Anyone who saw the first match of HGC EU between Dignitas and Misfits left asking the question-- why didn't Dignitas ban Ragnaros after back to back firelord defeats?
I am not Team Dignitas and I can't really know why they do anything. But as an avid fan of the team and a faithful HGC viewer, these are my opinions looking at the draft, the games, and knowing a bit about their playstyle and past matches. If you have your own insights, I'd love to hear them in the comments below.
1. They valued Malfurion.
The most obvious thing to consider is Dignitas's love of Malfurion. Team Captain Bakery played Malfurion every game in their HGC series vs. Misfits and the support hero was also drafted first by Dignitas every game. On the contrary, Misfits first picked Ragnaros first with the same fervor.
So both teams must have felt like they were getting exactly the heroes they wanted. Dignitas must have believed that Malfurion is the key to winning in the current meta and any strength Ragnaros brings to a team is less impactful than Twilight Dream, Entangling Roots, and the raw healing Regrowth offers.
GGs to dig, we didn't scrim each other for a while and our meta turned out to be stronger. Next time the score will be lot closer.
— Splendour (@SplendourHotS) January 20, 2017
Or as Splendour puts it, their meta's just didn't match due to a lack of scrimming together. Perhaps Dignitas just weren't ready for the AoE Melee DPS Ragnaros offers or what to do when Molten Core makes taking an objective impossible.
2. They feared Tracer.
Even though Tracer wasn't played in any of the games, her presence was felt in every draft. For those who may not be aware, Tassadar and Tracer are a tried and true combo. They are most powerful when paired together and by banning Tassadar you cover a lot of the risk of running into Tracer.
This must have been on the mind of Team Dignitas during these matches, as their priority of denying Tracer was much higher than denying Ragnaros. Dignitas banned Tassadar first during games 1 and 3. This makes them safe from a super-powered Tracer pick. Then, after Misfits picked Tassadar and Ragnaros together during game 2, their next ban was none other than Tracer.
Perhaps it was their preference for fragile assassins like Li-Ming and Falstad that made them uneasy against facing Tracer, but it's clear that Ragnaros was the real danger.
3. They thought their team fight control would keep them safe.
After they lost the first game to Ragnaros + Zeratul (despite an effective Abathur draft) it looked like Team Dignitas decided to prioritize team fight control as a means of countering the Misfit's initiation.
Falstad and Thrall during game two could use Earthquake and Mighty Gust to set the pace of team fights and deny Ragnaros the perfect "in-the-fray" positioning he needs to do max damage. It also provided easy ways to disengage whenever Ragnaros would use Molten Core. On paper, it seems solid but the small size of Tomb of the Spider Queen proved to be their undoing.
Misfits had superior wave clear on every one of their heroes (especially Ragnaros) and the battleground quickly fell out of their control.
Game 3 was a similar scenario, only this time the iconic duo of Medivh and Stitches. Again, on paper this makes sense. Engage first with Stitches Hook or Medivh Leyline and deny Zeratul and Ragnaros the Void Prison + Sulfuras Smash combo they are searching for. Meanwhile, Kerrigan and Falstad offer more initiation options-- both to punish and disengage from the melee positioning of Zeratul and Ragnaros.
But we know now that the power and impact Ragnaros had on these matches made these on-paper counters not very important.
Lesson learned
Dignitas and Misfits are considered equals in all respects and a 3-0 result was the last thing we expected to see. Only time will tell if next time these teams clash the score will be closer, but I think it's safe to same Dignitas won't let Misfits get their ideal draft of Ragnaros and Zeratul for the majority of their matches again.
Hey guys, I think Rag is broken #HGC
— James Baker (@BakeryHeroes) January 21, 2017
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