Druidz with newly added Loda take on phe`V's Empire Gaming in a three-game series of HonCast Tournament VII
The first of the finals to lead to a full three-game series sees some impressive plays and unusual hero and item choices.
Druidz vs Empire Gaming game 1
Match ID: 4221496
Bans are Engineer, Zephyr, Fayde, Soulstealer, Plague Rider and Hellbringer. Soulstealer is the only surprise, but it makes sense, he's one of the most popular carries in toplevel games.
I'm personally quite happy to see a Chipper and a Corrupted Disciple, especially in the hands of Scandal and phe`V. Druidz take advantage of Accursed not being banned, and picks him up. This game was played before today's patch, so his ultimate still is activated manually at 400 health.
Druidz are relying on Forsaken Archer and Arachna to carry, they make a great combo in fights because of Arachna's aura increasing the damage and the Web Shot making it easier for FA to land the Crippling Volley.
The question is how they're gonna lane, as both sides have great mid heroes in CD/Chipper and Arachna/Forsaken Archer.
We end up seeing Chipper vs Arachna and a Pesti/Slither lane up top vs Accursed/Soul Reaper - a hell of a strong lane healing-wise. In fact, Pestilence and Slither try for a bloodlust early on, but they just can't keep up with the amount of healing SR and Accursed can put out, even at level 1.
Bottom is a babysit/carry vs babysit/carry with Jester/CD going up against Glacius/Forsaken Archer - the lane is pretty even for the early game, and so is top. There are a bunch of one-for-one kills, but the real story is the great farm CD is getting, picking up Ghost Marchers only 6:30 in. He can chase so well, and add on more and more auto-attacks that scale exponentially with Cursed Ground. Voodoo Jester is such a strong support hero, and Cursed Ground is an ability that scales so well.
The bloodlust kill comes for Chipper, who takes out Loda's Arachna who almost suicides chasing a rune. Chipper is dominating mid with twice as many kills and twice as many denies at one point. A bit later he picks up an invisibility rune, and Arachna realizes something is up, but can do nothing as Chipper gets some Jester assistance and unleashes thre rockets, a tar and a Sawblade right underneath Arachna, who drops in a second.
Chipper is doing some brilliant moves in mid as well, turning around a three-on-one gank, dodging a volley, nuking down Glacius and escaping with his life.
Poor Glacius is low-level as usual, the downside of playing the support/ward bitch class. He's so weak that as soon as he gets caught alone, he just dies immediately.
phe`V is playing Corrupted Disciple without any Conduit, and going for a Sustainer early, most likely for a Nullstone, which blocks so much of the Legion's offense, including Arachna's ultimate, Glacius's ice Imprisonment, the Soul Reaper ultimate and Accursed's Cauterize.
The Static Discharge choice pays off at the 20-minute mark, as phe`V escapes with only a sliver of health, moving too fast for Accursed or Soul Reaper being able to catch him.
It just continues like this, Chipper and CD is annihilating everything in their past with great support from Voodo Jester, Slither and finally Pestilence's portal key initiation. Meanwhile, Arachna and Forsaken Archer keep getting killed. Empr is dominating with Chipper and CD close to 400 gold/minute, barely any deaths and their kills just keep coming.
The death-knell is when CD is confident enough to dive into Druidz's well to kill Forsaken archer, giving her the 12th death. This game was a complete steamroll from minute one.
Empr leads 1-0.
Druidz vs Empire Gaming game 2
Match ID: 4226477
Bans are Engineer, Zephyr, Fayde, Vindicator, Plague Rider and Chipper. After what happened last game, I'm not surprised to see Chipper banned. The Vindicator ban isn't all that unusual.
Too bad, it's me, Blacksmith! A stun/frenzy support for Swiftblade makes a deadly duo. Druidz pick up a Pebbles, who can combo to his heart's delight now that Vindicator has been taken out of the picture.
Druidz team has some insane AoE damage, all they need is one good tempest ultimate and they can easily take out the entire enemy team with their combined ultimates.
Empr surprises me by not going Blacksmith/Swiftblade, but Slither's slows do just as well (actually better early game), as they go up against Pebbles/Glacius. In fact, they do get a very early bloodlust kill, all they need is a spray and a spin. It doesn't take long until they can do the same thing again, twice, killing Glacius and Pebbles with the same lethal combo. Tempest finally comes to the bottom lane to put a stop to the serial killing, and they do succeed in taking out both Swiftblade and Slither, but losing Pebbles in the process.
