Ban/Pick Analysis
Phase 1
NEZG
Bans
The first ban phase is a rather standard one, with a lot of powerful heroes.
Oblivion has become a stable ban for quite some time now, he has a huge team-fight potential with his Nether Blast and Nether Ward, is one of the best pushers, can carry a mechanism with only a Sobi Mask due to his high int-gain and is a general counter to many popular heroes.
“This hero is just a bitch due to the ward, really annoying.” The second ban features Alchemist, probably the best farming hero in game due to his Goblin Greed combined with Acid Spray, and the fact that his Ultimate gives him a free Vanguard, Ring of Health, Ring of Basilius, Gloves of Haste and half of a Boots of Speed.. just in level one!
“ A very self-explained ban.”
Probably the most feared tri-lane carry, Necro'lic can wreck havoc against any tri-lane, and if left alone can be a beast of a hero mid game, with his most feared ability being him farming on one lane, while his Familiars are ganking on another.
“Since we focus a lot on our tri-lane, we definitely want to remove this hero as he is known as a tri-lane crusher.” A really weird ban since NORDIC-eSports are not known for playing Invoker; and although it is a very versatile hero, it is one of the most difficult to play. A better ban would probably have been on the Admiral which NORDIC-eSports are fairly known for.
“They just hate playing against this hero.”
Usually a hero that are reserved for the team with first-pick, it is remarkable to see Doom Bringer him banned by them; but it do tell us that NORDIC-eSports does not want to pick this hero. The question then remain if it is due to them not feeling comfortable with him, or if they already had a strategy in mind.
“ An extremely overpowered hero this version, his ability to get any creep for free is just a pain in the ass.”
Usually it is the team with second pick which bans Doombringer, as the one with first pick usually wants this hero; any particular reason you are banning him?
“A hero too good to allow the opponents to pick, and as we can not fully utilize this hero, we do not want to pick him.” Yet another uncommon ban. Batrider is usually known to be a to a solo mid Shadowfiend, but is a strong pick against any hero without either a reliable escape mechanism or a long duration, non-ultimate, stun.
“Can not really say much about these their bans, only that zG simply just hates them.”
Picks
The first picking phase is heavily dominated by tri-lane related heroes, and we do see some interesting mind-games going on here.
Usually worth the first-pick, Vengeful Spirit hero has been known as the strongest support hero for a long time now. Having one of the best aura's, an excellent buff-placer, a stun and a miss-placement ultimate with a mini-stun, this hero is definitely not to be sneezed at.
“A hero that are simply too good to pass up as first-pick; we simply just love this hero as he is a counter to pretty much any hero, due to his ability to sacrifice himself by swapping. In the laning phase, it really works well with Admiral, as a stun ensures a perfect Torrent.” Ze Germans are not late to acquire Windrunner, possibly the best long lane solo hero in the game, having the ability to out-lane most other solo heroes with ease, and even to solo against a tri-lane; and one of the best support heroes in a tri-lane, known as 'The King of Stuns' or simply: Earthshaker
“Seeing as they are Germans, picking Windrunner and Earthshaker is rather obvious, yet really strong picks. Personally I would not have picked Earthshaker though, but more likely Shadowfiend.”
Two very interesting picks. Usually both heroes need an initiation before they can do maximum damage in a team-fight, but as ze Germans just picked Earthshaker, they are now left with Faerie Dragon as a top-pick only; a hero ze Germans can easily ban in the following banning phase.
In general it is two great heroes though, Shadow Fiend got the ability to unleash tons of damage in the mid-game, and has great carry potential due to his farming-capabilities; and Admiral being one of the better tri-lane carries and is one of the better counter to a soloing Windrunner as he can still land his hits through the Tidebringer.
“ Two heroes we are known for picking. Personally I hate playing Admiral, but as the team believes I play him good, I am forced to play him. Shadowfiend is a hero Calculus is playing really well, and he has a great synergy with Vengeful Spirit. ”
Crystal Maiden Used to be one of the best support heroes in the game, Crystal Maiden has now been moved to be a tier two support hero, used primarily to enforce the early-game or a heavy mid-game gank-based line-up.
“ Here we are aware of their desires to pick a high-mobile team in the early game.”
Phase 2
Bans
In the second ban phase, we see NORDIC-eSports banning extremely well, while ze Germans are leaving lots of picks open.
Clockwerk Goblin Usually known to combo well with a Crystal Maiden on the team, this hero can be a real pain in the ass, and is rightfully banned since he can nullify any Requiem of Souls before Shadowfiend gets a Black King Bar.
“As we now suspects a high-mobile line-up, we are banning Clockwerk Goblin in order to try and counter this.” Holy Knight Probably the most unorthodox ban of all. Holy Knight is known for being able to ensure the early game but looses his effectiveness around the thirty minute mark, the time where Admiral and Shadowfiend shines. Personally I would never have expected NORDIC-eSports to pick Holy Knight, as an Admiral is in desperate need of another tri-lane support hero.
