The Ghost of DK: The Supremacy of Wings Dota August 13th, 2016 18:50 GMT Text by Ver Graphics by Nixer IntroductionCreditsFocus Mode The Ghost of DK: The Supremacy of Wings Dota Two and a half years ago, two random nobodies stood in for the most talented, unique team in Dota history. bLink and Faith_bian stood in the shoes of DK’s MuShi and iceiceice, and with BurNing’s leadership and MMY’s skill, handily defeated the precursor to Fnatic (Titan). DK ultimately crashed to a poor 4th place showing, owing to various problems outside the game, but





Wings Gaming. Photo courtesy of Valve



Just like the 2014 DK, Wings is an anomaly. They don’t follow normal rules. They don’t follow or even make the meta (that was EHOME and TnC), nor do they accept the normal philosophy of modern DotA. While every other team has been focused on setting up ideal 5 man fights, Wings seem intent to aggressively skirmish around the the battlefield like DK, which is an unbelievably hard style to play. Coming into their last series, one might have predicted a sharp clash of styles: EG’s risk-averse defense and patient movement as a team versus Wing’s keen ganking and split farming, while Wings outplayed EG across the map like EHOME did with EG relying on Wings going slightly too deep or splitting apart at one crucial moment and forfeiting their lead.



The speed of Wing’s movement at pushing out lanes reasonably safely and immediately grouping at the decisive points to fight is unparalleled. Focus on how they rapidly push out all lanes, spreading their heroes when not threatened, but still are in position to kill the enemy carries when they think they are safe. Resolution’s Morphling has done great at TI, but Wings ganked him at a far faster pace than the helpless DC was ready for.



Instead it was the opposite. Wing’s didn’t beat EG by outplaying them in their typical 2014 DK style of splitting the map with mobile ganking heroes that aren’t as strong in straight up clashes, moving as 1-2 heroes in isolated squads, and out-skirmishing their foes to death as they did to DC. Rather, Wings became EG while still keeping their impeccable map sense and team movement, and forced EG to become Wings to win, something only Secret 2.0 under leadership of s4 has ever managed to do.



The best way to summarize Evil Geniuses is that they are the ultimate team at managing risk and creating scenarios where they have the easier gameplan. Other teams will practice this to a certain degree, but nobody does it as well as EG. To be sure, they will make risky individual map maneuvers when the situation calls for it. Sumail and Fear will have license to farm deep into enemy lines when there is a real risk of getting caught. EG will certainly try to break high ground, but only when the odds are in their favor in proportion to their lead. Sometimes they will get outplayed and lose, but you can rarely find fault with the calls if EG have the right information. What they do not let happen is take unnecessary teamfights like Newbee or EHOME. Instead, when Newbee decimated EG in their epic 70 minute game 2, removing Fear’s buyback and controlling the map with an aegis, EG gave Newbee no possible opening and sat in or near their base with Elder Titan/Void until the buyback was up again.

“Force them to outplay us.” - PPD (DAC Draft Analysis) The PPD philosophy since 2014: make the enemy take the risks, make them have to do something special to win.



But don’t misunderstand that EG’s dominance is limited to not gifting away rich kill bounties. PPD’s philosophy of making the enemy outplay them began before all that in 2014, and is based on playing around strong lineups with no obvious points of weakness, and pivoting around big teamfight abilities. Their draft against EHOME is a perfect example: EG had strong lanes, good mid-game initiation, the ability to turtle if behind, and no single point of failure. EG could survive many misplays throughout the game, while EHOME had to do so many things right and still fell short. Unlike EG, EHOME had points of failure in their lack of burst later on, barring a double 4x multicast, and the inability to survive and hold EG in place with their full team alive. The









Wings vs EG Game 1 Draft





Whatever EG was expecting Wings to do in game 1, it was not this out of meta, ultimate tanky, low-damage teamfight deathball. By the time the Tidehunter pick showed, EG were forced to concede that they couldn’t match Wings in straight up clashes and with Furion banned, they chose to go with an awkward Weaver who needed 3 big items to do anything.



