Analysing DDT's paving its way to the finals

With an opening of Farm4Fame 2.5 semi-finals, two competitors, DDT and MYM, sparked in their clash of abilities.

Two amazing games were played by these two powerhouses to decide which should step up to the finals.

Game One:

Picks/Lanes
MYM	DDT
Sentinel MYM|Maelk (Top) MYM|MaNia- (Bot) MYM|PlaymatE-_^ (Mid) MYM|PusHer (Bot) MYM|Lakost (Bot)	Scourge EnotHOME!Ducky (Top) [-_-]Loda (Bot) MYM|AngeL (Mid) MiSeRyTheSLAYER (Top) MYM|miGGel (Bot)
Mode: -cm Map: 6.66b
Download Replay

DDT started off the game with a successful first blood at less than 30 seconds after the first creep wave spawned. Such a threat from DDT's strong tri-lane forced MYM's Shadow Shaman to help Stealth Assassin and Earthshaker at bottom. This left Priestess of the Moon and Morphling to have undisturbed farming at top while Storm Spirit and Shadow Fiend enjoyed theirs at middle lane. Interesting actions were shown at bottom lane where DDT continuously attempted to kill MYM players with mana support from Crystal Maiden's Brilliance Aura. The excellent synergy of Storm Bolt, Paralyzing Cask, Crystal Nova and Frostbite guaranteed a kill most of the times and allowed Loda's Rogue Knight to farm with leisure. On the other hand, the MYM players at bottom lane were having a hard time facing DDT's aggressiveness and Lakost's Stealth Assassin could neither get gold nor exp at his will.


DDT's tri-lane ganking Lakost's Stealth Assassin

About 8 minutes after the first creeps spawned, well farmed Rogue Knight started to gank other lanes, almost always getting a kill in every attempt. The MYM players had to stay passive other than teleporting to help the incoming ganks.

At 10 minutes, the scores were 4 to 10 in favour of DDT. DDT also had a better start in digging gold as the creep scores were the following:

Creep Scores
MYM	DDT
Sentinel MYM|Maelk: 35/7 MYM|PlaymatE-_^: 27/3 MYM|Lakost 17/9	Scourge [-_-]Loda: 29/10 MYM|AngeL: 60/6 MiSeRyTheSLAYER: 41/13

At 15 minutes, DDT and MYM worked separately in pushing different lanes. DDT destroyed the first two towers at bottom lane and then destroyed the first at top lane after MYM destroyed the scourge's first at top lane.

It was clear that DDT tried to play initiatively judging from Rogue Knight and Shadow Fiend using Kelen's Dagger and Morphling using Wave Form to continuously start ganks/battle. This style of DDT worked successfully against MYM who had fragile heroes in general. Although MYM was smart in picking Priestess of the Moon, Storm Spirit and Stealth Assassin for their escape mechanisms to evade DDT's potential ganks, the disables/stuns and ongoing use of Dust of Appearance from DDT made it hard for MYM players to evade.

At about 22 minutes, DDT had some solid items including Angel's Black King Bar and Loda's Aegis of Immortal. Hence, DDT made its way into the base of Sentinel with its already mentioned initiative style and started a war against MYM. However, DDT could only kill Pusher's Rhasta and had to be countered by MYM's defend that mainly came from Rhasta's Serpent Ward and the last tower of middle lane.


DDT stomping into sentinel's middle base

Soon after at 26 minutes, DDT made another attempt to get into Sentinel's base through top lane with even stronger items: Misery's Manta Style and Loda's Black King Bar. Although MYM tried its best by releasing Serpent Ward, MYM could not use its full potential, as many of the MYM players could not be given a chance to make an organized attack at the DDT players. To illustrate, DDT's initiation, disables and Black King Bar's gave a clear disadvantage to MYM as they could neither use all of their spells nor use them in synergy.

