The Summit 7 Grand Finals: Game-by-game draft analysis between Team Secret and Virtus Pro.
In case you haven't heard, Virtus Pro made their way to the Grand Finals of The Summit 7 in style, playing a total of 60 unique heroes in 12 games. In other words, they were playing their own elimination mode, not repeating a single hero at all. That is pretty amazing, isn't it? People started wondering if VP would continue with this unique drafting style in the best-of-5 Grand Finals against Team Secret. With 112 heroes available in Captain's Mode (Techies not available), VP were left with 52 heroes to choose from in a best-of-5 against Secret. Possible? Yes, but insanely difficult considering Secret gets to ban 5 heroes as well.
Although it might seem like a troll (or throw) with the drafting style that VP adopted, we'll see later in the draft analysis that most of their drafts actually had a plan and synergized quite well. Crazy huh? With that said, let's get on with the game-by-game draft analysis and head into the brilliant minds of Clement 'Puppey' Ivanov and Alexey 'Solo' Berezin.
Game 1: Secret's Global Strat
1st Phase
With limited supports left in the VP's 'pool', Puppey decided to focus his 1st phase bans on supports – Io and Lion. Solo actually prioritizes banning Maurice 'Khezu' Gutmann's Enigma and Yazied 'Yapzor' Jaradat's Clockwork in the 1st phase (as can be seen in his bans in game 2, 3, 4 and 5). However in game 1, he banned Khezu's Dark Seer instead.
This is because Solo knew that Puppey wouldn't first pick the Enigma and he wanted it for his team. True enough, Puppey went for first pick Sand King and Solo responded with Naga Siren + Enigma, a stable and versatile opening with huge team-fight potential. Puppey quickly picked up the Silencer as an instant counter to the Enigma. At the end of phase 1, both teams have picked heroes that are extremely versatile and can fit in multiple roles.
2nd Phase
In the 2nd phase, Solo banned away Yapzor's Rubick and Puppey's Crystal Maiden. Both these bans were pretty obvious, especially the Rubick ban as VP already had an Enigma in play and Yapzor is a monster on the Grand Magus. Puppey replied by banning Juggernaut and Viper, both of which VP has not played yet at the Summit 7. Solo then went on to pick up the Lich for himself as well as Phantom Assassin.
The Lich pick is pretty weird as Secret's lineup does not have any heavy physical damage which Lich's Ice Armor excels against. However, it seems like VP is looking to take an early lead with the double deny mechanic of Demonic Conversion and Sacrifice. It also adds more team-fight damage with Chain Frost. PA is a hero that VP has not picked yet and is good at jumping heroes like Silencer, either bursting him down before Global Silence or forcing a sub-optimal one. Puppey responded by picking up Spirit Breaker and Zeus, creating some sort of a global strat.
Zeus works pretty well in the draft, partly as he is a hero that plays on the outside of the fights and Lightning Bolt is a pretty good backup option to cancel Blackhole (without BKB) if Silencer gets caught in it or has already used Global. In addition, Zeus's ultimate is one of the best ways to find the real Naga and can also be used to set up Spirt Breaker's Charge of Darkness, as well as the plain fact his heavy burst of magical damage ignores Lich's Ice Armor.
3rd Phase
In the last phase, Solo banned away Pyo 'MP' No-a's Faceless Void as Secret's lineup synergizes extremely well with a position 1 FV. Puppey removed Tidehunter in the last ban, expecting Naga to be mid and Enigma to be jungling. Tide would be a pretty good pick here for VP as the hero is a natural carrier of Mekansm / Guardian Greaves and Pipe which can totally negate the huge magical AOE burst that Secret's lineup currently have. Moreover, the team-fight prowess with Blackhole and Ravage which can be set-up by Naga's Song of the Siren is pretty terrifying. To complete their global strat, Secret picked up the Spectre for MP. And for whatever reason, VP decided to last pick the Monkey King.
Win Condition
Virtus Pro has drafted a lineup that is very strong during the laning phase. They need to dominate their lanes extremely hard and bring that momentum into the mid game. As for Secret, they are okay with being down during the laning phase. Khezu's blink timing on the Sand King is extremely crucial for Team Secret as he needs to be the playmaker for his team. Both him and / or Puppey's Spirit Breaker need to set up the kills for Secret to come back in the mid game with their global ultimates.
