WePlay! Dota 2 Tug of War: Radiant - The winner is known!

A small digression: one of the Russian broadcast commentators met kodos (one of the Team Empire players) in the chat before the match. When kodos asked him what predictions the commentators had on this long series of games over the past few years in Dota 2, the answer was 4:1 for NiP. Kodos replied that the casters don't believe in Empire for nothing.

Ninjas in Pyjamas had their own plans for this tournament: they didn’t want to be second in our tournament again. Do you want to know how the confrontation between the East and the West ended? Read our Final day recap!

First map

Team Empire chose Phantom Assassin as the main carry for the debut match in the finals. Monkey King and Bounty Hunter were picked for roaming, Winter Wyvern and Tiny as supports. NiP chose the proven Lifestealer and Doom, Pugna for Fata on the mid, adding a couple of Lich and Shadow Shaman support to the team.

First blood for Empire was obtained in the 3rd minute when Phantom Assassin, Tiny and Winter Wyvern were driven 33 on Doom into a dense forest. Bounty Hunter, unfortunately, didn’t show much progress until the end of the game, dying here and there and with difficulty gathered the necessary items. Ace felt calm, standing Lifestealer on the free farm on the hard lane, collecting Midas to the 5th minute and breaking the top net worth. Midlaner Pugna took Atos and Aethern Lens to bring significant damage to the enemies while remaining behind the tanks.

NiP's failures began with a Lifestealer error, who tried to take away the lower rune and died, taking Lich with himself. Then they lost the mid T1  and top T2. After Pugna got Blink Dagger and Monkey King picked up Diffusal Blade they took T2 on the middle lane from the enemy. 23rd minute and NiP went on an active attack, killing four enemies. Empire responded with a full team wipe, and 4 thousand gold received in a fight. Both Roshan in the game belonged to Phantom Assassin, which allowed her to calmly assemble the necessary Basher and Satanic and begin to demolish Ninjas in Pyjamas. Those, in their turn, didn’t give up until the end, refusing to admit defeat, when Team Empire destroyed the base to the last pebble, and Phantom Assassin didn’t hesitate to kill right on the fountain. 45th minute: mega creeps for NiP, lack of buybacks, 40.000 gold advantage and the long-awaited GG from NiP. 1:0 for Team Empire. 

Second map

On the second map, the teams decided not to give the opponent a chance to choose their “favourite heroes” - Empire banned Lifestealer, while NiP banned a bunch of heroes from the previous game: Phantom Assassin, Monkey King, Tiny and just in case Ursa and Viper.

NiP chose  Pangolier for retaliation, Troll Warlord and Razor - speed and damage, Tusk and Chen for supporting. Team Empire selected Doom, adding Juggernaut, Outworld Devourer, Grimstroke and Shadow Shaman.

First blood was easily surrendered to NiP by the Empire player kodos on Outworld Devourer, who entered the enemy’s rune. As in the previous map, the confident start of Ninjas and the Team Empire’s lag before the mid-fight, where there was an exchange of TE 4 to 3 NiP heroes. In general, Doom suffered the most throughout the entire game - NiP caught him everywhere and didn’t let him go to death, not giving him freedom and farming. Pangolier and Razor dominated the map, making triple kills. However, they relaxed and were killed twice as a result of a competent Smoke from Empire on the 20th minute. Without losing a minute, Empire took the T1 on the midlane. The next 9 minutes nothing important happened on the map, only required items farm and unsuccessful attempts to get to Roshan under Smokes. One of these outings ended in a fight near Roshpit, where pairs of supports exchanged deaths and buybacks, and Razor made a team wipe, getting his Rampage in the 30th minute. Bringing away the top barracks from Empire and taking Roshan, Ninjas took the Empire’s core Juggernaut under Smoke, sending him to “rest” for 100 seconds without a buyback. Then nothing prevented Ninjas from entering the high ground and getting a 1:1 draw.

Third map

Team Empire took the first Mirana in this tournament, Tiny, which perfectly “came to court” for core Sven, as well as Viper and Grimstroke. Ninjas picked Razor again, Lycan to increase damage, and Pangolier, Rubick, Phoenix for mobile supporting.