Bottom is the action lane this game, as kills come left and right - Tempest is there to help out and evening things out a bit, the dangerous stuns from the three heroes now is putting up a good defense, taking out the squishy Slither a few times.
Pollywog is up against Soulstealer mid, and is holding his own, keeping up with kills/denies, and in fact getting a kill on Soulstealer early on.
Hellbringer is left alone up top against Witch Slayer/Blacksmith, and he isn't doing too great either, dying a couple of times early game, to the dangerous stun combination from his opponents.
phe`V is on a rampage, roaming the entire map, killing things left and right with his Ghost Marchers speed and his spin taking out the squishy heroes he runs into.
After a start that indicates Empr is going to continue the steamroll from last game, Druidz starts coming back with some intelligent play and smart ganks, especially on Slither. As soon as they reach mid-game, their insane synergy starts showing itself, as Witch Slayer and Swiftblade is so close to getting a double tap on top, but Tempest and Hellbringer's ultimates puts a stop to that.
As soon as they pick up a portal key or two they are going to be incredibly dangerous. At the 14:30 mark Druidz show exactly what I'm talking about, Empr chasing a weak hero or two and suddenly Druidz appear, combo their ultimates and completely turn it around. Tempest has the portal key now, and now it's Danger City come team-fight time.
At the 20-minute mark, they get a near-genocide and follow it up with a Kongor kill. Soulstealer picks up the token, and Druidz are now in firm control of this game.
Swiftblade is picking up an Assassin's Shroud which is an odd choice, but the way he's been playing it so far, he's been a ganker, and obviously shroud makes it even easier to take out heroes one on one.
phe`V is still running around killing heroes left and right, but Loda's Pebbles is a strong ganker as well (he has even picked up a level 2 Codex for extra awesomeness), and once the entire Druidz pushes at a team, there's nothing Empire Gaming can do without any magic immunity - the combined might of Malphas, SS and Tempest is just too much. It leads to a genocide and a base tower kill down bottom.
This is a very entertaining game, with some unusual item pickups (Nullstone on Soulstealer!) and fun teamfights. Druidz are strong and in control, but Empr is by no means out, getting some good kills, especially phe`V playing Swiftblade.
A Kongor attempt at the 35-minute mark turns into a team-fight, and subsequent slaughter from Druidz's side, ending up with 4 kills and 0 deaths - I keep repeating it, but there's just not anything Empr can do without magic immunity. Without the level 20 Swiftblade, Empire Gaming are too weak, Slither is still level 9 and Blacksmith level 11. Meanwhile Druidz is averaging level 18.
However, leave Swiftblade untouched, and he annihilates the Hellbourne team, his spin stopping all the magic, and his unrelenting pure damage output eating the weak intelligence heroes alive - we see an example of this at the 39-minute mark.
Empr holds out for a long long time, but once Druidz got their team ready and coordinated, they couldn't recover.
Empr concedes at the 45-minute mark, and equalizes it out to 1-1. We have a game 3 incoming.
Druidz vs Empire Gaming game 3
Match ID: 4231447
Bans are Engineer, Zephyr, Fayde, Hellbringer, Soul Reaper and Chipper. The Hellbringer ban is probably a reaction to last game, where the combination with Tempest completely destroyed in teamfights. Soul Reaper is the other new ban, but it doesn't raise any eyebrows very high.
Pyromancer is one of my personal favourites, especially when played by a player of phe`V's caliber, and if ikzu can get some good use of Magmus's ultimate, Druidz again have a strong AoE team, but obviously nowhere close to last game.
phe`V's Pyro goes mid against Hubris's Soulstealer, and phe`V is playing incredibly aggressively, chasing Hubris far back into his own forest, keeping him far away from the creeps, and as a result, Pyromancer is completely dominating on creep kills and denies. He picks up an invisibility rune in his bottle, uses it, and picks up a haste rune immediately after, goes and stalks Soulstealer, but then does absolutely nothing, standing still and then doing a few auto-attacks and then misses a stun. Such a wasted opportunity.
Arachna/Accursed goes bottom to face Slither/Pestilence, where things are fairly static until the 5:30 mark where they get a one for one exchange, with Arachna getting the bloodlust kill on Slither and then dying. Once the fight cools off, a hasted Pyromancer sprints down bottom and catches Pestilence alone, and killing him.
