| The Pick/Ban analysis | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| First Ban Phase | First Pick Phase | |||||||||||||||||||||||
 /  /  /  /  /  M5 has the first ban. In the current version, there are lots of heroes worth of being first-picked. That said, it's interesting to see which first-pick will M5 setup for themselves. They decide to ban Doom Bringer, favoring other heroes as first-pick material. Also, Lich is banned due to his raw team-fight potential and laning opportunities, being able to set up a hard to answer dual mid lane. On OSI side, the most interestig ban is Venomancer. It's not as strong as Invoker and Ancient Apparition, but it's a very versatile and easy to execute hero, with nice AoE damage and push potential. Also, by banning Venomancer and not some other strong heroes (Oblivion, Spectre, etc), OSI can get two good picks for themselves on their turn. |  /   /   /  M5 goes for Syllabear with first-pick, looking for a strong mid-game push or superior farm late-game. Considering that they frequently execute this plan, we can say that this is a safe and sound choice by M5 - remember, this is the Grand Final of a LAN event, and the pressure is everywhere. OSI answers with Batrider and Windrunner, bringing lane-dominant heroes and a lot of item possibilities to their squad, as you can run a lot of different item builds with Alleria. M5 then picks Clockwerk Goblin and Enigma. If Hook and Power Cogs aren't enough to setup teamfights, they also have Black Hole. It's like an overkill setup for team-fights, which will get only stronger if M5 brings some serious AoE damage to the field. At this time, I guessed that OSI would pick Earthshaker, denying M5 a strong team-fight combination and having someone to cancel Black Hole in the early stage of the game. However, I guessed it wrong, as OSI picked Witch Doctor, a hero that I haven't seen in the competitive scene for a while. Despite Witch Doctor being a very solid support hero, Earthshaker or Vengeful Spirit would have been better options, denying strong combinations from M5. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Second Ban Phase | Second Pick Phase | |||||||||||||||||||||||
 /  /  /  M5 bans Necrolyte, a hero that OSI succesfully used in last game, and Spectre, a super carry that can win a game if well farmed. OSI still hasn't picked any strong carry yet, so Spectre was a real possibility. Also, if we take a look at a past feature, we'll see that M5 effectively used Necrolyte against Syllabear, making it a worthy ban. On OSI's side, Oblivion is banned due to his pushing potential and lane dominance, fitting very well ina team that already have Syllabear. And finally, OSI bans NS's excellent Visage, the support hero that M5 needs to get strong lanes. |  /  /  /  The Earthshaker pick that I wrongly guessed came here. With Earthshaker, Enigma and Clockwerk Goblin, M5 has a strong grip on team-fights and a mortal AoE combination. Suddenly, the bans on Lich and Doom Bringer starts to make sense- M5 is denying team-fight control for OSI. And then, the game starts to get really strange to me. OSI picked Undying, a hero that I wouldn't expect here, because I was under the impact of this game (click for replay), where Earthshaker destroyed a push strategy game based on Undying. Despite being very versatile, with heal, Tombstone and a 5 second cooldown nuke, it's very risky to pick Undying here, because a misplaced Tombstone will transform Echo Slam into a nuclear strike at the team-fights. But then, Doom Bringer was there in that game to nullify Dirge, and he's banned here. The game gets even stranger. I was expecting now a hero capable of doing lots of AoE damage, like Queen of Pain. M5 already has lots of disables, strong team-fight potential and a hard-carry, and now they just need to bring even more damage to fully explore their picks. But M5 picked Bristleback, another hero that I haven't seen for a while, a supertank. The idea is to outlast the enemy at team-fights and profit from it with Syllabear power to destroy towers and push (take a look at this game [click] for an example). This pick leaves one problem for M5 to solve: Bristleback doesn't bring much item possibilities into the game. OSI finishes with Obsidian Destroyer, a classic counter to Bristleback. The problem is: he needs a lot of time to get his items and carry the team to victory, being quite fragile to ganks. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Conclusion | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| OSI has a very balanced team with different laning and item options. Windrunner brings a lot of item possibilities: she can rush a Mekanism, Pipe or even go straight to Guinsoo. With Undying and Witch Doctor, OSI has a strong combination of heals, damage and damage amplification. Batrider is the good initiator they need to disrupt M5 team-fight. Finally, with Obsidian Destroyer is a hero that will win the game if he farm his items. On M5 side, we have an overkill team-fight setup and a carry hero that can quickly convert any sucessful team-fight into a strong push. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The second pick phase in depth - Epic Counter Time! