ESWC Replay Analysis Winner

After much deliberation, GosuGamers' crew finally declared a winner for ESWC Replay Analysis Contest, held last weekend. Congratulation to 'ins' from Bulgaria who won a unique signed Q-Pad from ESWC top three best teams namely EHome, DTS and MYM. The Winner gets his replay posted below while other participants replays analyses can equally be view in the Dota forum.

Picks and Lanes
EHOME	DTS
Sentinel EHOME.820.CN (Bot) EH.GIGABYTE.X!! (Mid) EH.GIGABYTE.AAA (Top) EH.GIGABYTE.357 (Roaming) EH.GIGABYTE.lJy (Bot)	Scourge DTS|Dread (Top) DTS^NS (Roaming) DTS)Light (Top) DTS|Dendi (Mid) DTS|ArtStyle (Bot)

Ban Analyses

Ehome banning Chen, Pugna, Enigma and Beast Master did not surprise anyone. Dread’s Chen was superbly throughout the whole tournament and DTS used junglers like Chen and Enchantress very often at ESWC. The Beast Master ban is also a favorite hero of DTS who used it successfully and Light’s BM was one of the reasons DTS put up a good fight at a previous game against Ehome. Having in mind the intelligence work done by DC no one is surprised Ehome knew the strong heroes DTS got and their good push strategies.

Pugna and Enigma at the other hand are heroes which 820 kept on banning at every game. If you notice all the Ehome games both of these heroes were banned always either by the Chinese or their opponents. Ehome’s team fight is based on good positioning next to each other and a good black hole is a nice way to counter their movement during the teamfights. On top of that Nirvana.cn abused an Enigma strat against Ehome just before the ESWC. Pugna also counters Ehome’s strat because they rely on spell oriented heroes such as Lion, Storm or Earth Shaker for example in order to build up a combination of well timed disables. A well placed Pugna ward can distract every combination and on top of that Pugna’s Blast can easily abuse Ehome’s positioning during the teamfights.

In the end all of these heroes are good pushers and Ehome knew their weaknesses and that they can lose in this tournament only to a well prepared push strategy. A good example for my words is what BG DoTA did to Aeon earlier during this tournament and how with a good push strat you can win even against better teams, especially if they are not prepared for it during the picking phase.

DTS at the other hand banned Broodmother, Visage, Morfling and Doom. A lot of respect shown to King.J with these banns. He played an incredible Broodmother against Aeon and Lost, “enormous” Visage and Doom against DTS. Ehome are also very good at using these heroes and everyone knows that it is a huge mistake if you let them pick game turning heros such as them. Excellent bans from DTS in my opinion. One may argue and say that X’s Lion is more ban worthy or Burning’s Meduza is a must ban; but in fact daidai can play just any other ganger like Storm or Puck and perform as good as with his Lion and Burning can carry with PL, Drow, Morfling or SF aswell. However Doom, Brood and Visage banns are really important especially against a team that knows how to abuse them such as Ehome.

BANS
EHOME	DTS

Draft Analyses

Ehome are on the first picks picking Vengeful Spirit. She is known as one of the best supports, also a perfect roamer than can be lined almost everywhere and fits the most line ups, a first pick material with no doubt. 820 plays a very good VS and having in mind that NS also is well known with his VS it is a very wise decision to first pick her. DTS respond with first picking Crystal Maiden and Witch Doctor – the other best supporters out there that can also fit any line up. Both teams are not revealing their strats with these picks, they rather pick the best supporters.

Ehome get Lion and Meduza as their 2nd and 3rd hero. X’s Lion impressed during the tournament. This hero is an extreme ganger and in the hands of weapon X is really scarry. Meduza at the other hand is picked as their main carry and I am sure no one needs an explanation about the power of Meduza. DTS answer with Drow Ranger and Shadow Fiend picks forming a sort of range dps oriented strat with the damage aura from Drow and negative armor aura from SF.

Ehome don’t get scarred and pick Earth Shaker as their second supporter and Kunkka as their semi-carry. They are definitely trying to stick to their game plan. Earth shaker is a good answer to DTS’s Shadow Fiend pick in order to counter his lane dominance with roaming. Indeed a very good strategic planning from Ehome. Kunkka + Vengeful spirit is a famous powerful lane that gives a lot of options for roaming too and increase Ehome’s gang and team fight power. DTS’s last pick is Razor. I’d say a poor pick that shows that DTS are going to turtle this game. I personally think that with this bad last pick DTS lost the game letting their line up without any kind of disables and teamfight power.

Line up Analyses

Ehome have 1 main supporter on the face of Vengeful Spirit, 1 support ganger – Earth Shaker; a main ganger from Lion; Kunkka that plays the role of semi-carry and Meduza as their main carry. This is a pretty standart line up used in the Chinese competitive gaming. The top teams from China very often opt for such a strat trying to outplay and counter pick their opponents. Ehome’s draft gives them a lot of laneing options and pretty solid team fight combinations thanks to their strong gang trio of vengeful, earth shaker and Lion. In addition to that Kunkka is also a solid ganger and teamfighter but a decent carry too. Ehome obviously will try to gain a lane and mid game advantage while giving Meduza a lot of room to farm.

DTS at the other hand have 2 main supporters – Crystal Maiden and Witch Doctor; 1 semi-carry in the face of Shadow Fiend and 2 carriers with Razor and Drow Ranger. This is a 3 core strat that was used in 6.64 and got famous during SMM. A strategy that relies on defensive play, counter ganging and late game power. They also have a strong range dps potential thanks to Drow’s and Shadow Fiend’s auras and Razor’s ultimate. However in my opinion this line up is very outdated and not really successful at the current meta game.

