Phase 1
BP
MYMBans
In the first banning phase, we see a variety of strong yet not god-tier heroes. The missing of both Alchemist, Oblivion and Doom Bringer is notable, as it seems carefully manoeuvres around these bans. Going into each teams perspective, we can see BP banning heroes that MYM is known for, while MYM bans what they usually have problems with as a mid-game / pushing based team.
Being a hero that has a really good early game potential, and still remains a force into the late-game, Clockwerk Goblin is a hero that has seen a lot of play lately, and many European teams are not late to ban him.“
A very flexible and semi-global hero; simply just dangerous when you do not have vision of it.”
As a hero that has just been introduced into the pool, Nerubian Weaver is now undergoing the "This hero is imba"-phase where no one has really mastered him, but neither has anyone learned to play against him.“
An overrated hero, have the ability to solo well; but so does a number of other heroes too.”
Banning Earthshaker this early is not something we regularly see. He is definitely a strong hero, but not what you would specify as a top-tier ban.“
Not a particularly ban-worthy hero, but a hero that MYM plays well, which was proven last time we played against them where he was greatly utilized.”
Together with Clockwerk Goblin, Batrider is an early-game focused hero. He has the ability to shut down any solo, but as time progresses, his strength decreases rapidly.“
A weird ban. We have not had that great of a success with Batrider, where as MYM definitely has.”
A hero that have been seeing a lot of play recently; Invoker is definitely strong throughout the entire game if you learn to master him.“
The most over powered hero currently, end of story.”
A hero with a powerful ultimate, and strong laning capabilities, Ancient Apparition can be devastating in the right hands and as such the European scene is slowly beginning to integrate this hero in their line-ups.“
Another too strong of a hero. You just put him on mid lane, and then he can gank you anywhere from there. Really not a fan of the new heroes, either they have a global spell, or they can solo kill you!”Picks
In the first picking phase, we can see BP immediately completing their tri-lane with an early-/mid game focus, while MYM rather wants to secure their three carries.
First picking Necro'lic is a rather weird pick. He is definitely a strong hero, but with heroes such as Oblivion and Vengeful Spirit in the pool, he would be considered secondary.“
A potent hero; usually picked to win the tri-lane.”We have seen Necro’lic beginning to change from the typical tri-lane carry into more of a tri-lane support; any comments on this?
“
Necro’lic is definitely a capable carry hero, but as he is mostly a lane dominating hero, he is suited for both roles really.”
Although Windrunner is one of the most consistent early picks in the game, picking Spectre at this point seems a bit odd. Sure, Spectre has been getting some increased attention, but picking her at this point already reveals the overall strategy and makes it easier for BP to pick accordingly.“
Windrunner is just a great hero, with a strong stun if you know how to use her. Spectre on the other hand is a shitty pick in my opinion; far inferior to Lightning Revenant in this occasion, as he is one of the few who can go up against a Necro’lic lane.”
Picking Lightning Revenant, immediately signals that Necro'lic is going a support/semi-support role, with emphasize on a heavily dominant tri-lane; and by picking the Crystal Maiden in the same instant, BP has completed what is to become a very deadly tri-lane.“
Right now, we are just finishing our tri-lane; giving us a lot of flexibility on our solo heroes; and giving us the ability to ban support heroes. The reason for Lightning Revenant over Morphling is his increased capability mid-game.”Why is it that we see Lightning Revenant more and more?
“
He is great at lane control, and has a long range really. If you compare him to Drow Ranger, you can do more with Lightning Revenant early game.”So he is the new Admiral?
“
Just ranged, yes. Admiral is simply too easily harassed.”
Picking Priestess of the Moon here clearly shows that MYM wants her to go up against the deadly tri-lane BP has featured, and with the massive slows and pseudo stuns, she definitely is one of the better picks to this. However, seeing that she is going to face a Lightning Revenant and Crystal Maiden lane, any leap she is going to use will surely bring damage her even more.“
Very well picked. A hero that are good against the Lightning Revenant due to the leap, and got the ability to safely push a lane far away from his base.”Phase 2
Bans
The second banning phase is rather standard, as both teams bans what they are afraid of facing.
