The big match-up of the group, so to speak, Invictus Gaming vs TongFu was the match of the day. iG being the big name of the group,while TongFu has been rather quiet lately,despite their strong appearance vs MUFC.
In the end though, it was the fourth (out of four) 2-0 series this group, with iG taking down TongFu in a convincing manner. The first game saw only 15 minutes of gameplay,showing us why this team holds the title of the Champions of the International.
iG vs TongFu - match recap
VODs available here!
Game 1
Top lane
iG - Windrunner, SandKing, Keeper of the Light
TongFu- Invoker, Lina
Mid lane
iG- Templar Assassin
TongFu- Anti-Mage, Shadow Demon
Bot lane
iG- Lone Druid
TongFu - Magnus
The laning started out well for iG, TongFu didn't place a ward in their own jungle so ChuaN could dive from behind at any point and Faith could always channel his illuminate, resulting in Mu and LongDD getting killed a lot. The midlane didn't go as well as intended for TongFu and at some point they lost both heroes for a Sand King when iG rotated for a gank. All of that while Zhou was winning the solo bot lane. As soon as Zhou killed the bot tier 1 tower, he started pressuring the other lanes. iG heavily won two 5vs5 fights in a row,forcing TongFu to call "gg" after just 15 minutes.
TongFu knew they couldn't trilane vs KotL,so instead they tried two lanes of two but it didn't really work out. iG got a lot of kills for every positional mistake made by TongFu on top. Zhou got his farm without any problems and with all lanes going well, iG started five-manning after the bot tower dropped and TongFu couldn't contest at all. They used a lot of spells to bring down Zhou but he was standing strong while Powershots and Illuminates destroyed TongFu in the skirmishes.
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Game 2
Top lane
TongFu - Dark Seer
iG - Shadow Fiend
Mid lane
TongFu - Beastmaster
iG - Templar Assassin
Bot lane
TongFu - Anti-Mage, Shadow Demon, Dazzle
iG - Magnus, Sand King, Keeper of the Light
Laning went a bit more smoothly this game for TongFu, some good counter warding gave them a good advantage on the trilane and iG were forced to play passively. Ferrari got overconfident mid and got Roared and killed under Mu's tower, giving up the first blood. TongFu used their midgame line-up to create map control, finding kills with the help of Beastmaster. Beastmaster built Necrobook for even more control in terms of map and fights. Some sloppy plays by Ferrari allowed TongFu to pick him off a few more times, but a last-second perfect Reverse Polarity by YYF turned a big fight around making it 5-1 for iG and giving them Roshan at minute 28. The kill score was 12-11 in favour of iG, that fight was just what the doctor ordered for them. Another fight like that went down, Zhou got ultra kill and iG went on to take down bot mid rack. With the defensive draft of TongFu, they opted to gamble in the fights instead of split pushing with Hao. iG won all the major fights late at this point, TongFu looked rather helpless.
The team fight potential of iG was huge, and they won team fights really quick. The laning went okay for them, atleast good enough with Zhou getting a good amount of farm early. The trilane didn't shut down Anti-Mage but they didn't fail to the extent of getting killed, they contest the XP of TongFu's supports and forced them to hang around the bottom lane. The draft from TongFu was rather defensive with them relying on supports to Disrupt one hero and Grave the other one while letting the Wall and Weave do the damage in the fights. Frustrating tactic to fight against but iG's all-burst AoE proved to be more efficient.
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iG are through to the playoffs and only need to win one map vs MUFC to win the group. The only shot for VG advancing is if they beat TongFu 2-0.
Standings
Team Matches Games
Invictus Gaming2-0 4-0
TongFu 1-1 2-2
MUFC 1-1 2-2
Vici Gaming 0-2 0-4
Make sure to check out our overview article and our G-League Coverage Hub for VODs and further information on the tournament.
