[G-1] One Magnus, Extra Ice November 26th, 2012 12:27 GMT Text by riptide Graphics by HawaiianPig Table of Contents



The Magnus in the Room



Ice Cubed





Team Liquid is proud to bring its G-1 Champions League coverage to a close this week with two feature pieces. Though the league itself finished just over a week ago, we felt that all that Dota gave us more than enough to write about, and that's exactly what we did. You've already seen our



Now, jump right into our last coverage piece with



Finally, we round up our G-1 interviews by talking to Singaporean gamer



Useful Links



G-1 on Liquipedia · English Stream







The Magnus in the Room By Kipsate







In a short period of time, Magnus has become a top pick for many teams. We often see him banned or picked in professional games nowadays, and at the G-1 League LGD.Yao used Magnus to great effect. It was an important hero in LGD's first place at the tournament. After dominating the G-1 finals, Magnus also took Dreamhack by storm, amassing a 9-2 record that is absolutely absurd for a single hero.The question is - why? Why is Magnus so popular right now? What does Magnus offer to your team?



The winner of G-1 League, LGD.Yao described the hero thusly -



''Magnus is a very popular hero recently and we practiced a lot with him. His ability to solo offlane is currently the strongest. During the mid-late game, it has teamfight control, initiation, can protect carries and add to their dps, its an overall comparatively strong third position''.



Yao is spot on. Let us examine Magnus' skills one by one.





Shockwave - this skill is fairly straightforward. It scales very well and costs a very small amount of mana. With a mana cost of 90, a fairly fast casting animation, 300 damage at level 4 and a 1000 maximum range, it is quite a strong skill. This skill can be used to push, harass, do damage in teamfights and counterpush as well, due to its range. On top of this, with its short cooldown of 7 seconds at level 4, it will also allow Magnus to farm the jungle in between fights.





Empower is also a fairly straightforward skill, is it not? It strengthens heroes' attack damage and gives them a cleave ability. Note that this skill only increases the base damage based upon attributes and won't increase bonus damage any further. This cleaving ability not only allows heroes who normally can't flashfarm to flashfarm but it also can be devastating in teamfights. With its 40 second duration and small, 12 second cooldown, it can theoretically have up to 4 friendly targets. However, realistically speaking the ability will affect 3 at best. This is an excellent skill as it synergizes well with Reverse Polarity.





Skewer is one of the two core abilities that makes Magnus so relevant in the current game. As such we need to examine this skill more closely.



Range:1200

Duration: 2.5seconds

Area of Effect: 125

Damage: 70 / 140 / 210 / 280

Targets:1 / 2 / 3 / 4

Slow:40%



What the skill does for Magnus 0



Offlane, it is a great escape as it is literally a blink dagger in range. This means that Magnus can leech exp and escape if he comes under threat. It can be used to traverse cliffs as well, and this means that, for example, he can skewer and kill the Dire ancients from the Radiant side jungle and then and Blink dagger back.



The skill allows you to get a Reverse Polarity off without a blink dagger. It will always drag a single enemy hero of your choice and as such will always allow you to get your reverse polarity off on at least one. Note also that when levelled up it can drag multiple heroes along the way, allowing for even more targets at the same time while ensuring a strong Reverse Polarity as well.



The skill allows you to drag people out of position and up cliffs. Although Magnus is not your traditional ganker, when utilized correctly this skill will drag them a full blink dagger range back. This means that the opponent can be pushed behind a tower or uphill where enemies are unable to reach you. If you utilize a blink dagger on Magnus you can blink out to a hero and quickly drag him back to your team as well.



As Yao has pointed out, it can protect carries, because not only can it be used to drag people towards you, it can also be used to drag people away from you. Fragile or important heroes who are easily picked off by can be dragged away, giving them extra time to perform their next action.



The skill does a decent amount of damage, and dragging Magnus with the target and slowing it also makes it so that Magnus can deal quite a lot of autoattack damage in the meantime.



Magnus charges at a speed of 950. He will still be stunned and slowed during this but will always complete the animation and as such always land at the destination. For example, if Luna Lucent Beams Magnus during the Skewer animation, Magnus will simply keep charging and complete the animation.



Cancels teleport scrolls and other channeled abilities.









Reverse Polarity is Magnus' signature skill. Magnus turns into a magnet and draws heroes in a 410 AOE range towards him, stunning them. Reverse Polarity can perhaps best be compared with Enigma's Black Hole to truly see its strength.





In other words, (Black Hole + Vaccum - Channeling time) / 1/2 CD = Reverse Polarity. How is this balanced?

