WPC Ace League Playoff Preview December 20th, 2013 19:41 GMT Text by CountChocula Graphics by riptide WPC Ace

League 2013

Major Strategies in 6.79



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WPC ACE League Playoff Preview

After 9 weeks of Round Robin play, and a short break afterwards, the WPC Ace League Playoffs are finally upon us. Featuring six of the top Chinese/SEA Dota 2 teams currently in the world, with a first place prize of $163,400, you can be assured the WPC will start this holiday season off with some of the best Dota games of the year. Coming into the playoffs, DK and iG will advance straight to the second round after clinching the top 2 spots in Round Robin play. They will then face off against the winning teams from the first round for a spot in the Grand Finals. All of the games will be played in a bo5 format, with the Finals set to be a bo7.



WPC's Premiere season of the ACE League has gone smoothly so far. We've seen top teams like VG and DK emerge during WPC, as well as current top teams like LGD and iG stay on top of their game. One of the most important moments of the league was the 6.79 patch, which was introduced around the half way point. This not only changed the gameplay we saw, but it also affected each team's performance in positive, and even negative ways. For our preview this time around we had CountChocula translate an article from sgamer, which pinpoints the WPC finalists 6.79 strategic thinking, and playstyles throughout the league post-patch.



Join us as we watch who will be crowned the victor of the WPC Playoffs!





Playoff Bracket



We hope you enjoy this week's games. They start in -







An Analysis of Major Strategies in 6.79 Translated by CountChocula



Translation: CountChocula

Author: 萌萝提欧

Source:



Strength and Honor, Early Push - VG





VG is best known for the strength of their early support roams, early 5-man group-ups, and decisive initiation to force teamfights. They are excellent at establishing an advantage in lanes and unceasingly expanding that advantage into a victory. Demonstrative games include



rOtK and Super are among the best off-laners and mid solos in the world for an early 5-man push strategy (Ferrari, xiao8, Dendi and s4 are also very good, but Mushi tends towards multi-core strategies). These two factors have led to VG's sudden rise.



The War Machine, Formational Push - LGD.cn





LGD.cn strategies tend to be very heavy-handed and straightforward. It is relatively easy to get into a multi-core comeback type of game, a point that Alliance and DK have proven on many occasions. In the past, LGD.cn rarely used strong initiators, so it was hard for them to find pick offs.



In recent weeks, LGD.cn has changed up their strategy by focusing more on strong initiators and securing an early-game advantage, but they haven't deviated from their playstyle entirely. LGD.cn has also always been a very enthusiastic team. Their players understand how to enjoy life, allowing them to have a very good emotional state which is reflected in their stable play. This is LGD.cn's biggest strength.



After Joy Comes Sadness, Multi-Core Teamfight - DK





DK right now doesn't have a particular playstyle and they don't seem very confident. They seem to be superstitious about certain heroes. In 6.79, they played a few games of Invoker, but got stomped by Luna, so they have become superstitious about her and have become the team to favor her the most.



Having been stomped by Midases, they went to MLG favoring the Midas multi-core strategy where their results were quite good, and so they get them almost every game now. They tried a few games of Lich and Venomancer, but the results were only so-and-so, and they haven't used them ever since.



Maybe it's because they want to prove themselves to be the strongest, but DK rarely imitates other teams' strategies. DK could very well execute VG's early push strategy or LGD's formational push strategy, but they choose not to. Actually the only game DK took off Speed.int at MLG was with a formational push strategy.



Mushi's once famous Puck now rarely dares to initiate. I think it shows his lack of confidence. I think this is a severe bottleneck to DK becoming a more successful team. Mushi needs to use Puck to initiate more courageously instead of showing off his juking skills. Even on Slardar, with AC and BKB, Mushi likes showing off his jukes, so this is certainly an aspect he needs to work on.



The Wayward Sheep, Multi-Core Splitpush - iG





Like DK, iG lacks confidence and a unique playstyle (maybe even more than DK). At least DK persists with their own strategy, but iG switches to a new playstyle almost every game seemingly not knowing what they should play.



It's not that multi-core splitpush is a bad strategy. It's just that when faced with dominant initiators forcing you to teamfight, splitting up to farm lanes leaves very little margin for error. The playstyle isn't very suitable for this version. Using multi-core isn't bad by itself, it's just that you shouldn't be getting your cores through farming rather than fighting.



Besieged On All Sides, Camping High Ground - TongFu





TongFu's strategy changes every day. Some of their strategies are good, but they tend to make mistakes in execution. In general, TongFu plays a variation of VG's early push style (arguably the strongest strategy of 6.79), but tends to feed kills on the way.



It's admirable that Zhou and ZSMJ are still so dedicated to the game after so many years, but I sincerely wish they might start looking at possible exit strategies, following in the steps of 2009 and YaphetS.



Crouching PotM, Hidden Rhasta - LGD.int





LGD.int has lost two members, so Air and Super from DT^Club will be their stand-ins in their upcoming WPC match against VG. Their form before the reformation wasn't very good. Nevertheless, no one would have guessed Speed.int would manage to win MLG Columbus with one stand-in, so who's to say LGD.int won't win WPC with two?















