Login
en
- English
- Русский
en
MATCH ID 4322944973
The first series in a tournament is important because it is the first glimpse the viewers have of the metagame that the pros are going to use and develop during the tournament. This metagame, of course, will, in turn, change the pub meta to a degree and there might be valuable lessons to take away into your own games.
The series between Keen & NiP brought TI4 flash-backs to my mind. The meta at day one of the tournament seems to be defined by action-packed, extremely short games. Most games in the first few series so far lasted between 25 and 35 minutes. Game 1 of Keen vs NiP in particular is a great example:
Keen were able to secure a 21-minute victory with a score of 33 to 4. It’s interesting that they did this without totally dominating the laning stage. On the 10th minute mark, they were leading with 4k gold, which is substantial but doesn’t in itself make you think that the game will end in 10 minutes. There are other factors, however, that helped them achieve this.
The main reason for the short games is that teams draft and itemize to be able to group up as 5 and push from as early as possible. In fact, in this game, Keen grouped up as 4 before the end of the laning stage and pushed as 5 immediately after.
It
wasn’t just Keen Gaming who were aiming to push early on. NiP drafted for a
push timing as well – Terrorblade pushing at the frontlines with Agh’s KotL and
Abaddon to heal him and keep him alive is a good strategy. It’s just that Keen
drafted and itemized for an even faster 5-man timing.
The combination of these three heroes gives Keen’s lineup a lot of tankiness early on + a save. They are the main reason that they were able to finish the game with just 4 deaths.
Playing against such a tanky lineup could be deceptive and it’s easy to over-extend. A great example could be seen on minute 08:27 – NiP are trying to secure the kill on the enemy Jakiro. A well-timed Shallow Grave, however, saves him and allows Keen to turn and kill the enemy MK, making it into a very favorable fight for them.
Sven with Vlad’s and Crimson is something that’s already known in higher level pubs. The combination of his new Warcry and Crimson make him (and his team) unkillable with attacks. This is a big problem for a team whose main damage dealer cores deal exclusively right-click damage (MK & Terror).
To illustrate, at the 17:40 push mid by Keen, Sven spent a lot of time inside MK’s ultimate without taking any damage at all.
From
the picture above we can see that Sven took 30k damage, 64.4% of which was
reduced, resulting in 0 deaths for the entire game!
Dazzle mid is also something that gained popularity when 7.20 came out, but with mixed results. Keen, however, use it very efficiently. Dazzle is a perfect hero to add to the “never die” strategy thanks to his heals and Shallow Grave. Moreover, from the core role, he’ll have enough farm to buy even more 5-man items (like Mech/Greaves), making his teammates even harder to kill.
Despite not being a damage dealer, Dazzle did the 2nd highest hero damage in this game behind Sven. The heal bombs in 5-man fights and Poison Touch’s DPS shouldn’t be underestimated in the early-mid game. It’s worth mentioning that Keen combine him with two heroes with carry potential in the side lanes. Even if they’re unable to break the enemy base in the early-mid game and Dazzle falls off, Void + Sven will be able to carry.
Kunkka's ultimate is the last mechanic that makes Keen incredibly hard to bring down in fights.
The
Bracers/Bands/Nulls meta is definitely not over and the cost-efficient stat items are very important if you plan to fight
from very early on in the game. More importantly, however, teams are utilizing
other team-centered 5-man Dota items:
Vladimir’s Offering is back in the meta after being absent for a
long time. It received slight buffs and the aura is great to give your team an
edge in early-game team fights. The sustain is also useful on farmers like Sven
– e.g. in this game Sven was able to stay on top of the net worth graph.
Crimson Guard never really left the meta, but it is probably one of the best team-fight items in the game especially for mid-game pushes when the enemy right-clickers don’t deal very high physical damage per hit. Tanking tower hits also becomes a bit less punishing.
Guardian Greaves (or Mech) is the last “mandatory” 5-man Dota item that you need if you want to break the enemy base before the 20th-minute mark.
Thanks for reading! If you liked the article, don't forget to check out the other pro game analyses we have in our blog.
We also just launched our subscription service. If you are serious about becoming a better player, you can learn more about it here!