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The second pick phase is very interesting and deserves some special analysis. With Clockwerk Goblin and Enigma, M5 already have a great setup for team-fights: Clockwerk Goblin can keep the enemy heroes - specially Witch Doctor - on check, easing Enigma's job of controlling team-fights with Black Hole. Also, M5 is coming from a game against OSI where they lost to a heavy team-fight oriented squad (with Enigma, Queen of Pain and Necrolyte being the key heroes). By adding Earthshaker to the squad M5 creates an overkill team-fight combination. Despite this being good by itself, there's another reason for M5 to pick Earthshaker: they're trying to deny OSI a strong team-fight combination. Even if OSI gets some good team-fight heroes with their picks, it's very hard to compete with Enigma, Clockwerk Goblin and Earthshaker teamed together. OSI immediately picks Undying. I called this pick "risky" because Tombstone can transform Earthshaker into a Ghost launching nuclear strikes - huge Echo Slams can demolish any team. But, despite this risk, Undying is a very good pick here. M5 threatens OSI with picks that started with push-power and transition into a team-fight squad. To answer this threat, they got Undying, which is very good at dealing with pushs, is very versatile as a hero and, finally, can tank a lot. OSI can deak with the risk involving Earthshaker: they have Batrider to jump for him and Windrunner with long range stun and nuke. Following the Undying pick, M5 picked Bristleback. It's an obvious counter to Dirge. Quill Spray (3s cooldown) can kill Tombstone's zombies instantly and deal AoE damage; Viscous Nasal Goo (1,5s cooldown) can reduce armor greatly. Suddenly, Undying is not that tanky anymore. Also, a Bristleback running around spraying quills with Radiance can deal a lot of damage. There are some problems, however. M5 already have Syllabear, a hero that usually gets Radiance. Which one should get it? Who benefits most? I feel that Bristleback needs Radiance the most, with the burn damage complementing his AoE damage - Bristleback needs time for his damage to kick in and OSI has a lot of heals in their squad, making Radiance a must for him. Syllabear could always go to Stygian Desolator: he would get the same +60 damage and -armor on enemy heroes, enemy towers and Roshan. Desolator is also cheaper and quicker to build than Radiance. All these factors translate themselves into quicker pushs and quicker Roshanings (but then, it would affect Entangle. As you see, it's hard to find item options in this lineup). With Bristleback going to Radiance, it enables Clockwork to farm Pipe, solving a bit the problem with their item distribution. There are other choices, like doing Shiva's Guard, increashing further the armor and adding some damage to team-fights. And, to counter this Bristleback, OSI got Obsidian Destroyer. It's a very good pick, because it not only counters Bristleback, but offers a big threat to the whole M5 squad. Only Enigma will eventually get a BKB, while all the others will go for other items, and most of the heroes have very low HP. Arcane Orb's pure damage and Sanity's Eclipse, backed by Maledict and Plague, will cause an insane amount of damage. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 OSI | Moscow5 |
| Bans | |
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| Picks | |
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| Sentinel OSI.oblepixa (Top) OSI.numcass (Mid) OSI.zbt (Bot) OSI.kas5er (Bot) OSI.Silent (Bot) | Scourge M5.Dread (Top/Jungle) MosCOWfive.NS (Top) Moscow5.Santa (Top) M5.Garaj.G (Mid) MOCKBA5.AA! (Bot) |
| The lanes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top Lane | Mid Lane | Bot Lane | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| On top lane, Windrunner will face Bristleback and Earthshaker, with Enigma popping out to gank and push the lane. It's the best trade both teams can have, as Windrunner is OSI's best hero to solo the hard-lane. With Enigma jungling, there will be more XP for Bristleback. | Mid lane, Batrider will face Lone Druid. I call this a mistake because it's risky having your key hero being demolished by a strong solo mid hero such as Batrider, but it's the best option M5 have. Ideally, Lone Druid would be top and some other hero (for example, the Queen of Pain) would be mid, but the Bristleback pick forces M5 to put Lone Druid on mid lane. | On bot lane, Obsidian Destroyer, Witch Doctor and Undying will fight against Clockwerk Goblin. We can surely expect that OSI will exploit Essence Aura and put pressure on Clockwerk Goblin and the tower. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Game | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Quick Overview | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| With Enigma jungling, OSI starts the game buying four wards. Two of them at the same time deny neutral creeps for Scourge woods and offer Windrunner some protection from ganks. The other wards secure them vision from the bottom rune spot and the dominance of their easy lane. While it might be strange to see Obsidian Destroyer buying one set of wards, this decision is completely sound and valid, as you don't want one of your heroes to be crippled from the start. At the bot lane, OSI executes creep pulling from two different spots, but fails to profit completely from them. