In a match that can be only classified as the clash of the titans Sri lanka’s very own El clasico which is basically a long standing rivalry and that is what we witnessed yesterday during the GCDL finals. The game between The Kade and Tech Morph Death Sentence in a best of five series which ended in stunning fashion.
The rivalry definitely stood up to be what we all expected, both team preparing and analyzing the opponents to know how they work inside and out. The first game brought us a very interesting an unorthodox draft from both teams. We saw death sentence picking up the night stalker who is one of the strongest position 4 roaming cores currently in the meta and being played by one the most talented players in Sri Lanka to top it off. The night stalker was followed up by a lich an offlane sandking a midlane tinker and to round it all off a surprising secret ace in the sleeve that was the Clinkz. The Kade in response to this went to pick up a warlock which was a very lackluster pick not providing too much during the game followed up by a strong laner in the batrider and an aggressive 4th position tusk along with a midlane Phantom lancer who does well to deal with tinker during the laning stage and to complete the picks we witnessed the gyrocopter as that position 1 carry.
Game 1 saw a unique style of dual lanes coming out due to the change in the meta after 7.10 patch update came out which made bounty runes not give any experience whatsoever but bonus gold. Which impacts the roaming position 4 heroes as they spend their time runnin around the map and applying pressure. So to combat this they came up with the dual lanes to ensure that the offlaner gets his farm and the position 4 receives his required levels as well. Beaver on his offlane sandking dominated the game creating a lot of space and opportunities for Death sentence to come out on top along with some aggressive rotations coming in from Tensa on his Clinkz ensuring that the gyro does not get off to the strong start that was required. The Kade managed to take some good high ground fights and force the game late to give them the advantage but some amazing coordination as well as teamwork allowed Death Sentence to take game number 1 in what was a nail biting game one in the best of 5 series.
Game 2 saw a very one sided performance with The Kade demolishing Death sentence in what was a drastic change in pace from game 1. Paradox getting his hand on Timbersaw which dominated game number 2. Death sentence having a very melee dominated line up with not much magic burst saw it fit to call the game early and try their luck in the upcoming game 3.
Game 3 was in similar fashion with game number 2 we saw The Kade picking up Disruptor with a position 4 earthshaker and the 3 cores consisting of Beastmaster, Outworld Devourer and finally the Faceless void in response to Death Sentence’s offlane puck and undying duo which was a unique duo coming out from them followed by a shadow shaman which was supposed to allow the arc warden to get the required early game start to apply split push pressure with the mid lane razor piling on the early game pressure. Things did not go according to plan for the Death Sentence team as their lineup came crashing down with excellent rotation coming out from Toadboss on his earthshaker ensuring that the beastmaster has a strong start applying a lot of pressure on the arc warden who was pressured constantly in his lane as well as the razor who had a difficult time dealing with the razor. The Kade sitting comfortable with a 2-1 lead in back to back dominant victories and it seemed like death sentence had finally hit the wall that they could not scale.
What happened next was something that hadn’t happened in the last 4 years and shocked the entire community. Death sentence bringing back their Clinkz which seemed to throw a spanner in the works of the Kade’s side partnered with Darkness on his disruptor as well as AB on his night stalker that seemed to be the key to allowing death sentence a very strong start. Assisting Sathan on his mid Queen of Pain who had to deal with intense pressure coming out of Paradox on his Viper which is never the best lane to get yourself in and beaver being the missing piece of the puzzle playing the doom which was key for death sentence as they were up against an omniknight a juggernaut a shadow shaman and a nyx assassin that The Kade had picked up.