This is why Magnus is so strong. He doesn't need to cast his Black Hole. It is instant and it is on a much shorter cooldown, almost half that Black Hole. It has to be noted that Magnus' Reverse Polarity starts at 2.5 seconds while Enigma's Black hole lasts for 4 seconds at all levels. Enigma's Black Hole is channeled and can be interrupted at all times if he doesn't have a BKB (and of course, certain abilities can even go through BKB). Enigma does have a larger range on Black Hole, but on the other hand Magnus has a built in initiation skill in Skewer. Enigma is forced to buy a Blink Dagger or hope to walk up to the opposition. For Magnus, you can easily combine Reverse Polarity with Skewer or a Blink Dagger in order to get a strong initiation or counter-initiation. Further, the cleave gained from Empower and the AOE of both Skewer and Shockwave can be used to deal a good amount of damage on the vacuumed targets. Combine this with any kind of AOE followup and this leads to devastation in teamfights.



Skewer, while scaling quite decently, only needs a single point in it to gain the maximum drag effectiveness and range. Reverse Polarity, while increasing in power with levels, is already strong at level 1. Similar to Tidehunter, Magnus' teamfight potential is fairly strong after level 6, and this again makes him quite a strong offlaner. While Magnus can make use of levels and farm, he doesn't need much to be effective. He needs Arcane Boots and a Blink Dagger, but after that he is fully functional. Luxury items for him include a Refresher Orb, a Black King Bar, a Heart, an Assault Cuirass or even damage items such as a Mask of Madness, an Armlet or a Daedalus.



Magnus also does have a few weaknesses -

While the general rule is that the Skewer animation will always finish, there are some exceptions to the rule, most noticeably Rubick's Telekenis. As it is a movement skill, Telekenis is an exception to the rule. Rubick will interrupt Skewer and put Magnus down. Other skills that will interrupt Skewer include Bat Rider's Lasso, Black Hole, Chronosphere and Outworld Destroyer's Astral Imprisonment.



Rubick can steal Reverse Polarity if he is not caught in it and return the favor, similar to Black Hole and Ravage.



Low mana pool, often fixed by a pair of Arcane Boots.



Fairly cooldown dependent. The good thing is that Reverse Polarity has quite a short cooldown, especially when you consider its power.



There is no retreating after Skewer. However, you get to choose the engagements that you make.



Skewer has a fairly long cooldown of 30 seconds, and this means that a bad one can really cost you, especially since you will likely only get one or two chances to use it in each fight.





Yet, these weaknesses all pale in comparison to Magnus's powerful arsenal and capabilities. Magnus is simply an incredibly strong and relevant hero at this moment, and we should expect him to be picked and banned a lot in the near future.





Ice Cubed By riptide





iceiceice at room temperature.

(Pic courtesy of dota2.17173.com)

Daryl "iceiceice" Koh Pei Xiang was front and center this G-1. Whether juking like crazy with a Syllabear or playing a great Magnus or Enigma, he was an instrumental part of Orange's 3rd place finish at the G-1 League playoffs. As one of the few Dota 2 streamers to hail from South East Asia, he is also uniquely poised to connect the worldwide Dota audience with that part of the world.



TL caught up with him soon after he returned to Singapore from Fuzhou, and asked him about G-1, SEA Dota, and more. Read on to find out what he has to say about playing Dota for a living, and see what he makes of Valve's cosmetic items!



G-1 League

What was your favourite thing about the experience?



It was just being in Fuzhou and playing the tournament, since it was my first time there. Even though the event wasn't very well organised (no sound proof booth, being able to hear the casters' in game sound), I still enjoyed it! The people were very enthusiastic.





Oh, sound proofing problems? Did they affect the games at all?



A little, since when no one was on the map, we could hear spells being cast, and obviously if that happens, they are jungling. An example would be when Burning's faceless void used the first spell and instant teleported, I heard it so I knew he wasnt there anymore, and there was no point in going to catch him.





How did you feel Orange did at the event? Are you happy with your performance?



I felt that orange could have done better, but the high pings we had in Game 1 against DK was horrible. Mushi had 200-250 and Yamateh had 300ms spikes with the rest of us having a reasonably high ping as well vs DK's constant 100 ping. I felt it contributed a lot to us losing Game 1, and it affected the 2nd game as well.





Did you guys receive any explanation with regard to the high ping?



Nope, but the organisers/event management team was doing their best to help us reduce the ping, so cant really blame them I guess. Maybe we can just say they could have been a little better prepared.





