Na'Vi
vs. Team DK Game 3

Team DK was completely in command of their third game against Na'Vi on Haunted Mines. The Skulls were fairly even for the first Golem, but DK had Sylvanas who allowed them to get ahead of their opponents quickly. With that advantage, they managed to get a 100 Skull Golem during the second mining phase and pushed all the way up to the Core before the 10 minute mark, taking a keep in the process. It looked like the final game of the night would be the fastest. They had a three-level lead, their Golem on top of Na'Vi's Core, all of their own Forts up, and only had to get a respectable number of Skulls one more time to push for the win.

But DK gets a little impatient, and doesn't hold the lead going into the third Mines Phase. They erroneously decide to push the bot lane when Na'Vi jumps into action with their strong melee composition out in the open and kills four members of DK without losing anyone. It was a mistake that gives Na'Vi some breathing room and allows them to take down a Fort before getting in position for the mining phase. They don't get the majority of the Skulls, but they get enough, proceeding to trap DK in the Mines and eliminate the squishy Heroes of DK quickly. They are even able to kill the Golem without taking any Core damage.

Next thing we know, Na'Vi is winning team fights and gets a 90 Skull Golem of their own while DK is falling apart and getting picked off before team fights even start. Na'Vi push straight in and take the series in a 6.5/10 game.

Team YL vs. Dignitas
Decider Match Game 2

Team YL had taken down Dignitas' top Keep and had even done some damage to the Core. Dignitas wins the Immortal, and YL has their three surviving members go up into the corridor above the top lane to get ready to backdoor while Dignitas gets ready to push with their Immortal into the top Keep of YL. Dignitas notices that something is up when they don't see most of the members of YL. They start to Hearth but reset at the last second, realizing that they would have seen YL members going into their base by now if they were backdooring. YL even tries to show themselves on a minion wave to get Dignitas to Hearth but they just barely mistime the wave and are forced to Hearth and defend themselves. It was a great attempt by YL to try to get Dignitas to Hearth back to their base to defend against nothing and give YL the time to take out the Immortal by itself. It didn't work out, but it made for a tricky and unique situation anyway.

Dignitas adrd
vs. Na'Vi Game 1

Yes, this one was bad enough to get its own award category. Adrd tries to initiate with a surprise Devouring Maw from a bush and it grabs only a single lane minion. Bonus: the Wailing Arrow from JayPL is quite terrible as well, not connecting on any Heroes. It just gets worse every time you watch it...somehow....

The Lonely Doubloon
Na'Vi vs. Dignitas Game 1

On Blackheart's Bay, sometimes people will forget a coin and it will stay on the ground for a while, but that doesn't happen too often in a professional game. In Na'Vi vs Dignitas, there was a big fight around the Southern docks area, and Johanna died holding two coins. Tyrael goes to pick up the dropped coins but misses one, causing some of the more OCD fans watching to visibly twitch. It stays there on the ground for an entire 1 minute and 49 seconds of game time before none other than Johanna herself finally reclaims it again.

Cloud9
vs. Team DK Game 2

Yes, Cloud9 played a Murky cheese composition in the semifinals of the largest tournament in the world. In addition to the horrible pest Murky, C9 also grabbed Leoric, Tassadar, Abathur, and Brightwing to create the most annoying and undying composition possible, which they used to indefinitely force DK off of tributes while the split pushing power of Abathur slowly but surely took all of the keeps. It only took one good team fight -- if "team fight" is the word you want to use for it -- to secure the lead and give them enough time to finally take down the Core.

In the words of Dunktrain in the post-game interview: "We've played that comp and we know it's a late game beast. It's so hard to lose the game once you get post-16 or 20, so we know that if we can stay even close to relatively even - like one Keep down is fine - you just need to make sure you get to the late game and you can actually bait them into your side of the map so you can get those really long drawn out rotational team fights to take advantage of your reviving characters."

