The Draft
Game 5 featured an unorthodox draft by DK, revolving around a lineup with global striking ability against Vici's pickoff lineup. To begin, let us examine the draft to properly understand DK's intentions going into the match.
First Ban-Pick Phase
The opening bans from each team were both respect bans from DK: removing Sylar's Lycan and Super's Alchemist from the game immediately. In return, Vici banned out iceiceice's Invoker and the highly versatile Shadow Shaman support that had been impactful in both games it was played over the course of the Grand Finals: Games 1 and 3 where each team that had the support won.
Having first pick, DK picked up Ancient Apparition, the first time in the series they have chosen it – in the previous four games, Fenrir had been playing only Ancient Apparition. This was the first indication that DK was intending to change up their draft right from their first pick, since they had been confident of going up against AA in the past four matches.
Vici responded with two strong core picks: Batrider and Doom Bringer, both heroes who had seen action in the previous matches with Sylar on Doom in Game 1 and rOtk on Batrider in Game 4, the games that Vici won. In response, DK picked up Nature's Prophet for iceiceice, a hero he has an amazing record on (14-1 since 6.79 before Game 5), and a hero that had made a huge impact in the thrilling Game 2.
In fact, it is arguable that this Prophet pickup was a bait for Vici, given the huge impact that iceiceice had on Game 2 in the process of splitpushing and making the trades for DK that eventually resulted in the nail-biting base race. It is natural to assume that iceiceice would take on that same role of split-pushing Prophet, with his Treants and Necronomicon to ensure that the lane equilibrium would always be in DK's favour.
The Puck-Gyrocopter Dream Coil - Call Down combo that forced an early GG from Vici Gaming in game 3.
Second Ban-Pick Phase
The next two bans from Vici were simply respect bans against Mushi: his Puck had proved so problematic in game 3, where he completely dominated Super's Dragon Knight in middle, and combining perfectly with BurNing's Gyrocopter. Indeed, the Coil + Call Down combination was what secured Game 3 for DK, pushing Vici to concede merely 16 minutes in. The other ban on Kunkka, was again a ban showing respect to Mushi's lane dominance and ability to nail down Kunkka's immensely powerful teamfight abilities.
Meanwhile, DK's bans were targeted bans as well, taking out Vici playmaker Super's iconic heroes: Storm Spirit and Templar Assassin, since both are solo mids with high burst damage that would work well with rotation ganks, especially with a Batrider Blink-Lasso. At this point, the draft still seems relatively normal – the Storm Spirit and Templar Assassin bans are acceptable in a normal metagame since they synergise will with Vici's picks.
Vici then went on to pick up Enchantress, a support that roams well with neutral creeps, allowing for good early game ganks that are Vici's forte. Again, DK respond with a conventional Nyx Assassin pick, a hero they enjoy using for his versatility (four of the five DK players have used him competitively) as well as his initiation and scouting ability.
MMY Comboing up with Lanm for a Vendetta - Impale - Mana Burn into an Ice Blast that caused Io to shatter.
In light of the ganking power presented to Vici via Nyx's Vendetta, AA's Ice Blast and Prophet's Wrath of Nature and Teleport, Vici picked up Io, a hero that works well against counter ganks; be it relocating into the fight, relocating away from the fight, or simply relocating into a position to stop iceiceice's split-push ability, Io provided Vici with the global mobility that they were lacking against such the omnipresent lineup DK already had.
DK's next pick was Zeus, a pick that excelled against the squishy supports of Vici: the Enchantress and Io, while simultaneously adding a new dimension to the global pickoff ability already present in their previous picks. With this pick, it also became obvious why DK had banned out Storm Spirit and Templar Assassin: Refraction would completely stop Zeus's harass in its tracks, while Zeus's short attack range would leave him very vulnerable to Enchantress' Smoke ganks coupled with Storm Spirit's Vortex and Remnant burst.
Final Ban-Pick Phase
The final ban phases saw DK take out Tiny, the de facto companion to Io in recent times, and Spectre by Vici. Both bans were there to take out the synergy the respective heroes would bring to their lineups: Spectre's split-pushing and global presence with Haunt would make DK the perfect Global lineup, while Tiny's early game burst and late-game damage would possibly cleave the entire DK team to shreds.
