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Dota 212 years ago

Match analysis: A Look Back at Zenith's No-Ban

The Draft

First Ban Phase
Zenith	.... Well, this is awkward. No bans from iceiceice? No calls for pause imply that Zenith isn't experiencing any issues. An idealist would think that iceiceice is playing mind games and staring iG down after their defeat in game 1. No bans also means that the pool is bigger; iG can only ban so many heroes and Zenith has first pick. A realist, however, might simply think that iceiceice is trolling. He does that sometimes.
iG	Two very understandable bans from iG. Dark Seer is known for his power in teamfight control, while Nyx is both a devastating initiator and a solid hero killer.
First Pick Phase
Zenith	Zenith uses their first pick to grab the Lifestealer, a carry which has recently risen into a very solid position in the competitive scene. Despite winning just under 50% of his recent games, he's been picked or banned in 76% of the last 170 games. This is due, in part, to the power behind his Rage which destroys the ability of supports to disable him. Feast lets him tear through meatier heroes like the ever-popular Magnus and Lone Druid and Open Wounds is a fantastic ganking skill. Their second and third picks snap up Shadow Demon and Juggernaut. Shadow Demon (±50% winrate) is a versatile, hard-hitting support hero with a powerful arsenal of skills. Purge is a great counter to magic immunity, so it's in their best interest to keep him out of iG's hands. Juggernaut (40% winrate), representing a semi-popular pick for the pushing power his Healing Ward bestows, gives Zenith good pushing power and another hero with magic immunity, making Zenith very difficult to gank. The Juggernaut-Lifestealer combination gives Zenith the ability to hold their mid-game while N'aix does what he can to get farmed.
iG	With no bans from Zenith, iG scoops up an armful of their favourite heroes. All three have higher win rates than Zenith's selection (Magnus at 57%, Batrider at 56% and Lone Druid at 67%), and are far more popular in the scene (all have been picked or banned in more than 75% of recent games). All three have the ability to solo lane, and both Batrider and Lone Druid can also level in the jungle.
Second Ban Phase
Zenith	coughs iceiceice continues to stare iG down as three more bans go untouched. In a world where Zenith wasn't playing mind-games, bans would have been used to take out support heroes that iG is short of, such as Lina, Keeper of the Light, Rubick or Jakiro.
iG	Keeping the power of a mid-game Juggernaut and a late-game N'aix in mind, iG bans to strong early pushers (Leshrac and Chen) and Lina. Leshrac and Chen would both have the ability to keep an offensive early game for Zenith, putting iG under pressure and giving the space to Lifestealer for farm. Lina and Leshrac are also worthy of a ban due to their synergy with Shadow Demon, preventing Zenith from running a scary trilane with either carry.
Second Pick Phase
Zenith	Zenith takes another mid-game powerhouse, Queen of Pain. She has a win rate of 46%, but she fits well into Zenith's lineup. As a level dependent hero it's likely we'll see her solo, but her Blink allows her to take almost any lane. Shadow Strike is another strong lane controlling skill. Bane Elemental, on the other hand, is the king of disables. Highly item independent, Bane totes an arsenal of disables, and may pose a danger to iG. His win rate of 62% evidences his strength as a support hero. Enfeeble represents a devastating counter to Lone Druid's Spirit Bear, sapping its damage and taking away that tower-crunching power Lone Druid is picked for. Nightmare has the ability to fully remove a support hero from a battle, or to protect an ally for a brief period of time. Finally, Fiend's Grip provides a long disable that penetrates any magic immunity iG might obtain.
iG	In their fourth pick, iG takes Rubick. With spells like Rage, Sonic Wave, Blink and Omnislash on the table, Rubick has the potential to steal some powerful skills. He adds another disable to iG, which can be used alongside Magnus' ultimate to chain stuns, possibly even to outlast the magic immunity of Lifestealer and Juggernaut. His magic resistance will also assist the team against the Queen of Pain's arsenal. At 47%, Rubick has the lowest winrate of iG's lineup, but provides a very important support role that iG is lacking, especially after banning three of the more popular ones.
Analysis

