Two weeks of Dota will come to an end tomorrow, as DC, EG, and Wings are the only remaining teams. Evil Geniuses, after a strong start through the group stages and the upper bracket, finally drop a series after facing Wings, who swept them in a convincing 2-0 victory. EG will be facing DC tomorrow in the lower bracket finals.
It has been a stellar run for DC, a team that was projected far from its 3rd place, minimum finish. On their road to the finals, they fell LGD, TNC, EHOME, and Fnatic, and were largely the underdog in every matchup. Part of this expectation is connected to their history, their paltry finishes in recent tournaments, and the fact that the current roster was assembled days before the lockout, from the remnant free agents of other teams. Yet, they’ve displayed a coherence and unity in their team play that has carried them into the final three of TI6.
Regardless of who won this series, it was a collective win for the SEA region. TNC, Fnatic, and MVP.Phoenix outnumbered any other region for representation among the top 8.
MVP.Phoenix stuck to their aggressive roots, slightly diverted by Fnatic’s targeted bans for both games: Wisp, Axe, PA, Naga, and Alchemist. MVP’s strategies have been mostly one sided through the entire tournament, with casters and analysts often poking holes in their drafts before the game starts. But MVP’s singular, aggressive style has carried themselves to a top six finish, which is more than can be said about teams with well rounded drafts.
Despite MVP’s aggressive Slardar and Ogre opening, they were unable to leverage any early game advantage, which is a guaranteed disaster against a Tinker and Slark lineup. MVP had no inherent counters to either hero in their draft. It was Fnatic who found the upper hand in the laning stage, off the back of Ohaiyo’s Sand King. He was able to net two early kills in the offlane and later nailed several epicenter combos. Even a whiffed ultimate in the end was a blessing in disguise, when it baited MVP.Phoenix to overcommit.
Game 2 started off roughly for MVP again, as they their dual offlane of Faceless Void and Ogre Magi fed double kills, twice. Fnatic gained the edge in all three lanes, and soon all of MVP’s hopes all depended on perfect Chronospheres. They managed to win one fight, where a Chronosphere split Fnatic’s team, resulting in the kind of chaotic skirmish that MVP has excelled at all tournament. Fnatic managed to compose themselves afterwards and leveraged their gold advantage and their Medusa into the final base push.
It looked like Evil Geniuses were on a war path to the Grand Finals. They had yet to lose a game on the main stage, until they faced Wings.
Wings opened with a nostalgic, team fight draft composed of Razor, Enigma and Tidehunter. EG counter drafted with a mobile lineup, but they were unable to delay through the mid game, even with SumaiL leading the farm charts on his Sand King. EG lost all their Tier 2 towers by 23 minutes and despite Fear’s attempts to delay the game by lane cutting creeps, he couldn’t stop Wings’ inevitable push.
Game 2 saw several surprise last picks, with EG last picking Alchemist and Wings ending their lineup with a Medusa and Huskar duo. Despite a successful early start with a roaming Nighstalker and an Alchemist opting for a Solar Crest and Shadow Blade fighting build, rather than the Radiance and Manta farming build, EG still wasn’t able to hold down the early game. Wings turned a fight at Roshan and snowballed to a 23 minute victory.
Like EG, Fnatic had yet to lose a game until their series opponents today. For a team that was cobbled together at the last second, Digital Chaos showed great composure and patience in their series win against Fnatic. They had accrued a 40k gold net worth advantage at 45 minutes before they ended the game. DC’s Slark and Dark Seer dual lane gave a huge early game advantage over Fnatic’s Phantom Lancer, who was continually underfarmed throughout the game. All three of DC’s cores were able to get the farm they needed. W33’s Ursa with Aghanims, Linkens, BKB, and Cheese was as immortal as you could be without an Aegis.
W33’s Invoker made a return in game 2, after finally being left in the drafting pool, and he made Fnatic pay for it. W33 made every play that you wish you could make on an Invoker, from early game solo kills, to Refresher combos, to fountain Sun Strikes. The Chaos Knight was another great draft pick by DC, which topped off the physical damage output of their draft to take care of Fnatic’s Huskar.