As a rule of thumb, gank strategies overpowers pushing strategies, also in this particular case. Facing a Prophet, has taken a liking for these days, along with the heavy ganking heroes of Priestess of the Moon and Spectre, MYM would be able to deny any proper push from BP. And even if this ganking strategy should fail, Prophet allows MYM to push the lane BP is leaving, practically nullifying any gain BP would get from the pushes.“
Looking back, this was not a good ban; but probably banned in fear of a global strategy.If MYM had picked Prophet in this game though, I would have expected us to win the game by far, as he has no real counter pushing power against a five man squad. What is to fear though, is his ability to push one lane, with Priestess of the Moon pushing another; and thus indirectly protecting Spectre’s farm.”
A hero I would have difficult seeing in the BP line-up. Yes, he fits into the mid-game based line-up, and can push very well, but having a spell-heavy team, as well as no real initiative stun, he is not going to be as useful as his potential leaves room for. The line-up of MYM also speaks against this a Shadow fiend, seeing as Windrunner and Priestess of the Moon both has the ability to nullify and even hunt him down.“
A good ban, nothing more to add really.”
The bane of any pushing attempt, no matter how far ahead you are. People might not recognize this, but Vengeful Spirit has a tremendous utility spell in his Nether Swap, sacrificing his life in return for any of the enemy heroes. By timing this sacrifice he can ensure a kill on a key enemy hero and thus indirectly stopping the push.“
A hero that can screw up everything. She can stop every push, she can save a key hero; a hero that we just do not want to have to deal with.”
A hero feared for the right reasons. Broodmother has the ability to out-push anything and anyone, and with her laning capabilities, BP would be able to lane her up against Priestess of the Moon and be confident in winning the lane as well as the tri-lane, leaving only the mid lane to be considered.“
Probably banned because MYM just do not want to have to deal with her. Not a hero we would have picked since we need to have a five man push, but nevertheless a hero that has a great psychological effect.”Picks
Probably the weirdest of the phases; the second pick phase features a wide range of orthodox heroes, in an unorthodox correlation.
Queen of Pain, a hero that goes well with the spell-heavy line-up and who counters the Priestess of the Moon as well as Windrunner very well. Must admit though, that personally I dislike this pick for the sole reason that it leaves BP with only two proper stuns in the familiars. Although there is nothing particularly wrong with this hero, a Demon Witch or Shadow Shaman would have been my preferred choice here.“
A hero that has received a good buff lately with the improved Shadow Strike. She fits into our game plan, having the ability to push, as well having a huge impact early game.”
Picking Demon Witch at this point is not particularly bad, nor particularly good. On the plus side, he is a great counter to Queen of Pain, he comes with a lot of potential stuns, he is generally known for controlling the mid lane very well. On the negative side though his abilities is decreased against Necro'lic and Lightning Revenant, which it appears are going to be the key heroes in BP's line-up.“
Just a plain good pick for MYM.The only problem with picking Demon Witch, is all heroes now need early levels, making it tougher for MYM early game.”
Enigma.. A strong hero in this line-up; and probably the best option BP had. Nevertheless, they choice to redo it (with the permission of MYM), and picked Dark Seer instead; a hero that performs somewhat of the same role [initiator], yet does so in a different way.Personally I would have liked Enigma more, since BP lacks the stun power Enigma brings into the game, yet they do not need the another hard-to-kill hero which is the role Dark Seer performs.
“
To explain the situation a bit. We was undecided between Dark Seer and Enigma; and decided to leave the decision to Santa who should play either. He then rolled, and it became Enigma. When remaking the game, we talked about it however, and decided, with the permission of MYM, to exchange him with Dark Seer.Looking back, Enigma might have been the better choice, seeing as we needed some stuns, but the difference would not be that huge.”