Forsaken Archer and Plague Rider are top vs Magmus/Puppet Master - it's an evenly matched lane in terms of no kills happening, but Forsaken Archer is getting a great amount of last hits, leading the game at 39 creep kills at the 8 minute mark. Shortly afterwards, Pestilence comes top to get a kill, but a great volley from Forsaken stops that in its track, and both him and Magmus dies with nothing to show for it.
The early game belongs to Empr without a doubt, sitting at 7-1 in the first 10 minutes. The games slows down after this, Empr go around the maps looking for ganks, but nothing huge. A few team-fights take place, with the results being even for both teams. While it looks even, you only have to look at the individual's farm to see that Empr is far ahead, 7.5k gold advantage at the 18 minute mark, and Forsaken Archer and Arachna leading the pack with 320 and 260 g/m, compared to Puppet being the only one on Druidz over 200 g/m at 205.
Soulstealer goes for Posthaste, hoping to increase that farm as much as possible, with his ability to annihilate entire creep waves with two Demon Hands.
At the 21-minute mark, Empr does a double-lane push. Two towers are down in the toplane, and Pyromancer leads a creep wave mid lane, but doesn't take down a tower. Empire Gaming is in a strong firm lead right now.
Forsaken Archer picks up her Shieldbreaker, and follow it up with a Kongor kill and gives the token to Arachna, who's mind-controlled a Wolf Commander for an extra +base damage% aura. The token ends up being a bit wasted though, as Arachna is caught alone down bottom, and killed twice.
Meanwhile, the last mid tower goes down thanks to FA, and Empire Gaming is now with a huge tower advantage, having lost none and killed five. The sixth tower kill comes shortly afterwards, and Forsaken Archer pays for it with her life.
Their heroes are so vastly over-farmed compared to Druidz's and it's not gonna be long before this game is over, unless Druidz pull a miracle out of their hat.
The concede comes at the 33 minute mark, and Empire Gaming wins the HonCast Tournament VII, being the second-to-last team to qualify for the final eight-team playoff.
Links
HoNCast - DrDz vs Empr game 1
HoNCast - DrDz vs Empr game 2
HoNCast - DrDz vs Empr game 3
The first of the finals to lead to a full three-game series sees some impressive plays and unusual hero and item choices.
Druidz vs Empire Gaming game 1
Match ID: 4221496
Bans are Engineer, Zephyr, Fayde, Soulstealer, Plague Rider and Hellbringer. Soulstealer is the only surprise, but it makes sense, he's one of the most popular carries in toplevel games.
I'm personally quite happy to see a Chipper and a Corrupted Disciple, especially in the hands of Scandal and phe`V. Druidz take advantage of Accursed not being banned, and picks him up. This game was played before today's patch, so his ultimate still is activated manually at 400 health.
Druidz are relying on Forsaken Archer and Arachna to carry, they make a great combo in fights because of Arachna's aura increasing the damage and the Web Shot making it easier for FA to land the Crippling Volley.
The question is how they're gonna lane, as both sides have great mid heroes in CD/Chipper and Arachna/Forsaken Archer.
We end up seeing Chipper vs Arachna and a Pesti/Slither lane up top vs Accursed/Soul Reaper - a hell of a strong lane healing-wise. In fact, Pestilence and Slither try for a bloodlust early on, but they just can't keep up with the amount of healing SR and Accursed can put out, even at level 1.
Bottom is a babysit/carry vs babysit/carry with Jester/CD going up against Glacius/Forsaken Archer - the lane is pretty even for the early game, and so is top. There are a bunch of one-for-one kills, but the real story is the great farm CD is getting, picking up Ghost Marchers only 6:30 in. He can chase so well, and add on more and more auto-attacks that scale exponentially with Cursed Ground. Voodoo Jester is such a strong support hero, and Cursed Ground is an ability that scales so well.
The bloodlust kill comes for Chipper, who takes out Loda's Arachna who almost suicides chasing a rune. Chipper is dominating mid with twice as many kills and twice as many denies at one point. A bit later he picks up an invisibility rune, and Arachna realizes something is up, but can do nothing as Chipper gets some Jester assistance and unleashes thre rockets, a tar and a Sawblade right underneath Arachna, who drops in a second.
Chipper is doing some brilliant moves in mid as well, turning around a three-on-one gank, dodging a volley, nuking down Glacius and escaping with his life.
