immediately to finish him off. Sylar is granted a temporary reprieve by Vengeful Spirit, who sacrifices herself to save his life, and Yao lands an excellent Skewer + Reverse Polarity, setting Sylar up for a perfect 5-man Chronosphere...During which he is unable to even take down 1437. Once the Chronosphere ends, Mek and Hand of God are popped from Misery, and the international squad chase the tattered remnants of the Chinese squad all the way underneath their barracks, sealing the game and the series for the international team.

While it's not everyday that you get to see some of the best players from both the East and the West play together on the same team, it's even rarer to see them go head to head against each other at a LAN finals. But that's exactly what happened last week at the LGD teamhouse. Separated by a chalkboard and a bonsai plant, LGD.cn and LGD.int went to war.



BuLba Says: Luna and Nyx Are Coming By Liquid`BuLba





Luna and Nyx created a big impact during the GEST Challenge. What do you think makes them so popular in the East, and why haven't we seen them picked early in European / North American Dota so far?





Luna is strong because she is an efficient carry hero that can participate in fights as well as give a really strong aura to her team. LGD.int utilized a lot of team fights and 5 man pushes and Luna excels in this. Luna has a great midgame because of her spells and aggressive trilaning versus her is also difficult because of her aura and early DPS. Later on with a BKB and a Manta, she is incredibly hard to kill.





As for Nyx, he is kind of a new hero in the regard that his spells have been changing and getting buffed every patch. His Spiked Carapace spell is incredibly annoying to play against and the hero does not need much farm to do a lot of damage. Mana Burn scales well into the late game and Impale is an amazing initiating stun. He can also be played in any position but the 1.



We will probably see both of these heroes picked soon in Western Dota just because of how GEST played out. Teams saw how powerful Luna is and she will be high up on the draft.



Nyx will also see light but that remains to be determined on who plays it. The hero has a role and might not be a top 3 pick or ban but will definitely be seen in a majority of pro games. I predict a strong future for this hero though because of its utility.



Luna is strong because she is an efficient carry hero that can participate in fights as well as give a really strong aura to her team. LGD.int utilized a lot of team fights and 5 man pushes and Luna excels in this. Luna has a great midgame because of her spells and aggressive trilaning versus her is also difficult because of her aura and early DPS. Later on with a BKB and a Manta, she is incredibly hard to kill.As for Nyx, he is kind of a new hero in the regard that his spells have been changing and getting buffed every patch. His Spiked Carapace spell is incredibly annoying to play against and the hero does not need much farm to do a lot of damage. Mana Burn scales well into the late game and Impale is an amazing initiating stun. He can also be played in any position but the 1.We will probably see both of these heroes picked soon in Western Dota just because of how GEST played out. Teams saw how powerful Luna is and she will be high up on the draft.Nyx will also see light but that remains to be determined on who plays it. The hero has a role and might not be a top 3 pick or ban but will definitely be seen in a majority of pro games. I predict a strong future for this hero though because of its utility.

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