Itemization:
What we can learn from Ehome vs OG

MATCH ID 4324947924

In a meta of short games which are usually decided in the 15-20 minute mark, a 44-minute back-and-forth affair is certainly unusual and interesting. So what defined this game and is it indicative of changes to the meta?

Short answer – sadly, we don’t think so.

First, the drafts of both teams are certainly not designed with a late game timing in mind.

• On one side we have OG who are playing a Draw + Venge + Beastmaster aura strat which has a very powerful push timing in the mid-game.
  
• On the other – Ehome has a fast-paced lineup as well with Timbersaw and Tiny on their core positions. 
  

So what prolonged the game and made it back-and-forth?

There are two important swings that can be seen in the net worth and win probability graph.

1. Initially, Ehome has a decent lead early on. This should spell a problem for OG, who want to use the mid game to push. It’s most worrying that Topson (who in this game is their position 1 carry and main damage dealer) has a rough time.
   
2. First swing: in the mid game OG manage to take control of the game with a couple of successful fights and even claim two sides of Rax, “securing” the game.
3. Second swing: OG is unable to close the game despite their lead. They lose a couple of offensive fights and “throw” the game.
   

We think two factors were crucial in these momentum swings – execution and itemization.

The play we’re seeing isn’t flawless and certainly, mistakes (and sometimes out-plays) determine the outcome of fights. Such mistakes certainly can result in swings in the game (an example being Ceb’s dieback during OG’s 38:00-minute push). It’s hard to learn anything tangible from another person’s missplay, however, so we want to emphasize other important factors and decisions that determined the outcome of this game.

With the introduction of many, many situational items we think the time of the cookie-cutter build in Dota is (almost) over.

Nowadays saves are extremely important in fights and even if your lineup doesn’t have heroes to give you the saves you need, you can always buy the items to turn a fight around. We see this in this game twice:

Topson is OG’s main damage dealer and the key hero in OG’s pushes and fights. Yet, he is playing Drow versus Void’s Chrono and Tiny’s Shadow Blade + Blink Dagger + his nuke combo. Staying alive in fights should be almost impossible in this game as a Drow.

OG have an answer to this, however.

First, they have Cold Embrace and Swap to keep their cores alive especially against the Chrono.

Second, Topson has Blink + Hurricane Pike. Blink is mostly bought as a farming item for Drow after the change to Marksmanship, but it is also extremely useful for perfect positioning in fights. It allows Topson to reposition himself and to keep his distance from the dangerous Void or Tiny. Hurricane, on the other hand, helps him get out of bad situations once enemies reach him.

Because of this, even though Drow is countered by Void and Tiny, with good itemization and execution OG are able to keep Topson alive. This allows him to deal the highest hero damage on their team (and 2^nd highest in the game behind Tiny) and is a main contributing factor to their success in fights in the mid game.

Ehome noticed that OG deal exclusively physical (right-click) damage. Unlike OG, however, Ehome doesn’t have supports that can easily save their cores (Blinding Light is the only defensive tool they have).

Ghost Scepter, however, can solve this problem. They get it literally on all five heroes including on Timber and Void, who are traditionally heroes very reluctant to get Ghost Scepter. This makes it incredibly hard for OG to bring down anyone despite the high damage output of Drow. 

This team itemization decision is arguably much more impactful for the final outcome of the game even than any misplays OG made in their final push attempts.

Especially as a support, but also as a core, you need to think what will keep your team alive against the initiation of your enemies. It’s unrealistic to think that you will always be positioned perfectly and would avoid getting jumped on, so itemizing properly and picking heroes with saves can easily win you the game. Plan for the worst scenarios (as did Ehome – they got Ghost Scepter on all heroes, not only on the heroes most likely to get focused) and you’d have a big advantage.

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