“A really weird ban, even now I can not get find any sense in it.” Morphling Having gotten rid of Necro'lic and picked Admiral themselves, the only carry that could out-lane their tri-lane were Morphling, a great ban that ensures NORDIC-eSports the early game superiority! “An obvious pick in combination with the Earthshaker and Crystal Maiden pick; and a hero that are strong in the early-game and late-game.. the entire game to the honest.” Enigma A fearful hero in itself, this ban is definitely a good one; and you can easily visualize a Black Hole, Ghost Ship, Requiem of Souls combo that would mean the end of the game. Nevertheless, ze Germans do have a fairly good Earthshaker player in Kev-^, and he should be able to counter any initiation with a well-placed Fissure. Having this in mind, a ban on Faerie Dragon would be so more effective. “Another weird ban, seeing as we do not play this hero at all.” Picks The second picking phase is all about closing the gaps the teams are in need of. Faerie Dragon A perfect pick to the current line-up. With this, NORDIC-eSports can easily go tri-lane against solo-lane, although they will lose the long lane if solo'ed against Windrunner. Furthermore, it completes the mid-game based line-up, while still have the ability to go late-game if necessary. “A hero that are destined to be lane in the off-lane, and can do so really well. It works wonders with Admiral and Shadowfiend, as it allows us to control the team-fight, and makes it easy for us to land those perfect ultimates.” Priestess of the Moon Skipping the standard tri-lane, knowing they will lose the skirmish, ze Germans are going for a (semi-)dual-roaming (which are doable thanks to Crystal Maiden) as both Windrunner and Priestess of the Moon are two well-known, safe, solo long-lane heroes. She does seem to complete a ganking based line-up, but as NORDIC-eSports have Admiral and Faerie Dragon on their team, this is rather unorthodox, seeing as they can easily escape a gank. “A great pick, and probably the best one they could pick. That arrow are sure to intimidate us a lot, and she fits perfectly in a ganking-based line-up.” Witch Doctor The support hero which completes the tri-lane as well as the team-fight based line-up, personally I am very excited about the line-up NORDIC-eSports are featuring. “Due to our focus on the tri-lane, he was the best pick available.” Ogre Magi Yet another weird pick from ze Germans. Ogre Magi are normally played as a support hero, but can easily convert into a semi-support. He does give ze German the ability to carry well as his Bloodlust can be casted on Windrunner and Priestess of the Moon, but in my opinion, he is, in this game, inferior to a Demon Witch which was the pick I expected. “A really really weird pick, especially since he is solo laning mid; just weird.” Summary Bans Picks We can see NORDIC-eSports going for a team-fight heavy line-up, where as ze Germans are more prone to a ganking line-up. All in all I personally believe NORDIC-eSports out-picked ze Germans, although ze Germans do have a wild-card in Earthshaker which could manage to alter the entire game. We see you go for a semi-minus armor strategy, but include Admiral in it; a hero that do not benefit greatly from this strategy, would another hero not be better suited? “Probably, but the team simply just wants that Admiral no matter what.” Laning Analysis
Lanes NEvs ZG
Top NE.PENTIA.LINK (APM: 83) (Ping: 72) vs wicked.Fire (APM: 115) (Ping: 21)
A very interesting lane, neither heroes will win the lane by default, but due to Priestess of the Moon's natural aggressive play-style, we might actually see some action on this lane.
Mid NE.PENTIA.Calc (APM: 98) (Ping: 23)vs x.R.A.I.G.O.R.x (APM: 117) (Ping: 138)
Choosing to solo Ogre Magi mid, is an unorthodox choice; especially when you expects him to lane against a Shadowfiend. This lane will definetly go in favour of the Shadowfiend, but due to the heavy roaming line-up of scourge, some well placed ganks would diminish this.
Bot NE.PENTIA.OJJE (APM: 93) (Ping: 16)
NE.PENTIA.BLSM (APM: 144) (Ping: 22) vs unique[]Leaf_- (APM: 73) (Ping: 28)
Being forced to tie a support hero to this lane, NORDIC-eSports definetly loses the roaming fight which are occurring. This might be out-weighed by the lane though, as a Vengeful Spirit, Admiral lane is a tough lane to phase for any solo hero.
Roaming NE.PENTIA.Kragx (APM: 149) (Ping: 72)vs Kev-^ (APM: 160) (Ping: 29)
unique[]Alex (APM: 104) (Ping: 96)
Summary
Warding Analysis
NEZG
[2] A very defensive ward! Usually when you have a Shadowfiend, you want this ward to be placed on the opposing side of the river; but seeing as the scourge team are featuring a heavy ganking line-up, a defensive ward is advisable, and will counter many ganking attempts.
[1] This is a very standard ward, giving sight of any gank happening between the top and mid lane, as well as giving the all-important rune vision.
[3] Together with the [2] ward, this ward gives a huge protection to the mid solo, making him near to un-gankable; both wards gives full rune-vision too, making it even more difficult to gank the mid lane, as even an invisibility rune will be spotted.
Very defensive wards coming from the sentinel team, which surely will pay back the 200 gold, since they will cost the scourge a lot of missed ganks.
Usually I rant a lot about a team not using both wards, but in this particular case, it is a well chosen decision, although I would have liked the ward to be at the lower rune-spot since we have the tri-lane here.
Game Overview
At 1:30, Witch Doctor and Vengeful Spirit moves away from bottom lane, confident that their level four Admiral can solo against a level one Windrunner; meanwhile, the same thing is happening for the scourge, as they now acknowledge they can not kill this Faerie Dragon.
At the second minute, we can see the effect of this lane swap, as a regular fight is occurring.
The fight is initiated by Ogre Magi, not knowing the sentinel support heroes are close nearby to support; resulting in Earthshaker being stunned before he is able to land his stun.
Instead of ceasing this opportunity to run, Shadowfiend is determined to take out Earthshaker, and with some well placed razes, manages to severely reducing his HP. Meanwhile, Crystal Maiden and Ogre Magi has focused on Shadowfiend, and it is now certain that both heroes are going down, the question just remains, who will get the first blood?
