The Strategic Shifts of 6.79 December 5th, 2013 23:56 GMT Text by phantasmal Graphics by Shiroiusagi Table of Contents

Introduction



The 2-1-2



Strategy vs Execution



DK and the other Path



Credits



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The Strategic Shifts

of 6.79

MLG was one of our first tastes of 6.79 played out in a major LAN setting, and it gave us clear evidence that success in this new patch environment hinges heavily on how quickly the teams are able to adapt. Going into the event, Alliance and Na`Vi were widely considered to be guaranteed to place highly. In the aftermath, Alliance finished 4-4 and missed qualifying for a top 4 spot. Na`Vi did slightly better in the group stages at 5-3, but hidden behind their tied for 3rd place finish is the fact that they went a combined 1-5 against the other three teams in the top 4. Both teams at times looked flat-footed, and like they were playing a patch behind. Meanwhile Sigma, DK, and the MLG champions Speed Gaming looked much more comfortable, so let's take a look at how they've adjusted to this new environment.



Sigma vs Na`Vi and the 2-1-2



One of the big themes of 6.79 is teams reacting to the pull camp nerfs by looking to spread the field, and no team at MLG was more devoted to this than Sigma. Their group stage match against Na`Vi (



In this game Sigma drafts some unusual picks, at least compared to the overall 6.79 trends. Bane and Abaddon have both seen reduced use in the face of the rise of the top 4 supports,



The first of these pairs, Mirana and Bane, got off to a strong start when they caught Na`Vi's Windrunner at the bottom rune for first blood. This exchange showed off the strength of the duo: the Nightmare into Sacred Arrow combo. The threat of this combo was so potent that it drew Windrunner to bot lane through most of the laning phase in order to help mitigate Sigma's advantage (Windrunner can transfer Nightmare to herself, allowing Clockwerk to dodge the arrow), but this adjustment came with a heavy cost. By committing Windrunner over to the normally self-sufficient Clockwerk lane, Na`Vi forfeits their ability to use her to put trilane pressure on Sigma's offlane, or to help free Venomancer to farm the jungle.





The Nightmare -> Arrow combo draws First Blood



Meanwhile, on the other side of the map, Sigma is using Viper and Abaddon to contest Na`Vi's Juggernaut/Venomancer lane. What Sigma often looks for in an offlane is a carry threat that will annoy the opposing team's carry in a farm battle, and a support that will protect this carry from becoming overexposed in the lane. In this case, Viper is a tremendous frustration not only for Juggernaut, but also for Venomancer. Viper out ranges Venomancer, and thanks to the recent buff to Corrosive Skin, he also wins any poison trades. Na`Vi's counter to this is to catch Viper in a Gale -> Blade Fury combo, but Abaddon's ability to purge Gale's slow with Aphotic Shield allows Viper to ignore this threat and maintain a very aggressive position. Sigma's use of this bodyguard support in the offlane was one of the most interesting developments of the tournament for me, and one wonders if a hero like Omniknight could work in this role.







Abaddon's presence allows for some extremely aggressive positioning from Viper



The final benefit to this laning setup is that it ties up both Na`Vi supports in (losing) battles in the outer lanes. This locks Sigma's Outworld Devourer mano-a-mano with Magnus, a match-up with little to no upside for Na`Vi.



This match basically shows off all the drafting tricks of Sigma in one convenient package. For their sidelanes they like to draft themselves strong kill combos, which is often Nightmare into a targeted stun, or a harassment-bodyguard duo. They often include utility cores like Mirana and Slardar, but when they do it it's in tri-core lineups where they're not relying exclusively on these heroes to carry. Finally, with the sidelines drawing the support's attention away from mid rotations, they look for a high value mid that can take advantage of a favorable, isolated match-up.



There's more that could be said about this game, such as how the Aghs rush on Viper worked quite well with a lineup with so many tools to prolong battles (Enfeeble, Aphotic Shield, Mist Coil, Astral Imprisonment...), but here I want to move the discussion to Speed Gaming.



