LGD.cn endured five games against NeoES.Orange today to secured the third place finish in Dota 2 Super League. Game four of the third place decider is definitely worth a mention with Orange coming back from a big deficit in late game.

LGD.cn battled hard today and despite losing their first game, bounced back in game two and kept the momentum in game three. Being 2-1 up, LGD went into the fourth game with a big lead but lost it all after a few crucial overconfidence issues came back to bite them. The fifth game however, was an anti-climatic one-sided game in favour of LGD as they secured the third placing in Dota 2 Super League.

Coming from Group A, LGD has been rock solid throughout the season, placing first in their group to receive an auto-qualification to the playoffs. Being the heavy favourite of the semi-finals, they disappointed a lot of fans losing to DK in four games.

NeoES.Orange on the other hand, played in the Dota 2 Super League 9,000 kilometres away from home. However, they performed exceptionally throughout the groupstage and placed second, one match short of DK flawless performance. Ohaiyo was asked to perform the lottery after the groupstage and he picked the paper with TongFu on it. On the contrary, TongFu did not disappoint their home crowd after they defeated NeoES.Orange to advance into the grand final.

With the third placer match played, only the grand final match between DK and TongFu is left to be played. The grand final game will take place in Feng Yun Esports Arena on the 6th of July.

Round 1 - Best of 5 Neo.Orange 1 TongFu 3 LGD 1 DK 3 Round 2 - Best of 5 TongFu 3 DK 0 LGD 3 Neo.Orange 2

Dota 2 Super League Prizes Placing Teams Prizes 1st place 500,000 RMB (~$81,103) 2nd place 200,000 RMB (~$32,441) 3rd place LGD.cn LGD.cn 100,000 RMB (~$16,220) 4th place NeoES.Orange NeoES.Orange 50,000 RMB (~$8,110)

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Match report

Game 1

Considering LGD.cn picked greedy, opting for the Gyrocopter and Alchemist which both needs time to farm, Orange picked a strong pushing line-up with the Lone Druid and Juggernaut to spearhead the mid-game push. Orange's offensive trilane was off to a good start as Shadow Demon was able to pick up the first rune and immediately dewarded LGD's river ward. At the same time, LGD's solo mid Alchemist once again did not level his Greevil's Greed and the long range harrassment from the Acid Spray is keeping Mushi's Windrunner at bay.

5 minutes into the game, no blood has been spilled but Orange is pulling ahead slightly in terms of farm, occupying the top three last hitters of the game. As the first night time fell upon the game, Net, who has been protecting all the bottom runes so far forced Alchemist to bottle crow and Orange was able to take the First Blood on the Alchemist as the Shadow Demon and Sand King swung in from the side. The Windrunner picked up yet another kill on the Alchemist two minutes later when Sand King teleported in to assist. At 10 minutes, the score was up to 3-0 in favour of the Malaysians.

The first team skirmish of the game happened on the top lane when four of Orange rushed in on the Clockwerk between the towers. The Clockwerk was annihilated immediately but LGD was in place to get some revenge kill for their comrade. The full fledged war continued for a fairly long time with Orange coming on top and although the Illuminate was able to bring Orange's heroes hp down, LGD only settled for a 2-3 trade with Orange and losing their tier one tower in the process.

With the slight edge in fighting capability, Orange gathered as five on the bottom lane and then the middle lane and took down the tier one towers without much retaliation. LGD attempted to defend their bottom tower but it was a futile effort considering the level four Healing Ward from the Juggernaut and fast Mekansm on the Windrunner was able to heal all of Orange in a hurry. Orange then moved into the Rosh pit to grab the Aegis.





LGD had no answers for Orange's superior pushing abilities with their greedy line-up

Orange was very eager to continue their mid-game advantage by assembling as five and push down towers. Although the Malaysians was caught twice diving past the tier two towers for some cheap kills, they were still able to take down the towers in their second attempts. This pushed Orange's gold advantage to a whooping 15,000 in 27 minutes and also a 12,000 difference in experience gained. By 28 minutes, all of LGD's towers were down.

Right after taking down all the outer towers, Windrunner acted as a decoy for Orange and farmed mid while the rest of his team moved into the Rosh pit to take down Roshan. With the Aegis in hand, Orange bravely rammed up LGD's high ground ignoring the Illuminate and took down the Alchemist through a brilliant Force Staff by Mushi, pushing him off-position. Alchemist bought back and was able to hold the ground for a short while until Orange ran in for the second time a minute later.

Game 2

Orange once again picked up the mid-game push line-up with the Nature's Prophet on the third pick and the Enchantress on the fifth to punish LGD's Anti-Mage pick early in the draft. Initially started out with a Sand King and Shadow Demon dual lane on top, Orange rotated the Enchantress into the Dire jungle and the switch was successful because they were able to clinch the First Blood on the Rubick. LGD responded with a kill on the Sand King before both teams disarmed.

Orange clinched another crucial key, this time on the Anti-Mage, with the help of Enchantress and two of her neutrals and a teleport support from a hasted Nature's Prophet. After the Anti-Mage went down, Orange continued diving LGD tier one tower and was able to kill the Magnus, Leshrac and Rubick, trading only the Nature's Prophet life for the four. With that in the books, Orange was up to 7-3 in kill score at 10 minutes.