Despite having a team composed of stronger individuals (average win rate of 56% compared to Zenith's 50%), I feel that Zenith has nailed this draft. Not only is iG stuck with a lone support hero, but Zenith has a lot of slippery heroes. Every single one of Zenith's lineup has some form of escape: two forms of magic immunity, two forms of magic immunity, a Blink skill and two momentum interruptions in the form of Disruption and Nightmare. It's going to be very difficult for iG to gank heroes, even isolated ones, without giving Zenith an opening to respond. Zenith also has a carry which can take on Lone Druid at the later stages of the game, and the ability to survive an early iG push. Ultimately, it seems that the gamble Zenith took has paid off; with more heroes in the pool, iG got greedy and grabbed their favourites without thinking of the game. This doesn't go on to say that iG has no hope. With strong pushers and teamfight heroes, Zenith needs to be very careful when engaging iG head on, and would be better suited for hit-and-run ganks through the early game and lightning pushes in the mid-game. As Lone Druid reaches his peak, and when Tinker, Magnus and Bat get their core items, iG gains a lot of striking power in the middle of the game. If Zenith doesn't get a good early lead or keep the bear suppressed, they could be in a very dangerous position.

Lanes

Top

vs.

Lifestealer and Lone Druid clash top, with Rubick backing Zhou and Shadow Demon and Bane lurking in the bush. This lane is important, but will probably be fairly uneventful for the early stages. Both Lifestealer and Lone Druid just want to get some creeps under their belt. While the bear lacks Entangling Roots, iG's offensive options are limited, while Zenith will have problems catching the Lone Druid out. As the game develops, though, this lane becomes critical for Zenith; not only does Lifestealer need to get steady farm, but they need to keep the bear down to survive the mid-game. iG is more chilled about this lane. As long as Lone Druid gets a steady rate of farm, they won't have problems.

Middle

vs.

Tinker usurps Magnus as iG's mid solo hero. This makes sense; with no escape mechanism, Tinker lacks the offlane safety of Magnus. With Bane and Shadow Demon top, Tinker expects to go against Juggernaut or Queen of Pain, and ends up facing the former. This is a fairly one-sided lane in the early stages; despite his magic immunity, Juggernaut lacks the manapool to totally prevent harassment from Tinker. He'll need a gank here early to get some creep kills in. Fortunately, Juggernaut can be effective with just some levels of Healing Ward, and this middle lane will let him get fast experience. iG needs Tinker to get a fast set of Travels; this will let him apply pressure globally and force Zenith to scramble to defend towers. In turn, this will let the Lone Druid push other lanes and eat up farm while denying Lifestealer space. This is one of the more important lanes, and Ferrarri has to perform here.

Bottom

vs.

Magnus and Queen of Pain lock horns in the bottom lane. With escape mechanisms on either side, neither is at immediate risk, but the Queen of Pain has the ability to assert a lot of dominance. Shadow Strike prevents Magnus from relying on Clarity Potions and restricts his movement, while her range will allow for right-click harassment. Magnus needs an early dagger, but he's going to struggle to get it unopposed here. If the Rubick starts roaming, he might have more luck, but he also needs to keep the threat of a roaming Shadow Demon or Bane in mind.

Jungle/Roaming

Batrider is set to stack creeps and get levels in the jungle. He needs an early Blink Dagger or Force Staff to put his initiation skills to use, and can get that farm in the jungle...if he isn't forced out by Zenith aggression. Shadow Demon and Bane, who start in the top lane, seem set to roam early. Batrider needs to keep his eye on Zenith, or else he'll cost iG the inherent advantage of having a jungle hero.

Game analysis

Early Game 0:00 - 12:30 Zenith 0 \| 0 iG

|01:00| Magnus and Queen of Pain start off to an aggressive lane, getting some decent hits on each other. Queen of Pain seems to be dominant, using Shadow Strike to great effect so as to slow the Magnus down.

|02:30| The blood-sport kicks off with a precise gank on Ferrarri in the middle lane. xFreedom gets an invisibility rune and waits mid, just outside the truesight range of the tower. Instead of instantly attacking, Bane leeches experience until level two for the extra 90 damage. It works: a Nightmare stops Tinker as Juggernaut moves into position, and they run him down for first blood. It's a Phyrric victory, though: Juggernaut dies to the tower. It still gets Juggernaut his boots and allows Bane to grab some quick levels.

|04:30| Bane and Shadow Demon flank the top tower and net a kill for Lifestealer. Zhou almost looks like he's going to get away, before the bursting, slashy sounds of Open Wounds pull his dreams apart, much like what N'aix did to his hero. This is a crippling blow to the Lone Druid, who has to wait 100 seconds after respawn before he can re-summon his bear. Zenith have put a stop to Lone Druid's farm while simultaneously opening the lane up for Meracle, which he uses to push the lane and flatten the first tower of the game.

