It was an amazing run by first-time TI finalists Tundra Esports to lift the Aegis. And they did it by remaining undefeated through the entire series.
But how did they beat fan favourite Team Secret, which featured the legendary Puppey?
We break down their formula, game by game.
Game 1
In game 1, Tundra Esports does the classic Tundra Esports thing, getting a cheesy mid hero for their mid laner – Nine. This time Nine played Tusk – a strength hero that is mainly played as position 4 due to its initiating and nuking prowess during the early laning stage. Tundra followed this up with Naga Siren who has a perfect synergy to nearly all Tusk’s abilities and can absolutely demolish team fights with Tusk’s Tag Team ability. A Tidehunter’s ravage to lockdown the team fights followed by Mirana and Hoodwink support duo. Mirana can set up or break team fights with her ultimate Moonlight Shadow, while Hoodwink offers vision and control during team fights and perfect to split push the lanes.
On the other hand, Team Secret opted for a greedier draft with 3 core line up such as Pudge for safe lane, Leshrac for the midlane and Enigma for offlane. Team Secret tried to round their draft with the support duo of Lich and Tiny.
Both teams tested the waters during the laning stage of game 1 trading hits and bringing the other team low. Even though the game looked pretty much even till 15-17 minutes, Tundra Esports hit their item timing and started to wipe Team Secret off the map, Nisha’s Leshrac was doing everything he can to keep Team Secret in the game. However, Tundra Esports played calm, relaxed and closed out game 1 with the score of 13-39 with 49K gold advantage at 39 minutes.
Game 2
Team Secret came into the drafting stage with a clear plan – deny and distract.
They stole Tundra Esports Tusk and banned the Naga Siren and Mirana. Puppey then brought out his comfort pick – Chen. Tundra Esports then picked Chaos Knight – a comfort hero for their safelaner Skiter and Phoenix.
Puppey responded by picking Bristleback – if BristleBack wins the laning stage then the snowball effect becomes hard for Tundra to deal with. Tundra Esports then banned Batrider which is a comfort pick for Team Secret’s Nisha and drafted an Arc Warden for their midlaner Nine. Not to be outdone, Puppey picked Morphling for Nisha as it can be a decent counter against Arc Warden and skills well into the late game.
Team Secret displayed more confidence in Game 2 and got an early Roshan kill at 14 minutes on their Morphling. But the tide shifted at 19 minutes when Tundra smoked-jumped Secret, with an Aegis on their Morphling and 2K gold lead.
Tundra took the Aegis away from Morphling, trading it with their Chaos Knight but the damage was done. At 21 minutes, a smoke gank by Team Secret quickly backfired on them, even though Team Secret started the team fight by killing Phoenix.
Tundra rallied around Skiter’s Chaos Knight resulting in three of Team Secret’s heroes including Morph getting wiped from the map.
Tundra slowly climbed their way back into the game with their Arc Warden and Chaos Knight playing around each other while Visage took objectives. After securing Aegis at 27 mins, Tundra besieged Team Secret’s high ground by using Arc Warden’s Magnetic Field and Visage’s Familiars.
Even though Nisha’s Morphling tried his best to bring the series even, a crucial mistake by Nisha’s Morphling at 36 minutes mark sealed the fate of the match. Tundra were able to close out the match 40 minutes with a 40K gold lead.
Game 3
At game 3, Team Secret goes all in by drafting an aggressive draft. Team Secret opted for Naga Siren, Ember Spirit and Leshrac as their cores backed up by Marci and Silencer while Tundra chose Medusa, Pango and Beast Master as their cores followed by Tiny and Mirana as their supports.
Even though Team Secret’s Nisha won his lane and displayed a marvellous performance during the laning stage, it doesn’t seem to matter as Tundra Esports started to run at Team Secret when they hit their item timing at 19 minutes. Tundra eventually closed out the Game 3 at 44 minutes with the score of 41 -22 and 21K gold lead taking the series along with The International title.