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The most important actions | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| First blood happens around the 2 minute mark, with Windrunner being trapped by a Fissure and eventually killed. With the big creep wave built by the creep pulling, OSI starts to push the bot lane, using Tombstone. Surprisingly to me, Obsidian quickly got a Headress of Rejuvenation - I would expect him going to some huge intelligence item or even Force Staff to get some escape mechanism. With a quick Mekans, OSI is bringing even more healing to their team, and Obsidian Destroyer definitely has the mana to use it without problems. Earthshaker quickly goes bottom lane to further protect the tower. Because of OSI warding decision, Batrider is not really protected from ganks of heroes coming from top lane - M5 exploit this with Enigma going mid to gank Batrider on the 4 minute mark, giving Lone Druid an easy kill and a good start. That ward on the bottom rune spot should be securing the top rune spot, as it would also protect him from ganks. The bottom lane first tier tower goes down around the 5 minute mark, and OSI continues pushing further, going to the second tier tower. Meanwhile, Lone Druid and Enigma are putting a huge pressure on OSI's middle lane first tier tower, making Batrider buy a Ring of Basillus in a try to defend the lane. However, without help of other heroes, Batrider can't offer much resistance and Lone Druid lasthits the tower. Instead of sending heroes to help, OSI decides to stay pressuring the bot lane, and M5 can't really kick them out from the tower because of Essence Aura and the heal coming from Undying and Witch Doctor. But the tower is denied at the 8 minute mark. Just after the tower is denied, Lone Druid is killed by a gank - all the wards from the beginning of the game are gone, leaving Lone Druid defenseless against the gank squad led by a hasted Batrider.  No wards on the map - Lone Druid ganked to death M5 continues to play solidly, killing Windrunner on the 9 minute mark and destroying the top lane first tier tower. OSI is doing well also, with Obsidian Destroyer having a very good start. Farm-wise, they're a little ahead of M5, but, level-wise, M5 is ahead. The first big team-fight happens around the 12 minute mark, with OSI diving with four heroes. They do kill Earthshaker, but Bristleback ends tanking everything they have, transforming the clash into a disaster for OSI. The game is now 8:2 in favor of M5 and nothing is being done to keep Lone Druid away from the Sacred Relic. And to complicate things even further for OSI, Windrunner is ganked mid just after the team-fight and Lone Druid gets the last-hit. At the 13 minute mark, OSI gets a revenge kill on Lone Druid. Batrider got his Dagger and Windrunner is going for Pipe, to better tank the AoE damage that M5 has with Enigma and Earthshaker. A long team fight starts on the 15 minute mark, with OSI going with all heroes for the mid tower, only to be driven away by Bristleback. The clash ends on the 17 minute mark, with Batrider, Bristleback and Earthshaker dying. While the fight was happening in the mid lane, Lone Druid was safely free-farming on the bot lane, finishing his Sacred Relic. M5 is definitely ahead here. At the 20 minute mark, a Smoked Clockwerk Goblin tries to sneak and hide at the trees. Being located by OSI, a team fight happens on the top lane. Enigma gets an excellent Black Hole, but Batrider doesn't allow it to last longer. Despite the Black Hole and big Echo Slam, only Obsidian Destroyer died for OSI, while Enigma and Earthshaker died for M5. The heals kept most of OSI's heroes alive, and Witch Doctor were able to land a huge and long Death Ward. At the 23 minute mark, another big team-fight occurs. Batrider jumps to initiate on Enigma and succeeds at Lassoing him, but gets entangled and killed in the process. M5 quickly destroys the top lane second tier tower and retreats, preparing to go Roshan. M5 is far ahead in the game: Lone Druid already has Radiance, Enigma has his Dagger, Bristleback has Vanguard and Pipe, not to mention the level and tower advantage. On OSI side, Windrunner has Pipe, Obsidian Destroyer has the Mekanism and Batrider has his Dagger - and that's all.  Big fight in the middle lane - big farm in the bottom lane. This is an example of a push being used as a tactical resource to create safe farm. On the 25 minute mark, M5 goes for Roshan. OSI reacts quickly, initiating another team-fight. Once again, despite a good Black Hole and Echo Slam, no heroes from OSI die. The combination of Dirge's damage amplification and Maledict is too much even for Bristleback to tank. In the chaos, Dirge had time to use three Decays. M5 is almost team-wiped and OSI is back into the game, killing Roshan just after the team-fight. M5's middle lane second tier tower also goes down as consequence of the team fight. Going to Roshan may have been premature - OSI still had towers up and M5 had momentum to pressure the lanes and take the towers - M5 should have pressured the lanes and taken the remaining towers. They were in the top lane, very close to the sentinel base, and went from there to Roshan. The time they spent going for Roshan and hitting him down was enough for Batrider to respawn and OSI to gather up all their heroes and fight. Obsidian Destroyer got himself a Point Booster, going either for Aghanim Scepter or Bloodstone. It is not a huge intelligence item, but the extra mana will definitely enhance his Arcane Orb and make him a huge threat. If M5 doesn't initiate on him, he'll just orb dance and kill everyone. But, if M5 initiates on him, Witch Doctor, Dirge and the other heroes will be free to unleash everything they have - especially Witch Doctor and his Death Ward. The combination of Maledict and Dirge's damage amplification can tear apart the tanks M5 have.  