BeyoundTheSummit World Tour updates: TongFu vs LGD, EHOME vs coL

Day 3 of the BeyondTheSummit World Tour Dota 2 tournament continued on Wednesday night, with TongFu against LGD and EHOME versus coL. All four teams have been invited to The International Dota 2 Championships, with TongFu winning the invitation via the East Wild Card Qualifiers.

The tournament is a winner-takes-all US$1,000 prize pool tournament featuring 16 of the world’s best teams from America, Europe and Asia.

TongFu vs LGD

TongFu, the winners of the East Wild Card Qualifier for The International 2, have proven themselves to be extremely worthy to be invited. They did not drop even a single game despite going up against many other strong Asian teams.

LGD has been extremely successful, having its peak era back in 2009 – 2010. It has since reshuffled its roster, but with the addition of Sylar, they have since been performing well.

Game 1:

TongFu managed to pick up the Queen of Pain along with the Invoker, hinting a painful mid game fight. With the addition of Enchantress, Shadow Demon and Sand King, TongFu‘s ganking potential looks overpowering. LGD went with a semi-gank, semi-heavy push with the Night Stalker, Leshrac and Shadow Shaman. With the Morphling pick up, LGD also ensures that they have the end game covered.

Enchantress managed to get a hold of a Wildkin, beginning the tornado to scout for any opportunities to gank any straying LGD heroes, as well as blocking off the creep camp so LGD will be unable to pull any creep camps. With Shadow Demon starting off the engage onto Leshrac with a Disruption. TongFu began right-clicking down Leshrac, with Sand King’s Burrowstrike followed by right clicks from both Shadow Demon and Enchantress. Awarding the first blood to Shadow Demon.

Despite being aggressive towards LGD‘s Neutral creep camps, Night Stalker managed to have a successful first night roam and LGD began to pick up on kills. With an early team fight in the middle lane, LGD came out on top eventually, after kills were exchanged. LGD‘s farm continued as Morphling and Night Stalker got bigger from lots of ganking and TongFu were soon unable to keep up with the roaming and damage coming out from LGD.

With a lead in gold and experience, LGD began sticking together, pushing towers with Shadow Shaman’s Mass Serpent Wards and Leshrac’s Diabolic Edic. After a few more big team fights, TongFu were unable to keep up with  Morphling’s farm and Awoke called out the GG at 27:10.

Game 2:

LGD decided to go for a mid-late game line up with a decent ganking ability. Surprisingly, TongFu decided not to ban Morphling despite getting destroyed by it the previous game. LGD also picked up the Nature’s Prophet for a strong global presence ganking ability as well as a side line push.

TongFu, on the other hand, picked the Night Stalker, a favourite pick of Mu (he did not end up playing the Night Stalker), which allowed TongFu to carry out ganks just as LGD did against them in the previous game.

A surprising pick up of the Templar Assassin showed how different Chinese teams play from the rest of the world. TongFu seemed to be relying more on the team fight to work out with the Tidehunter’s Ravage.

An aggressive top rune peek by both teams led to an engagement occurring right along the river, all the way up towards the Radiant’s ancient spawn. With a Gush and Void onto Shadow Demon, TongFu desperately wanted to bring him down while Sand King and Morphling were trying to focus down the Night Stalker to force him to back off. Sand King’s Burrowstrike onto both Night Stalker and Venomancer was not enough to stop TongFu from pushing on, with help from Venomancer’s right clicks, Night Stalker finally got the first blood. TongFu even turned on the remaining LGD heroes, managing to take out the Sand King but losing the Night Stalker in the end.

Nature’s Prophet huge early game farm allowed a very early Mekansm which helped LGD win a team fight on the top lane. LGD then began playing an aggressive top lane while Invoker’s Sun Strike and Nature’s Prophet allowed for many ganking opportunities although the fights normally ended up in even trades with quick reinforcements from TongFu.

