Perilous Ruin vs Enslave Gaming

The first match up of the day saw hot favourites and number one seed Perilous Ruin, featuring the likes of Rime and Chuen come up against one of the underdogs of the tournament, Enslave gaming in a best of two group stage match.

Game 1:

The game started with both teams playing passively, before Enslave were able to draw first blood on the Dark Seer of Perilous Ruin through the double stun/nuke combo of the carry Vengeful Spirit and support Leshrac. PR seemed very happy to let the Dire side run at them in the top and mid lanes, as this would leave the Lifestealer of Chuen to keep farming away for the Radiant, however it was the Outworld Devourer of RIme that would top the networth chart in the early game after picking up the early Hand of Midas as he continued to snowball almost out of control, grabbing an ultrakill before the game even hit 21 minutes. The Radiant side continued to press on from their early game lead by killing Roshan and taking the aegis before going straight up onto the high ground and once again getting an ultrakill on their OD before forcing the GG call in 26 minutes of game one.

Game 2:

The draft in game two saw Enslave pick up a different draft, grabbing themselves a carry timbersaw and mid Jakiro that was effective early on against the Ember Spirit of Rime, due to the liquid fire and dual breath being able to wipe out the flame guard of Ember relatively quickly. This lead to a first blood on the Ember as he was not able to defend himself from the three man gank squad of Jakiro with the Rubick and Mirana. Perilous however did not seem phased by the fast start from Enslave and began to take the lead both in networth and kills as all three of their cores continued to sit atop the last hit chart. It seemed like a retelling of the first game as the Radiant farmed up on their cores whilst the Dire attempted to shut them down and failing and at 14 minutes the advantage that Perilous had began to show. A fight in the bottom lane saw Chuen on the Luna secure a triple kill and then taking the top lane of barracks of Enslave gaming at the 17 minute mark, garnering a 10k gold lead. Despite the Ember Spirit and Silencer both being picked off on the way out, Perilous Ruin knew that they still held a huge advantage and decided to  go high ground once again killing all of the Dire heroes forcing Enslave to GG out at 22 minutes.

Teabags vs We Go Gym

Game 1:

One of the most equal match ups of the tournament between the third seed Teabags and fifth seed We Go Gym, as game one saw both teams playing passive farming mids in the Invoker and Shadow Fiend and this was the story of the early game as the teams seemed happy to just farm, The big tipping point in the game came when the Teabags were able to pick off two heroes from the Radiant side securing themselves the Roshan kill and an aegis for Vengeful Spirit, giving the Dire the chance to push up the high ground in top lane and take the melee barracks of We Go Gym. Despite this the Radiant were able to find kills and even push back up the middle land taking the middle ranged barracks but another Roshan kill led to another Melee barracks for Teabags and objective gaming was the name of the game here for them, focusing on taking the buildings instead of chasing for kills and this helped to secure them the game as the pressure in the Radiant base became too much for them as Teabags forced the last lane of barracks bottom and killed the entire We Go Gym lineup and destroying the Radiant throne to secure the game one victory.

Game 2:

Teabags went for an early game draft in game two, repeating their support Weaver pick from game one whilst drafting  a Templar Assassin and a carry Viper in the hopes of completely shutting down the WGG line-up, that interestingly featured an a la carte Luna without her beloved Shadow Demon to spam illusions for her. The first blood came in the mid lane as Weaver was caught out trying to gank the Dire Storm Spirit and tanking too much tower damage. WGG Reeper playing the Batrider dictated his offlane, picking up numerous kills in the early game whilst evading the counter ganks coming in from the Radiant securing himself a very good timing on his blink dagger. The advantage that this created helped WGG to take most of an absolutely huge ancient stack that the Templar Assassin had built for herself, whilst also giving them the inititation needed to win a huge fight by the Dire top shrine that lead to three kills for WGG. The Radiant with Rosh and Gem of true sight in hand decided to push bot lane but a perfect Riki and Batrider combo turned what looked like a hard defense into a great turnaround and fight, nearly wiping Teabags despite the aegis advantage that the Radiant had. Despite this the Radiant were not deterred as they pushed up the high ground and took the top melee barracks losing only their TA in return, leading to another Roshan kill for Teabags and one more teamwipe in the Dire base won the game for Teabags, a 2-0 victory for them.

Jiwan a build a snowman vs The Super Cool Dudes

Game 1:

The Super Cool Dudes are another team that were expecting to go far, being seeded second in the group stage and at points in this first game, they showed why they were ranked so highly. At times they just outplayed the Radiant in fights even going so far as to dive their base to kill the Lifestealer of Jiwan.. The game never really got going for the Radiant as SCD were cool, calm and calculated in their playstyle as they separated and hunted down anyone from the enemy who dared to leave their base. SCD Meep’s Slark was key to winning the game as the Slark fit right into their draft as the hero who can scout for the enemy heroes and aid in getting the pick offs that were so prevalent in this game. The game came to a head when the Dire wiped Jiwan to build a Snowman outside of their base and forced the Radiant to tap out.

Game 2:

The second game of this series was fiercely contested with both teams trading kills regularly through the early game, which is to be expected with heroes such as Bounty Hunter, Spirit Breaker and Ursa being drafted, however the game seemed to take a turn when at 16 minutes, the Radiant sided Super Cool Dudes killed three heroes for just their own support Witch Doctor, allowing them to take the mid tier one tower down. The next ten minutes followed the same formula, push a tower or find a pick off, that was the name of the game for SCD, however at 25 minutes Jiwad to build a snowman almost wiped the entire Radiant team, killing all but the Ember Spirit who tp’d out after they had no stuns left for him. The game continued to swing in the favour of Jiwad as they were able to snatch the gem away from SCD after once again killing all but the Ember from Radiant team. Both teams continued to fight and the favour swung back onto the Radiant side as they were able to snatch Roshan and push high ground, wiping the enemy team except for the Weaver, who could do nothing but watch as SCD destroyed his buildings and forcing his team to tap out.

At the end of day one the group standings see Perilous Ruin top group A and The Super Cool Dudes topping group B, both with records of four series played and four wins. In second place in group A is Teabags with a 3-1 record only losing to the leaders of the group, exactly the same story for the second place team in group B Jiwan to build a snowman, who are also 3-1.The rest of the group standings see We Go Gym in third, Enslave in fourth and Best Irish Gaming sat at the bottom in fifth place of group A. Meanwhile in group B, Impulse sit in third and Boosting your Maw round it out in fourth place as their is one less team in group B.

Day 2 will see all of the teams entering a double elimination bracket playoff with matches starting between 11AM-12PM.