Conclusion
I feel that Secret's draft counters VP's pretty hard. Solo's Lich is pretty much going to be food this game and Ice Armor is pretty useless against what Secret has. Moreover, the Enigma is going to have such a tough time getting off a good Blackhole with the constant threat of Global Silence. As such, so much weight is on Vladimir 'No[o]ne' Minenko's PA to carry the game. Even if Ilya 'Lil' Ilyuk's Naga manages to come online and transit into a carry, Secret has the right answers to combat against a farmed Naga. Unless VP totally crushes the laning phase and snowballs from there, it's pretty hard to see them winning against this lineup of Secret.
Draft Advantage: Team Secret 70% - Virtus Pro 30%
Game 2: VP's counter to Secret's Deathball Strat
1st Phase
Puppey stuck to the same bans as game 1, removing Io and Lion once again. As mentioned earlier, Solo banned away Enigma and Clockwerk which is going to be the same for the remaining of their games in the Grand Finals. Secret with first pick went for the Sand King once again, a strong and versatile opening. VP responded with No[o]ne's Queen of Pain and Lil's Bounty Hunter, both of which they have yet to pick. Back in the days, Lil was pretty well-known for his Bounty Hunter, constantly sniping enemy couriers and giving his team valuable information with his sneaky movements.
Puppey then replied with a Dragon Knight pick for Zheng 'MidOne' Yeik Nai. DK is a good pick here as he is extremely tanky with Dragon Blood and can survive the early ganks from BH long enough for his supports to rotate in. One thing to take note is that it is extremely rare for both team's mid hero to be picked in the 1st phase of the draft. However, with VP already showing their hand with the first two picks, Puppey felt comfortable to pick up his mid hero early on.
2nd Phase
Solo went on to ban Khezu's Dark Seer as well as Puppey's Spirit Breaker. I actually quite like the SB ban here. Not only is it a pain for QoP and BH to play against, the hero is also a pretty good counter against VP's early game aggression. Both Timbersaw and Batrider were really good bans by Puppey as they would counter Secret's lineup quite well. Sand King and Dragon Knight are both Strength heroes which Timbersaw excels against and Batrider's Sticky Napalm can be extremely annoying for DK during team-fights. Solo drafted the Morphling and Skywrath Mage in the 2nd phase.
I believe that Solo has already planned for the Morphling to be an offlane utility with the long duration stun of Adeptive Strike but wanted to bait Secret into thinking that it was a carry Morphling. Reason? The 4.25 seconds stun at level 4 is an extremely deadly combo when combined with Skywrath's Mystic Flare. Adeptive Strike and Mystic Flare have a cast range of 900 (level 4) and 1200 respectively which means Skywrath can kill Secret's heroes without putting himself in danger. The biggest downside to this combo? Force Staff completely counters it. Puppey responded with a Yapzor's Windranger and MP's Pugna.
Despite Windranger being one of Yapzor's classic heroes, I would have preferred the Rubick for him in this game. Both heroes have a lockdown (Shackleshot vs Telekinesis) which is good against heroes like QoP. Although Shackleshot stuns for longer (3.75s vs 2.25s), the instant lift from Telekinesis can be crucial. On top of that, both heroes have an AOE nuke (Powershot vs Fade Bolt) which are pretty similar in the grand scheme of things. However, if you compare their 3rd spell and ultimate, Rubick does so much more as compared to the Windranger. VP's lineup is hugely magical damage and the effect from Null Field can be extremely critical as compared to Windrun which doesn't really do much. Moreover, there are already so many nice spells for the Rubick to steal - Track, Blink, Sonic Wave, Morph (strength gain) and so on. Moving on, the Pugna pick by Secret will amplify their pushing potential together with the Dragon Knight. Also, the Nether Ward from Pugna is extremely effective against VP's heroes (Skywrath, QoP, Morphling).
3rd Phase
Solo decided to last ban the Weaver. I believe that VP was afraid of a utility Weaver that goes Aghanim's Scepter more than the carry Weaver. VP's lineup specializes in bursting one hero down extremely quickly and Weaver's Aghanim Time-Lapse would be the hard-counter to that. As for Puppey, he decided to respect ban No[o]ne, removing his best hero – Shadow Fiend, expecting the QoP to be in one of the side lanes instead. Puppey went on to last pick his own classic Enchantress, completing the deathball pushing lineup for Secret. Doom was the last pick by Solo, making it the 70th unique hero played by VP at the Summit 7.
