AcidRain 1–2 Bestpinoza
Game 1 MVP
AcidRain (12–7–16 pos. 3 Enigma)
Despite all 3 cores sharing a game high 12 kills from the AcidRain team, the captain will take this one one last time for his team for his black holes as well as keeping up in the damage department with a Nature’s Prophet as well as a Spectre. The hour long game was finally put away by the AcidRain team as they held the networth lead for the entirety of the marathon game 1.
Game 2 MVP
/apex (15–5–15 pos. 1 Monkey King)
With their season on the line and on the losing end of an hour long game 1, the Bestpinoza team did what all teams should do, go to their comfort zone and make the other team beat them instead of galaxy braining themselves. With /apex on his signature Monkey King, Jett on his 4 sniper whom he holds a 100% winrate on this season, and Little duckie on her Jakiro which she’s played a whopping *8* times this season. In a back and forth affair, the Bestpinoza team took a massive team fight at roshan that saw their team trading aegis and their pos 4 for 11 radiant heroes.
Game 3 MVP
/apex (16–1–2 pos. 1 TerrorBlade)
Putting the team on his back, /apex told his team “Don’t worry, I got us…” DeMar DeRozan style as he lead his team to a 1st round playoff win. His team will be hoping he doesn’t go full Raptors pre-Kawhi and continues his run of form deeper into the playoffs.
DrSteel 2–0 INSANE CORNDOG
Game 1 MVP
HullCity07 (8–6–31 pos. 4 Shadow Demon)
Despite an absolutely insane 23–1 Zeus performance from Camelfarmer, HullCity played a massive part in his teams dominant game 1 performance. Playing Shadow Demon into Wyvern and Necrophos is like a wet dream, but despite the game being put onto a platter for him, the game isn’t won at draft phase and Hull still showed out and shut down both heroes throughout the match.
Game 2 MVP
Camelfarmer (8–0–18 pos. 2 Storm Spirit)
Continuing his lights out performance from game 1, Camelfarmer put up a flawless stat line as his team cruised to a 32 minute game 2 win. The DrSteel tricore had a combined 5 deaths in game 2 as they put together a complete team victory as they’ve begun to hit their stride as a team late into the season.
Pishtya 2–0 Mu
Game 1 MVP
KILLAYOUA (15–0–8 pos. 1 Slark)
I’ll let Jorge summarize game 1. It was a 31–2, 25 minute win.
Game 2 MVP
Hemsworth (2–6–14 pos. 4 Io)
In a much closer game, the Pishtya team won a decisive team fight around 30 minutes in and their 2k networth lead ballooned to ~13k and they closed out the game shortly thereafter. Despite not the best statline, Hemsworth managed to keep his gyro alive the majority of the game as well as making sure he died only once post 22 minutes.
Captain Pepega 1–2 FrenZyy
Game 1 MVP
Wax (12–2–5 pos. 2 Templar Assassin)
Despite an extra ban added to the last phase, Wax was able to 23 pick his signature TA and made the FrenZyy stack pay for it. In a pretty 1 sided game the Captain Pepega stack took a 2k networth lead post laning phase and took control of the game behind an impressive necro performance from the captain himself and a nice oracle from NinjaStalker.
Game 2 MVP
Kende (15–3–6 pos. 1 Slark)
In an almost picture perfect reversal of game 1, the FrenZyy stack came out on top in another 1 sided game that saw their midlaner pick up one of his signature heroes with a 23 pick.
Game 3 MVP
agile (15–2–21 pos. 3 Legion Commander)
After tactically feeding for 8 weeks, the offlaner finally saw his time to swoop in and put up his performance of the season. Game 3 was definitely the closest of the series, but after almost nonstop fighting throughout the midgame, the FrenZyy stack was able to pull away and amass a 20k networth advantage by the 30 minute mark. Throughout the nonstop fighting, agile was able to pick up 240 duel damage in the 34 minute blood bath that saw a combined 65 kills.
goatsatan 2–1 W.Stealer
Game 1 MVP
FooSquash (13–2–13 pos. 1 Phantom Lancer)
Not only did FooSquash lead his team in kills, but he also picked up 3 kills on the Wife LD from a 5 minute span between the 14th and 19th minute of the game, completely nullifying the strong early-mid game timing of LD. After the W.Stealer team’s timings got all thrown off, the goatsatan team cruised to a 27 minute game 1 win.
Game 2 MVP
Dr.Pizzakiller (8–3–22 pos. 5 Shadow Demon)
Somehow, the goatsatan team managed to run out of reserve time for the 2nd time this season and didn’t manage to ban a 2nd hero in the final ban phase. Wife made them pay by picking ANOTHER (sighhhh) Medusa with his 23 pick and dominating the game. Dr.Pizzakiller however, had himself a game as he managed to grab 4 kills on the enemy Monkey king.
