When your opponent first picks The Butcher and follows up with 2 other melee assassins and another melee support what choice do you have left?
Gazlowe is a popular hero, but not a strong one. He is rarely seen in competitive matches, and when he does make an appearance, he usually loses. There are many Gazlowe advocates in the Nexus. They cite his wombo-combo potential, split pushing and zone controlling abilities but, nevertheless, he's a niche pick at best.
And there is nothing wrong with that - not every hero has to be incredibly versatile. Some heroes are content to sit and wait on the sidelines, biding their time for the perfect moment to strike. The prime scenario that takes advantage of their narrow set of skills. The ideal set of conditions that makes an otherwise ineffective hero a vital part of the team.
That moment happened for Gazlowe today during the North American July Open.
The Ideal Scenario
COGnitive started the draft off by first banning Jaina and compLexity banned Zeratul; these heroes are considered to be the best in the game, so denying them both limits the risk of either team facing them. COGnitive then picked the Butcher, causing compLexity to in turn pick Uther and Tyrande. This is a great answer to the Butcher for several reasons. It denies the Butcher + Tyrande pick off synergy while also denying the burst healing and Divine Shield support The Butcher benefits so much from.
In turn, Kerrigan and Kael'Thas were chosen by COGnitive, which hinted at their strategy: win the early game with Kerrigan and The Butcher and ensure Kael'Thas gets to 16 and can close the game out. Kerrigan punishes Tyrande if she attempts to leave the safety of a lane and roam, but the early pick still leaves COGnitive without a support.
Knowing this, compLexity bans Malfurion, which is debatable. While it leaves Rehgar available that clearly synergizes with The Butcher and Kerrigan, it does deny the mana regen and sustainable healing that allows Kael'Thas to dominate a poking game. Another thing to consider is that banning Malfurion almost forces COGnitive to pick Rehgar- making that 3 melee heroes prone to clumping together.
COGnitive bans Zagara, which seems like a decision inspired by her strength on Sky Temple and less to disrupt compLexity's line up. At this point Uther and Tyrande were the only heroes chosen by compLexity, leaving them wide open for possible strategies.
The picks so far
Knowing that COGnitive gaming will almost assuredly pick Rehgar, what two picks would you make? CompLexity smells blood at the prospect of 3 melee heroes clumping together throughout objective battles on Sky Temple, and decides to choose Falstad and Johanna for Condemn and Hinterland Blast AoE synergy. Falstad's fragility is also lessened due to the heals from Uther and Tyrande, while condemn helps to set up more stuns from Tyrande.
As expected, COGnitive chose Rehgar, and decided to play to their strengths by last picking Illidan. With four melee heroes (three of them assassins) causing chaos in the front line, Kael'Thas has all the space he needs to stay safe and throw out Flamestrikes. With so many melee assassins in need of healing, it also synergizes with one of Rehgar's most powerful level 16 talents, Tidal Waves. This talent reduces the cooldown of Healing Wave by three seconds if it heals at least three heroes, an easy requirement to meet if the majority of your team are assassins that will focus on the same target.
The Turn
At this point, it looks like COGnitive has won the draft. With Jaina and Zagara already banned, compLexity has no option to punish the greedy melee heavy line up. Unless you consider Gazlowe, the widely regarded worst hero in the game. Maybe compLexity was planning the Gazlowe pick the entire draft, or maybe it was a clever moment of thinking outside the box - whatever it is, it worked beautifully.
COGnitive's pile on strategy of Melee Assassins became their biggest weakness by nature of the threat of a Gazlowe combo at every team fight. Defensive turrets and multi-hit lazers filled the match and ultimately, compLexity won. Despite Gazlowe being the kill target nearly every fight, with the combined burst healing of Tyrande and Uther (and a Hardened Shield pick at level 20), he managed to make several big plays and, at least for this tournament match, ignore his bottom tier label.
You can watch the game the Heroes of the Storm youtube channel, or on this past broadcast. The match starts at 3:38:00
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