Lane Assignment

Ehome put Lion at mid so that he can farm a fast dagger and gain a map control with gangs. DTS put Shadow Fiend at mid because this is their most level dependent hero. Also Shadow Fiend is a wise option for laneing against Lion because of his strong lane control which could help to slow down Lion’s dagger rush.

Ehome place at bottom their Vengeful Spirit and Kunkka forming a gang lane that can assure some kills. DTS get razor there as he is a good soloer that can survive the most lanes.

Ehome get Meduza and Shaker at their top lane. A defensive lane where Earth Shaker can easily protect Meduza from gangs and in the same time gang at mid Shadow Fiend. DTS have Drow Ranger and Witch Doctor at top lane. WD is a good protector for Drow and can make use of the pulls at top scourge lane. DTS also have a roaming Crystal Maiden that is trying to predict Earth Shaker’s movement and protect both Drow Ranger at top and Shadow Fiend at mid. A good strategic move from DTS indeed.

Early Game

The game starts aggressively from the beginning. Earth Shaker and Vengeful spirit are moving a lot while CM is trying to predict their moves and protect her carries. The first blood comes at the 2nd minute after a well timed combination of stun and torrent from VS and Kunkka.

The result by the 6th minute is 4 to 0 for Ehome after few good gangs from VS and ES and they gain solid early game advantage which ensures them winning the lanes and taking map control at mid game.


The warding is pretty common. Both DTS and Ehome put rune wards to their long lanes and DTS put also a lane ward at top making sure no gangs are coming for their Drow Ranger. What makes impression is that Ehome keep their 2nd ward until the 5th minute when they realize how exactly is DTS going to lane and where they should put pressure during early-mid game.

In general the early game is all about roaming and movement. Ehome does really better at this period and gain an early game advantage. They are able to win 2 out of 3 lanes and despite their Meduza is struggling at top they are putting pressure at this lane trying to harm Drow’s perfect farm from early on. At the other hand DTS’s defensive pick is not able to do much against this aggressive roaming and only NS’s CM is trying to predict Ehome’s gangs. This makes CM getting under leveled and she is not even able to support her team with aura to give her team some early and mid game advantage.

Creep stats and kills/levels from the laning phase by the 10th minute mark:

Creep Scores
EHOME	DTS
Sentinel EH.GIGABYTE.AAA: 12/2 EH.GIGABYTE.X!!: 37/7 EH.GIGABYTE.lJy: 61/20	Scourge DTS)Light: 47/25 DTS|Dendi: 40/9 DTS|ArtStyle: 19/4

Mid Game

At mid game Ehome are trying to use their early game advantage and put pressure at top where Light has farmed well, while DTS are trying to kill Kunkka at bottom and defend/counter gang during the rest of the time. Ehome are winning the mid game too thanks to X’s Lion who with his dagger is able to do some nice gangs. After few successful gangs Ehome are able to push the first top and bottom towers. The result at one point is 15/7 to Ehome and they have a nice map control, but DTS are not giving up and try their best to counter gang and farm.

At the end of the mid game it seems that both teams are holding down for awhile and are preparing for the incoming team fights by reducing the ganging and concentrating on the farm.

What also makes impression is that Burning is able to get 70 creep kills for 10 minutes and catch up to the rest and even pass up DTS carriers with his farm. King.J is leading with the farming and has Vanguard and Lothars Edge by the 20th minute mark.

Late Game

Late game starts with Vengeful Spirit, Lion and Earth Shaker trying to gang while Meduza and Kunkka are pushing from Ehome’s team. While the 3 carriers from DTS farming up whatever they can. Ehome are warding Scourge’s forest in order to gain vision for eventual gangs and pushes.

At the end of the 24th minute the first team fight happens. Ehome are perfect as always and end the team fight with 5 kills and no deaths. Oh what a teamplay by the Chinese.


After this team fight Ehome are able to push tier 2 top tower, the inner top tower and the bottom tier 2 tower while DTS are respawning. The result now is 24/7 for Ehome and Earth Shaker gets a dagger .


At the 26th minute mark VS and Lion are able to kill WD which gives Ehome the opportunity to push 2nd mid tower and after that get Roshan. Ehome are quickly moving to top where there is no tower to push the raxes. After a very organized team fight they kill all the 5 DTS players losing only Kunkka. DTS are typing GG and Ehome are victorious.

In this picture you can see how well positioned are Ehome during a team fight and how good Earth Shaker and Lion are timing their disables.


Also the final screenshot


Final Notes

Ehome picked a very well balanced line up for the current meta game. They put a lot of effort to win the early game with some really good map movement that ensured them 2 out 3 lanes won. At mid game they chose really smart where to put pressure on and used their early game advantage just perfectly. Ehome kept game control throughout the whole game and didn’t give any breathing space to DTS. Overall a great performance from Ehome who showed good organization, perfect teamplay and strong understanding of the game.

DTS at the other hand had a very defensive 3 core line up. They had a decent early game, but they lacked the supports to effectively defend at early. NS’ effort was not enough to ensure them an equal early game. At mid they tried their best to counter gang, but due to the early dagger from Lion and a very good warding from Ehome it was really hard. Ehome used DTS weak team fight line up and desided to finish early before DTS get strong.

Congratulations and thank you to all participants!

Links
Download Replay - ESWC Grand Final
Dota Forum - Other Participants Analyses