WCG 2012 Grand Finals Recap

Table of Contents





Beyond The Game

through the portal into cyberspace





Dota the DoA Way

Featuring the Upgraded Blue Power Ranger





KuroKy in China

Interview with the legendary carry





More on





through the portal into cyberspaceFeaturing the Upgraded Blue Power RangerInterview with the legendary carryMore on Liquipedia

WCG Grand Finals Recap

For the first time in WCG history, Dota was featured as an official game at the



WCG's strict restrictions regarding nationality meant that the level of competition was not going to be very high. Even the Chinese teams found themselves forced to recruit stand-ins, with iG and LGD finding chisbug to replace Chuan and KingJ to replace DDC, respectively.



The games, then, were mostly predicable with Tongfu meeting LGD in the Dota final for an all-Chinese affair, and iG meeting DK in the Dota2 final for a second home and home showdown. In terms of high level dota, the games between those four Chinese giants was all there was to watch, and



Of course, how could we talk about Dota at this WCG without the appearance of the wild Rhinomantaur?



The WCG may not have been the most interesting Dota 2 tournament out there, and yet, as with anything else in this great community, we managed to have a great time with it. We hope you have as much fun reading this update as we had putting it together!

For the first time in WCG history, Dota was featured as an official game at the WCG 2012 Game Festival Grand Final in Kunshan, China. Not only that, but both the Warcraft 3 UMS map version and Valve's standalone Dota 2 title found themselves center stage at the event. For fans of the games, it was an exciting moment, but for fans of real competition, the word festival rang truer than anything else.WCG's strict restrictions regarding nationality meant that the level of competition was not going to be very high. Even the Chinese teams found themselves forced to recruit stand-ins, with iG and LGD finding chisbug to replace Chuan and KingJ to replace DDC, respectively.The games, then, were mostly predicable with Tongfu meeting LGD in the Dota final for an all-Chinese affair, and iG meeting DK in the Dota2 final for a second home and home showdown. In terms of high level dota, the games between those four Chinese giants was all there was to watch, and kupon3ss takes you them in our tournament recap Of course, how could we talk about Dota at this WCG without the appearance of the wild Rhinomantaur? Tephus talks to DoA about his Dota cast . and takes us along for the ride as well. Finally, guest translator TanGeng arrives with a translated interview with Kuroky The WCG may not have been the most interesting Dota 2 tournament out there, and yet, as with anything else in this great community, we managed to have a great time with it. We hope you have as much fun reading this update as we had putting it together!

Beyond the Game By kupon3ss

Group Stages



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The group stages played out in a fairly uneventful manner due to the skill disparities between many of the teams. Group A simply involved the two big names walking over the two unknowns and iG dominating the spirited Belarusian DevilMice, looking none the weaker despite having Chisbug instead of Chuan.



Group B also played out more or less as expected, with DK walking over every other team, their overwhelming strength intensified both by the home court advantage and by being the only roster playing at full strength. The fight for second place was thus one between Orange, UA, and Mouz. While none of the three teams showed their top form, the clashes between them nevertheless produced some entertaining games, including this gem featuring Dendi on his signature hero.







Yet when the dust cleared, Orange had defeated both of the western staples, leaving Devilmice alone amongst the Asian giants.



Playoff Bracket



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After two rather dispassionate series with the two big teams simply outclassing one another, iG and DK would once again meet in the final, with Devilmice the underdogs against Orange in the 3rd place match. It was basically a world class team who had defeated iG and were just coming off sound victories against both Mouz and UA against a team that's not even a major player in the European scene.



The first game came as a surprise. With the power of the Lonely Druid (and team oriented pushing lineups) and urged on by the clueless yet entertaining commentary, Devilmice definitely appeared to be the more focused team. Orange, for various looked rather sloppy and dispirited as they fell in a pair of quick sets, showing that the gap between the top teams is certainly not as wide as it sometimes appears and that with practice and determination, anybody can make a splash on the world stage.





Watch live video from wcg_stage_d_eng on TwitchTV



Finally, it was time for the destined grand finals, another clash between iG and DK. Would it be the 6th time in 6 months that DK would come up short or would it be the sweet revenge deferred by LGD's performance in the G-1 League?



The first game was an odd reversal of roles as DK grabbed a multi-core push oriented lineup involving Bat, Naga and Lone Druid while iG was the one to go the more 4-1 defense oriented Antimage build. Magnataur, Nyx, Rubick and Panda on the side of iG were all strong teamfight and anti-push heroes that managed to stall DK's push until Zhou's Antimage ended the fun on the back of the team's superior teamfight, defying what BurNIng had shown us time and time again.







