TI4 Group Stages vs TI3 pick + ban rates

I've collected some data from DOTABUFF on hero pick and ban rates for TI4 versus TI3.

I've laid them out in two infographics as follows

Hero Pick Rates in TI4 versus TI3 sorted by frequency

This shows you what the average game team composition looks like in TI4 versus TI3 - the popular carries, supports, etc.

Hero Pick + Ban rates sorted by TI4 vs TI3 variance

This shows you the relative changes between TI3 and TI4. In particular, you can see Lycan and Brewmaster were ignored in TI3 and have become staples in TI4.

Most hero changes are self explanatory - they're more picked in TI4 because they received buffs - but there's a couple of subtleties.

Lycan - while receiving no direct buffs, his role has changed substantially to how it was in TI2 when he was last dominant. The nerf to wolves hp made it almost impossible for him to jungle at a decent speed, however they got buffed with earlier invisibility and crazy hp regen which allows him to harass supports out of the lane. Also, pushing lycan got a big buff when Midas and Helm of the Dominator were changed to not eat Necrobook units.

Windrunner / Darkseer - while receiving no direct nerfs, these were previously the "premier" offlane heroes in TI3. Since the offlane was changed to be less unforgiving, it made it easier for other heroes to lane there.

Chen - while receiving no direct nerfs, the rise of Doom and the higher frequency of Midas pickups made him unviable to play as his creeps would keep dying. Also with the rise of Ancient Apparition his team heal was rendered useless.

TI4 Group Stages Round Up

Fastest Matches of TI4 Group Stages

The most notable change in meta has been the appearance of a surprising fast push strat from China. Vici Gaming, Newbee and even DK executed this several times, creating surprising wins in under 15 minutes.

DK takes Cloud 9's rax in 11 minutes 

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Lumi during the draft: "DK right now have too much raw health especially with the regen that Dazzle and Witch Doctor bring, if Cloud 9 don't pick the highest damage hero in the entire game, they don't have what it takes to pierce through it."

Cloud 9 immediately picks Storm Spirit /facepalm/ leading to the fastest loss in the tournament, ending at 11 minutes.

The problem was that Cloud 9 allowed a Lycan pick through for DK and then spent their entire draft picking anti-Lycan heroes without actually thinking of how they were going to deal with the healers that came in the last 3 picks.

Link to draft stage

Link to game start

ps: if 11 minutes isn't short enough, here's an entertaining 3 minute summary.

Newbee takes Titan's rax in 12 minutes

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Newbee take a level 1 Rosh which gives them an unstoppable advantage in the laning phase. Titan with their late game Naga pick simply never have time to recover: they lose all their rax by 18 minutes, the fastest in the tournament.

Link to draft stage

Link to game start

Vici Gaming take Alliance's rax in 14 minutes

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Alliance go for a level 1 Roshan - they get the kill and and the Aegis, but get teamwiped by Vici Gaming who manage to scout it out. Both teams start even on gold and experience and remain on par for the the first 7-8 minutes.

Vici Gaming manage to dive the Tier 3 tower 10 minutes into the game to score 3 kills inside Alliance's base, even though the Tier 2 tower is still standing. They even make it out without taking any casualties or even much damage at all, they just heal up and keep pushing. Such an impressive team: not afraid to dive, very precise teamfights, and are careful not to overextend.

Link to game start

Vici Gaming takes DK's rax in 14 minutes

  

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Tobi as Vici take the T2 tower: "Vici can't go high ground now."

Vici Gaming immediately go high ground and take rax.

Good example of why gold and experience graphs don't tell the full story - both teams had 0 kills, and were relatively even on gold and experience. Yet Vici Gaming were able to fight into the base even through Dk's Chronosphere, and come out of that with 5 kills to no deaths and taking the rax. Their timing push had the 3 critical items they needed - Radiance on the Lone Druid, Mek on the Viper, and Blink on the Tidehunter.

This game is also notable because Vici Gaming's support SD was only level 5 at the end of the game.

