Caster of the Year 2012 David "LD" Gorman

Heyo! Yup, G-League has delivered in a huge way this year. I watched some of the youku VODs from last season, but experiencing the league live was amazing. Without question, G-League has been the best Dota 2 tournament since The International 2.We all knew they were capable of great performances. They have the big names and individual talent. What I didn't expect was for everything to come together for the team so quickly; I would have figured this level of results would take more like 4-6 months, not 1-2. That being said, I still feel they've only shown one style of Dota. The real test will come once that style is figured out and they are forced to adapt.Misery and 1437 as a tandem. If I had to pick one, I'd say 1437. He's demonstrated fantastic game sense with the smoke gank of the courier vs Tongfu; great timing with his disruptions as Shadow Demon. Tongfu was sick of his Shadow Demon, so they respect banned it, and what did 1437 do? He had an even bigger impact as Rubick, stealing spells such as RP and burrowstrike and catching multiple heroes with them in the game-deciding clashes. Pajkatt, Brax, and G have all done a solid job, but I don't feel they've really been tested, because Misery and 1437 create insane amounts of space for them with their efficient dual roaming over the first 5-10 minutes.Their efficiency. They're very decisive, especially in the first 10 minutes of the game. You won't see their supports wandering around aimlessly, e.g. heading to gank the middle lane and then backing off after traveling halfway there to go pull the safe lane. Every movement has a purpose behind it, every decision is part of an overarching strategy. Too many teams with great potential are held back by lack of a clear command structure. I don't know how they make their in-game calls, but the end product is very impressive to watch.I honestly don't know. There's two aspects to mounting a comeback: performing in the clutch and strategy. Let's look at performing in the clutch first. Versus inferior competition, they're absolutely capable of it. This team doesn't choke. But the real question is, can they scratch and claw their way back into a game against a world-beating team like iG? And to that, I'd have to say no, until they prove me wrong.The second aspect is strategy. From a strategic standpoint, LGD.int picks lineups that generally need to have a good start to be most effective. Heroes like Luna, Tidehunter, Chen, etc; these are heroes you pick to dominate the early/mid-game and abuse your 5 man Dota advantage. They do tend to put 1437 on a very strong late-game support, such as Rubick / Shadow Demon, and often G plays a solid late-game initiator such as DS or Batrider, but for the most part their hero pool is mid-game centric. We aren't seeing them favor late-game teamfight specialists such as Magnus, Naga, and Beastmaster, nor are they going for ultra hard carries for Pajkatt such as Faceless Void, Antimage, or Tiny. From a strategic point of view, mounting a comeback will be tougher for LGD.int than for other Chinese teams such as DK or LGD.cn because of how they are currently constructing their drafts.Agreed. iG favors chaotic teamfights that reward individual skill and teamplay, because they have more of it than any other team in the world.They look scarier than they have at any point in the past. Let's be honest, they ripped LGD.cn apart like a dog with a nice hunk of rawhide. And that's LGD.cn, one of the best teams in the world. Even when they were dominating in G-1 League, they were relying so heavily on that gimmicky face-rush strategy, which simply doesn't work against strong defensive play in the first 10-15 minutes. Their current style is much more versatile than what they showed at G-1 and has multiple avenues to victory.Sometimes statistics are misleading; when your team is dominating, you're going to pile up insane numbers. But the game film backs it up; iG is playing exceptionally well right now. In the group stages, I felt Ferrari underperformed and was making many careless mistakes, but in the playoffs even he played exceptionally well and showed great versatility handling semicarries such as TA as well as teamfight specialists like Brewmaster and Magnus.Their support play. Chuan and Faith aren't just support players; they are playmakers. They don't just place smart wards and protect their carries; they win huge engagements and change the course of fights. iG knows this and looks to exploit it; that's why you'll often see them allowing heroes such as Bat or Mag through the pool if it means they can secure Rubick for Chuan or KOTL/Disruptor for Faith. It's also why they put so much emphasis on giving Chuan / Faith some farm in the midgame.Even other top Chinese teams such as LGD.cn don't have support players who can consistently have such a big impact in later engagements as iG. DD and DDC don't win late game clashes for their team; they do their job, and they do it well, but it's up to Yao, xiao8, and Sylar to carry those fights. I already mentioned 1437's impact on Rubick, but aside from him, the only other player who's really shown prowess in the late-game clashes is Dai from Team DK. And iG has TWO of these players!I expect iG will dominate and take the series 3-1. LGD.int heavily relies on their supports to create true 1v1 matchups for Pajkatt in the safe lane. I anticipate iG will look to run aggressive trilanes featuring heroes like Faith's KOTL, Chuan's SK, and YYF's Windrunner/Naix. This will force Misery / 1437 to support Pajkatt in lane, which means they will be denied the ability to control the flow of the game by ganking the enemy mid / safe lane repeatedly. Even if Pajkatt gets that 1v1 matchup versus YYF (or Zhou!), it's going to be a much tougher lane. He definitely won't be laning as SF with pooled regen versus an offlane Prophet.That being said, I'll be rooting for LGD.int. These guys have worked incredibly hard and have grown very quickly over the past few months. If they win G-League, it will be positive proof to the Western scene that dedicated, serious practice is what separates the Chinese from the West. Hopefully we will see Western teams take steps towards achieving serious training environments for their own teams in 2013; I know NTH mentioned at Dreamhack that they might be doing that sometime in the first quarter of this year.It'll affect the way the teams draft, but I wouldn't call it an "issue" per se. It just means they'll have to practice a bit more heading into the finals, but you shouldn't need an excuse to do that anyway. First place is ~$32,000; second place is ~$8,000. If that, plus the desire to be the best, isn't enough for you to bust ass before you arrive at the Mercedes-Benz Center in Shanghai, then you're in the wrong line of work.Specifically regarding Medusa, she's a very tanky carry that's especially annoying to lane versus in trilane vs trilane scenarios, so we may see LGD.int look to use her to counter iG's aggressive triple lanes, but I don't look at her as a metagame-buster or anything like that. You never really know until the teams have a chance to experiment though!Haha, yeah, I love Pudge Wars. I haven't had a chance to play Dota of any kind much lately (normal or otherwise). I thought I'd have a break today, then Godz springs two 1v1 matches on me while my head's still pounding from last night's bender. Damn you Godz!It's a bit hard for me to say; Gamefy hasn't announced any plans yet for English coverage of the finals. It would be an absolute dream to attend the event in person and cast it live. By the time the finals are scheduled to roll around (tenatively March 9), we're planning to have a fully operational broadcast studio set up here in the US. So if we're not casting the event live from Shanghai, we'll be covering it in style from the StatesShoutout to Luminous for giving me a chance when nobody else would. Shoutout to Bruno for his wisdom and keeping my hot-headed tendencies in check. Shoutout to Eleine and Twitch.tv for all the support they've shown Beyond the Summit over the past 6 months. Shoutout to the Department of Labor for failing to support a livable working wage; El Gato is a slave-driver and should be behind bars. Shoutout to the Dota community at large for their kind words, constructive feedback, hilarious trolls, and vicious flames. I love you guys and your passion for the game; this community, warts and all, is really something special. Special shoutout to Team Liquid for the overall awesome community; I spend way more time on these forums than I should! I may never be the best, but I'll outwork anyone in my efforts to get there. 2012 was an amazing journey, and I hope 2013 holds even more incredible moments in store for us all. Don't drink and dotes, kids.