The second game was another struggle of wills between two of the finest teams in China. It was 4-1 once again as the two ancient rivals took to the stage. LD vs Void, Magnataur vs Bat, Push vs Stall, Even Distribution vs Focused Collection. iG's trademark aggression and early game push had DK on the back foot until a series of clutch chronosphere and teamfights brought the game into the realm of uncertainty. What followed was a series of brilliant clashes and battles until one side became too battered to continue. Despite all the shortcomings in this WCG, this game showed us what Dota is all about, and indeed, underlined what was truly "beyond the game".





Watch live video from wcg_stage_a_eng on TwitchTV

The group stages played out in a fairly uneventful manner due to the skill disparities between many of the teams. Group A simply involved the two big names walking over the two unknowns and iG dominating the spirited Belarusian DevilMice, looking none the weaker despite having Chisbug instead of Chuan.Group B also played out more or less as expected, with DK walking over every other team, their overwhelming strength intensified both by the home court advantage and by being the only roster playing at full strength. The fight for second place was thus one between Orange, UA, and Mouz. While none of the three teams showed their top form, the clashes between them nevertheless produced some entertaining games, including this gem featuring Dendi on his signature hero.Yet when the dust cleared, Orange had defeated both of the western staples, leaving Devilmice alone amongst the Asian giants.After two rather dispassionate series with the two big teams simply outclassing one another, iG and DK would once again meet in the final, with Devilmice the underdogs against Orange in the 3rd place match. It was basically a world class team who had defeated iG and were just coming off sound victories against both Mouz and UA against a team that's not even a major player in the European scene.The first game came as a surprise. With the power of the Lonely Druid (and team oriented pushing lineups) and urged on by the clueless yet entertaining commentary, Devilmice definitely appeared to be the more focused team. Orange, for various looked rather sloppy and dispirited as they fell in a pair of quick sets, showing that the gap between the top teams is certainly not as wide as it sometimes appears and that with practice and determination, anybody can make a splash on the world stage.Finally, it was time for the destined grand finals, another clash between iG and DK. Would it be the 6th time in 6 months that DK would come up short or would it be the sweet revenge deferred by LGD's performance in the G-1 League?The first game was an odd reversal of roles as DK grabbed a multi-core push oriented lineup involving Bat, Naga and Lone Druid while iG was the one to go the more 4-1 defense oriented Antimage build. Magnataur, Nyx, Rubick and Panda on the side of iG were all strong teamfight and anti-push heroes that managed to stall DK's push until Zhou's Antimage ended the fun on the back of the team's superior teamfight, defying what BurNIng had shown us time and time again.The second game was another struggle of wills between two of the finest teams in China. It was 4-1 once again as the two ancient rivals took to the stage. LD vs Void, Magnataur vs Bat, Push vs Stall, Even Distribution vs Focused Collection. iG's trademark aggression and early game push had DK on the back foot until a series of clutch chronosphere and teamfights brought the game into the realm of uncertainty. What followed was a series of brilliant clashes and battles until one side became too battered to continue. Despite all the shortcomings in this WCG, this game showed us what Dota is all about, and indeed, underlined what was truly "beyond the game".

Dota the DoA Way By Tephus



DoA contemplates Sven's many swords.

Following



Team Liquid: So, this will be broken into two parts, there will be a little game I have prepared for later. But, Questions first!



Doa: I'm prepared!





Team Liquid: First off: You've been casting ARTS(action real time strategy) games for a few months now. How was Dota different from other ARTS(action real time strategy) games?



Doa: To me the biggest thing that stood out was that Dota2 felt much more unforgiving than other ARTSs. I saw so many Heroes get killed in just two hits during games so I got the impression that if you get behind in this game it's especially important to stick with your team and not be caught in the open. From an outsider's perspective it felt like in general your options to fight 1v1 or escape are a lot less.





Team Liquid: You and your co-caster definitely hit some taboo subjects during your Dota casts. How would you categorise how much danger you're in: red sword, green sword, or purple sword?



Doa: Ah well, the red sword always seems the most immediately dangerous, but I feel like the purple sword is the one you really need to look out for since it looks the least dangerous. In other news, I was calling turrets - towers on the OGN LoL cast yesterday so now I'm apparently just completely screwed.





Team Liquid: Haha, I don't know if you are aware of this or not, but you can actually combine a red sword with a green sword to make a crossbow.



Doa: That doesn't make any sense. Sven would never want that. I think that item is one of the biggest things Valve needs to address for sure.