The last picks were thus the next best heroes for each lineup: Vici picked the tanky Chaos Knight that, when paired with Io, was the ultimate pick-off line up popularised before TI3, while DK picked a hard carry Weaver for BurNing. In this case, the Weaver pick was perhaps situationally better than Spectre. Weaver is a hero that would need be burst down after Doom, but yet be able to immediately return with a buyback Time Lapse, while being incredibly effective in the early game with his high autoattack damage coupled with AA's Chilling Touch.
The Game As It Happened
The game started well, with a flurry of activity that saw kills being exchanged with DK choosing to dive hard for early kills. In context, while many would say that this was overextension by DK, in effect, trades made in the early game would be to DK's favour since their lineup really needed to hit level 6 on four of their heroes to kick in – experience was literally worth its weight in gold in the early game for DK. While this could be considered a risky manoeuvre, DK made it pay off with kills on Sylar's Chaos Knight and Fy's Io 5 minutes in despite Mushi giving away first blood when Vici was siegeing DK's top tier 2.
At 7:45, DK made yet another trade: uncharacteristically diving past Vici's mid tier 1, and trading Prophet and Zeus for Batrider and Doom – relatively equal considering that it was a trade for both team's mids and offlanes. These trades however, gave MMY an early level 6 on his Nyx Assassin, which allowed DK to get a kill on Io after a failed gank on Chaos Knight, but in turn losing Prophet, Zeus and Nyx.
Playing on their aggressive lineup, DK continued to make forays into the Dire jungle, picking out Fenrir's Enchantress and the courier. The lineup advantage became apparent in the first big teamfight 11 minutes in that erupted after DK had their combination ultimates up. A Batrider Blink-Lasso on BurNing followed by a Doom evaporated Weaver instantly, but also meant that Vici was clumped up near Weaver in plain sight, and vulnerable to the instantaneous burst from Wrath of Nature and Thundergod's Wrath. An instant buyback and Time Lapse allowed DK to burst down four of Vici's heroes and take the tower as well as the tier 2, at the cost of iceiceice dying once again.
A smoke gank by Vici resulted in a poor tradeoff as they converged on Lanm's Ancient Apparition just when both Wraths came off cooldown, making it a 3 for 1 trade, losing Io, Chaos Knight and Enchantress to Mushi for AA. This showed the power of DK's lineup at bursting down Vici's supports: Io and Enchantress were helpless against the magical burst from DK.
The Presence of Nature's Prophet
The vision provided by iceiceice's Treants are clearly seen in these three mini map captures. The in-game time of each picture was (from left to right) 18:09, 20:38 and 28:44.
In the meantime, iceiceice continued making full use of his global mobility to farm and push out the lanes, never allowing Vici Gaming to gather momentum. It is interesting to look at his item choices this game: after the traditional Phase Boots and Midas, he went on to pick up a Mekansm for the team, highlighting DK's wish to teamfight rather than splitpush. This was further seen in his decision to micro his treants across the map rather than to give lanes pressure. As seen in the minimap screenshots, the purple dots are iceiceice's Treants. They were constantly spread out across the map, giving vision to the Radiant – if Vici's heroes were not farming the jungle or in lane, they would most probably be smoked and preparing to gank. The importance of the vision from these Treants cannot be understated: it allowed DK to spot Vici's rotations, especially in their pick-off oriented lineup.
A 17 minute engagement went the way of Vici Gaming, allowing them to get the Tier 1 tower as well as kills on Prophet, Nyx and Zeus. The game went on to become more passive, until the 24 minute when Vici found a pickoff on Prophet, and decided to make an attempt on Roshan. This could be considered to set the tone of the game, when Lanm's Ice Blast hit on 3 heroes inside the Roshan pit. Iceiceice's buyback and the global ultimates went to great work as Mushi Force Staffed MMY onto the highground, and iceiceice's Sprout and Treants worked together with Roshan to keep Sylar hemmed in within the pit for the entire duration of his 10 second BKB. Although Sylar was saved by Fy's timely relocate, Fy still returned to die at the hands of DK. This fight allowed DK to get 3 kills on Io, Doom and Enchantress and a Doom buyback at the cost of a Prophet buyback. Roshan at half HP became salt in the wounds for Vici, as DK picked that up as well.
