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Walking down the "played game" highway and following a couple of failed attempts by both teams to nail the first blood, we see  , and  managing to score the game's first kill onto Vigoss'  . It was a relatively painless loss for M5, since Puck is not really expected to get any farm on his lane while on the other side, the hero that scored the kill was Enchantress and not Naga Siren, avoiding the creation of a big gap between the two hardcarries, who both had the same amount of farmed gold at the time. Onwards, the Scourge's bottom Tier 1 tower falls without any defense while there has also been a use of Glyph of Fortification by the Scourge, a bad move since the tower was definitely going to fall and there were no chances of creating a battle or denying. M5, being aware that the bottom lane is already a lost cause, decide to put their pressure upon the top Tier 1 tower and  . Their decision was correct, managing to drop the Sentinel's tower with  getting the last hit; this makes him hit 1.700 gold, a great 4-minute amount of earned gold, enabling him to almost complete his Vanguard so early in the game. Only a minute later, DTS move to mid and try to push down a second tower in less than 5 minutes in the game. Defensive support arrives for the Scourge with 4 heroes moving to mid, defending their tower succesfully and also winning a battle by 2-1 with falling for the Sentinel, while M5's only casualty is a heavily focused  . A notable fact is that Anti-Mage got both of the frags that Scourge managed to grab and now he's in the process of creating a big gap between himself and the enemy carry.
Another mini-battle occurs a minute after the fight in the middle and M5 win by 2-1 again. The Scourge's move from the Sentinel's Secret Shop is an excellent example of how M5 like to move around the map, following unusual pathways that allow them to avoid warding and show up at the most unexpected moments and places.
A really impressive and intriguing fact is that we are 6 minutes into the game and there are absolutely no wards planted by both teams. On top of that, there seems to be no intention of buying a pair of Observers by any of the two sides, at least for the time being. On an attempt to square it off, what we've seen in the early game is M5 leaving their long range solo defenseless to drop both his tower and the First Blood, in exchange for some space to Anti-Mage who has indeed gotten some extraordinary farm. Up to now, it appears to be working: Anti-Mage is totally outfarming Naga Siren in every possible aspect (Kills, Towers, Creeps) while the lost cause of Puck is slowly starting to turn around, since he was left alone to farm the bottom lane for almost 4 minutes while the others were fighting in mid and top. Every sign shows that M5's plan is working, they have already gotten Anti-Mage's core items and the rest of their heroes are pumped way more than the Sentinel's due to all the team fight gold, despite the fact that both teams have lost one tower.
| The Carries as of 10:00 | |
Hero K/D/A: 3/0/2 Creep K/D/: 48/11 Neutrals: 2 Towers K/D:1/0
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Hero K/D/A: 0/2/3 Creep K/D: 32/9 Neutrals: 1 Towers K/D: 0/0
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The mid game M5 have managed to achieve their goal, they have taken an almost gamebreaking advantage on their enemy by being extremely aggressive with their ganks while they didn't really pay too much attention to their defense. |
DTS.Chatrix decide to take the initiative once again; they push their enemy's mid tower and they manage to drop it, but  Dread managed to deny the full amount of gold towards his enemies. The battle that broke out was really intense and an extremely fun part of the game to watch. DTS managed to take down 3 enemy heroes while losing two, but PGG's timed deny on Vigoss' only gave them credit for two of them. Four minutes of numbness by both teams had to pass untill the Sentinel initiated again on the bottom lane, effectively grabbing a kill on foe  without any casualties. This turn of events, though, is in favour of M5, since all of their heroes except for Magina need some "personal time" to regroup and finish off any early game items they intended to get, like Treads, Janggos or Magic Sticks.
| M5 have managed to set the pace and keep it high, but their enemy is not just keeping up with them. They have to face a team led by the game's most innovative captain; the enemy adapts to their gameplay, but with some well organised ganks and pushing they manage to give them a truly hard time up to now. The fact that the only Scourge hero who has finished another item than Power Treads is the one who got baby-sat and supported for the better part of this game is not random. M5 have to slowly start giving the rest of their line-up some space to get their core builds going, and that's what they do between 11:00 and 15:00.