Link to game start

Competitive Roundup (Part 10)

Introduction

There are so many tournaments going on at the same time that it can get overwhelming trying to keep up with them. In this series of blog posts, I will share matches which I have found notable and worth watching in the past week or two.

TA Off-lane

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Tournament:  Starladder VIII (game 2)

Teams: Na'Vi versus Alliance
Caster: Beyond The Summit

I've been kind of slack with these, but I'm getting around to it! Today's focus is on the off-lane role played by Funnik. There was some speculation that the solo-offlane versus defensive tri-lane meta would fall out of favour after changes to lane creep equilibrium, but that hasn't happened. What has happened though, as a sum of all the changes, is that the roster of possible off-lane hero has expanded, which makes things a lot more interesting.

Rather unusual picks from Na'Vi - nice to see the casters confused and get the lane matchups wrong. We see the return of Invoker, which is always exciting, and a really interesting off-lane by Funnik on TA. Alliance had Wisp in their lineup, which means they will dominate the mid-game because of their strong gank potential, but lose out in terms of teamfight - their two supports (Tusk and Wisp) cannot influence a 5v5 teamfight as much as Na'Vi's Treant and Dazzle. Both critical teamfights were won by the Treant being able to blink in and Overgrowth.

TA being played off-lane is a threat not so much because of what she does - which isn't much, since TA as a ganker requires the gold and exp of a solo mid - but is a threat because it forces the opponent to divert resources into controlling her, lest she gets too much farm and snowballs out of control. Ultimately Na'Vi had 3 strong carry heroes (TA, Luna, Invoker) while Alliance only had one - the Alchemist. Alliance were able to score repeated ganks using the Wisp Relocate but that was not enough to suppress the farm of all of them at once. Knowing they were on a clock Alliance tried several times to break into the Na'Vi base but the Treant's Living Armor was able to repeatedly heal the T3 tower back up. At the end, even Funnik's off-lane TA was able to solo the Alchemist in the final fight and still have nearly 100% hp remaining.

Link to draft stage

Link to game start

Nyx Offlane

  

  vs  

Tournament:  Starladder VIII (game 3)

Teams: Alliance versus Na'Vi
Caster: Beyond The Summit

Very typical picks from both teams. This game exemplifies the differences between Alliance and Na'Vi - Alliance tend to prioritize winning every lane, making sure all their heroes get good farm and experience. It's usually more typical for teams to sacrifice some lane compositions in order to have better teamfight and midgame control.

Funnik running Nyx offlane is an example of this. Nyx gets absolutely crushed in the off-lane - he has to face up against Naga, Jakiro and Gyro. The three of them are able to keep him away from the creeps and keep him severely underlevelled and underfarmed. On the other hand, Admiral Bulldog gets Timbersaw, which is able to get a much better start as he can farm the lane without fear even against 3 opponents.

However, the Nyx pick does pay off in the mid game, as the fear of ganks from Nyx and Storm Spirit inhibit Alliance's movement and farming to the point the Luna can roam the map uncontested and pick up a huge amount of farm. Funnik plays a very safe off-lane, rarely giving up kills, and then coming back strongly in the mid-game to change the tides of the game.

Link to game start

Bonus game: Singsing's Mirana

This isn't a competitive game but I had a great time watching it. Singsing is probably the most popular DOTA2 streamer right now, he plays for Speed Gaming. He plays a lot of pub games, and is well known for playing Mirana.

In this pub match he faces off against S4, the solo mid player for Alliance. S4 counter-picks his Mirana with Shadowfiend, but due to lack of support he gets killed over and over by Singsing.

It's actually shocking how easily Mirana scores kills when played aggressively. Singsing makes it look so easy. In particular the presence of mind he displays at 3.45 is impressive: just after executing a gank and retreating from diving the enemy tower, the enemy support CM rotates in (too late) to help: instead of running out, Singsing skills up a point in Arrow and has barely enough mana to fire it to score a kill on the CM.

Link to draft stage

Competitive Roundup (Part 9)

Introduction

There are so many tournaments going on at the same time that it can get overwhelming trying to keep up with them. In this series of blog posts, I will share matches which I have found notable and worth watching in the past week or two.

