Roccat.Trust Surprises Nirvana Cherry

Relive one of the best matches in WDC, where it shows what we can expect to happen in SMM when the best teams from around the world come to compete. So without further ado here we go!

Roccat.Trust vs Nv.Cherry
Bans
Picks

Captain's Phase
We'll start off with the bans by Roccat who removed Windrunner, Witch Doctor and Shadow Fiend. The first two are decent bans against any team while the ban on YaphetS' legendary SF is understandable. Nirvana on the other hand bans Batrider and Doom, both of whom are strong disablers which can quickly eliminate an opponent hero during fights.

Their third ban was Broodmother, yet another standard ban to prevent any massive lane pushes.

As for the picks, the Sentinels chose Oblivion, Crystal maiden, and Morphling. Cyrstal is well known for her two gank-oriented skills while her aura provides decent global mana regeneration. Pugna is of course a great all-round hero which can deal heavy amounts damage in fights and acts great as a solo pushing machine. Morphling is yet another decent pick probably because of its early nuke/escape mechanism as well as unrivaled late-game potential.

Meanwhile, the Chinese goes with Vengeful Spirit, Enigma, and Necro'lic. VS of course provides a decent stun for ganks while her aura, terror and swap greatly assists her teammates during fights and pushes. Enigma would be the next obvious choice because VS is already taken by them (she is one of two heroes, the other being Silencer, who can cancel Enigma's ultimate even if the latter had BKB). Visage is also a great pushing/ganking hero that is popular among the Chinese.

In the second phase of the bans, Trust removed Lion and Storm to reduce Nirvana.cn's ganking potential. Lastly, Nirvana quickly bans Silencer (refer to above paragraph for reason) and Earthshaker (its long range stun can disrupt any early/late game engagements).

The Sentinel picks Rouge Knight primarily for its area stun and boost in armor and Clockwerk (the most interesting hero in the pool) while the Scourge picks Faerie Dragon (a strong solo laner, useful in engagements, another potential threat to Enigma) and lastly Gorgon, probably because her ultimate can remove Morphling's Manta Style illusions, if it bought one. Plus, she is yet another classic late-game pick.

GAME SUMMARY

Early Game
Nirvana placed their wards defensively on both sides of the river, and so did Trust. Gorgon, Visage goes to the top lane while Clockwerk follows suit. On the middle lane, it is Pugna versus Puck. Meanwhile, Enigma has contend with CM, Morphling and Rogue Knight on bottom lane.

Unsurprisingly, the trio made a tower dive on bottom lane and successfully earned first blood by killing Enigma after 3 minutes of play. Another kill on Enigma was scored barely a minute later. Getting the upper hand, played with increased aggression, killing both Puck and Vengeful spirit on mid lane. At 7 minutes' game time, the scores were in favor of Roccat.Trust 6 to 2. However, Nirvana successfully scored one tower down at top lane thanks to Enigma who easily made up for its two earlier deaths.

You can see how dominated the early game so well; Puck was constantly harassed by Pugna while Enigma was easily picked off. This could be contributed to the fact that Roccat.Trust's lineup is more gank-oriented, and their plan is to inflict as much damage as possible whilst giving Morph enough time to farm. Miraculously, Clockwerk successfully prevented Gorgon from farming an insane amount of items even though she was supported by Visage.



The following table shows the creep score at the 10:12 minutes mark.

Creep Scores
Roccat.Trust	Nirvana Cherry
Sentinel Roccat-Tr|TnK: 23/2 Roccat-Tr|tha-: 52/7 Roccat-Tr|LK-: 35/3	Scourge Nv.Cherry.ZS.AA: 50/18 Nv.Cherry.YS.AA: 35/8 Nv.Cherry.C.AA: 30/14

Mid-Late Game
During mid-game, both Morphling and Pugna recorded decent creep scores. The taking of Scourge's bottom tower only increased their money supply. Meanwhile, Nirvana were trying to regain lost ground and defend as best as they could to allow an under-farmed Medusa to catch up.

Roccat.Trust's wards were placed offensively; that adds to their ganking prowess. Even though Nirvana successfully dewarded most of the wards, the ball started rolling and Trust continued executing lethal ganks.

At around 18:50 game time, Roccat.Trust started pressuring top lane while Morphling pressures them on bottom lane. Roccat.Trust successfully dominates all the lanes with full out offensive wards on scourge's jungle. Thus, removing any advancement from Nirvana, leaving them out farmed and out-laned.


The following table shows the creep score at the 20:00 minutes mark.

Creep Scores
Roccat.Trust	Nirvana Cherry
Sentinel Roccat-Tr|TnK: 47/2 Roccat-Tr|tha-: 119/10 Roccat-Tr|LK-: 128/6	Scourge Nv.Cherry.ZS.AA: 117/24 Nv.Cherry.YS.AA: 72/10 Nv.Cherry.C.AA: 47/15

You can see Morphling solo-ing bottom while the others are on top trying to initiate a clash to give Morphling a break through. But Enigma managed to successfully kill Morphling on bottom lane, and still be able to defend their top lane barracks, also getting Rogue Knight and Clockwerk as well.




But still, it is too late for Nirvana to turn the momentum of the game to their favour. After Roccat.Trust regrouped, repeated the same strategy (4-1 push), Morphling went back to bottom lane while others prepared on the top lane. Nirvana refused to go head on in a massive clash but Sentinel was finally able to force a team fight, thus making a diversion for morph to freely destroy bottom barracks easily and killing all remaining Sentinel heroes.

Last Clash at Top Lane.


Morphling killing all heroes on sight.

Strategy Used:Counter Pushing
Counter Pushing is a very effective strat in crucial games, since Baracks are more important than kills

This can be achieved usually with a farmed Carry, four other heroes goes to clash against five while one hero rushing lane push and as well as destroying the barracks. In case your team lost the clash, and the carry managed to push one side, your team can still get the edge of the game. A very standard strategy.


Morphling Counter-Pushing on Bottom Lane.


Laning
How did early game laning affect the entire game?
Hero picks are very crucial, and as well as where you place and what role will they will perform. Visage can be a very good hero on a tri-lane, rather than supporting hero on a solo lane. Although re-adjusting lanes on early games will take time, it could have been worth it, rather than losing all three lanes.


Gorgon can be stable on top alone, or rather Enigma can go solo top. Nirvana should have fought bottom trilane with a bottom trilane. Gorgon, Vengeful, and Necro'lic can hold and take on Rogue Knight, Crystal Maiden, and Morphling. Mid lane was very in favor of Pugna, blasting creeps along with Faerie Dragon, and Maiden's aura supporting his mana pool. What Nirvana failed to have is a hard carry. Gorgon is a good hero on late game, but not as effective as any other hero on early-mid game, making Nirvana rely on late game situation. Roccat.Trust's line up was very well picked, Rogue Knight as support-semi carry, Crystal Maiden as full support, Morphling as hard carry at any phase of the game, making their trilane unstoppable. And letting Clockwerk and Pugna go solo for skill level advantages.

Game Conclusion
Lane control: Roccat.Trust
Farm in comparison: Roccat.Trust
Ganks: Roccat.Trust
Team fights: Roccat.Trust

Result: Roccat.Trust > Nirvana Cherry

Results could have been in favor of Nirvana if they did not mismanage their heroes and tried to figure out better lanes. But then again it still doesn't change the fact that Nirvana.cn's consistency through the tournament earned them the coveted World DotA Championship Crown.

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the editor.

Links
GosuGamers - Replay: Roccat.Trust vs. Nirvana Cherry