The 2018-2019
Dota Pro Season concluded in Shanghai on Sunday, with a dull
Grand Final, but a spectacular event overall.
In case it wasn't obvious,
this article will spoil the events of The International 2019.
Aside from a few subplot
points, the main story line belonged to the final four teams.
Europe, the powerhouse region of the season, secured three of the top
four spots. Incidentally the three of them, Secret, Liquid, and OG,
also included a number of players seeking to be the first to win two
Internationals. The fourth team, Chinese super team and fan
favorite, LGD sought to deny the Europeans their repeat.
In a near echo of last
year, OG defeated LGD in a tense 2-1 victory in the Winner Bracket
Final. Instead of facing LGD again in the Grand Finals, the TI7
winning Liquid squad (sub-Matumbaman) vanquished LGD after
dispatching Secret for the third International in a row. The Grand
Finals concluded with an uneventful 3-1 stomp by OG.
LGD's successful third
place finish wasn't surprising considering their 6th place
finish in the Dota
Pro Circuit, and their domination of Group A at Shanghai.
Secret's fourth place finish was only surprising because they didn't
win the whole event. They, along with Virtus Pro dominated the year
(more about VP later), but neither team could claim their first
Aegis. Liquid's second place finish would have astonished anyone
watching the first three Majors of the DPC season, but their 2nd
place finishes at the last two Majors (MDL
and Epicenter
Major), foretold their TI success. Spectators of the 2018/2019
season were not surprised by the victories of these three teams.
No, it was OG's success
that should have astonished viewers. Anyone proclaiming their
rational reasons for predicting OG's repeat triumph, is lying.
N0tail managed a subpar season for OG. They skipped the first Major,
couldn't earn a spot at the next two, and only earned a 5th
place and 7th place finish at MDL and Epicenter
respectively. At the International they channeled another team
entirely. They dominated from the first day of the Group Stage,
compiling a 23-5 record throughout the entire event. Not only did
they crush all opposition, they did it with incredible creativity.
After introducing carry Io on the second day to a thoroughly bemused
Ninjas in Pyjamas, OG.Ana mauled the competition, going 5-0 with the
hero. Only Secret dared to emulate OG's devastating strategy, but
they delivered a 1-1 result with the hero. While OG played heroes in
the Meta, they employed less popular heroes, to masterful effect.
OG.Topson was the only player to win a game with Pugna, going 2 for
3. He performed a masterclass with Monkey King; winning three of his
four games on the hero, and earning it 3 of its 4 victories in the
entire tournament. OG.Topson may have been the first pro player to
buy a Diffusal Blade on Gyrocopter, to devastating effect. N0tail
won 6 of 8 games on Grimstroke, a 75% win rate, compared to the
hero's 33% win rate for the entire tournament. Jerax and Ceb also
used a diverse pool of heroes, like Tiny, Enchantress, and Omniknight
to great effect.
By the end, OG was not
only the first organization to win two TIs, but the first team of
five players to win two TIs, and the first team to win back to back
Tis. Many of these records may not be replicated for many years As
long as N0tail, Topson, Jerax, and Ceb can convince Ana to remain for
another year, one could expect a three-peat.
Every TI contains success,
but also disappointment. Ninja's failed the initial test of the
Group Stage, but Virtus Pro's failure on the Main Stage superseded
ppd's debacle. VP, a team with a 1st place finish, two
2nd place finishes, and a 4th place finish
across five majors, and a close second in DPC points, initially
struggled in the Group Stage before a final day surge secured an
upper bracket berth. This reprieve didn't resuscitate their season,
as they lost 2-0 to LGD in the upper bracket, before being knocked
out in their next match by Royal Never Give Up. VP's 9th-12th
place finish was undoubtedly devastating for the players after a
tremendous season.
Virtus Pro was the only
one of my top seven teams entering the event to not achieve their
expectations.
One other team is worth
mentioning. Throughout the season, or at least in the Dota article
After
Epicenter and Before the TI9 Group Stage, I criticized the
weakness of the South American scene. Valve required that each Major
organizer invite two teams from every region, but South America never
scored better than a 9th -12th place finish,
and no team from that region earned enough points for an invite to
the International. A new Infamous roster won the South American
Regional Qualifiers and surprised many by finishing 7th-8th
at TI9. It was an excellent achievement for a team which formed only
in the second half of the season, and attended only one Minor.
