Dota 2 has been around since 2011 and since then there has been plenty of memorable moments. Whether you have seen them before or not does not matter, they can always be appreciated for the clutch and explosive executions and outcomes. Take a few moments to relive (or witness for the first time) those definying moments from which the outstanding plays and clashes still echo today. Also provided is a text commentary of each scene which also mentions the context of the game played.
Match links provided in bold text features a VOD to the full game. Most of the games are also great to watch in their full length, not as individual highlights.
Episode One - sneaky moves and making history
The first episode features one of the most mentioned and watched moments is of course "The Play" performed by Natus Vincere versus Invictus Gaming at The International 2 where Na`Vi successfully found a way to counter and outplay the unstoppable wombo combo strategy set up by Naga Siren. Back then Naga was played more as a team fighter than a split pusher and was banned almost the entire TI2 event. It was not until the last couple of matches when teams started to let her slip into the picking phase. [match link]
There is also the epic scene where Liquid's Bulba initated with hookshot into the Rosh pit as LGD were killing Roshan, securing a massive clash for Team Liquid in the make or break best-of-1 lower bracket series at The International 3. That was the foundation of a huge upset where Liquid successfully eliminated LGD on hometurf and the crowd went wild, proving that the American Dream was still alive! [match link]
NoTidehunter's (later Alliance) breakthrough performance was when they won DreamHack Winter 2012, where they went into the second game of the bo3-final being down 0-1 versus EG and pulled out the trap card. AdmiralBulldog's Nature's Prophet suicided to Roshan at level one, making EG believe NoTidehunter were killing Roshan and went to investigate. Little did they know NTH were waiting in the bushes and charged onto EG in the river, scoring an early 2-0 kill lead. Based on plays like this, NoTidehunter came back and won the match 2-1 in the end and it was the beginning of the road towards the eventual TI3 championship. [match link]
At MLG Columbus 2013, Speed Gaming (later Cloud9) rose up as a tier one team when they went all the way to the final versus the Chinese super team DK. They did eventually beat DK 2-1 but in the first game, DK's now retired support player LaNm made some incredible plays with Earthshaker. DK were losing a clash by their own barracks, and LaNm (after having bought back) jumped into three heroes and shut them down completely with two echo slams (Refresher Orb) and everything in between. This was when the Midas meta was the most alive, and his Shaker farmed Refresher using said Midas. He got the informal title "Echo SLaNm" afterwards and DK won the game. Speed Gaming then came back and won two straight games though. Since then the team hasn't won a single high tier event, however they have managed to take second place - nine times. But for now, lets focus on the Echo SLaNm. [match link]
Back in the days when Wisp was an extremely broken hero, known super carry Meracle used to play him a lot. If opponents came in contact with the Tether, they were stunned instead of slowed as of now. In this scene, Meracle tethered a basically dead Chaos Knight to save him from dying to dot damage. He also forced away Chaos Knight while he was teleporting so opponents could not find him in time. Then Meracle outmaneuvered the opponent's three heroes to also teleport away to safety himself.
Sometimes players make mistakes, and sometimes those mistakes happen at such a crucial hour that people will always remember it. One of the most noticable mistakes in the history of Dota 2 is when Ky.Xy accidentally denied the Aegis after his team Orange killed Roshan. Not having the Aegis may or may not have been a reason why they could not secure the game. It was the third and final game of the lower bracket finals of The International 3, a game which Orange were leading. Na`Vi eventually won the game and Orange would have to settle for third place. [match link]
Back at The International 2 when EG had their old constellation (with Maelk), they managed to pull an upset game victory against heavy favourites Invictus Gaming in the winner bracket. IG's ChuaN said prior to the match that EG would be easy to beat. A masterful game climaxed in a masterful ravage and Black Hole which gave EG the victory in the first game of the series. IG then managed to win the second and third game however. [match link]
Everyone loves watching Magnus for the overwhelming and flashy clash potential he possesses. One of the most solid Magnus impacts was when Orange's Ky.Xy found the perfect one (or well, two) versus Team DK at The International 3, grouping up the entire team for the hungry and devastating Ursa played by Mushi. The gank was set up by DK initating to kill off Ursa's Aegis but perhaps leaving themselves a little bit too vulnerable for the RP and Ky.Xy found the perfect timing. [match link]
Last scene of the first episode is from LGD vs Alliance at The International 3, where Alliance's split pushing allowed them to win through a base race despite having five heroes at their door. Successful stalling by s4's Clockwerk and Akke's Keeper gave Loda and Bulldog the opportunity to do what they do best. [match link]
Episode Two - the big stuns
Another star of many scenes is Dark Seer, which is the hero setting it all up in the first scene of episode two. The scene is from Na`Vi vs mouz at The International 3 where Funn1k's Dark Seer blinked in to Vaccum four mouz players into an Ice Path by Puppey's Jakiro. Jakiro is a very common pick these days but at TI3 he was only the 30th most picked hero. The Vacuum managed to catch heroes on four different angles, really utilizing the maximum potential of the skill. [match link]
Fnatic delivered a text book combo in their match vs QPANDAS at Fragbite Masters where they captured all five of them in a tight spot with the Song of the Siren. Fly could then set up the easiest Black Hole of his life into which Shadow Fiend unleashed his Requiem, tearing out the souls of the QPAD's heroes. [match link]
