Excellent Moscow Cup Finals Recap

After a long tournament, Team Empire and Power Rangers are the last ones standing and they face off to see who will become the first Excellent Moscow Cup champions!

Game 1

Bans in respective order

Power Rangers: Mirana, Dark Seer, Puck, Storm Spirit and Outworld Devourer

Team Empire: Invoker, Batrider, Natures Prophet, Templar Assassin and Viper

Picks in respective order

Power Rangers: Wraith King, Ancient Apparition, Weaver, Tidehunter and Alchemist

Team empire: Wisp, Gyrocopter, Nyx Assassin, Tusk and Dragon Knight

An agressive tri lane from Power Rangers to start the game off, but Team Empire don't look daunted at all and try to be agressive themselves. Power Rangers look for pick offs at bot and mid, but without success. Both team's carries manage to get farm in the safe lanes as their team mates look for pick offs accross the map. Nyx (Assassin) gives first blood top as the Wraith King, A.A (Ancient Apparition) and Weaver combo proves to be too strong. Resolut1on struggles at mid versus Scandals Alchemist as both mids are bottle crowing constantly. Empire stacks their own jungle so Gyro(copter) could get some crucial farm as they slowly move into the mid game. P.R (Power Rangers) try to put on more aggression but Nyx gets a solo kill on the Weaver, slowing down his farm and progression. Scandal gets picked off mid as the A.A and Tusk come to the aid of the Dragon Knight and bring down the Alchemist.

A big fight at mid where Nyx Vendetta'd in behind the tier one tower but gets caught out and stunned by the Wraith King. Empire though turns things around as the Gyro (who had picked up a haste rune bot) comes in and they take down the Wraith King and Alchemist in a two for none trade. Empire bring down the tier one dire tower but P.R come in for a flank and manage to catch the Nyx. P.R come in to contest the Radients tier one tower but Empire comes in with the Tusk Ice shards, snowball combo helping setup a Gyro call down and Empire take three for free. Wisp relocates Gyro top and they pick off the A.A without any hassle. Gyro then proceeds to take top without any contention from P.R. The Wraith King wanders in top and gets caught out as the Gyro had the back up of the Nyx and they bring down the King.

Both teams keep fighting and P.R desperately tries to wrestle back some momentum from Empire, with some success as Empire gives away a few kills due to being a bit overconfident. But slowly Empire just keeps finding better trades. Shadow Blade on Dragon Knight here on Resolut1on but considering the lack of sentry wards on the map, this does not prove to be a bad choice.

A Big fight at tier two Dire bottom lane tower for Empire gets turned around by some really good Wisp plays, relocating the Dragon Knight out and then back into the fight. Weaver dies and is forced to buyback but A.A and Tide (hunter) get picked off, Empire looking in a great position. Empire push mid and turn another bad situation in their favor as the Dragon Knight does go down, but P.R over commits and lose 4. Empire go for Rosh and manage to get it regardless of the A.A Ice blast. Final fight in the radiant jungle, Power Rangers lose four and call the G.G.

Game 2

Bans in the respective order

Power Rangers: Wisp, Dazzle, Outworld Devourer, Leshrac and Morphling

Team Empire: Mirana, Wraith King, Invoker, Ancient Apparition and the Dragon Knight

Picks in the respective order:

Power Rangers: Batrider, Gyrocopter, Rubick, Shadow Shaman and Clinkz

Team Empire: Dark Seer, Shadow Demon, Puck, Vengeful Spirit and Spectre

Another aggressive game from these two Eastern-European teams. Dark Seer gets into a bad position bottom but turns it around as he eats his way into the trees between the Dire Ancients and the tier one tower bottom and gets first blood as Rubick dived really hard to get the kill but dies in the process. Gyro also dies as he was taking a lot of tower damage, 2-1 for Empire. Puck has some problems mid as the Rubick and S.S rotate mid to help the Clinkz pick him off.

The game moves into that of a farming one, as P.R attempt to stack their jungles camps for Gyro, but Dark Seer has other plans and manages to steal a camp that was stacked up to three times. A fight at mid leads to empire losing Shadow Demon and Puck in exchange for a Shadow Shaman pick off. Another fight this time at the Radiant Ancients and Empire lose the Vengeful, but she manages to deny herself on the Ancients. Clinkz starts putting his newly acquired Orchid to good work as he picks off the Shadow Demon. Empire eventually puts an end to the Clinkz' mega kill streak and slowly the tides start to turn the way of Empire.

A few failed fights for P.R lead to Empire buying time to get the Spectre online. P.R know the clock is ticking and continue to force fights across the map. P.R eventually go for a Rosh, but Empire counters and take the Rosh and Aegis. A big team fight at the tier two top Radient tower leads to P.R calling for a questionable G.G as the fight wasn't as bad as it initially looked. None the less, Team Empire take the game and go into game 3, two games up.

Game 3

Bans in the respective order

Power Rangers: Wisp, Mirana, Wraith King, Razor and Outworld Devourer

Team Empire: Invoker, Batrider, Natures Prophet, Nyx Assassin and Lone Druid

Picks in the respective order

Power Rangers: Bane, Sand King, Wind Ranger, Puck and Clinkz

Team Empire: Dark Seer, Rubick, Tusk, Gyrocopter, and Dragon Knight

Power rangers are one game away from the precipice and again go for a mid game oriented line up with the Clinkz. Empire though with their Tusk have a strong counter initiation setup as the snowball can either be used to get ganks or to save lives (can bring people into the ball while Sand King has epicenter up, negating all damage). This time it's Empire who looks to be in a good position from the start, as they seem to be getting the better of P.R in the early game fights and trade towers evenly. Empire keep up the pressure getting better trades at mid, killing Clinkz, Bane and Puck along with taking out the tier 2 mid tower.

Power Rangers have a good fight bottom but it gets turned around again by Empire who secure a 5 man wipe, picking off the last lone survivor Bane, who tried to hide in the trees. Empire continue to find pick-offs and towers and force a big team fight bottom at the Dire's tier 3 tower and secure a 4 man wipe and with that Power Rangers throw out the G.G. Team Empire are the Excellent Moscow Cup one champions!

Links to the VoD's: Game 1, Game 2, Game 3