Win Condition
With the last pick Enchantress, Puppey pretty much sealed Secret's game-plan into a 5-man deathball pushing strat. The Enchantress seeks to give Secret an advantage during the laning phase. With this early advantage, Secret will look to group up and take down every outer tower of VP's. With the map control and farm lead, they will then take Roshan and attempt to high-ground with the Aegis. As for VP, they will try their best to slow down this 'optimal' deathball timing of Secret. One such way is to pressure either the Dragon Knight or Pugna right from the start with their strong duo roaming supports. Without a good start on either hero, Secret's deathball timing will be delayed. Also, VP will want to take as many 'scrappy' fights as possible. 'Scrappy' fights are best for VP as any hero trades will always favor the team with Track and also prevent Secret from deathballing.
Conclusion
I honestly don't like the Windranger and Enchantress pick by Secret. Both Windrun and Untouchable is pretty much useless as most of VP's damage is magical. Also, trying to deathball against a team like VP is extremely tough. They are really good at taking 'scrappy' fights and disrupting the tempo of the 5-manning team. Also, Secret need an early Force Staff on one of their backline heroes if not the deadly combo of Adeptive Strike + Mystic Flare is going to kill the front-lining Pugna instantly, putting an immediate stop to the push. That being said, the deathball of Secret looks really scary and should VP make any mistakes, Secret will definitely be able to punish it severely.
Draft Advantage: Team Secret 46% - Virtus Pro 54%
Game 3: Drow Strat vs Dazzle-Huskar Strat
1st Phase
VP stuck with the same bans on Enigma and Clockwerk whereas Secret banned Io and Riki. After Lil's performance of Bounty Hunter in game 2, Puppey was afraid of another invis roaming support for VP, which explains the Riki ban over the Lion. Crystal Maiden was then first picked by Secret followed up with Pavel '9pasha' Khvastunov's Batrider and Lil's Earth Spirit by VP. Although this opening from VP lacks versatility, it was still a pretty strong opening for them considering the limited hero pool they were left with. Secret then replied with a Faceless Void which could either be Khezu's or MP's hero. FV's Time Dilation works rather well against both of VP's opening heroes.
2nd Phase
In the 2nd phase, Solo decided to ban away 2 heroes which can combo very well with Chronosphere – Sand King and Queen of Pain. As for Puppey, he removed the Lion targeted at Solo, and Clinkz which would be extremely good against an offlane FV. VP went on to pick Solo's Dazzle and No[o]ne's Viper. The Dazzle is a defensive support which is good at saving allies caught in Chronosphere and the Viper is a tanky front-liner that can cause problems on the side of Secret. Puppey replied by drafting the Rubick for Yapzor and Drow Ranger for MP, the classic Drow strat with 4 range + Faceless Void. Contrary to game 2, I feel that the Rubick pick here isn’t as good. Although Null Field is still valuable here against the Magical AOE damage of Batrider and Earth Spirit, these heroes do not have the best spells for Rubick to steal. Instead, a Yapzor Windranger this game with Drow's Precision Aura could do so much more.
3rd Phase
Razor was banned by Solo in the last phase as he is one of the few heroes that has a favorable match-up against Viper in the mid-lane especially with Drow Aura. Puppey banned away the Phantom Lancer which is one of the carry counters to Drow, being able to close the distance and swarm the Drow with illusions. Puppey rounded up his draft with MidOne's Lina, a hero that has huge early game magical burst and can transit into a fearsome late game hero too. As a response, Solo instantly picked up the Huskar for Roman 'Ramzes666' Kushnarev, looking to cheese Secret in game 3 with Dazzle + Huskar.
Win Condition
The Viper and Huskar for VP are super strong laners and have no problems winning their lanes against any of Secret's heroes. As such, the VP duo supports are free to roam and gank any lane they deem fit. Pressuring the Drow in the laning phase is super important as it slows down her farm and level progression. Moreover, Batrider is one of the best heroes to pressure against a Drow Ranger that doesn't have the supports with her. This means that Secret's supports are forced to help the Drow, leaving both the mid Lina and offlane Void on their own.
With the superior laning that VP is going to have, Secret will not be able to group up and push down towers effectively as every Drow strat would hope to. However, if the cores of Secret manages to match the farm of VP's cores going into the late game, Secret does stand a chance with items such as Silver Edge and Heaven's Halberd. It will be extremely difficult to reach that point though and Secret has to rely heavily on Khezu's Chronosphere in winning the mid game team-fights to turn the tide of their early disadvantage.
