OK.Nirvana.IntMYM
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(Top)For those who have followed MYM for a little while now, you will notice that this is by far not the first time they have featured this sort of lineup. The most recent was against Na'Vi which can be found here.
Basically, this strategy relies entirely on a dominant lategame carry as a fall-back strategy which is also what gives it the feeling of an all-round strategy. This is also the reason why Spectre is picked first in both games, by doing so MYM does reveal their lategame strategy, but more importantly, they force the enemy to play against time, and all they have to do is simply counter any potential counter picks by OK.Nv.
This is mainly done in the form of defensive supports who have great ganking capabilities even with a low skill level; in the case of MYM, this means Earthshaker and Venomancer, but throwing in a Twin Head Dragon or Slayer could be possible too, depending on the individual team. The reason these two heroes needs to be able to gank in low level are rather redundant, but is the key behind MYM's success: 60% of the time spent as either support, you are supposed to do nothing. This means: stay out of experience range (in order to maximize the experience of the carry), stay out of sight (forcing the enemy team to constantly be afraid of ganks) and sporadically gather together in order to either gank or provoke team fights; all the while not feeding!
The drafting is then finished with Beastmaster and Priestess of the Moon [PotM], individually these heroes are not important for the lineup, simply due to the fact that their are numerous heroes that can replace them (Windrunner, Clockwerk Goblin, Faerie Dragon, Night Stalker etcetera etcetera) but both DeMoN and MiSeRy- are famous for playing these heroes which is why these exact heroes were picked. The role of these two heroes differs a bit, but overall they will be responsible for disrupting the enemy team as much as possible by ganking, teaming up to form a team fight, pushing and most importantly, farming in dangerous areas; provoking ganks on their behalf instead of Spectre. A difficult task you ask? On top of this that if either hero fails, the main strategy will fall apart due to the fact that the enemy team will now have free access to the main carry.
ObjectiveMaximize the farm gap between your carry and the opposing carry.
ExecutionThe two semi-carries will be focused on disrupting the opposing team's build-up while only sporadically farming. The two supports will protect the retreat route for the carry as well as forcing team fights 'not far from the carry', thereby securing the main carry an increased farm while decreasing the opponent carry's farm.
Plan BIf Plan A fails, the heroes can easily form a defensive line and 'turtle' this to the end game where they will be able to overpower the enemy team.
LineupDominant carrying heroes, supports with defensive capabilities in case of a fall back and two active semi carries.
Looking at the MYM laning, one finds it curious that Spectre and Venomancer are dual-laning mid, but when looking at the objective of the MYM strategy, it makes perfect sense.
Usually it would be Beastmaster taking up a solo lane mid, in order to gain easy access to the runes early game and gank routes in the mid game. However in MYM's strategy, the Beastmaster is not as dependent in comparison on gold and level advantage as Spectre; both of which is automatically diminished when laning against Enigma. Thus, Spectre is put on the mid lane instead.
It should be pointed out that this will entail that Venomancer be in the mid lane as well (you would never want two melees, in this case Spectre and Earthshaker, going up against an Invoker in mid lane), leaving only Earthshaker as a leverage if needed be.
Before the creeps are even spawning, OK.Nv goes for an early jungle denial, generally a great plan against MYM; but more so in this particular game, as we will see the Earthshaker struggling to gain the necessary experience in the early game.
This is however more of a game-dependent tactic, and as such has no real impact on the actual strategy.
Another notable event in the pre-game stage is the lack of an offensive use of Smoke of Deceit, coming from the OK.Nv squad. Looking at their lineup, they should have been able to get a kill or two. They did not do this however, which, coupled with their hesitance to cross the river, has given them the nick as "Europe's most defensive team".
The first notable event happening is the lane shift for Earthshaker, who is forced to walk from top lane to bottom lane because of the denied pull camps, something which not only eases the laning phase for Enigma, but also leaves Earthshaker in a difficult position as PotM needs a lot of experience, but does not need the defensive capabilities Earthshaker brings with him.
A problem which forces him to walk all the way back top. By this time, the game has lasted five minutes, and Earthshaker is still only level 2 with no kills as of yet. This however changes, as Beastmaster reaches level six, and a gank carried out by the two heroes secures the kill and almost level four for Earthshaker.
If we recall the overall strategy MYM is running, it places emphasis on the supports who should remain out of sight, but still create action when needed; a feature that Earthshaker made possible due to his unorthodox ganking route as you can see on the picture.
At the seventh minute mark the strategy finally unfolds. Beastmaster has his level seven, ultimate off cooldown and a bottled invisibility rune: it is time for some ganking!
This coincides with OK.Nv trying to gank the mid lane, leaving no heroes to be ganked by Beastmaster, but enough information for the entire scourge team to prepare a defense.
When the gank comes, it is practically lost on the spot. Even before the Frost Nova is thrown, Spectre and Venomancer are backing up, while PotM is tp'ing in; and Beastmaster and Earthshaker are attacking from both the rear and flank, turning the fight from a 3v2 to a 3v5, and a lost tower for sentinel.
This is a brilliant example of how MYM is playing their offensive turtling. Here, Beastmaster was the key hero, creating the much needed vision (or action if his gank succeeded) for the scourge team to bunker up around Spectre when needed.
