This means that we should really be in for a heated mid-game clash, with plenty of early-game aggression and some power-struggles on the side. While Virus is more established than .exe, even going so far as to compete in The International for Dota 2, .exe will definitely not go down without a fight. A great aspect in this upcoming battle is a lack of reliance on farm. Since both teams have their farm distribution fairly well organised, we can expect a lot more high-pitched battles and edge-of-your-seat maneuvers than usual. With these two European teams raring to go, this looks like a match not to miss!
| .exe at ROCCAT DotA GosuCup 4 playoffs |  .exe |  icon | | ion | .exe | | .exe |  Chaos Crew |
| Lanes | | Lanes | | Lanes |
Sentinel - .exe  rice.exe (Bot)  MOVE.exe (Top)  JUKE.exe (Mid)  sneakybstrd.exe (Top)  theEDE (Top) | | Sentinel - icon SalataMeTango (Mid)  tnsfeat (Top) salpi (Mid)  kudwni (Jungle)  i.MbA (Bot) | | Sentinel - .exe  MOVE.exe (Bot) sneakybstrd.exe (Bot) theEDE (Bot) rice.exe (Top)  JUKe.exe (Mid) |
Scourge - icon (Winners)  kudwni (Mid)  salpi (Top) i.MbA (Top)  tnsfeat (Bot)  SalataMeTango (Top) | | Scourge - .exe  sneakybstrd.exe (Top)  theEDE (Mid)  JUKE.exe (Mid)  rice.exe (Bot)  MOVE.exe (Jungle) | | Scourge - Chaos Crew CC.B (Mid) CC.P (Bot) CC.4 (Top)  CC.M (Mid)  CC.F (Roaming) |
| Length: 36:21 Replay | | Length: 52:59 Replay | | Length: 39:23 Replay |
 monkeybusiness | .exe | |  FUBAR | .exe | | .exe |  eu4ia |
| Lanes | | Lanes | | Lanes |
Sentinel - monkeybusiness monkey.512 (Bot)  monkey.link (Bot) monkeycalc (Top) Ryze_ (Jungle)  nevo.angel (Mid) | | Sentinel - FUBAR  etakaka (Top) chw (Top) ice_cream_man (Mid)  JojjeHaxX (Mid) QuiX- (Bot) | | Sentinel - .exe MOVE.EXE (Top)  RICE.exe (Bot)  v1Ctory. (Top) theEDE (Top) JUKE.exe (Mid) |
Scourge - .exe  MOVE.exe (Top) sneakybastard (Mid) theEDE (Top)  JUKE.exe (Top) rice.exe (Bot) | | Scourge - .exe GANK.exe (Top) TestOfPatience. (Top) ROCK.exe (Bot) MOVE.exe (Jungle)  SNEAKYBASTARD. (Jungle) | | Scourge - eu4ia  eu4ia)CeLa (Mid) RealToxi (Jungle) Stevica (Roaming) eu4ia)Davaii (Top)  eu4ia)m1ndfever (Bot) |
| Length: 41:24 Replay | | Length: 78:06 Replay | | Length: 30:18 Replay |
| .exe's Collective Games | |
| Analysis | | Overall Strategy |
| .exe is a fairly dynamic German team, notable for their wide spread of picks. While they rely on two or three heroes heavily, they have picked a wide array of heroes during this GosuCup. They generally field a set of mid-game carries with some pure support heroes, interspersing heroes such as Broodmother and Beastmaster with ones such as Lich and Vengeful Spirit. This lends to aggressive, entertaining play early which helps them to secure mid-game domination. | Notes: • Unpredictable lineup • Strong support • Solid both mid- and late-game Key heroes: • Broodmother • Earthshaker |
| Early Game | Mid Game | Late Game |
| It is difficult to fight .exe in the early game, unless you counter their early strength with more of the same. Their large amount of disablers such as Earthshaker and Vengeful Spirit mean that, not only are their carries generally quite safe early, but their supports provide heavy cover to their lanes through roaming. .exe really has the ability to have a strong early game, which in turn gives them a smooth transition into having a powerful mid-game. | Mid-game is where .exe really starts to shine. Fielding heroes such as Broodmother, Shadow Fiend, Beastmaster and Lich allow them to convincingly win team-fights, as well as push heavily in the interim. A wise team would definitely ban .exe's Broodmother, as you can see from her last three games that none of them lasted past 42 minutes. Other semi-carries such as Invoker and Puck also really come into their own right now, giving .exe a lot of initiation power. | .exe can safely go into the late game, even against arguably stronger carries, with their general lineups. With a good mid-game, carries such as Nevermore and Broodmother can decimate teams late-game, especially when complemented by strong support heroes like Vengeful Spirit and Earthshaker. With strong initiators, .exe also has the ability to rapidly take advantage of any positioning mistakes their opponents make. |