Needless to say, the words "Up top!" were unwelcome in the iG camp for a while.

|06:00| Batrider chases Shadow Demon back over the river, after being driven from his own jungle by some poking around by Zenith. With his safe big camp warded, his jungling is going to run into trouble.

|07:50| Queen of Pain nets an important kill on Magnus with the help of Shadow Demon. Zenith now has three kills to iG's two. Zenith has, however, targetted the three vital heroes; Tinker, Magnus and Lone Druid, all of whom now have a delayed core. They've also spoiled the Dire jungle for Batrider. iG is just lacking their trademark aggression, and Zenith is capitalizing on this by going on the offensive.

My worst nightmare: badly chained stuns.

|10:00| Magnus and Rubick stumble upon a Bane Elemental in the woods. Easy kill, right? Not even slightly. Thanks to those early levels he scooped up, he has a level 3 Brain Sap. This, combined with a full wand, lets him flash-heal 370 HP. A Nightmare on Rubick holds him in place as backup arrives; Disruption, Soul Catcher and a Scream of Pain bring him to his knees, before those asshole Hellbears decide to take the kill.

"Mmmm, brain slurpee. Nutritious!"

Neutral shenanigans aside, this is a big loss for iG. While the death of Rubick won't leave them in tears, they spent a lot of energy on this gank, including putting Reverse Polarity on cooldown, at no gain.

|12:30| We have our first proper multi-hero clash. Batrider tries to jump on Lifestealer, but wastes the ultimate and is cut down by the Shadow Demon. The Shadow Demon is then singled out and cut down as reinforcements arrive from iG. iceiceice's Juggernaut tries to secure a cleanup kill, but the Magnus arrives and dashes his dreams with a Shockwave.

Food for thought As heroes have started roaming properly, and we've had our first team clash, the game has made the transition from the early laning phase into the mid-game stage. Queen of Pain dominates the leaderboards, coming in at the highest level (10) and most last hits (77), and is well on her way to an Orchid Malevolence. This item will be crucial in holding off the Magnus ultimate, while also being able to interrupt heroes like Tinker and Rubick. Meanwhile, despite his early death, Tinker is doing the best out of iG. The two kills he has scored has helped him get a fast Boots of Travel, coupled with a Soul Ring and a Bottle. This is important, as iG will need him to assert global dominance soon to allow the Lone Druid to get back in the game. Currently the fifth most valuable hero, Lone Druid lacks any core, and doesn't even have upgraded boots. If he doesn't get items on the bear, and soon, iG is going to have a very difficult time combating the Lifestealer, who has his Armlet ready for delivery. With no targetted damage over time, the Lifestealer will have the power to abuse Armlet toggle whenever he's outside the Firefly and March zones. Right now, Zenith is looking strong. They've stuck to their game plan and gotten lucky; the Lifestealer has had a dominant lane with a lot of farm, while the Queen of Pain has been levelling and farming well. The Magnus and the Batrider still have no Blink Dagger, and iG is in a very precarious position going into the phase they should be dominant in. To fix this, they'll have to try force teamfights in bottled positions, to allow for a devastating Reverse Polarity without the need for a precise initiation.

Mid Game 12:30 - 30:00 Zenith 6 | 4 iG

|15:10| The mid-phase doesn't start swimmingly for iG. Smoking up and teleporting across the map, Bane and Shadow Demon surprise the Lone Druid, teaming up with the Lifestealer in order to kill him. At the same time, the Queen of Pain and Juggernaut jump on Magnus in the middle lane. Deploying her Orchid to great effect, they hold off the Reverse Polarity and get a kill before drawing back. iceiceice almost gets himself into hot water, but a Sonic Wave ravages the health of the chasing iG and convinces them to lay off.