So I guess you guys are all for LAN being patched in ASAP?



Definitely, though I would still want to equip my cosmetic items somehow.





Hahaha. What items are your favourite at the moment? Which heroes do you like equipping?



Lyralei's breeze is one, and I would love to equip my naga siren once those items are out.





Have you ever bought an item, or have you collected them all via drops and trades?



Yes, I spent around $100 just to support Dota 2.





That's awesome! Let's go back to talking about G-1 - what was your favourite game of the tournament, and why?



My favorite game of the tournament.. I guess it was when we won the 3rd game against iG. Since it's terrible to be 4th in a tournament with only 4 teams, 3rd place was definitely "better".





That was a spectacular game! What was the chatter like on the Orange end when you guys first saw iG's hyper-aggressive trilane bottom?



Pretty easy. We just reacted accordingly since we sort of expected them to tri lane bottom.





When did you begin to feel that you were ahead?

From the start, when our naga and OD were farming freely.





SEA Dota

OK, let's talk about Dota 2 in SEA - what is the #1 challenge faced by SEA teams today?



The lack of tournaments and sponsors. It's pretty easy for sea teams to meet up and gather to train. We just need more opportunities to play big tournaments.



Another big challenge would be how other games like HoN/LoL are more popular in certain SEA countries then others, and thus everything is very spread out.





But wasn't Dota 1 very popular across SEA as well? Wouldn't the transition to Dota 2 seem natural for most players?



Yeah it was very popular, but the transition is taking place slowly because you have to obtain a Dota 2 key to be able to transition to Dota 2, and so others who are bored of Dota 1 would go to Hon/LoL. Also, the fact that Dota 2 requires a better computer set up to play makes it tough for people as well.





Do you yourself see a future playing Dota 2 in SEA, or would you rather move to China and play for a team there?



Right now I would see myself playing Dota 2 in SEA while streaming full time to try to make a living off it. I did think of moving to China, but after going there once for the G-1 league playoffs, I think I had enough of 2nd hand smoke.





You have mentioned before that it's difficult to play Dota 2 full time in SEA. You are now on Orange and do play for a living. Are you the exception or are more opportunities opening up for talented young players like yourself?



I'm not sure if i'm the exception, but streaming is looking to be a "viable" option for me, maybe because there are no other SEA Dota 2 streamers, lol. But it is still difficult to play Dota 2 full time in SEA unless a big awesome sponsor comes in and gives you like 1-2k USD a month to play.





In terms of SEA, which players / teams show promise in your opinion, and do you think we'll see more SEA teams winning big tourneys as we go into 2013?



Orange, MUFC and Zenith are the top 3 teams with an actual shot of winning any big tourneys with Chinese teams in it. The rest are pretty inconsistent or too easily figured out.





So what differentiates Orange/Zenith/MUFC from the rest of SEA?



Well one difference is that these 3 teams has been together for quite awhile now. They also have players that have been in the scene for a long time, and thus have a lot of experience. Orange would stand out more since they have a better player composition overall, while Zenith and MUFC would come 2nd. (I'm including myself in both of the teams, lol.)



The other SEA teams are just extremely inconsistent as I said before, and they don't have that type of player that can lead them into victory or bring them out of bad situations.





If SEA teams could learn one thing from the Chinese, what would it be? Secondly, what could the Chinese learn from the way SEA teams play the game?



SEA teams could learn to play safer at times and have more patience. Chinese could learn to be less pussy at times.





And play more aggressive? But isn't that how the metagame is shaping up at the moment anyway?



Yes, but the chinese are still passive at times when they should be aggressive.





Let's talk about prospective Dota 2 players. Jacky "EternaLEnVy" Mao and his team No Tide Hunter won Dreamhack Winter 2012 this weekend. A year ago, Mao made a thread on TL saying he was considering leaving university for a year or two to focus on Dota and many people scoffed at the idea. What is your take on this? Should kids stay in school or gogo Doto? What advice would you give aspiring progamers?



I think people should go ahead and do what they want to do, unless it's going on a killing spree or stuff like that. I wouldn't say it's a bad idea to play Dota fulltime if they can find a good sponsor with a decent salary, since if they win every single tournament of the whole year it should be good. It's like a high risk investment, I guess, especially if you are going to put university on hold for a year or two for Dota 2, since if it doesn't work out you're stuck at where you were 2 years before. However, if it works out, then good for you.



My advice would be to train hard, very, very hard. And also dont rage in games, it's irritating and funny to me if you do rage.



