Fnatic prove too strong for SMG in BTS Pro Series Lower Bracket Finals

The BTS Pro Series Season 7: SEA is down to its final two matches with Fnatic and Team SMG in the lower bracket of the tournament. Team SMG has some really big names and there are hopes this team can matchup to international rosters. But the team has been inconsistent in performance and it was obvious in Game 1 of the lower bracket finals.

The BTS Pro Series is a $50,000 online Dota 2 tournament featuring some of the best Southeast Asian Dota 2 teams. The organizers quickly announced the event after Valve postponed The International 10 to October. Valve had to take the difficult decision as Sweden refused to grant Dota 2 an elite sport tag, which could potentially cause visa problems for players. As one of the true global esports events, The International features players from across the globe. Any disturbance in the participating team list would severely impact the tournament's integrity and fairness.

Game 1 started off relatively even with both teams vying for any advantage. The experience alternating between Fnatic and Team SMG as their core players continued to get valuable farm. While Fnatic pulled ahead in terms of kills, Yeik "MidOne" Nai Zheng matched the enemy carry’s farm. However, as a Gyrocopter, there was a limit to just how much he could achieve with his farm. Even with equal farm, a Gyrocopter does not match up against Luna. And Fnatic’s other cores, Pangolier and Void Spirit also had decent farm and experience gain over their opponents.

In addition to the farm, Fnatic had also drafted a ‘support Abaddon’. The Aphotic Shield and Mist Coil combination was more than enough to save any carry from sure death. This was a high-pressure game, but Fnatic's players were clearly having fun with Anucha "Jabz" Jirawong even dropping items to try to bait the enemy players.

Team SMG managed a comeback towards the mid-game. But they never pulled ahead and it was always Fnatic’s game to lose. Ultimately, after securing the Aegis of Immortal, Fnatic decided to march down the bot lane. Despite finishing his Satanic, Gyrocopter simply could not man-fight the enemy Luna despite help from his Dire allies. Marc Polo Luis "Raven" Fausto’s Luna ended the game with a 17-1 score and it was obvious Team SMG did not have a clear answer to his free farm. SMG tapped out at the 32 minute mark, mentally preparing for Game 2.

The second game saw Fnatic pick up the Luna once again for Raven. The draft highlighted Fnatic’s confidence coming into this series against Team SMG. SMG, on the other hand, took a completely different approach to this game. They drafted the lifestealer, possibly aiming for a slightly early to mid-game focus. 

In Game 2, much like the previous game, Raven had a relatively free game up until the 8 minute mark. A well-executed gank allowed Team SMG to get Fnatic’s Raven out of position. Nyx was able to solo-kill him, but SMG’s rotation had ensured they would have got the Fnatic carry player. 

Fnatic avoided the early team fights, simply because their heroes were very weak at the moment. Lifestealer took the first tower of the game, the radiant bot tower. The change in pace of SMG’s playstyle was evident. MidOne’s Lifestealer is a much more active hero compared to Gyrocopter and Fnatic had to play on the back-foot. 

MidOne was feeling extremely confident and was often playing in the face of Fnatic heroes. While the team could not physically burst him down, Fnatic had a trump card in Doom. Doom basically muted Lifestealer, preventing him from lifestealing, using Rage or even using his armlet to toggle his HP. Whenever Doom was online, Fnatic took down MidOne. But immediately afterwards, knowing Doom was offline, Team SMG took down important objectives (Roshan), an important objective in the mid-game. 

Fnatic had the better late-game on paper, but if SMG managed to pick up a sizable mid-game lead, Fnatic would falter. The battle between the ultimate cooldowns and objectives provided some much-needed fun for Dota 2 fans. 

As the game progressed, Fnatic’s win-condition was clear. Use Doom’s ultimate on Lifestealer and focus everyone else. Everytime Lifestealer was Doomed, there was nothing he could contribute to the teamfight. Despite a 5-man Vacuum wall, Team SMG did not win a team fight where the Lifestealer was Doomed.

With no one building defensive items such as Linken's or Lotus Orbs, Fnatic's Doom target was always Lifestealer. Ultimately, after 48 minutes, Fnatic took down SMG 2-0 to secure a Grand Finals slot.

With this victory, Fnatic move on to the Grand finals of the BTS Pro Series Season 7: SEA. They will face off against Galaxy Racer in the finals of the $50,000 tournament. Galaxy Racer has been one of the biggest surprises in the BTS Pro Series tournament and it will be interesting to see if they can continue with their stellar form in the finals.

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