Looking at the lineups, the anatomy of this game is simple: because Wing’s lineup is impossibly strong in controlled 5v5 clashes, EG cannot possibly challenge them in these fights. Instead, it is EG’s obligation to split up Wing’s heroes, force them to respond to multiple lanes pushed in at once, and



But there was a twist, as there often is with Wings. Normally these rigid, inflexible deathball lineups like Wings had are forced to group up to avoid getting picked off since they can’t skirmish effectively. This however means that even though they get a major tower lead by their pushing potential, they fall behind due to the enemy able to farm more heroes at once (EG’s mobile skirmish heroes need less protection, whereas Wing’s heroes exponentially amplify their power by sticking together). Indeed EG jumped to a notable kill lead and succeeded in multiple ganks and fights that they initiated. But it wasn’t enough.



Instead, something surprising occurred that was missed in the very superficial analysis that focused chiefly on the lategame potential of Antimage. Not only did Wings have the stronger teamfight by far, but they also split up the map and outfarmed EG. Every minute that EG wasn’t getting kills was a minute where Wings was increasing their gold lead, something that shouldn’t be possible with this asymmetric draft. Timbersaw remained the highest farmer in the game, while Wings continued to bully around Fear long after they should have been able to. The creep stats right before Wings attempted high ground say it all:



Notice how Wing’s has 5 heroes all split up, each farming, while EG has nobody farming. Blink is slightly ahead of Fear, the other 2 cores on each team are nearly equal, while Enigma is far better off than either EG support



How was this farming coup possible? First, Shadow (Razor) and Blink (Timber) prioritized Boots of Travel and Blink Dagger respectively at a very early point in the game. They knew that even with extra gold sunk into non-damage or survivability items wouldn’t cost them severely because their teamfight was so much stronger. Secondly, Wings didn’t stay as 5 for any longer than they needed to, even though their lineup dictated that they should most often be moving as 5. Wing’s read EG’s map movements almost flawlessly, a ridiculously impressive feat that nobody since DK has performed. Sure they gave up a kill here and there, but these were too few to compensate for Wing’s farming and teamfight advantage. EG were under heavy pressure to get more kills and create more room for Fear, and they couldn’t. All too often the only person they could find was fy’s Rubick, which made very little space relative to the investment in the kill.



In the initial segment, Wings group up behind Shadow and thwart EG’s attempted initiation. Then Wings seem to spread across the map, with Tide in the bottom, Timber top, and the rest farming Wing’s Jungle. But yet again Wing’s read EG’s spread out movement into their jungle and immediately smoke 3 heroes to link up with Blink, resulting in a trade of carry for carry , but where Wings pulled ahead on farm, having been creeping all over the map while EG were running to set up the kill.

This may seem like a bunch of arrows and circles running around, but if you look closely, it’s a beautiful snapshot of how Wings outmaneuvered EG across the map. Despite having worse split pushing potential and the ever-present threat of a relocate, Wings continuously made the right calls of where EG were moving and in what force. Where EG grouped, Wings retreated. Where EG left space open in order to group, Wings moved in and took it with the fewest heroes possible. Oftentimes 4 Wings heroes were farming at high efficiency, while EG had at most 2-3. Both Wisp and Skywrath can’t flashfarm like an Enigma, and EG simply didn’t have the space.



A hidden part of the problem was how poor Fear’s Antimage was. EG’s good laning somewhat salvaged the Razor aggro lane, but even though EG got the early kills that should have given them the needed space for Fear to optimize his farming patterns, he couldn’t. The moment Fear stayed in any lane for longer than a single creep wave, Wings heroes were there to bully him out. An Antimage that’s behind can’t hope to handle a Timber or Razor 1on1 early, and EG was always too uncertain of the positioning of Wing’s enormously threatening counterinitiating heroes to risk a blind relocate. Thus in order to secure farm EG had to move most of their heroes with him, but that limited the rest of the team, and let Wings get a better position elsewhere.