Sigma vs Speed: Strategy vs Execution



It's difficult to give Speed's MLG performance a proper evaluation from a strategical point of view due to the absence of their usual offlaner, bOne7. Their first day at MLG was an 0-3 struggle, due in part to their uncertainty as to how to handle the roster shift. With some changes and a little sleep, they bounced back for a 9-1 record during the remainder of the tournament, but anything that can be taken from that may change once the team returns to their standard roster.



That warning aside, there are some similarities between Speed's approach to the patch at MLG and Sigma's. Both teams highly valued Mirana, but never use her as the primary farmer on the team. Both teams liked to run carries in mid, particularly Outworld Devourer for both teams, Shadow Fiend for Sigma, and Templar Assassin for Speed. And while Speed doesn't look for the complete tri-core split nearly as much as Sigma, they do favor going for a relatively hard duo core. One example of this was the Clinkz/Outworld Devourer they ran in the deciding game of the finals against DK (which incidentally is a duo made more viable in 6.79 now that Burning Arrows pierces BKBs).



Given that Speed's win at MLG involved a Semifinals sweep of Sigma, one might be inclined to conclude that Speed had the superior approach to drafting and laning, but game two of the series suggests otherwise (



Anticipating offlane aggression from Sigma, Speed sends their Luna bot, but Sigma's Windrunner sniffs this out and helps to set up a 3v2 Ambush against Luna for first blood.





Yes Luna, Lion's right around that corner and all alone



Speed immediately adjusts and sends Luna and CM to the safe lane, but Windrunner continues to shadow Luna throughout the laning phase. In an inversion from the Na`Vi game, it's now Sigma playing the Clockwerk and Windrunner lane but from a position of aggression.





Another variant of Sigma's offlane bodyguard support



Sigma's strategy of applying safe, constant pressure to Luna pays off. She spends the entire laning phase playing from behind, and by 30 minutes in her farm is nowhere near the opposing Gyrocopter.







Unfortunately for Sigma, they then failed to convert this laning advantage into a win. Twice they manage a sizable ~5000 gold lead, and twice they give it up through a combination of impatience and Speed being by my estimation the mechanically superior team.







But the takeaway from this game is that even in a loss, Sigma's laning strategy accomplished what it was supposed to. Teams right now don't have an answer for countering smart, early aggression in what was formerly the safe lane, so teams that can mix it into their drafts will find this to be a very favorable patch period.



However, the big concern for Sigma is that they might be too dependent on these laning advantages. True to their status as a spiritual successor to DD/Quantic, Sigma pulled off their surprising performance largely by virtue of being clever with their hero picks and laning, but looked shaky whenever they were up against a top team on even footing. There's a lot of reasons to be relatively happy with their performance at MLG, but it also showed a lot of areas where they need improvement. They're also working with a time limit here, because it's easier for other teams to crib your strats than it is for you to crib their execution.



One other issue that Sigma might face is that their kill lanes revolved heavily around Bane, and teams were starting to realize this. Sigma picked Bane 5 times and went 5-0 with the hero; he was also banned 5 times, and in those games Sigma went 1-4. The Quantic comparison comes to mind yet again with their overdependence on Treant Protector during their TI3 Qualifier run. Having signature heroes is great and all, but 'heroes' there is plural because a single hero is just going to draw respect bans. The advantage Alliance had in 6.78 is that you didn't want to allow them to have Nature's Prophet, but you also didn't want them to have Chen or Naga Siren or Wisp. Running the same strategy all the time isn't necessarily that bad of an idea so long as you have enough variants of it that you can always sneak one past the ban phase.



DK and the Other Path



While I've focused so far on Sigma and Speed, it's important to keep in mind that DK was also quite dominant throughout the group stages of MLG, and put up quite the fight against Speed despite having just played a grueling set of games against Na`Vi. And what's interesting about DK is that they approached 6.79 from a completely different angle than teams like Sigma and Speed. DK went 7-1 in the group stages, and 5 of those 7 wins came on the back of push strats or Wisp stats.



DK's Wisp was a particular set of irony given how Wisp was almost exclusively a Western hero during its pre-6.79 tyranny. With 6.79's Tether nerf, most of the West had given up on the hero with only Fnatic as an exception. But DK proved once again that Wisp isn't completely dead. It may no longer be a hero you want to pick 100% of the time in the deciding best of 5 of a major tournament, but in single game group stage Wisp is still a potent surprise pick to tilt the scales of qualification in your favor. They did go back to Wisp in the finals with less than great results, but that was largely due to a far too greedy draft than any particular failure on the part of the hero.