Team Liquid: Next question: What heroes (NOT champions) did you enjoy watching?



Doa: Well Rhinomantaur will always have a special place in my heart. He's all about deforestation and heavy metal horn ornaments so that's pretty cool. The Guardian of the Light's Pony Wave spell also makes him stand out in my opinion. Nobody expects a wave of ghost ponies to hurt them, but it actually does! He's a sneaky guy.



Oh I want to talk about the Windrunner thing too really quick!





Team Liquid: Sure!



Doa: Funny thing is that we had MASSIVE headphone issues with echo and other terrible noises so we actually casted every game on that stage with our headphones off. Thus, I unfortunately didn't hear Windrunner announce herself. I'm bad a casting DotA, but I normally at least would have the courtesy to listen to a Hero's introduction. That goes double for cute red-heads.





Team Liquid: I forgive you. Are there any heroes (note: NOT champions) that you thought were too strong?



Doa: Niax the Lifestealer or whatever was pretty scary. He kept two-shotting Rubick and Dark Seer, but if you consider how messed up his mouth is then I wouldn't be surprised if they were just faking death after a couple of bites just to get him to go away. At any rate I think it's unfair he can use his arms to both run and hit people. Leshrac doesn't go around kicking people. He's got some dignity. I also have to assume that Rhinomantuar and Bass Hunter are OP since they got banned a lot.





Team Liquid: LOL



Doa: I'm just being honest. Somewhere Tobiwan is crying.





Team Liquid: As an OGN insider, do you know when we can expect mienskee.kor's debut in an OGN Dota league?



Doa: I'll see what I can do, but no promises!





Team Liquid: On that note, I'm sure everyone would like to know: do you have any future plans to play or cast more Dota?



Doa: ha. In all honestly it looks like a really fun game and I do plan on eventually getting into it a bit at least. I already spend so much time on SC2 and LoL that when I have free time it's usually spent playing a non-competitive game to relax for a bit actually. If I do WCG next year I'll make sure to ask them earlier if I'll be casting it and I'll be a bit more prepared. Ideally we'd have someone who actually knew they game cast it though!





Team Liquid: Alright, thats it for questions, but now for this other thing I had put together. We are going to play a little game.



Doa: Oh boy... ha!





Team Liquid: I'm going to link you an image of a hero or item, and I want you to tell me who/what it is. You have 5 seconds to respond. :D (no cheating!)



Doa: I'm ready.





Team Liquid: + Show Spoiler +



Doa: Upgraded Blue Power Ranger





Team Liquid: + Show Spoiler +



Doa: Hellboy's newest enemy in Hellboy 3: Return of the creepy Horse





Team Liquid: + Show Spoiler +



Doa: Robogoblin. He was a cop, but now he's back to clean up the streets of Detroit.





Team Liquid: + Show Spoiler +



Doa: Mumra's embarrassing little brother.





Team Liquid: + Show Spoiler +



Doa: Generic rock troll with included target for Rhinomantaur's horn attack.





Team Liquid: + Show Spoiler +



Doa: A cross between Hellboy and an overweight investment banker. Sorry for using Hellboy twice, but you can't ignore that hand.





Team Liquid: + Show Spoiler +



Doa: Kung-fu Tim Burton animated movie villian.





Team Liquid: + Show Spoiler +



Doa: Void Starfish or Wannabe Protoss. That one was easy. Ha!





Team Liquid: + Show Spoiler +



Doa: Giant Elvis-haired zombie infant





Team Liquid: + Show Spoiler +



Doa: Handsome Thrall, post plastic surgery.





Team Liquid: + Show Spoiler +



Doa: Backhawk the punk rock fish.





Team Liquid: + Show Spoiler +



Doa: Even I know Antimage! Sorry! t.t





Team Liquid: + Show Spoiler +



Doa: The alien from Independence Day: water edition.





Team Liquid: Done with heroes! 5 items now.



Doa: Ha. OK!





Team Liquid: + Show Spoiler +



Doa: Bird mask with fake beard attachment.





Team Liquid: + Show Spoiler +



Doa: Diablo 3 art book with Green worm infestation.





Team Liquid: + Show Spoiler +



Doa: Badass green smoke lamp





Team Liquid: + Show Spoiler +



Doa: Stoned Golden Skull





Team Liquid: + Show Spoiler +



Doa: Generic Halloween Mask





Team Liquid: So many awesome answers. That's all I have for now. Anything you'd like to say to all your fans?