Wings vs EG Game 2 Draft







Due to the ET for Mirana trade EG chose, this game Wings was forced to play much more static than last game because they had no substitute for the long range counterinitiation of the blink ravage or black hole. However, EG also had even less teamfight potential against the mighty Medusa/ET combo, and hardly had the heroes to try and slow down the game and split push. If they had tried with a Radiance Manta Alch, Huskar would’ve come quickly knocking on their barracks.



Whereas in game 1 Wings forced EG to split the map and outmaneuver them in skirmishes and map movements, now Wings forced EG to take head on teamfights much earlier and outmaneuver Wings in those teamfights. Due to the ET and Medusa, the ideal Wings teamfight was everyone clumped up where Wings could focus a roared target under Natural Order and keep their team alive with Stomp, Stone Gaze, and Disruption. EG, on the other hand, had to do the much more difficult task of circling around the edges of the battle, disengaging and starting anew, in order to split Wing’s heroes apart and pick them off one by one. They did it once when Blink accidentally woke up 2 slept and dead targets, but they couldn’t do it a second or third time.





As with the Roshan fight beforehand in this game, this is a fight that if the drafts were switched, Wings would have won for sure or at worse retreated intact. It was a classic Wings and MVP example of a static deathball against mobile heroes circling the edge of the fray. With Universe’s Aghanim’s Nightstalker providing the vision, the burst of the Aghs Mirana, and the surprise of the invis Alchemist stun, EG could have pulled wings heroes apart, hovering nearby, poking at them with superior version and reengage potential. Wing’s only lockdown at that point was the Huskar Life Break or the Beastmaster Primal Roar, but without Blinks EG simply could have prevented them from getting in range thanks to the Nightstalker Aghs vision.



However at a key moment in the fight, right after the teams traded Shadow Demon for Winter Wyvern, EG didn’t maneuver it right. Zai and Universe could have harassed the Elder Titan on the far left flank, as he was slightly too far away from his Beastmaster and Huskar. This would have created an opportunity for the Mirana and Alchemist to potentially poke from the right, and likely either forced Wings to retreat, or potentially given EG an opening.



Instead, Zai and Universe don’t go in, retreat and regroup with Fear and Sumail and attack in one direction from the south instead of splitting up across multiple screens and angles. While they got a good aegis kill on the Huskar and Universe was allowed to chase down the Elder Titan, EG grouped up into Wing’s clutches, which cost them both of their carries and essentially the game. It was the type of engagement EG is used to taking, but with the wrong set of heroes to do so. In this case it was the Wing’s heroes who excelled in enclosed teamfights where everyone can see the entire battle and focus down key targets.



Going Forward

Now keep in mind, EG had many individual errors. Sumail’s Sand King in game 1, EG’s only teamfight hero and means of defending high ground, contributed to the major two teamfights by Epi’ing a position 5 Rubick twice, not the sort of play that will win you games. Ppd’s Winter Wyvern in game 2 had very little impact, and Sumail repeatedly self-stunned himself on Alchemist and acted more as a gold deposit for Wings than anything, Zai had little impact, while Fear’s Mirana was a far cry from Sumail’s Mirana against Ehome.



Not the teamfight EG wanted

The key point to understand is that these problems are nothing new for EG: they have many games where Sumail is a total liability, or they don’t execute teamfights as well as their foes, or misread chaotic situations, and still win anyway in the end. What’s new is that Wings denied them their usual solidity and safety net, instead keeping that for themselves. If Wings could hold on past 30 minutes, EG would find it hell to break the base in either game. As a result, EG had to win in a very specific way, one not suited to their strengths, and they couldn’t.