A fail Cask, only stunning Earthshaker once, gives the scourge the edge in this fight, but as Shadowfiend's razes now come off cooldown, he is able to kill Earthshaker
merely instances before he himself are going down to Ogre Magi.
After the fight mid, Earthshaker comes top, which results in Faerie Dragon freely leaving the lane, trying to get the creep equilibrium on its side. Highly questionable play, gaining neither gold nor experience from this move!
At the 4th minute, we can see both teams altering their positions, where scourge are dissolving their tri-lane, going for dual lane top and bot; sentinel are reassembling their tri-lane bot. Questionable play from scourge here, as a dual lane (and especially a Priestess of the Moon!) will have a hard time killing a Faerie Dragon, and a Windrunner could just as easily solo the tri-lane as she could with the help of a Crystal Maiden.
The consequences of this laning can be seeing at the 5th minute, as Earthshaker is moving bottom, ganking (and killing) Shadowfiend on the way.
The damage is done though, as the bottom lane are in a full-out fight. Vengeful Spirit initiates very beautifully, eating her way through the trees at the secret shop, in an attempt to backstab the Windrunner.
Windrunner does spot this though, and she manages to use her Windrunner to escape; but does turn around as the sentinel heroes are now initiating on Crystal Maiden. This turns out to be a bad idea, as she is then backstabbed by Witch Doctor, forced back in the lane,
and as Crystal Maiden is now killed, the sentinel heroes can focus their attention on Windrunner, killing both heroes and getting a huge advantage against the soon to assemble tri-lane on bot.
Scoreboard: (6 min)
NETowers: 0/0Score: 1/1 ZGTowers: 0/0Score: 1/1
NE.PENTIA.Calc1/1/0 x.R.A.I.G.O.R.x2/0/0 NE.PENTIA.LINK0/0/0 wicked.Fire0/0/0
NE.PENTIA.BLSM0/0/0 unique[]Leaf_-0/0/0
Having been denied most farm, Faerie Dragon is out-leveled and severely out-farmed.
Having gotten the important First Blood, Shadowfiend has has gotten an early lead over Ogre Magi who now is relying on his roaming supports to help him out.
Having been denied even more farm than Faerie Dragon, Windrunner is being forced out of lane; trying to at least deny some farm from Admiral by pulling the ancient camp.
At then 6th minute, the scourge realizes their tri-lane bottom would fail against the sentinel tri-lane, and are thus initiating a dual-roaming strategy, starting on the middle lane killing Shadowfiend without any problems.
Scoreboard: 10 min
NETowers: 0/0Score: 6/3 ZGTowers: 0/0Score: 3/6
NE.PENTIA.Calc
Items: Bottle, Treads2/3/0 x.R.A.I.G.O.R.x
Items: Bottle, Phase2/0/1
NE.PENTIA.LINK
Items: BoS0/0/0 wicked.Fire
Items: Treads0/0/0
NE.PENTIA.BLSM
Items: Urn, Phase, RoH2/0/2 unique[]Leaf_-
Items: 0/3/0
Although we do not have the creep score available, it is visible that Faerie Dragon are getting close to no farm. He does manage to stay alive though, which is a crucial thing; but in doing so, he loses a lot of valuable experience, and actually ends up being under-leveled compared to the (semi-) dual-lane.
Having died three times, Shadowfiend is heavily pressured by the early roam coming from the scourge team. Nevertheless, he has managed to get two kills, especially the all important first blood, which will provide him with some much needed gold.
Having died three times, Windrunner is definitely not having a good day, where as Admiral is having the day of his life, being able to farm all he wants and kill whenever Windrunner shows herself.
Overall, the scourge are wining most of the lanes; but even so, the sentinel are coming out ahead due to the increase in kills.
At the 11th minue, Crystal Maiden tries to gank the top lane, but Faerie Dragon manages to barely escape, and as Admiral and Vengeful Spirit is arriving, the gankers are being the ganked as Crystal Maiden is killed. It does look like Priestess of the Moon are escaping though, but a very well-placed Tidebringer and Torrent catches her, sealing her fate.
At the 13th minute mark, Earthshaker, Windrunner and Priestess of the Moon catches Admiral in the scourge jungle, and manages to kill him even though Faerie Dragon tries to assist his doomed team-mate. The scourge team continues to pursue Faerie Dragon, and as Ogre Magi now arrives, they manages to kill it too.
This does not end the fight however, as Vengeful Spirit and Witch Doctor is now arriving, but finds themselves out-positioned and outnumbered. They manage to retreat and bulk up with a late coming Shadowfiend, and it seems as they might be able to get a few kills due to this; this is no where close to the truth though, as Witch Doctor ends up dying, and a late incoming Crystal Maiden manages to surprise Shadowfiend, and he barely manages uses two razes before he too is killed.
Seeing all of his team dead, Vengeful Spirit tries to run away but is caught by a long arrow sealing her fate too, and giving a complete team-wipe to the scourge, for the price of Windrunner.
If just sentinel would have left Admiral to die in first place...
At the 20th minute mark, the sentinel team manages to catch the scourge team off-guard, and before they manage to gather a proper defence, Priestess of the Moon is caught in the trees
and Ogre Magi is killed, which sends the rest of the team on a retreat where Crystal Maiden is being picked off.
As the sentinel team are then moving in to take the tower, Windrunner and Priestess of the Moon tries to interrupt this, granting yet another kill to the sentinel team as well as a tower.