Believe or not, M5 will lose this battle, despite Black Hole and Echo Slam At the 31 minute mark, another big clash on the top lane. Once again, despite a big Black Hole and Echo Slam (lvl1 Echo Slam however, as Shaker was only lvl10), only Obsidian Destroyer dies and once again M5 is almost wiped. The heals and damage amplification are really making a difference. At the 35 minute mark, after a bad team-fight from OSI, M5 kills two heroes and push the middle lane second tier tower. Both teams are even in towers and M5 level advantage is very small now. Windrunner got herself an always useful Necronomicon, Obsidian Destroyer is almost finishing his Bloodstone, Batrider got Shiva's Guard and Witch Doctor got himself a Medallion of Courage and is starting to build his Aghanim Scepter. The combination of items are insanely strong. On M5 side, we see Clockwerk Goblin with Vanguard, BKB and a Medallion of Courage. This BKB is really strange, but, what else he can build? Most of his item options are already covered by Bristleback, leaving him with few options, making it worthy to have BKB to protect himself from Obsidian Destroyer. Aghanim Scepter is not necessary here, because Enigma and Earthshaker are already there to set up team-fights. OSI starts to win every fight. While Obsidian Destroyer takes everything and dies in the process (for example, at the 39 minute mark, the other heroes wins the clashes for OSI. Moscow5 doesn't have enough damage to win the fights. Bristleback doesn't have much time to bring damage to the table. Believe or not, Black Hole and Echo Slam are not enough here. And Obsidian Destroyer will only get stronger as time passes. M5 tries to react, winning a fight around the 48 minute mark and killing Roshan, but OSI is pressuring M5. However, at the 52 minute mark, a chance appears for M5. A failed push by OSI results in three kills in M5’s favor. They quickly transition into a mid push by abusing the Lone Druid’s power to destroy towers, but they make a mistake. The top lane third tier tower was already down. Instead of going there, destroying the barracks and retreating, they push the middle lane third tier tower and the barracks, getting chased and killed by OSI few seconds later. At the 56 minute mark, the last and decisive fight happens. This time OSI succeeds at pushing, with Batrider successfully taking Enigma out from the battle before he could use the Black Hole. OSI wins the clash and goes for the throne, winning the game. OSI impressively came back from a hard start. M5 was really ahead in the game in the middle stage of the game. We can only imagine the outcome of this game if M5 didn't sacrifice momentum for a Roshan attempt at the 25 minute mark. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Conclusion | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In the recent past, DotA had great emphasis on tanking heroes. For example, Vanguard was really strong, being brought by almost every hero. People used to complain that tanking heroes were breaking the game. Some noticiable changes happened in the game: Damage Amplify became very common amongst the heroes. In the early ages of DotA, we had only few skills that amplify the damage you cause: Decrepify and Penitence. When Witch Doctor came, Maledict became an option. Then, Warlock made it's appearance: When people saw the impact of Fatal Bonds + Queen of Pain against the cookie-cutter 4-1 sentinel strategy, some said that IceFrog had succeeded at balancing the -lm mode (a question for you to wonder: would -lm be balanced today?). More and more damage amplification options appeared: the -armor strat - featuring Slardar, Templar Assassin and other heroes - is a great example. Even magical damage amplification (Ancient Apparition's Vortex, Veil of Discord, Tauren Chieftain's Natural Order, Ethereal Blade, etc) started to appear. Dirge's Plague (30% damage amplification at lvl3) and Shadow Demon's Soul Catcher (obscene 50% damage amplification at lvl4) are strongest amplification avaliable. Despite this might look a specific strat used to win the series, we can always expect teams abusing magical damage amplification in the future, just like -armor were hugely used, turning in into a solid strategy. At this game, we saw two very powerful tanks - Lone Druid and Bristleback - being quickly taken down thanks to Plague and Maledict multiplying the damage going on at the fights. Not only this was an interesting game with nice item decisions, but it's a game that shows DotA's change and evolution as a game. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