Doa: Thanks for putting up with my complete lack of knowledge! As much as we try to be prepared for every cast, sometimes you get tossed into some awkward situations and have to make the best of it. Thanks a lot to Brendan for being such a great co-caster to have with me, especially for the insanity! Please watch my Starcraft 2 casts at OGN and maybe even my LoL casts....? In the end, prefering one game over another is perfectly fine, but I think the most important thing is that we all respect eachother's interests and try to get along.





Team Liquid: Thanks so much for the interview. Hope you had as much fun as I did.



Doa: I did! Thanks!

Following his now immortalised cast of Dota 2 at WCG , Team Liquid met up with Starcraft to caster Erik "DoA" Lonnquist to talk about Dota 2 on a whole new level.Doa: I'm prepared!Doa: To me the biggest thing that stood out was that Dota2 felt much more unforgiving than other ARTSs. I saw so many Heroes get killed in just two hits during games so I got the impression that if you get behind in this game it's especially important to stick with your team and not be caught in the open. From an outsider's perspective it felt like in general your options to fight 1v1 or escape are a lot less.Doa: Ah well, the red sword always seems the most immediately dangerous, but I feel like the purple sword is the one you really need to look out for since it looks the least dangerous. In other news, I was calling turrets - towers on the OGN LoL cast yesterday so now I'm apparently just completely screwed.Doa: That doesn't make any sense. Sven would never want that. I think that item is one of the biggest things Valve needs to address for sure.Doa: Well Rhinomantaur will always have a special place in my heart. He's all about deforestation and heavy metal horn ornaments so that's pretty cool. The Guardian of the Light's Pony Wave spell also makes him stand out in my opinion. Nobody expects a wave of ghost ponies to hurt them, but it actually does! He's a sneaky guy.Oh I want to talk about the Windrunner thing too really quick!Doa: Funny thing is that we had MASSIVE headphone issues with echo and other terrible noises so we actually casted every game on that stage with our headphones off. Thus, I unfortunately didn't hear Windrunner announce herself. I'm bad a casting DotA, but I normally at least would have the courtesy to listen to a Hero's introduction. That goes double for cute red-heads.Doa: Niax the Lifestealer or whatever was pretty scary. He kept two-shotting Rubick and Dark Seer, but if you consider how messed up his mouth is then I wouldn't be surprised if they were just faking death after a couple of bites just to get him to go away. At any rate I think it's unfair he can use his arms to both run and hit people. Leshrac doesn't go around kicking people. He's got some dignity. I also have to assume that Rhinomantuar and Bass Hunter are OP since they got banned a lot.Doa: I'm just being honest. Somewhere Tobiwan is crying.Doa: I'll see what I can do, but no promises!Doa: ha. In all honestly it looks like a really fun game and I do plan on eventually getting into it a bit at least. I already spend so much time on SC2 and LoL that when I have free time it's usually spent playing a non-competitive game to relax for a bit actually. If I do WCG next year I'll make sure to ask them earlier if I'll be casting it and I'll be a bit more prepared. Ideally we'd have someone who actually knew they game cast it though!Doa: Oh boy... ha!Doa: I'm ready.Doa: Upgraded Blue Power RangerDoa: Hellboy's newest enemy in Hellboy 3: Return of the creepy HorseDoa: Robogoblin. He was a cop, but now he's back to clean up the streets of Detroit.Doa: Mumra's embarrassing little brother.Doa: Generic rock troll with included target for Rhinomantaur's horn attack.Doa: A cross between Hellboy and an overweight investment banker. Sorry for using Hellboy twice, but you can't ignore that hand.Doa: Kung-fu Tim Burton animated movie villian.Doa: Void Starfish or Wannabe Protoss. That one was easy. Ha!Doa: Giant Elvis-haired zombie infantDoa: Handsome Thrall, post plastic surgery.Doa: Backhawk the punk rock fish.Doa: Even I know Antimage! Sorry! t.tDoa: The alien from Independence Day: water edition.Done with heroes! 5 items now.Doa: Ha. OK!Doa: Bird mask with fake beard attachment.Doa: Diablo 3 art book with Green worm infestation.Doa: Badass green smoke lampDoa: Stoned Golden SkullDoa: Generic Halloween MaskDoa: Thanks for putting up with my complete lack of knowledge! As much as we try to be prepared for every cast, sometimes you get tossed into some awkward situations and have to make the best of it. Thanks a lot to Brendan for being such a great co-caster to have with me, especially for the insanity! Please watch my Starcraft 2 casts at OGN and maybe even my LoL casts....? In the end, prefering one game over another is perfectly fine, but I think the most important thing is that we all respect eachother's interests and try to get along.Doa: I did! Thanks!