Scoreboard: 20 min
NETowers: 4/1Score: 17/8 ZGTowers: 1/4Score: 8/17
NE.PENTIA.Calc
Items: Treads, Bottle, BKB, Ogre Axe7/4/1 x.R.A.I.G.O.R.x
Items: Bottle, Phase, Staff of Wizardry3/4/3
NE.PENTIA.LINK
Items: Treads0/1/6 wicked.Fire
Items: Treads1/2/4
NE.PENTIA.BLSM
Items: Phase, Urn, Vanguard, Lothar5/1/7 unique[]Leaf_-
Items: Treads 2/6/1
Having the two carries with a positive score, the sentinel team are definitely looking strong. The scourge team on then other hand have only Ogre Magi to rely on, as neither Priestess of the Moon or Windrunner have any items up yet.
At the 26th minute, the sentinel team manages to catch Priestess of the Moon and Earthshaker off-guard, killing them, and effectively nullifying any proper defence for the scourge team, as they are now approaching the bottom tier three tower.
The result of this is a free kill on Crystal Maiden, and a few seconds later, Shadowfiends gives his life in exchange of Windrunner and Ogre Magi's.
The sentinel team then proceeds to destroy the tower, and are left with an important decision now, if they should stay for the rax.
They chooses to stay, surrendering the life of Witch Doctor and Faerie Dragon for the melee rax.
At the 28th minute, the scourge are trying to compensate for the lost rax by pushing the mid lane. This leaves them vulnerable to a sentinel initiation however, and due to some effective pre-harassment, the scourge team can barely survive through the combination of Faerie Dragon and Shadowfiend. A perfectly aimed Tidebringer takes the life of Crystal Maiden and Ogre Magi, and Earthshaker end up dead to Faerie Dragon.
A perfectly timed Leap does seem to bring Priestess of the Moon out of danger though, but Nether Swap sends her back, and only Windrunner manages to survive the onslaught.
As a result of the last team-fight the sentinel team pushes mid lane, destroying the tier three tower.
They fake a retreat, and a quick dual-blink from Shadowfiend and Faerie Dragon picks off Ogre Magi, it does however not look too bad for the scourge team, as a well placed Earth Stomp almost kills several of the sentinel heroes, but nevertheless they do not manage to kill any of them, as another well placed Tidebringer kills both Priestess of the Moon and Windrunner; after which the 'gg call' comes out.
OP's Comment
Personally I felt kind of bad posting this, seeing as ze Germans obviously was not taking this game serious; and they even said so in the beginning. However, I was bored; so decided to do it anyway, and in turn allowing a minor known team to be heard; hope ze Germans can forgive me for this.
When that's said, I have one rant to point out:
At the 23rd minute mark, the sentinel team managed to kill a warding Crystal Maiden, just outside the Roshan Area; providing the sentinel team with a perfect opportunity to claim the Roshan kill. They chooses not to do so however, believing they can easily win the game without the aegis. In my opinion, this is a bad choice though, as they could easily win the fight if the scourge team were to initiate, and would have been able to get a rax following the claim of the aegis.
MVP
OP: NE.PENTIA.BLSM (Admiral)
“Definitely one of the easiest descisions I have taken. In my opinion, Balsam was a clear MVP, landing almost all of his Torrents and Tidebringers, and in general just being an unstoppable machine when it came to killing.”
Balsam: NE.PENTIA.OJJE (Vengeful Spirit)
“Performing some really good swaps, and in general just playing a really great game, OJJE definitely deserves the honour of being MVP.”
Final words
Seeing as there are so many poll's going on at the moment; I would like to know which team you see as the best?
“I think it is EHOME right now; constantly sitting in the base and playing DotA, how can we cope with that?”
If you were to choose among all teams, what team would you want to fight against?
“Either Meet Your Makers or Lost.eu. Lately we have been scrimmed against those two teams, and I would really love playing against them, even though we would probably get stomped.”
Thank you for coming, any last shoutouts?
“Shoutout to Pentia, Raptor Gaming as well as Nordic eSports.”
Phase 1
NEZG
Bans
The first ban phase is a rather standard one, with a lot of powerful heroes.
Oblivion has become a stable ban for quite some time now, he has a huge team-fight potential with his Nether Blast and Nether Ward, is one of the best pushers, can carry a mechanism with only a Sobi Mask due to his high int-gain and is a general counter to many popular heroes.
“This hero is just a bitch due to the ward, really annoying.” The second ban features Alchemist, probably the best farming hero in game due to his Goblin Greed combined with Acid Spray, and the fact that his Ultimate gives him a free Vanguard, Ring of Health, Ring of Basilius, Gloves of Haste and half of a Boots of Speed.. just in level one!
“ A very self-explained ban.”
Probably the most feared tri-lane carry, Necro'lic can wreck havoc against any tri-lane, and if left alone can be a beast of a hero mid game, with his most feared ability being him farming on one lane, while his Familiars are ganking on another.
“Since we focus a lot on our tri-lane, we definitely want to remove this hero as he is known as a tri-lane crusher.” A really weird ban since NORDIC-eSports are not known for playing Invoker; and although it is a very versatile hero, it is one of the most difficult to play. A better ban would probably have been on the Admiral which NORDIC-eSports are fairly known for.
“They just hate playing against this hero.”
Usually a hero that are reserved for the team with first-pick, it is remarkable to see Doom Bringer him banned by them; but it do tell us that NORDIC-eSports does not want to pick this hero. The question then remain if it is due to them not feeling comfortable with him, or if they already had a strategy in mind.
“ An extremely overpowered hero this version, his ability to get any creep for free is just a pain in the ass.”
Usually it is the team with second pick which bans Doombringer, as the one with first pick usually wants this hero; any particular reason you are banning him?
