Tournament favorites, Reality Rift, are through to the Grand Final after eliminating 496 Gaming in the Lower Bracket Final of the ONE Esports Dota 2 Jakarta Invitational Malaysia Regional Qualifier.

496 Gaming had just taken out MS Chonburi, and were hoping to take their revenge on Reality Rift, who had knocked them down to the Lower Bracket yesterday.

Game One

Reality Rift didn’t waste any time, picking up a Meepo for Hiew “AlaCrity” Teck Yoong, while 496 countered with a Viper for Trịnh “458” Văn Thọ.

AlaCrity got off to a great start, killing off the Viper solo right from the get-go, then got another pick with help from Ravdan “Hustla” Narmandakh’s rotating Earth Spirit.

An attempt to contest the Ancient stack saw both teams trade kills, but Andrew “Drew” Halim’s Leshrac swooped in to finish up, giving Reality Rift three kills to 496’s two.

Meepo continued to snowball, with Reality Rift fully committing to ending the game early.

496 had no answer, losing two big team fights in a row and letting Wong “NutZ” Jeng Yih’s Snapfire steal the Aegis while killing most of 496’s heroes.

Reality Rift were so far ahead they were able to take the barracks at the 19-minute mark, followed by Mega Creeps at 22 minutes, and the game shortly after.

Game Two

The second game saw Reality Rift pick up 496’s favored Troll Warlord, which the Vietnamese team had used to devastating effect against MS Chonburi. Backing the Troll up were Oracle and Snapfire, while 496 was counting on its Riki, Naga Siren and Disruptor to hold off Reality Rift’s faster lineup.

496 got off to a great start, with Trương “KilluA” Quốc Nghĩa’s Naga Siren scoring First Blood and another kill just moments later. 496 seemed to have adjusted from their previous loss, and fought early to keep the pressure on Reality Rift.

The kills continued to build up for 496 Gaming, and saw them race out to a 4,000 gold lead at the 13-minute mark. 496 got three kills for free at mid, while Reality Rift started with a win for team fight with Husta’s Snapdragon making great plays to get the kills. However, Reality Rift overcommitted on a kill on Bat Rider and started getting picked off instead.

With Reality Rift far behind thanks to 496’s Do “Ken” Tran Nhut Tien making great plays on his Disruptor, as well as landing wombo combos thanks to the Naga Siren’s sleep, the match was soon over when Reality Rift just couldn’t make any plays and tapped out at 26 minutes.

Game Three

With the Grand Final spot on the line and a chance to qualify for the ONE Esports Dota 2 Jakarta Invitational beckoning, 496 Gaming pulled out the Naga Disruptor and Naga Siren combo again with a Riki, while Reality Rift picked Kunkka and Medusa instead.

Unlike the early pressure of the last game, 496 took things a bit more slowly, trading kills with Reality Rift. With Reality Rift’s Lee “kYxY” Kong Yang playing better on Kunkka, Reality Rift was able to stay on the board with kills as well.

Both teams continued trading, but with AlaCrity’s Medusa being able to farm up somewhat, Reality Rift was able to pull ahead in team fights, with more kills on cores.

After a back and forth early game, the midgame became a farm fest, with cores on both teams trying to get geared up to fight. Knowing that a late-game Medusa was a bad idea, 496 piled on the pressure, looking for skirmishes, with Reality Rift choosing to back off each time. When 496 tried to go for Roshan, though, Medusa just didn’t have enough damage to take anyone down.

However, a fight at Reality Rift’s base saw 496 diving to try to get kills, which ended up costing them as Reality Rift managed to get three pickoffs while not losing any barracks.

With a Divine Rapier pickup on Medusa, the writing was pretty much on the wall, as Reality Rift was able to make plays thanks to Hustla’s amazing Clockwerk that kept 496 stymied as they tried to team fight.

A Roshan contest saw 458’s Riki losing his Divine Rapier, and KilluA’s Naga Siren dying back. With that, it was pretty much over, and Reality Rift closed out the game to advance to the Grand Final for a rematch against Cignal Ultra.

READ MORE: 496 Gaming eliminates MS Chonburi with 2-1