The best of the rest. Witch Doctor is the obvious choice to pick, adding a lot of stuns, some needed healing power as well as being a pain in the ass in any team-fight.“
A hero MYM is forced to pick. They could probably have picked Twin Head Dragon too, seeing as it does not need as many levels, but WD was the better choice.”Summary
Bans
Picks
BP is obviously going for a mid-game pushing line-up with emphasize on the strong tri-lane they have. Against the somewhat weak early-game heroes by MYM, BP are expected to claim some fast towers which hopefully should fuel their mid-game enough to win the game before Spectre becomes too much of a problem.
Personally, I can not really find any strategic sense in MYM's picks. They have some decent lanes, with a lot of ganking power, but with a supportive Windrunner and no real AOE nuking power to stop the inevitable pushes, nor the needed AOE stun to initiate the team-fight, it does not look like they can hold the ramp from the scourge onslaught.
The only valid strategy, in my opinion, is to use the ganking-turtling strategy, where you focus on keeping the enemy from pushing; this in turn should create enough tension among the enemies (considering the ganks succeed!) to give Spectre enough time to farm up her items.
All in all, I personally like the BP picks a lot better, but as MYM is known for being a mid-game team, it would not surprise me to see an incredible defence.
What is your main game-plan, going into this game?
“The game plane are rather simple; completely dominate the early game in a way that the opposing team can not come back.”
But we see you are using a heavy nuking team to do this, are you not afraid of being countered by a Khadgar's Pipe of Insight and a couple of Planeswalker's Cloak?
“he thing is, that this will hopefully never happen. Our whole plan is to dominate their team so they can not get the farm up to do this.”
Lanes
MYMvs BPTop
MYM.Razer.Missy (APM: 128)vs MR_Potato.Head (APM: 112) COMPETO.neNo- (APM: 133) TeG-S0ny4ce (APM: 157)Priestess of the Moon is going to have a hard time dealing with this tri-lane, having no long range nuking power, it is going to be difficult preventing a push, yet alone being able to get some early creep kills. Compared to the Windrunner though, she is a safer choice, seeing as Windrunner is heavily countered by Frostbite.
Mid
MYM.Razer.DeMoN (APM: 136)vs BabyKnight13 (APM: 149)Placing the Akasha as the solo mid hero, BP have ensured themselves the rune-control. However, Queen of Pain is heavily countered by Demon Witch both in the laning as well as ganking phase. When that's said, Queen of Pain does not have any key role on the team, but merely performs as a ganking tool with which BP can initiate the pushes.
Bot
MYM.Razer.KingA (APM: 133) MYM.Razer.MaNia (APM: 112) vs
SANYA_BANDIT (APM: 163)A mistake I can not rationalise. Choosing to semi tri-lane with a melee hero against a Dark Seer has proven times and times again to be far less successful than if you chose to fully commit to the tri-lane.
Summary
The main problem is, that while Spectre has a great assistance in Windrunner, Windrunner only has an assistance in a roaming Witch Doctor, meaning that when Witch Doctor has left the lane, it s going to be a difficult skirmish for the supportive Windrunner who can not even afford a simple Boots of Speed. And if Dark Seer does manage to penetrate the defence Windrunner is mounting, he will be able to inflict some serious damage on Spectre with the help of Ion Shell.
As the top lane is easily won by scourge, and the mid lane is in favour of Demon Witch, it all comes down to how well Windrunner can manage to protect the all important carry. Choosing to roam the Witch Doctor will definitely help the Demon Witch, and will remove a lot of the rune control Queen of Pain initially had, but it will certainly put a greater amount of pressure on Windrunner, who is now not allowed to make any mistake.
We see you lane your tri-lane against their solo-lane, even though that combination of heroes are notorious for breaking other tri-lanes; what was the reasoning for this?
“The point is, that if we are facing a solo hero, we will be able to push the tower fast due to being able to pull and then move our supports to their tri-lane.”