“A hero too good to allow the opponents to pick, and as we can not fully utilize this hero, we do not want to pick him.” Yet another uncommon ban. Batrider is usually known to be a to a solo mid Shadowfiend, but is a strong pick against any hero without either a reliable escape mechanism or a long duration, non-ultimate, stun.
“Can not really say much about these their bans, only that zG simply just hates them.”
Picks
The first picking phase is heavily dominated by tri-lane related heroes, and we do see some interesting mind-games going on here.
Usually worth the first-pick, Vengeful Spirit hero has been known as the strongest support hero for a long time now. Having one of the best aura's, an excellent buff-placer, a stun and a miss-placement ultimate with a mini-stun, this hero is definitely not to be sneezed at.
“A hero that are simply too good to pass up as first-pick; we simply just love this hero as he is a counter to pretty much any hero, due to his ability to sacrifice himself by swapping. In the laning phase, it really works well with Admiral, as a stun ensures a perfect Torrent.” Ze Germans are not late to acquire Windrunner, possibly the best long lane solo hero in the game, having the ability to out-lane most other solo heroes with ease, and even to solo against a tri-lane; and one of the best support heroes in a tri-lane, known as 'The King of Stuns' or simply: Earthshaker
“Seeing as they are Germans, picking Windrunner and Earthshaker is rather obvious, yet really strong picks. Personally I would not have picked Earthshaker though, but more likely Shadowfiend.”
Two very interesting picks. Usually both heroes need an initiation before they can do maximum damage in a team-fight, but as ze Germans just picked Earthshaker, they are now left with Faerie Dragon as a top-pick only; a hero ze Germans can easily ban in the following banning phase.
In general it is two great heroes though, Shadow Fiend got the ability to unleash tons of damage in the mid-game, and has great carry potential due to his farming-capabilities; and Admiral being one of the better tri-lane carries and is one of the better counter to a soloing Windrunner as he can still land his hits through the Tidebringer.
“ Two heroes we are known for picking. Personally I hate playing Admiral, but as the team believes I play him good, I am forced to play him. Shadowfiend is a hero Calculus is playing really well, and he has a great synergy with Vengeful Spirit. ”
Crystal Maiden Used to be one of the best support heroes in the game, Crystal Maiden has now been moved to be a tier two support hero, used primarily to enforce the early-game or a heavy mid-game gank-based line-up.
“ Here we are aware of their desires to pick a high-mobile team in the early game.”
Phase 2
Bans
In the second ban phase, we see NORDIC-eSports banning extremely well, while ze Germans are leaving lots of picks open.
Clockwerk Goblin Usually known to combo well with a Crystal Maiden on the team, this hero can be a real pain in the ass, and is rightfully banned since he can nullify any Requiem of Souls before Shadowfiend gets a Black King Bar.
“As we now suspects a high-mobile line-up, we are banning Clockwerk Goblin in order to try and counter this.” Holy Knight Probably the most unorthodox ban of all. Holy Knight is known for being able to ensure the early game but looses his effectiveness around the thirty minute mark, the time where Admiral and Shadowfiend shines. Personally I would never have expected NORDIC-eSports to pick Holy Knight, as an Admiral is in desperate need of another tri-lane support hero.
“A really weird ban, even now I can not get find any sense in it.” Morphling Having gotten rid of Necro'lic and picked Admiral themselves, the only carry that could out-lane their tri-lane were Morphling, a great ban that ensures NORDIC-eSports the early game superiority! “An obvious pick in combination with the Earthshaker and Crystal Maiden pick; and a hero that are strong in the early-game and late-game.. the entire game to the honest.” Enigma A fearful hero in itself, this ban is definitely a good one; and you can easily visualize a Black Hole, Ghost Ship, Requiem of Souls combo that would mean the end of the game. Nevertheless, ze Germans do have a fairly good Earthshaker player in Kev-^, and he should be able to counter any initiation with a well-placed Fissure. Having this in mind, a ban on Faerie Dragon would be so more effective. “Another weird ban, seeing as we do not play this hero at all.” Picks The second picking phase is all about closing the gaps the teams are in need of. Faerie Dragon A perfect pick to the current line-up. With this, NORDIC-eSports can easily go tri-lane against solo-lane, although they will lose the long lane if solo'ed against Windrunner. Furthermore, it completes the mid-game based line-up, while still have the ability to go late-game if necessary. “A hero that are destined to be lane in the off-lane, and can do so really well. It works wonders with Admiral and Shadowfiend, as it allows us to control the team-fight, and makes it easy for us to land those perfect ultimates.” Priestess of the Moon Skipping the standard tri-lane, knowing they will lose the skirmish, ze Germans are going for a (semi-)dual-roaming (which are doable thanks to Crystal Maiden) as both Windrunner and Priestess of the Moon are two well-known, safe, solo long-lane heroes. She does seem to complete a ganking based line-up, but as NORDIC-eSports have Admiral and Faerie Dragon on their team, this is rather unorthodox, seeing as they can easily escape a gank. “A great pick, and probably the best one they could pick. That arrow are sure to intimidate us a lot, and she fits perfectly in a ganking-based line-up.” Witch Doctor The support hero which completes the tri-lane as well as the team-fight based line-up, personally I am very excited about the line-up NORDIC-eSports are featuring. “Due to our focus on the tri-lane, he was the best pick available.” Ogre Magi Yet another weird pick from ze Germans. Ogre Magi are normally played as a support hero, but can easily convert into a semi-support. He does give ze German the ability to carry well as his Bloodlust can be casted on Windrunner and Priestess of the Moon, but in my opinion, he is, in this game, inferior to a Demon Witch which was the pick I expected. “A really really weird pick, especially since he is solo laning mid; just weird.” Summary Bans Picks We can see NORDIC-eSports going for a team-fight heavy line-up, where as ze Germans are more prone to a ganking line-up. All in all I personally believe NORDIC-eSports out-picked ze Germans, although ze Germans do have a wild-card in Earthshaker which could manage to alter the entire game. We see you go for a semi-minus armor strategy, but include Admiral in it; a hero that do not benefit greatly from this strategy, would another hero not be better suited? “Probably, but the team simply just wants that Admiral no matter what.” Laning Analysis
Lanes NEvs ZG
Top NE.PENTIA.LINK (APM: 83) (Ping: 72) vs wicked.Fire (APM: 115) (Ping: 21)
A very interesting lane, neither heroes will win the lane by default, but due to Priestess of the Moon's natural aggressive play-style, we might actually see some action on this lane.
