DreamLeague Season 13, also known as the Dota 2 Leipzig Major, is coming closer and closer to its end. Only two more days remain and by the end of Day 5, only the top three teams of the event remained.
Alliance versus Team Liquid
Alliance had a good start in the group stage and spent the majority of their time in the upper bracket until they clashed with Team Secret. In the meantime, Team Liquid had a very entertaining run in the lower depths of the event, starting with their epic match against Virtus.pro.
In Game 1, Liquid decided to do a risky cheese Broodmother pick despite not having the last say in the drafting phase. Allianceanswered with a Magnus mid and that solved the problem of Brood going completely out of control. The match was as evenly matched as it gets as both teams were struggling to get a lead. Around the 50-minute mark, both Alliance and Liquid wasted many buybacks, most importantly on their cores. Afterward, the game was decided by the final clash where Alliance came out on top.
Having taken the lead in Game 1, Alliance re-picked Gyrocopter and Io in the follow-up and Liquidadapted by making some adjustments to their draft, namely Ancient Apparition. The pick proved crucial as it prevented the insane amounts of sustain that usually come from the Io. This time, Liquidhad a clear advantage from the start as Alliance started to fall behind. The game was decided 30 minutes in at which point Alliance simply called it without even losing their base or a teamfight.
The final match was to decide the winner and Alliancefinally changed their draft, relying on Slark this time. Going tri-lane against tri-lane top, neither Slark nor Liquid’s Drow Ranger were having a great time. Eventually, as the teamfights started happening, Slark started gaining the upper hand, properly focusing the enemy Oracle at every chance. Alliance had much better control in teamfights thanks to Lich and Winter Wyvern and Doom, while Liquid had only Treant Protector. After taking the Aegis of the Immortal, Alliance finished the game with a fountain dive as Slark went out of control.
Liquid’s run was over but it was a good one and it exceeded all expectations. Alliance’s next rival would be Evil Geniuses.
Evil Geniuses versus Alliance
EG had a strong laning presence in Game 1, forcing Alliance to do quite a lot of rotations. Starting with a tri-lane on top to secure it for their Drow Ranger proved to be a good idea for the side of EG, but it paid out much later into the game. The game passed the 30-minute mark and the American team’s lead finally started to grow as they won a couple of teamfights. After a particularly nasty one, Alliance lost most of their base thanks to the pushing power Drow Ranger provided, backed up with the Desolator on Templar Assassin. Minutes later, Artour “rtz” Babaev scored an ultra-kill and the follow-up fight was an easy wrap in favor of EG.
Game 2 gave us returning picks, Lifestealer for Alliance and Templar Assassin for EG. The early game was once again even, with exchange kills happening all the time. EG managed to sneak in a solo kill on Roshan with TA doing all the work and the entire team lurking around, looking for a good opportunity to join in. The moment came and Alliance were almost entirely wiped out, leaving only the Treant Protector to tell the tale. Despite not getting many objectives after the fight, EG’s confidence grew. Ultimately, rtz’s Faceless Void landed an amazing four-man Chronosphere to end it all.
We bow out of the #DreamLeagueMajor at 4th place taking home 1,350 DPC points!We keep working hard and the results keep improving, thanks to the fans and our sponsors for your continued support!#LongLiveAlliance pic.twitter.com/HHbVGljMCL
— Alliance (@theAllianceGG) January 25, 2020
EG earned a spot in the Top 3, while Alliance took the honorable fourth spot in the Leipzig Major event.
The upper bracket finals
Team Secret and Vici Gaming met in the final round of the upper bracket. Secret did a classic draft built around four heroes securing space and protecting their Arc Warden. This strategy would eventually pay out around half an hour in when Michał “Nisha” Jankowski finally stood at the top of the net worth graphs. The Chinese team lacked the resources to get in and eliminate the threat he presented which proved to be their demise. Claiming yet another Aegis of the Immortal, EG assaulted the enemy base and forced a couple of buybacks. With the mega creeps coming in and no clear way out of it, VG called it a game.
First game is in the bag!One more win separates us from the Grand Finals of this Leipzig Major, let's go! https://t.co/KDXSerSlCe#SecretDota #DHDL13 pic.twitter.com/Xge8gHPpID
— Team Secret (@teamsecret) January 25, 2020
The second match of the series started with a small lead for Vici Gaming which was quickly nullified by Team Secret after a couple of fights. Lasse “MATUMBAMAN” Urpalainen did some good work with his Magnus, balancing between farming efficiently and being in almost every teamfight. When it came to control, Secret were the clear winner. Reverse Polarity, Chronosphere, Winter’s Curse, Rolling Thunder and Chain Frost were all part of their repertoire. VG managed to get their gold lead back throughout the mid game but it wasn’t easy for their Storm Spirit to initiate as there were threats everywhere. Winter’s Curse setting up into an RP allowed Secret to take most of the enemy base. After a rather long engagement near the Roshan pit, Team Secret came out as the clear winner and secured their spot in the grand finals.
Got a feeling of deja vu! We take 4 kills AND 2 pairs of racks https://t.co/KDXSerSlCe#SecretDota #DHDL13 pic.twitter.com/oL9srZYDe4
— Team Secret (@teamsecret) January 25, 2020
Mood pic.twitter.com/Q5VzBzHED4
— Team Secret (@teamsecret) January 25, 2020
Secret will await the winner between Vici Gaming and Evil Geniuses as the DreamLeague Season 13 Major champions will be decided tomorrow.
