Welcome to the next installment of the Highlight Reel! Our latest feature catalogues is the Asian showdown between XcN and Ks. 

Game 1 history: XcN Ks Banned heroes: Dragon Knight Faerie Dragon Earth Shaker Geomancer Nerubian Assassin Holy Knight Beast Master Lich

Picks: XcN Ks First pick: Mirana - - Viper / Slayer Akasha / Zeus - - Centaur / Warlock Sandking / Visage - Last pick: - Crystal Maiden Sentinel - XcN 1:0 Ks - Scourge mid XcN-Mutz - Ks-Yamateh mid top XcN-Ritter - Ks-papxiong top top XcN-StamX - Ks-Blesser top bot XcN-Melen - Ks-xiaogui bot bot XcN-Lakuci - Ks-xiaoma bot

Even in .52, there is still a marked difference in picking style between the top Western and Eastern teams. Ks opts to 2nd and 3rd pick Viper and Slayer, a move that Euro teams would consider questionable. The presence of Visage gives XcN's otherwise vanilla lineup a distinct Asian flavor.

XcN has a very well-rounded lineup with plenty of stun and AOE as well as decent lanes. The only question might be Visage's carrying ability, but their faith in that hero proves to be well-founded this game. Ks has very few big-damage spells to dump into Fatal Bonds, which unfortunately nerfs the Warlock pick to some degree. They also are completely devoid of a .52-style carry. Centaur does have the Radiance option but neither Centaur nor Radiance are as common in .52 as they were in .48b.

The lanes are rather odd. Both teams have a few viable soloers, resulting in an unusual Zeus/PotM top and Lock/Viper bot. Warlock and Viper handily control their lane, outfarming QoP and SK and taking an 11-minute tower. Early on, Viper and Lina on Ks farm well and both build quick Boots of Travel. The idea, presumably, is that these heroes need to control the map with mid-game ganks.

There isn't much ganking, though. Visage's farming in particular continues unabated throughout much of the game. Ks is slow to make their move on towers, leaving a 1st-tier tower in top lane until 40 minutes in.

Except for when they engage recklessly, the team battles favor XcN. Visage has a good balance of damage output to tanking power, making it a tough decision to target him. More than one battle starts with Lina taking a long-duration arrow—without her disables and focus fire, there is little hope to quickly drop Visage. CM spends an eternity at 2000 gold. When she finally gets her Blink money, she buys an Ultimate Orb.

As the window to hold down Visage closes, XcN closes in on the throne. Mutz ends the game with essentially a complete build and a pristine 14-0 record (with a little help from Aegis). The story of game 1 ends with Ks banning Necrolic for game 2.

Visage strikes Viper down.

Game 1 Replay: HERE

Endgame statshot:

Highlights

• 7:07: First Blood on Zeus by Lion/DK.

• 11:45: CM and Centaur gank PotM and Zeus. Cent dies and CM narrowly escapes, but Lina helps clean up.

• 14:57: Battle mid. Lina annihilates SK, but he stuns her as he dies and she is ganged. Centaur moves in and gets PotM as Lock tps in, but his Double Edge makes him low and Visage finishes. Lock tries to run but QoP comes from behind the trees and Visage/QoP destroy him.

• 18:25: Cm/Cent narrowly avoid a 4-man gank, but XcN gets top tower. Shortly after a standoff occurs in the forest with 4 heroes on each side negotiating position to initiate. Very tense for a few moments but with a missed PotM arrow, no battle occurs.

• 19:45: Ks misses a crucial tower deny mid.

• 24:20: Clever escape from Viper/Lina by SK.

• 28:45: Skirmish between mid and bot near Scourge base. Necrolic overextends hard while attempting a Lina kill. 4 other Ks members finish Rosh and come after him. QoP comes to help and pays for it, but Necrolic ends up escaping with Grave Chill.

• 32:45: CM drops to QoP/Visage before her allies can even help. Lock is up next, but Centaur gets in the way. SK is able to blink past and use Epi to get Lock. XcN kills everyone but Lina, but Centaur comes back from burning Aegis to take down Zeus.

