WPC 2014 Week 1: The Calm Before the Storm April 2nd, 2014 13:28 GMT Text by riptide Focus Mode

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The Calm Before the Storm



VG on top. VG on top.

WPC 2014 got underway last week and here we are, already at the midweek break. The team of the week so far, of course, is VG. Dispatching both Tongfu and NewBee in clean 2 - 0 sets, VG showed us that they are in form and ready for the month of league play they have ahead of them.



Meanwhile, SEA hometown heroes Titan opened their WPC 2014 showing in style, going 2 - 0 against CIS and tying 1 - 1 with Orenda. They thus sit at #2 in the league table. Their overall play was quite strong, and we look forward to seeing more of them in Week 2, and we definitely will: they have eight series in the coming week!



These first few days of play also gave us our first look at Orenda, a new Chinese amatuer team that came out swinging, 2-0ing CIS in their opening game. Right now, they sit at #3 with 1-1-1.



We’ve been seeing a lot of Lycan and Shadow Shaman in both Eastern and Western Dota in 6.80, and WPC was no exception. In fact, the heroes were picked or banned in every game so far. Overall, at 66.9% and 59.2%, Lycan and Shadow Shaman have the two highest winrates in this patch among heroes with at least fifty games played, and they are well and truly here to stay in WPC.



AA has been popular in both scenes due in part to Chilling Touch and the huge damage buff it provides trilanes. Chilling Touch has been the first skill taken by Ancient Apparition in 92 of his last 100 games, including this fy’s AA versus TongFu in WPC this week, where he went 7/1/8 with the hero, effectively beating Sylar’s KDA that game. It should be no surprise, then, that AA has been played in 11 out of the 14 WPC games so far!



Speaking of Sylar though, this week also saw a Sylar Invoker, the first of its kind in a pro game, and what an Invoker it was. He went 11 - 4 on the mage, netting a whopping 636GPM, putting him in the top 10 Invoker GPMs of all time, and no doubt making Hao’s Antimage in that game very angry indeed! Though the Sylar Invoker is a little surprising, the pick itself is not at all out of the ordinary as Invoker is the most picked and banned hero in 6.80, with a 89.8% P/B rate.



Of course, all this must take into account the fact that top-tier teams like DK and iG did not play at all so far, though we will see them in action vs Titan early in Week 2. Nevertheless, Week 1 brought us a lot of Chinese Dota, and while it hasn't been all that eventful so far, but we’re sure this is just the calm before the storm. After all, DK and iG are coming our way soon!



Here's what the rest of Week 1 has in store for you.





For the rest of the week, it's Titan all day, every day!

[View detailed results on Liqupedia] For the rest of the week, it's Titan all day, every day!



Series of the Week: VG vs NewBee







WPC 2014 got underway last week and here we are, already at the midweek break. The team of the week so far, of course, is VG. Dispatching both Tongfu and NewBee in clean 2 - 0 sets, VG showed us that they are in form and ready for the month of league play they have ahead of them.Meanwhile, SEA hometown heroes Titan opened their WPC 2014 showing in style, going 2 - 0 against CIS and tying 1 - 1 with Orenda. They thus sit at #2 in the league table. Their overall play was quite strong, and we look forward to seeing more of them in Week 2, and we definitely will: they have eight series in the coming week!These first few days of play also gave us our first look at Orenda, a new Chinese amatuer team that came out swinging, 2-0ing CIS in their opening game. Right now, they sit at #3 with 1-1-1.We’ve been seeing a lot of Lycan and Shadow Shaman in both Eastern and Western Dota in 6.80, and WPC was no exception. In fact, the heroes were picked or banned in every game so far. Overall, at 66.9% and 59.2%, Lycan and Shadow Shaman have the two highest winrates in this patch among heroes with at least fifty games played, and they are well and truly here to stay in WPC.AA has been popular in both scenes due in part to Chilling Touch and the huge damage buff it provides trilanes. Chilling Touch has been the first skill taken by Ancient Apparition in 92 of his last 100 games, including this fy’s AA versus TongFu in WPC this week, where he went 7/1/8 with the hero, effectively beating Sylar’s KDA that game. It should be no surprise, then, that AA has been played in 11 out of the 14 WPC games so far!Speaking of Sylar though, this week also saw a Sylar Invoker, the first of its kind in a pro game, and what an Invoker it was. He went 11 - 4 on the mage, netting a whopping 636GPM, putting him in the top 10 Invoker GPMs of all time, and no doubt making Hao’s Antimage in that game very angry indeed! Though the Sylar Invoker is a little surprising, the pick itself is not at all out of the ordinary as Invoker is the most picked and banned hero in 6.80, with a 89.8% P/B rate.Of course, all this must take into account the fact that top-tier teams like DK and iG did not play at all so far, though we will see them in action vs Titan early in Week 2. Nevertheless, Week 1 brought us a lot of Chinese Dota, and while it hasn't been all that eventful so far, but we’re sure this is just the calm before the storm. After all, DK and iG are coming our way soon!Here's what the rest of Week 1 has in store for you.





CREDITS

Contributors: riptide, phantasmal, kupon3ss, TanGeng

Editors: riptide

Banner image: Contributors: riptide, phantasmal, kupon3ss, TanGengEditors: riptideBanner image: WPC

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