Sticking to their game plan, Orange switch between pushing as five and split pushing and was able to take down all three of LGD's tier one towers within three minutes. At this point, LGD was unable to take a fight against Orange with the Force Staff up on Outworld Devourer and Shadow Demon, Mekansm out on Nature's Prophet and two Arcane Boots. LGD on the other hand, had a Magnus without Blink Dagger at 20 minutes.





Magnus with no blink at 20 minutes. Things not looking well for LGD

Orange moved to the top lane in an attempt to take down the tier two tower but was met with heavy repel from the many spam skills of LGD. Instead, Orange immediately started split pushing the mid lane and took down the tier two tower before LGD could mobilize themselves. While both teams were back to farming after the small push, Beastmaster purchased a Cloak signifying that he will not be going for the Aghanim's Scepter for the long range initiation. At the same time, Mushi farmed up a full Scythe of Vyse while Anti-Mage collected his Black King Bar.

Come 30 minutes, both teams were ready to contest for Roshan and although LGD got off to a good start, killing the Outworld Devourer from the get-go, Orange was able to hold their ground and kill the Beastmaster and Magnus in return. Mushi also bought back and with the odds on their side, they were able to take down the Roshan in ease. Sylar's Anti-Mage however, was starting to become a thorn in LGD's playbook, farming up quite the storm and in the last battle, was able to take down Outworld Devourer in mere seconds.

Realizing that their time was running out, Orange went for a push on the bottom lane. Rushing onto the high ground, Rubick was able to steal Outworld Devourer's ultimate and used it to kill the Enchantress. The rest of the Malaysian squad instantly ran out of mana and Anti-Mage was able to take down two of the retreating heroes.





Anti-Mage Anti-Fun. Anti-Mage kills Outworld Devourer for the second time at 45 minutes

Both teams, or Orange rather, went passive after that fight just farming in their jungle while waiting 2 minutes for the Roshan to respawn. Seconds before the Roshan respawned, LGD took a fight from a disadvantage position and was well successful in killing the Outworld Devourer and forcing a buy back. Orange immediately smoked into Rosh in an attempt to steal it but once LGD found out about it (Roshan at 1/2 hp at that point), they rushed into the Rosh pit and off a well-placed Reverse Polarity from Magnus, killed Mushi for the second time. They cleaned up the Rosh shortly after.

The tide has turned for LGD and they are now on the offense, limiting Orange to the confine of their base. After taking down all of Orange's outer towers, LGD sieged the tier three tower on the middle lane but backed off as the Aegis expired. With the retreat in mind, Orange ventured out a little further to farm but that was a bad mistake because LGD was in fact, baiting the retreat and went in immediately for the kills. Mushi was the first guy to called gg after he died trying to protect the barracks from going down.

Game 3

Orange ran a double jungler of Nature's Prophet and Chen with the Nature's Prophet applying constant pressure to the top lane, allowing Anti-Mage to farm. Orange's was very aggressive in their plays and despite three teleports from the Nature's Prophet to the top lane, they failed to secure the kill on the Windrunner who was extremely patient with the usage of her Windrun ability. On the bright side, Orange was still able to secure the First Blood on the Dark Seer with a smoke popped on the Chen.

At the same time, Alchemist coupled with the Leshrac and Bane Elemental quickly pushed down two towers on the bottom lane, building up a 4,000 gold advantage 7 minutes into the game. At 9:53 game time, Alchemist purchased his Battlefury and continued farming away on the bottom lane without anybody bothering. Anti-Mage also picked up his Battlefury but slightly less than 3 minutes after the Alchemist. With a small lead LGD had, LGD pushed the tier one tower on the middle lane after picking off the Dragon Knight.

Shortly after, LGD gathered on the bottom lane and while they nearly picked off one of Orange, Orange's supports were quick to arrive and saved him and at the same time, cleaned up LGD heroes one by one. Eager to make something happen, Orange smoked up and rotated mid where all of LGD were. It was Rubick who initiated first on the Dark Seer but with LGD's supports fast approaching, Orange backed off but was vacuumed back by the Dark Seer. Dragon Knight ended up killing the Dark Seer and also made it out alive off Rubick's Test of Faith, a skill that he stole from the Chen.

Slowly but surely, LGD started equalizing the kill score and the gold graph through good and meticulous plays from their supports. LGD finally tied the kill score at 8-8 after Anti-Mage blinked into his own jungle where five smoked LGD heroes were waiting for him. LGD seized the opportunity and pushed the top lane but was met with heavy resistance from Orange. Anti-Mage respawned and chased LGD around but was only successful in picking off two heroes. LGD's second push on the top lane, with an Alchemist almost twice the net worth of the Anti-Mage, was successful in taking down the barracks and also the Dragon Knight and Anti-Mage. While the Dragon Knight bought back, the Anti-Mage did not and LGD took middle barracks, forcing the gg from the Malaysians.