| Map Control | Teamfights | Farm Distribution |
| With both Broodmother and Rexxar as popular picks, .exe have shown that they can have strong map control and vision through summon scouting. Furthermore, their occasional jungle hero picks, like Furion, Enigma and Chen, allow them to run a very safe long lane. With a strong jungle hero (often accompanied by a support like Vengeful Spirit), it becomes very dangerous for enemies to move through the jungle to gank the long lane, which is why this is so powerful in securing a safe early game for their long-lane hero. | Not only does .exe field heroes with strong initiation abilities (such as Rexxar and Puck), but they also field very powerful follow-up initiators (such as Enigma and Shadow Fiend). This gives them a lot of disable and power in mid- and late- game fights. | The farm for .exe is almost always channeled towards their two main mid-game carries, in order to allow them to remain powerful into the late game. With junglers like Chen and Furion, as well as Venomancer (who can farm and stack Ancients) their supports will also inevitably get gold during the game, fleshing them out and giving them survivability in the teamfights. |
| Virus at ROCCAT DotA GosuCup 4 playoffs | | Monkey |  Virus | | Monkey | Virus | | Virus | Monkey |
| Lanes | | Lanes | | Lanes |
Sentinel - Monkey monkey.512 (Bot)  monkey.link (Bot)  nevo.angel (Mid) Trew (Bot)  monkeycalc (Top) | | Sentinel - Monkey (Winner) monkey.512 (Bot) monkey.link (Top)  nevo.angel (Mid) Trew (Mid)  monkeycalc (Top) | | Sentinel - Virus Virus.7ckngMad (Bot) V.769.Ksky (Bot)  radiobouffon (Top) V.Mdj.Ksky (Roaming) garter (Mid) |
| Scourge - Virus garter (Bot) V.769.Ksky (Top) radiobouffon (Top) Virus.7ckngMad (Mid) V.Mdj.Ksky (Bot) | | Scourge - Virus garter (Bot) V.769.Ksky (Top)  radiobouffon (Mid) Virus.7ckngMad (Top) V.Mdj.Ksky (Mid) | | Scourge - Monkey monkeycalc (Mid) monkey.512 (Bot) money.link (Top) Trew (Jungle) nevo.angel (Bot) |
| Length: 46:27 Replay | | Length: 47:28 Replay | | Length: 27:16 Replay |
| Virus | icon | | Virus |  OSI | | Virus |  Kye |
| Lanes | | Lanes | | Lanes |
Sentinel - Virus  V.garter.Ksky (Roaming) V.Mdj.Ksky (Bot) V.Sockshka.Ksky (Bot) V.769.Ksky (Bot) V.7ckngMad.Ksky (Top) | | Sentinel - Virus  V.garter.Ksky (Mid) V.769.Ksky (Top) V.Sockshka.Ksky (Top) V.7ckngMad.Ksky (Bot) V.Mdj.Ksky (Top) | | Sentinel - Virus V.7ckngMad.Ksky (Top) V.garter.Ksky (Mid) V.Sockshka.Ksky (Bot) V.769.Ksky (Jungle) V.Mdj.Ksky (Jungle) |
Scourge - icon mrk_ (Bot) tnsfeat (Top) iMbAaAz (Bot) AddictedToMH (Mid)  salpi (Bot) | | Scourge - OSI  ^Sile (Jungle) iTs)6am6yk(TiMe (Mid) zbestt (Top) kas5er (Bot) Alt2Q (Roaming) | | Scourge - Kye  AliveButDead (Top) PosingAsMe (Mid)  TimeWanderer (Bot) 4undead (Bot)  Kye.FrastY (Jungle) |
| Length: 26:16 Replay | | Length: 38:22 Replay | | Length: 34:55 Replay |
| PANZER | Virus | | Virus | Eu4ia |
| Lanes | | Lanes |
Sentinel - PANZER leaf (Top)  FiresKatze (Mid) PANZERRMN (Bot) rawr456 (Bot) PANZERJimaras (Mid) | | Sentinel - Virus  V.769.Ksky (Bot) garter (Top) Virus.7ckngMad (Bot) radiobouffon (Mid) Maldejambes (Jungle) |
| Scourge - Virus V.769.Ksky (Top) garter (Roaming) radiobouffon (Top) Virus.7ckngMad (Mid) Maldejambes (Jungle) | | Scourge - Eu4ia CeLa_- (Bot) eu4ia)Luci (Jungle) eu4ia)Davaii (Top)  eu4ia)FATA- (Mid) Stevica (Bot) |