Reformed DK

  

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Tournament:  WPC-ACE

Teams: DK versus LGD.CN
Caster: Beyond The Summit

Showcasing the new DK - they picked up fan favourites Mushi from Orange Esports (which disbanded after TI3) and iceiceice from Zenith (which also disbanded after TI3)

DK draft Nyx to counter the OD pick, and Gyrocopter to counter the Wisp + CK combo. The Gyrocopter could fire off his ultimate as the Wisp+CK was teleporting into the fight, making it an interesting counter as well. LGD never really find their footing in this game and it ends with an 18 minute GG.

Link to draft stage

Link to game start

Elder Titan Mid New Meta

  

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Tournament:  We-Play

Teams: Team Liquid versus Alliance
Caster: Beyond The Summit

Very exciting play from Bulba - running Elder Titan as a mid carry. And immediately after that, another surprise pick - Medusa as last pick safe-lane carry. Both heroes are almost never picked in competitive DOTA2, to make it even more noteworthy, both turn in excellent performances - and even better, they pull it off against Alliance, the world champions..

Both heroes more than prove their worth. Elder Titan makes two game changing ganks (basically getting a triple kill early, and an ultra kill later) and Medusa wins two teamfights for her team by being able to tank a heap of damage and then turning it around with her ult.

Link to draft stage

Link to game start

Competitive Roundup (Part 8)

Introduction

There are so many tournaments going on at the same time that it can get overwhelming trying to keep up with them. In this series of blog posts, I will share matches which I have found notable and worth watching in the past week or two.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers

  

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Tournament:  Starladder 7

Teams: Power Rangers versus Alliance
Caster: ZyoriTV

I'm alive, and I'm back, and trying to ease into things! Just one game this week.

I guess I should explain here that I don't really watch matches for the suspense or excitement of wondering which team wins - I like matches that demonstrate a particularly unique play-style or strategy, or showcases a dominating performance by a particular hero that we can all aspire to. That's why all my matches have big spoilers in the description =P

Power Rangers are an unknown team and for them to beat Alliance (and Na'vi) in the same tournament is quite notable. It wasn't a free "giveaway" win either, they displayed genuinely good personal skill and teamwork in the match. Great solo offlane play by the Power Rangers' Bounty Hunter going up against an Alchemist, Abaddon and Chen - in particular, his use of a single sentry ward to deward both the Dire lane sentries. This game really shows how intelligent play and luck can allow a solo Bounty Hunter to dominate a weak tri-lane - Abaddon doesn't bring much kill potential to the lane, but he is a very solid pick / ban nowadays and was picked up by Alliance very early in the draft. You have to watch the game to see just how much the 3 Alliance heroes were on the back foot against the Bounty Hunter, he actually overtakes the Alchemist in creep score at one point during the laning phase.

This game also showcases just how strong the Wisp + Chaos Knight combination is. It's run mid as a duo lane simply due to its sheer kill potential (tether stun + chaos bolt + reality rift + spirits) and then later runs rampant all over the map, having great synergy with the Bounty Hunter being able to locate gank targets. You could argue that Alliance slipped up by allowing such powerful heroes through, but they got strong heroes in return (Batrider, Alchemist, Chen, Timbersaw). Timbersaw in particular has been seeing a resurgence after some buffs - the sheer AOE burst damage he can output even from a level and item disadvantage is astounding, and he's really difficult to kill with his Reactive Armor and Timber Chain - I think we can definitely expect to see more of him in the future.

Link to draft stage

Link to game start

TI3 Recap (Part 1)

I'm feeling quite saturated with DOTA2 from watching all the TI3 matches over the last two weeks. Plenty of analysis has been written online about the matches (and by much better analysts than me) so I don't particularly feel motivated to replicate all that work. I may revisit some of the noteworthy matches in the future, as examples of where specific heroes had the opportunity to shine. Bulba's Clockwerk was amazing, truly impressive game between Liquid and LGD China. One of my favourite games in the tournament, and a reminder of just how potent Clockwerk can be in the right hands.

