India’s number 1 Dota 2 team came back from an initial first-round defeat to march into the grand finals with 2 commanding performances. Their round 1 loss against former teammate Pasoll’s LXG put them in danger of being eliminated, but they stood strong, eliminating both the ROG Titans and LXG Esports to set themselves up a date with Reckoning Esports in the finals.
First-round defeats for both ROG and Signify in round 1 put both teams in a place they rarely find themselves in an Indian LAN; on the brink of elimination. The matchup that we normally expect to see in the grand finals, was now being played out in the first eliminator. But that seemed to be the only abnormally as once again Signify found themselves a win, keeping their record against their arch-rivals intact. For ROG it's a lowly 4th place finish, one that they could not have themselves predicted as they must once again hurry back to the drawing board before the final LAN of 2018 goes underway.
Signify had blood in their eyes as they went up against LXG Esports, hoping to get revenge for the earlier defeat. Fortunately, though, the game was a bo3, meaning both teams had some breathing room to work with. Unfortunately though, Signify were in no mood to joke around and LXG experienced the wrath first hand.
Game 1 saw Crowley’a Kunkka and No_Chanc3’s Rubik dominate Mino’s Anti-Mage delaying his Battlefury for quite a bit. Couple with the fact that Swifty was able to come out on top on his Pugna against Kaneki’s Timbersaw meant that BlizzarD had all the time and the space to get his core items up. Low cooldown ultimates allowed Signify to take fights whenever they wanted and however they wanted, while LXG were reliant on Zeus’s Magnus who was farming his Blink and even then by the high cooldown on his Reverse Polarity. With Mino’s AM unable to join the fights, Signify always had the numbers to pull out ahead and by 17 minutes, Signify had found all the tier 2’s seriously limiting Mino’s ability to find any safe farm. LXG held onto their barracks for some time after but by then BlizzarD was too big to deal with, one-shotting the LXG supports and diving their base and the home team called the gg.
In game 2, LXG got off to a much better start, finding lots of early kills on Crowley’s Underlord as well as the Signify supports. But Signify were farming better on their cores, Lycan and OD, and used the Lycan’s pushing power to find themselves early objectives and build up a lead. LXG kept finding key kills, delaying Signify’s attempts at pushing further and further and Mino, as well as Kaneki, continued to scale with big item pickups on their Invoker and Naga Siren. At around the 26-minute mark, Signify found a big teamfight win as LXG messed up on their sleep + Tornado combo allowing No-Chanc3’s support Dark Seer to land a crucial 3 man Vacuum + Wall combo. Signify wiped LXG and took down two sets of barracks, effectively ending the game with a single teamfight.
Swifty and co now face Reckoning Esports, who, much to the surprise of everyone advanced to the grand finals with wins over both ROG Titans and LXG Esports and are on the edge of making their underdog story come true.