• 37:45: Ks chases Visage all the way along top lane. They end up killing QoP but losing CM/Cent and then LINA to a great arrow.

• 44:35: Battle initiated in Ks base by a PotM arrow on Lina. Visage goes on a rampage and XcN gets a base tower.

Game 2 history: Ks XcN Banned heroes: Faerie Dragon Earth Shaker Geomancer Beast Master Visage Nerubian Assassin Viper Mirana

Picks: Ks XcN First pick: Dragon Knight - - Akasha / Zeus Lich / Warlock - - Leoric / Slayer Sven / Lion - Last pick: - Terrorblade Sentinel - Ks 1:0 XcN - Scourge mid Ks-Yamateh - XcN-Ritter mid top Ks-xiaoma - XcN-Lakuci forest top Ks-Blesser - XcN-mutz top bot Ks-xiaogui - XcN-melen bot roaming Ks-papaxiong - XcN-Stamx bot

Both teams have plenty of disable and decent AOE (about as much as you can expect with Puck/Shaker banned). XcN goes heavy on the carry...TB alone has been known to dominate lategame, so another item-dependent hero (Leoric) seems superfluous here.

The DK solo mid works out marvelously, thanks in large part to repeated ganks from roaming Lion. DK is one of several “wannabe” solos that benefits hugely from a roamer. DK can mitigate the enemy's harass, but only with a ganker can he become threatening to his lane opponent. Lion also lucks out earning first blood, which he invests in some essential Boots.

Early on, it seems like XcN's “over-carry” won't be a problem. Both TB and Leo get their requisite items in reasonable time. The Ks side of things looks all right as well. DK farms up a storm with two early kills on top of two early tower kills. He treats himself to a Radiance.

Very early on, a scattered combination of pushes occurs. Ks works on 2nd top tower, while most of XcN attacks 2nd tower mid. Terrorblade, however, almost kills the bottom base tower during these other pushes. By 33 minutes, Ks will have to deny their base tower bottom.

After the deny, XcN thinks they have an opening. They make a bid for the barracks bottom but retreat just before they can finish one.

The Lion pick pays off in dividends as his triple-disable (with a Scythe) prevents TB from using Sunder. Despite having quite a bit of farm (SnY/Fly/Crystalys), TB drops quickly to focus fire from Ks. By contrast, DK with Lich's Frost Armor takes forever to die to physical attacks, and his BKB negates the spell threat. As the game drags, the entire Ks lineup continues to make varied contributions with their versatile spells. They easily extract XcN's carries to break the backbone of their defense.

Ks has more than enough disables for Terrorblade.

Game 2 Replay: HERE

Endgame statshot:

Highlights

• 3:30: FB on Zeus mid thanks to invis Lion.

• 13:30: TB tps top and is ganged by Lich/Lion/Sven, but Sven gets caught up in the trees and QoP kills him. Lina rolls in to help and Lina+QoP take down Lion.

• 16:30: Battle mid, Lock tps in and drop rock, then dies. Ks loses 3 and can't deny the tower.

• 27:00: Push wars! All of Ks top with most of XcN mid, and TB at base tower bot. Ks gets top but has to tp back. XcN gets mid tower and most of the base tower.

• 30:35: Ks loses a 1-4 battle. They exert a lot of effort on Leo's 1^st life at the start, Sven overchases on Lina, QoP cleans up.

• 32:45: Gank on Lich/Lock, Lion tries to help and dies too. XcN is now leading in kills.

• 34:00: XcN attempts a push after Ks denies their base tower. Skelly dies and the rax survives!

• 39:00: Ks beats down Skelly and Lina, TB escapes but QoP and Zeus just couldn't get there fast enough.

• 41:30: XcN kills Sven/DK for Skelly/Zeus in Ks's base mid.

• 43:20: Ks kills TB+Skelly and claims 3 barracks, gg.

For those looking for some live action, pull up a chair and enjoy the highlight video! 

The action for PDL is really heating up, so expect to see some more highlights very soon!