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Dota 210 years ago

Breaking down Secret vs EG draft of ESL one final

Game 4: The final game of ESL One

Draft of the final game

The Drafting Phase

The final series had four games in which a total of 53 heroes were either picked or banned. Tusk and Dark Seer were the most picked heroes whereas Queen of Pain, Clockwerk and Shadow Fiend were the most banned. Anti-mage, Naga Siren, Leshrac, Storm Spirit, Keeper of the Light and Dazzle were the most contested. Both teams were versatile and drafted different heroes in all four games.

The last pick of Secret, Bloodseeker was picked to deter EG’s split pushing plans as Bloodseeker’s ultimate can stop Anti-mage from escaping. The last pick of EG, Zeus was a good pick because Zeus can position himself far from team fights and would be difficult to catch him in the aoe of Secret’s combo. Moreover Zeus countered four enemy heroes, Lina, Dark Seer, Keeper of the Light and Naga Siren and Zeus can help in spotting the real Naga Siren from the illusions by using his ultimate.

The biggest concern for EG was that they relied on Anti-mage heavily. With Anti-mage dead EG can’t afford to take a full team-fight and when Anti-mage is split pushing the other four heroes can’t put pressure on other lane as they would lack a front-line tanker against Secret’s surprise initiation.

 

Coming to the final game, Secret was leading the series by 2-1 and final game would result in tournament championship. In this game Secret decided to go for a team-fight line up with a setup for their AOE spells whereas EG drafted for a balanced draft with team-fight and a little split pushing option. Both teams had a good draft and it all relied on execution during the team-fight.

 

Breaking down all aspects of the draft

EG had better Early, Mid and Late game potential but the difference was not too high to win the game easily. The farm was almost even for both teams until an unplanned team-fight occurred near the top rune at 5 minutes into the game. Surprisingly Secret’s hard carry, Bloodseeker was level 6 at that moment and so was able to contribute immensely in the team fight and so he gained a good lead over EG’s hard carry Anti-mage.

The networth started shifting towards EG after a team-fight at Secret’s jungle and with fast farming potential of Anti-mage, his networth was 6000 more than Bloodseeker. After that team-fight Anti-mage still had the Aeges and then EG decided to push together against Secret and without a BKB on Anti-mage they lost the team-fight and lost the lead they had gained.

 

Secret didn’t have many single target disables but they had AOE disables within all of their heroes. EG had great single target lockdown and had other AOE disables too. EG has a slight lead in terms of disables but its 51-49 hence it’s not a big difference. 

 

EG had good nuking potential from their normal spells and ultimates whereas Secret less single target nukes and AOE ultimate damage but had high AOE nukes and single target ultimate damage.

The heroes that contributed in high AOE ultimate damage for EG were Zeus, Earthshaker, Anti-mage and Lion if he buys ultimate scepter. For Secret only Dark Seer’s ultimate had AOE damage. AOE nukes were from all Secret’s heroes whereas for EG it was Zeus and Earthshaker. Only Keeper of the Light’s mana leak was a single target nuke for Secret whereas EG had Tusk, Lion and Zeus.

 

Secret’s biggest advantage in the draft was their Pushing and Defending potential whereas EG had an option to Split-push. Pushing together as 5 against Secret would be extremely tough for EG as Secret had good wave clearing nukes and harassing skills.

If EG had a good natural pusher then they would have been able to take down towers effectively without the need to forcing Secret for a team-fight.

 

Both the teams drafted for a team-fight oriented line up hence they heavily relied on their ultimates. They had long cooldowns on their ultimates but they had bigger AOE hence precision was easy to achieve.

 

Secret had a good advantage in terms of item dependency as Keeper of the Light, Dark Seer, Lina and Bloodseeker can do heavy damage without core items. Naga Siren support was a risky pick as the hero needs good farm to give a good output but Secret used Naga Siren mainly for setting up the team-fight combo hence it could be done without the need of items. On the other hand, EG’s Earthshaker needed blink dagger, Anti-mage manta style or bkb and Zeus mobility items such as force staff. Though EG was able to get a few core items on all of their heroes at a decent time, they lost the game at one big team-fight because Anti-mage didn’t have a bkb.

