East beats West: LGD.CN wins the HyperX Dota 2 League

China takes another Western title as LGD.cn emerges as the HyperX Dota 2 League (D2L) Season 4 champion after defeating Fnatic in the best of three grand finals. The Chinese team was seeded first in the Eastern Division group stages where they dominated with a flawless 7-0 streak, and began with a one-game advantage against Fnatic.

Fnatic, on the other hand, went into the tournament with two stand-ins and surprised many by taking down Vici Gaming before moving on to face LGD.cn in the grand finals.

Game 1: failing to take the crucial early game advantage

Looking at the lineup, you can see that Fnatic has a lot of late game potential with the Shadow Fiend (SF) and Luna. However, they don’t have enough disables to hold down the jumpy Storm Spirit. LGD.cn, on the other hand has pushing power in the form of Visage and Dragon Knight (DK). Notably, they also have the Doom whose ultimate skill can effectively be used to render core heroes useless.

Both teams sent their carries to the safe lane. LGD.cn’s Storm Spirit headed bottom against Fnatic’s offlane Timbersaw, while Fnatic’s Luna faced off with LGD.Cn’s offlane Doom at top. The supports of each team joined their carries in their respective lanes while getting farm in the jungle. And as expected, SF and DK headed mid.

The early game was crucial, as LGD.cn needed to shut down SF in the mid lane early on to prevent him from farming a Black King Bar (BKB). They also needed to get the Storm Spirit ahead of the enemy cores. However, good rotation from Crystal Maiden (CM) and Naga Siren allowed SF to take first blood at mid. The early game, which should have been taken by LGD.cn definitely looked good for Fnatic.

By around 30 minutes, Fnatic was ahead in kills and took team fights, but LGD.cn had good map control and were ahead in towers. Fnatic held on, won team fights and secured farm until their cores could farm items including a Scythe of Vyse on the SF. LGD.cn kept on trying to push towards the base and even picked off a kill on Luna, but Fnatic kept on coming back and refused to go down. At 40 minutes, Fnatic had taken Roshan three times in a row and would later take Cheese along with Aegis. At the 45 minute mark, a team fight broke at mid as LGD.cn tried to go high ground on mid lane only to lose five. Five minutes later, it was Fnatic’s turn to push and wiped LGD.cn another time, causing the Chinese to call GG.

The game ended at 48:32 with a score of 10-24 in favor of Fnatic.

Game 2: the punishment for failing to land X-Torrents

In this game, LGD.cn decided to pick Storm Spirit, DK, and Visage again. The addition of the Nature’s Prophet added more pushing power and an element of global presence. Fnatic, on the other hand, decided on a farming Alchemist in a lineup with good team fight.

LGD.cn’s Storm Spirit was sent to the top lane with Visage and Nyx Assassin to face Fnatic’s Bristleback. LGD.cn also had an offlane Nature’s Prophet against Fnatic’s Alchemist, Elder Titan and CM. Finally, Fnatic’s Kunkka and LGD.cn’s DK face off at mid.