mudgolems end Team Secret’s 20-win streak, Secret bounce back against Alliance

These past six months have been fantastic for Team Secret, they have won eight Dota 2 tournaments in a row, defeated six teams in the grand finals for a complete clean sweep, and totaled 20 consecutive series wins.

That all came crumbling down this week as they were roundly defeated by the ultimate underdogs, mudgolems, in a 2-0 series loss at ESL One Germany Online.

Mudgolems

The international squad is captained by former Alliance players Fata. Mudgolems is a relatively new face on the block, as the roster was set up in September of this year. Offlaner Neta “33” Shapira and soft support Milan “MiLAN” Kozomara are familiar faces in the scene, both with International experience.

Rounding out the roster are Serbian mid laner Duško “BoraNija” Boranijaševic player, best known for his numerous stints with Elements Pro Gaming and Slovak carry Oliver “skiter” Lepko, best known during his stint with Ninjas in Pyjamas.

The team is noted for using an unorthodox drafting style, which they showcased in the series against Team Secret, outplaying them in both games.

The series

The mudgolems began by drafting five strength heroes, all of which were melee apart from Milan’s Wisp. Despite this unorthodox pick, mudgolems ended up with an early lead, doing their best to shut down Nisha’s Necrophos in mid.

Despite their early burst of energy, the rest of the match was a war of attrition, with mudgolems slowly beginning to dismantle Team Secrets base. The deciding moment came at the 37th minute where mudgolems managed to turn around what looked like at first as a lost teamfight, securing Secret’s bottom rackes shortly after. A four-man Black Hole from zai’s Enigma only managed to prolong the inevitable as Secret was 30k gold behind and two rackes down.

Secret crawled back to an early kill lead in the second game, but much like the first, the rate of play slowed to a crawl. Both teams set to farming and neither could build to a concerted push. The game soon turned into a back-and-forth affair, with mudgolems taking Secret’s top set of barracks, but overstaying their welcome while trying to crack the bottom part of Secret’s base. Team Secret answered back swiftly by taking mudgolems’ middle racks, evening out the game.

Nearing the end of the game, Secret’s offlaner zai overextended on his Timbersaw, and was caught out without a buyback, trading his life for Fata’s Undying in the process. Timbersaw’s demise was the final nail in Secret’s coffin as the team was left without a frontline.  Mudgolems were able to waltz themselves into Secret’s base and bully them into submission, defeating Team Secret for the first time since June 26^th.

Series MVP – MiLAN.

The odds

Despite some pretty sweet bragging rights for mudgolems, their victory will not do much to change the Dota 2 odds for Team Secret. They are still the odds-on favourites to win the tournament.

Team Secret has already bounced back from the defeat, eliminating Alliance from the tournament in the lower bracket, and will face off against Team Liquid in the decider for the losers bracket finals.

Mudgolems are now sitting in the upper bracket of the tournament, with their upset win securing them a top-four placing. They will play against Natus Vincere for a spot in the grand finals later today.