The Chinese will battle the Americans in a Dota 2 war of world super powers when EHOME takes on Forward Gaming in a best-of-three series to seal up the group stage of OGA Dota PIT Minor 2019.
EHOME, the Chinese squad and Forward Gaming, the only North America squad in this tournament, sit in third and fourth position in Group B with any competition points so far.
Despite their standing, this match is not meaningless because third place will take on the second place from the Group and the last squad is going to battle against the top squad in Group A.
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While Zhang “Faith_bian” Ruida from EHOME is having health issue, Zhang “xiao8” Ning has taken over his position three role as stand-in for this tournament. Although Xiao8 have The International champion title under his belt but Faith_bian certainly has better synergy with the squad.
It’s almost one month since CCnC, Sneyking and Kitrak joined Forward Gaming. CCnC is doing a great job as position two for the squad, but Forward Gaming is having trouble of drafting in this group stage.
In the qualifiers, they drafted hard carry for Yawar “YawaR” Hassan, the position one carry player from the squad. However, in this group stage, they are trying to let Yawar lead the momentum of the game instead of farming.
In their match against Majestic Esports on first day of group stage, Forward Gaming drafted Ursa twice and tried their best to initiate enemies and end the game before enemies were able to get all their core items. However, they could not execute the plan well because Majestic were cautions and able to counter kill.
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After considering that EHOME has a stand-in and the combined form coming into this game, we still give EHOME a 70% chance to win this match-up.
Considering the payout odds, our recommendation is to go medium and bet on EHOME to win the series at $1.98 with GG Bet.
]]>Majestic Esports will need to shake off some poor form and a lack of trust from punters if they are to make their mark against Alliance in the final day of the group stage at the OGA Dota PIT minor 2019.
Previously known as Pacific Esports, Majestic Esports finished in first place in the South American region by taking down Thunder Predator. Despite South America’s weaker Dota 2 depth and competition, Majestic showed it is no light weight by taking down Forward Gaming in the first day of the group stage.
In the first game against Forward Gaming, Jean Pierre “Chris Brown” Gonzales totally destroyed the opposition with his Templar Assassin by diving into the enemies’ base and killing five of them to secure the Rampage achievement.
Under the shadow of Chris Brown’s Templar Assassin in game one, Forward Gaming stole the pick of this hero in game three. Chris Brown knew exactly how to counter this hero and Majestic picked Death Prophet for him.
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Although Templar Assassin dominated the laning phase, Chris was still able to purchase both Eul’s Scepter of Divinity and Ghost Scepter to help him stay longer in the team fight. Both Ursa and Templar Assassin from Forward Gaming were unable to attack him when he activated Ghost Scepter or casted Eul on self.
Earlier today, Majestic Esports drafted Templar Assassin for Chris Brown in game two against EHOME. Chris dominated Invoker in the laning phase and secured Desolator, Blink Dagger and Power Threat within 16 minutes, while Invoker only had Hand of Midas at 16-minute mark of the game.
Chris killed 10 enemies without dying and reached a Beyond Godlike streak before EHOME called GG.
Alliance, also one of the top teams in Group B, has wins against EHOME and Forward Gaming. Looking into their draft, they have never been dependent on any single hero, which could be a problem for Majestic trying to draft against them.
Qojqva, the mid-laner from Alliance played Kunka, Zeus, Storm Spirit, Razor and Queen of Pain, five different heroes in this group stage. Kunka and Storm Spirit are both late game heroes that are able to carry the squad while Zeus, Razor and Queen of Pain are space creator for the position one.
We could see that Alliance is very flexible with their heroes and are able to draft the best from their members’ wide heroes pool knowledge.
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After analysing their heroes’ pool knowledge and performance in the group stage, we give Alliance a 60% chance to win this match-up.
Considering the payout odds, our recommendation is to go low and bet on Alliance to win the series at $1.60 with GG Bet.
]]>Ninja In Pyjamas (NIP) and BOOM ID are locked in Group A of the OGA Dota PIT Minor at one win apiece and will battle it out today in a best-of-three series to see who proceeds further in the tournament.
In their recent game against Royal Never Give Up, NIP was only able to draft Drow Ranger in the first game, which they won. RNG then respected Ace’s Drow Ranger and banned this hero in games two and three.
Yesterday, Gambit Esports did their homework on NIP and banned Drow Ranger in all three games, denying any chance of Ace taking her again.
Our guess is that BOOM ID might be ban Drow Ranger again, but we also recommend a bet on NIP if BOOM ID gives NIP the chance to grab Drow Ranger.
