It was Mineski’s match to lose.
Mineski-Dota came into Starladder iLeague Season 3 oozing with confidence. After all, Mineski has been nothing less than dominant in the very competitive and congested South East Asia region. They opened the first Minor of the new Dota 2 season against world champion Team Liquid.
Unfazed by Miracle- and company, they were firmly in control for 40 minutes of the opening match before everything went south. Ninjaboogie was rotating nicely on his Nightstalker. They were keeping Miracle and MATUMBAMAN in check. Constant ganks on Miracle’s Alchemist and stunting MATUMBAMAN’s Venomancer from an early point in the game gave Mineski a good lead they could build upon to pull off the upset.
The problem for Mineski was they completely forgot about MindControl’s offlane Pugna. After one failed gank attempt in the top lane against the veteran offlaner, Mineski completely ignored him for majority of the game. Mineski-Dota’s line up barely had any real lockdown and magic damage so bringing down Pugna with his Decripify was going to be a tall order at any stage of the game. Letting MindControl do as he pleased turned out to be Mineski’s greatest mistake in the crucial tournament opener.
Mind_Control has always been a rock for the Team Liquid squad and he once again showed just why. He single-handedly kept Liquid in the game despite Mineski’s lead by doing every little thing right. He made space for Alchemist and Venomancer by constantly pressuring top lane and applying chip damage to towers with his Nether Blasts. While he made a lot of space for his team, he was doing it in a very controlled fashion. Despite being the only hero who appeared in lane for most of Liquid’s comeback bid, MC only died a single time.
The Power of the Pugna
His positioning at crucial engagements in the game was also sublime. Pugna is one of the best high ground defense heroes in the game. When Mineski tried to go high ground, his Nether Wards and Nether Blasts easily deterred the Malaysia-based squad. Then in a crucial fight at Roshan when Miracle got bursted down instantly, Mind_Control wreaked havoc from the side lines. The play made sure Mineski would not get away with zero casualties and even forced the iceiceice buyback.
In another play shortly after as Mineski went for Miracle mid, he was reverse Life Draining Alchemist to keep him alive and survive the burst. Yet another play that could have gone the other way for Mineski.
Those key moments when Mind_Control was making plays for Liquid was when Mineski needed the extra momentum. Iceiceice’s Broodmother got fed pretty quickly but he was helpless against the Pugna’s pinpoint Decripify. So much that Mineski deterred clashing until iceiceice farmed his Diffusal Blade late in the game. Slowing down that momentum gave them enough time for Miracle to get in fighting shape and MATUMBAMAN to get the crucial Level 3 Poison Nova for extra DPS.
While Mineski’s draft in that game was spotty at best with the greedy Medusa pick, one cannot take away from the quality shown by Mind_Control to take it away. Mineski were so shellshocked by Liquid that they conceded the second game in less than 30 minutes.
Check out the highlights from the match here:
