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General11 years agoGosu "GosuGamers" Gamers

Smackdown Watch: Zenith with room to improve



The gauntlet was thrown two weeks ago, iMpunity has picked it up and Garena is making a six week extravaganza out of it. To kick off the action iMpunity and Zenith gathered at the Garena Stadium to showcase their skills against local teams.

The Versus Game 1
Singapore Zenith < Indonesia Focus


Zenith' first big appearance in Heroes of Newerth had at least on surprising pick as the team went for an Emerald Warden, a hero that has no resemblance with current Dota 2 heroes in addition to being overlooked in the competitive scene lately. Other than that Zenith picked only heroes that have been imported from DotA, to make the transition smoother and easier for them. Rampage (Spiritbreaker), Magmus (Sand King), Slither (Venomancer) and Doctor Repulsor (Stormspirit) were satisfying the needs of the Dota2 players, but from a competitive standpoints those heroes made only little sense.

The early game still went pretty decently for Zenith, who were able to win the top lane and get some farm on Emerald Warden - played by iceiceice. Still they could not control the massive burst of Pebbles (Tiny) on the opposing side and were in for a lopsided defeat after Pebbles snowballed too much. The Tiny equivalent got his hands on a very early Portal Key (Dagger) and could just roam around the map, picking up kills left and right. That lead to a 19 minute Immortal Streak (15 kills without dying) and solidified the dominance of Focus.

On top of that, Zenith had absolutely no late game and couldn't compete with one of the hardest carries in the game - The Dark Lady - who got free farm while Pebbles was tearing the entire Zenith team up. Zenith fell to Focus, the first impression was flawed.

The Versus Game 2
Singapore iMpunity > Indonesia Focus


Now it was iMpunity's turn to take on Focus and the Singaporean team showed their experience with the current meta game right from the start. They picked up a Forsaken Archer as a late game carry, they set up the lanes to benefit her farming and they managed to gain an early advantage with Magmus and Glacius (Crystal Maiden) roaming around. Forsaken Archer was enjoying uncontested farm throughout the early stage of the match which lead to a 14 minute Null Stone (Linken's Sphere).

On top of a farming FA, iMpunity also managed to get a very early Portal Key on Tundra (Beast Master) and Magmus to dominate the team fights and get favorable initiations. iMpunity showcased a better game plan, better laning, better farming, better coordination and in the end they walked out the better team.

The Versus Game 3
Singapore Zenith < VietnamFriendsForever


Once again Zenith picked one hero from the "HoN exclusives" with Electrician. Still they ran that Electrician in a weird Dual Mid set up, that hindered his farm severely and rendered him useless for the entire game. On top of that they drafted Tundra (Beast Master), Magmus (Sand King), Torturer (Leshrac) and Soulstealer (Shadow Fiend), but again they ran into a snowballing hero and had no real hard carry.

Pyromancer and Andromeda (Vengeful Spirit) were aggressively ruining the farm of Soulstealer in the middle lane, resulting in an eight minute "Champion of Newerth" streak (nine kills without dying) and a very early Portal Key once again. For the second straight game Zenith made the same mistakes and once again they got picked apart by their opponents.

The Versus Game 4
Singapore iMpunity < Malaysia MuFC


A slight change in the schedule brought iMpunity and MuFC together, FriendForever had a tournament to play, so the Malaysian powerhouse MuFC stepped up to the challenge against iMpunity.

In the early portion of the match iMpunity looked strong with Forsaken Archer having decent farm and a good support on the lane. On top of that Pollywog Priest (Shadow Shaman) had a great time in the middle lane and was landing good ward traps and contributing damage to good engagements. Unfortunately for iMpunity they ran into two desasterous engagements and saw their advantage slowly slip away.

In the end the duration of the game came back to haunt them, because MuFC was running three good late game heroes with Corrupted Disciple (Razor), War Beast (Lycan) and Silhouette (no equivalent), who dealt massive amounts of damage and were scaling out of control. iMpunity suffered their first lost of the evening, but the lost game to one of the top teams in the SEA region.

The Versus Game 5
Singapore Zenith < Thailand Kimonchii


The last chance for Zenith to get some morale and confidence back came against the unknown team Kimonchii from Thailand. This time Zenith went to a "full Dota" team with Pyromancer (Lina), Hammerstorm (Sven), Bubbles (Puck), Vindicator (losely imported Silencer) and Aluna (very, very losely imported Windrunner) but the result was the same. Once again they didn't really had a plan for late game, but this time they simply got outplayed. Kimonchii was on top of their game in every team fight and simply played better.

On top of the bigger plays the Thai team was in possession of a hard carry for the late game in Sand Wraith (Spectre), who went for a very aggressive build early on - first item Mock of Brilliance (Radiance) without boots or any other useful items. Zenith couldn't punish that build and was totally lost in several team fights.

The Versus Game 6
Singapore iMpunity > Thailand Kimonchii


The last match of the day saw iMpunity getting a victory over the Zenith slayer Kimonchii in a quite dominant fashion. This time iMpunity ran the Sand Wraith in combination with Glacius, Bubbles, Behemoth and Torturer, which proved to be a winning and dominant lineup.

iMpunity was well organized in the team fights, they had good support making plays and they destroyed Kimonchii in pretty much every team fight. That last match showcased the power of iMpunity and displayed the current discrepancy between iMp and Zenith in the second week of "Project Smackdown".

Project Smackdown Summary
Singapore iMpunity vs. Singapore Zenith
2-1
W/L
0-3


Observations

The biggest observation in the game of Zenith is the lack of hard carries for the later stages of the matches. They run teams with pretty good synergy and team fight potential, but are lacking in heroes to take over the game late. Heroes like that are much common in the current stage of HoN's meta game with famous choices like Magebane (Anti-Mage), Dark Lady, Draconis or Silhouette.

The second big observation is that Zenith is not judging the massive burst of heroes yet. In Dota 2 the burst factor of Lina or Pebbles is a little bit smaller, but in Heroes of Newerth they can just get out of control and get instant kills on many heroes. Pebbles and Pyromancer showcased that against Zenith on the first two maps,ultimately leading them to defeat on those maps.

They just have to do a little bit more research on strong heroes and good drafting options, but overall they looked like a formidable team. They showed coordination in "The International 2", their mechanics don't seem to be completely off in the game and sometimes they had good success in the laning phase. A few more weeks of practice and the Smackdown could become really interesting.


This video is featuring the first two matches of Zenith, as well as the first iMpunity game.


This video is featuring the last two matches of iMpunity, as well as the last Zenith game.

The next public appearance will be this weekend, when iMpunity and Zenith are going up against three new teams once again. On top of that interviews will help the fans understand the current state of preparation and give them unique inside into the minds of the teams. GosuGamers will keep you updated about the challenge. Special thanks to Garena and [GM]Mischyz that are providing all the information, videos and pictures.

Pictures of the arena, the players and the event can be seen here.

Source: thesmackdown.garena.com

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