I firmly believe that NA's mechanical skills has improved to where it needs to be. However, I think our biggest weakness is in drafting. We came into the Western Clash with the superior meta in terms of aggression and understanding the current OP heroes. The problem then became drafting, and Zealots exploited that all the way into the Grand Finals.



To illustrate the gap in NA's drafting, I'm going to compare Tempo's second series with Zealots with the Dignitas series with Zealots. Tempo Storm vs. Zealots Game 1:

Zealots pick Volskaya, Tempo has first pick



Tempo bans Tracer

Logic: Cris is a strong Tracer player, and she is one of the more powerful aggressive assassins in the meta.

Flaw: Blaze is also meta, and Bunker is a counter to pulse bomb. This shows you may not intend to first pick Blaze, therefore Zealots don't need to ban it. Which means:



Zealots bans Maiev

Logic: Maiev is a strong initiator which would favor Tempo's aggressive style. also targeted since Psalm has shown good Maiev performance. Additionally, knowing that Blaze and Tyrael are both still on the table, they guarantee themselves one after first pick.



Tempo picks Tyrael

Logic: Tyrael and Blaze are both on the table, and you can't let Zealots get both since they can be really strong together for counter aggression.

Flaw: If you were going to first pick Tyrael, it might have been better to deny the Blaze, but then you're vulnerable to Tracer, who Tyrael can't lock down, so this may actually be fine overall.



Zealots pick Blaze and Stukov

Logic: Blaze is good for counter engagements, and counters Glaurung's Malthael with the Bunker. Tyael telegraphs where he's diving with the Eldruin, so Stukov can simply put a lurking arm there to counter the aggression, or at least discourage it.

Flaw: Stukov was not likely to be contested at this point. This could have been the Greymane they pick up later, while still not revealing too much about their strategy.



Tempo picks Malfurion and Genji

Logic: Malfurion is a great sustained healer on an objective like Volskaya's beacons, and he's proven to be the meta support of the tournament so far. Genji will dive with Tyrael and delete Stukov.

Flaw: Uther was available, and double invulnerable Dragon Blade is absurdly strong (I call this the Golden Dragon). The Genji pick also shows that you're counting on snowballing a team fight after the first kill. So the strategy is revealed. While Zealots haven't showed anything.



Zealots ban Malthael

Logic: Deny % based damage against their future Garrosh pick (Garrosh is hard to kill, thus denying the snowball). Also targeted ban on Glaurung.

Flaw: You already have the Blaze bunker as both a snowball denial and Malth counter. I still believe the future Garrosh pick still justifies this though.



Tempo bans Abathur

Logic: Targeted ban on adrd, as well as denying the split pressure/soak in a comp where Tempo needs to win fights. This also denies one of their defenses against ganks.

Flaw: adrd also plays Medivh, which is another way to deny the team fight snowball and ganks. I'm not saying it was a wasted ban, because they probably couldn't predict the incoming picks, especially since Zealots haven't revealed anything, but this is one way Zealots have already won this draft, the fact that your hand is shown, and theirs isn't.



Zealots pick Garrosh and Greymane

Flaw: Leoric and Tychus are still available for percentage based damage. They probably figure they still have Bunker and Garrosh probably won't be the ideal burn target without Last Rites. Medivh is still on the table for Psalm to steal, but...

Logic: Zealots are confident they can counter the Medivh with Stukov's lurking arm on portals, also Medivh doesn't fit into Tempo's currently hyper mobile comp. Genji and Tyrael don't really need a Ley Line set up, or portals. As discussed before, the Garrosh is to make the snowball harder, his stun pairs well with Stukov's Lurking Arm. Greymane is all around pretty decent damage, and if he survives the Twilight dream, he can keep dishing out strong auto attacks to burn Malf down.



Tempo picks Tychus and Arthas

Logic: Arthas can setup for Malf roots follow up to secure ganks, and Tychus will burn the Garrosh. Arthas's aura to counter Greymane's dive.

Flaw: Just because you burn the Garrosh, doesn't mean you can kill the Garrosh. Arthas lacks the mobility to get past the Garrosh. I really believe this should have been Leoric and Hanzo. Leo fulfills the % damage desire, and Hanzo can poke down the backline prepping them for the Tyrael Genji dive, especially if he lands a good Dragon Arrow.



Zealots pick Medivh

I've pretty much already covered why this was going to happen.



So now, let's compare this to the Dignitas vs. Zealots draft on the same map. Dignitas vs. Zealots Game 1:

Zealots pick Volskaya, Dig has first pick



Dig bans Abathur

Logic: targeted ban on adrd. Additionally, not banning the current meta means they get a hero higher on the meta tree, thus getting more out of their first pick advantage.

Flaw: adrd plays more than 1 hero, and if your hope was to first pick Maiev, Medivh's portal is pretty handy for escaping the engages she tries to force.



Zealots ban Tyrael

Logic: Tyrael + Snitch's Genji is likely to be a problem. This also limits the remaining meta picks to Maiev and Blaze, which ensures you get one of them, since Dig can only pick one. If Dig picks Blaze, you get Maiev. If Dig picks Maiev, you can use Bunker to survive her engage, and grab Tracer since bunker won't be their to deny the pulse bomb.