As soon as the final series ended, taiko drums boomed through KeyArena, and wushu martial artists danced onto the platform. At the end of the performance, they parted and the silhouette of Monkey King lit the stage, announcing the arrival of Dota's first, new hero in three years. There are no details as of yet, except hints from the teaser that he'll have a knockback ability, an illusion spell, and perhaps a way to disguise himself as a tree. He's slated to be released in "The New Journey Update" this Fall, but knowing Valve's history, we can consider "Fall" a soft deadline.
FIRST!!!
first new hero in 3 years. Poor Pitlord. Nobody cares about him anymore.
gg mvp
lol......
wait wait wait....what!? An ORIGINAL hero? What happened to underlord?
which hero was released 3 years ago?
didnt watch the all-star game? Pitlord will be released right after TI
Wait doesn't LoL already have a monkey hero who can make illus?
you forgot to mention that mvp's draft void and sven is absolutely discusting, and on game 2 they pick slardar while not having physical damage on their team, instead of buying bkb slardar just go straight ahead in the secret shop and buy a fucking reaver. Mvp was so distracted for their previous accomplishment.
Wings vs eg was fantastic, i reminisce the past ti and ti2, wings strategy to make a five man combo is so sick. But all eg needed is disruptor, bounty hunter or silencer. If EG can revamp their mindset for more flexible drafting they surely win the grandfinal spot.
DC vs Fnatic , drow on mushi was not the great idea having him to play it badly. It was all midone's burden to carry the team but tide and kunkka isn't easy to beat down. And then w33's invoker show off his accurate sun strike, it was again mushi fail to carry his team by beeing countered by chaos knight.
GG OG GAYFANS, according to dota wiki last heroes added were oracle and earth spirit, patch 6.78
http://dota2.gamepedia.com/Game_Versions
pitlord - 23rd aug
monkey king - approx 6 months
first new hero since oracle/earth spirit in dota 6.78 PogChamp!
Ez Phantom Assasin :v
long time ago HoN was Copying DotA, Now the time for DotA copying HoN has come
pls copy Puppet master and Gunblade
my best HoN Heroes :)
wingz must win tihs TI, if not it's 322 again like TI5
Lol this the monkey king from Jackie Chan's movie. Even the same scene with the hair illusion.
https://youtu.be/r-PoBtwmP-o?t=3m8s
Resemblance purely coincidental.
will the illu deliver es ult echo?
Possible Role for Monkey King: Melee, Disabler, Initiator, Escape, Pusher.
lawsuit incoming volvo
so now we have a second cancer lancer
Lol. I thought that a new hero was doing good at the tournament. HAHa
LoL had Monkey King before HoN. But LoL took the monkey king from Dota 1. DotA just never released him. pls.
Also. ITS HIGH NOON
Welcome to Valve Time
Didn't Arc Warden just get introduced in the last year? Or does he not count...
wukong?
not a fan of monkey king...man ...wtf is this...give me demons ...hell angels.....rage...fire...what is this lol monkey man....:(
monkey king
monkey king bar
really original valve
I know son wukong was a secret boss from DotA not a hero
are we gonna have a black king now too? monkey king bar black king bar
HON is coming
Arc warden was a hero in Dota 1. He was just not released like pitlord. Mokeyking is entirely new hero in Dota scene. Hence, new hero in 3 yrs. Also monkey king was inspired by Wukong. You can see him in many movies and I think he was also in dota 1 campaign. And there was a secret boss quest in 6.79 in dota 1 about monkey king
Monkey king :O :O :O
new hero broooo, pit lord is not new hero, he just transfered from dota to dota2 just like oracle and ES.. duhhh
To those unsure about this hero please Google "Monkey King" (aka Sun Wukong), the character originates from "Journey to the West" published in 1592, so copyrights are available for anyone.
From Wiki:
"Each of his hairs possess magical properties, capable of being transformed into clones of the Monkey King himself, and/or into various weapons, animals, and other objects. He knows spells to command wind, part water, conjure protective circles against demons, and freeze humans, demons, and gods alike."
Extreme excitement. Great use of the character imo!
Первый русский
Lol Anyone who says DotA is copying League of Legends or HoN or whatever doesn't know anything about DotA because Sun Wukong was in DotA 1 before LoL or HoN ever existed
Sun Wukong is a mythical character from a book. Forget about stealing or who did it first. It's an old legend t this point.
Второй русский
where is skelton king ? :/
Monkey king quest in dota 1 just a teaser about his release, just like how invoker, tauren and phoenix get their own quest before their official release. Just google it out
Третий русский
Первый украинец