CREDITS

Writers: CountChocula

Gfx: riptide

Editors: Firebolt145, TheEmulator

Photograph by

Writers: CountChoculaGfx: riptideEditors: Firebolt145, TheEmulatorPhotograph by Eugene Regis After 9 weeks of Round Robin play, and a short break afterwards, the WPC Ace League Playoffs are finally upon us. Featuring six of the top Chinese/SEA Dota 2 teams currently in the world, with a first place prize of $163,400, you can be assured the WPC will start this holiday season off with some of the best Dota games of the year. Coming into the playoffs, DK and iG will advance straight to the second round after clinching the top 2 spots in Round Robin play. They will then face off against the winning teams from the first round for a spot in the Grand Finals. All of the games will be played in a bo5 format, with the Finals set to be a bo7.WPC's Premiere season of the ACE League has gone smoothly so far. We've seen top teams like VG and DK emerge during WPC, as well as current top teams like LGD and iG stay on top of their game. One of the most important moments of the league was the 6.79 patch, which was introduced around the half way point. This not only changed the gameplay we saw, but it also affected each team's performance in positive, and even negative ways. For our preview this time around we had CountChocula translate an article from sgamer, which pinpoints the WPC finalists 6.79 strategic thinking, and playstyles throughout the league post-patch.Join us as we watch who will be crowned the victor of the WPC Playoffs!We hope you enjoy this week's games. They start in -Translation: CountChoculaAuthor: 萌萝提欧Source: http://bbs.sgamer.com/thread-11757221-1-1.html VG is best known for the strength of their early support roams, early 5-man group-ups, and decisive initiation to force teamfights. They are excellent at establishing an advantage in lanes and unceasingly expanding that advantage into a victory. Demonstrative games include their game against LGD in the Sina Cup and Game 3 against DK in the D2L East Qualifiers rOtK and Super are among the best off-laners and mid solos in the world for an early 5-man push strategy (Ferrari, xiao8, Dendi and s4 are also very good, but Mushi tends towards multi-core strategies). These two factors have led to VG's sudden rise.LGD.cn strategies tend to be very heavy-handed and straightforward. It is relatively easy to get into a multi-core comeback type of game, a point that Alliance and DK have proven on many occasions. In the past, LGD.cn rarely used strong initiators, so it was hard for them to find pick offs.In recent weeks, LGD.cn has changed up their strategy by focusing more on strong initiators and securing an early-game advantage, but they haven't deviated from their playstyle entirely. LGD.cn has also always been a very enthusiastic team. Their players understand how to enjoy life, allowing them to have a very good emotional state which is reflected in their stable play. This is LGD.cn's biggest strength.DK right now doesn't have a particular playstyle and they don't seem very confident. They seem to be superstitious about certain heroes. In 6.79, they played a few games of Invoker, but got stomped by Luna, so they have become superstitious about her and have become the team to favor her the most.Having been stomped by Midases, they went to MLG favoring the Midas multi-core strategy where their results were quite good, and so they get them almost every game now. They tried a few games of Lich and Venomancer, but the results were only so-and-so, and they haven't used them ever since.Maybe it's because they want to prove themselves to be the strongest, but DK rarely imitates other teams' strategies. DK could very well execute VG's early push strategy or LGD's formational push strategy, but they choose not to. Actually the only game DK took off Speed.int at MLG was with a formational push strategy.Mushi's once famous Puck now rarely dares to initiate. I think it shows his lack of confidence. I think this is a severe bottleneck to DK becoming a more successful team. Mushi needs to use Puck to initiate more courageously instead of showing off his juking skills. Even on Slardar, with AC and BKB, Mushi likes showing off his jukes, so this is certainly an aspect he needs to work on.Like DK, iG lacks confidence and a unique playstyle (maybe even more than DK). At least DK persists with their own strategy, but iG switches to a new playstyle almost every game seemingly not knowing what they should play.It's not that multi-core splitpush is a bad strategy. It's just that when faced with dominant initiators forcing you to teamfight, splitting up to farm lanes leaves very little margin for error. The playstyle isn't very suitable for this version. Using multi-core isn't bad by itself, it's just that you shouldn't be getting your cores through farming rather than fighting.TongFu's strategy changes every day. Some of their strategies are good, but they tend to make mistakes in execution. In general, TongFu plays a variation of VG's early push style (arguably the strongest strategy of 6.79), but tends to feed kills on the way.It's admirable that Zhou and ZSMJ are still so dedicated to the game after so many years, but I sincerely wish they might start looking at possible exit strategies, following in the steps of 2009 and YaphetS.LGD.int has lost two members, so Air and Super from DT^Club will be their stand-ins in their upcoming WPC match against VG. Their form before the reformation wasn't very good. Nevertheless, no one would have guessed Speed.int would manage to win MLG Columbus with one stand-in, so who's to say LGD.int won't win WPC with two? 我会让他们连馒头都吃不到 Those championships owed me over the years, I will take them back one by one.