If you are a fan of Dota 2 and were unable to watch the ESL One Manila 2016, you missed out on the most electrifying tournament of the year. Big names fell, new lineups survived, but just one team managed to soar to the title of champion.
Wings Gaming waged aggressive battles against teams with big time players and even bigger resumes. One of the biggest story lines was the upstart organization claiming victory, but the fact that some of the top teams in the world were unable to make it out of group play was startling, to say the least.
EHOME, Team Secret, Complexity Gaming--each one a recognizable name within Dota 2--failed to make it out of group play. With the performances of these three particular teams, more questions might have been created than answers.
More Questions Than Answers
EHOME shuffled its roster after the Shanghai Major, replacing Chen "cty" Tian Yu and Hu "KaKa" Liang Zhi with Koh "iceiceice" Xiang and Lu "Fenrir" Chao and the results in Manila proved disastrous. These two new roster additions combined for a 10/47/37 KDA, as the team was swept out of the tournament by Fnatic and Team Secret. It's clear the chemistry just wasn't there for EHOME, who will now need to survey its roster once more to decide if it's worthy enough to compete in these upper echelon tournaments.
After winning the Shanghai Major, Secret was soaring on the wings of great hopes and expectations. By most measures, Secret was the odds on favorite to win Group B, arguably the toughest group of the two--and those odds only seemed to grow with the addition of Artour "Arteezy" Babaev and Saahil "UNiVeRsE" Arora, two former members of Evil Geniuses. But those expectations careened back into earth during ESL One Manila, as the same chemistry issues that plagued EHOME seemed to overtake Secret. Losses to Empire eventually forced Secret to exit the tournament earlier than many predicted, leaving the team to ponder its future heading into the Manila Major.
Thanks to its performance at the ESL One Manila, Complexity may have just blown any chance it had of receiving a direct invite to the $3 million Manila Major. This team couldn't get out of group play (1-2), struggling to beat the likes of Mineski. Complexity does have the luxury of saying it lost to the team that won the championship, perhaps mitigating the damage with the hopes that a direct invite to the Manila Major will still be there.
Group Play
While some recognizable teams faltered, the top seed in each group was able to advance, quite easily in fact, each going 2-0. Team Liquid closed out Group A with 2-0 wins over both Mineski and Wings Gaming as Adrian "FATA" Trinks put up a monster performance, earning a combined 31/15/61 KDA.
Fnatic, the top seed in Group B, did just as well, sweeping both matches against EHOME and Team Empire. Nai "Midone" Yeik was stellar in group play, earning a 52/12/49 KDA in two matches.
Two breathtaking and thrilling elimination matches took place on day two as Wings took on Complexity in Group A and Secret faced off in a revenge match against Empire in Group B.
In an elimination match nobody saw coming, Complexity would again find itself pitted against Wings, the team that had beaten it 2-1 in the opening match of Group A. While Complexity was expected to beat Wings thanks to its veteran leadership, it was the upstarts that managed to claim a berth in the semifinals thanks to a 2-1 match win over Complexity. Wings's strategy centered around its ability to travel fast and hit hard using multiple Blink Daggers and Power Treads.
After Secret dropped its opening match against Empire, this elimination round rematch would be the main event of the second day. This series went the distance, but the results were the same. Empire came back after a loss in the first game, storming into the next two games, taking the match 1-2, and advancing to the semifinal playoff bracket where it would play Team Liquid. Roman "RAMZES" Kushnarev's performance on Gyrocopter, Spectre, and Slark showcased his dominance as a renowned carry, going 38/12/37.
While RAMZES' play likely pushed Empire into the semifinals, Empire pulled off a brilliant move that caught everyone's attention--using Roman "Scandal" Sadotenkov's Nyx Assassin as a lure to tease Secret into committing to an attack which gave teammate Rinat "KingR" Abdullin's Rubick a chance to land a colossal four man Black Hole after stealing it from Clement "Puppey" Ivanov's Enigma, utterly annihilating his opposition.