MYM BP[2] A somewhat awkward ward when going against a solo lane, although if sentinel was facing a tri-lane this would have been legit, I would have liked a ward closer placed at the top entrance to the sentinel jungle, sacrificing the lane vision for some much needed jungle vision.
[1] A very well placed ward, giving sight of the important rune spot, as well as any movements by any of the sentinel heroes.
[3] A really well placed ward, hindering any dual wave push from the sentinel side which will surely slow them down in their pushing attempt.
Overall, scourge has placed the wards really well, having vision of every move done by the important semi tri-lane.
Sentinel on the other hand has only a somewhat useless ward and no rune spot; a huge mistake.
At the 2nd minute, the first action starts, as Witch Doctor is ganking mid lane, and successfully killing Queen of Pain.
Right after this, the sentinel team are tower diving on bot lane, but doing so running into a new creep wave and are forced to retreat. The damage are done however, as Windrunner has lost a lot of HP already and with the decision to stay and fight ends up costing her the life as Spectre really can not do much to help her.
Meanwhile, the scourge team has decided to tower dive the top lane too, and are thus chipping away on the top tier one tower; an action neither Priestess of the Moon nor Witch Doctor can prevent.
This forces the Demon Witch to take action, ganking the top lane (notice that scourge does not have a ward here!), but since the sentinel team does not manage to maximise their focus firing ability, they allow the scourge team to maximise their damage output, and all three (two of which is carrying heroes!) of the sentinel heroes ends up killed, for the two support heroes on scourge. A fight easily going in the favour of scourge who just seconds before also had taken the tower, granting a massive gold bonus to Lightning Revenant.
After resurrecting, the support heroes are moving bot, aiming to keep the Spectre down as well as pushing the tower; relying on the Lightning Revenant being able to out-lane the Priestess of the Moon.
By doing this, they manage to catch the sentinel heroes on bot lane off guard, killing first Windrunner (and thus pushing Spectre out of the lane) and after wards managing to deal some serious damage to the tower.
We see that Dark Seer are getting Surge in level one, any reasoning behind this?
“When you as Dark Seer goes against a tri-lane, you really do not expect to get that much experience anyway, so why not use some time getting winning your lane by surging the creep?”
Scoreboard: (5 min)
MYMTowers: 0/1Score: 3/6 BPTowers: 1/0Score: 6/3 MYM.Razer.DeMoN16/50/1/2 TeG-S0ny4ce28/21/0/3 MYM.Razer.KingA22/40/0/0 BabyKnight1317/41/1/0 MYM.Razer.Missy5/02/2/0 SANYA_BANDIT 14/01/0/1Expectedly, BP won the top lane, both gaining the tower as well as four heroes on the Lightning Revenant.
Even though Demon Witch managed to get an early kill on Queen of Pain, the lane levelled out, as Demon Witch died when he tried to help top lane.
Must admit that the early kill on Windrunner came as a surprise for me, as I would have expected that Dark Seer were able to inflict some annoying harassment with a couple of denies here and there, but not capable of actually killing her.
The kill itself however, was not used to much of a great importance, as Dark Seer never really managed to keep Spectre from effectively farm up.
An overall win for the scourge team, although Spectre was allowed a bit too much farming room before the lane swap occurred.
What might be of great importance later in the game, is the fact that it was Priestess of the Moon, and not Demon Witch, who got the two kills, granting her some much needed farm and the ability to bounce back in the mid-game.
MYM is featuring a roaming Witch Doctor. What do you think of that?
“Definitely not a good idea if you ask me, Witch Doctor is a hero that too dependant on experience; he is great at many things, but roaming is not one of them.”
At the 6th minute mark, we see a brief stop in the scourge strategy, leaving the sentinel with an initiating opportunity; which they immediately grab.
The action happens at bot lane, where Witch Doctor circles around the jungle, in order to gank the farming Dark Seer and Necro'lic.
