Replay Analysis: AEON.ru vs Os|One

This time, the analysis will focus bans, picks, strategies and their implications to the game and not the description of fights.

BANS – AEON.ru

The first ban, Tidehunter, can be explained when you know the amazing capability of his ultimate in the middle of a team fight, stunning everything in its sight and his early-game slows and armor penalties with Gush. It was followed by Slardar, a strong hero who can easily take out low health heroes by simply having a BKB, to avoid being disabled. Moreover, when you get to know AEON.ru's picks, Slardar is a good choice against a team with both Sand King and Mirana because of their invisibility skills.

This is an interesting ban: Techies. Some people think it was a miss click but the most probable reason was to give the chance to have more interesting first picks. Still, his skills in defending lane pushes and a massive AoE damage makes it a strong hero in a game, even being easily countered by some Sentry Wards. And besides, Os.One has a very skilled player with Techies so it is better not leave that option open.

Last but not least, Crystal Maiden was banned due to its amazing early game ganking power that combined with the correct hero, can be very dangerous. In addition, her aura of mana regeneration makes any game harder with some nuke heroes taking advantage of it.

BANS – Os|One

They started with Sven, a really strong hero with stun and an amazing ultimate. Nobody can afford being hit by his 100/125/150% increased damage without disable and it gets worse when the hero has a BKB on. Next ban was Chen, one of the greatest supports of DotA with his global healing, slow, instant damage and the ability to control up to three neutrals. It is a decisive hero if played correctly, and AEON.ru doesn’t lack of experienced players for this task.

Enigma isn’t a hard ban to understand. The hero doesn’t need to go in a lane to farm but still has a great ganking ability and an ultimate that even your most powerful magic immune item will fail to counter. Their last ban was Pugna, a very good choice because of its Blast, knocking down all creeps really quick and also damaging towers, making him a good lane pusher. Also, his Nether Ward can be just a pain in the ass against a spell caster based team.

PICKS – AEON.ru

Their first pick is at least repetitive. Most of the recent AEON.ru games they pick Rexxar and don’t matter what, they always make a good game with him. The combination of slow from his Quilbeast added to a “fog-free” feature provided by his eagle makes the life of any hero trying to escape harder and it also avoids unexpected ganks. In addition, he is a good farmer and his ultimate is bad for everyone staying near it and even worse to the one focused by it.

Everyone is used to see Mirana in most games when it is not banned. The combination of her with another stunner like Sand King, their fourth pick, makes a good combo of 5 seconds stun. Moreover, a well executed Starfall can make it double your damage. That’s what AEON.ru did, this combo can easily kill a hero because you just can’t escape alive from a Burrow-strike + Elune’s Arrow + Epicenter + Starfall. And besides that, both heroes have good escape skills.

Their next choice was Kunkka, a really good farmer and disturbing to any other melee hero near him. His splash damage can both be used to farm and nuke the enemy but it isn’t the strongest of him. A well executed Torrent with Ghost Ship can be a devastating combo, and the “X” skill can be used to either make that combo happen or to avoid someone to teleport like they did a couple of times in the game.

The last pick, Furion, can be understood by its ganking abilities with teleport + Sprout and also tower pushing, although in this game they didn’t focused it. Even though, no lane is able to push when he executes his ultimate, which easily kills (or almost kill) all the creeps it hits and can deal great damage to heroes too if they are hit by the last bounces.

PICKS – Os|One

A classic pick (when not banned), Earthshaker is very known for its destructive ultimate and also for the Fissure ability, that can be crucial when well executed to trap the enemies’ path. It was followed by Warlock, another great hero with his Infernal for both stunning everything in a huge area and pushing lanes. It has a good AoE slow that can be used to help your friends in a teamfight and also distribute damage with Fatal Bonds. Besides, it is a strong hero to either go solo and farm or baby-sit for another carry hero.

Known for its ganking/roaming style, Vengeful is really good in the early game for ganking with stuns and armor penalty and mid to late game with her Swap and Command Aura. The hero has a great synergy with Earthshaker, their previous pick and can also be used as semi-carrier if you build the correct items to deal great damage on others.