 

Both the teams decided to go for heroes that are tough to execute. In EG, Tusk has to be precise with time and AOE of skills, Zeus has to position himself safely throughout the entire game as he is not at all a durable or mobile hero until he buys the core items and Earthshaker’s entire existence in the game is determined by the single second of his ultimate during the team-fight and a little early or late can decrease his damage output tremendously. In Secret, Naga Siren had to be precise in deciding the moment to use the ultimate and Lina’s stun was the only reliable disable to hold Anti-mage at one place hence it had to be extremely perfect.

In terms of Easily Countered, EG had Anti-mage a very mobile and high damage output hero who destroys the enemy supports in a short period of time. As Secret had very few direct disables it would be tough for them to hold Anti-mage at one place and so they would get easily countered by him. Even Zeus can deal huge AOE damage from far and that would be a big concern for Secret as Lina, Keeper of the Light and Naga Siren had HP around 1k at the mid game.

Secret also had to synergise in their timing to execute spells for the big team-fight combo, hence EG had a good advantage in terms of execution as it was a bit easier for them.

 

Individual Strength was almost equal but Secret had a little advantage in Durable, Escaper and Right Click Damage. Both the teams decided not to go for a strong healer and focused more on AOE damage. Keeper of the Light can surely heal in a late game, but he depends on item and AOE hence it’s not a healer from the early game that a team would rely on.

In terms of durability, Secret had Dark Seer and Naga Siren whereas EG had Tusk and Anti-mage. Earthshaker can also be a durable hero but it was played as full support hence it would neither level up quickly nor get durable items in the mid game. EG had Anti-mage as one of the best escapers of the game but other heroes heavily relied on items to improve their mobility. Whereas Secret had Dark Seer and Bloodseeker’s bonus move speed.

Secret had Bloodseeker and Naga Siren as their major right click damage heroes and EG had only Anti-mage. Both the teams had good fast farming heroes such as Anti-mage, Zeus, Lina, Dark Seer and Keeper of the Light who can clear out waves fast. In initiation, Secret had Naga Siren and Bloodseeker whereas EG had Tusk and Lion.

 

Both the teams had equal advantage in Bonus Skills as EG had Negative Aura effect, Rosh spotting ability and Solo or fast roshing ability whereas Secret had Summoning ability and Rosh spotting ability. Naga Siren was a key hero for Secret as it summons illusions and keeps the enemy distracted while sending the illusions to scout and keep an eye on Roshan if necessary.

EG had Tusk with Frozen Sigil that would decrease movement and attack speed of the enemy and would act as a good negative aura whereas it can also help in scouting areas like Roshan and decreasing Roshan’s attack speed making it easy for the team to kill Roshan.

 

Countering an enemy as very important in the game but Secret decided to focus on AOE damage in a team-fight rather than countering a single target effectively. Secret surely countered Anti-mage by Bloodseeker’s rupture but Anti-mage would still be strong to fight Bloodseeker if he comes close. If needed EG had ways to save Anti-mage during the rupture duration by Tusk’s Snowball and Earthshaker’s fissure that can disallow melee heroes in engaging effectively.

On the other side Zeus countered four enemy heroes, Lina, Dark Seer, Keeper of the Light and Naga Siren and Zeus can help in spotting the real Naga Siren from the illusions by using his ultimate. He also has a high global damage that can deal massive damage to Secret’s Lina, Keeper of the Light and Naga Siren as they have low base HP.

 

EG had a tremendous advantage in Nukes and Counters followed by minor advantage in Stages, Disables, Ultimates and Execution. Secret had a huge advantage in Push + Defense and Items followed by minor advantage in Individual Strength. With Overall statistics at 50% both the teams had a chance to win the game.

EG drafted and played excellent but certain mistakes destroyed their game. The first was that they took a team-fight without Anti-mage having a BKB which they should have thought carefully as Secret had a draft for a team-fight AOE combo. The second mistake was that they didn’t plan their initiation, they just went in one by one and got caught at Naga Siren’s ultimate. The third mistake was that in last two games EG called off GG too fast hence they were not prepared for the gameplay of Secret in the late game. They underestimated Secret’s execution potential. Had they calculated the output of Secret correctly then they would have taken that team-fight in a better way and it would have resulted in a victory perhaps.

In the end Secret’s execution skills won them the game and ESL one tournament.

 

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