The finals will be a different story. It will be difficult for Wings again to maneuver ppd into such drafts where EG has to outplay Wings to a significant degree to win, or to win teamfights by maneuver and elusiveness instead of simple, controlled fighting around Universe’s playmaking ability. But the fact that Wings has shown the ability to turn ppd’s weapons on himself is a big and unusual threat that EG has to account for, which will likely give Wings new unforeseen options. The worst part for EG is that both games they had an excellent laning phase and still got crushed, and that is not guaranteed to happen in the finals.



Nobody has had the skill to play like DK used to until now. Nobody has had the skill or strategy to circumvent all common logic about the current meta like Wings can. They are the spiritual successor to the ultimate team that never won it all, but now Wings can in their stead. Pay close attention to how Wings will maneuver around the map, and how they choose when to stick together and when to farm up. So long as Wings doesn’t choke like CDEC’s Xz and Shiki did last year, this is their tournament to lose.



Two and a half years ago, two random nobodies stood in for the most talented, unique team in Dota history. bLink and Faith_bian stood in the shoes of DK’s MuShi and iceiceice, and with BurNing’s leadership and MMY’s skill, handily defeated the precursor to Fnatic (Titan). DK ultimately crashed to a poor 4th place showing, owing to various problems outside the game, but Wings Gaming is here as their spiritual successor. Now they are potentially the most individually talented team at TI6, with impeccable game sense and sharp teamfight coordination.Just like the 2014 DK, Wings is an anomaly. They don’t follow normal rules. They don’t follow or even make the meta (that was EHOME and TnC), nor do they accept the normal philosophy of modern DotA. While every other team has been focused on setting up ideal 5 man fights, Wings seem intent to aggressively skirmish around the the battlefield like DK, which is an unbelievably hard style to play. Coming into their last series, one might have predicted a sharp clash of styles: EG’s risk-averse defense and patient movement as a team versus Wing’s keen ganking and split farming, while Wings outplayed EG across the map like EHOME did with EG relying on Wings going slightly too deep or splitting apart at one crucial moment and forfeiting their lead.Instead it was the opposite. Wing’s didn’t beat EG by outplaying them in their typical 2014 DK style of splitting the map with mobile ganking heroes that aren’t as strong in straight up clashes, moving as 1-2 heroes in isolated squads, and out-skirmishing their foes to death as they did to DC. Rather, Wings became EG while still keeping their impeccable map sense and team movement, and forced EG to become Wings to win, something only Secret 2.0 under leadership of s4 has ever managed to do.The best way to summarize Evil Geniuses is that they are the ultimate team at managing risk and creating scenarios where they have the easier gameplan. Other teams will practice this to a certain degree, but nobody does it as well as EG. To be sure, they will make risky individual map maneuvers when the situation calls for it. Sumail and Fear will have license to farm deep into enemy lines when there is a real risk of getting caught. EG will certainly try to break high ground, but only when the odds are in their favor in proportion to their lead. Sometimes they will get outplayed and lose, but you can rarely find fault with the calls if EG have the right information. What they do not let happen is take unnecessary teamfights like Newbee or EHOME. Instead, when Newbee decimated EG in their epic 70 minute game 2, removing Fear’s buyback and controlling the map with an aegis, EG gave Newbee no possible opening and sat in or near their base with Elder Titan/Void until the buyback was up again.But don’t misunderstand that EG’s dominance is limited to not gifting away rich kill bounties. PPD’s philosophy of making the enemy outplay them began before all that in 2014, and is based on playing around strong lineups with no obvious points of weakness, and pivoting around big teamfight abilities. Their draft against EHOME is a perfect example: EG had strong lanes, good mid-game initiation, the ability to turtle if behind, and no single point of failure. EG could survive many misplays throughout the game, while EHOME had to do so many things right and still fell short. Unlike EG, EHOME had points of failure in their lack of burst later on, barring a double 4x multicast, and the inability to survive and hold EG in place with their full team alive. The highlight video speaks for