“El Clásico”
Although Alliance were playing on home soil with the audience on their side they didn’t repeat the great run that they had last week in Austin at jD-MLG LAN finals. In the first game of the series they oriented their draft towards a late game lineup, picking Phantom Lancer for Loda who Alliance’s supports were so focused on babysitting that actually they lost all other lanes and also completely ignored Funn1k’s Broodmother. By doing so they allowed Na’Vi to continuously push and found themselves cornered in their own base very fast. Having no farming options, with Na’Vi invading their jungle and and a split pushing Broodmother, Alliance had to call out the GG.
Even though the second game of the series marked the 70th confrontation between these two teams in official games Alliance had few reasons to celebrate. With a heavy AOE oriented heroes cast, Na’Vi simply dismantled the Swedes who got seriously outdrafted. Only 13 minutes into the game Na’Vi was pushing on high ground with the personal creep army of ArtStyle’s Chen. Realizing that they don’t have a line-up capable of any sort of comeback Alliance called out an anticlimactic “GG Well Played”.

Crazy CIS DotA 2
Virtus.Pro entered the competition quite late compared to all other teams involved in Dream League LAN finals as they were placed in the upper bracket phase two of playoffs after the amazing run that they had in the online qualifiers.
Continuing the great performance they’ve shown lately, the Russian squad completely smashed Ninja in Pyjamas in both games of the series, Illidan boasting impeccable plays sealed the deal in a very convincing manner. Asked in the winner interview after the series what’s the secret behind the under 20 minutes wins that they had versus NiP, the answer was one that both Swedish teams should think about:
“The Swedes don’t know how to draft against CIS Dota and they must accept it.“
The Swedish final remake
In a complete different scenario than last week’s jD-MLG grand finals, the two Swedish teams faced each other, this time around, in the lower bracket elimination match.
Hungry for revenge, Alliance chose to go with an ancient forgotten combo for the first game of the series, taking NiP by surprise with their Lifestealer (most played hero for Loda) last pick, in combination with Storm Spirit, Clockwerk and Io the, infest bomb strategy worked perfectly, Pajkatt’s amazing plays making the magic happen for his team.

However, NiP came in the second game of the series with a clear plan in their minds. Picking Bane for themselves not only that they denied 7ckngMad’s favorite hero but they also managed to make Loda’s Bristleback useless as the Enfeeble was reserved especially for him. Playing patient and going for the team fights only when they needed to,  NiP managed to bounce back and forced Alliance into a decisive game three.
Having to play the elimination game, Alliance decided to go with yet another big hero for Loda, Naga Siren. NiP  realized the very late potential of the game and made a good call by buying no less than three Hand of Midas on Disruptor, Rubik and Earthshaker which not only kept them in the game, although they struggled to push back the lanes, but 40 minutes into the game they were breaching Alliance’s high ground. Keeping the momentum up they capitalized on their only chance to end the game  and after they killed Loda twice, NiP forced the issue on high ground and they eliminated Alliance from the tournament.
The CIS show down
The last game of the day in Jönköping Sweden was the upper bracket round 2 BO3 series  with the winner advancing directly to the grand final while the loser team would  drop in the lower bracket finals BO5 series.
Featuring the two CIS power house teams Natus Vincere and Virtus.Pro and despite the very late hours, the encounter between these two teams was a complete showdown of aggressiveness and determination. A perfect example to support this statement would be what we can call the XBOCT effect or the next level  dives. Only four minutes after the starting horn of the first game of the series, the entire trilane of Na’Vi (Undying, Winter Wyvern, Beastmaster) made an insane dive up to the enemy base in order to kill Illidan, managing to escape from there with town portal scrolls bought from VP’s fountain. The game was very close as both teams chose to fight continuously, trading kills all the time which didn’t allow any of them to get some sort of advantage. Being the longest game from this year’s Dream League LAN finals, the confrontation between Na’Vi and VP ended up with a base race won by Natus Vincere .

Although we witnessed yet another great start for Na’Vi in the second game of the series that translated in a quite big early advantage, Virtus.Pro did not surrender and managed a good play from behind game. Prioritizing farm on their aggressive supports (Leshrac and Shadow Demon) VP found pick offs here and there and made the comeback. Despite a huge effort from Na’Vi to stay in the game not even the Divine Rapier from XBOCT’s Gyrocopter could save them as they got forced into  a decisive game three.
Beginning around 02:00 AM CET time, the fatigue started to show for Virtus.Pro in the last game of the day two of Dream League Season 3 LAN finals. First they got taken by surprise by Na’Vi’s laning choice and they failed to adapt in time which lead to the loss of their entire early game.  Secondly they opted for a core Kunkka placed in offlane but DKphobos looked a bit unsure handling it and he fell short in making the difference that VP hoped for in team fights.
Looking more focused and eager to finally reach grand finals, Na’Vi sealed the deal in only 30 minutes and sent Virtus.Pro in the lower bracket BO5 finals where they will face Ninja in Pyjamas.