Disclaimer: Potato-Dono

Game 1:

Overall Strategy: Try to stop potato from doing too much work and just fight them mano y mano.

Phase 1

Kodos Bans: Clockwerk/Nyx Assassin

Obnoxious ganking heroes that can allow us to snowball.

Clare Bans: Bristleback/Spirit Breaker

Potato “Bristleback” Farmer smh. Kodos had first pick so I had to ban SB or give them the chance to take it.

Kodos Pick: Riki

Works similar to a SB or clock, can mess with our midlaner and get ganks going.

Clare Picks: Venomancer/Jakiro

I want to start trying Jakiro he seems very strong right now. We had space-making extraordinaire and dedicated Veno Mercenary, Tyrannosaurus-X, standing in for Toes. Ez offlane Venomancer pick.

Kodos Pick: Dark Seer

Riki, Dark Seer combo. Dank.

Phase 2

Clare Bans: Outworld Devourer/Lifestealer

I’m done playing against OD. Lifestealer could cause issues for us with our offlane Veno, don’t want to give Potato to much power.

Kodos Bans: Warlock/Kunkka

Warlock combined with Veno and Jakiro is nasty. Kunkka is a Clare classic.

Clare Picks: Oracle/Necrophos

Oracle is the classic Dark Seer counter for lane. I’m not convinced it’s always worth going all out on countering Dark Seers laning but when their is a Riki in the mix I feel more obliged. Necrophos was Derpy’s suggestion, combined with the oracle heals and heavy push/fight our lineup was looking ideal for an early deathball with the Necrophos carry

Kodos Picks: Juggernaught/Puck

These heroes gave them some early teamfight to deal with our deathball but hopefully not enough to burst through our heavy sustain.

Phase 3

Clare Ban: Ogre

They needed a 5th position and ogre seemed like a fairly good pick with the Jugg. Not too concerned over this pick, I couldn’t think of any game winning supports. Although in hindsight AA may have been a better ban.

Kodos Ban: Legion Commander

They were understandably confused on what our lanes were.

Kodos Pick: Disruptor

Pretty good pick all things considered. They needed to win fights to stop the deathball.

Clare Pick: Monkey King

🐵 Can’t beat the Chimp 🐵

Game Analysis

Despite Ryrk feeding first blood and Tx making space we managed to gather up the items we needed and start pushing. They failed to take any conclusive fights and Surrendered 20 minutes in after we took their top barracks.

Game 2:

Overall Strategy: Didn’t really have one

Phase 1

Kodos Bans: Clockwerk/Nyx Assassin

Same as before.

Clare Bans: Bristleback/Spirit Breaker

Don’t fix what isn’t broken.

Kodos Pick: Sand King

Going for a simpler 4th position with a stun this time. More scary than Riki in my opinion.

Clare Picks: Rubick/Nightstalker

Decided to go for two of our more common supports. Sand King already gives Rubick some good spells to steal and NS can stop the epicenters.

Kodos Pick: Queen of Pain

Another lane bully for Kodos

Phase 2

Clare Bans: Warlock/Ursa

Getting rid of some comfort picks that would fit into the draft so far.

Kodos Bans: Lina/Axe

Banning out more annoying heros.

Clare Picks: Legion Commander/Sven

I like Legion overall and she can lock down the QoP. Derpy wanted the Sven.

Kodos Picks: Dazzle/Dark seer

Dazzle is a good Legion counter. Dark Seer must be a comfort pick for them.

Phase 3

Clare Ban: Razor

Razor would give us a lot of trouble. I thought about banning Bloodseeker but we figured Sven wouldn’t have a problem with rupture.

Kodos Ban: Silencer

Silencer could definitely do some work.

Kodos Pick: Bloodseeker

Fairly expected.

Clare Pick: Outworld Devourer

The cancer is ours! I am slowly turning into CRAP.

Game Analysis

This game ended up going very late, a crazy 77 minutes. Laning phase was rough, the tri on tri in our safelane went in our favour but our solo lanes got dumpstered pretty hard. The early/mid game went as good as it could have. Although we lost fights we never lost them hard enough for them to take high ground. Late game seemed feasible if we waited for an opportunity but we didn’t have the power to force it. Unfortunately we ended making a couple mistakes that costed us the game concluding this series with a 1–1 score.