Dignitas Zarmony and Bakery
vs. Cloud9 Finals Game 3

A fight starts to go bad for Dignitas and they retreat, but Zarmony on Muradin is cut off from the rest of his team. He's running from Sonya with an Abathur hat, which is an expected kill for Cloud9. Sonya activates Whirlwind, but Muradin barely gets a Stormbolt out as soon as it comes off cooldown to save himself and Dwarf Tosses farther away. But Sonya is still coming for the kill. Out of nowhere, a wild Brightwing appears with a shield to save Muradin, but now both teammates are in danger. Forced to Ice Block, with Cloud9 waiting patiently for the kill, it looks like Bakery's Brightwing will die for saving Muradin, but the cooldown on Blink Heal is quick and Snitch sneaks up just close enough to save his beloved healer. After several tense moments, everyone goes home to have a relaxing party in the fountain and unwind from the day's events.

Tempo Storm
vs. Brave Heart Game 1

Even though they went out early, Tempo Storm had a few moments that showed why they had several months of dominance in NA. In a fight around a Shrine, Kaeyoh on Valla nearly goes down, but instead of bolting away from the fight, hops over a wall straight into the middle of the fray while just barely straddling the edge of Tranquility. It lets Valla do more damage and act as bait for Brave Heart, who commit harder to the fight to kill her. Right after that, Kharazim activates Divine Palm on himself at the very last second of his life, but Tempo Storm shows the perfect amount of restraint by letting Divine Palm wear off before finally finishing him. With Brave Heart's ranks depleted and their Core already damaged, Tempo Storm splits up. Some of their members go straight to the Core to end the game while Tyrael and Sonya stay back to distract the rest of Brave Heart and prevent them from Hearthing to defend. It was a series of great decision making all around that led to a decisive win.

Brave Heart
vs. Tempo Storm Game 3

Tempo Storm has the Dragon Knight and is pushing Brave Heart into their base. The Dragon Knight goes down but Tempo Storm is keeping up some pressure. Zuna throws down a Void Prison on most of the Bheart members while E.T.C. gets bursted down. Right as the VP fades, a Devouring Maw goes down right on top of it, setting up Tempo Storm for several kills and possibly a Keep after that. Instead, Tyrael gets an instant Sanctification that completely nullifies the positioning and turns the fight around. While being down a Hero, Brave Heart actually kills Jaina, and in a prolonged fight, nearly get more. What should have been a massive blow to Brave Heart's chances to win ends up being an even one-to-one trade worthy of an award.

Dignitas Bakery
vs. Team YL Decider Match Game 1

This should have been a dead Johanna. There's no red at all in her Health bar when Divine Palm is cast, keeping her alive. What's so important about this though isn't just that Johanna stayed alive; it's that right afterwards she was able to interupt E.T.C.'s Mosh Pit with a Condemn to save the rest of her team who would have died, not having any other way to get out of the Mosh Pit.

Dignitas
vs. Team YL Decider Match Game 1

There are too many amazing things that happen here that no wall of text can full break down. Team YL finally gets a solid turn in and recognizes that they have a small window of opportunity to fight on somewhat even ground before Dignitas gets Storm talents at Level 20. Athero's Tyrael is caught out of position and gets saved by a timely Divine Palm, but this was only a bait for a massive three-man Maw. Johanna starts up a condemn to keep the members of YL from running away immediately. Athero then jumps over the Maw and uses Holy Ground to push the YL members forward while Johanna, Kharazim, and Tyrael, under the effects of Sanctification, box in YL in and clobber them mercilessly. It's a beautiful example of how perfect coordination can turn a bad situation into a great one.

Dignitas

What can we say? Dignitas was all over these awards. They have incredible teamwork and excellent individual skill, like an intricate piece of machinery with a myriad of wheels and cogs designed perfectly to work together. They did have some occasional and entertaining snafus, but at the end of the day, it's impossible to walk away from this tournament without recognizing that every Dignitas game is a unique masterpiece.