Zhou falls to the heavy disables and anti-tank power of Zenith.

|16:00| Magnus gets caught at the second Dire tower in the top lane. Cancelling Reverse Polarity once lets him line up and catch Lifestealer and Bane in the ultimate, but an incoming Tinker gets quickly Disrupted and can't provide follow-up. Both Magnus and Tinker die one after the other, and Zenith continues to concrete their lead by taking the tower.

|16:30| Lifestealer finds himself out of position and retreats, with Lone Druid, Batrider and Rubick in close pursuit. With a slurp and a squish, he gets inside Juggernaut and looks to be making his escape. iceiceice decides against that, and heads back into the fray. Meracle bursts out of his chest and they take down the Batrider before Juggernaut pays for his bravery with his life. Bane comes in to help alongside Tinker, but dies in a stampede of angry machines and magnoceri. Lifestealer escapes, but barely. Zenith must be careful to not sacrifice these kinds of kills to iG, who is renown for being able to slowly inch their way from a tight spot to victory.

Too much #YOLO, not enough #TROLO.

|18:45| Zenith focusses aggression on the middle tower, reducing it to 300 HP. iG cruises in to defend after Juggernaut wastes his Omnislash, and trade kills with Zenith, losing Batrider while killing Bane. Zenith is pushed on the defensive, though, and iG continues the momentum, taking out the Shadow Demon. As they threaten the tower, N.W.P feels like he can take out the Rubick, and foolishly jumps into a 4-strong cluster. Splat. The rest of Zenith scrambles, however, and manages to stop iG from getting their first tower by retaliating and killing the Magnus. iG is working hard to narrow the gap, and Zenith needs to make sure they don't slip up and lose their advantage.

|21:00| Lone Druid picks up a Maelstrom. It's taken 21 minutes for him to get any core item up, a testament to how well Zenith is controlling the farm dynamic. Magnus is still just short of his Blink Dagger, while the Batrider literally has nothing, with the lowest net worth in the game.

|21:25| Bursting out of a team-wide Smoke, iG initiates on Zenith near the bottom Radiant tower. Disruption saves Bane from the Flaming Lasso, while Queen of Pain and Juggernaut skilfully kill Magnus before he can get a Reverse Polarity off. iG loses a lot of initiation power here, as a Disruption saves Bane from the Flaming Lasso. Queen of Pain falls to the Marching Machines, followed quickly by Batrider. Bane manages to hold the Lone Druid with his ultimate before falling to a combination of Firefly and the Spirit Bear, and Zhou makes his escape as he knows Zenith has no disables. Rubick dies to Lifestealer, despite the use of a stolen Omnislash, and Tinker snipes off Shadow Demon. Both sides have lost three heroes, with both keeping their most important ones alive. The fact that iG didn't have the Reverse Polarity there was critical. If he had caught two or three heroes in the stun, it's very likely that Zenith would have been wiped out.

Magnus gets dismantled before the teamfight, denying iG their critical AoE stun.

|23:45| Magnus manages to farm his Blink Dagger in the jungle. iG now have an opportunity to force a teamfight and drop a big Reverse Polarity to swing the game in their favour. A few seconds later, Juggernaut hacks the Batrider apart with his Omnislash, but ends up on a cliff. He has a TP scroll to get out, but is instead saved by a friendly YYF and his Skewer. Reverse Polarity is wasted and iG gets no kind of retaliatory kill.

|25:30| Zenith takes Roshan uncontested, and uses their momentum to take another tower in the bottom lane. iG now have no outer towers, and risk being boxed into their base and denied farm entirely.

|26:50| Deploying his Blink, Magnus jumps on Shadow Demon and destroys him before he can Disrupt anyone, robbing Zenith of their Gem. N'aix gets pissed and tears into the Tinker in response, evening the kill score before pulling out.

|29:40| After a lull in the game, iG pulls off a tight gank on the Juggernaut, killing him milliseconds before a successful TP escape. While still behind on kills, iG have started to assert themselves more confidently; the Spirit Bear now has an armlet, and even Batrider is getting a modicum of farm. Scarily enough, however, Lifestealer has a net worth almost 6,000 gold greater than the Lone Druid, and poses a massive threat at the moment, as they prove by killing Zhou in the counter-attack.

