DK walk over Alliance 2-0 in the Semi-Finals of the WPC-ACE, and will meet IG again in the Bo7 Grand Final on 2nd June, 08:00 CEST.
With this 2-0 victory, DK have won a place in the Grand Finals of the 2014 season of the WPC-ACE League. The Best of Seven Grand Finals will take place on 2nd June, at 08:00CEST (14:00CST/SGT). The team that wins WPC-ACE will earn the lion's share (~$161,000USD) of the ~$250,000USD prizepool, the largest prizepool outside of The International. Team DK will face-off once again against IG, in a repeat of the last WPC-ACE League Grand Finals earlier this year on 1 January. In that encounter, IG had surged to a 3-0 lead, but a lunch break saw DK coming back to win the series 4-3.
Alliance will meet NewBee in the 3rd/4th match tomorrow at 08:00CEST. The winner of that match will take ~$16,000 in winnings, and the fourth placed team will bring home ~$8,000.
Game 1
DK drafted an interesting lineup with Mushi as the number one position Templar Assassin and BurNing on a safelane Brewmaster. MMY and LaNm reprise their signature supports on Lion and Enchantress respectively, while iceiceice is on Doom. Meanwhile, Alliance have a very conventional and familiar lineup, with EGM on Dazzle, AdmiralBulldog on Centaur, s4 on Invoker, Loda on Luna and Akke on his signature Chen.
The game started out slow with the first blood being drawn only at 4:30, when the DK supports manage to countergank the Alliance dive on iceiceice with a well-timed smoke. DK's supports continued to succeed, with their second smoke rotation finding a kill on Centaur. With the top tier 1 going DK's way and Alliance being unable to push, DK started their snowball on the back of having a superior teamfight with Brewmaster's Primal Split.
After 12 minutes, the game heavily favours DK with kills, towers, gold and experience all going their way. Despite Alliance getting a couple of pickoffs on Doom, DK always find the superior pickoffs, with kills on Luna and Invoker. The first big teamfight featuring Primal Split heavily went in DK's favour, with them even diving the Radiant Tier 2 and getting kills on Alliance's cores. DK continue to farm the map, with an early Blink Dagger on Lion allowing them the liberty of initiation on Alliance.
This forced Alliance to play defensively, while DK maximised their farm and advantage over their opponents, finding pickoffs on key heroes whenever Alliance tried to push or even farm the lanes - the tale of this is told by their pickoffs on Invoker as well as Centaur trying to get his Blink Dagger. This comes to a head when DK decide to siege the Radiant bottom Tier 1, and despite an Alliance smoke, they still get decimated 0-3, and DK continue to snowball extremely hard.
With DK's movement around the map, Alliance found themselves increasingly unable to farm, and the gold difference was surging to an almost 1,000 GPM difference between the two teams 20 minutes in, with DK taking all but 1 of Alliance's outer towers. Upon seeing Primal Split on cooldown, Alliance attempted to take out DK's mid tier 1 at 24 minutes. But by this point, DK's superiority is too much, allowing them to easily win the teamfight 4-0 even without the Brewmaster ultimate, prompting Alliance to call the GG.
Alliance open with a Lycan and Ancient Apparition ban, while DK bans S4's Batrider, and Treant Protector. Alliance first pick invoker, while DK picks up Enchantress and Doom Bringer. Alliance pick Chen in response.
The second ban phase sees Alliance banning out Lifestealer and Puck, and DK respond with a Prophet and Wisp ban. The second pick phase has DK picking up Templar Assassin, and Alliance drafting Dazzle for EGM. DK's fourth pick is a Lion for MMY, and Alliance draft a Luna for Loda.
DK ban Clockwerk, while Alliance ban Viper. DK pick Brewmaster, and Alliance picks up Centaur for their offlane.
Final lineups:
Radiant - Alliance: Akke on Chen, s4 on Invoker, AdmiralBulldog on Centaur, EGM on Dazzle, Loda on Luna.
Dire - DK: LanM on Enchantress, BurNing on Brewmaster, MMY on Lion, iceiceice on Doom.
00:00 The horn goes without any team really going aggressive. Each team is running a defensive dual-lane thanks to their respective junglers.
02:00 Both offlaners have hit level 2, but are getting zoned out by the respective supports of each team.
04:30 The DK supports rotate to bottom with a smoke and MMY gets a First Blood! on Luna after they dive the tower trying to kill iceiceice.
06:00 The second smoke gank by DK succeeds, getting a kill on Centaur near the Radiant ancients.
06:50 The first tower falls in favour of DK, with BurNing getting the last hit. BurNing picks up Treads and Blink Dagger.
08:30 Mushi dives the top tier 2 and dies after being unable to kill Centaur.
10:30 Iceiceice walks into the Radiant jungle and gets evaporated by a Luna Eclipse.
11:00 DK moves forward to attempt to push down the mid tier 1, but are unable to push it down. They decide to smoke in instead. A huge team fight breaks out and the first use of the Brewmaster ultimate goes DK's way. They get three kills - on Luna, Dazzle and Invoker and even forcing out the Dazzle buyback.
13:00 DK find another pickoff on Chen in the Radiant jungle, and MMY picks up at 13 minute blink Dagger on Lion.
