ViCi Gaming Champions of SL XII; defeat Chinese rivals IG 3-1

As StarSeries Season XII concluded with an all Chinese team Grand Final of ViCi Gaming verses Invictus Gaming, it was ViCi Gaming who would grab the series 3-1 along with the Championship title and trophy.

Yesterday ViCi Gaming and Invictus Gaming battled in the Upper Bracket Finals where ViCi Gaming defeated IG 2-1 with a heavily one sided last game. IG was not ready to accept anything less than a place in the Grand Finals and conquered Cloud 9 2-1, the last remaining obstacle in their way.

ViCi Gaming started with a one game advantage having come from the Upper Brackets and took the first played game. Needing only one more win to secure the trophy and title, Invictus Gaming gave their every effort to prevent being swept in the series and grabbed an impressive win in the second game. Unfortunately for them, it wasn’t enough and the momentum didn’t last, as ViCi Gaming was able to manage a last win in the next and final game.

Game 1

In response to ViCi Gaming’s first pick Storm Spirit (usually played by Super), IG picked Invoker for Luo Feichi “Ferrari_430”. However, VG went for the unusual solo-mid Phantom Assassin instead, giving Storm Spirit to HaChen Zhihao “Hao” in the safelane. The unusual laning from ViCi gaming allowed them to dominate the top lane hard versus IG’s Troll and Lina because Sand King was trying to farm woods, being a weaker support in early game especially verses Axe-Io duo. “Iceiceice” and Xu Linsen “fy” managed to do amazing plays to heavily stop “burning”‘s farm. As IG did not expect the lane compositions, Yinqi Luo “Xi” Magnus was crushed in the lane by Hao. With all lanes suffering, the game picked up a really quick pace and VG was dominating over IG. IG did not have an answer to VG’s snowballing and the late blink daggers for Wong Hock Chuan “Chuan” and Yinqi Luo “Xi” was too late and did little to stop ViCi gaming from taking the first game in a stomp of 29-7 ending in 25 mins.

Game 2

ViCi Gaming drafted Phantom Lancer while Invictus Gaming went for Io-Sven combo with Axe. Although first blood went to VG again, the laning phases went terrible for VG with Xie Junhao “Super” and Daryl Koh “iceiceice” getting destroyed in the early game. A four man wipe by IG at five minutes was only the beginning and foreshadowed a reoccurring theme through the game of big fight after big fights consisting of three – four man wipes by IG. At minute 11 an 8 hero, 4 for 4 fight showed the amount of aggression and strength that both teams were willing to execute in order to win the game. After killing three heroes at minute 27, IG took an uncontested Roshan, which is what they needed to further advance their advantage and give them confidence. Just moments later another big fight at VG’s base, taking out another three heroes showed how dominant IG would be throughout the entire game. Yinqi Luo “Xi” consistently setting up kills for Zhilei Xu “burning”‘s sven pushed him towards “Beyond Godlike” streaks and farm and net-worth was almost twice as much as next farmed hero by VG. ViCi Gaming were helpless being crippled early game and unable to stop the incredibly farmed Sven. IG was able to extend the series out and pushed into a third game.

Game 3

It seemed like ViCi Gaming had in mind to bait Invictus Gaming into taking a Io-Axe combo. As soon as IG picked the two heroes, VG took Tidehunter and Enigma to counter the duo. ViCi Gaming, for the third time, drew first blood and would set the pace for the game. Having a strong five vs five potential from VG, they were always ready to counter, initiate and farm away while they had the chance. Th plan seemed to be a success from the beginning of the game as IG did not have the best heroes to punish ViCi Gaming’s line up. In the mind game “Hao” and “burning” were equal in net-worth, but after a few perfectly landed black holes by Xu Linsen “fy”‘s Enigma and Lu Chao “Fenrir”‘s Witch Doctor ulti, they managed to kill “burning” a few times which lead “Hao” to advancing in farm and experience. After they took the last Roshan they started to push the bottom barracks forcing IG to fight. VG came out on top almost uncontested for the fight, the game and the series.