itself.Whatever EG was expecting Wings to do in game 1, it was not this out of meta, ultimate tanky, low-damage teamfight deathball. By the time the Tidehunter pick showed, EG were forced to concede that they couldn’t match Wings in straight up clashes and with Furion banned, they chose to go with an awkward Weaver who needed 3 big items to do anything.Looking at the lineups, the anatomy of this game is simple: because Wing’s lineup is impossibly strong in controlled 5v5 clashes, EG cannot possibly challenge them in these fights. Instead, it is EG’s obligation to split up Wing’s heroes, force them to respond to multiple lanes pushed in at once, andBut there was a twist, as there often is with Wings. Normally these rigid, inflexible deathball lineups like Wings had are forced to group up to avoid getting picked off since they can’t skirmish effectively. This however means that even though they get a major tower lead by their pushing potential, they fall behind due to the enemy able to farm more heroes at once (EG’s mobile skirmish heroes need less protection, whereas Wing’s heroes exponentially amplify their power by sticking together). Indeed EG jumped to a notable kill lead and succeeded in multiple ganks and fights that they initiated. But it wasn’t enough.Instead, something surprising occurred that was missed in the very superficial analysis that focused chiefly on the lategame potential of Antimage. Not only did Wings have the stronger teamfight by far, but they also split up the map and outfarmed EG. Every minute that EG wasn’t getting kills was a minute where Wings was increasing their gold lead, something that shouldn’t be possible with this asymmetric draft. Timbersaw remained the highest farmer in the game, while Wings continued to bully around Fear long after they should have been able to. The creep stats right before Wings attempted high ground say it all:How was this farming coup possible? First, Shadow (Razor) and Blink (Timber) prioritized Boots of Travel and Blink Dagger respectively at a very early point in the game. They knew that even with extra gold sunk into non-damage or survivability items wouldn’t cost them severely because their teamfight was so much stronger. Secondly, Wings didn’t stay as 5 for any longer than they needed to, even though their lineup dictated that they should most often be moving as 5. Wing’s read EG’s map movements almost flawlessly, a ridiculously impressive feat that nobody since DK has performed. Sure they gave up a kill here and there, but these were too few to compensate for Wing’s farming and teamfight advantage. EG were under heavy pressure to get more kills and create more room for Fear, and they couldn’t. All too often the only person they could find was fy’s Rubick, which made very little space relative to the investment in the kill.This may seem like a bunch of arrows and circles running around, but if you look closely, it’s a beautiful snapshot of how Wings outmaneuvered EG across the map. Despite having worse split pushing potential and the ever-present threat of a relocate, Wings continuously made the right calls of where EG were moving and in what force. Where EG grouped, Wings retreated. Where EG left space open in order to group, Wings moved in and took it with the fewest heroes possible. Oftentimes 4 Wings heroes were farming at high efficiency, while EG had at most 2-3. Both Wisp and Skywrath can’t flashfarm like an Enigma, and EG simply didn’t have the space.A hidden part of the problem was how poor Fear’s Antimage was. EG’s good laning somewhat salvaged the Razor aggro lane, but even though EG got the early kills that should have given them the needed space for Fear to optimize his farming patterns, he couldn’t. The moment Fear stayed in any lane for longer than a single creep wave, Wings heroes were there to bully him out. An Antimage that’s behind can’t hope to handle a Timber or Razor 1on1 early, and EG was always too uncertain of the positioning of Wing’s enormously threatening counterinitiating heroes to risk a blind relocate. Thus in order to secure farm EG had to move most of their heroes with him, but that limited the rest of the team, and let Wings get a better position elsewhere.Due to the ET for Mirana trade EG chose, this game Wings was forced to play much more static than last game because they had no substitute for the long range counterinitiation of the blink ravage or black hole. However, EG also had even less teamfight potential against the mighty Medusa/ET combo, and hardly had the heroes to try and slow down the game and split push. If they had tried with a Radiance Manta Alch, Huskar would’ve come quickly knocking on their barracks.Whereas in game 1 Wings forced EG to split