The Plantronics UKDota.net Invitational Play-day One Round up.

Tournaments | 21 September 2013, 22:30 | By Ripexz

Today we saw the start of The Plantronics UKDota.net Invitational featuring eight of the best teams in the UK, we've put together a run down of todays games. Who will be the victor in the claim for spoils from Plantronics Gamecom and The Creative Assembly.

Match One.

Versus

Game 1

Bans

Picks

Smackdown Syndrome looked in good shape to win their top and mid lanes, with a sneaky play from Venomancer and Shadow Fiend allowing souls to be collected early from plague wards in the Roshan pit and Naga's ensnare being an excellent counter to Dark Seer's surge. However, excellent early game play on the safe tri-lane and early towers allowed Naix on a Plane to take a commanding lead and rotate their supports to help out the Outworld Devourer against the Shadow Fiend. This opened up the game for their core heroes to gain and maintain a gold and item advantage which put a stop to the possibility for SdS to take any 5v5 engagements with their Song of the Siren and massive AoE capabilities.

Twitch.tv VOD.

Naix on a Plane 1 : 0 Smackdown Syndrome

Versus

Game 2

Bans

Picks

An unusual game with some unusual picks. We saw a very strength heavy line-up get picked for Naix on a Plane, with Timbersaw off-lane causing all sorts of issues and forcing early rotations from Smackdown Syndrome's Viper and supports. The relatively weak support duo of Crystal Maiden and Visage were constantly under pressure on the aggressive tri-lane they attempted to run, which was completely thwarted by a great combination of nightmare, light strike array and open wounds. Solid play and stable lanes  from all of Naix's players forced SdS to make rotations to try and catch up, 4 man ganks onto the Timbersaw allowed Lifestealer and Dragon Knight to have free reign over their lanes, once again creating an insurmountable lead for the core heroes.

Twitch.tv VOD.

Naix on a Plane 2 : 0 Smackdown Syndrome

Match Two.

Versus

Game 1

Bans

Picks

In an unusual draft, we saw TmF pick up Io, the Wisp, very early which severely limited their options further down the line. They focused very heavily on having a strong mid and safe lane, to give space for their tiny to pick up an early Aghanim's Sceptre to combine with the AoE potential of the Puck, Dark Seer and Jakiro. Wat a Stack did not let this happen. As expected from them, we saw a heavily aggressive line-up with strong early to mid game heroes, dominating their lanes and winning engagements against TmF's advantage in numbers. Rime's Templar Assassin demolished peo's Puck with the help of Welp's Visage early on, then snowballed out of control. With the help of Bounty Hunter's track and Spirit Breaker's Charge they were able to dive behind Tier 2 towers and win fights 4v5, whilst Alchemist continued free farming until the 25th minute mark where the game was ended by a final push.

Twitch.tv VOD.

Wat A Stack 1 : 0 TmF Gaming

Versus

Game 2

Bans

Picks

Unlike the first game, TmF put less focus on a single carry hero and split their heroes across the map, with an unusual tri-lane forming from a failed gank attempt on Shadow Fiend comprising of Windrunner, Jakiro and Visage. Leaving Alchemist to solo the safe lane and Gyrocopter middle. This laning arrangement proved to be their downfall, as Alchemist was put to rest by the Clockwerk in the 1v1 at top lane, whilst the Abaddon, Weaver and Vengeful Spirit tri-lane were able to take advantage of TmF's low HP heroes. Once again managing to create a massive gold and item lead over their opponents on their core heroes. Notably, Gyrocopter did not level rocket barrage to aid his early game damage out put and the Shadow Fiend was allowed total rune control. Excellent play from mango_banana on the Clockwerk and good rotations to help Rime on the Shadow Fiend allowed Wat a Stack to ball out of control, not giving the Alchemist or Gyrocopter an inch of space to farm.

Twitch.tv VOD.

Wat A Stack 2 : 0 TmF Gaming

We hope you all enjoyed today's games and look forward to seeing you on Multiplay's Twitch.tv channel for the next set of matches tomorrow, starting again at 16:00 BST cast by Mr.Blakadder & durka with kitkat on ingame statistics.