DK was also the only team to reliably put out push strats at the tournament, which was a bit of a personal disappointment. Throughout the tournament DK were 4-0 combined with either Pugna or Luna, and even won with the only Leshrac pick of the tournament. Pugna in particular is in a really good place right now, and I was really surprised by his relative absence at MLG. On this front it feels like Western Dota is sleeping on a major meta shift and really need to start experimenting outside of their comfort zones.







CREDITS

Writers: phantasmal of

Gfx: shirousagi

Editors: TheEmulator Writers: phantasmal of DotaMetrics Gfx: shirousagiEditors: TheEmulator

MLG was one of our first tastes of 6.79 played out in a major LAN setting, and it gave us clear evidence that success in this new patch environment hinges heavily on how quickly the teams are able to adapt. Going into the event, Alliance and Na`Vi were widely considered to be guaranteed to place highly. In the aftermath, Alliance finished 4-4 and missed qualifying for a top 4 spot. Na`Vi did slightly better in the group stages at 5-3, but hidden behind their tied for 3rd place finish is the fact that they went a combined 1-5 against the other three teams in the top 4. Both teams at times looked flat-footed, and like they were playing a patch behind. Meanwhile Sigma, DK, and the MLG champions Speed Gaming looked much more comfortable, so let's take a look at how they've adjusted to this new environment.. Their group stage match against Na`Vi ( VOD ) was the first of the tournament for both teams, and it stands out to me as one of the clearest examples of Sigma drafting with the intent of winning all three lanes.In this game Sigma drafts some unusual picks, at least compared to the overall 6.79 trends. Bane and Abaddon have both seen reduced use in the face of the rise of the top 4 supports, as I covered before the event , and both Viper and Outworld Devourer had sub-40% win rates in the new patch period. OD in particular was the subject of some 6.79 nerfs that halved his professional pick/ban rate drop from the 74% rate he had seen in 6.78. It's an unconventional draft overall, but the pieces combine to form a coherent laning strategy revolving around their sidelane pairs.The first of these pairs, Mirana and Bane, got off to a strong start when they caught Na`Vi's Windrunner at the bottom rune for first blood. This exchange showed off the strength of the duo: the Nightmare into Sacred Arrow combo. The threat of this combo was so potent that it drew Windrunner to bot lane through most of the laning phase in order to help mitigate Sigma's advantage (Windrunner can transfer Nightmare to herself, allowing Clockwerk to dodge the arrow), but this adjustment came with a heavy cost.Meanwhile, on the other side of the map, Sigma is using Viper and Abaddon to contest Na`Vi's Juggernaut/Venomancer lane.In this case, Viper is a tremendous frustration not only for Juggernaut, but also for Venomancer. Viper out ranges Venomancer, and thanks to the recent buff to Corrosive Skin, he also wins any poison trades. Na`Vi's counter to this is to catch Viper in a Gale -> Blade Fury combo, but Abaddon's ability to purge Gale's slow with Aphotic Shield allows Viper to ignore this threat and maintain a very aggressive position. Sigma's use of this bodyguard support in the offlane was one of the most interesting developments of the tournament for me, and one wonders if a hero like Omniknight could work in this role.The final benefit to this laning setup is that it ties up both Na`Vi supports in (losing) battles in the outer lanes. This locks Sigma's Outworld Devourer mano-a-mano with Magnus, a match-up with little to no upside for Na`Vi.. For their sidelanes they like to draft themselves strong kill combos, which is often Nightmare into a targeted stun, or a harassment-bodyguard duo. They often include utility cores like Mirana and Slardar, but when they do it it's in tri-core lineups where they're not relying exclusively on these heroes to carry. Finally, with the sidelines drawing the support's attention away from mid rotations, they look for a high value mid that can take advantage of a favorable, isolated match-up.There's more that could be said about this game, such as how the Aghs rush on Viper worked quite well with a lineup with so many tools to prolong battles (Enfeeble, Aphotic Shield, Mist Coil, Astral Imprisonment...), but here I want to move the discussion to Speed Gaming.It's difficult to give Speed's MLG performance a proper evaluation from a strategical point of view due to the absence of their usual offlaner, bOne7. Their first day at MLG was an 0-3 struggle, due in part to their uncertainty as to how to