DreamHon: Ladies and Gentlemen, it's a wrap! - Week 7 Recap
Is there a nicer way to end a tournament than with one of the most meaningful matches in the entire group stage? Probably not, so the Match of the Week title was pretty much a lock. The three other awards are going to the most dominating team of the group stage.
Match of the Week
DDOS1:2 Trademark eSports VoDs of this match can be found here
It was a match for all the glory, the playoff spot and a couple more matches and dollars. BreakyCPK would say it was for all the marbles, I would call it a "Loser leaves town" kind of match. DDOS versus Trademark eSports had a couple of awesome storylines surrounding it, with former Lions teammates squaring of and the looming threat of being out of the tournament hanging above the whole match.
Like those matches usually go, both teams started of very conservatively with a very slow start to game one evolving. That slow start was actually better for tdM, who had a favourable lane on their hardcarry Magebane, played by noobG, as opposed to Silhuoette, played by Reelo. Despite that better farm, the first big play came out from ZfreeK and DDOS, who got off a great ultimate from Tempest, resulting in a "Double Tap" for Fittske. Still Magebane farmed and farmed and farmed and held the top farm in GPM throughout the match. DDOS was ahead in general ressources, but the farm was spread onto four heroes. The next big engagement was actually an indication of the direction in which this match was heading. noobG and tdM forced a fight in the middle of the map and walked out with the first genocide of the match, featuring a great red powerthrow snipe by Aluna, played by fajN'. That lead to a couple of towers being pushed and a huge lead in farm for the Europeans, who walked away with the victory just one teamfight later.
The second match featured a brilliant ZfreeK limiting the farm of Draconis, played by Limmp. Throughout the match ZfreeK was microing the courier to the Ancient spot of the Hellbourne team, blocking every single spawn. ZfreeK didn't even use the normal version of that, meaning he didn't just parked his courier in the jungle to block it, but he flew it over the river every single minute to keep Draconis' farm in check. That resulted in a superior farm for swindlemelonzz and Reelo, who stormed through the entire team of tdM with ease, pushing the match to the highly anticipated Ace match.
That Ace match started off slow, but with a huge blunder from Fittske, who actually tried to block his own jungle against the opposing Legioneer, who used their jungle to farm. One second ZfreeK didn't pay attention to his courier micro and Limmp on Legioneer got awarded 300 gold for killing the bird. That gave Legio a solid start, that he couldn't use initially as his two first ganks failed, resulting in two kills for DDOS. So DDOS looked really solid with Draconis and Aluna doing a fairly good job in the farm department, but once again noobG's carrystyle would prove to be to much. His Corrupted Disciple steamrolled, actually steampunk'd, through every major teamfight, picking up "Double Taps" or "Hattricks" in almost every engagement. He quickly jumped over the 500 GPM mark and was just unstoppable in teamfights. After he got his Savage Mace and the Token of Life, DDOS tried one final engagement, after which they decided to concede and let tdM pass into the playoffs.
Team of the Week
compLexity Gaming
Drafter Carry Allrounder Support Support/Jungle
Bkid Haxxeren Moonmeander Franzii Chessie
This award is a complete no-brainer. compLexity Gaming has raised the bar in this group stages by getting the perfect score after seven matches. The team has not lost a single map, the team has picked up a prominent team as their partner and the team has conquered the absolute favorite status throughout this tournament. They proved to be a very capable team, capable of defeating everybody - and everybody in a dominant kind of way. Pretty much everyone has them winning this tournament, pretty much everyone considers them the best team in the world, pretty much everyone has them one step above everyone else. That, paired with the professional attitude of playing every game like you mean it, make the team so darn impressive and powerful. They are not only the team of this week, but the team of the entire group stage.
Individual Awards
Individual Award recipient
MoonMeander compLexity Gaming 6/3/9 1v2, initiate, gank? I can do it all
MoonMeander is one of the most controversial, yet most popular people in the Heroes of Newerth scene today. Still it was a little bit quite around him after coL got Haxxeren as the shining carry player. This week it was the return of the king, the return of the dominant MoonMeander. He got first blood by doing the math, he turned around on Amun-Ra with a brilliant play, he won his suicide long lane, getting two kills. To quote Tralfamadore, he was playing out of his mind. Even later in the game he managed to contribute immensely to the teams success. He was the player who initiated after his team lost the two Doombringer, so ultimately he brought those Doombringer back to his side. He was just doing it all and doing it perfectly.
Other notable players:
brized - Vitriolic : Shadowblade is a powerful hero, atleast in the eyes of brized, who wanted to show his skills on him for quite some time. In Week 5 they drafted him, but ended up losing that match to GA. So this Week brized played him again and showed what he and the hero are capable of doing. First four kills in the laning phase went to brized, some of them unassisted.
Zfreek - DDOS - "Being the nerd that he is", those were the words Mynuts and Tralfamadore found for the incredible play with the courier. With complete patience and awareness ZfreeK (not Fittske) microed the courier to the Ancient spots every single minute, not letting it slide even once. This guaranteed his team to keep Draconis' farm in check and ultimately lead to a good gold lead in the game.
Honorary Award
Having fun with it
compLexity Gaming saishii
One thing I don't really like is to forfeit a meaningless match, just go out and play it, have some fun with it. That is exactly what the two North American teams saishii and compLexity did this week. After one "serious" match, both teams went into a little bit of a fun mode, picking up heroes like Hellbringer, Bombardier, Amun-Ra or Empath. Getting into "unique" strategies like double Doombringer on Haxxeren's Silhuoette, supported by Chessie on Tempest going Doombringer first. This is how it should be, entertain your fans, entertain yourself and just have some fun.