Anyway, since I like stats, I've put together an infographic of hero pick frequency. Visage was picked in 54% of the TI3 games. It sounds like a lot, but Thresh, a support in LOL, was picked in 58% of the Summer Season LCS games. While LOL has 20 more champions than DOTA2, it just ended up adding to the unpicked list (there were 39 unpicked Champions in LOL, while there was 13 unpicked Heroes in DOTA2).

It's interesting that both games have very similar pick distributions. If the games were better balanced would the pick distribution be more even, or would they end up like this anyway just due to trends and player preferences.

As a side note I will probably not be blogging much until I return from Africa, in about mid September. I will be climbing Kilimanjaro, it's a 70km trek over 8 days reaching almost 20,000 feet and it will all be done in tents with no access to electricity or running water, with expected temperatures down to -15C so... if I don't make it back alive, RIP this blog I guess. Lol.

Competitive Roundup (Part 7)

Introduction

There are so many tournaments going on at the same time that it can get overwhelming trying to keep up with them. In this series of blog posts, I will share matches which I have found notable and worth watching in the past week or two.

Mouseports vs Na'Vi

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Tournament:  D2L Finals (Game 1)

Teams: Mousesports versus Na'vi

Casters: Ayasee and Maelk

I really like Na'Vi's drafting strategy in this game - it's a strong mid-game team that can push and teamfight at all stages of the game. It's a flexible draft that could adapt to counter whatever Mousesports threw at them. Mous picked a Spectre as their hard carry, so Na'Vi went for early push and managed to destroy two lanes of barracks by 20 minutes. The Spectre managed to farm a fast 20 minute Radiance just as their second lane melee rax was going down - it was a fast Radiance, but simply not fast enough. One final push on the last lane at the 23 minute mark sealed the game.

There was no good quality Youtube upload of this that I could find, so you will have to watch the VOD from Twitch at this location. It's one single VOD of the entire finals lasting 4 hours and 16 minutes and there's a lot of filler and waiting in between - skip to the times I indicate below.

Draft Stage starts 0:51:30
Game start 1:13:48

Na'Vi vs Mouseports 

  

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Tournament:  D2L Finals (Game 2)

Teams: Na'vi versus Mousesports

Casters: Ayasee and Maelk

Na'Vi allow Mous to pick up Puck again, Fata's signature hero, but they have a nasty surprise for them - they last pick Outworld Devourer.

Last week I highlighted a match where iG counterpicked Na'vi's mid Storm Spirit with Outworld Destroyer. Because of how badly OD beats other Int heroes mid, Na'vi had to move their Storm Spirit to the off-lane. This forced a very unfavourable laning situation for Na'vi and they lost the game badly.

This time Na'vi does the same thing to Mous and counterpicks Puck with the OD. Mous however, stands their ground, sending Puck mid anyway, and the result speak for themselves - by about 6 minutes and 15 seconds into the game, OD has 35 CS and 31 denies, while Puck has 10 CS and 0 denies. By 11 minutes in OD is nearly level 10 while Puck is still level 6.

Another interesting thing to note is how Funnik abandons top lane as Windrunner and just jungles the ancient camp with a Quelling Blade for the first few levels, it's reasonable common for him to do this. Mousesports do pick a KOTL as their last-pick in an effort to contain Na'vi's aggressive pushing but the game still ends in 27 minutes, with Na'vi racking up nearly 1000gpm of gold advantage per minute due to their superior hero picks and laning.

The VOD is just a continuation after Game 1 linked above, the times are listed below. 

Draft Stage starts 2:04:53
Game start 2:16:15

Mouseports vs Na'Vi

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Tournament:  D2L Finals (Game 3)

Teams: Mousesports versus Na'vi

Casters: Ayasee and Maelk

Game three was a long one, with Mous playing very well throughout the game, their Anti-Mage carry having 21k net worth versus Na'vi's Gyro having 16k net worth. However, all it took was one perfect teamfight by Na'vi to turn the tide of battle completely - and with the momentum from that they assault Mous' base relentlessly and end the game right there.