handle the roster shift. With some changes and a little sleep, they bounced back for a 9-1 record during the remainder of the tournament, but anything that can be taken from that may change once the team returns to their standard roster.That warning aside, there are some similarities between Speed's approach to the patch at MLG and Sigma's.One example of this was the Clinkz/Outworld Devourer they ran in the deciding game of the finals against DK (which incidentally is a duo made more viable in 6.79 now that Burning Arrows pierces BKBs).Given that Speed's win at MLG involved a Semifinals sweep of Sigma, one might be inclined to conclude that Speed had the superior approach to drafting and laning, but game two of the series suggests otherwise ( VOD ).Anticipating offlane aggression from Sigma, Speed sends their Luna bot, but Sigma's Windrunner sniffs this out and helps to set up a 3v2 Ambush against Luna for first blood.Speed immediately adjusts and sends Luna and CM to the safe lane, but Windrunner continues to shadow Luna throughout the laning phase. In an inversion from the Na`Vi game, it's now Sigma playing the Clockwerk and Windrunner lane but from a position of aggression.Sigma's strategy of applying safe, constant pressure to Luna pays off. She spends the entire laning phase playing from behind, and by 30 minutes in her farm is nowhere near the opposing Gyrocopter.Unfortunately for Sigma, they then failed to convert this laning advantage into a win. Twice they manage a sizable ~5000 gold lead, and twice they give it up through a combination of impatience and Speed being by my estimation the mechanically superior team.But the takeaway from this game is that even in a loss, Sigma's laning strategy accomplished what it was supposed to. Teams right now don't have an answer for countering smart, early aggression in what was formerly the safe lane, so teams that can mix it into their drafts will find this to be a very favorable patch period.True to their status as a spiritual successor to DD/Quantic, Sigma pulled off their surprising performance largely by virtue of being clever with their hero picks and laning, but looked shaky whenever they were up against a top team on even footing. There's a lot of reasons to be relatively happy with their performance at MLG, but it also showed a lot of areas where they need improvement. They're also working with a time limit here, because it's easier for other teams to crib your strats than it is for you to crib their execution.One other issue that Sigma might face is that their kill lanes revolved heavily around Bane, and teams were starting to realize this.The Quantic comparison comes to mind yet again with their overdependence on Treant Protector during their TI3 Qualifier run. Having signature heroes is great and all, but 'heroes' there is plural because a single hero is just going to draw respect bans. The advantage Alliance had in 6.78 is that you didn't want to allow them to have Nature's Prophet, but you also didn't want them to have Chen or Naga Siren or Wisp. Running the same strategy all the time isn't necessarily that bad of an idea so long as you have enough variants of it that you can always sneak one past the ban phase.While I've focused so far on Sigma and Speed, it's important to keep in mind that DK was also quite dominant throughout the group stages of MLG, and put up quite the fight against Speed despite having just played a grueling set of games against Na`Vi. And what's interesting about DK is that they approached 6.79 from a completely different angle than teams like Sigma and Speed.DK's Wisp was a particular set of irony given how Wisp was almost exclusively a Western hero during its pre-6.79 tyranny. With 6.79's Tether nerf, most of the West had given up on the hero with only Fnatic as an exception. But DK proved once again that Wisp isn't completely dead. It may no longer be a hero you want to pick 100% of the time in the deciding best of 5 of a major tournament, but in single game group stage Wisp is still a potent surprise pick to tilt the scales of qualification in your favor. They did go back to Wisp in the finals with less than great results, but that was largely due to a far too greedy draft than any particular failure on the part of the hero.DK was also the only team to reliably put out push strats at the tournament, which was a bit of a personal disappointment., and even won with the only Leshrac pick of the tournament. Pugna in particular is in a really good place right now, and I was really surprised by his relative absence at MLG. On this front it feels like Western Dota is sleeping on a major meta shift and really need to start experimenting outside of their comfort zones. Writer