Analyst Nahaz went so far
as to say, this achievement (7th-8th place finish)
justified the two South American invites for each Major. I strongly
disagree. One, a single team getting a 7th-8th spot
proves nothing. But I also want to look at who they defeated to get
their spot. In the group stage they only beat Fnatic, and split the
best of twos with most teams. In the Main event they defeated the
weakest team available for the Lower Bracket Round 1 Best of one,
before beating Newbee. Of the four upper bracket losers who dropped
into the Lower Bracket Round 2 (VP, TNC, Newbee, Secret), Infamous
got lucky with the weakest one. Their inspiring underdog run was
finally stopped by Team Secret. Certainly they deserve the
admiration for their hard won success against moderately skilled
teams, and Valve should include invites to South America, but this
single victory for the region proves nothing about what they deserve.
The International
experience includes the Battle Pass. Purchasing this program unlocks
various competitions, bonuses, visual effects, mini-games, and a
Fantasy Draft. It's too much to describe the entire experience here,
but I wanted to comment on two sections. One of my favorite aspects
is the Fantasy Draft. Prior to each of the ten days of the
International, owners pick the five players they believe will play
the best that day. Players earn the Battle Pass owners points based
on their stats, like kills, deaths, team-fight participation, and
observer ward placement. The Battle Pass owners who earn the most
points through their picked players receive a bonus to their Battle
Pass.
It is a enjoyable
experience, and I like to think I'm pretty good at it (I was in the
top .5% of owners this season), but it includes the same
problem every year (since it debuted in 2017). A player scores
points for his best 2 games in a best of 3, and for his best 3 games
in a best of 5. But if a player competes in 3 best of 3s that day,
he scores a total of six games. On any day during the Group Stage
some players participate in three best of threes, while others play
in only two. No matter how good a player is, if they play in two
best of 3s, they can't earn as many points as a player playing three
best of threes. This computation artificially limits the number of
viable players to choose from.
Valve's mistake is even
more egregious in the Playoffs. On the fourth, fifth, and sixth days
of the Main Event the schedule mandates one team will play two
best of threes, but the other five teams will only play one.
The only viable strategy for an owner of a Battle Pass requires
guessing which team will win their first best of three and play a
second. It doesn't even matter if the team will win the second;
playing two best of threes is incalculably better than playing one.
While the Fantasy Draft should reward Battle Pass owners to pick the
best players, it actually forces them to select players on the best
teams. This may seem like splitting hairs, because the best teams
have the best players, right? No! In spite of OG's incredible
success, by the end of the Group Stage (where they went 14-2) none of
their players was in the top 10 for Fantasy Points. The current
Battle Pass Fantasy Draft limits the owners to pick only good players
on good teams, with good match-ups, and with a full compliment of
games. It drastically limits the viable player pool, and often the
superstar players players are overlooked.
My frustration exists
because there is a very simple solution to this problem. In fact,
there are two! One, players score their two best games of the
day, regardless of how many they play. This would resolve the
issue for every day of TI except for the first day of the Main Event
(where eight teams play best of ones). A second solution solves even
that remaining problem. Players score their average game score
for the day. Calculate all the points they earn for each game in
the day, and divide by the number of games played. Whether a team
played one or nine games, they remain a viable pick for Battle Pass
owners.
For the last three years the Battle Pass included an alternative game
mode. TI7's event, Siltbreaker,
was a Diablo like game mode with four players exploring a world
together to complete a grand quest. TI8's event, The
Underhollow (my personal favorite), featured a dungeon brawler
with eight teams of three competing for the ultimate prize. For all
their faults, both were innovative games that used the heroes of
Dota, but in a new game mode that barely resembled the original game.
TI9's, Wrath
of the Mo'rokai, failed in every respect. That is not to say no
one played it, because playing it upgrades a player's Battle Pass.
It failed, because it was a regular game of Dota with a minor
variation. Every five minutes each team received an uncontrollable
monster. The opposing monstrosities ran at each other, and players
could participate or avoid the fights. These creatures barely
changed the game. Worse, the event heavily borrowed aspects from the
2014 and
2015 New
Bloom Events (celebrating the Chinese New Year). The former allowed
teams to battle the Year Beast, while the latter gave each team their
own Year Beast in a regular match of Dota. If 2015's event sounds
exactly like 2019's that's because it was. The best that can be
said, is the developer improved some details since 2015.
In conclusion, the
International 2019 did not disappoint, and the Battle Pass was a good
product, but with some significant defects.
The
Dota 2019-2020 season begins with the first Minor and Major pair
in November. Qualifiers will occur earlier, but with no detail about
the upcoming events,
teams are taking time to shuffle their rosters in search of the
next TI champions (good luck if OG remains together).
Next week, Awkward Mixture
concludes its three part review of Tyranny.
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