What we can learn from J.Storm's surprise victory against EG

Game 1: the good old MVP.Phoenix strat

jostorm vs eg game 1

Many combat sports coaches will tell you that when you are facing an opponent who is better than you technically, your best chance is to turn the fight into a brawl. This is quite logical – if you clash skill for skill, you are going to lose. But if you take your opponent out of their comfort zone, it will be much harder for them to use the skills that they are best at. Brawls are messy and very hard to predict and you might be able to snatch a victory on the back of your grit, determination, and physical (not technical) abilities.

MVP hot6

Above: MVP (without March)

Although less intuitive, this strategy is fully applicable to Dota and the old MVP. Phoenix squad made it their specialty. They picked PA and Spirit Breaker along with other aggressive heroes and played hyper-offensively right from the start of the game. Tower-diving with multiple heroes from early on was a standard practice for them, not an exception. It was part of their game plan, not a display of “over-excitement” and “lack of discipline” as many other teams would describe it when they do it. 

Thanks to this super aggressive and chaotic playstyle, MVP were able to snatch victories out of mechanically better teams than them.

EG logo 150px
VS black
J.Storm Logo

It’s not difficult to argue that EG is the team with mechanically better players in this match. This makes the MVP strategy a great option for J.Storm. Drag them into the mud and take the victory before they know what hit them.

So how did J.Storm do it?

Being hyper-aggressive, as we all know from pubs, could very easily lead to feeding and a quick loss, so it’s not that easy to execute.

Phantom Assassin
Phantom Assassin

PA was QO’s preferred hero for MVP’s playstyle for a reason. She is a carry that can apply a lot of pressure right from lvl6. She doesn’t rely on cooldowns, she deals high damage even only with cheap items, she is mobile, and she is even very hard to kill thanks to her 50% evasion (before enemy cores get MKBs, but that doesn’t happen fast enough to counter MVP’s playstyle). 

The problem with this at the time was that PA was an out-of meta pick, which made the strategy a bit all-in-ish. Right now, however, thanks to 7.20, PA is the most contested carry with the highest win rate in competitive Dota.

Centaur
+
Dark Seer
Centaur + Dark Seer

MVP used DS + Spirit Breaker (on Forev & March) very often. This is a super aggressive and strong lane –  the super tanky Spirit Breaker with Ion Shell on him is extremely dangerous right from the start of the game. Cent + DS has a very similar logic. Even though Cent is not as mobile as Breaker, he is just as tanky and has more nuke damage. DS can help solve the mobility problem with Surge. 

Cent is usually played as a core, but he also has potential as a support: he is just as strong in the lane and later on, even if he doesn’t have a lot of items, he can still have a big impact with nothing other than a Dagger: Blink + Stomp to initiate and Stampede to follow-up/disengage don’t require farm.

Chen
+
Timbersaw
Chen + Timbersaw

One of the most interesting changes for Chen in 7.20 is that he received KorL’s Recall spell. KotL mostly used Recall to help his carries split push and join ganks in the mid & late game. The reason is that KotL is not an aggressive hero in the early game.

Chen, however, can afford to play very aggressively and even dive towers thanks to his creeps (something Na’Vi have been doing since TI1). Now, when he dives he’s able to bring an ally with him to help out and win the fight. 

Tower diving is very risky mainly because an enemy can always TP and give his team a numbers advantage. Chen’s new Recall evens out the scales. Bringing into the fight (behind the enemy tower) a hero like Timber is an extremely strong tactic. Timber is very tanky in the early game AND deals considerable nuke damage, so he is very comfortable at tower-diving himself.

Game 2: countering the enemy timing

Eg vs Jstorm game 2

Many people criticized heavily EG’s Veno pick for Sumail. It’s easy to say that in hindsight, but EG clearly had a plan when they made their draft:

Lone Druid is quite strong in 7.20 – he has been one of the more successful picks in the Chongqing regional qualifiers (with above 60% WR). Lone has always been one of the strongest pushers in the game thanks to his Bear. EG decided to use this potential and to build a powerful mid-game timing push draft around LD. They have very strong lanes and once they get their core items, Veno + LD are supposed to be able to break the enemy base.

When you are facing a timing draft, the most important question becomes how you will survive this timing.

J.Storm were playing from a slight XP and Gold deficit almost the whole game. Yet, they were able to defend their base for a very long time and the longer the game went the more likely it became for them to win. So, how did they achieve this?

Magnus Portrait
+
Monkey king
+
Dragon knight
Magnus + Monkey King + Dragon Knight

Magnus is a key pick in this strategy. He is one of the best heroes at defending the base mainly because of the threat of RP – if the enemy team decides to clump up to push the T3 towers, Mag will have an opportunity for a good RP. Slow-pushing is also hard because he can always Blink-Skewer the pushing hero out of position or to simply anti-push with Shockwave. 

Pushing against Mag becomes even harder when MK can use his ultimate on the HG ramp when a fight starts.

Magnus Empower
Empower

Empower was also game-breaking. DK (in melee form) and MK are two heroes who don’t have the greatest flash-farming and wave-pushing capabilities. Empower, however, fully solves this problem. It helps them farm faster, helps them keep the waves pushed-out as much as possible and, of course, makes them more dangerous in fights. 

Once the late game comes, empowered MK + DK with luxury items certainly have the advantage over Lone + Veno.


Thanks for reading. If you liked the combat sports to Dota comparison, you’ll like our deeper analysis of Team Liquid’s TI7 and TI8 run!

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