In a shocking upset, Team DK pulls out an exceptional draft phase that counters out MVP Black's strong playstyle in the current meta which propels them to a seat at Blizzcon.
After an amazing opening cinematic and an hour and a half delay, the Superleague championships began. In this series, new counters to the bruiser-centric meta rose out of DK to ultimately defeat MVP Black, including strong Illidan and Abathur synergies from DK Noblesse and DK Sniper respectively. DK focused heavily on target banning MVP Lockdown with 5 bans on Sonya and 4 on Zeratul, although Zeratul has shown a low win rate in Superleague. This draft strategy found a weak point in MVP and forced them to stray from double melee assassin compositions that have shown favor in recent weeks. DK sCsC rose to the occasion and played fantastically on both Arthas and Tyrael, often turning or stalling fights for his team.
G1: Cursed Hollow
Draft // Game Start
As mentioned in the introduction, DK revealed an extremely strong draft phase that caught MVP offguard and even forced MVP Lockdown on Thrall in the first game by banning the Butcher and Sonya. Zeratul was chosen for KyoCha, but was countered by both Tassadar and a high sustain oriented team composition out of DK. DK Sniper and Noblesse were allowed to play the Abathur and Illidan combination that had high potency on Cursed Hollow versus Snake last week. During the first fight over the objective, Team DK takes a strong fight through sustaining. Cmoving’s Tassadar stalled the objective while DK regenerated and eventually overtook MVP’s more burst style composition.
Afterwards, MVP Sake gets caught in bottom lane and DK takes the curse on the opposite side of map. DK proceeds to begin their boss as MVP pushes middle lane. MVP motions to take their own boss but rotate back top to clear DK’s boss. Because of MVP’s rotation to clear boss, DK takes MVP’s boss which is near the third curse and gains massive momentum. DK takes every mercenary camp on the map by the 9th minute of the match and maintains a 2 level advantage.
Multiple fights afterwards highlight DK’s dominance this game:
- An intense fight shows DK’s sustain once again
- DK clears MVP through an amazing sCsC judgement that knocks everyone off of the capture point
- A solidifying fight under the second curse
- Cmoving, sCsC and Sniper 3 vs. 5 MVP at their boss and take it, winning the game
G2: Dragon Shire
Draft // Game Start
In game 2, MVP bans out Cmoving’s Jaina and sCsC's Arthas but DK prevents Sonya and Azmodan, who are strong in stacking damage on the smaller Dragon Shire. MVP again decided to run the double melee assassin with Zeratul and the Butcher this time. DK once more found a way to beat the aggressive compositions MVP creates. In game 2, this was achieved through Tyrael's sanctification, which often saved a teammate who was stuck in Lamb of the Slaughter.
Key highlights of game 2 are as follows:
- A back and forth fight that turns into MVP taking the first DK
- Sanctification saves DK sCsC after Lamb of the Slaughter locks him down and DK wins a fight
- DK often patiently waited for Zeratul to engage and even trapped him a few times. Superleague teams found many ways to counter Zeratul as the season progressed
- DK wins a fight and takes the second Dragon Knight for their team, their double tank strategy was incredibly strong versus the double melee assassin setup
- DK takes a game winning fight to take a final Dragon Knight
G3: Tomb of Spider Queen
Draft // Game Start
In game 3, the Azmodan pick snuck through for MVP and has high potential on Tomb of the Spider Queen. In response, DK constructed a team focused on rotating and keeping Azmodan locked down. sCsC was placed on Arthas, whom he had an 8-0 record on before this game. For some reason, DK also banned Zeratul although he was easily beaten in the first two games.
Game 3 was particularly hectic and came down to a few late game pick-offs, here are the highlights:
- A level 1-2 fight gives DK 2 kills. DK focused on early rotations and ganks, typically following Azmodan
- MVP takes the first Spider Queen and a few small fights and pickoffs. Later, this snowballs into a second Spider Queen.
- A 1 for 1 trade, however Malfurion gets caught out. DK ends up getting their next Spider Queen through the distraction.
- MVP rallies and takes a convincing fight that progresses into a turn-in.
- DK turns in but MVP black pushes for a win as they reach 20 first. This attempt is unsuccessful.
- Noblesse flanks around and catches Azmodan to stall game and reach a turn-in.
- DK pushes up to MVP’s base but Azmodan wittles them down. KyoCha eventually snipes Johanna and returns favor to his team.
- Heroics are traded and a fight proceeds with both teams extremely hesitant. Sniper gets caught and MVP pushes for a win.
- sCsC’s first loss on Arthas in Superleague
G4: Sky Temple
Draft // Game Start
In game 4, MVP looked to continue momentum but had a shaky draft that was countered heavily by DK. E.T.C. was chosen over other tanks for MVP to synchronize with their AOE team composition and then Sylvanas was quickly chosen to negate any Mosh Pits from E.T.C. Cmoving was given Sgt. Hammer, a hero he was 2-0 with and DK continued to ban melee assassins.
Game 4 was quite dominant for DK, key highlights are as follows:
- DK took 1.5 early temples through a pickoff on Raynor
- Through a series of fights DK outmaneuvers MVP and takes the boss with an eventual 2 level lead
- Sniper catches ETC offguard with Wailing Arrow and DK collapses on MVP
- ETC gets caught again and DK takes two shrines advancing to a 3 level lead.
- A game winning fight, DK comes back in dominant form.
G5: Garden of Terror: Game to Watch
Draft // Game Start
In game 5's draft phase, both the Lost Vikings and Rehgar were banned because DK goes for their strong Abathur and Illidan combination. In response, Brightwing was chosen by MVP, who is pretty strong versus the engage of DK. Game 5 is the game to watch because of how close the battle was, in the first two objective rounds there were perfect 90-90 seed splits and mercenary rotations.
Many back and forth fights littered the map, here are the key ones to watch:
- Sonya attempts to solo the bruiser camp and DK Noblesse and sCsC rotate and steal through a 4v4 teamfight.
- MVP turns a back and forth fight by kiting back when sCsC flanks.
- sCsC gets focused down by MVP but DK’s sustained damage with Illidan and Abathur shred through MVP.
- MVP prevents DK from getting a double terror
- DK takes a 4-1 fight at MVP’s bruisers but Sake gets a kill on Abathur afterwards
- MVP avoids a strong DK rotation and split the seeds.
- A 2 for 2 trade as the objective spawns
- A won fight for MVP that leads to a Tyrael kill after a chase
- A game winning fight, Brightwing’s polymorphs were highly effective this game
G6: Infernal Shrines
Draft // Game Start
In game 6, DK was forced off of a lot of choice heroes and MVP takes Sgt. Hammer, who is a great pick on the Infernal Shines due to its nooks and crannies to shoot from and her ease at taking objectives. MVP went for the Butcher pick again to lockdown DK’s carries and overall had a stronger draft by knocking sCsC off of Arthas and Tyrael and Sniper off of Abathur.
The highlights for the final game are as follows:
- DK takes a convincing fight because Sgt. Hammer wasn’t in the best positioning
- DK fights around Sgt. Hammer and summons an Arcane Punisher that propels DK to a 3 level lead and heroics.
- Another dominating objective take for DK and a Frozen punisher that destroys the inner keep.
- DK takes 30-2 skeletons and a convincing fight to push MVP’s core to 44%.
- Skirmish that leads to MVP taking first punisher.
- MVP tries to push down DK core but DK fights in a more organized way. Leads to a base race and DK winning.
With this victory, Team DK, originally a crew of ex-Starcraft players, have earned their spot at BlizzCon through a hectic, inaugural season for Korean Heroes of the Storm.
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