PriDe taken home: Grand Final

Meet Your Makers crowned as the Prime Defending champions for the first time since they used to be Joy (Jukes on You).

First game

Makers had the first pick. Pretty standard bans when it comes to what MYM is capable of with a Centaur in the lineup. Maelk snatching a Queen first, WG responds with a Nerub and Priestess. While PotM was a reasonable idea, the era of Nerubians ganking madness is quite over. Both teams proceeded to draft strong lanes, Makers took their push-carry lane of Bristle + Necrolyte and WolkeR finished with a Silencer.

Early game was ruled by Ukrainians. Merlini was taken as the first blood booty, but slahser under his babysit managed to complete a 12 minutes Hood, which brought the end to Nerubians lane control ability. Moreover, a Basilus on Necrolyte meant Bristle could either spam Quill Spray or force Nerub to waste mana on burning almost depleted BB. Merlini left the top lane even before Hood on Bristle was completed not to come back in quite some time.

In the mid lane Maelk was doing what he does best in the DotA world - playing Queen of Pain. Last hitting proficiently, harassing well and scoring a level 6 kill on DkPhobos. Rune control also good, as usual.

Bottom lane is surely most enjoyable to watch, as both teams were aggressive and hungry for the kills. Their skirmish to determine who will come out of it farmed better was sometimes disturbed by a Global Silence, which once saved Travka from an Epicenter that was channeled on his face. Dendi hugged the lane when players started to depart lanes in order to gank, of course in order to grab the Dagger.

Middle game is by far the most enjoyable part of the replay. Global Silence at it's most powerful period, spectacular jukes, diametrical changes of the game, prey becoming the hunter and so forth. We could do a list of memorable things, but it is the reason to watch the replay.

Since then it is a downhill for WolkeR. Safe picks did not pay. Single target heroes losing their grasp not ganking enough, stripping the lineups power, Edict owning towers and Makers brutally pushing up for the win in two goes.

Saying that Bristleback got farmed and carried would be an offence towards every other of the nine players that were in game. slahser simply did not fail his team mates when they were securing a farm for him. Firstly he was taken care of in the lane by Merlini, later all four defended, pushed and ganked for his safe game. On the opposite they had Ukrainians with Silencer participating with Global Silence, that brought some rapid kills.

The era of single target heroes is ending and this game proved the case. Silencer needs much more farm than he can get versus any semi-good solo hero, which Queen of Pain does not belong to. Nerubian Assassin is highly Dagon dependent, and he needs to dominate what he faces in lane. He has a stun and Invisibility, but he will have to share Tinkers faith - forgotten competitive picks. Playing safe did not pay for WolkeR-Gaming, and that was visible in their edgy style of play, brave moves and generally well played game.

This PriDe brought a lot of fresh air to competitive scene - in first place a lot of new teams made it to the top phase. Times when 5 best teams were known by heart are over, and it seems that the gap between MYM with Virtus and the rest of the teams has shrunk. After that the competition and skill differences are even smaller day by day. WolkeR being the Dark Horse of the tournament. Sad news also took a major part in this event - Virtus.Pro facing internal issues is the biggest disappointment for sure. PriDe #10 will tell if it was just a temporary loss of attention.

Congratulations to Meet Your Makers and WolkeR-Gaming!

Links
myMYM.com - source
GosuGamers.net - replay