After successfully catching Dark Seer, the three sentinel heroes now turn their attention to the Necro'lic who has managed to inflict heavy damage on Windrunner. As Windrunner tries to run, a ganking Queen of Pain manages to kill her; what the scourge does not know however, is the fact that Priestess of the Moon also have arrived at this point, managing to get a 3-2 superiority; meaning that although Necro'lic escaped, Queen of Pain did not.
Do note that all of this happened due to one single occurrence; Queen of Pain wasted 12 seconds to get a rune which she did not have any need for in the battle.
You have a massive lead an map control, yet you got ganked; what went wrong?
“Two things to be exact; Queen of Pain had no Scroll of Town Portal, and we had no vision. The latter one could have been my [re: Crystal Maiden] fault, or Neno's [Re: Necro'lic] for not buying wards, but in this specific circumstance it should probably have been Necro'lic who bought the wards since he had both Boots and Belt while Crystal Maiden had none.”
At the 8th minute mark, it is once again on bot lane we see the action happening. Once again it is the sentinel team who initiates, managing to kill first Necro'lic followed by Crystal Maiden for the price of Witch Doctor.
A late incoming Queen of Pain does manage to kill the Priestess of the Moon however, who chose to run some mind games.
As Queen of Pain is retreating from the bot lane in order to go mid and farm, she does meet up with the Demon Witch however, who manages to instantly kill her. This does not go unnoticed though, as both Crystal Maiden and Dark Seer is initiating a pursue on the Demon Witch. This is repelled however, as both Spectre and Priestess of the Moon comes to the aid, and the combined forces of the sentinel heroes manages to kill both scourge heroes, while only losing the Demon Witch.
Scoreboard: 10 min
MYMTowers: 1/3Score: 11/12 BPTowers: 3/1Score: 12/11 MYM.Razer.DeMoNItems: BoS24/63/2/4
TeG-S0ny4ceItems: PB58/82/0/3
MYM.Razer.KingAItems: PB35/53/0/3
BabyKnight13Items: BoS, Bottle27/63/3/1
MYM.Razer.MissyItems: BoS10/03/3/3
SANYA_BANDITItems: RoH, SR25/01/2/3
Priestess of the Moon is all over the map now, effectively ganking and aiding the much needed Spectre in her pursue for gold. This however, does leave Lightning Revenant alone on top lane, and he is not late to farm up, sky rocketing in terms of creep kills.
The mid lane is consistently even, in both hero kills as well as creep kills. This is due to the fact that both heroes has been occupied pursuing heroes on the all important bot lane.
Quite an amazing laning from both teams. Even though both heroes are facing a lot of action which cuts in their ability to farm, they still manage to get some critical creeps. What still bothers me is the fact that Dark Seer has no denies yet, something that would have been a great help in many of the skirmishes that occurred.
The sentinel team has thrown everything they got on the bot lane, trying to secure the all important Spectre some much needed farm. This however has left the Lightning Revenant with practically free farm, which can turn out to be quite dangerous.
Currently the scourge team has the definite advantage, but I can not stop being amazed at how effective the sentinel defence has turned out to be, showing some incredible game understanding as well as quick teleportation action.
A rant I have to do however, is the fact that all the ganks from the scourge team has been on the supportive heroes, not the all important Spectre that now (seeing as Windrunner has turned to be all-out supportive) is the only hero that can stop the scourge team.
At the 12th minute, Lightning Revenant teleports top, only to find Priestess of the Moon as well as Demon Witch awaiting, and successfully killing, him.
After resurrecting he decides to yet again teleport top, believing that Demon Witch has left the lane; only to find that not only is Demon Witch still there, but Spectre now has his ultimate off cooldown and they once again instantaneously manages to kill him as well as a teleporting Crystal Maiden.
We see you waste two Scroll of Town Portal as well as two deaths for nothing. What was it that went wrong here?
“This was another example of really bad communication really.”