Saksa on Rubick became the first victim of Empire in the 4th minute. Razor suffered after him, and until the 8th minute, the Empire led the score and net worth. In general, the forces and values in gold were equal throughout the game: teams exchanged kills with almost identical results. Unfortunately, Viper didn’t have enough time and “space” on the map for a decent farm, which he gave to Sven and Mirana. We didn’t see the decent damage from this hero. A good game was shown by sayuw on Tiny, who with literate precision threw the enraged Sven into a crowd of enemies and then he was smashing NiP into slivers. The main task for NiP was to “turn off” Sven and Viper from the game, which they successfully did, sending the heroes to Fountain for a long time. The middle of the game showed equal team strengths, but the absence of such an essential item as Blink Dagger from Sven played its role. Even though the Empire players had the second Aegis, NiP smashed their base to mega creeps and destroyed their Ancient. 2:1 for NiP.

Fourth map

The greed that Empire showed during the draft turned into a short 15-minute game. Team Empire picked Anti-Mage, Magnus, Huskar, Oracle and Tiny, counting on the late game. NiP had another plans and took Enigma on the mid, Lone Druid and Ember Spirit to ruin Anti-Mage’s life. Tusk became the support.

Enigma showed a great start, killing Huskar on the mid lane. Anti-Mage was expected to be weak on its line, not being able to farm. 11th minute and Empire had remaining Tier-2 on the bottom lane and 6,000 gold advantage from Ninjas. A proper Reverse Polarity from Magnus in the battle near top Tier-3 didn’t save the situation and on the 16th minute and the missing two sides, dream’ wrote GG, leaving NiP with the 3:1 score.

Fifth map

Empire picked Anti-Mage again despite the past mistake, with Ursa as the main cores. Also added well-known Viper, Shadow Shaman and Winter Wyvern. Ninjas in Pyjamas answered with Pangolier and Weaver as the carry, Arc Warden for Ace on the mid lane, Rubick and Bane for supporting. 

Team Empire players got themselves together, and Anti-Mage very aggressively defended his line against Weaver, while the standoff on other lines was almost equal. Equal forces shifted toward NiP on the 13th minute: they took an important three heroes (Ursa, Shadow Shaman and Viper). Then the teams exchanged, and core NiP heroes were exchanged for Empire’s supports. The advantage was on the Radiant side, whose carry had already had the necessary items to intimidate the enemy. Ursa had Blink Dagger, picked up Double Damage rune and beaten off Roshan, without encountering resistance from the opponent. The subsequent Ninjas mistake cost them Pangolier and Arc Warden while other heroes was beating off Viper on the top lane.

The decisive battle, as usual, was the clash at the second Roshan, where Shadow Shaman sacrificed himself, brilliantly putting his “snakes” into the Roshpit. This move allowed Anti-Mage to finish off Roshan, pick up Aegis and make a triple kill on Rubick, Bane and Weaver. The subsequent actions of Ace can hardly be called a reasonable choice: he regularly “fed” Anti-Mage with illusions, sending them to push the lines. Gem of True Sight allows "Shadow Shaman and Co" to stop any attempts by Weaver to push the bottom lane. Empire demolished NiP’s top barracks and shrine at the 40th minute. And then, while the team was distracting the enemies at the top, Ursa took down the mid-Tier-3 and helped to kill the heroes to the winning “GG” in the 42nd minute with the advantage of 26.000 gold.

Sixth map

NiP took a severe pool of heroes for the next game: Lifestealer, Night Stalker and Ember Spirit with the support of Batrider and Nyx Assassin. Team Empire bet on Pangolier and Juggernaut, adding Nature’s Prophet, Tiny and Winter Wyvern to give good support to their cores.

Until the 12th minute, luck was on the side of Team Empire, who took a confident start with the score 6:1. However, Ninjas didn’t want to give a chance to the “imperials”, and in the 17th minute, they grabbed the advantage in terms of the score and gold. Lifestealer had a good farm and Radiance to the 20th minute. The rest of the teammates didn’t lag behind the main carry on the farm, and this allowed Ninjas to become map’s masters, driving opponents all over the map. Ember got his BKB, Night Stalker got Solar Crest and Lifestealer his Manta Style by the 26th minute. This “funny company” knocked out Aegis from Roshan and then went to the mid lane, suppressed Empire resistance and with a 25,000 gold advantage became Tug of War: Radiant champions!

Congratulations to Ninjas in Pyjamas with a deserved victory: they get a slot on LAN-final and $30.000.

Team Empire became Vice-champions and got $12.000.