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Other than Drow Ranger, NIP also drafted Naga Siren, Anti-Mage, Spectre and Terrorblade as their hard carry. Looking into their draft, they are certainly playing it safe and never drafted a split push team. BOOM ID should be happy to see this because they do not have to worry about countering a pushing strategy from NIP while BOOM ID are playing a snowball strategy themselves in a fast-pace game.
They drafted Brewmaster, Beastmaster and Lone Druid in their recent matches of this tournament. All these heroes are good in ganking and pushing after winning a team fight, NIP might be losing the game once BOOM ID wipe them out in a gank.
Saksa, the position four support player from NIP played Enigma in game three against Gambit Esports yesterday. He straight away pumped Helm of Dominator within six minutes and helped the team to secure as much tower as possible with his Demonics and Neutral Creeps captured by his Dominator. Anti-Mage then farmed whole time while Enigma did his job of distracting enemies.
BOOM ID must be aware of this hero against NIP because Saksa was awesome at playing Enigma yesterday.
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After running our eye through their heroes’ pool knowledge, we give NIP a 65% chance to win this match-up 2-0.
Considering the payout odds, our recommendation is to go low and bet on NIP to win the series 2-0 at $1.85 with GG Bet.
]]>The in-form Royal Never Give Up will come up against Gambit Esports in a best-of-three series today at the OGA Dota PIT Minor 2019, following their destruction of both Ninja In Pyjamas and BOOM ID in the lead up to this bout.
Gambit Esports is the current bottom flagger in group A and will need a drastic turn in form to make waves here.
RNG has built a reputation in out-drafting its enemies. In their series against Ninja In Pyjamas (NIP) two days ago, they lost game one because NIP focused on drafting Drow Ranger. RNG immediately banned this hero in game two and game three to deny any chance of Ace, the position one player from NIP grabbing him again.
RNG then secured the game two and game three by crushing NIP without the hero.
Despite the loss in game one, RNG’s draft was great, selecting Doom and Abaddon as supports while Naga Siren was their position one carry.
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Naga Siren is a split pusher that can creates three (+1 at level 20 talent tree) illusions to help him control the lane and open the map, while Doom is a hero who is able to secure his items thanks to his first skill, Devour, which allows him to have 100 extra gold (+150 at level 15 talent tree) every 40 seconds.
In their match against BOOM ID yesterday, RNG drafted Dark Seer in both games. Dark Seer is definitely one of the best off-laners in the current meta. Flyby, the position three player from RNG, also performed very well by purchasing Helm of Dominator for him to pressure the enemies’ carry and create space for the squad.
Gambit Esports is currently the weakest squad in Group A with just two points coming into this bout. Surprisingly, Daxak, the carry position player from Gambit, hasn’t picked Mepoo or Visage in the group stage — his signature heroes that both require his high micro-management skills.
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After running our eye through their drafting style and performance of late in the group stage, we give RNG a 80% chance to win this match-up.
Considering the payout odds, our recommendation is to go medium and bet on RNG to win the series at $1.57 with GG Bet.
]]>After losing to Royal Never Give Up (RNG) in day one of the OGA Dota PIT Minor 2019, Ninja In Pyjamas (NIP) will take on Gambit Esports in a best-of-three series today.
In the match against RNG yesterday, NIP picked Drow Ranger first in game one, along with Oracle as support.
NIP utilised the Precision Aura — the third ability of Drow Ranger — by picking another three ranged heroes including Lion, Oracle and Obsidian Destroyer in the draft.
Precision Aura is a passive ability that adds bonus attack speed to allied, ranged hero based on 80% of Drow Ranger’s agility. The user of Drow Ranger also can actives this skill and buffed all the ranged creeps for thirty seconds.
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Saksa, the position four player from NIP and the Lion user in the game one also learned +90 damage at level 10 talent tree instead of picking +100 cast range because Drow Ranger provided him a lot of attack speed.
Normally, Lion would learn +100 cast range as a support because it helps you to position further away from enemies and able to escape from team fight easily without getting caught.
Thanks to Drow Ranger’s Precision Aura, Lion killed 11 enemies in that game as a support, which was the highest killing holder in their team.
The game lasted for more than one hour and NIP claimed victory when they tore down the throne of RNG.
In game two and game three, RNG banned Drow Ranger at its first opportunity because they could not figure out a way to counter this hero immediately within the series.
The banning of Drow Ranger definitely worked and RNG claimed the wins of game two and game three without any pressure.