Eventually, a better initiation into MYM's base with Miggel's Kelen's Dagger showed a limit to MYM's defense and ended the game. Although MYM played well countering DDT's engage a few times, credit must be given to DDT for cleverly used initiative style that gave them an advantage in reaching for the finals.


Game Two:

Picks/Lanes
DDT	MYM
Sentinel Ks^Miracle.se (Bot) MYM|AngeL (Top) [-_-]Loda (Bot) MYM|miGGel (Top) MiSeRyTheSLAYER (Mid)	Scourge MYM|PlaymatE-_^ (Bot) MYM|MaNia- (Top) MYM|Lakost (Top) MYM|Maelk (Mid) MYM|PusHer (Bot)
Mode: -cm Map: 6.66b
Download Replay

Unlike the first game, the second game started with a 2-1-2 formation. Therefore, not much actions could be witnessed in the early game. Beastmaster and Necrolyte both aimed for gold and experience from creeps, while Beastmaster also managed to spam his Wild Axes and bottle runes with help from the wards and his crow. As usual, at top and bottom lanes, the carries tried to get the creeps, while the supports attempted to disturb each others' carries.

The first blood occured rather late. At about 6 minutes after the first screep spawn, Miggel's Earthshaker came to the middle lane. Although the process of ganking was rusty, almost leading to Misery's death, Miggel's second Fissure on Maelk's Necrolyte brought DDT a step ahead of MYM.


Miggel landing his second fissure on Necrolyte for a first blood

Misery turned level 7 and he started ganking other lanes with support from Crystal Maiden's Brilliance Aura as well as his bottled runes. As Misery left his middle lane for ganks, Loda's Storm Spirit came to farm at middle lane, and Miggel's Earthshaker came to lane with Miracle's Crystal Maiden at bottom lane, leaving Angel's Priestess of the Moon to solo farm at top. Such a change in formation maximized experience and gold gains for the carries of DDT.

Similarly to game one, DDT players made many initiative ganks with help from Beastmaster. Also, Crystal Maiden's Brilliance Aura made it possible for DDT players to be ready for ganks quickly. Hence, the carries of MYM had to be constantly conscious about potential ganks. Furthermore, due to frequent ganks, MYM players had to make many attempts in helping others by teleporting. Although many of these were successful, these led to inconsistency in laning and therefore led other lanes vulnerable. For example, at 11 minutes, when Slithereen Guard came to middle lane to help an incoming ganks for Necrolyte, Storm Sprit and Priestess of the Moon managed to gank Witch Doctor who was farming at top lane alone.

The interesting thing here is that although DDT made more kills, the carries of MYM had more creep scores than the DDT carries. At 15 minutes, when players started to leave their lanes to move together, the match score was 9-3 in favor of DDT but the following creep scores show that MYM carries were more farmed.

creep scores
DDT	MYM
Sentinel MYM|AngeL: 40/4 [-_-]Loda: 57/8 MiSeRyTheSLAYER: 42/5	Scourge MYM|PlaymatE-_^: 43/9 MYM|MaNia-: 63/12 MYM|Maelk: 63/6

This was due to the fact that DDT carries, along with Beastmaster, had to make moves for ganks. While so, unaffected MYM carries focused on farming.

At about 20 minutes, both teams kept a balance among pushing, farming and ganking. With constant farming from both teams, they both had solid items. Beastmaster had Necronomicon Level 2 and both Earthshaker and Slithereen Guard got Kelen's Dagger, to name a few.

From 24 minutes, a war was initiated by Storm Sprit's balling in and eventually, the chronic war costed deaths of equal number of players from both teams. Shortly after, such a tight game had to be disturbed by Lakost's accidental leaving which gave a huge disadvantage to MYM.

After a few more pushes and picking players one by one, both teams inevitably faced a war which was again, initiated by DDT's charging in. Unfortunately, MYM couldn't use its full potential due to their loss of a player and the game ended, giving a score of 2-0 in favor of DDT!