Alliance began its Dota 2 Shanghai Major campaign strongly on Thursday night, taking down Team Spirit in just two games, in the first of five Best of Three series scheduled for Day Two of the Shanghai Major Group Stages.
It was trouble from the get-go for Team Spirit. An early skirmish with Alliance left Ramzes666, playing as Gyrocopter, trapped on a cliff and unable to farm. To exacerbate the problem, AlwaysWannaFly was forced to abandon his lane, to act as a sort of player courier, so he could deliver a teleport scroll to his stranded teammate. And Spirit never really recovered from that early mistake. Even the respite of a long mid-game pause, forced by a bug that left the team’s courier unable to pick up items, wasn’t enough to get Team Spirit back on its feet during Game One.
Like many of yesterday’s matches, the action in the second round of the Spirit/Alliance match-up began much quicker than it did in Game One. A short skirmish, just after the two minute mark, would yield first blood for Team Spirit. But the squad would ultimately trade Lina and Zeus for one measly Warlock kill, all but eliminating any gold advantage they might have earned from the first blood.
Both teams adopted more conservative play style as the match wore on, generally avoiding team fights in favor of smaller engagements against lone enemies caught out of position. Such fights were still semi-frequent, leading to an 18-18 tie for kills 27 minutes in, but near constant pressure from Alliance – not to mention lights out play from Loda (as Slark) – ultimately put Game Two out of reach for Spirit.
Game One
Results: Alliance Wins (36:34)
Spirit’s Line-Up: Shadow Demon (Goblak), Gyrocopter (Ramzes666), Invoker (Iceberg), Earth Spirit (AlwaysWannaFly) and Faceless Void (Afterlife)
Alliance’s Line-Up: Queen of Pain (s4), Enchantress (Akke), Tiny (Loda), Io (EGM) and Beastmaster (AdmiralBulldog)
Game Two
Results: Alliance Wins (44:28)
Spirit’s Line-Up: Lina (Goblak), Chaos Knight (Ramzes666), Zeus (Iceberg), Io (AlwaysWannaFly) and Centaur Warrunner (Afterlife)
Alliance’s Line-Up: Batrider (s4), Vengeful Spirit (Akke), Slark (Loda), Warlock (EGM) and Nature’s Prophet (AdmiralBulldog)
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