DreamLeague Division 2 Series 5: _PowerRangers, HULIGANI and Zero Tenacity end the day cleanly

Today’s day in DreamLeague Division 2 Series 5 was short on romance: _PowerRangers, HULIGANI and Zero Tenacity all closed out their series 2:0, while the longest and most nerve-racking matches once again came from the pairs where teams weren’t afraid to push the draft to the limit. For me, the main thing here isn’t even the clean scorelines, but how quickly some games were decided after a strong tempo and a couple of powerful core heroes.

_PowerRangers cruise past ZENITH

The first series of the day ended 2:0 in favor of _PowerRangers, and by the numbers it looked fairly convincing. In game one they won the kills 42:17 in 32:29, and in game two — 27:20 in 42:27. So ZENITH didn’t collapse immediately in either game, but _PowerRangers still had a clearly higher tempo.

• Game 1: ZENITH had Earthshaker, Grimstroke, Doom, Disruptor and Necrophos; _PowerRangers had Slark, Winter Wyvern, Dark Willow, Lycan and Clinkz.
• Game 1: alberkaaa on Lycan stood out for _PowerRangers with 14/2/18 and 769 GPM, while shigetsu on Clinkz posted 12/3/10 and 790 GPM.
• Game 2: ZENITH picked Dark Willow, Dazzle, Nature’s Prophet, Outworld Destroyer and Magnus; _PowerRangers answered with Witch Doctor, Dragon Knight, Timbersaw, Windranger and Anti-Mage.
• Game 2: shigetsu on Anti-Mage finished 11/2/6 with 904 GPM, while Ulu on Nature’s Prophet for ZENITH managed 10/1/7 and 830 GPM.

What really stands out to me here is the second _PowerRangers draft: Dragon Knight, Timbersaw and Anti-Mage is a very unpleasant trio if the opponent doesn’t get a comfortable start. It looks like ZENITH tried to hang on in both games through strong late-game scaling and individual moments, but against that kind of pressure it doesn’t always work. And yes, Lycan with those GPM numbers is the kind of game that starts choking itself out.

Team Synapse take the Bo1 over potn9ki

In the second series of the day, Team Synapse took the only map from potn9ki: 43:30 in kills over 45:08. In a Bo1, that’s almost always the kind of scenario where one mistake costs you the whole series, and here Team Synapse simply traded resources better across the map.

• Team Synapse ran Witch Doctor, Timbersaw, Ringmaster, Phantom Lancer and Tusk.
• potn9ki answered with Windranger, Hoodwink, Viper, Slardar and Sven.
• Team Synapse’s best player was emptiness死 on Timbersaw: 10/2/20 and 710 GPM.
• rubikon155 on Phantom Lancer finished 14/4/12 with 909 GPM — a very rough number for the opposition in a long game.
• For potn9ki, August stood out on Sven with 10/3/7 and 753 GPM.

Here I’d single out Phantom Lancer as the key hero that let Team Synapse survive the long game comfortably. When your carry hits that kind of GPM in a Bo1, it becomes hard for the opponent to believe in “one more fight and everything turns around.” potn9ki, judging by the score, were reasonably close in kills, but not in map control.

HULIGANI dispatch Zero Tenacity very quickly

The cleanest series of the day was HULIGANI’s 2:0 over Zero Tenacity. Both maps ended quickly: 32:8 and 29:11 in kills, with game times of 27:46 and 31:18. That kind of gap usually says not just that the draft was stronger, but also that the team found the right rhythm immediately.

• Game 1: Zero Tenacity picked Windranger, Dazzle, Sand King, Lifestealer and Timbersaw.
• Game 1: HULIGANI answered with Dragon Knight, Dark Willow, Ancient Apparition, Ember Spirit and Batrider.
• Game 1: queezy on Dark Willow posted 5/1/20, and Mirage`雨 on Ember Spirit went 8/1/15.
• Game 2: Zero Tenacity had Gyrocopter, Windranger, Dawnbreaker, Disruptor and Pangolier.
• Game 2: HULIGANI once again played through Enigma? No, this time their draft was Enigma, Dragon Knight, Dark Willow, Outworld Destroyer and Venomancer.
• Game 2: naive- on Dragon Knight finished with 8/1/12 and 760 GPM, while Rein on Venomancer ended on 0/1/20.

This was probably one of the most telling series of the day in terms of pace. HULIGANI didn’t let either game drift into chaos, and their Dark Willow once again looked like a very comfortable tool for fighting and picking up kills. Zero Tenacity’s drafts weren’t terrible, but across the two maps they never seemed to find an answer to the early aggression and heavy control.

PlayTime and Xipto played a marathon, but the series went to PlayTime

The PlayTime vs Xipto series was the longest and probably the loudest in terms of what happened: 2:1 in favor of PlayTime, and the first and third maps stretched to 81:14 and 86:12. That’s not just a match, it’s almost a separate day inside the day. And yes, games like this usually feel like one good Smoke or one caught position will decide everything.

