Galaxy Battles:
Newbee and Planet Odds were the ones who came out on top in their respected groups and against their upper bracket opponents to face-off against one another in the last game of the upper bracket on June 17 at 4:15 CEST.
The first day of the tournament had a condensed schedule and an exhausting playing format for the teams, which included not only the entire group stages but also the three-way tiebreaker and the first half of the Upper Bracket series.
After the Group Stages came to an end, the brackets were set in play. Newbee and iG.Vitality faced off in the upper brackets while ViCi Gaming went against Planet Odd at the same time.
The format for the both matches was best-of-three series. The top teams from each group – Planet Odd and Newbee came out all guns blazing against their opposition, despite the exhausting schedule and won with relative ease in 2-0 sweeps across the board.
Planet Odd was carried to victory by the incredibly consistent performances of their carry, Roman “Resolut1on” Fominok. While in the 2nd game of the upper bracket David “MoonMeander” Tan’s Nature’s Prophet was a treat to watch.
Newbee had to play three consecutive games before going up against iG.Vitality in the upper bracket. However, there were no signs of burnout or exhaustion whatsoever as the demolished their opposition in the first game of the series. Although, in the second game, the stamina of the Newbee players was heavily tested as the game went on for a long time. But, Newbee showed why they are former TI champions as they made a comeback in the later half of the 2nd games and continued to remain strong and collected to overpower iG.Vitality in the end.
So it will be a great matchup between Newbee and Planet Odd, as both the teams will be ready to take on one another in the upper bracket matchup.
Planet Odd
Credit: https://dota2.ru/img/uploads/17/06/1046341.jpg
You might not be familiar with these names since it is a new franchise in the industry that aims to a name in the eSports business. But, there is little to no information about who they are, other than the fact that the company is actually owned by Casumo, a casino located in Malta.
But honestly, who cares about the name, it is the composition of the product that matters. In this case, the roster of Planet Odd is composed of the entire DC Gaming roster that finished as Runners Up in the TI6. After the surprising roster shuffle before the end of 2016, the whole squad of DC Gaming disbanded. However, the players have excellent chemistry which resulted in the ex-Digital Chaos roster, turned Thunderbirds.
Surprisingly enough, as Thunderbirds, they didn’t have much success except for a tournament title back in January 2017 at ESL One Genting. Since then, their results have been disastrous. They were eliminated in the first round of the main event bracket at the Kiev Major and the only two events for which they qualified this year were StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 3, where they placed bottom two, and EPICENTER where they got eliminated in the group stage.
But in the Galaxy Battles, the side has again shown some sparks of TI material. This possible change of form could be because the side has adopted to the Meta well. The carry of Planet Odd, Roman “Resolut1on” Fominok has adopted to the Meta well with some incredible plays on his Troll Warlord and Anti-Mage. These Heroes fell off for a while because of the jungle changes. But, since the jungle now respawns after every minute, these heroes are back and so is “Resolut1on”.
Also making a comeback is the midlaner Aliwi “W33” Omar. The player has managed to climb back to his dominance after a lazy spell. In this tournament, the player has picked different heroes for the mid lane in every single game besides spamming Meepo. This shows that the player has expanded his skill set, which can be seen by some incredible plays on the OD and Queen of Pain.
Planet Odd rely on their comeback potential. They have been the dark horses come every major tournament. Since they rely on late game comebacks, they tend to push the game as late as possible. This current 7.06d could serve them well with the jungle spawning every minute along with the late game power-up runes.
Newbee
Credit: Newbee Facebook
Newbee is arguably the best side in Asia. This year, the side already has a second place at Manila Masters, first place at Zotac Cup and now grand finalists at Galaxy Battles. The side has the tendency to become the Kings of the Meta no matter what happens.
This great consistency is because of the fact their carry “uuu9” has adopted to every Meta very well. He played the Luna illusions meta incredibly well which saw them securing the Runner-Up spot in the ManILA mAJOR. And since the arrival of 7.06 patch, the carry has spammed Sven in a number of matches, which saw them lifting Zotac Cup.
Teaming up with “uuu9” is “Faith”. The mid-laner has the played carry Leshrac in every meta since the turn of the year. Other teams tried to adapt this carry Leshrac meta but failed to do so. This is due to the fact that the playing style of Newbee is much more team oriented as they have the tendency to group up as a team and push a single lane to end the game, rather than taking the objectives of the other lane. This fast pushing potential of Newbee could take them a long distance against Planet Odd.