Playoffs
With the four semifinal teams now set, all eyes were on the one team that nobody expected to be there: Wings Gaming.
But playing in the first semifinal match would be Liquid and Empire in a best-of-three.
In game one, each team started slowly during the laning phase. Empire would get first blood on Ivan "MinD_ContRoL" Borislavov's Beastmaster via trade as RAMZES' Phantom Assassin was killed by a tower shot. An early gank on Beastmaster resulted in a team fight that ended in an even trade. Empire wanted to push aggressively and succeeded during a clash at the Radiant Tier Two bottom lane, ending in a three-for-one trade in Empire's favor.
Liquid would return the aggression in kind as it rushed Empire's jungle, completing a three-for-four trade favoring Liquid. Liquid would press this advantage the rest of the game and claim the victory.
"With the four semifinal teams now set, all eyes were on the one team that nobody expected to be there: Wings Gaming."
Game two was much of the same as Liquid came out as the aggressors. Empire would get first blood as AfterLife's Nature's Prophet was able to drop Jesse "JerAx" Vainikka's Witch Doctor one-on-one. Both teams would trade ganks, but Liquid would continue to advance. It would take game two and claim a match win thanks to Adrian "FATA" Trinks' Death Prophets, which was able to drain Empire's heroes as the rest of Liquid finished them off.
On the other side of the bracket, Wings would find itself faced against one of the top two teams in the world: Fnatic.
Game one in this semifinal series was all Fnatic, with the team taking an early lead in just about every category. Thanks to an early high ground advantage, Fnatic was able to claim victory in almost every team fight, using solid vision control to pick off its opposition. Wings appeared to be showing nerves and everybody thought the team was finished.
However, Wings would rally back, riding a complete turnaround thanks to some devastating combinations in game two and three. Wings found the combination of Jacky "EternaLEnVy" Mao's Spectre and Zhou "bLink" Yang's Phantom Lancer to be devastating to Fnatic in game two, putting up a 15/2/33 KDA. In game three, the combination bLink's Outworld Devourer and EternaLEnVy's Lone Druid took its toll on Fnatic, locking down an amazing KDA of 16/0/15.
Wings had done what most people thought impossible--make it to the finals.
Grand Finals
One team was supposed to be there. One team was not. A David versus Goliath match up was about to take place on the main stage to determine the ESL One Manila 2016 Champions.
Game one started well for Wings, as it was able to get first blood, seemingly wiping away the big stage jitters that affected the team in its semifinal match up. Wings dominated the early game, farming with Chu "Shadow" Zeyu's Phantom Lancer while getting a lucky pick-off on MinD_ContRoL's Bounty Hunter. Liquid would get the Roshan with the Aegis going to FATA. This set Wings back even more on its quest for more farming, as Liquid applied pressure on the upstarts.
As the game unfolded, the pundits figured the next team to get the Roshan would win, and they would be right as Liquid attempted to secure the critical objective twice to no avail. Wings would get the Aegis--coupled with the power of MinD_ContRoL's Bounty Hunter and Shadow's Phantom Lancer, the team would push the mid lane and win the game.
Game two began a little smoother for Liquid as Lasse "MATUMBAMAN" Urpalainen's Phantom Lancer evaded pressure and started to farm once more. However, Wings would rotate masterfully and push its advantage, taking towers, and forcing bad rotations from Liquid. This would prove costly for Liquid in the final team fight of game two as it ended up in poor positioning in a fight at mid, firing off Ravage and the Black Hole, killing only Shadow's Slark. This would lead to a game-ending bottom lane push, putting Wings in a commanding 2-0 lead.
In the first minute of game three, an absolute riot took place in the bottom lane with Wings trading one-for-three. With new confidence and an eye on the prize, Wings took charge of the game, playing a very aggressive style, going for team fight after team fight. While its aggressiveness was sure to backfire on occasion, Wings was able to win a couple of critical team fights and steal multiple Roshans.
In the end, Liquid had its back to the wall and got dominated in its own base. Wings would take the game, match, and the title of ESL One Manila 2016 champions.