Flaw: You let Maiev through, so you better have a plan for it. I'm not saying she's OP, but she is a new hero, so not everything has been discovered yet.



Dig picks Maiev

Logic: strong hero is strong. Dig believes it's better to have it, than draft to try to counter it (which would be the first pick Blaze). This puts the burden of execution on Zealots.

Flaw: I can't really pick one out, this was the optimal move in the current draft. If you change at all from here, Zealots get Maiev and Blaze, and you don't have a Sanct or Bunker to counter engage.



Zealots pick Blaze and Tracer

Logic: The draft so far has set this up perfectly. Blaze Bunker to survive the Maiev engage (if you're all in the bunker, she can't reset fan). You also get Tracer without an enemy bunker.

Flaw: You're committed to a Tracer comp, so the opponent can react later in the draft, but it's still better than letting Dig get Tracer on top of their Maiev.



Dig picks Johanna and Tychus

Logic: Johanna so far has been considered the Maiev counter, so they deny this from Zealots. Additionally, the Tychus is to discourage the very likely Garrosh pick, based on watching their Volskaya game with Tempo. This is a sort of Tank choke attempt. Also, Odin + Warden's Cage seems pretty scary for controlling a point. The percentage damage also discourages any kind of Cho'Gall cheese. Johanna also provides blinds for countering the Tracer.

Flaw: The Tychus didn't do much to stop Garrosh in the Tempo game, so I don't know how good of a commitment this was. You've also revealed your damage sources for team fights, so Zealots can attempt to counter them in their remaining 3 picks.



Zealots ban Leoric

Logic: Dig still needs a solo laner, Zealots think that Maiev + Leoric is a scary combo between the cage and the Entomb. It does keep up the illusion that the Garrosh or Cho'Gall pick is coming, even though Dig already has a % damage hero.

Flaw: Dig already has 1 source of percentage damage, so they're unlikely to all-in on that idea. You can use Bunker to get out of Entomb.



Dig bans Tasadar

Logic: Zealots have Tracer, it's a strong combo. It's a targeted ban on adrd, and Tass can dimensional shift to get away from Maiev.

Flaw: Medivh is still on the table, but the Tass really was the greater threat here. Minor flaw.



Zealots pick Malfurion and Anubarak

Logic: Malf is the current meta support (despite Shad being a beast on Stukov), so this denies Dig another meta pick. Anubarak cocoon Maiev or the support and make one of Maiev's forced engages less favorable. You also gain a stun lock dive to pressure the Tychus. Cocoon on a conveyor belt can put a backline hero out of position by the time the cocoon expires.

Flaw: Tychus can burn the cocoon, but if you also are diving him with Anub, it might not be an issue. Stukov is available, but Zaelia may not be as good as Shad on the hero. These are minor flaws.



Dig picks Stukov and ETC

Logic: Lurking Arm in Maiev's Cage is a death trap. Maiev can set up great Mosh pits OR Stage Dives. Flailing Swipes to disengage from a turned fight. Lurking Arm on top of the Bunker.

Flaw: This was a great rotation, the only flaw I can think is that Zealots knows Stukov's weaknesses from experience and have a last pick DPS slot. This would be the case with any support they pick (and they need to commit to one here).



Zealots pick Chromie

Logic: Volskaya gets to the late game, so she can stack like crazy, and she can stack on the protector. The time trap working on the protector also makes for some easy value fromt he time trap cooldown reset talent that adrd makes brilliant use of. Chromie can also be a Stukov counter since he needs to stand still during lurking arm, meaning more free stacks and burst damage. Zealots is willing to lose the first half of the game to destroy the late game.



This last pick probably won them the game. I really think this would have been Medivh if Dig had not taken Stukov. It's impossible to know now, but I don't think Zealots would have banned Leoric if they knew they were picking Chromie, since he's another easy target during wraith walk.



Now, compare the way each draft played out. Tempo was focused on getting what they want, but missed opportunities by not being more flexible. For instance, the missed opportunity on the Golden Dragon in the 2-3 picks. Dignitas and Zealots focused on picking apart their opponent's comp and denying them counters to what they want to pick. It has been said that you need to focus on your win condition more so than countering your opponent, but good drafting can accomplish both. You also need to think ahead to what your draft has revealed so far, and what kind of counter picks you might see from your opponent. Think an extra step ahead beyond just "what don't I want them to have?" when banning. Every ban and pick has some sort of drawback, but if you can minimize the flaws, you put yourself in a much better situation.



At the same time, you can't completely compromise your win condition to try to counter the opponent's picks. When Tempo picked the Tychus into Zealots' Garrosh, they did just that. The Genji says we want to get a kill and snowball from there. The Tychus says, let's kill Garrosh. The problem is Genji doesn't have great tools for finishing the kill on Garrosh. Genji could be good for killing Stukov, but unless Tychus uses Odin, he has no way of burning a well positioned Stukov. This means their best chance is if Stukov steps way out. Neither of which die by the end of the game.



I'd really urge all NA teams to study the drafts of the Grand Finals for how to think about drafting going forward. I believe that if NA can get their drafting down, the execution is there to follow.