Mid NE.PENTIA.Calc (APM: 98) (Ping: 23)vs x.R.A.I.G.O.R.x (APM: 117) (Ping: 138)
Choosing to solo Ogre Magi mid, is an unorthodox choice; especially when you expects him to lane against a Shadowfiend. This lane will definetly go in favour of the Shadowfiend, but due to the heavy roaming line-up of scourge, some well placed ganks would diminish this.
Bot NE.PENTIA.OJJE (APM: 93) (Ping: 16)
NE.PENTIA.BLSM (APM: 144) (Ping: 22) vs unique[]Leaf_- (APM: 73) (Ping: 28)
Being forced to tie a support hero to this lane, NORDIC-eSports definetly loses the roaming fight which are occurring. This might be out-weighed by the lane though, as a Vengeful Spirit, Admiral lane is a tough lane to phase for any solo hero.
Roaming NE.PENTIA.Kragx (APM: 149) (Ping: 72)vs Kev-^ (APM: 160) (Ping: 29)
unique[]Alex (APM: 104) (Ping: 96)
Summary
What were you expecting their line-up to be?
“I believe I would have expected a tri-lane with a farming Earthshaker top, solo Windrunner bot and solo Priestess of the Moon mid.”
Warding Analysis
NEZG
[2] A very defensive ward! Usually when you have a Shadowfiend, you want this ward to be placed on the opposing side of the river; but seeing as the scourge team are featuring a heavy ganking line-up, a defensive ward is advisable, and will counter many ganking attempts.
[1] This is a very standard ward, giving sight of any gank happening between the top and mid lane, as well as giving the all-important rune vision.
[3] Together with the [2] ward, this ward gives a huge protection to the mid solo, making him near to un-gankable; both wards gives full rune-vision too, making it even more difficult to gank the mid lane, as even an invisibility rune will be spotted.
Very defensive wards coming from the sentinel team, which surely will pay back the 200 gold, since they will cost the scourge a lot of missed ganks.
Usually I rant a lot about a team not using both wards, but in this particular case, it is a well chosen decision, although I would have liked the ward to be at the lower rune-spot since we have the tri-lane here.
Game Overview
We see you move all five heroes to sentinel jungle, can you give us some explanation?
“We are always trying to catch some action right off the bat. Basically we are taking over the jungle, and with the massive vision we have, we are sure to catch any heroes that are entering.”
Is there any particular reason you have choosing sentinel jungle?
“As it is our jungle, we are a lot more secure here; while moving into their jungle is always risky, especially with an Earthshaker on their team as he can cut us off with his Fissure.”
At 1:30, Witch Doctor and Vengeful Spirit moves away from bottom lane, confident that their level four Admiral can solo against a level one Windrunner; meanwhile, the same thing is happening for the scourge, as they now acknowledge they can not kill this Faerie Dragon.
At the second minute, we can see the effect of this lane swap, as a regular fight is occurring.
The fight is initiated by Ogre Magi, not knowing the sentinel support heroes are close nearby to support; resulting in Earthshaker being stunned before he is able to land his stun.
Instead of ceasing this opportunity to run, Shadowfiend is determined to take out Earthshaker, and with some well placed razes, manages to severely reducing his HP. Meanwhile, Crystal Maiden and Ogre Magi has focused on Shadowfiend, and it is now certain that both heroes are going down, the question just remains, who will get the first blood?
A fail Cask, only stunning Earthshaker once, gives the scourge the edge in this fight, but as Shadowfiend's razes now come off cooldown, he is able to kill Earthshaker
merely instances before he himself are going down to Ogre Magi.
After the fight mid, Earthshaker comes top, which results in Faerie Dragon freely leaving the lane, trying to get the creep equilibrium on its side. Highly questionable play, gaining neither gold nor experience from this move!
At the 4th minute, we can see both teams altering their positions, where scourge are dissolving their tri-lane, going for dual lane top and bot; sentinel are reassembling their tri-lane bot. Questionable play from scourge here, as a dual lane (and especially a Priestess of the Moon!) will have a hard time killing a Faerie Dragon, and a Windrunner could just as easily solo the tri-lane as she could with the help of a Crystal Maiden.
The consequences of this laning can be seeing at the 5th minute, as Earthshaker is moving bottom, ganking (and killing) Shadowfiend on the way.
The damage is done though, as the bottom lane are in a full-out fight. Vengeful Spirit initiates very beautifully, eating her way through the trees at the secret shop, in an attempt to backstab the Windrunner.
