After a quite enjoyable and thrilling best of five series, Alliance took the win with a 3-1 score. Both teams played really well, and the result could have gone either way.
Game 1
| Escape | Alliance |
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Alliance’s lineup seemed to hold the better late game, with massive bonus damage and minus armour, and the now trendy Terrorblade pick. Escape however possessed the superior team fight. The Winter Wyvern pickup was the key to win plenty of team fights for them, rendering the Swedes’ huge physical damage output useless and making Loda kill his teammates more often than he’d like. Escape seemed to have the upper hand, claiming rax one after another.
Anything we could say won’t do this game much honour. Alliance managed to turn this around in the last minute, with one last building away from mega creeps and a Divine Rapier. Akke and EGM’s spectacular support plays kept Loda’s Terrorblade alive long enough to claim the enemy throne.
Game 2
| Escape | Alliance |
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This time Escape didn’t allow any room for comebacks. Necrolyte made sure an enemy core wouldn’t buyback, making it very hard to stop Lone Druid’s insane push. On top of that, qojqva’s Lone Druid dominated the Net Worth chart from the very begining.
On the other hand, Loda’s favourite safelane Slardar showed his weaknesses once more. The idea was probably to snowball with Bounty’s track gold and Timbersaw’s huge burst, but the huge sustain from the whole Escape lineup didn’t allow for any of that.
Game 3
| Escape | Alliance |
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This match reminded us of the old Alliance a lot. Who cares if the enemy has a Tinker+Medusa+Undying defense, let’s just push high ground constantly.
While Alliance had the upper hand early on, Escape’s decision to put Tinker in the safelane gave him a very fast Boots of Travel+Soul Ring. From that point, one would think Alliance would have a hard time pushing and taking it to the late game would be the only option; but they had a different opinion. Pushing their way through multiple March of the Machines and stolen Mass Serpent Wards by Rubick, they didn’t allow Medusa to get huge and ended this with style.
Game 4
| Alliance | Escape |
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Escape opt for a similar lineup as in Game 2. Alliance answer by getting a Timbersaw to pair up against Lone Druid in the middle lane, and a Lich to ensure lane control and hinder the enemy push through Frost Armour.
Lone Druid didn’t have as much dominance early on this time around. Timber’s Reactive Armour allowed him to not only survive but win the lane, giving the Druid a late 10 minute Midas. On the side lanes, Lich’s presence gave the Swedes a clear upper hand, leaving Slardar to only 1 CS, the moment Weaver had 20.
Escape’s great sustain evened the scales later on, with Ghost Ship and Shallow Grave ensuring it wasn’t easy to burst someone down during the Chronosphere. After plenty of team fights going both ways, Alliance got a slight upper hand. Lone Druid tried to split push a lot, but Timbersaw with his Boots of Travel was always there to stop him. The bear couldn’t do it on its own, and the Sweds earned their place in the International’s main event.