27 minutes in, iceiceice's Treants went to work. It scouted out rOtk near the Dire secret shop, allowing MMY to blink in for an Impale and Ice Blast to come in. While this did not result in a kill, it forced Vici to converge in the area and force Sylar to pop his BKB while DK kited him. A suicide blink back into the fight by MMY allowed DK to kill Chaos Knight merely for a support Nyx, while ticking down Vici's precious BKB timers. This is important again, because BKBs were the only real option that Vici had against DK's high magic burst potential. This will be explored further again when we consider the role of the Aghanim's upgraded Ice Blast in leading to Vici's eventual downfall.
A 29 minute pickoff on Io allowed DK to take out Vici's top tier 2, and for Lanm to pick up Aghanims on AA. A 31 minute pickoff on Prophet saw Vici lose both Io and Batrider, followed by a buyback by Prophet into a tower push which failed when iceiceice took a Reality Rift, Chaos Bolt and Crit to the face from Sylar. At this point, 32 minutes in, DK was up 5k experience and 10k gold, but a couple of mistakes, such as BurNing getting picked off and Lanm being solo killed by a Doom Bringer ensured that Vici were still in the running to take the match.
The Global Strategy's Effectiveness in Global Pressure, not Global Kills
You can't run from heaven!
A pickoff on the Dire courier at 35 minutes led to an extended chase sequence through the Dire jungle, in which Io returned Sylar back to their original position almost immediately after Sylar popped his BKB. This forced Vici to immediately retreat, but a well-placed Ice Blast combined with Thundergod's Wrath caused Batrider to shatter, and allow DK to take Roshan despite a Batrider buyback.
At this point, again, let us return to the work that iceiceice was doing on Prophet. Instead of being the 'rat' that we have come to commonly associate with Prophet with his Necronomicon, iceiceice was continuing to get a vision advantage for DK with his Treants, and opted instead for a more combat-oriented build with the Shadow Blade and Medallion, as well as the Sycthe of Vyse. The vision provided by the Treants allowed DK to constantly predict where Vici was, allowing them to be one step ahead and simultaneously instilling the fear of instant death via the global combination. The important of the threat of instant death must be emphasised here.
The threat of death coming from nowhere was a much greater hindrance to Vici rather than actually losing heroes, since that would mean that DK would have used at least three ultimates. Moreover, DK did not actually manage to find many kills with the global strategy, instead opting to use it as a deterrence to Vici getting aggressive. This pressurised Vici to be wary all the time, and inhibited their pick-off power that they had wanted to use with their Batrider and Chaos Knight - Io combination.
More importantly, BurNing also made an excellent item choice in choosing the BKB after his Desolator and Linken's Sphere. This choice meant that he could stay in a teamfight despite being squishy since it would force either Lasso or Doom to be used on him so as to control him and stop him from kiting Chaos Knight, and allow his teammates to flourish in a fight.
The failed gank on BurNing which cemented DK's lead in the game. The Vici team were exposed earlier by iceiceice's Treants, allowing them to react immediately.
A failed gank on Weaver 39 minutes in saw him take a 4 second stun under his middle tier 1 went to waste as he Time Lapsed all the damage while an Ice Blast landed on Io, Doom and Enchantress, completely nullifying all of their healing abilities, and causing all three to shatter. DK transitioned into a barracks push, completely taking out the middle barracks and tier 3 top.
A 47 minute pickoff by DK caught Doom and Batrider outside their base, forcing yet another Doom buyback and a Phantasm kill on iceiceice who also bought back immediately. Lanm fell prey to the Phantasm – Reality Rift as well, and Fy's brilliant Relocate save stopped DK from getting a return kill on Chaos Knight. In the meantime, both exposed barracks at top were taken out by normal creeps, having been given momentum by iceiceice pushing before the teamfight broke out.