This VOD captures that perfect teamfight till the end of the game, a sequence lasting only 3 minutes, completely reversing whatever happened in the first 40 minutes of the game. You could watch the whole thing as well (it's part of that long Twitch VOD linked above), but it's just a lot of back and forth until the end.

Link to 3 mintue VOD

Competitive Roundup (Part 6)

Introduction

There are so many tournaments going on at the same time that it can get overwhelming trying to keep up with them. In this series of blog posts, I will share matches which I have found notable and worth watching in the past week or two.

iG outpick Na'Vi

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Tournament:  Alienware Cup (Lower Bracket Finals Game 3)

Teams: iG versus Na'vi

Casters: LD, 2GD, Luminous, Merlini, & Bruno

I really like the drafting strategy in this game - one of those games that are won in the drafting stage alone.

Na'vi get second pick and thus are able to pick up two heroes in a row, and they go for Naix + Storm Spirit, an aggressive combination that has served them very well in the past - the infamous Naix bomb, where Naix infests into the Storm Spirit and they go ganking. From the point Storm Spirit gets his Orchid no hero can solo farm safely - even traditionally safe farmers like Anti-Mage - due to the instant activation on the Orchid silence.

However, iG immediately counter-pick with Outworld Devourer. This creates a laning problem for Na'vi, where their Storm Spirit is unable to solo mid (Outworld Devourer is not only a strong mid but is especially strong against Intelligence heroes). Yet Storm Spirit needs a solo lane for a fast level 6 - without getting his ultimate he is very easily killed and can't contribute much to the game. iG further seal the deal by picking Treant, where his global defensive potential counteracts the Naix + Storm Spirit global ganking potential.

In the end, Na'vi have terrible lanes, with Storm trying to solo their safe-lane and getting repeatedly killed by the iG aggressive tri-lane, their Naix trying to solo mid against the Outworld Destroyer and losing, and they just get crushed overall and lose the game badly.

Link to draft stage

Funnik plays Bone Clinkz

  

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Tournament: Alienware Cup (Finals Game 2)

Teams: LGD.cn versus Na'Vi

Casters: LD, 2GD, Luminous, Merlini, & Bruno

This game is particularly notable because there are no players in any well known competitive team that use Bone Clinkz except Funnik, and even Funnik has not used Bone Clinkz for months.

Na'vi run a free farming Clinkz (Funnik) while LGD have a free farming Spectre (Sylar). Obviously Spectre is a stronger lategame carry, however, once Clinkz finishes his Orchid (at which point Sylar is still farming his Sacred Relic), he starts terrorizing everyone on LGD, to the point where Sylar only dares to farm when his entire team is standing behind him to save him from being ganked by Clinkz.  Even that doesn't save him once Clinkz gets his BKB and Daedalus.

Clinkz is a hero with a very niche role in DOTA2 and is often misunderstood, leading to his poor win rate. He's not a carry (despite appearances), and does very poorly in teamfights. His skill set is deceptively simple but in reality requires a lot of skill to play properly. Clinkz is a hero that has a really bad early game and really bad late game - he only shines for a small window in the mid-game, and only if he managed to farm a fast Orchid. When he does shine though, he's an absolute terror, as this match shows.

Link to draft stage


Other thoughts

The Alienware Cup was really well run and had very enjoyable commentary from a variety of people with good insight into the game. I might review more games from it next week. Also there was the StarLadder Finals going on which I missed most of (there's only so much DOTA2 you can watch in a week) which I guess I will review next week. And right now the Defense is starting up again. Also I nearly didn't get to post this because I've been playing too much Endless Space lately but that's a topic for a different blog, methinks...

Competitive Roundup (Part 5)

Introduction

There are so many tournaments going on at the same time that it can get overwhelming trying to keep up with them. In this series of blog posts, I will share matches which I have found notable and worth watching in the past week or two.

This week I only have one match to share: I watched a lot of matches, most of them weren't good / interesting enough to post here.