• Game 1: PlayTime won 34:26 in kills with Dazzle, Pangolier, Windranger, Lifestealer and Tidehunter in the draft.
• Game 1: Xipto had Bounty Hunter, Dark Willow, Ember Spirit, Largo and Ursa.
• Game 1: No!ob™ on Pangolier went 10/4/20, while Xibbe on Tidehunter posted 4/4/23.
• Game 2: Xipto tied the series by winning 33:21 in kills with Windranger, Pangolier, Slark and Warlock in the draft.
• Game 2: Shad on Anti-Mage and yamich on Hoodwink stood out for PlayTime, but it wasn’t enough.
• Game 3: the decider ended 48:42 for PlayTime; they had Windranger, Witch Doctor, Earthshaker, Necrophos and Doom.
• Game 3: Xibbe on Doom looked the best for PlayTime with 12/4/27, and No!ob™ on Earthshaker with 10/5/29.

This is exactly the kind of series where a long game doesn’t become boring, because both teams keep finding answers. I think PlayTime handled the late game and the fights around key heroes better, while Xipto got theirs through tempo and initiative. But in game three, once the kill score had pushed well past forty, it was, in my opinion, the discipline gap and the comfort of the draft that decided it.

PuckChamp pull out the series against InterActive Philippines

PuckChamp vs InterActive Philippines also went to three maps, and here PuckChamp had to come back after dropping the opener. The final score was 2:1 in their favor, and all three games had very different paces: 32:05, 49:35 and 55:11.

• Game 1: InterActive Philippines won 33:14 in kills with Techies, Rubick, Beastmaster, Bristleback and Io.
• Game 1: lewis on Beastmaster posted 8/1/13, and Carlo on Rubick finished 6/1/13.
• Game 2: PuckChamp tied the series through Techies, Dragon Knight, Dazzle, Largo and Queen of Pain.
• Game 2: gbc on Queen of Pain finished 13/3/11, while onLiTaL on Dragon Knight ended with 9/4/12.
• Game 3: PuckChamp sealed the series, winning 49:38; they had Techies, Dragon Knight, Dazzle, Timbersaw and Earthshaker.
• Game 3: krol9ash) on Timbersaw went 22/1/14, while gbc on Earthshaker posted 19/7/18.

What caught my attention most was the third map: 49 kills for the winner is basically a full-scale brawl for the entire match. PuckChamp seemed to be at their best in the extended phase, where Timbersaw and Earthshaker just start breaking the map apart. InterActive Philippines took the first map convincingly, but after that the tempo, it seems, slipped out of their hands.

Amaru Gaming won two series in a row, then stumbled

Amaru Gaming had an uneven day, but still took two series. First they beat Yakult Brothers 2:1, then they lost to Inner Circle x Insanity in one of the tightest matches of the day. This is the section that really shows how the same team can look incredibly strong against one set of drafts and vulnerable against another.

• Against Yakult Brothers, Amaru Gaming dropped the opener 21:41, but then took the next two maps — 44:21 and 49:28 in kills.
• In the second game against Yakult Brothers, n1ght on Dark Willow stood out for Amaru Gaming with 7/2/26, and 頑張って on Dragon Knight with 4/2/22.
• In the decider against Yakult Brothers, PiPi on Earthshaker finished with 12/3/29.
• Against Inner Circle x Insanity, Amaru Gaming lost 1:2, although in the first game the series was still going their way in terms of tempo.
• In the second game of that series, Akashi on Terrorblade went 8/1/12 with 898 GPM.
• In the third game, Inner Circle x Insanity won 46:34 in kills, and Norma on Pangolier plus Ethereal on Puck delivered a very clean, useful game.

I wouldn’t rush to put labels on this. Amaru Gaming clearly have workable draft ideas and the ability to turn a series around after a bad start. But against Inner Circle x Insanity, they apparently lacked stability in the key fights. Especially in game three, where the scoreline became too tight to rely on one good jump.

CyberHero and Zero Tenacity closed the back half of the day without any unnecessary delays

Another notable series was CyberHero’s 2:0 win over Yakult Brothers, followed by Zero Tenacity’s 2:1 win over Amaru Gaming. The rhythm was different here: some very fast games, some short games with almost no room for mistakes.

• CyberHero beat Yakult Brothers in 23:25 and 34:19 in kills across the two maps.
• In the first game, Dragon Knight and Invoker worked well for CyberHero, and in the second — Earthshaker and Largo.
• Yakult Brothers tried to build around Necrophos, Slark, Brewmaster and Sven in both games, but they couldn’t find the tempo.
• Zero Tenacity opened their series against Amaru Gaming with a 29:10 win, then lost 10:38, but won the deciding map 39:16.
• On the third map, nefrit on Undying stood out for Zero Tenacity with 8/1/22, and raregods on Ringmaster with 10/1/16.

I liked this part of the day even more than the rest because it showed that fast series are still alive, and they don’t have to be boring. If the draft comes together well and the cores get online quickly, the opponent simply doesn’t have time to scale up. Zero Tenacity proved that very clearly — especially in the deciding map against Amaru Gaming, where they didn’t let the suspense drag on.

Day summary

In short, DreamLeague Division 2 Series 5 was defined by confident 2:0s and a few very long three-game series. For me, the main takeaway is simple: in this tournament, it’s still not just about the picks, but also about a team’s ability to impose its tempo from the opening minutes. _PowerRangers, HULIGANI and Zero Tenacity made that especially clear today, while the long matches from PlayTime and PuckChamp reminded us that without a strong late game, you won’t get far here. We’ll see whether this kind of pace split continues in the next series — to me, that’s the most interesting part of the tournament right now.

Source: OpenDota.

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