Food for thought With Zenith knocking at the doors of the Dire base, and the Lifestealer, Queen of Pain and Juggernaut coming into their own, the game is making its transition into the final stages. Things are looking bleak for iG, who are underfarmed, underleveled and lack valuable vision and map control. They aren't going to outcarry the Lifestealer any time soon (net worth: 16,100); their only hope is to keep the game together through strong initiation from the Magnus and Batrider and global pushing from the Tinker in order to get the Lone Druid (current net worth: 9,100) to the golden "Twelve Item" dream. It's not looking likely, though, and Zenith is set in their course to wrestle a victory from the invictus Gaming steamroller.

Late Game 30:00 - End Zenith 22 | 14 iG

|30:40| Zenith pushes up the middle ramp and lays into the tower, with Juggernaut rushing past the barracks to keep iG at arms reach. A stolen Omnislash almost takes the Queen of Pain down, but a quick Blink saves her and leaves her to the mercy of the fed N'aix, now toting an Abyssal Blade. Queen of Pain leaps into a Dagon blast, but she's just stalling iG for time as the rest of her team takes the tower and pulls back.

"I'm a nerd, and a ninja. Deal with it."

|31:44| iG takes their first tower of the game as Zenith draws back to recover. It's a hollow victory though, and iG pulls back to avoid getting caught in a fight they don't want.

|33:00| Lone Druid falls to a N'aix-bomb; it's interesting to note how quickly Queen of Pain lost health to the bear. Even in his underfarmed state, the combination of Armlet and Maelstrom hits hard.

|35:00| As Zenith clusters to push in the middle lane again and go for the barracks, a Telekinesis and a Lasso force their hand and let YYF land a killer Reverse Polarity.

A fantastic Reverse Polarity locks three of Zenith's heroes down, but it's a day late and a dollar short (Ayesee, 2013)

It's for naught, however. Momentum is disrupted as Magnus is Nightmared and Juggernaut gets Disrupted, and Zenith has the tankiness to survive the initiation and turn the fight around. An Omnislash goes off and Rubick and Lone Druid fall, which results in the GG call. Zenith have taken Game 2 of the G-1 clash and forced iG through to a third game with a convincing win!

Conclusion

Zenith really performed this game, and it started with their brilliant use (or lack of use) of the bans, baiting iG into greedily grabbing all their favourite heroes. This set Zenith off to a great start, with lanes that were stronger in most cases. Their only weakness was the Juggernaut in the mid lane, which was remedied quickly by the roaming Bane Elemental. Getting off to a great start, they continued taking advantage of the weak jungle-Batrider and the delayed Blink Dagger on Magnus, baiting out initiation attempts before shutting heroes down with long disables and items such as Orchids and the Scythe of Vyse. The Lone Druid, unable to farm, fell off as the Lifestealer only got stronger. Unable to secure gold through heavy pushing, iG is forced out of their comfort zone and suffers accordingly. Unable to adapt due to how underfarmed their heroes are, they lack the ability to strike out, and as they are forced into their corner they need to divide less and less farm between hungry heroes.

The fact that Magnus, Batrider and Lone Druid all took more than 20 minutes to get their first big item shows how well Zenith kept them down. As we transitioned into the late game, Zenith dominated the leaderboards for net worth and kills, and simply started to push over iG, even ignoring massive spells like Reverse Polarity. iG crumbled to a well executed, well coordinated Zenith killing machine.

We grabbed iceiceice, the drafter, after the game. Our question: what was the plan? Let iG grab imbalanced heroes with no synergy, or leave the pool open to get the heroes you want? His response?

[2:20:29 PM] iceiceice: ?

[2:20:29 PM] iceiceice: no

[2:20:35 PM] iceiceice: there wasnt a plan

[2:20:35 PM] iceiceice: just play

And there you have it, folks. All the analysis in the world, and iceiceice was basically trolling. Who would have guessed?

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