Team Secret eliminated from EPICENTER Moscow, Alliance thrive

Alliance got Team Secret eliminated, 2:1, in the EPICENTER Moscow playoffs. After placing last in their group during the tournament’s groupstage, Secret are the first team to be knocked out of contention in the main event.

Team Secret brings together five spectacular players. Not many teams have as much individual potential as Team Secret. On paper, they’re the dream team. Nothing short of a championship title would be a good result for them.

They plucked Artour “Arteezy” Babaev and Saahil “UNiVeRsE” Arora from Evil Geniuses in this season’s transfer window. It has become a modus operandi for Secret. They did the same with Ludwig “zai” Wåhlberg and Arteezy before.

However, their current lineup has yet to fall into place, after playing together for over one month and a half, since March 22. Arteezy has been rather inconsistent, UNiVeRsE has been struggling to adapt, pieliedie, EternaLEnVy and Puppey have been lacking their usual spark. Their agonizing phase is reflected in their recent results: they lost five out of six official series they played so far.

They started off on the wrong foot at ESL One Manila, in April, where they didn’t even make it out of the groupstage, and things aren’t looking up for them yet. They lost to Newbee and Virtus.Pro in the EPICENTER Moscow groupstage and ended up placing last in their group, being locked into the main event’s Lower Brackets.

Alliance put an end to their EPICENTER Moscow run in the very first round of the Lower Brackets. Secret did put up a fight, they did show some bits of individual brilliance, but – as a team – they were far from the pure pre-eminence that was expected of them.

Alliance, on the other hand, brought on a solid performance. They drafted and executed very well, showed good coordination and constantly kept Secret on the back foot. Their efforts push them forward through the Lower Brackets, where they will go up against Newbee, later today.

Team Secret eliminated from EPICENTER Moscow, Alliance advance

In the first game of the series, Secret’s lineup wasn’t fit to counter Loda’s aggressive and tanky Chaos Knight. The fact that Arteezy had a rather off game on Puck didn’t help. He started getting picked off a lot after the lanes were set.

Secret entirely lost their laning phase. A big fight around minute 16 got them behind and, from that point on, Alliance started to snowball. Secret took a decent fight approximately 23 minutes into the game, but were unable to close the gap.

Due to the nature of Chaos Knight and Tiny, Alliance managed to come online faster. They maintained great control of the game and called it out quickly.

Alliance showed a lot of versatility and good coordination. Secret, on the other hand, seemed sloppy and made too many individual mistakes.

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In stark contrast to the first game, Team Secret managed to close the second one quickly and efficiently, in 28 minutes. Alliance got clearly outdrafted and fell flat in front of Secret’s Drow Ranger strat.

Arteezy’s Invoker secured very good farm in the mid-lane, going 15/1/8 by the end of the game.

Alliance lacked initiation power. Their first early rotations weren’t that successful and Secret completely ran them over for the rest of the game.

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In the deciding game, Alliance started out with a surprising signature Rubick first pick, forcing Secret into a somewhat reactive draft. Secret’s lineup seemed a bit low on damage from the very beginning. It wouldn’t take long to become clear that Alliance has outdrafted and overpowered them.

Alliance set the tone of the game: they drafted well, had great item builds, good movement and initiation.

© DotaBuff

EPICENTER Moscow

EPICENTER Moscow takes place between May 9th-15th at the Crocus City Hall, Moscow. Eight teams – Team Secret, Team Liquid, OG, Evil Geniuses, Virtus.Pro, Alliance, Newbee, and compLexity Gaming – are competing for a $500,000 prize-pool. The event is organized by Epic Esports Events.