Match of the Week
DDOS1:2 Trademark eSports VoDs of this match can be found here
It was a match for all the glory, the playoff spot and a couple more matches and dollars. BreakyCPK would say it was for all the marbles, I would call it a "Loser leaves town" kind of match. DDOS versus Trademark eSports had a couple of awesome storylines surrounding it, with former Lions teammates squaring of and the looming threat of being out of the tournament hanging above the whole match.
Like those matches usually go, both teams started of very conservatively with a very slow start to game one evolving. That slow start was actually better for tdM, who had a favourable lane on their hardcarry Magebane, played by noobG, as opposed to Silhuoette, played by Reelo. Despite that better farm, the first big play came out from ZfreeK and DDOS, who got off a great ultimate from Tempest, resulting in a "Double Tap" for Fittske. Still Magebane farmed and farmed and farmed and held the top farm in GPM throughout the match. DDOS was ahead in general ressources, but the farm was spread onto four heroes. The next big engagement was actually an indication of the direction in which this match was heading. noobG and tdM forced a fight in the middle of the map and walked out with the first genocide of the match, featuring a great red powerthrow snipe by Aluna, played by fajN'. That lead to a couple of towers being pushed and a huge lead in farm for the Europeans, who walked away with the victory just one teamfight later.
The second match featured a brilliant ZfreeK limiting the farm of Draconis, played by Limmp. Throughout the match ZfreeK was microing the courier to the Ancient spot of the Hellbourne team, blocking every single spawn. ZfreeK didn't even use the normal version of that, meaning he didn't just parked his courier in the jungle to block it, but he flew it over the river every single minute to keep Draconis' farm in check. That resulted in a superior farm for swindlemelonzz and Reelo, who stormed through the entire team of tdM with ease, pushing the match to the highly anticipated Ace match.
That Ace match started off slow, but with a huge blunder from Fittske, who actually tried to block his own jungle against the opposing Legioneer, who used their jungle to farm. One second ZfreeK didn't pay attention to his courier micro and Limmp on Legioneer got awarded 300 gold for killing the bird. That gave Legio a solid start, that he couldn't use initially as his two first ganks failed, resulting in two kills for DDOS. So DDOS looked really solid with Draconis and Aluna doing a fairly good job in the farm department, but once again noobG's carrystyle would prove to be to much. His Corrupted Disciple steamrolled, actually steampunk'd, through every major teamfight, picking up "Double Taps" or "Hattricks" in almost every engagement. He quickly jumped over the 500 GPM mark and was just unstoppable in teamfights. After he got his Savage Mace and the Token of Life, DDOS tried one final engagement, after which they decided to concede and let tdM pass into the playoffs.
Team of the Week
compLexity Gaming
Drafter Carry Allrounder Support Support/Jungle
Bkid Haxxeren Moonmeander Franzii Chessie
This award is a complete no-brainer. compLexity Gaming has raised the bar in this group stages by getting the perfect score after seven matches. The team has not lost a single map, the team has picked up a prominent team as their partner and the team has conquered the absolute favorite status throughout this tournament. They proved to be a very capable team, capable of defeating everybody - and everybody in a dominant kind of way. Pretty much everyone has them winning this tournament, pretty much everyone considers them the best team in the world, pretty much everyone has them one step above everyone else. That, paired with the professional attitude of playing every game like you mean it, make the team so darn impressive and powerful. They are not only the team of this week, but the team of the entire group stage.
Individual Awards
Individual Award recipient
MoonMeander compLexity Gaming 6/3/9 1v2, initiate, gank? I can do it all
MoonMeander is one of the most controversial, yet most popular people in the Heroes of Newerth scene today. Still it was a little bit quite around him after coL got Haxxeren as the shining carry player. This week it was the return of the king, the return of the dominant MoonMeander. He got first blood by doing the math, he turned around on Amun-Ra with a brilliant play, he won his suicide long lane, getting two kills. To quote Tralfamadore, he was playing out of his mind. Even later in the game he managed to contribute immensely to the teams success. He was the player who initiated after his team lost the two Doombringer, so ultimately he brought those Doombringer back to his side. He was just doing it all and doing it perfectly.
Other notable players:
brized - Vitriolic : Shadowblade is a powerful hero, atleast in the eyes of brized, who wanted to show his skills on him for quite some time. In Week 5 they drafted him, but ended up losing that match to GA. So this Week brized played him again and showed what he and the hero are capable of doing. First four kills in the laning phase went to brized, some of them unassisted.
Zfreek - DDOS - "Being the nerd that he is", those were the words Mynuts and Tralfamadore found for the incredible play with the courier. With complete patience and awareness ZfreeK (not Fittske) microed the courier to the Ancient spots every single minute, not letting it slide even once. This guaranteed his team to keep Draconis' farm in check and ultimately lead to a good gold lead in the game.
Honorary Award
Having fun with it
compLexity Gaming saishii
One thing I don't really like is to forfeit a meaningless match, just go out and play it, have some fun with it. That is exactly what the two North American teams saishii and compLexity did this week. After one "serious" match, both teams went into a little bit of a fun mode, picking up heroes like Hellbringer, Bombardier, Amun-Ra or Empath. Getting into "unique" strategies like double Doombringer on Haxxeren's Silhuoette, supported by Chessie on Tempest going Doombringer first. This is how it should be, entertain your fans, entertain yourself and just have some fun.