Game 4

The first game started out with both teams performing ultra-aggressive maneuveur on the middle lane but the solo laners miraculously managed to avoid both the ganks, wasting a lot of time of the supports. LGD also bizarrely placed Lifestealer on the bottom lane against Orange's Batrider but the even weirder part was the fact that Lifestealer was in fact winning the lane despite the stacks of Sticky Napalm he was carrying.

A big 4v5 battle erupted on the top lane at the 10th minute mark and although Orange had a good start to the fight, LGD's supports came pouring in to revenge for their comrade and after a drawn out fight, LGD.cn managed to even the kill score at 5 a piece. While the skirmish was happening, Orange's Lone Druid was happily watching the fight going down and took down the tier one tower on the middle lane. LGD responded to that by grouping up on the bottom lane for a push on the tier one tower. The series leader was not met with high resistance in their attempt and in fact, killed a few of Orange on their way out of the lane, mostly due to bad positioning. Orange's plan was to have Lone Druid split push while this is happening but he was not pushing fast enough.

As Orange shifted their eyes on the top lane, Orange was one step ahead, smoked and rushed into the Dire jungle killing all of LGD's core heroes. LGD did a triple buyback and all the cores rejoined the fight with full health and mana and they were able to drive Orange back, only picking up the kill on Sand King who acted as a decoy for the retreat. At the end of that fight, both teams have their gold and experience advantage reset and they were dead even.





Difference in gold at 24 minutes

Realizing that it would be a bad idea for them to delay the game any further, Orange forced the push on the tier two tower on the bottom lane. Orange had a good position to initiate the fight but due to a mistake by the Batrider, blinking into an Ice Path, LGD was able to avoid the Lasso and kill the Batrider before he could do anything. This mistake also resulted in the death of the Sand King and the Lone Druid. LGD moved into the Rosh pit without hesitation and secured the Aegis.

LGD immediately assembled on the top lane to push down Orange's final tier one tower and although they were able to take it down without any defense, LGD was treated to an Epicentre to Burrowstrike combo on three of their support heroes. Miraculously, only the Jakiro went down while LGD got the Sand King. Orange's insistence to push were costing them bigger and bigger deficit. In a smoke gank gone wrong, LGD was able to turn the fight around near their tier two tower on the middle lane and this in turn, resulted in the destruction of Orange's tier three tower.

With the second Aegis in hand, LGD rushed middle met with their own demise when the Batrider decided to Lasso the Shadow Demon instead of the core heroes. Coupled with the Epicentre by Sand King, Orange was able to kill all but the Weaver who narrowly escaped on Shukuchi. Orange pushed mid but backed off as soon as LGD heroes started respawning. Both teams were waiting for the Roshan to spawn and decided not to engage before then.





Orange fighting for their tournament life

As soon as the Roshan respawned, members of both sides smoked up and play the mind game but eventually, the war began on the middle lane. Despite managing to kill the Lifestealer, the two other cores of LGD was simply too much to take on. LGD went into the Rosh pit after that and took down Roshan. The Aegis however, was stolen by Sand King who was still lurking around the Rosh pit, the scorpion died twice afterwards but it was for a noble cause.

After taking a huge fight on the bottom lane in which LGD was able to kill the Batrider and the Sand King, LGD questionably rushed mid and although they took down the barracks, they paid for it with the life of the Weaver which was lost again shortly after, trading blows with the Lone Druid. Lone Druid bought back into the game went straight into the Rosh pit. In a last ditch effort to protect the Aegis and Cheese, LGD recklessly ran into Orange and ended up getting wiped. Orange secured the Roshan kill and shortly after, the game.

Game 5

Even in such a crucial game five, NeoES.Orange was bold enough to go for a brave unorthodox line-up consisting of Ogre Magi, Skywrath Mage and Slark. To make it even more bizarre, Orange ran Anti-Mage solo mid and act as a ganker instead of the conventional farmer. Orange did pay for it 3 minutes into the game when Anti-Mage rotated to the top lane to gank the Bounty Hunter. While Bounty Hunter got away easily, the solo mid Dark Seer who has moved to the top lane together with the Anti-Mage was able to nearly kill both Anti-Mage and Slark but will settle for only the Slark as First Blood. Anti-Mage stayed on the top lane while Slark moved towards mid.

LGD's trilane on the bottom lane was also doing well going up against Orange's Skywrath Mage, Windrunner and Ogre Magi combo. Apart from a succesful laning phase, the supports of LGD also stacked up a bunch of neutral camps for Alchemist to farm. Alchemist bought his Shadow Blade 13 minutes into the game despite having only one level of Greevil's Greed. Alchemist immediately went to work with his new toy, placing a three seconds stun on Anti-Mage and just right click him down.

Now that Dark Seer has his Mekansm up and running, all of LGD moved towards the top lane and took down the tier one tower. LGD then moved to the bottom lane and took the tier two tower while Orange helplessly watch them take it. This escalated to a mid tier one tower and by the 19th minute mark, Orange only had one outer tower standing.

After picking off the overextended Slark on the bottom lane, LGD gathered for a second push on the mid lane, this time for the tier three tower. The push was successful and with Slark dying once again before the battle began, there was no fighting chance for Orange and they graciously surrendered.