Liked the interview? Catch iceiceice when he streams, right here on TL.



This news update was brought to you by TL's G-1 Champions League coverage team - heyoka, riptide, HawaiianPig, shiroiusagi, kupon3ss and Kipsate. Thanks to dota2.17173.com for the banner images!

Daryl "iceiceice" Koh Pei Xiang was front and center this G-1. Whether juking like crazy with a Syllabear or playing a great Magnus or Enigma, he was an instrumental part of Orange's 3rd place finish at the G-1 League playoffs. As one of the few Dota 2 streamers to hail from South East Asia, he is also uniquely poised to connect the worldwide Dota audience with that part of the world.TL caught up with him soon after he returned to Singapore from Fuzhou, and asked him about G-1, SEA Dota, and more. Read on to find out what he has to say about playing Dota for a living, and see what he makes of Valve's cosmetic items!It was just being in Fuzhou and playing the tournament, since it was my first time there. Even though the event wasn't very well organised (no sound proof booth, being able to hear the casters' in game sound), I still enjoyed it! The people were very enthusiastic.A little, since when no one was on the map, we could hear spells being cast, and obviously if that happens, they are jungling. An example would be when Burning's faceless void used the first spell and instant teleported, I heard it so I knew he wasnt there anymore, and there was no point in going to catch him.I felt that orange could have done better, but the high pings we had in Game 1 against DK was horrible. Mushi had 200-250 and Yamateh had 300ms spikes with the rest of us having a reasonably high ping as well vs DK's constant 100 ping. I felt it contributed a lot to us losing Game 1, and it affected the 2nd game as well.Nope, but the organisers/event management team was doing their best to help us reduce the ping, so cant really blame them I guess. Maybe we can just say they could have been a little better prepared.Definitely, though I would still want to equip my cosmetic items somehow.Lyralei's breeze is one, and I would love to equip my naga siren once those items are out.Yes, I spent around $100 just to support Dota 2.My favorite game of the tournament.. I guess it was when we won the 3rd game against iG. Since it's terrible to be 4th in a tournament with only 4 teams, 3rd place was definitely "better".Pretty easy. We just reacted accordingly since we sort of expected them to tri lane bottom.From the start, when our naga and OD were farming freely.The lack of tournaments and sponsors. It's pretty easy for sea teams to meet up and gather to train. We just need more opportunities to play big tournaments.Another big challenge would be how other games like HoN/LoL are more popular in certain SEA countries then others, and thus everything is very spread out.Yeah it was very popular, but the transition is taking place slowly because you have to obtain a Dota 2 key to be able to transition to Dota 2, and so others who are bored of Dota 1 would go to Hon/LoL. Also, the fact that Dota 2 requires a better computer set up to play makes it tough for people as well.Right now I would see myself playing Dota 2 in SEA while streaming full time to try to make a living off it. I did think of moving to China, but after going there once for the G-1 league playoffs, I think I had enough of 2nd hand smoke.I'm not sure if i'm the exception, but streaming is looking to be a "viable" option for me, maybe because there are no other SEA Dota 2 streamers, lol. But it is still difficult to play Dota 2 full time in SEA unless a big awesome sponsor comes in and gives you like 1-2k USD a month to play.Orange, MUFC and Zenith are the top 3 teams with an actual shot of winning any big tourneys with Chinese teams in it. The rest are pretty inconsistent or too easily figured out.Well one difference is that these 3 teams has been together for quite awhile now. They also have players that have been in the scene for a long time, and thus have a lot of experience. Orange would stand out more since they have a better player composition overall, while Zenith and MUFC would come 2nd. (I'm including myself in both of the teams, lol.)The other SEA teams are just extremely inconsistent as I said before, and they don't have that type of player that can lead them into victory or bring them out of bad situations.SEA teams could learn to play safer at times and have more patience. Chinese could learn to be less pussy at times.Yes, but the chinese are still passive at times when they should be aggressive.I think people should go ahead and do what they want to do, unless it's going on a killing spree or stuff like that. I wouldn't say it's a bad idea to play Dota fulltime if they can find a good sponsor with a decent salary, since if they win every single tournament of the whole year it should be good. It's like a high risk investment, I guess, especially if you are going to put university on hold for a year or two for Dota 2, since if it doesn't work out you're stuck at where you were 2 years before. However, if it works out, then good for you.My advice would be to train hard, very, very hard. And also dont rage in games, it's irritating and funny to me if you do rage. In a short period of time, Magnus has become a top pick for many teams. We often see him banned or picked in professional games nowadays, and at the G-1 League LGD.Yao used Magnus to great effect. It was an important hero in LGD's first place at the tournament. After dominating the G-1 finals, Magnus also took Dreamhack by storm, amassing a 9-2 record that is absolutely absurd for a single hero.The question is - why? Why is Magnus so popular right now? What does Magnus offer to your team?The winner of G-1 League, LGD.Yao described the hero thusly -Yao is spot on. Let us examine Magnus' skills one by one.