Replay analysis: 20 minutes of action

When the groups of MYM Prime was released one of the most anticipated games in Group A was LGD vs StarsBoba. Having played over the weekend, game one is worthy of a second look. Thus a replay analysis is done. So read on and see what happened between the clash of the Asian superstars.

MYM Prime Defending #12: Group A
LGD.sGty vs StarsBoba (Game 1 Replay)

Draft :

Bans:
SB gets first ban whereby they take out Darkseer since he is very versatile, being able to gank and avoid ganks. They then banned Alchemist , who is a good mid solo hero with solid tanking skills and his acid spray that disables Kelen's dagger. Broodmother is also banned due to her pushing abilities and survivability. As we can see, SB banned two of 2009's favorite heroes. SB then decided to ban Storm. From the bans, we can conclude that SB bans heroes that can push and counter gank. These heroes could either solo or go for dual lane.

For LGD, it comes as no surprise that doom was banned, as he can shut down one hero easily in solo gank or big battles with his ulti. Moreover, Doom makes a good mid solo. As usual, for games involving Chinese teams, Enigma falls in the banned hero pool. Might as well have IceFrog remove this hero. LGD knows that they could hardly handle Enigma's superb pushing and team-fight abilities. Needless to say, VS is always picked or banned, which LGD went ahead and did. Since most of the bans are pushing heroes, heroes that will be picked sooner are most likely to have spells, therefore LGD banned Pugna as we know how irritating his nether ward is.

Picks:
SB went for Lion first, as the he can be placed in any lane(solo/dual/tri-lane). As usual, LGD went for their classic pick, Visage and Maiden. These two heroes fit well in either dual or trilane. As the clock ticks down, SB decided to take Witch Doctor and Medusa. Well, Doctor is quite decent to counter Visage's gargoyles at level six; adding that he has imba healing power, alongside his dreaded maledict and ultimate. As for Medusa, maybe SB was trying to use her as an insurance to secure their late game. LGD then went for Windrunner, YYF's trademark hero and Sven. Windrunner is good since she is versatile and is able to counter-lane Witch Doctor/trilane with her good escaping skills and bind-stun. She could farm and harass at the same time with her long range powershot. Sven is good as a gank and semi-carry hero . On the other side, SB surprised their opponent and fans with Prophet and PotM. Prophet is a good choice as LGD's heroes could not break trees except WR. In this game, prophet's teleportation is well matched up with PotM, Lion and Witch Doctor to execute surprising ganks. Since SB had Medusa , they opted for Potm as their semi-carry. LGD predicted that Furion will gank mid often, therefore they once again picked SF for his ability to farm and level fast.

Lanes:

From the picture above, we can see that Windrunner went top, facing trilanes. As mentioned above, Windrunner has some good escaping skills, therefore, trilane isn't a real problem for her. As predicted, SF went solo mid against Lion. These two heroes are literally rune hogs. Lion should be rushing for dagger to enhance their ganking strat effectively. And the rest are placed bottom lane. Similar to Windrunner, PotM is ranged and has leap. However , it will be tough for her to face CM, Visage and Sven. Furion is played as a roaming hero. Notice something that all LGD heroes have tangos in their inventories. Perhaps it is to counter Furion's ganks.

Let the party begin:
Almost at each 1~2 minute interval, there is guaranteed to be action for sure. Lets start off with the top lane. Furion gets level two, taking teleport and trap skills first followed by witch doctor babysitting Medusa. In this game, WD pulls creeps, to ensure the lane is not pushed so that Medusa can farm. Around 2:10,
SB initiated their gank. Lion is level three, possessing both hex and stun. Furion teleported to mid, ganking SF. 2009, the mastermind managed to escape within fog but prophet does not give up, waited patiently behind trees , and kills SF smartly at 2:33.


Then, a ward is placed in mid to monitor SF's movement, easing their ganks. As usual, not everyone can beat the usual-Chinese trilane. PotM could not even get close to creeps, resulting in zero exp and gold while sven farms up his core items. After Furion gets his boots, he ganks mid again. Sven got his phaseboots by 4:30 and went middle to backup SF, after getting ganked twice. Prophet ganks mid for the third time. Without noticing Sven's presence, the gank resulted in a trade between SF and Furion. Potm on the other side, hungers for gold and exp, but is sent back to her base by CM and Visage.

Around the sixth minute, SF dies again to prophet and Lion while Sven heads top lane to kill Medusa. After a short while, Visage and CM rape Potm again in the woods near Scourge's ancient camp. PotM remains bootless. After getting ganked so frequently, SF leaves middle and ganks top lane resulting in the death of Witch Doctor and Medusa.


At nine minutes in a battle occurred where SF died in exchange for Lion. Visage has been free-farming bottom lane for quite some time, forcing Lion and Furion to stop him. Maiden provided quick backup and managed to avenge Visage's death by killing off Furion.


Not long later LGD goes bottom, trying to down Scourge's bottom tower, forcing the Scourges to defend while SF farms mid tower, regaining his level and gold lost during ganks. SF got his ogre axe and treads at 11:29. Around a minute later, LGD broke Scourge's outermost bottom tower, luring them to defend again.


Sven and CM chopped the weak PotM to death. While WD is down, Windrunner and Visage kill Medusa with the help of gargoyles. So far, LGD is trying to slow down Lion's farming (for blink) by creating as many fights as possible. Retreating from bottom lane, Sven went mid along with the others to slay the greedy Medusa. LGD moves on and pushes top lane allowing SF to farm as much as possible. The clash at top lane went in favor for LGD and resulted in the loss of lion and WD for SB.


With Mekansm and vanguard on Visage, Sven with dagger, and a loaded SF with auras, LGD heads towards mid, taking down SB's level two mid tower. They know that they can take down PotM , WD and Furion easily. Without wasting anymore time, LGD advances to bottom lane, taking down another one of SB's level two towers. By now SB have lost all their outer towers, hence Medusa could not receive immediate backup if she wandered too far out. LGD then went for Roshan and gave Sven the Aegis.

LGD proceed to attack middle lane confidently, they tried to push and create as much pressure as possible, while SF free-farms at top. Lion and Furion went on the hunt for sf at top, abandoning mid lane. Unfortunately, the grass is always greener on the other side for LGD, the team gives up mid and goes top quickly while Sven teleported in. Lion manages to flee away leaving his teammate Furion dead. After 20minutes, knowing that BKB is no longer needed, 2009 went for heart to increase his hero health pool. As always, the entire armada of LGD.sGty is ready to claim victory . The well equipped heroes went for their last push at middle lane. Since PotM, WD and Furion is rather useless, the battle started with a nice initiation by Sven, wiping out Lion and Medusa first , followed by a short fountain camping. The legendary ZSMJ, raped in SB's fountain the last of SB's hero to meet his teammates in hell.

SB finally called GG after that. Giving the win to LGD.sGty.

End Game Scoreboard:



Credits to tibilui for the analysis.