the map and outmaneuver them in skirmishes and map movements, now Wings forced EG to take head on teamfights much earlier and outmaneuver Wings in those teamfights. Due to the ET and Medusa, the ideal Wings teamfight was everyone clumped up where Wings could focus a roared target under Natural Order and keep their team alive with Stomp, Stone Gaze, and Disruption. EG, on the other hand, had to do the much more difficult task of circling around the edges of the battle, disengaging and starting anew, in order to split Wing’s heroes apart and pick them off one by one. They did it once when Blink accidentally woke up 2 slept and dead targets, but they couldn’t do it a second or third time.As with the Roshan fight beforehand in this game, this is a fight that if the drafts were switched, Wings would have won for sure or at worse retreated intact. It was a classic Wings and MVP example of a static deathball against mobile heroes circling the edge of the fray. With Universe’s Aghanim’s Nightstalker providing the vision, the burst of the Aghs Mirana, and the surprise of the invis Alchemist stun, EG could have pulled wings heroes apart, hovering nearby, poking at them with superior version and reengage potential. Wing’s only lockdown at that point was the Huskar Life Break or the Beastmaster Primal Roar, but without Blinks EG simply could have prevented them from getting in range thanks to the Nightstalker Aghs vision.However at a key moment in the fight, right after the teams traded Shadow Demon for Winter Wyvern, EG didn’t maneuver it right. Zai and Universe could have harassed the Elder Titan on the far left flank, as he was slightly too far away from his Beastmaster and Huskar. This would have created an opportunity for the Mirana and Alchemist to potentially poke from the right, and likely either forced Wings to retreat, or potentially given EG an opening.Instead, Zai and Universe don’t go in, retreat and regroup with Fear and Sumail and attack in one direction from the south instead of splitting up across multiple screens and angles. While they got a good aegis kill on the Huskar and Universe was allowed to chase down the Elder Titan, EG grouped up into Wing’s clutches, which cost them both of their carries and essentially the game. It was the type of engagement EG is used to taking, but with the wrong set of heroes to do so. In this case it was the Wing’s heroes who excelled in enclosed teamfights where everyone can see the entire battle and focus down key targets.Now keep in mind, EG had many individual errors. Sumail’s Sand King in game 1, EG’s only teamfight hero and means of defending high ground, contributed to the major two teamfights by Epi’ing a position 5 Rubick twice, not the sort of play that will win you games. Ppd’s Winter Wyvern in game 2 had very little impact, and Sumail repeatedly self-stunned himself on Alchemist and acted more as a gold deposit for Wings than anything, Zai had little impact, while Fear’s Mirana was a far cry from Sumail’s Mirana against Ehome.The key point to understand is that these problems are nothing new for EG: they have many games where Sumail is a total liability, or they don’t execute teamfights as well as their foes, or misread chaotic situations, and still win anyway in the end. What’s new is that Wings denied them their usual solidity and safety net, instead keeping that for themselves. If Wings could hold on past 30 minutes, EG would find it hell to break the base in either game. As a result, EG had to win in a very specific way, one not suited to their strengths, and they couldn’t.The finals will be a different story. It will be difficult for Wings again to maneuver ppd into such drafts where EG has to outplay Wings to a significant degree to win, or to win teamfights by maneuver and elusiveness instead of simple, controlled fighting around Universe’s playmaking ability. But the fact that Wings has shown the ability to turn ppd’s weapons on himself is a big and unusual threat that EG has to account for, which will likely give Wings new unforeseen options. The worst part for EG is that both games they had an excellent laning phase and still got crushed, and that is not guaranteed to happen in the finals.Nobody has had the skill to play like DK used to until now. Nobody has had the skill or strategy to circumvent all common logic about the current meta like Wings can. They are the spiritual successor to the ultimate team that never won it all, but now Wings can in their stead. Pay close attention to how Wings will maneuver around the map, and how they choose when to stick together and when to farm up. So long as Wings doesn’t choke like CDEC’s Xz and Shiki did last year, this is their tournament to lose. Writer