Game 3 MVP
Nuttypizza (10–4–14 pos. 3 Bristleback)
In his comfort zone, nuttypizza was able to not only keep up with his 2 immortal core teammates, but even stand out amongst them. Nutty died the least amount of times in this complete bloodbath of a game 3, despite it being a relatively free bristle game, and was able to become the unkillable frontliner as his team clawed their way into the 2nd round.
thamaestro 0–2 Econ
Game 1 MVP
Stang (14–2–15 pos. 2 Zeus)
The midlaner managed to have an extremely impressive game 1, becoming just 8k damage shy of outdamaging the entire enemy team by himself. Despite playing against a lineup consisting of an axe and a mars, Stang managed to stay alive and only picked up 2 deaths, 1 of which came in laning phase, throughout the match for a game 1 win.
Game 2 MVP
Double King (16–1–13 pos. 1 Luna)
Continuing with a strong showing from game 1, DK was able to put on his carry boots and bring his team into the 2nd round with a big game 2 performance. His lane along with Miyushi, won both lanes once again this series, even allowing Miyu to leave lane to help their offlane fairly early on in this game 2.
Dark 2–0 Alpha
Game 1 MVP
Dark (28–3–10 pos. 1 Riki)
In an attempt to slow down Dark, the Alpha team took up the “Run at him until we can’t anymore” and it uhhh… did not go well for them as he racked up 28 kills in a 36 minute stomp. This wasn’t even a 1v5, the rest of their team had fairly solid games, especially the support duo of SSD and Boomski, they just fed Dark nearly 30 kills.
Game 2 MVP
Dark (22–5–12 pos. 1 Anti-Mage)
In a much more “1v5” feel to game 2, Dark once again had a 20+ kill, <5 death performance. Recovering from a 10k networth lead 30 minutes into the game due to an excess of space created from his team, Dark was able to pull the game back and take game 2 in a close 47 minute affair.
USDanny 2–0 doss
Game 1 MVP
Martin (17–3–13 pos. 1 Viper)
Picking up the weight that Rice boi was unable to pull as his alch got relatively shut down by the doss stack, Martin was able to have himself a free viper game as all 3 of the doss team’s cores get absolutely shredded by break.
Game 2 MVP
Rice Boi (15–0–13 pos. 2 Ember Spirit)
Recovering from a rough game 1, Rice boi dominated game 2 on his signature Ember Spirit. After solo killing the enemy razor in lane, Rice Boi shadowed a top rotation, grabbing another kill on the razor as well as the pos 5 and saved his 3+4, effectively snowballing his game and saving his pos 3’s lane. After the early 2 kills, there was nothing stopping his ember en route to a 29 minute game 2 win.
BobbyPMA 1–2 CC
Game 1 MVP
Noobish (14–0–13 pos. 1 Troll Warlord)
Unfortunately, the allure of a flawless game out of Noob gives him the MVP over Flanking’s 12–3–19 pos. 4 QoP. Game 1 was fairly straightforward for the bobbyless BobbyPMA team as they dominated game 1 and took the game in a quick 31 minutes.
Game 2 MVP
CC (21–8–18 pos. 1 Weaver)
I described a few of the other games this week as “blood baths”. That was a wrong description. THIS game was a blood bath. Winning the game from nearly a 24k networth disadvantage as well as being behind in kills 54–82, the CC team was able to pull the series even in a ridiculous game 2. CC finished the game as the ONLY player on his team with less than *15* deaths. Noobish finished the game 39–6–22. IN A LOSS. OOF.
Game 3 MVP
CC (13–4–10 pos. 1 Faceless Void)
In a game where the CC team managed to hold a networth lead for longer than 10 minutes somehow, they managed to close out the series in a close, but not as close as game 2, game 3 win. CC, who switched to pos. 1 after the departure of Alc, had himself a series as he lead his team to a 2nd round appearance.
Logical 2–0 avgpeen
Game 1 MVP
Fury (14–1–14 pos. 2 Queen of Pain)
The Logical stack had a 9k networth lead at 10 minutes. Somehow this game managed to make it to 31 minutes, but it was a complete stomp in favor of the Logical team. The tricore of Smack, Logical, and Fury combined to be 38–3, splitting 1 death a piece.
Game 2 MVP
Logical (18–3–18 pos. 1 Bloodseeker)
In a much closer game 2 which saw the Logical team lose their 1st and only lane where Smack+Rusty (noobers) lost their lane. Holding off a last pick broodmother, the Logical stack shuffled their lanes well enough to match the sidelane brood against their mars and after back to back deaths on the brood at the 20 minute mark, the game snowballed in Logical’s favor as they extended their lead to a 31k networth lead en route to a 34 minute win.
Round of 16 predictions will be out later this week