Orange surprised everyone at TI3 where they took third place, eliminating two Chinese teams in the last matches of the lower bracket. Team DK managed to win the first game in the elimination best of 3 and the rest of the series would be played the day after, giving both teams time to think and prepare. Orange came back with the negative Armor strat, reviving Mushi's classic Shadow Fiend and showing what their great aggressive play style can achieve. In this scene, Orange pulled off one of the most stunning combos (literally) as Visage dropped birds to hold four heroes in place, Dark Seer vacuumed them slightly more together whereby they get struck by a four-man Slithereen Crush and a four-man Impale with the perfect amount of time inbetween. [match link]
At the International 2, in the match between DK and Na`Vi, Puppey showed Super! just how Lycan's wolves can mess up your plans. Super's Brewmaster was about to drop out of the split and cyclones Dendi during the last second to secure the haste rune. However, Puppey had his wolves in position and denied the rune. The low health Brewmaster then tried to run up the ledge to escape but the wolves managed to perfectly block him off and he was forced to run back into Dendi's arms to surrender his remaining hit points. [match link]
Plenty of memorable plays took place at The International, most likely also because the context was so memorable. PGG is a player with a meme about himself where he includes zero heroes in his Black Holes. However, in the match Moscow5 vs Tongfu at TI2, he blinked in and held four heroes in his Black Hole, successfully defending the base. Moscow5 eventually lost the game however. [match link]
In the game LGD vs Alliance (TI3), which also featured the base race at the end of episode one, Alliance averted LGD from taking Roshan by Akke's clutch Blinding Light into the Rosh pit, throwing up Sylar's Alchemist on the cliff next to it. Thus rendering Sylar unable to finish the job and leaving Roshan on low health. After killing off one or two heroes, Alliance could finish Roshan for themselves. [match link]
The last part of the episode features the dramatic ending to Team DK vs Speed (later Cloud9), MLG Columbus 2013 finals, game one. One key clash was featured in the first episode and this episode shows the last two minutes of the game where a drawn out and hectic team fight takes place inside Speed's base. A Divine Rapier changed owner multiple times during the fight. [match link]
Episode Three - supreme clash control
The video is initated by some hookshot action, two times in a row did Trixi's Clockwerk stop Funn1k's split pushing Prophet in Fnatic vs Na`Vi from The International 3's group stage. It didn't matter if Funn1k's is invisible or not, Trixi found him anyway. Shadow Blade Prophet was extremely common and very useful when split pushing, afterwards it started to fall off. [match link]
In the second scene, Fnatic took on Dignitas, also in the group stage of TI3. They opted to push out Dignitas tier one top tower but got outplayed in the clash to follow. Out of the woods came two centaurs controlled by Dignitas' wayto and the first stun struck two heroes but the second centaur managed to stomp four! As if that wasn't enough, during the stomp duration they all get struck by Fogged's Call Down which he stole from Era's Gyro which Gyro used just a second earlier. Fnatic got massively controlled while the glaives from Aui's Luna finished them off. At this time it was not uncommon to see Chen versus Enchantress match-ups. [match link]
The International 2 was probably the meta of wombo combos, and in the match Na`Vi vs Tongfu, the Chinese squad did get their Naga which they used to sleep all five Na`Vi heroes as the CIS squad was killing Roshan. However, they lacked the follow up and it was instead LightofHeaven who found a supreme vacuum, pulling four of Tongfu's heroes in just in front of Puppey's Enigma who did not hesitate to throw out the Black Hole. Na`Vi wiped Tongfu while all surviving, despite having Mass Serpent Wards beating at them throughout the entire fight. [match link]
LGD.int vs Orange at the group stage of The International 3 also saw a great vacuum usage. Dark Seer was a popular pick during this era, for his good laning, itemisation and team fight presence. LGD.int jumped into Mushi's Shadow Fiend with multiple heroes but Orange delayed the gank by using Global Silence. Surviving long enough in the fight, Mushi managed to throw out his Requiem half a second before he died, resulting in both the manually triggered skill and the deathrattle one getting cast at the same time. Three heroes instantly exploded. [match link]
In the same game as the Play, Na`Vi vs iG at TI2, where Na`Vi got demolished in game one and were in need of two straight victories to continue their winner bracket run, they went their own path and picked Juggernaut which was considered a risky pick. They used it as a combo breaker because of the triggered spell immunity of Blade Fury which XBOCT in this scene uses right after he got vacuumed to avoid the ravage. LightofHeaven's triggered his Black King Bar as the ravage travelled out to strike him, thus the ravage affecting nobody. However, instantly after the ravage was cast, Dendi had already stolen it as Rubick and blinked into the midst to ravage three enemy heroes. The BKB'd LightofHeaven could then walk in and Black Hole said heroes. IG were surely scratching their heads after that fight. [match link]
Episode one featured an elimination game from TI3 where Orange took out the giants of DK, pulling off a huge upset using Magnus and Ursa. Here's another scene from the same game where Ky.xY blinked into the Rosh pit to avert the ongoing Roshan attempt. He quickly RP'd four heroes and skewered them up on the high ground where an overpowered Ursa was waiting to demolish all four of them in an instant. Mushi shown a vast diversion this event, almost playing a new hero every game. After the tournament, he was recognised for his talent and moved to China to join Team DK, forming a super team that lasted a year. [match link]
The last scene of the episode is from the wild card qualifiers of TI3, where Quantic took on RattleSnake from China. The winner of the match would move on to play at the actual TI group stage. A lot were at stake and in this infamous moment, Sockshka charged in as Sven and had a good opening to stun two to three heroes. However, he ended up targeting his stun on Beastmaster's boar which, by the time of impact, had slacked behind the heroes, resulting in the stun splashing on nobody and Quantic losing their initation. Without the stun giving Sven room to go crazy, Quantic lost the edge and eventually the fight. RattleSnake won the wildcard match 3-1 and advanced to the group stage. Quantic were eliminated and disbanded after the event. [match link]
Episode Four - outplayed!
