Newbee eliminates Team Faceless from SL i-League Invitational Season 2

Newbee knocked Team Faceless out of the tournament in the group stage  of StarLadder i-League Invitational Season 2. They made a great comeback after losing the Game 1 of the BO3. Heading into the final match of the Group Stage, they are going to face Vega Squadron for the last Semifinal Berth.

It was an epic 3 Round battle between the SEA giants and China’s aces. Faceless dominated Newbee in the first game  of the series. But then in the marathon Game 2 and subsequently in the Game 3, Newbee displayed formidable team-fighting ability to secure the series 2-1.

Game 1

Draft

Newbee

Team Faceless

Game 1 was an iceiceice show. Iceiceice performed phenomenally on Night Stalker. The hero combined with Troll Warlord caused havoc in the mid game with an early BKB.

The game began with Jabz securing first blood against Sccc. Newbee had the initial gold advantage as Sccc gained a triple kill in the middle. Things started going downhill for Newbee as iceiceice secured two double kills against Newbee. A disastrous roshan fight with four Newbee heroes dying and inablility to deal with magic immune heroes made them tap out at 33 min.

Game 2

Draft

Newbee

Team Faceless

With the draft, it was quite obvious that Faceless wanted to dodge the fights and split push to eternity. With Arc Warden being pesky and evasive, Newbee couldn’t take the high ground against Arc and Tinker. Arc Warden kept pushing side lanes using Tempest Double threatening Newbee’s siege attempts.

Despite having a very dominant laning phase, Newbee couldn’t capitalize on it by taking the objectives. Team Faceless was about to win after a successful team fight initiated by iceiceice’s 4 man Ravage in Newbee’s base. But, timely buyback from QOP, Tinker and Tidehunter getting caught in Blackhole eventually killing them, halted the push.

A series of back and forth team fights between the two teams continued with no clear winner. Finally, Newbee found an opening when TideHunter and Tinker were caught off position, without buybacks. This window was enough for them to seal the game and take it to Game 3.

Game 3

Draft

Newbee

Team Faceless

In the last game of the series, Faceless couldn’t capitalize on the Undying pick. They lost their lanes thanks to kaka’s perfect initiations on Sand King. Sccc destroyed Jabz in the midlane, thus securing them a huge early game advantage.

Faceless tried to play catch up using Abaddon, but were not successful. They had a slight glimmer of hope as they caught Newbee off-guard at the rosh pit. But both the cores of Newbee were extremely farmed and could easily overpower Team Faceless.

With a team fight lost and Slark getting caught without buyback, Newbee could easily take the high ground. iceiceice and Jabz’s attempts to stop the push were all futile.

DOTABUFF

Stay tuned to DireDota for more coverage of the StarLadder i-League Invitational. Click here for our post Kiev Major shuffle Mega Thread.