Team Secret have cleaned up against top Dota 2 teams at ESL One Los Angeles Online. But against smaller squads, like Team Spirit, it seems that they struggle to find the right counters in the draft.
Spirit are only the second team to take a game off of Secret. But Puppey and his team pulled out all of the stops today in game three, running Spirit off the map to remain undefeated overall in the group stage.
Secret had a strong game one, holding a lead for the entire game while Spirit tried to find some way to open things back up. But even when Mihail “Misha” Agatov and his team were able to actually win a teamfight, Secret still got something out of it.
At a key moment 31 minutes in, Secret lost a big teamfight, leaving only zai’s Nature’s Prophet alive. Spirit held the map advantage, but zai was pushing into their base while his teammates were fighting, leading to him securing mega creeps for the next push and putting Spirit on a timer.
Anton “DyrachYO” Shkredov gave Spirit one last chance, nailing a Chronosphere that led to another team wipe in favor of his team. But it wasn’t enough to make up for all of the ground they had lost already. Secret found two kills on the Faceless Void and Phoenix before pushing the throne and ending the game.
Spirit played well in the opener, but needed to try and get more offense going early if they wanted to take down Secret. So instead of trying a more decisive laning draft, they fourth picked Meepo, setting up a battle between Egor “Ergon” Kozlov and Nisha’s Morphling.
The game came down to which team could capitalize on their hero of choice, even though Secret did have a triple-Spirit hero lineup going for them.
Neither team had a secure lead for longer than 10 minutes, with Spirit swinging the game after finding two early kills on the Morphling and Secret taking out the Meepo in a teamfight just a few minutes later. And while Secret had more damage, Spirit had better execution with their abilities late, chaining with Vasily “AfterLife” Shishkin’s Pangolier and Alexander “Immersion” Hmelevskoy’s Grimmstroke to finish out the game.
But after a big win, Spirit had to face a Secret lineup completely full of control heroes, including a last pick Broodmother on MATUMBAMAN.
Ergon didn’t have any luck trying to play Storm Spirit and Secret neutralized DyrachYO’s Slark from the start. There was nothing Spirit could do against Nisha’s Monkey King or the Broodmother and Secret won two lanes, held map control, and took the game in 23 minutes.
With that win on Broodmother, Matu is now the winningest professional player with that hero in the game’s history. His record of 25-9 overtook current Natus Vincere coach Andrey “Mag” Chipenko for the most wins all-time. He sits at a 73.5 percent win rate, too.
Secret are now 5-0 overall, having only dropped two games but winning every series so far and running away with the Group B standings. Puppey and crew will face off against s4’s Alliance on April 15, with a series win locking them in as the top seed for the playoffs.
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