Sniper isn’t a very common hero to be picked, but also not so unexpected to be seen once in a while. The hero can keep a safe distance while hitting the enemy (gets worse if you have some IAS and damage items) plus an ultimate that will get the ones who try to escape in low health, invisible or not.

The last pick, Panda, shows great strength with his ultimate, specially with Aghanim’s. If well played, you can have two enemy heroes under your control (Cyclone and stun), a significant move that changes completely a team fight. Besides, when not using his Ultimate, he also has a good but small AoE slow which deals some good damage, just perfect to get low health enemies.

Lanes and game

Starting literally from the top, we have Mirana and Sand King against Warlock. It should not be a very good time for him since two heroes can control the lane better than one but yamAmoto did a good job and managed to kill and deny a few creeps playing defensively. Although, the SK + POTM is a classic but efficient combo and they managed to get the First Blood at 2:38 minutes of game.





In the middle lane, Rexxar went solo against Panda, a really interesting battle for creeps since both heroes are good at it and so are the players behind them. The point is proven during the beginning of the game, when you can see them with similar creep stats and fighting over the rune control.

By far, bottom lane was the most interesting one because Os|One choose to go on a triple lane with Earth, Sniper and Vengeful. It was a nightmare for Kunkka, since he was on the other side alone while Furion was farming in the woods near him, but not close enough to help him all the time. Still, he managed to survive long enough, dying for the first time at 4:24 because by that time, Furion had teleported near the top rune to help Rexxar (Panda was trying to steal it).





Around 6 minutes of game, he died for the second time. Sand King tried to teleport and save him and almost ended up in the same way of his friend. An interesting fact at this point of the game is that even with Earth and Vengeful, Os|One didn’t try to gank any other lanes. Thanks to Furion for being in their way, watching the ground nearby and to Rexxar and his eagle.

Right after this kill, around 6:25, Earth failed to get a Double Damage rune in the river. Instead, Rexxar got it and killed him, but he didn’t survive for long because he got trapped by Vengeful and Sniper from one side and Panda coming from behind.





From 10:30 to 11:30 there is a good team fight at bottom lane that ended better for AEON.ru than Os|One. Watch it carefully, you’ll see many ways of how heroes can combine their skills in an effort to kill the others. You can also see another very well executed Mirana + Sand King combo killing Panda in seconds.

By the time the game got to the 13 minutes, another good team fight was about to start at bottom lane again. It ended up with the death of lots of heroes from both sides. Watch Azen and his moves with Mirana in his attempt to block Vengeful from escape while being invisible.

At this point of the game, Sniper and Mirana were the most farmed heroes. Rexxar was about to get his Necromonicon and Panda was half way to his Aghanim’s Scepter. The game was very balanced, making it hard to tell who was going to win.

Things changed when the game reached 19:45 when AEON.ru killed four heroes from Os|One and Panda, the only one who survived, couldn’t do much because he had his ultimate under cooldown. After that, Rexxar finished his Necromonicon, Mirana almost had Diffusal and Furion was close to finish his Necro book too. For Os|One, Sniper had half of his Manta and Panda needed only one item to finish his Aghanim’s.





After taking down the second scourge’s top tower, Rexxar had his Necro on level 3, Sand King his dagger and Mirana her Diffusal. The fact of having four towers down for Os|One made the victory, at that time, very difficult for them because of all the gold that AEON.ru had made from it. Besides, they had lost only one tower.

On the 24:30 minutes, AEON.ru started pushing in the bottom lane and managed to destroy another two towers and kill two heroes. With all the gold earned from this move, they finished their items and went for another rush,this time aiming for the victory.





The last rush started around 27:50, with Sand King dying at bottom lane. After that, a team fight started in the middle that lasted for almost two minutes and killed all Scourge heroes at least once. At this point, the game was already lost for Os|One, but they didn’t give up and even with the middle Barracks destroyed, they defended the top ones. Although, their efforts were useless and it didn’t take long to AEON.ru start another push, around 31 minutes of game, to kill everyone and win the game.

Links
GosuGamers - Download the replay
End game - Scoreboard