Conclusion
With the Huskar and Viper, the pace of the game will be extremely fast for VP and the lineup of Secret will have a hard time keeping up. VP understands that Chronosphere is the only thing that could thwart their aggression and should be able to play around it.
Draft Advantage: Team Secret 40% - Virtus Pro 60%
Game 4: VP 80th unique hero in 16 games
1st Phase
The 1st phase bans of both teams were exactly the same as game 3. With Lion left in the 'pool', Solo quickly snagged it up. Puppey responded with the standard pick up of Crystal Maiden and Sand King. VP then went on to pick Juggernaut which is a strong and versatile hero still left in VP's 'pool'.
2nd Phase
Puppey banned out the Undying and Winter Wyvern in the 2nd phase, both heroes that would do well against his upcoming picks. Solo targeted his 2nd phase bans on MidOne's heroes, removing both the QoP and Silencer. Moving on, Puppey picked up Bristleback as well as Templar Assassin for MidOne. It is super surprising to see Bristleback untouched up until game 4. As for the TA, it is a pretty decent pick as Lion will become food for the TA. Not to mention, the standard laning counters to TA (I.e. Silencer, Veno, Viper) are either banned or no longer in VP's pool,TA is good against Juggernaut as she is one of the few heroes that is able to burst down a Blade Fury-ing Juggernaut and Refractions can be used to tank Omnislash.
Solo replied by picking up Axe and Brewmaster. VP lacked an initiator and Axe was one of the only few left for VP to pick. Also, Axe's Berseker's Call forces Bristleback to face the front where burst damage such as Finger of Death could be huge. As for Brewmaster, it is a pretty good counter to the Bristleback as you can keep him in the air for a long period of time during team-fights. Cyclone from the Storm Panda has a 6 seconds duration and a 8 seconds cooldown, leaving only 2 seconds of down time. Also, Permanent Immolation from the Fire Panda and Drunken Haze are extremely good tools to deal with TA.
3rd Phase
Puppey decided to ban away Storm Spirit which is one of the few mid-laners left that can lane decently up against a TA. As for Solo, he banned Timbersaw and picked Terrorblade for Ramzes666, leaving No[o]ne with the mid Juggernaut. Terrorblade is a really good pick here, as a strong laner against Bristleback with his base armor of 7 (which is the highest in the game) and huge damage output from Metamorphosis. The high armor of TerrorBlade is extremely useful to mitigate the physical damage from TA and Bristle's Quill Spray. Likewise, Sunder is super effective against heroes like Bristleback in the mid and late game team-fights.
Puppey, with a stroke of genius, last picked the Necrophos for MP. Necrophos is a super strong laner that can hold his own against Axe, and Ghost Shroud is super effective against Juggernaut's Omnislash until Jug gets a Diffusal Blade. On top of this, Reaper's Scythe provides Secret the possibility to burst down heroes like Terrorblade and Brewmaster before they can cast their respective ultimates (Sunder and Primal Split).
Win Condition
Secret has 3 cores that are extremely strong at laning on their own. This means that the duo supports of Secret are able to make early game movements and pose a constant threat to all 3 lanes. VP has to be able to read the movements of Secret's supports and be prepared for these early ganks. If Secret manages to get an early advantage, the snowballing potential and momentum that their lineup has is extremely scary. As for VP, they need to minimize their disadvantage during the laning phase and utilize important timings such as Axe's Blink Dagger and/or Brewmaster's level 6 to take favorable team-fights to comeback in the mid game.
Conclusion
Both drafts are quite solid with decent counters to each other. However, I feel that the last pick Necrophos swings it back slightly into Secret's favor. It provides the sustain that Secret's lineup currently lack, and at the same time counters the cores of VP.
Draft Advantage: Team Secret 54% - Virtus Pro 46%
Game 5: The Master Bait
Prelude
So it was down to the wire, game 5 of the Grand Finals at The Summit 7! What a story it would be if VP went on to defend their Summit title with 0 repeated heroes. It seemed like VP themselves were debating if they should or should not continue with their own elimination mode.
@BlazeCasting mentioned in his tweet that "Solo rolled a 14/100 in the lobby" of game 5. Thereafter, @hellofronz, who is the BTS admin inside VP's room, commented that "They wanted to flip a coin at first but we didn't have one".
Without the coin, Solo decided to do a roll in the lobby and the outcome probably decided that VP was going to do away with the elimination mode. With that said, let continue back into the draft analysis of game 5.
