The Defense lineup is complete!

After three intense days of competition, we finally found our final four contestants for The Defense, powered by Razer and BenQ.

Below, you will find short summaries for each decider match played today. If you didn't manage to see all the games and if you don't like spoilers, skip ahead to our VOD section and have a look at the games yourself.



Offense is the best defense and secures HelloMoto a spot in the second edition of The Defense. The game starts with two aggressive tripple lanes: HM's plans to delay Dragon Knight's farm by putting Mirana, Tidehunter and Shadow Demon top doesn't turn out quite as expected.

Nonetheless, HM manages to build up a slight early game advantage after the first few skirmishes.The first game turns out to be quite nail-biting with a constant back and forth flow. HM however pressures uebelst more and more and they manage to take the top melee barracks at minute 38. A bad teamfight ten minutes later enables HM to destroy the middle barracks, and they consequently force the "GG" three minutes later.



In the second decider match America's newest team on the block, FIENDS, has to face the Russian trademark gank and push lineup from Empire.

An offensively jungling Enchanteress succesfully opens up the match for Empire who are rewarded with a 2000 gold lead after only four minutes of playing. As it turns out though, FIENDS turn the tables on Empire and by minute 20 the gold graph is completely reversed. The key to their success is good team coordination which forces the Russians to take 5on5 fights practically countering the heavy ganking lineup. Claiming the Aegis from Roshan is what gives FIENDS the edge and confidence to push for the radiant base which Empire can not defend. FIENDS will be second team of the night to make it to the main tournament.



Using their last chance to qualify for The Defense uebelst is putting their hopes on a late-game oriented lineup paired with good lane control by Enigma and Lich. WhA however doesn't want to let that happen and drafts a potent ganking lineup without negelecting a safe carry in the form of Morphling.

From the very get-go the game seems cursed for uebelst: their lanes are not working out as expected and switching up the initial lanes hardly improves their situation. But well executed ganks while Morphling is allowed to freefarm on the bottom lane enable WhA to destroy the first set of barracks at minute 26. Not seeing any chance of a comeback uebelst calls out GG not much later, which makes the underdog WhA the third team to qualify for the main tournament.



Dropping to the lower bracket in the first round, can FINSTACK finish off their impressive run to the last round of the bracket with a win? In their way are only Empire who lost earlier today and therefore dropped down.

With both teams picking rather teamfight oriented lineups, this game promises to become an awesome last game for the night. Empire however does not agree. Their early game aggression pays off once again resulting in a nice and early kill, experience and gold lead. Unlike earlier today this early advantage paves the way for a onesided win with Finstack unable to push a single tower in a 38 minute long game.






Sources: The Defense Homepage