At the 20th minute, the scourge team decides to push their first base tower after successfully claiming the aegis.
They do manage to severely damage the tower, but the combination of Lightning Revenant not having farmed his Aghanims Scepter yet, as well as Spectre having his Radiance forces the scourge team to retreat prematurely.
We see you go for a rather late, considering you have such immense map control, Roshan kill; and even handing the aegis to Queen of Pain. What is the reasoning behind this?
“We simply did not have the power to take Roshan down fast enough earlier since we lacked the Medallion. On the note about Queen of Pain claiming the aegis, it was a definite mistake. Personally I would have liked it to be on Lightning Revenant, so he was able to tank a lot of nukes before the actual team-fight; but these mistakes are to be considered when having a new team.”
Scoreboard: 20 min
MYMTowers: 1/6Score: 16/22 BPTowers: 6/1Score: 22/16 MYM.Razer.DeMoNItems: Treads28/73/2/8
TeG-S0ny4ceItems: Treads, Vanguard, HoD, Point105/122/2/6
MYM.Razer.KingAItems: PB, Radi100/106/1/3
BabyKnight13Items: Treads, Bottle, Pers61/710/3/7
MYM.Razer.MissyItems: Treads, BoA51/44/5/6
SANYA_BANDITItems: Vanguard, SR66/01/2/9
Having managed to farm an amazing 65 creeps in 10 minutes! Spectre manages to get his Radiance just as the scourge team decides to base push. The massive increase in farm has taken its toll on the rest of the sentinel heroes however, who is not only severely behind in towers but also in kills and what Demon Witch is concerning, even the all important creep kills.
We see that you have not been able to stop Spectre from farming. Why is that?
“The entire MYM team, and especially Pusher, has simply been a beast, giving Spectre all the farm he needs; and we have simply not been able to counter this properly. Probably due to our players being a bit too selfish.”
Having claimed the tower in a previous push, the scourge are mounting a strong push mid around the 25th minute mark, aiming for the rax this time.
When arriving at the ramp however, the team split up and it is only Dark Seer with support from Crystal Maiden who penetrates, while the rest of the team is severely delayed; which ends up costing Dark Seer his life. And although the scourge team seem eager to keep pushing, they are forced to withdraw, as they simply can not fight four against five up hill.
Just following the failed pushing attempt from scourge, the sentinel sees their chance to finally get some counter-pushing going on, and does so in mid.
They happen to fall in a trap however, as Queen of Pain first neatly picks off Witch Doctor at the back of the line-up; and without the massive stun capability from Witch Doctor, first Demon Witch then Priestess of the Moon and finally Windrunner goes down to a blood hungry enemy team who only looses Crystal Maiden.
The scourge team immediately utilizes this opportunity to push the already weakened mid lane, and manages to easily claim the melee rax. They does stay too long however, as the sentinel team resurrects and kills off Lightning Revenant, barely saving the ranged rax.
Scoreboard: 30 min
MYMTowers: 3/7Score: 21/28 BPTowers: 7/3Score: 28/21 MYM.Razer.DeMoNItems: Treads, Janggo49/73/4/13
TeG-S0ny4ceItems: PB, Vanguard, HoD, Agha148/124/3/7
MYM.Razer.KingAItems: PB, Radi, Vanguard, BoA, BoA164/107/1/7
BabyKnight13Items: Treads, Bottle, Linkens89/713/3/5
MYM.Razer.MissyItems: Treads, Diff109/65/6/8
SANYA_BANDITItems: Vanguard, SR, Pipe79/02/3/13
Having won the last couple of team-fight and used this to claim a rax, scourge is definitely in a good shape; especially noteworthy is the fact that Necro'lic has been able to farm both a Mechanism as well as a Medallion.
This naturally puts the sentinel team in a bad shape, and even though the have cumulated a great amount of farm, the question is if they can hold the rest of the base.
What do you think of the defensive item choice from both Queen of Pain and Dark Seer?