Poor Glacius is low-level as usual, the downside of playing the support/ward bitch class. He's so weak that as soon as he gets caught alone, he just dies immediately.
phe`V is playing Corrupted Disciple without any Conduit, and going for a Sustainer early, most likely for a Nullstone, which blocks so much of the Legion's offense, including Arachna's ultimate, Glacius's ice Imprisonment, the Soul Reaper ultimate and Accursed's Cauterize.
The Static Discharge choice pays off at the 20-minute mark, as phe`V escapes with only a sliver of health, moving too fast for Accursed or Soul Reaper being able to catch him.
It just continues like this, Chipper and CD is annihilating everything in their past with great support from Voodo Jester, Slither and finally Pestilence's portal key initiation. Meanwhile, Arachna and Forsaken Archer keep getting killed. Empr is dominating with Chipper and CD close to 400 gold/minute, barely any deaths and their kills just keep coming.
The death-knell is when CD is confident enough to dive into Druidz's well to kill Forsaken archer, giving her the 12th death. This game was a complete steamroll from minute one.
Empr leads 1-0.
Druidz vs Empire Gaming game 2
Match ID: 4226477
Bans are Engineer, Zephyr, Fayde, Vindicator, Plague Rider and Chipper. After what happened last game, I'm not surprised to see Chipper banned. The Vindicator ban isn't all that unusual.
Too bad, it's me, Blacksmith! A stun/frenzy support for Swiftblade makes a deadly duo. Druidz pick up a Pebbles, who can combo to his heart's delight now that Vindicator has been taken out of the picture.
Druidz team has some insane AoE damage, all they need is one good tempest ultimate and they can easily take out the entire enemy team with their combined ultimates.
Empr surprises me by not going Blacksmith/Swiftblade, but Slither's slows do just as well (actually better early game), as they go up against Pebbles/Glacius. In fact, they do get a very early bloodlust kill, all they need is a spray and a spin. It doesn't take long until they can do the same thing again, twice, killing Glacius and Pebbles with the same lethal combo. Tempest finally comes to the bottom lane to put a stop to the serial killing, and they do succeed in taking out both Swiftblade and Slither, but losing Pebbles in the process.
Bottom is the action lane this game, as kills come left and right - Tempest is there to help out and evening things out a bit, the dangerous stuns from the three heroes now is putting up a good defense, taking out the squishy Slither a few times.
Pollywog is up against Soulstealer mid, and is holding his own, keeping up with kills/denies, and in fact getting a kill on Soulstealer early on.
Hellbringer is left alone up top against Witch Slayer/Blacksmith, and he isn't doing too great either, dying a couple of times early game, to the dangerous stun combination from his opponents.
phe`V is on a rampage, roaming the entire map, killing things left and right with his Ghost Marchers speed and his spin taking out the squishy heroes he runs into.
After a start that indicates Empr is going to continue the steamroll from last game, Druidz starts coming back with some intelligent play and smart ganks, especially on Slither. As soon as they reach mid-game, their insane synergy starts showing itself, as Witch Slayer and Swiftblade is so close to getting a double tap on top, but Tempest and Hellbringer's ultimates puts a stop to that.
As soon as they pick up a portal key or two they are going to be incredibly dangerous. At the 14:30 mark Druidz show exactly what I'm talking about, Empr chasing a weak hero or two and suddenly Druidz appear, combo their ultimates and completely turn it around. Tempest has the portal key now, and now it's Danger City come team-fight time.
At the 20-minute mark, they get a near-genocide and follow it up with a Kongor kill. Soulstealer picks up the token, and Druidz are now in firm control of this game.
Swiftblade is picking up an Assassin's Shroud which is an odd choice, but the way he's been playing it so far, he's been a ganker, and obviously shroud makes it even easier to take out heroes one on one.
phe`V is still running around killing heroes left and right, but Loda's Pebbles is a strong ganker as well (he has even picked up a level 2 Codex for extra awesomeness), and once the entire Druidz pushes at a team, there's nothing Empire Gaming can do without any magic immunity - the combined might of Malphas, SS and Tempest is just too much. It leads to a genocide and a base tower kill down bottom.
This is a very entertaining game, with some unusual item pickups (Nullstone on Soulstealer!) and fun teamfights. Druidz are strong and in control, but Empr is by no means out, getting some good kills, especially phe`V playing Swiftblade.