Tongfu vs Na'Vi

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Tournament:  Alienware Cup (Upper Bracket Round 2)

Teams: Tongfu versus Na'vi

Stream: Beyond The Summit

I have not yet featured Tongfu in this series - they are a strong team, placing 7th in 2012 Internationals, and recently winning the Dota2 Super League.

This game between Tongfu and Na'vi is well worth watching despite it going on for a full hour - plenty of turnarounds and comebacks, with Tongfu at one point holding an over 10k gold advantage over Na'vi. Two Aegis steals, supports turning into carries, plenty of excitement to go around. There was one fight which forced 7 instant buybacks and just kept going, heroes dying and streaming back into the fight.

Link to draft stage

Link to game start

Nexon Starter League

Part of the reason I haven't seen many games worth watching is that I have been watching the Korean stream of the Nexon Starter League which opened on the weekend - it's run by GOMTV, a professional broadcaster who has a lot of experience running the Starcraft 2 scene in Korea. Some matches are uploaded here but you really had to watch it live with the English comment stream trying to translate the Korean casters in real time. Totally impressed by the random CGI DOTA2 opening they made up for it. None of the games are particularly good (the Korean teams in general just starting to pick up DOTA2 so their skill level isn't world class yet, and all the casting is in Korean so good luck understanding anything) but the production value is great, the studio is awesome, the teams have uniforms, the casters wear ties and inject so much energy into the game even though you have no idea what they're saying. Even Nada showed up to watch! And goodness, the customized advertisements that ran in between games were so funny. The team names are hilarious (Bird Gang, Tiger Power, Best Magic Skill) and in particular one player is called Jesus Stick. It's probably just the Korean culture we don't understand, good memories of the first GOMTV GSL match finals between Fruit Seller and Hope Torture, where his mom actually featured on stage after the match during the prize giving ceremony telling everyone how her son was such a good boy.

Competitive Roundup (Part 4)

Introduction

There are so many tournaments going on at the same time that it can get overwhelming trying to keep up with them. In this series of blog posts, I will share matches which I have found notable and worth watching in the past week or two. (two matches this week instead of three, because the second one is pretty long).

Burning on Anti-Mage

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Tournament:  D2SL (Semifinals Game 3)

Teams: LGD.cn versus DK

Stream: Beyond The Summit

Burning, the carry player for DK, is widely considered the best carry player in the Chinese DOTA scene.

This is very classic "Chinese" DOTA style, where the whole team strategy is based around securing farm for one carry, and at a certain point in the game when they have enough items and levels on their carry, they stop farming and just end the game there and there. With his team's assistance (feeding him consumables and stacking camps for him) Burning manages to get 370 creep kills by the 30 minute mark (12.3 creeps a minute), completing his 6 slot inventory, and at that point DK stop farming, group up as 5 and just end the game against a helpless LGD.

Link to draft stage

Link to game start

Orange vs LGD.cn

  

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Tournament: D2SL (3rd Decider Game 4)

Teams: LGD.cn versus Neolution Orange

Stream: Beyond The Summit

What a match between LGC.cn (China) and Neolution Orange (Malaysia). Cast by Luminous and Merlini.

I won't spoil this match by writing any more about it, but suffice to say there are many great saves, great kills and close calls in this epic 62 minute match. And mass force staffs!

Link to draft stage
Link to game start

Competitive Roundup (Part 3)

Introduction

There are so many tournaments going on at the same time that it can get overwhelming trying to keep up with them. In this series of blog posts, I will share matches which I have found notable and worth watching in the past week or two.

Dreamhack Finals "Perfect Game"

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Tournament:  Dreamhack Finals Game 3

Teams: Quantic versus Alliance

Stream: ???

I almost could not obtain this match for you guys in time for Monday - best game of the whole of last week, I watched it live, but again there's no official uploader. Thanks to Hexor who must have bought the ticket to the game, recorded and uploaded it to his youtube channel.