The Dominance of an Upgraded Ancient Apparition's Ice Blast
At this point, both Chaos Knight's and Doom's BKBs were down to 4 seconds, which meant that DK just had to survive that four seconds for their combination to come back into effectiveness. With two barracks down, a pesky omnipresent Prophet and AA firing Ice Blasts across the map, there was no way for Vici to push out their lanes or even to find the vision for a pickoff. With little choice, they had to proceed to attempt the third Roshan of the match. This decision seems weird by many since they had already been punished before by the global combination of DK. However, I will now explain why they had no choice but to attempt it to even have a shot at winning the game before DK grinded their base into dust.
First, DK had Prophet which meant that the lane equilibrium would always against Vici Gaming. Next, the Aghanim's upgrade on AA was too much for Vici to deal with. While Mushi's Refresher Aghanim's Zeus contributed tons of damage to a fight, more importantly Ice Blast meant multiple things for Vici Gaming. Ice Blast (even if it does not land on the hero for the nuke damage) will leave the debuff on any unit it flies over. This debuff cannot be removed by BKB, and essentially reduces the max HP of any hero by 12%, removes all healing, including innate regeneration, and ticks for a grand total of 544 damage over the course of its 17 seconds duration (32 dps). BKB merely blocks the ticking damage during the period of magic invulnerability, and nothing more.
The climatic teamfight of the match where Ice Blast flew in and synchronised by MMY's Blink - Impale.
This becomes problematic because BKB does not counter Ice Blast. While it blocks the damage, the only way to block the debuff is to use BKB before the Ice Blast flies through the hero. This is impossible to predict and also wasteful since the global range of Ice Blast allows the enemy team to choose to not engage if they see that BKB has been popped, and wait for the duration to run out.
Ice Blast essentially nullified Io's ability to heal up his teammates, and the combined spell damage together with a Refresher upgraded Thundergod's Wrath would essentially cause Io to shatter. This would also negate the healing of the heart on CK for 21 seconds, and in essence force him to shatter. With Io instantly dying to the combination, there was no way after a buyback for Chaos Knight to get back into the fight, which meant that they had to get the advantage of the Aegis to ensure they could win a teamfight and push towards the throne. Being two barracks down, this was nothing more than a desperation move against DK and their Prophet split-push.
The deciding fight of the game came at 49 minutes when Ice Blast again caught multiple heroes in the Roshan pit. Although Roshan went down, the Aegis was left on the ground as Chaos Knight did not have an empty slot to pick it up. In the ensuing melee, Chaos Knight did pick up the Aegis and bludgeoned the Doomed Weaver to death, but too little, too late. By then, DK had already killed off all his teammates, and went on to kill him a second time after BurNing's buyback Time Lapse, forcing Vici to call the GG.
The Final Score
Conclusion
DK's success in game 5 was a direct result of their draft. They had managed to execute their global draft to great effect, especially with iceiceice's movement of his Treants to ensure that Vici would be unable to execute their pickoff lineup. The global presence of Prophet, Zeus and Ancient Apparition guaranteed that any attempt by Vici to perform a relocate gank would be punished heavily, and the map control prevented it from happening anyway. Moreover, Vici's squishy lineup that relied on healing was punished by Ancient Apparition's Ice Blast combined with the burst potential of the global ultimates. Combined with a stellar performance by BurNing on his slippery as ever Weaver, Vici were just ill equipped to deal with DK's lineup from the get go.
However, credit must directly go towards iceiceice for making the lineup work. His Treant movement and scouting brought professional treant play to a new level as the amount of vision and information he provided his team was phenomenal. This has to be considered in light of the previous impression his Prophet play had left on Vici back in game 2, where he had successfully split-push for DK to mount a comeback after an abysmal start. At the same time, BurNing's draft took full advantage of the expectations of Vici Gaming, thinking that DK would endeavour to split-push hard with a Spectre and Nature's Prophet, and instead built towards a team-fight oriented strategy when they were denied the Spectre.
Of course, Vici also played an excellent series, which allowed for such an entertaining spectacle in the first place. Props have to go to Vici for fighting till the end, ensuring that the matches remained close throughout the series.
Anything to say about the match? Leave your thoughts in the comments!
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