| Length: 48:29 Replay | | Length: 32:19 Replay |
| Virus' Collective Games |
| Analysis | | Overall Strategy |
| Virus is a well-established French DotA team who base their strategy largely around strong, repeated picks and playing to their player strengths. This leads to a large amount of heroes being picked multiple times over their GosuCup #4 history. These picks tend to rely on heroes who have a high-risk high-reward playstyle, such as Balanar, Priestess of the Moon and Windrunnner, which gives Virus a very menacing mid-game. | Notes: • Specialized players • Lots of semi-carries • High-risk/High-reward play • Strong mid-game Key heroes: • Mirana • Omniknight • Night Stalker • Chen • Lich • Windrunner |
| Early Game | Mid Game | Late Game |
| Despite their reliance on mid-game oriented semi-carries, Virus has the potential for a very strong, passive early game. This is enabled either by strong early laners (such as Windrunner, Lich and PotM) and/or adept jungle heroes (such as Chen). This allows them to repel most early-game aggression, setting them up for some mid-game domination. | This stage of the game is where Virus shines. Taking strong mid-game heroes such as Omniknight, Priestess of the Moon, Windrunner and Night Stalker, and combining them with strong disablers such as Windrunner and Vengeful Spirit, Virus ends up with a highly versatile team of heroes who can deal a lot of damage very quickly. Opponents are forced into a very defensive playstyle to avoid getting torn apart by roaming semi-carries. | If all goes well for Virus in the mid-game, they will be set for a very short late-game period, during which they will set about ending things as soon as possible. With tanky heroes like Omniknight and Balanar, or heroes with naturally high DPS like Windrunner and PotM, Virus can survive late game and wait for the perfect opportunity to take the victory. |
| Map Control | Teamfights | Farm Distribution |
| Chen, Beastmaster and Night Stalker all lend to strong map vision and control. Furthermore, mobile ganking heroes like PotM and Windrunner also put a lot of pressure on enemies to play more defensively. In this way, Virus exerts global pressure whenever one of their heroes is missing. While any hero missing is always a concern, Virus' use of long-ranged heroes like Priestess of the Moon, as well as fast heroes like Night Stalker, means that opponents will have even less time to react. This forces them to choose: last hit those two extra creeps, or get back to tower hug? With this constant pressure, teams will often choose to sacrifice farm in order to play cautiously, giving Virus an advantage. | Virus are better off when fighting teamfights on their own terms, and generally target smaller groups of heroes. With highly mobile heroes, they can cross the map and gank a small group of heroes in much larger numbers, securing small, repeated teamfights and then pushing while their opponents are at a disadvantage. | In selecting heroes with high natural DPS, Virus cleverly deals with an implicit problem of fielding too many carries. In these lineups, any hero can get farm, in any ratio, and as long as they use their skills to their full potential one will find that they use whatever items they have to devastating effect. |
| GosuBets |  | 40 % 60 |  |
| TBD |
| GosuBet Comments | | exe has been flying under the radar in events so far. They have an impressive roster but haven't really played in any top event so the outcome is hard to estimate. The community will probably put faith in their recent impressive results plus their equally as impressive roster. However, we think that Virus will get the most tangos because of their recent stability and greater exposure. |
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