Gaming
Cr1t-'s consistently great plays on his array of playmaking supports makes him our Manila MVP.
PGL and Valve well and truly raised the bar with the stunning Manila Major this week, delivering one of, if not the best Dota 2 tournament to date. The production values were epic, the crowd deafening and, most importantly, the gameplay scintillating. It lived up to every little bit of pre-tournament hype, with analysts struggling to predict the winner in a truly engrossing tournament.
The eventual winners were OG, who became the first team inDota history to win two Valve events. They did it with style too, beating Team Liquid by three games to one in the Grand Final and also recording the biggest shutout in the history of Dota 2 as they perfectly dissected MVP Phoenix to end the game with a resounding 24-0 kill score.
OG’s previous victory came in Frankfurt as they battled through the lower bracket to take glory, but this time around they did it the right way; romping through the winners’ bracket and failing to drop a series past the Group Stage.
We could have picked any of OG’s five players for our MVP, as each and every one of them played obscenely high-quality Dota. Amer "Miracle" Al-Barkawi's performances in the mid-lane were special – as expected for the record-breaking 9,000 MMR player. David “MoonMeander” Tan rarely put a foot wrong in the offlane with his Faceless Void a thing of beauty. Tal “Fly” Aizik, working for the first time with new coach Seb “7ckingMad” Debs had an answer for every team’s game plan with both draft and execution and Johan “n0tail” Sundstein was consistently good in the safe-lane. However, it was his fellow Dane – Andreas Franck “Cr1t-” Nielsen – who stole the show and earned our MVP honours for the Manila Major.
Cr1t-’s performances on Earth Spirit, Elder Titan and Lion in particular left the Dota world purring as time and time again he would come up with the biggest of plays. It’s testament to Cr1t- that Elder Titan, a hero rarely seen or played by anyone prior to and during Manila was first ban material for three of the four games in the Grand Final against Team Liquid. Despite a small blip in dropping the first game of the series to Liquid, his performance on Earth Spirit in the second game was crucial in levelling the series and from there OG never looked back.
The pressure he and Fly put on ever-reliable Adrian “FATA-” Trinks’ Dragon Knight led to the German having a poor start and his constant presence around the map meant that Team Liquid could never transition into the mid-game pushing demon that they were so often throughout the Major.
In Game 3, Liquid banned Cr1t-’s Elder Titan once more and picked up the Earth Spirit for themselves, leaving Cr1t- to play on Lion instead. It was far from an issue, though, as he managed to pick up his Blink Dagger by just nine minutes and 12 seconds. From there, his initiations were aggressive and Team Liquid simply had no answer.
The moment of pure magic and incredible reflexes came during Game 3 with Cr1t- using blink to dodge the Earth Spirit initiation before being swapped in and then swerving a Slardar stun with his Force Staff allowing MoonMeander to capitalise with a great Chronosphere.
In the fourth and final game of the best-of-five Grand Final, Team Liquid banned the Faceless Void that they struggled against in the previous two matches and let Cr1t-’s Elder Titan through. They fared no better. Cr1t- played his fourth game on the hero in the tournament and solidified his 100 percent win rate on the hero at Manila. His KDA on the hero? A stunning 13.17. His movement around the map throughout the tournament was exceptional and both his Echo Stomps and Earth Splitters were close to perfection as OG eventually overwhelmed Team Liquid to take match point and claim their second Valve title.
Of course, it’s not just performances in the Grand Final that lead to an MVP award, as showcased by plays like the above vs Team Empire in OG’s very first game of the tournament. His consistency and ability to create pressure all over the map on an array of playmaking supports is what secured him our MVP award for the tournament.
Then again, as OG emphasise, it’s the friendship and the team that make all of this possible. The team synergise perfectly and every player executes their role to near perfection. The addition of 7ckngmad to their backroom staff has only made them stronger and the team will be confident ahead of ESL One Frankfurt this weekend. The plays on the whole weren’t overly flashy, but the efficiency in which they picked apart team after team was a joy to behold.
With the drama around Evil Geniuses and Secret again starting to materialise and OG looking stronger than ever – who would bet against them come August and Valve’s biggest prize, The International?
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