TongFu‘s ganking line up soon shows its strength with Night Stalker roaming in the night time, claiming many successful kills. Tidehunter’s Ravage also managed to help TongFu win many team fights with the damage being too unbearable for LGD to win. It soon seems like it was TongFu‘s game to lose when LGD made a sudden comeback on the middle lane, coming out on top on a team fight with 4 kills because Tidehunter’s Ravage was on cooldown.

LGD soon propelled themselves into the lead after a successful team fight on the bottom lane, once again taking out 4 TongFu heroes. LGD continues building their momentum, not willing to force anything risky and instead farmed up as much as they could.

Finally, pushing out the middle lane, LGD took out the Dire’s middle Tier 3 tower along with the barracks and at least 3 TongFu heroes before rotating downwards to the bottom Tier 3 tower. TongFu began buying back but the damage coming out from LGD was too much to take. TongFu got team wiped and Awoke called the GG at 32:16.

LGD comes out victorious 2-0!

EHOME vs compLexity

EHOME has been through major roster shuffles before Dota 2 and even after The International 2011. The latest roster includes players that have been playing DotA for a long time, including captain KingJ who was in the 2010 dominating roster. Out of the 5 players, only 3 remain from the original The International 2011 line up.

Game 1:

It seems that EHOME is aiming for a heavy ganking line up with the Bounty Hunter pick up. The Brew Master and Chen will give EHOME the ability to have a good team fight potential. coL, on the other hand, decides to go for a heavy team fight with Tidehunter, Enchantress as well as having Queen of Pain’s high burst damage.

An aggressive Brew Master’s Thunder Clap onto Tidehunter brought about multiple right clicks onto the retreating hero. A successful level 1 Shackle managed to hold Tidehunter in place long enough for Brew Master to get a critical hit. With a final right click, Windrunner managed to claim the first blood for EHOME.

EHOME‘s initial playstyle was to simply allow Brew Master to get some farm up on the bottom lane. However, with an unexpected push out from coL on the top lane, EHOME were forced to change their strategy and began grouping up to take down coL‘s towers, one by one.

EHOME eventually began to lose interest in farming, instead focusing on ganking any heroes that they could find. Eventually leading the scoreboard by a huge margin, EHOME began to play it safe, staying on their side of the river and only crossing it when they are smoked up or planning to push a tower. KingJ’s magnificient Chen play allowed him to claim two Tier 2 towers, using his creeps to get the last hit while EHOME were nowhere near the tower, preventing coL from denying it.

A huge team fight eventually burst out on the bottom lane forcing out Ravage. EHOME only lost Chen in that engagement, while coL lost their Queen of Pain. Both teams continued to trade right clicks, but no further deaths occurred. By now, each player on EHOME‘s team had at least 60-65 creep kills as they continue to take their time to farm up their core items while preventing their remaining towers from being destroyed.

As EHOME went to look for Roshan, coL used a Smoke of Deceit to hopefully catch them offguard. EHOME was too smart for them and picked coL one by one, getting a three-for-nothing trade. EHOME  finally pushes into the Dire’s middle lane, killing off 4 of coL‘s heroes and destroying their Tier 3 tower, forcing a GG at 35:44.

Game 2:

EHOME once again shows how different their strategies are compared to teams from the West. With a line up that has a heavy pushing power with Chen, Lone Druid and Pugna. coL decided to go for the global presence with Nature’s Prophet ganks and mid-late game team fight potential.

A top lane engage with Enchantress and  Venomancer continuously beating down on Pugna while a Venomous Gale flew out and slows down Pugna while Morphling’s Waveform deals the majority of the damage. With a final right click, Morphling claims the first blood at 1:16.