Gambit Esports, also favoured on Drow Ranger in their series against BOOM ID yesterday. They picked Drow in game one and game three but they had zero wins with her in the draft because BOOM ID knew exactly how to counter this hero by picking heroes able to jump on him.
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Daxak, the position one player from Gambit is very good at playing Visage, a hero work very well with Drow Ranger because Drow’s Precision Aura able to affect the familiar of Visage.
We recommend live betting on Gambit if they draft both Visage and Drow Ranger to their side in the upcoming match-up against NIP later.
After running our eye through their drafting abilities and performance earlier, we give NIP a 60% chance to win this match-up.
Considering the payout odds, our recommendation is to go medium and bet on NIP to win the series at $1.66 with GG Bet.
]]>Alliance played 10 games at GG.Bet Birmingham Invitational and finally secured the Europe and CIS Closed Qualifier slot.
Starting from the group stage, Alliance beat down Old but Gold in a best-of-one series and whitewashed The Pango in a best-of-three series to secure the first slot in the playoffs from Group A.
Alliance encountered Team Empire in the first round of the playoffs, trying a bold draft by picking Anti-Mage second while their enemy still had a lot of choice to counter the hero.
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Team Empire immediately picked Disruptor into Anti-Mage because Disruptor’s ultimate skill was able to silence Anti-Mage for five seconds.
Thanks to Disruptor, Anti-Mage was unable to farm and position himself in the team fight. Team Empire killed Anti-Mage six times and Anti-Mage was only able to farm his Black King Bar at the 34-minute mark.
Team Empire won the game because Anti-Mage could not carry the squad.
After learning the lesson that came from picking Anti-Mage, Alliance didn’t draft the hero in game two and game three.
Coming into game three, Qojqva, the position two player from Alliance, picked one of his best heroes, Storm Spirit. Despite the fact the hero is not popular in the current meta, Qojqva still carried Alliance and helped them win the game with Storm Spirit after earning 14 kills and contributed 19 assists to the team.
After eliminating Team Empire, they finally went to the Finals and battled against Old but Gold in a best-of-five series.
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Alliance finally revealed their secret strategy in the Finals, picking Earthshaker as position three or four, depending on the situation, and Vengeful Spirit as their position five.
These two heroes are not hot picks in the recent meta. This is the reason Old but Gold did not ban them at their first opportunity.
Alliance picked Earthshaker first in game two, three and four. Old but Gold had no idea which role Earthshaker was playing and Alliance was able to out-draft them in every single game.
These recent performances prove that Alliance are still a tier one side, despite their failure at the MDL Disneyland Paris Major Europe Closed Qualifier. We’ll keep an eye on their next few weeks with interest.
]]>Forward Gaming and J.Storm were given the best chance to advance through the OGA qualifiers, but will have to outplay Forward Gaming, who were able to take down J.Storm in the finals of the playoffs.
In the first round of the playoffs, Forward Gaming faced 4Fats n 10ld, a team that forced their way in through the Open Qualifier.
Forward Gaming whitewashed the squad with duo picks of Ember Spirit and Lifestealer as their cores in both games.
After eliminated 4Fats, Ritsu’s stack was the their challenger in the semifinals.
In game one, Forward Gaming picked Magnus and Phantom Assassin. The duo are common to see in pub and professional games because Phantom Assassin can farm faster with Magnus’ Empower and only requires Desolator to start killing enemies.
They executed their plan exactly the way they expected and Phantom Assassin killed eight enemies without dying in the game.
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In game two, Yawar from Forward Gaming picked Lifestealer again and CCnC from the same team picked Kunka, one of his signature heroes. They won the game at the 30-minute mark and SneyKing achieved Beyond Godlike Streak with Night Stalker after few successful roaming attempts.
J.Storm was the last obstacle they had to break through to secure the slot in main tournament.
Forward Gaming picked Magnus and Phantom Assassin again in game one and J.Storm had no way to control the momentum of the game because Yawar mastered his Phantom Assassin. Yawar killed 16 enemies without dying and achieved golds per minute up to 652 in that game.
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CCnC’s Medusa in game three was the reason J.Strom surrendered because he had his Butterfly and Manta Style by 2the 7-minute mark and J.Storm could not purchase any Monkey King Bar to counter Butterfly’s evasion at the 32-minute marks.
Medusa then went on rampage mode and J.Storm had no way of killing him.
Forward Gaming never lost a single game in the North America Qualifier and they deserve the slot in the main tournament. We shall see more game play from them on April 22, 2019 in the group stage of OGA Dota PIT Minor 2019.
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