“I really do not like it. In my opinion, Dark Seer should have had some boots at least, and the Linken's Sphere from Queen of Pain is just not that efficient; I would personally have liked the Necronomicon a lot better here. Linken's Sphere is simply just too bad of an item in this version.”
Why this particular version?
“Because of the Medallion of Courage. Having a 7 second cooldown, as well as both triggering and passing the Spell Block, it just counters the Linken's Sphere too good.”
So it is not because Linken's Sphere is a bad item, it is becuase there is so many items countering it?
“Exactly; and Medallion of Courage is just the best of them. In my opinion, BKB is just a better item in any circumstances right now.”
But even with the introduction of Medallion of Courage, we see you have three heroes that can be classified as tanks, why?
“I personally just feel that tanks are really strong in this version.”
At the 30th minute mark, the scourge team decide to kill Roshan for the second time, and once again it is the Queen of Pain who claims it; after which they decide to march to bot lane, trying to penetrate yet another lane.
The push however, does not go according to plan, as Spectre is getting too tanky, and all of the scourge line-up falls but Queen of Pain who does not even get to use her aegis.
At the 34th minute the scourge tries to initiate a gank on the mid lane, but the sentinel are well prepared and only Witch Doctor ends up dead. This delay in action gives some much needed time for Priestess of the Moon to push the top lane where she manages to claim the tier two tower as well as an teleporting Crystal Maiden before escaping from Queen of Pain. Whether by brilliant play from the sentinel, or bad play by scourge, sentinel has yet again prevented a push by not accepting the challenge.
The remaining scourge heroes does decide to go for the team-fight, but without the DPS output from Queen of Pain, they stand little chance of succeeding, and both Lightning Revenant and Dark Seer dies as Witch Doctor is resurrecting.
Why did you keep on pushing after you lost the skirmish on top?
“Probably our biggest mistake in the entire game, the push should never really have happened.”
At the 36th minute the scourge team realizes they are starting to lose the game, and they switch tactic from pure push to gank into push; which is best done with the help of Smoke of Deceit.
With this they manage to kill Spectre, but have to hasten back to the base as Priestess of the Moon and Demon Witch are pushing the top lane, and have already claimed the base tower. But even with the assistance of Spectre (who bought back and teleported in) they do not manage to take the rax, and both Spectre and Demon Witch must pay for their transgression, only getting a Crystal Maiden and Dark Seer in return.
What do you of Smoke of Deceit?
“I think it is a great item; but people needs to begin to buy it earlier due to the cooldown; resulting in us losing precious pushing time.
A great example of how much easier it is to play defensive than aggressive.
But must admit, right now we are simply out-playing ourself by making stupid decisions.”
At the 40th minute mark, the scourge team are faking a push on bot lane, after which they retreats, trying to claim yet another Roshan kill. A huge mistake in my opinion, as the sentinel team has clear knowledge of what is happening. If the scourge instead would have gone straight for the kill, or maybe having Queen of Pain with a Crystal Maiden pushing another lane, they would have succeeded with their trick, granting them a much needed advantage in the next team-fight.
This is not done however, and sentinel team manages to arrive at the critical time where Roshan is in red; bringing with them the a scouting crow(!). For some unapparent reason, the scourge does have both observer and sentry ward setup, yet Crystal Maiden still manages to get caught off guard, dying near instantly while her team are desperately trying to kill Roshan.
They do succeed with this, but before they can manage to claim the aegis and cheese, Priestess of the Moon arrives, stealing both items just in front of the scourge team.
The following team-fight is not anything excited, as scourge is severely out positioned
and have to pay this mistake with their lives, for the price of only Demon Witch. The sentinel can not use this advantage however, as all three of their lanes are being pushed.
