Fnatic ban ‘Animal heroes’ to defeat WEU’s Entity esports

Rohan

Rohan

Entity esports are eliminated from ESL One Malaysia. Here’s what Fnatic DJ had to say about the matchup after the series.

The fourth day at ESL One Malaysia saw elimination games all around. As teams saw their hopes of making it to the finals dashed, there were a few teams whose tournaments hopes are still alive. Fnatic is one of the teams that has the crowd’s unconditional support and took down the ever-threatening Entity esports with some really different drafts and picks. 

The series went the distance of three games and it seemed Fnatic had figured out Entity by the end of it. Which is why they kept the same draf in Games 2 and 3 and if DJ is to be believed, they didn’t even know their draft was the same until the last pick.

I feel like Batrider is (being) contested this tournament and we really want to get it because QOP was banned. We didn't even know we had the same five heroes until our last pick. 

Fnatic DJ after their series victory over Entity

Fnatic picked Razor, Nyx, Batrider, Alchemist and Undying, each hero bringing strength to the roster. The SEA team has its trademark aggression and with the crowd’s backing they were clearly in a zone in the last two games of the series.


But the first game did not go their way at all. Entity was clearly the dominant team in Game 1 after their Batrider pick seemed to work wonders for the squad.

Fnatic vs Entity Game 1 Net worth Graph. Screengrab via <a href="https://www.dotabuff.com/matches/6725018798">Dotabuff.</a>
Fnatic vs Entity Game 1 Net worth Graph. Screengrab via Dotabuff.

Crucially, Fnatic’s Undying would not go for the Tombstone build. While that skill build sometimes cost them easy kills in-lane, it helped them stay alive and tank up a lot more in the mid-game. Soul Rip along with Decay constantly provided a HP advantage to Fnatic who were only extending their lead with an Alchemist on the team.

Fnatic's strat was to ban animal heroes against Entity! (It worked!)

In the post-series Interview, Fnatic DJ, clearly one of the crowd favorites spoke a bit about Entity’s draft.

I feel like first game we were just playing really scared. They have their heroes - Like Batrider mid and Lycan offlane. I feel like this team's really good when they have their animal heroes. But the second and third game, I felt like it went really good and everything went as planned. We banned every animal and we just outplayed them

Fnatic on Entity's love for animal heroes.

The change in mentality for Fnatic was clearly evident in the last two games with aggressive moves and positioning. They might be having fun in the Genting resort on their offdays, but Fnatic were spot on in their match against Entity. 

With this loss, Entity are now out of ESL One Malaysia, while Fnatic will continue in the tournament. Fnatic next plays the winner of OG and Thunder Awaken in the Lower bracket quarterfinal.