The
International 8 concluded this weekend in thrilling fashion.
Not since TI
3's Alliance vs Navi's 3-2 Grand Final has there been such
excitement. OG,
a team whose two initials have no
meaning, OG, a team reformed
with just three members right before the TI8 open qualifiers,
a team with no events played, a team containing a player who had
played in no prior event, vanquished every foe, and claimed the aegis
in an astonishing, outrageous, absurd best of 5. How did it happen?
It still seems so
incredible.
Before the final, and OG's performance,
the meta. The group stage contained many 1-1 splits of 2 game
series, yet the Main Event was surprisingly one sided. Of the 17
best of 3s, 13 were decided in 2 games, with only 4 needing the full
3. And with 47 games played on the Main Stage, and a total of 470
picks, of 116 heroes, 81 were picked. A few in particular
distinguished themselves.
Drow, with her global aura to grant
bonus damage to allied ranged heroes, went 7-2 on the Main Stage, and
20 – 9 over the entire event. She enabled other heroes such as
Weaver, Vengeful Spirit, Lina, Mirana, Invoker, and Clinkz to push
earlier and fight better with the bonus damage. Invoker performed
solo as well, with a 5-2 and 16-8 record.
Some heroes who performed only
moderately (or even poorly) in the group stage such as Clinkz
(17-23), Spectre (12-15), and Vengeful Spirit (35-34), excelled in
the Main Stage respectively, 8-3, 7-1, and 13-7. Vengeful Spirit,
was the most picked hero with 89 games overall, and teams selected
Tiny the second most, even though he had only achieved a 32-46 win
rate. A supremely strong laner, he didn't deliver as most games
developed.
After Vengeful Spirit, Phoenix and
Earthshaker were the most successful supports, securing a winning
lane for their cores early, and controlling the battlefield late.
Finally, there was Broodmother. The
hero has often been called a cheese
pick. In Dota, a cheese
pick is when a team selects one of a few
specific heroes (or two hero combinations) late in the drafting
stage, which are nearly invincible. Some examples of picks
considered cheese are Huskar and Dazzle combo, the old Techies and
Tiny, Drow and Visage, or a late picked Broodmother. It always
seemed to me that players and fans attempts to label certain
strategies cheese, were merely complaining, and many picks formerly
considered cheesing, are now common strategies, such as the ability
to kill
Roshan at level one, or rat
effectively. But even if the term remains,
Broodmother can no longer be consdiered a cheese draft. With a 4-0
on the main stage, 12-6 overall, and victories after a first pick in
the draft, she is a dominating, but fair force for those who know how
to use her, like Matumbaman and RAMZES666.
But there's a meta beyond the heroes.
Some commentators said, teams
preferred the Radiant side
in the group stage, but on the Main Stage it didn't seem to
matter, and of the 10 games played in the Grand Final, Upper Bracket
Final, and Lower Bracket Final, Dire won 6. Others claimed that the
team with the last pick were more likely to win, but last picking
team won only 6 of 10 final games, nothing conclusive. The biggest
conclusion was, win the lanes, win the game. This opinion has been
in vogue for quite a while, since the change to denying
creeps in 7.07. Yet, OG proved this conclusion incorrect, as
I'll demonstrate shortly.
A brief overview of the Grand Final.
In game 1, OG fell behind 8k gold at 22 minutes, and didn't gain the
lead until the final 5 minutes of the match, from 29 – 34. OG
victory!
Both games 2 and 3 were stomps by LGD,
where OG was never ahead. LGD won both.
Game 4, OG managed to secure the lanes,
and lead for the 35 minutes, peaking at an 8k gold advantage, before
falling behind by 15k gold and losing two lanes of barracks, before
finally recovering at the 54 minute mark, and concluding the game at
1 hour and 5 minutes.
And in game 5, OG slipped behind by 7k
gold until the 25th minute, and then won at 36 minutes.
OG only won the laning stage in one of
the five games, had to make a reasonable comeback
in two of their victories, and an incredible recovery in the 4th
game, even though they won the laning stage in that game. Each game
OG won was a crazy experience, and if you want to watch, here are the
highlights of games 1,2,
and 3 and of 4
and 5.
Before concluding, let's look at the
complete outcome. Commentators kept claiming that TI8's results was
entirely unpredictable, and that everyone's brackets were ruined
after the first day. Mine certainly was. There were many difficult
decisions, like VP vs LGD, EG v Secret, Secret v Vici, Storm v
Secret, and EG v VP.
But in fact, there weren't many
upsetting results, only 3; Serenity beating Fnatic, Winstrike beating
Newbee, and every single OG series. They were
unpredictable, they were clever, and they were often seconds away
from defeat. Of the four best of threes (of eighteen total series)
which required the complete set of games, OG was in two of them. OG
was only average except when they were brilliant, and fortunately
they were brilliant and tenacious enough to repeatedly claw
themselves to victory from serious deficits.
Even
ODPixel
can barely believe the result as he declares OG champions. Yet they
deserved it, and few would say there are players more worthy (and
likable) than Notail and his crew.
After the group stage, and OG's average
success, my system thought they were a terrible choice for TI
champions. But, finally, with OG's victory, my system believes thinks
they would have a reasonable chance at a repeat. Based on the chart
below, my predictions after the Group Stage were reasonably precient,
as my top 4 were all in the top 5. Only OG surprised, because there
wasn't enough data, and they're performance in the group stage was
only average.
A few final thoughts. My MVP of OG,
both in the upper bracket final and the grand final was Jerax with
amazing plays on Earthshaker, Io, and Rubik. Game saving in the 3rd
game of the Winner's Final.
A nice surprise of Valve inviting
Merlini to TI8 to tricast the Grand Finals.
The yearly rotation is broken. In the
seven prior Internationals, a Chinese team had won every one in an
even year. It's over. Yet, though so many came so close, no player
or organization has managed to win The International twice, yet.
Two new
heroes are scheduled for release, one
immediately, and the other in the winter.
I was a disappointed the third Open AI
vs Pro Gamers was canceled, even though Open AI had already lost
twice. There was even a post on Reddit, which I can no longer find,
how all the members of the original TI 1 winning Navi Squad were in
Vancouver. It would devastating to learn they were scheduled to play
only for it to be canceled.
And that concludes the 2017/2018
Defense of the Ancients 2 season. Don't worry, the qualifiers
for the first Minor and Major begin September 17th and
23rd respectively, with the main events scheduled for late
October and early November. I'll be keeping track of them, but there
won't be another Dota article until the end of January 2019.
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