Windrunner does spot this though, and she manages to use her Windrunner to escape; but does turn around as the sentinel heroes are now initiating on Crystal Maiden. This turns out to be a bad idea, as she is then backstabbed by Witch Doctor, forced back in the lane,
and as Crystal Maiden is now killed, the sentinel heroes can focus their attention on Windrunner, killing both heroes and getting a huge advantage against the soon to assemble tri-lane on bot.
“Seeing Vengeful Spirit charging out from the woods was a real surprise for me, and I sure was not prepared for it. It turned out well however, as we got both heroes; a really neat move from OJJE I have to say.”
Their line-up in mind, did you expect them to go heavy on your solo mid Shadowfiend?
“Definitely. But as you could see in first skirmish, we were ahead of them thanks to the wards.”
Scoreboard: (6 min)
NETowers: 0/0Score: 1/1 ZGTowers: 0/0Score: 1/1
NE.PENTIA.Calc1/1/0 x.R.A.I.G.O.R.x2/0/0 NE.PENTIA.LINK0/0/0 wicked.Fire0/0/0
NE.PENTIA.BLSM0/0/0 unique[]Leaf_-0/0/0
Having been denied most farm, Faerie Dragon is out-leveled and severely out-farmed.
Having gotten the important First Blood, Shadowfiend has has gotten an early lead over Ogre Magi who now is relying on his roaming supports to help him out.
Having been denied even more farm than Faerie Dragon, Windrunner is being forced out of lane; trying to at least deny some farm from Admiral by pulling the ancient camp.
Faerie Dragon is being severely out-leveled to a semi-dual lane, what happened?
“Faerie Dragon are running a defensive tactic where he blocks the creeps in order to get them closer to his tower; which in turn gives him less experience.”
We see you going for a fast Urn, why this particular item?
“I actually just changed this tactic, and instead go for a fast Ring of Basilius which is better when you are in need of pushing.
But an early urn is just really good. Having the ability to heal 400 or damage 200 makes a huge difference in the early game.”
At then 6th minute, the scourge realizes their tri-lane bottom would fail against the sentinel tri-lane, and are thus initiating a dual-roaming strategy, starting on the middle lane killing Shadowfiend without any problems.
Scoreboard: 10 min
NETowers: 0/0Score: 6/3 ZGTowers: 0/0Score: 3/6
NE.PENTIA.Calc
Items: Bottle, Treads2/3/0 x.R.A.I.G.O.R.x
Items: Bottle, Phase2/0/1
NE.PENTIA.LINK
Items: BoS0/0/0 wicked.Fire
Items: Treads0/0/0
NE.PENTIA.BLSM
Items: Urn, Phase, RoH2/0/2 unique[]Leaf_-
Items: 0/3/0
Although we do not have the creep score available, it is visible that Faerie Dragon are getting close to no farm. He does manage to stay alive though, which is a crucial thing; but in doing so, he loses a lot of valuable experience, and actually ends up being under-leveled compared to the (semi-) dual-lane.
Having died three times, Shadowfiend is heavily pressured by the early roam coming from the scourge team. Nevertheless, he has managed to get two kills, especially the all important first blood, which will provide him with some much needed gold.
Having died three times, Windrunner is definitely not having a good day, where as Admiral is having the day of his life, being able to farm all he wants and kill whenever Windrunner shows herself.
Overall, the scourge are wining most of the lanes; but even so, the sentinel are coming out ahead due to the increase in kills.
We can see you killing Windrunner three times now, even though she is a notorious hard lane to kill, is it due to her playing too aggressive, or is it just a killing lane lane she is up against?
“Admiral is a really great counter to Windrunner; being able to hit her with the Tidebringer even though she uses Windrunner, and if timed correctly, the Torrent will make sure that when she lands again, the Windrunner is fully used.
Besides.. I just hate Windrunner!”
At the 11th minue, Crystal Maiden tries to gank the top lane, but Faerie Dragon manages to barely escape, and as Admiral and Vengeful Spirit is arriving, the gankers are being the ganked as Crystal Maiden is killed. It does look like Priestess of the Moon are escaping though, but a very well-placed Tidebringer and Torrent catches her, sealing her fate.
You are leaving your safe farming lane in order to gank top, why not stay bot and keep the pressure on?
“I just wanted some kills here, and with the Vanguard coming up, I felt like the strongest man in the world.”
At the 13th minute mark, Earthshaker, Windrunner and Priestess of the Moon catches Admiral in the scourge jungle, and manages to kill him even though Faerie Dragon tries to assist his doomed team-mate. The scourge team continues to pursue Faerie Dragon, and as Ogre Magi now arrives, they manages to kill it too.
This does not end the fight however, as Vengeful Spirit and Witch Doctor is now arriving, but finds themselves out-positioned and outnumbered. They manage to retreat and bulk up with a late coming Shadowfiend, and it seems as they might be able to get a few kills due to this; this is no where close to the truth though, as Witch Doctor ends up dying, and a late incoming Crystal Maiden manages to surprise Shadowfiend, and he barely manages uses two razes before he too is killed.
Seeing all of his team dead, Vengeful Spirit tries to run away but is caught by a long arrow sealing her fate too, and giving a complete team-wipe to the scourge, for the price of Windrunner.
If just sentinel would have left Admiral to die in first place...
We see the entire team die, for the price of Windrunner; what happened?
“Bad play I would say; could not have foreseen the invisible Earthshaker; and the rest of the team died for pretty much nothing.”
At the 20th minute mark, the sentinel team manages to catch the scourge team off-guard, and before they manage to gather a proper defence, Priestess of the Moon is caught in the trees
and Ogre Magi is killed, which sends the rest of the team on a retreat where Crystal Maiden is being picked off.
