After 72 minutes, the best match so far of the Dota 2 Asia Championship ended with Newbee on top.
In a game with a surprising number of turns and twists, Newbee outlasted Team Liquid’s hard scaling late-game line-up. Featuring Lasse “MATUMBAMAN” Urpalainen on Alchemist, and Amer “Miracle-” Al-Barkawi on Juggernaut, the European squad’s two carries found a way to keep up with the carries of Newbee, despite the Chinese team’s early lead.
Newbee, who relied on Song “Sccc” Chun’s Storm Spirit, as well as Xu “uuu9” Han on Lifestealer to carry the game, had to find new ways to approach the threat of the two super carries of Team Liquid. That led to a quite interesting set of teamfights through the game’s later stages.
Newbee captain Hu “Kaka” Liangzhi deserves a lot of credit for the win. His Sand King initiations regularly created chances for the team. At one moment late in the game, Kaka stunned the majority of the Team Liquid line-up, allowing Sccc to Ball Lightning into the middle of his opponents and unleash Strom Spirit’s rarely used Aghanim’s Scepter-upgraded ultimate. For at least a few seconds, all of Team Liquid were caught in Sccc’s Electric Vortex, leading to teamfight victory for the Chinese side.
Though Newbee won the first game of the series, Team Liquid was still impressive for staying relevant throughout every stage of the game, especially since Newbee established a substantial lead over the European squad roughly 30 minutes into the game.
The second game between the two teams was less dramatic, as Miracle- completely dominated the game on his signature Invoker. With 23 kills and 0 deaths to his name, Miracle- and Team Liquid had control of the game for the majority of its 53 minute duration, and ultimately tied the best of two series.
With the tie, Newbee sits atop Group A of the DAC, while Liquid is in fourth. The event will continue until April 4, and can be viewed on the streams PGL Dota, and PGL Dota 2.