Looking at the event, the teleport from PotM was definitely overkill, but it is better to be safe than sorry...
Do notice the immediate split following the team fight, Beastmaster goes top, Earthshaker goes back into the shadows, and PotM only stays long enough to nuke down the creep wave so that Spectre and Venomancer can get the tower, once again in accordance to their main objective.
Nine minutes into the game, we see the income for the two main carries level out. Practically the whole game, Anti-Mage has led, but since the seventh minute, he has been stagnated; mainly because of the constant harassment from PotM, but also from being forced to push.
His farm does sky rocket at the ninth minute mark, but having a 2 minute period of farming time where you only get 200 gold is simply devastating this late into the early game.
It is also worth noting that Beastmaster is keeping himself well farmed too, granting MYM a massive lead here.
At the twelve minute mark, we see OK.Nv brilliantly utilizing Anti-Mage as an anti-carry as he solos against the solo farming Spectre, thus disrupting the very core of the MYM strategy and forcing a gank from the scourge heroes. By going for this gank, which is the right decision, OK.Nv has finally taken control of the game, as MYM is now responding to the OK.Nv strategy.
The inevitable gank is predicted by the sentinel team, forcing an all out retreat for the ganking scourge team, and a small victory for the sentinels.
The victory is quickly diminished however as the entire sentinel line up, apart from Enchantress, teleports to bottom lane, preventing a push, but allowing Spectre to re-enter the top lane. A decisive mistake, as four heroes were not needed to defend a two hero push, yet the top lane needed at least two heroes in order to keep Spectre, who was accompanied by Earthshaker, from farming.
A very important graph as it really shows how the two heroes are different from each other.
Relating back to the nine minute graph, we saw that when Anti-Mage acquired his Phase Boots at 6:50, his farm declined; whereas when Spectre acquired them at 15:30 her farm grew and is actually matching the farming curve of Anti-Mage.
At the 19th minute mark, the sentinel team spots two heroes: PotM farming in a dangerous position on the far bottom lane (no scourge heroes were close to this), and Spectre farming on top lane. This obviously forces a gank on the Spectre, but unknowingly the OK.Nv team is once again playing MYM's game, walking right into a heavily defended scourge jungle, containing multiple wards, three heroes, a Spectre with an aegis close by, and a PotM teleporting instantly.
MYM however does not wait for the OK.Nv heroes, as they see perfect opportunity to get rid of Anti-Mage even before the team fight starts.
This forces an immediate fall back for the OK.Nv line up, losing not only their carry and a lot of time, but also the last tower to control the scourge jungle.
As stated before, this strategy is more of an MYM-sk play than a reliable grand strategy, but it is still a fearsome strategy and a difficult one to play against. Personally I have yet to see any team figuring out how to properly counter this, although Na'Vi most definitely has found an indirect loophole using a jungling hero in the early game, and transitioning into a mid game push; thus indirectly countering one of the greatest weapons in the MYM arsenal.
Since the team fight at the 21th minute, a great mistake by MYM, and up to the 27th mark; the two teams have entered a slow farming period, with only a few one man ganks going on.
Although rather dull to watch, this slow period gives us a great insight into the farming strategy for MYM.
A couple of things are notable here:
• This is the first time Venomancer has farmed ancients, although he definitely had the opportunity to do so before hand. A slight mistake if you ask me, as he could have been had Mekansm in the crucial team fight at the 21th mark.
• Beastmaster is farming the jungle, thus having easy access to Spectre if she should be ganked.
• Beastmaster and PotM are covering the major access to the scourge jungle, leaving only a direct gank through the lane as a possibility.
As previously mentioned, leCEWEME disconnected at the 30 minute mark, at which point Spectre had Vanguard, Radiance and Yasha; leading to a scourge win within the next seven minutes.
A very interesting farming curve, and one that tells a lot about the heroes.
First of all, we can see that Beastmaster actually acquired a load of farm, even though he was rather active. Secondly, we can see that the Invoker had a lower curve as well as two stagnating periods. But most importantly are the curves of Spectre and Anti-Mage and how they relate to each other.
We can sense that Anti-Mage had a lot more farming potential, but his farm was filled with stagnating periods which were roughly equivalent to one third of the game. Spectre on the other hand had a much smoother curve, which only grew steeper and steeper, showing exactly why she is considered a hard carry.
sabmud:Looking at this game, I believe OK.Nv played it out really very well, looking at the picks and their standard defensive mindset. However, after the 7 minute mark when Beastmaster started ganking (ie. MYM initiating their strategy), they were already behind, and forced to either push, a strategy they were not geared towards, or play MYM's game. They valiantly tried both, but to no avail; and apart from some instances of the game, MYM had the total initiative, just the way they wanted it.
KuroKy:As expected, when spectre gets his radiance the game will be pretty much over - unless OK.Nv gets ahead by a good amount, but no one can expect to do that against a team like MYM. Both teams played very good, but MYM had the better idea and executed their strategy very good, they didn't leave much room for mistakes nor did they allow OK.NV to really come into the game and stop the spectre. OK.Nv attempt to out carry spectre with Anti-Mage didn't succeed, MYM's positioning to guard spectre was on time, and in the end the supporting heroes for spectre with the radiance sealed the game.