| Sixteen minutes in the game and the Sentinel's tier 1 bottom tower falls. Right now, the only tier 1 towers alive are the Scourge's top and the Sentinel's mid ones. This is a very important fact, since the Sentinel might have lost the 2/3s of their initial defensive mechanisms, but their most important tower that provides the biggest amount of their map control and tp spots is still alive. This is a bad decision by M5, who seem to not have any intentions of taking it down, thus leaving the Sentinel a really safe teleporting location near to Roshan, their jungle and their ancients' positioning. The two teams trade some farm between and , until the 17th minute mark. The Scourge decide to push their enemy's mid tower, but the defense they have to face is pretty solid, resulting in a 3-1 win for the Sentinel in the battle that followed. The Sentinel's problem is that even though they manage to turn the game around, their hardcarry dies in every single battle. ArtStyle seems unable to keep it together with his Naga Siren, being Anti-Mage's and most of the Scourge's main target. His hero is too squishy and so, dying in every single battle, he has a really hard time getting the amount of gold needed for his transactions with the shops. What we see is M5 losing a lot of their map domination and lead in the team scores but also keeping their priorities and focusing the enemy carry. Summarising PGG's deathless Dominating streak and ArtStyle's kill-less negative Dominating streak (0/4), the gold difference is more than obvious between the two carries. This way, M5 make sure that they still have the upper hand towards the late game, even though their aggressiveness is not the key in this point of the game. On the contrary, they keep getting stomped in team battles. At 19:39 within the game, the Scourge finally manages to take a big advantage away from their enemy's arsenal: They manage to take down the mid tier 1 tower with NS'  getting the last hit and finishing off his Mekansm too. That's a huge boost to M5's teamfight potential, since not only will they be fighting without the damage caused by another tower when it comes to mid lane, but they also have one of the game's most useful items team battle-wise. Using this Mekansm they are able to almost negate the damage caused by Venomancer's Poison Nova, and on top of that, they even have 's Ultimate. | 20 minutes into the game, manages to finish his Battlefury too, an item that is going to be of significant importance on the Scourge's carry's effort to get as much farm as possible for the late game. With the cleave it provides and Magina's excellent attack animation and speed, he is going to have no problem wiping out a neutral camp or a creep wave in a matter of seconds. | | The End Game | |
21 minutes into the game, most of the Scourge team is gathered at the Sentinel's top tier 2 tower, where they manage to pick up kills on and , who were left unprotected. They then proceed to push mid, a strategically correct move since in the comparison between top's and mid's tier 2 towers, the mid one is of more importance to the enemies. Unluckily for them, PGG's got carried away, blinked into the enemy base to kill off a fleeing Enchantress but he failed, getting killed and forcing the whole Scourge squad back. M5 then decide to wait for their carry to respawn and when it happens, they kill off roshan with Magina nailing both the gold and the Aegis of the Immortal. After slaying Roshan, the Scourge players decide to move in a way that, like mentioned earlier in the article, can cause huge problems to their enemies: They decide to split and push, having at top and the rest of their squad at bottom. On the Sentinel side, they decide to place at top and try to take on the rest of the Scourge squad on a 4 versus 4 battle. Like mentioned before, the Sentinel's squad needs their whole 5-man power to work out, so understandably they got stomped at bottom lane while manages to flee the Anti-Mage's initiation upon him only with a small amount of health left in his pool. Following those two battles, the Scourge finish off their enemy's tier 2 towers and get a significant gold boost. The heroes that the Scourge had sent at bottom never really left, and with PGG joining the mix, they decide to push the bottom lane, a task that seems easy especially after slaying  . However, the Sentinel has yet to say its final word.
Following 's buyback, ArtStyle proves once again why he is considered the most innovative captain in the DotA world: Using his Song of the Siren to sleep 5 enemy heroes, he gives the advantage to his teammates to position themselves and their spells in total perfection, a beautifully orchestrated battle by the Sentinel side that is a must watch.
The battle created 3 casualties for the Sentinel in the faces of and , while for the Scourge lost his life and Magina his Aegis of the Immortal. Even though the casualties are 3 to 1, the Sentinel manage to keep their enemies out of their base, for the time being. The Scourge decides to slow down the pace and give some space to their heroes that have items to be completed yet, like 's Heart of Tarrasque, an item that is going to allow him to tank all the damage output that the Sentinel squad may provide.
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At the 31st minute mark, and get picked up by Magina and Batrider and the Sentinel once again decides to push the mid lane's basic structures of their enemies.
The Sentinel's anti-push is on its way to get in work once again, but the Scourge are not going to fall for the same trick twice. The minute that ArtStyle tries to move into the battle, and his 2 dominated Centaur Kahns disable him to the bone, getting him killed before he has enough time to use his ultimate.
With Naga is getting focused, the Sentinel now relies on the huge amounts of damage that Ice Blast and Poison Nova deal, technically enhanced by some Ice Vortexes that plants. All of this output, coupled up with Enchantress' Impetus is enough to force the Scourge out of their base, once again. 34 minutes into the game, the Scourge moves towards the Roshan pit while the Sentinel anticipate it and move to Roshan too, under the effect of Smoke of Deceit. They find Magina and Maiden in the pit, with being forced to blink away and not being so lucky and getting killed off in a matter of seconds. With Roshan being left at 25% of his health points, the Sentinel decide to raid him and picks up the aegis. A very important move to notice in this battle is how PGG uses his illusions to burn all of the mana pool that possesses, leaving their enemies with one disable less for the forthcoming battle...
This battle is one of the best examples of how one move by an experienced player can win a whole game: PGG's who got left in the pit to fight with all of his enemies, gets ensared and heavily reigned down on. But NS' mastermind saved him, literally in the last available second, having used his Holy Persuation. With all of this action, most of the Sentinel's skills are on cooldown...
And the cavalry arrives! and join the mix to kill off and chase down whatever is left from the Sentinel side. When ArtStyle's gets killed off twice, M5 proceed to raid their enemies' base where after a final, not really important, battle they destroy everything they find in their path, securing mega creeps and the GG call by the Sentinel, this way finishing a generally enjoyable game.
| Recap: | What we've seen in this game is M5 using their common over-aggressive strategy with a fair amount of success in the very early stages of the game. However, when mid-game started approaching, the Sentinel's multi-disabling squad gave them a hard time and it was time for them to prove their versatility within the game: They had to settle for new priorities within the space that a DotA game provides. They managed to overcome every obstacle, physical or not, by re-organising their play, splitting up for small amounts of time, then regrouping only to split up again. Their tactics managed to take away their enemy's focus for a small amount of time, but when their enemies came up with another answer to their strategy, in the name of massive defensive power, they used a strategy that's called "thief-war" at the place where I come from: They started picking off enemy heroes, one by one or two by two at a time, slowly building up their advantage until they had enough raw force to overcome the exceptional AoE damage provided by the Sentinel's arsenal of skills and then out-damage and kill them off. | | | | |
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Daniil 'Dendi' Ishutin 
