What we can learn from TFT's loss against Secret:
Countering PA with Medusa Pt. 2

MATCH ID 4245828481

In our article What we can learn from TFT's victory against NiP, we broke down how The Final Tribe used Chessie’s Medusa to counter NiP.Ace’s PA very effectively and achieved a surprise victory against NiP. We argued that Medusa is a viable PA counter that we can use in our pubs.

TFT tried a very similar strategy against Secret.Nisha’s PA. Medusa was played mid and he used the same jungle farming and stacking tactic. They even drafted similar heroes along with the Medusa – Wraith King and Grimstroke made an appearance again, and the pos. 3 Magnus was replaced by a pos. 3 SK, who can serve the same role – that of a counter-initiator.

Nonetheless, this time the plan didn’t work.

So, why was the outcome different and does this disprove the claim that Medusa counters PA?

In this game, in particular, it would be easy to argue that Secret simply played better in comparison to NiP. However, we’d like to investigate a bit further. Mechanical skill surely plays a big role, but we’d like to find out what different macro decision Secret took compared to NiP to secure the victory – such knowledge is easier to take into your own games.

Tactical Choices: Pressuring Medusa

Maybe the most game-deciding factor in TFT vs NiP was that the 4 other players of TFT managed to create a lot of space for Chessie by constantly fighting away from him. This gave him close to 20 minutes of free farm and allowed him to out-farm the enemy team heavily. When he had his luxury items (on the 20th-minute mark), he used his farm advantage to break the enemy base.

Secret didn’t make this mistake. After the laning stage (which favored TFT slightly) Secret started finding skirmishes and messing with Chessie’s game. They managed to kill him for the 1^st time on the 15^th minute, for the 2^nd on the 19^th (vs NiP, Chessie didn’t die even once). Those two deaths on their own aren’t fatal, but along with them, Secret took valuable map control. This slowed down Chessie’s farm a bit and gave Secret easier access to objectives (Rosh).

Draft:

Ninjas in Pyjamas:

Team Secret:

Counter-Initiation

In their game vs TFT, NiP had only Axe as a source of initiation and counter-initiation. This is likely one of the main reasons they didn’t decide to pressure Chessie right away – Axe needs his Dagger to gank efficiently, and pressuring Medusa before that point would be very hard.

Secret, on the other hand, had Spirit Breaker to start fights and Enigma to counter-initiate and win them. This makes a big difference: Spirit Breaker doesn’t need items to initiate ganks especially with the help of PA’s damage and mobility. Enigma’s counter-initiation means that even if the ganks grow into full 5 vs 5 fights, Secret have the tools to win them even against Medusa + Mag, who are great 5-man heroes. As we mentioned in our Secret vs VP analysis, team fight potential is king.

Push:

NiP’s lineup was bad at pushing, which means that they have difficulty transitioning kills into map control. This is one of the reasons TFT had so much space for Medusa to free-farm. Secret didn’t have this problem. With Enigma, Visage and even Venomancer, they can transition every successful skirmish into a push. This was the key to securing more map control and restricting Chessie’s free space.

This is a snapshot of wards on the map on the 20^th-minute mark, right after Secret won a fight close to the Radiant T2 mid tower. As you can see, they have vision covering almost all of the radiant jungle (as well as vision on Rosh), most importantly the two jungle high grounds that Medusa uses to flash-farm. This gives them an opportunity to continue applying pressure and finding gank opportunities, as well as to continue controlling Roshan.

PA vs Medusa in the mid-late game

One of the claims we made in the previous article was that Medusa is better than PA in the late game. Conventional wisdom says that this is true, but this game provides good counter-arguments.

Despite being pressured, Chessie was still farming very well. He had 93 last-hits on the 10^th minute mark (comparable with the NiP game) and was on top of the net worth graph for most of the game:

Then why didn’t he take over the game?

It’s important to realize that PA and Medusa have different situations in which they shine in the mid & late game.

Medusa

Medusa loves static, clean 5-man fights. She loves standing in front of her allies where her ultimate and tankiness make it very hard for the enemy team to initiate.

The right way to force such engagements is to push as 5 – your opponents will be forced to take the fight to defend their towers (or lose them without contesting).

Phantom Assassin

PA loves skirmishes. She is mobile and has high burst damage, which means that she likes to eliminate one enemy hero before the fight has even started.

The best way to force such engagements is to gank where your opponents are least expecting you and to take fights/push only after successful ganks.

This is a crucial difference that Secret exploited to the maximum to get the upper hand in most engagements. Secret made sure to create situations in which PA thrives and not to play into the strengths of Medusa (i.e. not to take obvious 5-man fights, even if it means leaving a tower to fall).

A great example for this is the first big team fight on the 18^th minute. Secret start off by picking-off the enemy Grimstroke with SB and PA. After the kill, they push a tower and manage to find the enemy farming WK deep into enemy territory, where Radiant don’t expect them to go. The gank transition into a fight that Secret win mainly because of two reasons:

they can rely on Enigma’s counter-initiation
Medusa is not close enough to participate

Medusa is farming in the top lane. She arrives too late to the party (remember that she is a slow hero), doesn’t find a good opportunity to use her ultimate and pays with her life.

To make things even worse, PA has Aegis, and with her 2nd life she manages to survive her aggressive jump in front of the enemy base to kill Medusa. (PA’s high single-target DPS makes her great at taking Rosh fast, while Medusa requires a lot of time to kill him, which is another late-game advantage that PA has).

Secret avoided static 5-man fights and made use of chaotic skirmishes masterfully to play around Medusa, to give Nisha a great game and to secure what looked like an effortless victory.

So can you still use Medusa in pubs to counter PA?

Despite TFT’s failure vs Secret, this game could actually serve to help us understand better how exactly to use Medusa to beat PA, who is currently present in 40% of our pubs:

The first key to do this right is to utilize your flash-farming potential to the fullest in the early-mid game. Farm the lane and the nearby jungle camps and try to stack the nearby Ancients as much as possible to gain an item advantage over the PA.

The second key is to avoid getting picked-off and taking unplanned fights in the mid-late game. As soon as PA starts moving around the map with her teammates, you need to start walking as 5 with yours. Make sure the fights you take are planned, static 5-man fights, and not chaotic, unexpected skirmishes.

Thanks for reading! If you liked the article, don't forget to check out part 1!

If you're interested in learning PA or Medusa on a high level, check out our hero guide bundle by Clutch Gaming's Nikobaby!