Scoreboard: 40 min
MYMTowers: 6/7Score: 35/34 BPTowers: 7/6Score: 34/35 MYM.Razer.DeMoNItems: Treads, Janggo52/75/7/20
TeG-S0ny4ceItems: PB, Vanguard, HoD, Agha, Yasha172/125/6/10
MYM.Razer.KingAItems: PB, Radi, Vanguard, Diff, Yasha236/1113/3/13
BabyKnight13Items: Treads, Linkens, Agha, Mystic117/717/4/6
MYM.Razer.MissyItems: Treads, Diff, Manta184/79/6/16
SANYA_BANDITItems: Vanguard, SR, Pipe90/02/7/17
As the table has turned, the scourge team is practically done for it now; their last hope was to get that Roshan kill and from that point try to lure the sentinel team into a trap. Fact is, that having the two most farmed heroes in the same team usually spells doom for every one else.
At the 47th minute mark, the power of Spectre is truly revealed, as she manages to initiate the team-fight, and killing two heroes with the sole use of her ultimate. It turns out to become a team-wipe where none of the sentinel heroes dies, and with the possibility of at least two raxes being destroyed, the scourge team calls the gg.
As a closing question, who would you say was the strongest team in Europe right now?
“I would say MYM. When they play at their best they are the strongest team, with the most individual skills; but when they play average, they can be beaten.”
Although I have been focused more on projecting my own comments during the actual analysis, I nevertheless still have a few points I want to bring up.
Although MYM lost the melee rax rather early, and the ranged was barely saved, they managed to preserve the ranged rax throughout the entire game. A feature that does not hold much value in itself, as neither the ranged creep(s) nor the catapult(s) would do much harm; but a pretty good parameter to keep an eye out for seeing as the raxes has more health than the wells, and thus are more resilient if you wish to abandon your base and go for the opponents.
Now that the praise has been carried out, it is time for the rant.
Personally I would have liked to see some more active play with the familiars. If used to their absolutely maximum, they can do incredible damage, but the mere random harassment is usually enough to make a specific hero lose a couple of creep kills as well as hindering it from doing anything dangerously. Here I especially think about Spectre who as a melee hero already has a weakness to them, but also was the sole hero that could safe the sentinel team. If a bit more effort had been put to counter this hero, Lightning Revenant would have no one who could really threaten him.
A thing I have been more and more observant on lately, is the maximisation of your neutraling. Usually when you have pushed towards the base and then decided to retreat you go to the enemies jungle in the pursued of some quick gold. By doing this you not only grant yourself gold, but steals from the enemy who now can not farm that camp for 30 seconds. However, if you leave the weakest of the creeps in the camp, you not only steals the ability for 30 seconds, but the enemy has to use time to get a mere 20 gold from the camp, then wait a full 30 seconds before being able to farm properly; further hindering his ability to recover.
MVP (OP): MYM.Razer.Missy (Priestess of the Moon)
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A lot of players stood out in this game. Pusher was the ever lasting guardian of Spectre, Neno did an amazing job with a difficult hero on a brand new team, Sony just played fabulous in all the skirmishes, and Playmate were just godlike, farming under extreme circumstances; but what caught my personal attention was Misery's subtle abilities. This might be due to me personally liking the intricate strategies that are being played out.I am not talking about the aegis steal here; on the other hand I am talking about the assessment he did early game where he realised he could not go up against a farmed Lightning Revenant, and thus chose a more roaming role, greatly assisting the ever important Spectre whenever needed; and yet.. he managed to maintain a decent level of farm. Later in the stage, he managed to stop a push by simply pushing another lane.
As said, many players deserved the MVP trophy, and this might just be too much of a personally bias; but the overall feeling after the game told me that there was a lot of things I still did not see him do. Will definitely return to this game in the near future and simply watch the play to see if I was correct or not; but for now, I will have to go with the feeling.”
Ducky: MYM.Razer.KingA (Spectre)
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Being able to farm up that much under such huge pressure, Playmate deserves the MVP in my opinion; just amazing.”Thank you for coming, any last shoutouts?
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Shoutout to my former team members, it has been a great ride. And best of luck to my current team members, hope we can continue to grow.”
