The GosuGamers 2010 Support of the Year Award
The 2010 Support Player of the Year Award is dedicated to those that play the most under-appreciated and unglamorous role in DotA. Almost always overshadowed by the more visible roles, support players make a subtle living laying the groundwork for their team's victories. Where their teammates live and die by their raw skill and intuition, support players must survive on their wits.
The primary purpose of a support player is to give their carry an advantage over their opponent's carry. They do so by subtly influencing the game, through management of vision, lane control, the application of pressure and the easing thereof. At the core of support play is an understanding of the flow of the game and a strong grasp of the tactical aspects of DotA. Knowing where to ward, when to harass, when to hide, when to be aggressive, and when to be passive doesn't come easily at all -- it requires years of competitive play to develop.
The hallmarks of a support player are economy, efficiency, and intelligence. A top support player has the uncanny ability to control whichever lane he is in, consistently pick the most critical areas for ward vision, and be everywhere at once, yet nowhere to be seen.
(And what do all top supports have in common? They all have short nicknames.)
The five players nominated here represent what GosuGamers considers to be the most dedicated, bright, and talented supports for the year 2010.
The Nominees:
NS - Legendary Russian support player and iconic member of the former Virtus Pro. Every known DotA player has suffered a defeat at the hands of the “Night Sniper” at some point in their career. He is a versatile player who possesses the talent to play any kind of role, although he seems to get bored when playing hard carries. We’ve seen his expert use of heroes such as Sand King, Clockwerk Goblin, and Rhasta, but he is best known for his extremely efficient handling of Crystal Maiden, Dazzle, Warlock, and of course Vengeful Spirit. Of the incredible support players on this list, NS is likely the most annoying one to play against. Teammate Dread once described him as the "iseedeadpeople"-command because of his ability to give vision in just the right places for his team. He possesses an ambitious and intelligent play-style – never content to babysit, and always looking to kill, kill, kill. It doesn't matter if NS is playing heroes that are weak in later phases: his ability make the most of minimal items and his uncanny knack for surviving intense clashes allow him to play his heroes to their fullest potential, regardless of the phase of the game.
Ch - Ch is a support player that is wired for initiation and manoeuvring. He represents the new breed of support player that the modern metagame demands. He is extremely versatile and intelligent, and is a renowned ganker in his own right; he can also solo, roam, babysit, and play micro-intensive heroes with ease. 2009 once called him “the perfect 4th-hero player” for good reason. Ch was brought into LGD.sGty after the team captain saw his potential in early 2010. He quickly made a name for himself playing in LGD’s aggressive lane with YYF. Though he has spent most of his time at LGD playing the team’s secondary support heroes, such as Vengeful Spirit and Witch Doctor, Ch has also shown to be an adept handler of heroes such as Sven, ES, THD, Enigma and Visage. Since the departure of 2009 and Gx, Ch has taken on both of the former players’ roles, and shown himself to be not only one of China’s finest primary support players, but one of China’s finest drafters as well.
Dgc - CH’s primary support player during the first half of the year and Nirvana.cn’s primary support player during the second half. He is a support prodigy, known for his effortless mastery of all the classic support heroes. Whether it be Crystal Maiden, Lich, WD, THD, Silencer, or Earthshaker, Dgc simply plays them all superbly. He also splashes aggressive supports such as Lina and Lion to great effect, and his Enigma has ostensibly won games almost single-handedly for Nirvana.cn. What truly makes Dgc one of the most renowned support players in China is his unique combination of high versatility and extreme stability. If Ch is an example of a hyper-modern support player, and Gx an example of a classic support player, Dgc represents something in the middle. He is precisely as versatile as a modern support player needs to be while still retaining the stability and mastery of the classic fundamentals of a support player – distinguishing himself with unmatched warding sense, perfect timing, and superb positioning.
Gx - Part of a dying breed, Gx is the perfect example of the classic support player. Throughout his career with FTD/LGD, he has played only the purest of support heroes. As a result of his intense specialization, Gx was a master of warding and babysitting; his movement on the map and positioning were also world class. The Gx/ZSMJ lane became world-famous for its unmatched stability, and was an absolutely fundamental part of LGD’s early-2010 dominance. While many might have forgotten about the contributions of the “old man of LGD” since his quiet departure from the team, Gx’s play during 2010 represented the pinnacle of primary support play. He was perhaps the greatest passive lane support player to have ever played the game – an icon to be studied and mimicked for all aspiring support players.
820 - The story of how the former top carry became one of the world's best support players will surely go down in DotA mythology. 820 was known as one of the best carries in the game, and an elite solo player, back in 2009 – renowned for his Shadowfiend and Phantom Lancer. His transition to support player came abruptly, very early in 2010, when the departures of Dgc and GK left the team completely devoid of a natural support player. The new additions, KingJ from LGD, and Burning from CH, were natural carries, and so the team captain took it upon himself to become the team’s dedicated support player.Due to EHOME's composition of extremely talented carries, 820 limited himself solely to heroes like Crystal Maiden, Witch Doctor, and Vengeful Spirit. While the fundamentals of positioning, movement, and timing remained unchanged, the EHOME captain very quickly showed an extremely impressive understanding warding and babysitting. He never lost a warding battle for his team, and he showed, throughout the year, an uncanny knack for keeping his carries safe. In every metric of performance for a pure support player, 820 proved to be among the very best; and as EHOME finished 2010 as the winningest team in the world, 820’s performances surely speak for themselves.
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(co-edited by heikki and Tjernobylbarnet)
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