Finally, the huge annual event of Dota 2 The International 2018 officially ended with the final match between PSG.LGD and OG. Both teams entered the finals with the sole purpose of Aegis shield and $11 million in prize money. This is the second time the two teams have met in the upper bracket, the first time OG defeated LGD and brought them down to the losing bracket in a Bo3 match – but this time they will face each other in a Bo5 match.
PSG.LGD vs OG. One will claim immortality. The International Grand Final begins. #TI8 pic.twitter.com/7oJBWymGHG
— DOTA 2 (@DOTA2) August 25, 2018
The first game all went in favor of LGD as Wang ‘Ame’ Chunyu’s got his Bloodseeker and earned a lot of kills in the laning phase by pretending to be Thirst. But not long after that, the game started to change when OG’s lineup started fighting. With the possession of Treant Protector, Monkey King, Earthshaker, and Winter Wyvern, OG overwhelmed nearly every teamfight and forced LGD to give up.
We withstood LGD’s assault and counter-attacked with great vengeance.
We now lead the series 1-0. #DreamOG #TI8
→ https://t.co/CaU5T4Mk2z pic.twitter.com/WV4oH1tIjs
— OG (@OGesports) August 25, 2018
In the next game, both teams were in a difficult situation – OG had the IO and Gyrocopter pair, while LGD had the Earthshaker. With Kunkka in hand Lu ‘Somnus’ Yao’s LGD completely destroyed the OG lineup. Combined with Yang ‘Chalice’ Shenyl’s Enchantress, they didn’t seem to give OG a chance and ended the game at 30 minutes.
With a 1-1 result, we clearly see a big change from the ban/pick of both teams, when in the end Earthshaker was also banned. OG seemed to be very close to taking control of the game, but Morphling of Topias ‘Topsen’ Taavitsainen still wasn’t strong enough to carry his team through this stage.
You can’t control a force of nature. #TI8 https://t.co/slr1Yl9zWm
— LGD Gaming (@LGDgaming) August 26, 2018
Phoenix in the hands of Xu ‘fy’ Linsen is truly amazing, as he can even solo kill both opposing heroes and lead his team to victory, shortening the distance to reach the Aegis shield.
OG entered game 4 with an unusual line up, which is the line up we saw them using for the upper bracket leg. The difference here is that Ax is in the frontline and Invoker is in the back, OG hopes they can equalize with LGD. The match went extremely well, Ax in the hands of Sébastien ‘Ceb’ Debs played almost flawlessly and tried to balance the game.
Ceb finding all these spaces and kills has us like…
??????????????????????? #DreamOG #TI8 pic.twitter.com/Tx22RpLb7V
— OG (@OGesports) August 26, 2018
The match continued as LGD found a way to counter OG and slowly took the lead. Once again everything seemed to be going in favor of LGD as they broke OG’s mid barracks, but OG showed their unyielding spirit as they continuously tried to defend.
It was an extremely attractive game when it lasted more than an hour and it was Ana’s Phantom Lancer who helped OG hold a draw with LGD.
The final game of The International 2018 finals will be what determines which team will become the TI champion. LGD entered the game in a strong manner as Earthshaker went to fy and got himself blink + Arcane Boots at 12 minutes. But despite having many advantages, LGD made a mistake when they tried Aegis and got completely wiped by the team by OG who also killed Roshan and possessed Aegis.
OG used this opportunity and took full control of the game and everything that LGD had achieved was now gone as both barracks lay down.
There was no hope left for LGD’s side and OG didn’t want to prolong this match as they finished the game.
OG had a very difficult time when they lost players before entering Open Qualifiers TI8 and had to rely on 2 players to patch up. But despite all these difficulties, the team showed off some great Dota at this year’s finals. They fully deserved this prestigious Aegis shield.
Firstclass – OG – $11,208,905
Second – PSG.LGD – $4,075,965
Third place – Evil Geniuses – $2,674,852
Fourth – Team Liquid – $1,783,235
Fifth and sixth place – Virtus.pro/Team Secret – $1,146,365
Seventh and eighth place – OpTic Gaming/VGJ.Storm – $636,870
From ninth to twelfth place – Team Serenity/Mineski/Winstrike/Vici Gaming – $381,122
From thirteenth to sixteenth place – Fnatic/TNC/Newbee/VGJ.Thunder – $127,374
Seventeenth and eighteenth place – Invictus Gaming/paiN Gaming – $63,687
Source link: OG becomes the new king of The International 2018
– https://emergenceingames.com/
