Written by: ReiNNNN
Day one of The International 3 Western qualifier is over. DD.Dota will be the only team to qualify for the playoffs today and the second placer of group A will be decided tomorrow. Absolute Legends will be playing the winner of RoX.KIS versus Team Empire in their quest to join the best in Seattle this year. In case you have missed the games, you can read up on the match recap we have made for you.
The International 3 Coverage Hub It's the holy grail of The International 3 coverage!Table of Contents
1. Group A
2. Today's matches
2.2. Match 2: DD.Dota vs Empire
2.3. Match 2: DD.Dota vs aL
Bracket
Click on image for match detailsToday's matches
[Match 1] RoX.KIS vs Absolute LegendsGame one Skywrath Mage was the surprise pick for Absolute Legends but the Danes were quickly off to a bad start, diving the Gyrocopter way past the tier-one tower causing Nature's Prophet to spill the First Blood. aL's persistence in creep skipping on the bot lane gave the Gyrocopter its second kill considering Rocket Barrage is way too much for Dark Seer to tank. Gyrocopter denied the tier-one tower shortly after. RoX.KIS continued to find kills as the game headed towards mid-game and aL found themselves down by 4,000 gold just 11 minutes into the game. The kill score was 8-1 in favour of the Russians at 12 minutes. Absolute Legends finally got their head in the game 15 minutes in, picking up a few kills through the heavy overextension by RoX.KIS although RoX.KIS still had major control of the game through a big gap in terms of farm. With the advantage in hand, RoX.KIS mowed down the middle, and top tier-two tower and Roshan without any resistance. The Aegis was given to the Gyrocopter. aL's small comeback, through overextension by RoX.KIS. The first big engagement of the game broke out 28 minutes in at aL's base entrance to which the Danes successfully defended due to a good Vacuum by Dark Seer. RoX.KIS second try to go high ground was successful until aL started buying out in a last effort to defend their base. The third time however, ended in the demise of four of RoX.KIS' heroes before they took down the tier-three tower. The destruction of the first barracks came only after a crucial pick-off in which the Nature's Prophet got caught out of position due to overconfidence. Another pick-off on Skywrath Mage allowed RoX.KIS to take Roshan uncontested. Despite being able to kill the Puck before the engagement, RoX.KIS players were fully of how ahead they were and walked into the base regardless. The Russians took game one after a small skirmish. Game two Unorthodox heroes will kick-off the second game between RoX.KIS and Absolute Legends as aL picked up the Slark in the first pick phase followed by an Omniknight selection from RoX.KIS. As Draskyl predicted over on the livestream, RoX.KIS picked the Lycanthrope and Juggernaut to define their mass split push line-up for the early finish. However, RoX.KIS had four melee heroes. RoX.KIS ran a bizarre solo mid Omniknight up against the Slark from Absolute Legends. The match-up was relatively even since both heroes are melee and did not have the skills to kill one another. Lycanthrope was the first one to give away the First Blood on the top lane to a Lifestealer and Lina combo. aL took the top tower shortly after the kill. It was a reverse of game one and aL took the commanding lead very early in game two. After a sloppy engagement on the middle lane in which the Enigma even blew the Black Hole for nothing, aL still came up on top picking up four kills and losing none. Absolute Legends rotation all over the map increased their gold advantage to more than 10,000 mere 14 minutes in. Eventually, RoX.KIS' outer towers fell and aL went for the win after taking down Roshan twice. Game three After a successful run with Slark in the previous game, Absolute Legends once again opted for the same hero and laned him mid against Nature's Prophet. aL's supports were quick on the rotation smoking towards mid and towards top afterwards. However, they did not capitalize on their stealth and instead gave up the First Blood and nearly gave away a second kill too. The slow start to game three suddenly erupted 9 minutes in as great Pounces by the Slark secured aL a 3-1 kill lead in the battle. RoX.KIS responded to the battle by grouping up on the top lane to push down the tier-one but the tower was denied by Slark before the rest of aL retreated. RoX.KIS continued assembling as five, moving around the map taking down towers. On the other hand, aL was minding their own business split pushing and farming on safe areas. As a result, aL was succesful in narrowing RoX.KIS' 3,000 gold lead to just 1,000. Both teams engaged and disengaged several times in the top lane but it was RoX.KIS' overconfidence which threw their momentum out the window. RoX.KIS' small early lead turned disastrous from this point onwards RoX.KIS was able to take down an uncontested Roshan shortly after due to the lack of sight from the Danes. The game went into a dormant state as aL refused to take fights with the Aegis up on the Gyrocopter. Due to the lack of activity, RoX.KIS was slightly pulling ahead in farm although aL were not far behind while having the better late game heroes. After a 10 minutes disarment, Roshan spawned and aL somehow were able to take down Roshan without any reaction from RoX.KIS, mostly due to a missed rocket from Clockwerk, not scouting the Spirit Bear and Slark chipping away at Rosh. Fueled with newfound confidence, aL rushed into the base of RoX.KIS and won a drawn-out fight before taking down the melee barracks. It was all or nothing for RoX.KIS at that point as the Gyrocopter sold his Yasha in place for a Divine Rapier. RoX.KIS was able to defend against aL once but one bad movement to contest the Roshan later, aL stole the Rapier forced the gg from the Russians. will be the first team to head into the winner bracket final of the group. [Match 2]DD.Dota vs Empire Game one Very orthodox picks coming out from both teams in the second match of the day, Empire drafting the standard mid-game dominance line-up such as Lone Druid and Nyx Assassin while DD.Dota opted for a high initiation line-up of Batrider and Puck. Both teams will be looking to engage during mid-game in game one. Both teams went to work really early, Empire claiming their first tower on the trilane just two minutes into the game while DD.Dota claimed theirs a minute later. An even kill trade took place near the bottom rune as the supports from both teams attempted to deward each other (Shadow Demon picked up the First Blood). Queen of Pain died a second time to huge burst damage in an attempt to secure the bottom rune. Empire performed a GREAT (caps lock intended) counter-attack keeping the Juggernaut alive for a split second and going in for the kill on Batrider and Bane Elemental, who both wasted their ultimates on the Juggernaut. Both teams grouped up on the middle lane shortly after as DD.Dota forced the issue and started chipping away on Empire's tower. Despite having the superior mid-game line-up, it was not time for Empire to engage into DD.Dota and hence, ended up giving away two towers of their towers after efforts of delaying the push were performed. With the 4,000 lead in gold, DD immediately moved into the Rosh pit and secured the Aegis for the Luna. The engagement that sealed the deal for DD DD was in a hurry to finish the game as they bulldozed two towers on the top lane and walked high ground into Empire's base. However, Luna and Puck overcommitment into Empire's base got themselves killed and forced DD to regroup before forcing another push. DD's second attempt was very successful in isolating Empire's heroes and as a result, they rewarded themselves with the destruction of the two barracks. DD's win in yet another engagement forced the gg from Empire as DD tore the barracks down. Game two Empire went for the all-or-nothing Ursa pick in attempt to force the match-up into a game three. The Ursa was laned on the off-lane alongside Shadow Demon and Leshrac versus Lifestealer, Nyx Assassin and Keeper of the Light. Shadow Demon ended up dropping to Keeper of the Light as First Blood due to bad retreating position. Overall, DD had the upperhand in the laning phase, winning the side lanes, although they are down in kills. After farming up a storm on the safe-lane, Lifestealer rotated bottom and hid for a good two minutes inside the Spirit Bear before coming out to perform a counter-gank on four of Empire heroes. As a result of the battle and continuous pick-offs DD found, their lead in experience and gold abruptly skyrocket as they took a commanding lead over the pace of the game. Empire's Ursa pick were also ineffective due to the great start DD had, resulting in high level support heroes whom could tank a decent chunk of damage from the Fury Swipes. Soon enough, DD found themselves having twice the kills of what Empire had and almost 14,000 lead in gold. It was tough for Empire to stage a comeback at this point as they pulled out the white flag. [Match 3] DD.Dota vs Absolute Legends Game one DD.Dota switched on their pocket strat mode, picking up the Treant Protector and Outworld Devourer very early in the picking phase, presumably to have a better laning phase through the help of Living Armor. The Living Armor quickly went to work for DD as the small heal prevented the off-lane Enigma from giving away the First Blood to Tinker. On the other hand, aL placed Lone Druid on the middle lane against the Outworld Devourer because Lone Druid did not