Telkom Digital Gaming League (DGL) | Emerald Showdown Grand Finals Results

Telkom Digital Gaming League (DGL) | DotA2 Emerald Showdown

06 February 2017 | Grand Finals Result

The Telkom Digital Gaming League (DGL) Emerald series of qualifiers culminated in the Grand Finals of the Emerald Showdown, which took place last night. The final two teams, that made it through the Emerald Genesis and Emerald Do-or-Die Proving Grounds qualifiers, were Mythic Gaming and Constant. If you want to see the entire tournament bracket, please head directly over to the official Digital Gaming League tournament page here. If you’re confused about how all the Emerald qualifiers and this Showdown all tie into each other, read our article explaining it all here.

Grand Finals Result:

Mythic Gaming 0 – 2 Constant

This hugely anticipated game between Mythic Gaming and Constant isn’t the first time these two teams have met. They met previously in the Telkom DGL Emerald Genesis Proving Grounds. In that match Constant eliminated Mythic Gaming from the tournament. This was after both teams had already progressed to the Emerald Showdown already. For Mythic Gaming, this was a second chance. For Constant, it’d be more of the same please. This time ordered with an extra side of chips.

Game 1 saw Constant pick pretty much the exact same type of lineup they always go for. Three high HP strength cores, usually with more than one hero on the team having a stun/lockdown of sorts, that just help them steamroll their enemies. Constant has used this strategy very successfully for upward of a month now with no team drafting appropriately in order to shut them down. Mythic Gaming, on the other hand, draft more diversely and were suspected of having a hero pool large enough to upset Constant’s plans. The first game draft went heavily in favour of Constant, who somehow managed to freely pick up two of the most hotly contested heroes in competitive DotA2 right now: Underlord and Slardar. In the Telkom DGL DotA2 Masters, these two heroes are always banned/picked up in the first phase. In addition Constant also picked up Lone Druid, Silencer, and Outworld Devourer.

Mythic in turn drafted Luna, Ogre Magi, Axe, Dazzle, and Magnus. From minute 1, this was going to be a ridiculously tough game for Mythic Gaming. With no %hp, no early to mid game damage, and only enough lockdown if blink daggers are picked up early, there was a lot that could go wrong for Mythic. Yet they were able to get off to a relatively good start. Yet with every minute of the game timer, Constant just looked stronger and stronger. As you would be able to predict from their draft, they just eventually ran all over Mythic Gaming to take the first game relatively easily.

Game 2 Constant once again picked up the Lone Druid, Silencer, and Slardar, this time coupling these with an Axe pickup (Mythic Gaming got the Underlord) and a Sniper. As you can no doubt tell, this draft is a very slight variation on their Game 1 lineup, and Constant would want to run it the exact same way. Mythic Gaming picked up Underlord, Earth Spirit, Disruptor, Slark, and Dragon Knight.

In my opinion the Mythic Gaming draft just, once again, didn’t have enough to deal with the high HP strength heroes of Constant. I would have liked to see a Necro, Invoker, even a Timber or any heroes like these in the draft. Perhaps an Omniknight would have been ideal as well. As it stood, the second game played out much like the first. Mythic Gaming controlling the very early stages of the game, but as soon as Constant grouped Mythic had zero reply. Even a niche KotL pick might have helped them keep their towers up for long enough to get Slark online. I feel that perhaps the major flaw is that while Mythic drafted cores that could do things in areas against the Constant lineup, their support picks left a lot to be desired and couldn’t do much of anything.

Ultimately Constant’s draft did what it was designed to do, and they just steamroll Mythic. They win the second game, and the series, 2 – 0. Mythic Gaming at many points showed that their in game ability is on par with the Constant players, but they just couldn’t successfully deal with Constant’s draft. In the end it’s a deserved victory for Constant, and a great learning experience for Mythic Gaming.

TL;DR Constant use Slardar and Lone Druid to roll to victory in the Telkom DGL Emerald Showdown.