Being one up in the series, EHOME seems to be more relaxed coming into this second game. Admittedly, they did have a higher latency compared to coL.

coL continuously kept up pressure on the top lane, with Nature’s Prophet continuously teleporting in multiple times to get ganks, allowing Lone Druid to get free farm in the middle lane while Sand King manages to outfarm and successfully harass Invoker. Despite the lag issues, EHOME managed to put up a fight.

coL‘s ganks proved to be too much as their lead began to snowball as their Morphling and Nature’s Prophet began to outdamage the entire EHOME line up. EHOME decided to make a desperate middle lane base race, with coL responding by forcing the top and bottom lane back in. EHOME only managed to claim the Tier 3 tower while coL took out a total of 3 barracks.

The lead became too much and EHOME attempted to rush in straight for the throne to force out a GG, only to be stopped by four of coL‘s team, with Nature’s Prophet teleporting to the top lane, applying continuous pressure. It was eventually too much and QQQ called the GG at 43:44.

Game 3:

For the first few picks and bans of this game, it seemed like both EHOME and coL were just simply repeating Game 2. The change came when coL picked up Tinker and EHOME got Broodmother. coL also picked up a surprising Sven, who ended up being a carry in TC’s hands. TC, being a great player, even able to turn Tiny into a carry hero, is a player not to be doubted when playing such odd heroes. EHOME on the other hand took up the Storm Spirit which brings us to a heavy gank and push line up with the power of Chen’s creeps, Lone Druid and Broodmother. Lion was also picked up for his disables and high ultimate burst damage.

Right from the get go, immediate pressure was applied towards KingJ on the Broodmother. With complete harassment after dropping a sentry ward, Venomous Gale, Burrowstrike and Sven’s Storm Hammer proved to be of too much for Broodmother to take, giving Venomancer a significantly easy first blood.

From this point on, it seemed as though coL were taking the lead as Broodmother had to stay behind the Tier 1 tower and be rendered useless as coL pushed onto the bottom Tier 1 tower, while EHOME decided to make a trade and take out the top Tier 1 tower. This turned out to be the biggest mistake for coL, as EHOME‘s heavy top push was having a bigger momentum than coL‘s bottom push and EHOME managed to take a very early Tier 2 tower, forcing coL to reinforce the top lane, giving the Broodmother space to farm.

As the game went on, Lone Druid and Broodmother continuously pushed the top and bottom lane. Even when coL decided to apply pressure on the middle lane, they were unable to keep up with the pushing power of EHOME as Lone Druid and Chen’s creeps along with Broodmother eventually ended up knocking on their doorsteps. This was beginning to look like Game 2, except that it was coL who were getting forced to make desperate decisions.

Excellent play by both PCT’s Storm Spirit and MMY’s Lion gave instant burst damage gank capabilities, forcing coL to stay in their base. EHOME then came up with a distraction plan, with Storm Spirit holding on to the Aegis of the Immortal harassing Sven, Lone Druid was able to push down the top lane.

EHOME‘s perfect play made coL look like puppets, playing them out entirely, with a Lone Druid and Chen combination on the top lane (Chen continuously sent Lone Druid home if coL decided to jump on him, before running far away himself). A huge team fight broke out, and from an underfarmed Broodmother at the 5 minute mark, the hero was now the main damage dealer for EHOME‘s side with KingJ pounding relentlessly on coL, finally managing to get  the top barracks.

As coL got desperate and attempted to push out the middle lane for a base race, it was too late as EHOME only need the middle barracks to get Mega Creeps. coL refused to give up and continued fighting on while EHOME took one last Roshan and pushed straight for the Ancient. The GG was called out at 47:50.

Both teams have shown how badly they want to win the game, with EHOME being desperate in Game 2, attempting for a direct Ancient push while coL refused to give up in Game 3, giving EHOME the fight of their lives.

EHOME comes out victorious 2-1!

You can catch BeyondTheSummit World Tour games live at their http://www.twitch.tv/beyondthesummit channel.

You can also check out the schedules for upcoming games as well as the Groups at http://www.dotacommentaries.com/index.php/bts-wt/.

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