1st Phase
Puppey, with no knowledge that VP had decided to draft normally, went with the same bans as game 3 and 4 – Io and Riki. Solo also stuck to the same bans of Enigma and Clockwerk. Puppey went on with the same opening of Sand King and Crystal Maiden. Secret finally realized that a normal draft was happening when Solo picked up the Dark Seer + Sven. VP has always been one of the best teams to utilize their Dark Seer Vacuum combo and picking it up for 9pasha together with Sven's Storm Hammer seems like a good way to start the draft.
2nd Phase
Solo banned away Queen of Pain and Faceless Void in the 2nd phase. As for Puppey, he decided to remove Solo's Disruptor, which is one of VP's favorite combo with their Dark Seer; and Night Stalker, whose early game roaming potential could be really scary with an Ion Shell on him. Solo responded with a Warlock for himself and Death Prophet for No[o]ne. Warlock is one of Solo's go-to picks and it amplifies VP's team-fighting potential tremendously.
As for the Death Prophet, it is a strong laner that provides the pushing capabilities that VP's draft currently lacks, while also adding more team-fight with Silence as well as Exorcism. Puppey replied with Nyx Assassin (Spiked Carapace is extremely good at disrupting Dark Seer's combo) and Medusa. With what seemed like the 3 cores (Dark Seer, Sven, Death Propeht) of VP already picked up, Puppey felt that Virtus Pro's lineup isn't very good at dealing with a late-game Medusa. Should the game go late, Secret can just play around a farmed Medusa in the front-lines, making it difficult for VP to get off their desired combo.
3rd Phase
VP's last ban on Invoker is a really good choice for several reasons. Invoker is extremely good at creating chaos with spells like Tornado and EMP to disrupt the combo that VP's draft is capable of. With heroes like Sand King and Nyx Assassin, Secret's gank potential is increased tremendously with the threat of Sunstrike, and Ice Wall and Cold Snap are some of the best spells to kite a Sven. On the other hand, Puppey banned away the Slardar which is one of the most common combo with Dark Seer both during the laning phase and in team-fights. Razor was then picked for MidOne which has a decent lane matchup against Death Prophet. Also, Static Link is pretty effective against Sven and it works well together with Stone Gaze. Down to the final pick, Solo completely out-drafted Puppey with the Anti-Mage.
Secret focused their 2 core picks on countering the carry Sven. Solo's response? Change Sven to a support and pick a carry that hard-counters the cores of Secret. Anti-Mage is one of the best (if not best) carry counter to Medusa. Medusa relies heavily on her Mana Shield to boost her tankiness. However, Anti-Mage's Mana Break is the direct counter to it. Also, Medusa tends to build items that gives her lots of stats (Linken's Sphere, Eye of Skadi, Manta Style). This is usually good as more mana also means more HP for Medusa. However, it becomes a double-edged sword against Anti-Mage as a timely Mana Void will just destroy Medusa. Last but not least, Anti-Mage can just Blink out whenever Razor Static Links him.
Win Condition
The win condition for VP is quite straightforward – Move around as 4 and take objectives whenever their big ultimates (Exorcism, Chaotic Offering) are available, creating space for the Anti-Mage to farm up and become massive. As for Secret, it feels the support duo of Sand King + Crystal Maiden need to make things happen with their early game ganks to give their team the early advantage. A crucial timing for Secret would be the Blink Dagger on Sand King where they can start setting up kills and pick offs together with the Nyx Assassin. In a passive farming game, VP will definitely pull ahead with the insane farm speed of a Battle Fury Anti-Mage. With VP having the far superior team-fight and Anti-Mage hard-countering the Medusa, it feels that Secret needs to snowball from the laning phase or have some massive late-game outplays to secure the game 5 victory.
Conclusion
From picking unique heroes up until the final game of the Grand Finals to baiting counters for a carry Sven only to last pick Anti-Mage, Solo sure has many tricks after his sleeves. It was quite the show put up by VP's drafter and captain and I think it is safe to say that Puppey got out-drafted in game 5 of the Summit 7 Grand Finals.
Draft Advantage: Team Secret 35% - Virtus Pro 65%
It was an AMAZING run by VP as they played a total of 81 (out of 85) unique heroes amongst a pool of 112 heroes. One can only wonder what would happen if Solo rolled a number greater than 50 in the lobby. Would they have won the Summit 7 in a more outstanding fashion than it already is? Or would it have costed them the victory? I guess that is something we would never find out. Nonetheless, a BIG THANKS to Virtus Pro for the great show and CONGRATULATIONS for defending the Summit title!
