After the craziness of the European semifinals, the penultimate match Midas Mode 2.0’s Americas bracket was set to begin, with the Fighting Pepegas taking on Team Anvorgesa (aka Catburger). Both teams had shown signs of life in previous days and had put on an entertaining show in their last meeting. This hotly contested rematch of the group stage pitted one of this new season’s fresh teams, against a team of The International 2019 playoff contenders.
In a match-up marred by delays and technical issues, Team Anvorgesa grabbed a win. (Logo from Team Anvorgesa)
The drafts kicked off with both squads cashing in on the “Twitch Plays Dota 2” bounty, allowing the chat to pick Techies for Pepegas, and Meepo for Anvorgesa. Pepegas then rounded out their draft with a Sven, and the slightly questionable Brewmaster, while Anvorgesa picked Clockwerk and Bloodseeker.
Before the game could begin, however, Steam went down, leading to a very extended pause. This delay led to an unfortunate clash with the ESL qualifiers. Pepegas asked for the match to be a best-of-one, which the organizers graciously accepted. Team Anvorgesa were also having issues and discovered that they were unable to download the custom map. As a result, this match would have to be played on the regular Dota 2 map, rather than the Midas Mode custom mode.
As the game finally began, Pepegas skirmished with Anvorgesa in the Radiant jungle, catching out Elvis “Scofield” De la Cruz Peña, but falling just shy of the first blood. With the lanes normalizing, Pepegas found themselves able harass Team Anvorgesa from any angle, jumping on Jean Pierre “Chris Luck” Gonzales’s Meepo in the jungle, and catching their opponents off guard around the map. But Anvorgesa quickly shot back, using the insane map pressure of the Meepo, coupled with the pick power of the Clockwerk to even out the score and gain a gold lead.
By the 15-minute mark, both teams began to look for picks, roaming together through the jungle and attempting to gain an advantage. Unfortunately, every time the stacks clashed, it ended in a stalemate, with deaths and buybacks burned on both sides.
Avorgesa managed to get the better of these sporadic fights, amassing a large amount of gold on both the Meepo and Bloodseeker, creating two formidable carries. The clashes continued all over the map, and in every engagement, Pepegas would lose out, and the carries of Anvorgesa would get stronger. And eventually, it was these carries that caused havoc for Pepegas, forcing them to call GG and tap out in just under 30 minutes.
The Fighting Pepegas stack is out and will be hoping for more success at the upcoming ESL One Hamburg qualifiers than they had at this event, with a third-place finish. Team Anvorgesa, on the other hand, is advancing to the finals and will face J.Storm in a rematch of the group stages they’ll be hungry to win.
Disclosure: Hotspawn is sponsoring BETWAY Midas Mode 2.0. We will be in attendance, providing unique coverage of the event each day. Stay tuned to our site for further information!