AB realizing how vital the omniknight is to Kades lineup opting not to assist the doom in his lane as he has devour available ensuring that he has a decent time getting levels as well as gold necessary to put pressure during the mid game stage. Omniknight who was being played by Hawkie however was not that fortunate getting heavily pressured by the disruptor as well as night stalker who were already ahead of him in levels never found his footing during the game suffering in lane and not being able to achieve the required amount of farm or levels to keep up with Death sentence. Paradox on his Viper who had a dominating laning stage against the Queen of Pain seemed to be set to take on the later stages of the game found himself being pressured by some aggressive movements from the clinkz which was not something you are used to seeing as a carry usually sits in his lane and farm for the first 20 minutes of the game (chinese dota). These rotations definitely set the viper back which left only the Juggernaut played by Wado in the top slot to do some heavy lifting. The weight seemed to be too much as fight after fight we saw death Sentence coming out on top even after a lot of smoke rotations coming out from The Kade which were not too successful. The key factor being that the doom was able to catch out the omniknight in almost every engagement making his contribution to fights null and void which resulted in history being made as The Kade had been forced to the Final game in the best of 5 series now tied up 2-2 which had not happened ever before in the History of Dota 2 in Sri lanka!. El Clasico was living up to its expectations as we roll up to game number five the final game of the finals.
Spectators were definitely uncertain at this point of the series given how it seemed that both team were on equal footing in this moment. Still heavily the advantage on the side of The Kade as the experience and skill were definitely on their side. We saw the Clinkz being taken away to ensure that Tensa does not apply the insane amounts of pressure that was placed on Kade in the previous games with his aggressive playstyle. Final draft going in we saw Death Sentence picking up the night stalker along with the disruptor once again as the combination of heroes definitely paid them dividends in the previous games. Reacting to this we had The Kade picking up their Shadow Shaman as well as nyx in response followed by some respect banns following Kade picking up the doom themselves this time and a tinker which was instantly countered with a Zeus pick from Death Sentence and a Centaur Warrunner which allowed them to disengage incase a core did get doomed. To round the draft off for Death Sentence was an Anti Mage pick which gave them a lot of mobility and very potent late game, Which was immediately countered by a void pick as they could his ultimate ability the chronosphere to keep the Anti Mage in check.
The game started the usual way with standard 3-1-1 lanes the only difference being the centaur warrunner having a much better lane than the doom who was stuck at level 1 till about 2-3 minutes in the game while the centaur was at level 3 during the time. Zeus had a pretty favourable match up against the tinker being able to spam arc lightning from afar making sure that the tinker did not have any killing opportunities during the laning stage. Doom definitely suffered a lot during the early stage of the game finding himself putting more emphasis on his second skill to keep him alive rather than the usual aggressive option with infernal blade. The night stalker once again having good game presence especially during the night time made a really good impact bringing down the tinker multiple times along with the disruptor to ensure he would not get an ideal boots of travel timing which is usually around the 9-12 minute mark. This paid huge dividends to the side of Death Sentence as they managed to bring down the tinker multiple times with the team synergy they had with their picks. Zeus with his ultimate thundergod’s wrath is the perfect tool that works with disruptor and his glimpse ability and centaur warrunner’s stampede that allows them to get in and out of fight which enables the nightstalker to be even more aggressive with his rotations which led to a stream of kills during the early stages of the game. The glimmer of hope that was the Faceless void managed to do his duty of slowing down the antimage and bringing him down with the usage of his ultimate as well as create some very much needed space for the doom as well as the tinker to catch up in terms of farm to be able to help them come out on top during the next teamfight. Things did not seem to go according to plan as we saw anti mage showing the results of his extensive farm come to fruition as he assisted his team in wiping the dire team near the radiant tier 2 tower along with the immense burst damage coming out from zeus which in turn for winning the fight awarded the Death Sentence with the very valuable aegis of immortal which was placed in the hands of the anti mage. The play which enable Death sentence to close the 5th and final match was the play made by Darkness on his disruptor who managed to glimpse back the void who bought back all the way to the radiant tier 2 tower while they took the barracks at dier top lane. While on their retreat they managed to catch the void and burst him down leaving him out of the fight for 110 seconds allowing Death Sentence to take game number 5 and become the new GCDL season 12 champions!
We congratulate Death Sentence on achieving this feet which is in every word the equivalent to scaling the highest mountain and reaching the top besting the reigning champions.
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