Although the series was a draw, newly sponsored Soniqs handed PSG LGD their first game loss of the Arlington Major!
It's no secret that Soniqs have had a rough major. They have yet to win an entire series and have a few losses under their belt. PSG LGD on the other hand, have looked unstoppable at the Arlington Major. They have not lost a single series in the tournament so far. In fact, they hadn't even had any draws. Until now. In an incredible display of will, Soniqs have managed to take a game off of LGD, their first loss of the tournament.
Even Gods can Bleed: LGD at the Arlington Major
Game one saw Soniqs go for some new picks as a team. They decided to go with a Bristleback+Io strat, Bristle being a hero that Yawar "YawaR" Hassan has not played much of during the DPC. In addition, Quinn "Quinn" Callahan played Winter Wyvern mid, a weird hero for him but one that has been appearing in the mid role more frequently. PSG LGD went for a slightly more traditional draft. Cheng "NothingToSay" Jin Xiang played the mid Zeus, with Wang "Ame" Chunyu on the carry Weaver. The only odd pick was the position five Elder Titan for Zhang "y`" Yiping, which has not been in the meta for awhile.
The early game went very well for Soniqs as Quinn got a few kills in the mid lane and Adrian "Fata" Trinks and Rodrigo "LESLÃO" Santos were able to pick off Ame. However, Yawar had a rougher time against the high kill threat of Zhang "Faith_bian" Ruida and Zhao "XinQ" Zixing. Despite Soniqs running around the map and getting kills, Ame and Faith_bian were still able to find lots of farm as NothingToSay struggled. They kept the net worth lead close. After an early Roshan, Bristleback, backed up by the sustain of Arif "MSS" Anwar, began to get out of control. Soniqs swarmed the map, getting kill after kill. Although LGD attempted to split push, Soniqs was unstoppable. The combined damage of Quinn and Yawar demolished everything in their path to lead to Soniqs' victory.
LGD show why they're not to be trifled with
Soniqs again chose to go for a Bristleback and Io combo in game two. This time however, they put Quinn on Void Spirit and tried a LESLÃO Dawnbreaker. LGD decided to go for a more traditional draft, putting Ame on a hard carry Terrorblade and NothingToSay on Kunnka. They also put Faith_bian on Death Prophet, making their cores tanky, with the ability to soak up damage and to dish it out.
The early game was pretty even with Quinn having a slight edge in the mid lane, while Faith_bian and Ame managed to eke out advantages in the other lanes. The two teams seemed to trade kills for the first 15 minutes until LGD turned up the jets. With a teamfight win at the 17 minute mark, LGD seemd to blow the game wide open. Though into the mid game, Soniqs were able to get a nice fight in to drag them back into the game, LGD were relentless. At this point, the Ame Terrorblade was too big to fail and LGD were able to cruise to victory from there.
Though Soniqs were able to take a game off Dota's biggest juggernaut, they are still in a rough position in their group. By contrast, LGD still continue to look incredibly strong as the team with the best record. Will Soniqs survive the group. Will LGD go on to win it all? Stick with us at esports.gg to find out!