- this skill is fairly straightforward. It scales very well and costs a very small amount of mana. With a mana cost of 90, a fairly fast casting animation, 300 damage at level 4 and a 1000 maximum range, it is quite a strong skill. This skill can be used to push, harass, do damage in teamfights and counterpush as well, due to its range. On top of this, with its short cooldown of 7 seconds at level 4, it will also allow Magnus to farm the jungle in between fights.is also a fairly straightforward skill, is it not? It strengthens heroes' attack damage and gives them a cleave ability. Note that this skill only increases the base damage based upon attributes and won't increase bonus damage any further. This cleaving ability not only allows heroes who normally can't flashfarm to flashfarm but it also can be devastating in teamfights. With its 40 second duration and small, 12 second cooldown, it can theoretically have up to 4 friendly targets. However, realistically speaking the ability will affect 3 at best. This is an excellent skill as it synergizes well with Reverse Polarity.is one of the two core abilities that makes Magnus so relevant in the current game. As such we need to examine this skill more closely.Range:1200Duration: 2.5secondsArea of Effect: 125Damage: 70 / 140 / 210 / 280Targets:1 / 2 / 3 / 4Slow:40%What the skill does for Magnus 0is Magnus' signature skill. Magnus turns into a magnet and draws heroes in a 410 AOE range towards him, stunning them. Reverse Polarity can perhaps best be compared with Enigma's Black Hole to truly see its strength.This is why Magnus is so strong. He doesn't need to cast his Black Hole. It is instant and it is on a much shorter cooldown, almost half that Black Hole. It has to be noted that Magnus' Reverse Polarity starts at 2.5 seconds while Enigma's Black hole lasts for 4 seconds at all levels. Enigma's Black Hole is channeled and can be interrupted at all times if he doesn't have a BKB (and of course, certain abilities can even go through BKB). Enigma does have a larger range on Black Hole, but on the other hand Magnus has a built in initiation skill in Skewer. Enigma is forced to buy a Blink Dagger or hope to walk up to the opposition. For Magnus, you can easily combine Reverse Polarity with Skewer or a Blink Dagger in order to get a strong initiation or counter-initiation. Further, the cleave gained from Empower and the AOE of both Skewer and Shockwave can be used to deal a good amount of damage on the vacuumed targets. Combine this with any kind of AOE followup and this leads to devastation in teamfights.Skewer, while scaling quite decently, only needs a single point in it to gain the maximum drag effectiveness and range. Reverse Polarity, while increasing in power with levels, is already strong at level 1. Similar to Tidehunter, Magnus' teamfight potential is fairly strong after level 6, and this again makes him quite a strong offlaner. While Magnus can make use of levels and farm, he doesn't need much to be effective. He needs Arcane Boots and a Blink Dagger, but after that he is fully functional. Luxury items for him include a Refresher Orb, a Black King Bar, a Heart, an Assault Cuirass or even damage items such as a Mask of Madness, an Armlet or a Daedalus.Magnus also does have a few weaknesses -Yet, these weaknesses all pale in comparison to Magnus's powerful arsenal and capabilities. Magnus is simply an incredibly strong and relevant hero at this moment, and we should expect him to be picked and banned a lot in the near future. Administrator SKT T1 | Masters of the Universe Team Liquid is proud to bring its G-1 Champions League coverage to a close this week with two feature pieces. Though the league itself finished just over a week ago, we felt that all that Dota gave us more than enough to write about, and that's exactly what we did. You've already seen our G-1 LAN Recap and LD/Godz interview Now, jump right into our last coverage piece with The Magnus in the Room , a feature by Kipsate on, well, Magnus. A hero that was used heavily during G-1 and also during this weekend's Dreamhack WInter 2012, he is certainly a popular pick these days. Let's see why that is!Finally, we round up our G-1 interviews by talking to Singaporean gamer Daryl "iceiceice" Koh Pei Xian . A mainstay of the top echelon of SEA players, iceiceice showed up for G-1 as Orange's secret weapon. Here, we talk to him about everything from the G-1 League to South East Asian Dota.