Did Tempo Storm just blatantly throw by not ending, or is it more complicated than that?
During the last game between Tempo Storm and Team 8 at the Western Clash, a crucial moment occurred that offered Tempo Storm a litany of different options, each one with their own pros and cons. The moment happened after Tempo Storm won a late game team fight, taking down Gul'dan and Tassadar.
With Team 8's middle keep being low on health, the boss being available and Tempo Storm having enough gems for a turn in, Tempo Storm's victory seemed all but inevitable.
But, Instead, Team 8 staved off defeat by sacrificing E.T.C to force their own turn in. After that, they ended up winning off an incredible Mosh Pit by Justing.
So the question remains-- what could Tempo Storm have done differently? They looked poised for victory but everything seemed to go wrong. Let's take a look at their options.
Scenario 1:
Tempo Storm goes straight for core with none of their heroics up other than Taunt through the weakened mid lane Keep, versus a Brightwing/Tracer/ETC.
Without Tassadar shields, it is a very dicey proposition for Tracer to dive Tempo Storm when they go for the core as five and Brightwing/ETC aren't going to do a lot of damage. Ragnaros also has Molten Core up, so there is a good chance of victory for Tempo Storm given neither Tassadar nor Gul'dan will be alive for 20+ seconds.
Scenario #2:
Tempo Storm goes for boss & web-weavers and Team 8 tries to defend
Even if Team 8 wins the ensuing team fight, they lose the game because the web-weavers and boss will wind up killing the core. This is pretty much a guaranteed win.
This explains why Tempo Storm did what they did. This appears to the be the safest play but they failed to consider Team 8 sacrificing their own E.T.C to ensure a turn in.
Scenario #3:
Tempo Storm goes for boss & web-weavers, while Team 8 attempts to turn in with E.T.C & Tracer
This is what actually happened. Glaurung from Team 8 correctly realizes that Scenario #2 is a guaranteed loss, and the only way to prevent that is to turn in. But Tempo Storm could easily prevent one of them from turning in, so ETC goes to the top turn in while Tracer goes to the bottom turn in.
Thus, when Tempo Storm goes for the turn in and the boss play, they run into ETC and gank him. They then return to kill the almost dead keep, but discover that Tracer has secured the turn in for Team 8, Tassadar has respawned and Gul'dan will be up in 10 seconds with Horrify up.
Psalm wonders in retrospect if they should have just went for the core here. They certainly had a good chance of ending if they did so, but they probably have just as good a chance of winning the game if they destroy the mid keep, defend the webweavers, create map pressure and then turn in. Team 8 did not have anywhere close to enough gems to turn in again.
Scenario #4:
Tempo Storm goes straight for the core, while Team 8 attempts to turn in
Tempo Storm has a very high chance of winning this, as they will be at the core by the time Tracer and ETC return from the web weaver turn in points. Although the multiple objectives seemed like the safest idea, going core immediately after winning the teamfight would have won them the game.
Final Conclusions
Tempo Storm's big mistake was not realizing that Team 8 had enough gems evenly split between E.T.C and Tracer and could stall their loss by going for a turn in of their own. This made the safe play of gathering all objectives the wrong play, and Justing punished Tempo Storm in epic fashion for it.
It's important not to downplay Glaurung's shot call here, as he took away the automatic win option for Tempo Storm while creating the opportunity for Tempo Storm to misplay the situation. Tempo Storm shouldn't feel too bad for how the game turned out - this is extremely hard to see in real time. I sure as heck didn't.
One other major takeaway - Justing was the MVP of this game. Team 8 was on the verge of getting blown out in the early game, until a Justing Mosh Pit got them back into the game with 3 kills. Late in the game, they have no other win condition other than win a big team fight, and Justing delivers yet again in epic fashion. If the E.T.C wasn't playing out of his mind with effective mosh pits, none of this is even possible.
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