Episode four starts off with xy's escape in Zenith vs DK, TI3, playing as the Dark Seer. Chased by five heroes, he looked to be proper done for. However, out of nowhere he turned around to vacuum all five opponent heroes up to the ledge at the Rosh pit. Unable to chase after him due to being stuck on the cliff, they could do nothing but to watch him run away with low health. [match link]
In late 2013 and early 2014, there was a competitive rivalry going on between iG and DK which usually were the two teams meeting up in the finals of events. In the G-League 2013 finals, DK got the better trade and won the match 3-0 and the third game featured Mushi playing Slardar and iceiceice on Invoker. IG were killing Roshan and an amplify damage gave Mushi the vision of the process. He picked the perfect timing to run in and crush four heroes followed by Iceiceice throwing out the meteor and the defeaning blast to immobilize those heroes further. During all this, Roshan went to DK and Mushi took the Aegis. [match link]
Next scene features mechanicswhich probably were the most annoying thing to play against ever. In the winner bracket semi final of The International 3, Na`Vi and Tongfu had tied the series 1-1 and was playing the third deciding game. Tongfu was leading and it looked as if it'd be Alliance vs Tongfu in the winner finals. Na´Vi however had one final ace up their sleeve. They used Chen to send back Pudge to the fountain just as he had hooked a target, thus having the target travelling back to fountain along with him. Na´Vi then used these mechanics to take out key heroes before fights even began, such as Doom Bringer or the Gyrocopter carrying the Aegis. The multiple fountain hooks managed to get Na`Vi back in the game as Tongfu had no idea how to play against it, eventually scoring Na`Vi the victory. The mechanics were nerfed after the event, and nowadays the target will just travel to Pudge's initial position when hooking, thus not following him to the fountain. [match link]
Meracle once again showed how to survive and help others survive with Wisp. In the match FD vs RattleSnake at TI3 qualifiers, he successfully pulled his team mate out of harm's way using relocate. The opponents awaited Meracle's return to at least get that one kil but Meracle prepared himself and bought a Blink Dagger. Once he relocated back in, he instantly blinked into the inaccessible trees in Radiant's base and teleported away before they could find him. No hesitation at all. [match link]
In game 3 of Sigma.int vs Na`Vi in the playoffs of the first Dota 2 Champions League final, Puppey's Chen (playing as Radiant) had his three creeps waiting just up the ramp at Dire's Ancients. They noticed miGGel's Gyro approaching and instantly stunned him using a centaur as he went up the ramp. Afterwards, Puppey moved down two of his creeps to block off the path back down, while Mirana threw an arrow onto the Gyro. Once the stun ended he tried to shoot his way out of the creep block but Puppey even used Hand of God to fully heal the creeps, ensuring that Gyro would get nowhere - except the grave. Na´Vi won the game but Sigma.int won the match 3-2, eliminated Na´Vi and eventually took third place. [match link]
In the third deciding game of the MLG Columbis final between DK and Speed, Speed found new ways to ensure the victory and to render DK helpless. Chen would trigger the send-back onto EternalEnvy's Clinkz, Clinkz would then get forced twice followed by blinking into the enemy barracks, triggering BKB and start to damage them. DK would commit time and heroes to stop him only to watch him getting pulled out due to the send back seconds after. Using this method, eventually Speed took out the barracks. [match link]
As perhaps noticed, most scenes are from the TI2 era and forwards. Prior to this, replays were not publically available in Dota 2 and the DotaTV system we today take as granted was not established. Hence why plays from even earlier days are hard to find in a high quality video source.
The videos are made and produced by GosuGamers' crew member Toni Töyräs, you can find him on Twitter under @tniin. For more videos and future episodes, check out GosuGamers' YouTube channel.
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