Quantic are probably the best drafters in DOTA2, and their lineup looked a lot better than the one Alliance picked. In fact, Alliance's heroes were confusing - they picked Puck, Nature's Prophet, Chen, Alchemist and Wisp - a team with very little damage capability, which should in theory lose in early game, mid game, and late game to the lineup that Quantic picked - Undying, Warlock, Batrider, Shadow Demon, Gyrocopter. I mean just look at that teamfight potential, AOE, and lockdown.

Despite the casters feeling the game should be a certain loss for Alliance, and despite losing in CS across every lane, Alliance show that they're in the DH Finals for a reason. A couple of flawless teamfights later, they close out the game 22-0. As Ayasee said, we may never see a game like this again.

Link to draft stage

Link to game start

Quantic draft Naga support

  

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Tournament: Dreamhack Group D

Teams: Alliance versus Quantic

Stream: LuminousInverse

This match happened two weeks ago but the Dreamhack group stage was not casted or uploaded as far as I know. This is a delayed replay cast, with Luminous and EternalEnvy.

Alliance is one of the strongest teams, winning both G1 LAN and Dreamhack. Quantic Gaming, also known as DD, came runners up in the TI3 Western Qualifier, and are generally regarded as the the team with the best drafting, coming up with innovative team compositions and many times winning on the strength of their draft alone. This game is one of them - Quantic run a very interesting pushing team with a Naga Siren support - a hero previously used as a carry - and overrun Alliance's mid rax by 20 minutes.

Link to draft stage
Link to game start

Alliance baffles Chinese teams

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Tournament: G1 LAN Finals Game 2

Teams: LGD vs Alliance

Stream: Beyond The Summit

This happened quite a long time ago, but I wanted to highlight it anyway.

LGD is considered one of the top teams in the world, with a very strong showing at the TI2 tournament last year. An interesting fact (to me at least) is that LGD is sponsored by a chili sauce company of the same name, Guizhou Laogandie Food. Generally the Western teams get sponsored by companies at least tangentially related to gaming in some way...

The Chinese teams in the G1-LAN were unprepared for the playstyle that Alliance brought with them. Chuan, leader of IG, said in an interview that he knew they were in trouble when he was watching the Alliance draft and did not understand their strategy at all. Their playstyle leans towards "Tri-Core" where they split their farm up among 3 heroes who all get strong, while Chinese playstyle leans towards "4 protect 1" where their entire team and laning setup is designed to guarantee farm on one hero. Well, and part of the problem was that they didn't respect Admiral Bulldog's Lone Druid enough to ban it - he is well known for having an unhealthy obsession with playing the Lone Druid, which he is admittedly very good at.

LGD's strategies were ineffective, they try every trick in the book but they never really get any traction in the game and ultimately go down to Alliance. Nice casting by Luminous and LD, many memorable lines in this one. "If your Gyro is 0-5-2, is that not feed?" "He's... had a lot of pressure. Let's be fair."

Link to draft stage

Link to game start

Competitive Roundup (Part 2)

Introduction

There are so many tournaments going on at the same time that it can get overwhelming trying to keep up with them. In this series of blog posts, I will share matches which I have found notable and worth watching in the past week or two.

Alliance takes up Tobi's "challenge" vs IN.RS

  

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Tournament: RaidCall EMS One Summer Cup #4

Teams: iNfernity RS versus Alliance

Stream: joinDOTA

Very short 8 minute match. Tobi starts laughing midway through the draft when he realises that Alliance is planning to take up a "challenge" he issued them - to take raxes by 10 minutes. They actually manage to take down the first rax before 8 minutes, just at the GG call.
Yes it's a stomp of a lesser team in a tournament, but the manner of it happening is quite interesting, particularly the hero picks. I have a tendency to recommend shorter games anyway, as even I don't particularly like watching long drawn out games (unless they're particularly noteworthy)

Link to draft stage

Group A Tie-Breaker (Defense 4)

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Tournament: Defense 4

Teams: Mousesports vs Na'Vi

Stream: joinDOTA

The only "actual" game between relatively equal teams I'm highlighting this week, Mouseports, fresh off their win in the TI3 Western Qualifiers, got drawn into Group A of the Defense 4 Tournament, along with Na'Vi. They both went through the group stage games with the same number of wins, so they have to play a tie-breaker.