A Kongor attempt at the 35-minute mark turns into a team-fight, and subsequent slaughter from Druidz's side, ending up with 4 kills and 0 deaths - I keep repeating it, but there's just not anything Empr can do without magic immunity. Without the level 20 Swiftblade, Empire Gaming are too weak, Slither is still level 9 and Blacksmith level 11. Meanwhile Druidz is averaging level 18.
However, leave Swiftblade untouched, and he annihilates the Hellbourne team, his spin stopping all the magic, and his unrelenting pure damage output eating the weak intelligence heroes alive - we see an example of this at the 39-minute mark.
Empr holds out for a long long time, but once Druidz got their team ready and coordinated, they couldn't recover.
Empr concedes at the 45-minute mark, and equalizes it out to 1-1. We have a game 3 incoming.
Druidz vs Empire Gaming game 3
Match ID: 4231447
Bans are Engineer, Zephyr, Fayde, Hellbringer, Soul Reaper and Chipper. The Hellbringer ban is probably a reaction to last game, where the combination with Tempest completely destroyed in teamfights. Soul Reaper is the other new ban, but it doesn't raise any eyebrows very high.
Pyromancer is one of my personal favourites, especially when played by a player of phe`V's caliber, and if ikzu can get some good use of Magmus's ultimate, Druidz again have a strong AoE team, but obviously nowhere close to last game.
phe`V's Pyro goes mid against Hubris's Soulstealer, and phe`V is playing incredibly aggressively, chasing Hubris far back into his own forest, keeping him far away from the creeps, and as a result, Pyromancer is completely dominating on creep kills and denies. He picks up an invisibility rune in his bottle, uses it, and picks up a haste rune immediately after, goes and stalks Soulstealer, but then does absolutely nothing, standing still and then doing a few auto-attacks and then misses a stun. Such a wasted opportunity.
Arachna/Accursed goes bottom to face Slither/Pestilence, where things are fairly static until the 5:30 mark where they get a one for one exchange, with Arachna getting the bloodlust kill on Slither and then dying. Once the fight cools off, a hasted Pyromancer sprints down bottom and catches Pestilence alone, and killing him.
Forsaken Archer and Plague Rider are top vs Magmus/Puppet Master - it's an evenly matched lane in terms of no kills happening, but Forsaken Archer is getting a great amount of last hits, leading the game at 39 creep kills at the 8 minute mark. Shortly afterwards, Pestilence comes top to get a kill, but a great volley from Forsaken stops that in its track, and both him and Magmus dies with nothing to show for it.
The early game belongs to Empr without a doubt, sitting at 7-1 in the first 10 minutes. The games slows down after this, Empr go around the maps looking for ganks, but nothing huge. A few team-fights take place, with the results being even for both teams. While it looks even, you only have to look at the individual's farm to see that Empr is far ahead, 7.5k gold advantage at the 18 minute mark, and Forsaken Archer and Arachna leading the pack with 320 and 260 g/m, compared to Puppet being the only one on Druidz over 200 g/m at 205.
Soulstealer goes for Posthaste, hoping to increase that farm as much as possible, with his ability to annihilate entire creep waves with two Demon Hands.
At the 21-minute mark, Empr does a double-lane push. Two towers are down in the toplane, and Pyromancer leads a creep wave mid lane, but doesn't take down a tower. Empire Gaming is in a strong firm lead right now.
Forsaken Archer picks up her Shieldbreaker, and follow it up with a Kongor kill and gives the token to Arachna, who's mind-controlled a Wolf Commander for an extra +base damage% aura. The token ends up being a bit wasted though, as Arachna is caught alone down bottom, and killed twice.
Meanwhile, the last mid tower goes down thanks to FA, and Empire Gaming is now with a huge tower advantage, having lost none and killed five. The sixth tower kill comes shortly afterwards, and Forsaken Archer pays for it with her life.
Their heroes are so vastly over-farmed compared to Druidz's and it's not gonna be long before this game is over, unless Druidz pull a miracle out of their hat.
The concede comes at the 33 minute mark, and Empire Gaming wins the HonCast Tournament VII, being the second-to-last team to qualify for the final eight-team playoff.
Links
HoNCast - DrDz vs Empr game 1
HoNCast - DrDz vs Empr game 2
HoNCast - DrDz vs Empr game 3