14:30 DK's 2 Blink Daggers (Brewmaster and Lion) find them a kill on Bulldog's Centaur, slowing down his Blink Dagger.
15:45 Another teamfight breaks out in the Radiant jungle, with Invoker, Chen and Dazzle falling to DK, despite an early initiation on MMY's Lion. Current score, 2-10.
17:00 DK picks up Roshan and Aegis on Mushi, and Bulldog's Blink combined with SunStrike finds Alliance a kill on Doom.
18:00 DK fails a gank on Luna, and BurNing is unable to kill Dazzle. However, DK continue to maintain the advantage and the farm as all Alliance can do is to run away for now.
19:00 Mushi gets the last hit on the Radiant top tier 2.
19:45 BurNing picks up his Aghanim's Scepter, and picks off Centaur after he fails his gank on Enchantress. DK take out the Radiant Bottom tier 2.
20:45 DK kills a solo-farming Luna at top, and also finds a kill on Invoker, while Lion dies in return.
22:00 DK lead by 9 kills and 20k gold, and begin to push against Alliance's last remaining outer tower.
23:15 DK use Primal Split and force reactions out of Alliance, but they just retreat after taking the Radiant mid Tier 2.
23:45 Alliance begins their counter push in mid. Despite not having Primal Split, DK come out and demolish Alliance, with Chen's send back saving Luna, and losing the other four heroes in the process.
24:30 Alliance call the GG after losing the teamfight. Final score 17-4.
Game 2
DK have drafted a lineup that is Cleave heavy with both Ember Spirit for BurNing and Kunkka for Mushi, as well as featuring LaNm on Chen, MMY on his signature Lion, and iceiceice on Batrider. Alliance instead draft a lineup with some of their older heroes, with Bulldog on Prophet, Loda on Gyrocopter, s4 on Invoker, EGM on Naga Siren and Akke on Crystal Maiden.
The game starts with a bang as DK catch out Bulldog's Prophet 1 minute in, grabbing the first blood with the supports rotating in for the kill. Alliance responded with a counterkill at 4:30 with their supports rotating in to get a kill on Mushi. At 10 minutes in, the game is completely even, with a 3-3 score and the teams equal on towers and gold.
This equilibrium swung in DK's favour when they manage to steal the Alliance ancient stack after a teamfight in which Loda barely escaped with his life. DK continued to press their advantage by taking more pickoffs, on s4, EGM and even Loda over the course of the next ten minutes. Sensing their disadvantage, Alliance decided to take two disastruous teamfights that saw DK coming out on top by a large margin, and crusing to a large advantage.
With this disadvantage, Alliance then settled into a defensive farming strategy, hoping to farm up more items on Loda and two Sheepsticks on Bulldog and s4. However, DK's advantage was palpable, with them constantly warding off Alliance's jungle with sentries, denying them jungle farm and punishing overextentions when farming the lanes. The advantage was telling when MMY blinked into the Alliance base and found a solo pick-off on Akke without even losing his life by teleporting out.
Sensing that they would be unable to defend their highground if DK were to take Roshan, Alliance smoked out of their base, trying to find a pickoff and then take the Aegis for themselves. However, they were unable to kill LaNm standing guard outside the pit, and Loda immediately purchased a Divine Rapier for DK's re-engage. However, BurNing's farmed Ember Spirit cleaved Loda down within a matter of seconds of the Divine Rapier purchase, leading to Alliance to call the GG at 38:00.
Radiant : Team DK - Ember Spirit, Kunkka, Batrider, Chen, Lion
Dire : Alliance - Gyrocopter, Invoker, Nature's Prophet, Naga Siren, Crystal Maiden
00:00 : The match has started.
01:00 : Chen, Lion and Batrider catch Nature's Prophet, taking him down to grab the First Blood.
04:30 : Alliance is now on the scoreboard. Akke and EGM take down MuShi's Kunkka near the middle tier-one tower.
06:45 : Alliance and DK trade the side tier-one towers. Iceiceice attempts a deny but gets picked off by Alliance's trilane.
10:00 : The score is currently 3-3, the teams are dead even in terms of towers and kills.
13:30 : DK spot Alliance's huge Ancient stack, a fight takes place next to it and Loda barely escapes with his life. DK clean the remaining Ancients.
16:30 : With pickoffs against s4 and EGM, DK is now leading in terms of experience and gold. The score is 7-4.
18:20 : Loda's Gyrocopter is taken down by Batrider and Lion, but MMY's Lion goes down in return to s4's Cold Snap.
25:00 : Two teamfights are won by DK. The score is now 17-7 and the Chinese are ahead by a large margin.
33:00 : One more pick-off by DK. It seems we have entered a stagnant farming period.
35:00 : DK find a pickoff on Bulldog's Prophet at bot lane while MMY solo kills Akke in the Dire base and manages to teleport out. DK are starving out Alliance and lead by 18k gold and 24k exp.
37:30 : Alliance smoke and attempt to go into Roshan. Loda decides to buy a Divine Rapier just as DK engages on them, and gets immediately blown up by a Sleight of Fist, losing the Rapier instantly.
38:00 : Alliance call the GG upon losing the Rapier.
WPC-ACE Elimination Brackets
Headline photo from Team DK's Facebook page
