confusing picks in Dota 2’s major tournaments

In Dota 2, almost every hero is assigned a certain role. Positions 1, 2 and 3 sometimes swap lanes, but in pro, we’ve also seen cores support and vice versa.

Virtus.pro at The International 2014

In 2014, Virtus.pro struggled with form and lost to Tier 3 teams. Success didn’t happen until the 2014 qualifiers for The International, when the team won a spot from Wild Card.

While preparing for the main tournament, VP changed the team’s approach and tactics. They decided to focus on Sergey “God” Bragin and pick a support hero for the carry position.

MVP Phoenix is ​​Virtus.pro’s Wild Card competitor. In the first game of the series, Ilya “Illida” Pivcaev picks Skywrath Mage. Team Russia played well in the lane and took the lead in the middle of the game. VP’s picks aim for perfect executions, however, that’s beyond the team’s ability. Opponent picks made the situation worse, as they had to focus on strong teamfights with Brewmaster, Bristleback/Io combos, and Warlock in the safelane (obviously, the Korean lane division was confusing as well). . Then, two teamfights in the middle of the game helped MVP win.

In game 2, VP’s plan was to make God’s Shadow Fiend undefeated. In addition to Treant Protector suppoprt, Dazzle also has to help SF stay in the safe lane. Like Game 1, everything went smoothly from the start; The Korean team tried to play proactively, but encountered a solid defense from VP.

Things soon changed when Kim “QO” Seon-yeop’s Ember reached the level and items he needed. Using Io’s ultimate and speed boost, Ember attacks Dazzle in teamfights, luring Dazzle into using Shallow Grave. God can’t farm enough damage, so God usually dies as soon as Illidan falls. As the game dragged on, the MVP’s lineup became stronger, while Dazzle gradually became a front. After 34 minutes, Virtus.pro surrendered and was eliminated from the tournament.

Puppey’s turn to rebel

Clement “Puppey” Ivanov’s style of play is as passive as possible. As a support, he usually likes to farm and build as many items as possible when the opponent isn’t fighting. Thanks to that, the team got one more core.

We can see when Puppey picks support as Wraith King or Venomancer. Back in the jungle, it was even more valuable than now, he used to go to the Lycan or Lifestealer jungle. It’s very rare for other teams to play these heroes in position 4 or 5 and there are times when Puppey surpasses himself.

At the end of 2012, Natus Vincere had no competition in Europe. Drafts don’t play a big part in how they beat their opponents – Na`Vi can use any hero. For example, their draft includes Batrider going to the jungle to stack jungle creeps, using Sticky Naplam and burning them with Firely. In that game, Batrider didn’t even go up to Blink Dagger, only to Force Staff. Na`Vi only took 20 minutes to win the match.

In a more unusual game, Puppey jungled with Tinker before Virtus.pro at SLTV StarSeries Season III. Puppey goes to the jungle after reaching level 5 in lane. Similar to Batrider’s strategy, he stacked creeps multiple times and farmed using March of the Machines. All previous jungle creeps are very valuable, making jungling efficient. In addition, Tinker’s E increases physical damage, can kill Ancient creeps faster, and increases farm speed. By 18 minutes, Puppey had Bottle, Soul Ring and Boots of Travel. VP put money into Specter but not enough to confront Tinker, Leshrac Windranger and Templar Assassin who farmed full.

In the current meta, Puppey can’t shine with such crappy drafts against strong opponents. In the match against Newbee at DreamLeague Season 9 minor, he played Terrorblade in position 4. Honestly, we don’t know the idea behind that decision. At the beginning of the game, Puppey did nothing, and was at the bottom of his team’s net worth for a long time. Rare Reflection attacks are not counted.

But when the other four heroes started going full-map and attacking turrets, Puppey took over the empty lane to farm buffalo items. Maybe the idea is to use Sunder on one of your cores in a critical teamfight, but that’s not enough. Team Secret was beaten to pieces by the opponent despite successfully playing in mid and was forced to surrender.

Puppey surprised everyone once again by picking Dazzle in mid against Invictus Gaming in the group stage of Dota 2 Asia Championships 2018. Like Virtus.pro in 2013, Team Secret focused on a single carry – Juggernaut. With Abaddon in the offlane and Dazzle draining XP fast, opponents don’t have enough damage to beat Secret’s heroes. MidOne uses his ult on allies and stands behind him so he can heal them and then cast Grave when needed. The opponent was forced to kill Dazzle first, but that was too difficult for the Chinese team.

Other Roles of Phantom Assassin, Weaver, Shadow Shaman

Ilya “Lil” Ilyuk is another player who loves weird picks in position 4. After being eliminated by Virtus.pro in spring 2016, he founded Polarity and became the captain. Since then, he’s proven what a roaming Phantom Assassin can do. During this time, Lil did it twice with a 1-1 record. After that, he competed in such PA two more times, in Virtus.pro and Natus Vincere, one win and one loss.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVawrAOAtqE

Lil’s hero pool includes another weird support, Weaver, and he plays for Virtus.pro with a 7-4 record. This is a pretty effective formation when you have Slardar, a hero that can reduce armor a lot at all stages of the game, or Drow Ranger with a damage increase aura. Lil uses the hero’s mobility to pressure the early game lanes, while early kills help him level up and build fast. When he got Aghanim’s Scepter, he was like a mobile Aegis, using his ultimate on mid lane or carry when either of them was having a hard time.

We can’t help but mention Jacky “EternaLEnVy” Mao’s Shadow Shaman core in the DreamLeague Season 9 win bracket semi-final. Fnatic usually uses this hero, but as a support. At that point, EE went offlane to suppress Tidehunter thanks to high hand damage at low levels. The plan was not implemented effectively. Tidehunter was still comfortable in lane and initial attempts at turrets with his solid ultimate failed due to Fnatic not having enough firepower to push the turret. EE-sama’s team lost that game.

Zhang “LaNm” Zhicheng also played the monster pool hero at The International 2014. His Juggernaut farmed items by pulling creeps, as well as Blade Fury in the jungle while using Healing Ward. In the early game, he sometimes appears in the lane and helps kill enemy heroes. The first item he raised was Aghanim’s Scepter, then added damage boosters thanks to Team DK’s overwhelming lineup. This tactic works. DK won 3 out of 4 games in total, losing only to Vici Gaming – the team that then made it to the TI4 finals.

Source: Kiril; “gr1nder” Rusakov