need any mana to be effective in the lane. The game was pretty dormant to begin due to both teams opting for a defensive strat. The First Blood only came 8 minutes into the game on the bear after Enigma, Leshrac and Outworld Devourer blew their whole arsenal diving him including the Black Hole. With the First Blood in hand, Outworld Devourer bought his Mekansm at 10 minutes. The killscore had not increased since the initial kill on the Lone Druid but DD was slowly pulling away in terms of farm and map control. aL went for a cheeky split ganking play which unfortunately, did not turn out well as both the division did not have enough firepower to kill either the Leshrac nor the Gyrocopter. The Lifestealer died attempting to dive the Leshrac but once again, the kill score did not increase despite a number of skirmishes happening all over the map. A big fight on the bottom lane broke the silence in the game as both teams walked away with an even 3-3 trade, all six casualties were supporters. DD ended up sneaking a half health Rosh courtesy of aL when they are out of position and pushed the top lane when aL was grouped up at mid. Two minutes later, the game decider broke out in the Dire jungle. Gyrocopter and Outworld Devourer finally had the chance to showcase their raw damage, taking down all of the Danes and forcing multiple buybacks. Slowly but surely, DD capitalized on their lead and forced the gg from aL. Game two Despite drafting the super defensive line-up, Absolute Legends opted to lane the Lifestealer and Rubick on the off-lane and placed Disruptor in the jungle. It worked out surprisingly well as the Disruptor thwarted DD's plan to have Enigma alternate between the Radiant jungle and the bottom lane. Enigma eventually returned to his own jungle to farm. Disruptor, living up to his name, continued to be a nuisance to DD especially the Queen of Pain when he stood behind Slark and constantly posed a threat if the Queen of Pain was to overextend. With that said, the game was dead even with neither team having any upperhand past 1,000 gold by 15 minutes. The kill score was also even at 5-5 although aL's death mostly stemmed from Rubick, a support hero. As the game headed past quarter of an hour, aL slowly but evidently built up a small lead due to good maneuveurability on the Infest bomb provided by the Slark. aL assembled as four and pushed down several DD towers before being met with resistance on the middle lane. DD showcased their massive AOE spells in these teamfights and ended up coming up slightly on top, fights after fights. The deciding fight - miscommunication by Naga Siren led to the loss The game went back into a quiet state for a good five minutes after aL took down five towers. A stand-off ensued near the Rosh pit at 27th minute with neither team wanting to go in for the kill. The engagement broke out when DD strolled into the Rosh pit in hopes that aL would fall into their trap to fight near chokepoints. Due to a miscommunication between Naga Siren and the rest of the team, the teamfight ended up horrendous for DD.Dota as the Queen of Pain missed her Sonic Wave on two heroes who were still sleeping after it flew out. aL immediately scrambled for mid and took down a few of DD. Their second try got them two set of raxes and DD pulled out the white flag. Game three Absolute Legends once again finish up the draft with the Rubick and Disruptor pick to form their defensive line-up and support the Lifestealer on the offensive trilane. In contrary to the two prior games, the First Blood was quick to drop just shortly after the 1st minute mark on the Disruptor. With the First Blood dropped, the tone of the lane had drastically changed in favour of DD as they picked up two more like a minute later against the Disruptor and Lifestealer. Meanwhile in the mid-lane, Puck also had quite a considerable lead against Chaos Knight , doubling his creep stats just 4 minutes in and also killing him off with the help of the Dark Seer. Since aL was outplayed for most part of the laning phase, they grouped up very early on the top lane to stop Tiny from farming freely but it was unsuccessful. Not many engagements happened throughout mid-game and this slowly turned in favour of DD since they had the upperhand in map control and also heroes capability to flash farm. Soon enough, DD accummulated over 10,000 in gold lead just 19 minutes in and they took down Roshan to further strengthen their lead. After several more engagements, the lead became too much for aL to handle and they finally surrendered. DD.Dota will qualify for the playoffs of the Western Qualifier of The International 3 while aL will have to face the winner of RoX.KIS vs Empire to proceed on. The International 3 Western Qualifier will resume at 17:00 CEST tomorrow.