Na'Vi allowed Mouseports to run an Alchemist safelane uncontested - with free farm and points in Greevil's Greed getting him a 5 minute Midas.

For me the highlight was Na'Vi running Funnik as the solo off-laner vs the enemy quad-lane as Bounty Hunter - you heard that right, 1v4 (Dark Seer, Jakira, Shadow Demon, Alchemist) as Mouseports' Dark Seer abandoned his off-lane. Funnik pulled out all the stops - manipulating the creeps at the start so they would double up, harassing the Mouseports supports in the jungle and stealing their farm - and he somehow managed to find his farm and levels, finishing Phase, Vlads, Drums, and Assault Cuirass by 20 minutes, all items aimed at boosting the damage of their carry. Amazing play. Other interesting note is how Puck in midlane can Phase Shift before the Dragon Knight Flame Breath can reach her.

As a note, I am highlighting a lot of Alliance and Na'Vi games because they're very entertaining. Na'Vi have a tendency to be extremely aggressive - they pull off a lot of risky plays, and it sometimes backfires on them, similarly for Alliance.

Link to draft stage

Link to game start

Dominating Windrunner play by Dendi

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Tournament:  The Defense 4

Teams: Na'Vi versus RoXKIS

Stream: joinDOTA

It was pretty much a forgone conclusion that Na'Vi would win this game because they're a much better team, but it's entertaining just because Dendi plays a Windrunner mid who doesn't have the greatest start, but still ends up scoring 8 kills in 12 minutes, forcing RoXKIS to surrender. No one else managed to get any kills, except for one by XBOCT. I guess it's noteworthy because Windrunner has a very unreliable stun skillshot and isn't usually the best candidate to send mid when you could run heroes with more reliable disables and damage like Storm or Puck. But we have Dendi to show us how it's possible I guess =P

Link to draft stage

Link to game start

Competitive Roundup (Part 1)

Introduction

There are so many tournaments going on at the same time that it can get overwhelming trying to keep up with them. In this series of blog posts, I will share matches which I have found notable and worth watching in the past week or two.

Alliance draft Riki and Bounty Hunter - win in 13 minutes

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Tournament: Defense 4

Teams: EG versus Alliance

Stream: joinDOTA

Alliance draft a highly unconventional team line up - Wisp, Magnus, Chen, Bounty Hunter, Riki. Not only do they win, but they even force a 13 minute concede from EG.

EG made a mistake by wasting all their wards on top lane, and they were unprepared by Alliance switching their tri-lane from top to bot, and as a result their safe lane farmer (Gyrocopter) could not get any farm because EG had no vision in their forest.

Highly entertaining and fast paced game, casted by Tobi and Wagamama. Wagamama is the position one player at QPAD.

Link to draft stage

Link to game start

Level 1 Roshan with 5 man TP

    

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Tournament: G1 LAN Finals playoffs

Teams: DK versus Alliance

Stream: Beyond The Summit

Alliance last-picked the Ursa, which immediately gave away their intention to kill Roshan at level 1, or at least their capability of doing so.

However, by teleporting all heroes to the tier-1 mid tower at the start of the game, it allowed them to actually kill Roshan before DK (as Radiant) could possibly get there. The rest of the match isn’t notable, so it is not recommended watching beyond the opening Roshan kill.

Link to directly before the last picks are finalized in the draft

Na’Vi showing their dominance

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Tournament:  Starladder Season 6

Teams: Alliance versus Na’Vi

Stream: joinDOTA

This was a highly anticipated match, because of how dominant Alliance have been - they just demolished all the top tier Chinese teams in the G1 LAN Finals, without dropping a single game.

Highly recommended game even though it ended up as a stomp for Na’Vi, winning with 25 kills in 25 minutes. Both sides went with an aggressive lineup and their signature heroes, and Na’Vi showing why they’re arguably the best DOTA2 team in the world with their amazing coordination and relentless aggression.

Link to draft stage

Link to game start