As the sentinel team are then moving in to take the tower, Windrunner and Priestess of the Moon tries to interrupt this, granting yet another kill to the sentinel team as well as a tower.
Scoreboard: 20 min
NETowers: 4/1Score: 17/8 ZGTowers: 1/4Score: 8/17
NE.PENTIA.Calc
Items: Treads, Bottle, BKB, Ogre Axe7/4/1 x.R.A.I.G.O.R.x
Items: Bottle, Phase, Staff of Wizardry3/4/3
NE.PENTIA.LINK
Items: Treads0/1/6 wicked.Fire
Items: Treads1/2/4
NE.PENTIA.BLSM
Items: Phase, Urn, Vanguard, Lothar5/1/7 unique[]Leaf_-
Items: Treads 2/6/1
Having the two carries with a positive score, the sentinel team are definitely looking strong. The scourge team on then other hand have only Ogre Magi to rely on, as neither Priestess of the Moon or Windrunner have any items up yet.
We see you are clearly ahead now, yet you are not mounting for any specific pushes, why?
“Up until now, we have not had the team for it. I needed my level two Ghost Ship, and Shadowfiend needed his Black King Bar, or else he would fall too easily to the nuking power of the scourge team.”
You are a heavy team-fight based line-up, yet you are not featuring neither a Mechanism nor a Khadgear's Pipe of Insight; is there any particular reason for this?
“We simply do not have the heroes for it. Faerie Dragon needs his Kelen's Dagger, Shadowfiend needs his items and an Admiral with those items are just.. weird.
If the supports are doing really well early-game, we let the supports buy it usually, but that was not the case here.”
Having the supports go for an early Mechanism or Kadgar's Pipe of Insight requires a heavy early-game based line-up; is it something you are normally going for?
“We somewhat specializes in the early-game, aiming to make our opponents cry in the beginning is always good; unfortunately they never leave though.”
A couple of versions ago, we saw Admiral rushing the Battlefury as well as Lothar's Edge, since they work so well with each other. Lately this item-build have been hardly seen, yet you still get Lothar's Edge?
“Well, my old Admiral build was to rush Battlefury, having it by the 15th minute. The team however, decided that we needed a tank, so they restricted me from getting the Battlefury which is why I hate playing Admiral now; just hate farming that Vanguard!”
At the 26th minute, the sentinel team manages to catch Priestess of the Moon and Earthshaker off-guard, killing them, and effectively nullifying any proper defence for the scourge team, as they are now approaching the bottom tier three tower.
The result of this is a free kill on Crystal Maiden, and a few seconds later, Shadowfiends gives his life in exchange of Windrunner and Ogre Magi's.
The sentinel team then proceeds to destroy the tower, and are left with an important decision now, if they should stay for the rax.
They chooses to stay, surrendering the life of Witch Doctor and Faerie Dragon for the melee rax.
At the 28th minute, the scourge are trying to compensate for the lost rax by pushing the mid lane. This leaves them vulnerable to a sentinel initiation however, and due to some effective pre-harassment, the scourge team can barely survive through the combination of Faerie Dragon and Shadowfiend. A perfectly aimed Tidebringer takes the life of Crystal Maiden and Ogre Magi, and Earthshaker end up dead to Faerie Dragon.
A perfectly timed Leap does seem to bring Priestess of the Moon out of danger though, but Nether Swap sends her back, and only Windrunner manages to survive the onslaught.
As a result of the last team-fight the sentinel team pushes mid lane, destroying the tier three tower.
They fake a retreat, and a quick dual-blink from Shadowfiend and Faerie Dragon picks off Ogre Magi, it does however not look too bad for the scourge team, as a well placed Earth Stomp almost kills several of the sentinel heroes, but nevertheless they do not manage to kill any of them, as another well placed Tidebringer kills both Priestess of the Moon and Windrunner; after which the 'gg call' comes out.
OP's Comment
Personally I felt kind of bad posting this, seeing as ze Germans obviously was not taking this game serious; and they even said so in the beginning. However, I was bored; so decided to do it anyway, and in turn allowing a minor known team to be heard; hope ze Germans can forgive me for this.
When that's said, I have one rant to point out:
At the 23rd minute mark, the sentinel team managed to kill a warding Crystal Maiden, just outside the Roshan Area; providing the sentinel team with a perfect opportunity to claim the Roshan kill. They chooses not to do so however, believing they can easily win the game without the aegis. In my opinion, this is a bad choice though, as they could easily win the fight if the scourge team were to initiate, and would have been able to get a rax following the claim of the aegis.
MVP
OP: NE.PENTIA.BLSM (Admiral)
“Definitely one of the easiest descisions I have taken. In my opinion, Balsam was a clear MVP, landing almost all of his Torrents and Tidebringers, and in general just being an unstoppable machine when it came to killing.”
Balsam: NE.PENTIA.OJJE (Vengeful Spirit)
“Performing some really good swaps, and in general just playing a really great game, OJJE definitely deserves the honour of being MVP.”
Final words
Seeing as there are so many poll's going on at the moment; I would like to know which team you see as the best?
“I think it is EHOME right now; constantly sitting in the base and playing DotA, how can we cope with that?”
If you were to choose among all teams, what team would you want to fight against?
“Either Meet Your Makers or Lost.eu. Lately we have been scrimmed against those two teams, and I would really love playing against them, even though we would probably get stomped.”
Thank you for coming, any last shoutouts?
“Shoutout to Pentia, Raptor Gaming as well as Nordic eSports.”
