G-1 S5 Retrospective #2 June 10th, 2013 01:03 GMT Text by flamewheel Graphics by HawaiianPig Table of Contents



G-1: Steadily Skyward



Kunkka:

The Tall Torrents of the Admiral



SGamer's G-1 Recap



Post G-1 PikaXiu Interview



Check out G-1 on

Liquipedia



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The Knights of Dol Amroth

(With apologies to J. R. R. Tolkien.)



East rode the knights of Dol Amroth, driving the enemy before them: batriders and night stalkers that hated the sunlight. South strode AdmiralBulldog, and men fled before his face, and they were caught between the bear and the other bear. For now, men leaped from the ships to the quays of Shanghai and swept north like a storm. There came S4 wielding his Magnus, and Akke with the Chen, and EGM with wards on his brow. But before all went Loda with the Flame of the West, Phantom Assassin like a new fire kindled, Phantom Lancer re-forged as deadly as of old: and upon his brow was the Hood of WESC.



The Captains bowed their heads, and when they looked up again, behold! their enemies were flying and the power of the East was scattering like dust in the wind. As when death smites the swollen Broodmother that inhabits their crawling lanes and holds them all in sway and Earthshakers will wander witless and purposeless and then feebly die, so the heroes of China, Antimage or Kunkka or Bane spell-enslaved, ran hither and thither mindless; and some slew themselves, or cast themselves in pits, or fled wailing back to hide in holes and dark lightless places far from hope. But the Men of LGD and of DK, iG and Orange, saw the ruin of their war and the great majesty and glory of the Captains of the West. And those that were deepest and longest in self-adulation, laughing at the West, and yet were men proud and bold, in their turn now gathered themselves for a last stand of desperate battle. But the most part fled eastward as they could; and some cast their weapons down and sued for mercy.



"Men of Western DotA, hear now the Steward of this Realm! Behold! One has come to claim the kingship again at last. Here is Jonathan Berg, Lord of Dol Amroth, chieftain of the Alliance of Sweden, Captain of the Host of the West, bearer of the Star of the North, wielder of the Sword Reforged, victorious in battle, whose hands bring healing, the L-God, Laoda#正义 of the line of SK, T_T,once and future son of MYM. Shall he be king and enter into the Seattle and be crowned there?"



And all the host and all the people cried yea with one voice.



G-1 S5 is long over, but the tournament just keeps delivering, and not just in terms of fan fiction (the snippet above adapted from LoTR by our very own kupon3ss). This second G-1 Retrospective from TL Dota 2 Coverage comes packed with goodness from the Chinese scene. Firstly, our Senior Chinese Correspondent, George "flamewheel" Zhao,



Then, we launch right into content from behind the Great Firewall. TL writer CountChocula brings us



And with that, we're done with our G-1 coverage, we promise! See you soon for more Dota 2.







G-1: 天天向上 (Steadily Skyward) By flamewheel



Flamewheel was at G-1, and he's here now with a lengthy take on the tournament.

We are now more than a week removed from the G-1 Finals in Shanghai, China. Alliance has returned to Sweden, Liquid to the US (and Canada, hi TC), Orange to Malaysia, and Chinese teams... well, they're still in China. Overall, both the players and I really enjoyed our time at G-1. The tournament was well-run, and from a non-player "staff" perspective I had an excellent experience. Yet, in moving forward, there are always things that can be improved. In this article, I'd like to quickly talk over what G-1 did well, and how 17173 can make the Season 6 finals even better.



Compliments



Foreign teams, welcome to China

While G-1's fourth season featured EG qualifying for the league, the fifth season directly gave foreign (non-Eastern) teams a chance to come to China through the Western qualifiers. This was the first time in Dota 2 history that a Chinese tournament had explicitly given Western teams access to a LAN final in the mainland, and I hope that with this open invitation, 17173 has started something new in bridging the gap between East and West.



Let us make you feel at home

Though China's come a long way in the last generation or so, it still can be a confusing place for foreigners. Recognizing this, G-1 not only flew over Liquid and Alliance from abroad, but also had people picking them up from the airport--I'm pretty sure Carson made at least two trips since our players came in at such different times. I can't speak for Alliance, but in the days before I arrived in Shanghai, G-1 had people constantly with Liquid, helping the players find food, get in cabs, and stay alive. When the tournament itself started, the foreign teams' needs were always in the minds of the staff, who specially ordered some Western cuisine for lunches and dinners.



Sexy prize pool

While the header may be a bit uncouth, it's the best way I can describe G-1's monetary awards for competing teams. In Season 4, the total prize pool was 330000 RMB with a 180000 RMB first prize. This increased in Season 5 to 400000 total and 250000 to first, a record-breaking amount. Money speaks (and draws attention), and G-1's generous prize pool has definitely caught the interest of spectators and potential sponsors alike, as well as set precedence for future tournaments having even better payoffs.



Tons of games with great casting to play off on East versus West storylines



The East vs West really enlivened G-1 casts! The East vs West really enlivened G-1 casts!

Hindsight is 20/20, so I'm going to ignore that. Going into G-1, you've got a situation where the stars of the West competed against the stars of the East, not only in an All-stars match, but also in all regular games. Other criticisms aside, the bubble format was a good way in showcasing each team against each other. While on paper, Bo1s may seem somewhat rushed and unfair in some cases, they kept the round robin fast-paced, and it's not like there was a shortage of games. The Chinese casters, as usual, were spot-on in their analysis, and definitely kept the crowd engaged and attentive. While the games themselves were sometimes of suspect quality, the casts for the games were most certainly not.



Effective volunteers minimize overhead costs and get a lot back in return

You might not have realized it from all the orange shirts in the staff area, but G-1's actual paid staff number is quite low. Many of the orange shirts you saw in the pit were volunteers, people who dedicated their weekend to help keep the tournament running smoothly. In return, they were in the pit with all the players with excellent viewing of the games. Many tournaments use a similar sort of volunteer structure, but I feel that out of all the tournaments I've been/worked at, G-1's volunteers operated most efficiently. I did not see a single staff-side operational issue throughout the weekend, and on top of that every volunteer I interacted with was incredibly friendly and eager to talk.



Few in number, but extremely efficient

Following up on that last point, let's give G-1's paid staff more recognition as well. Again, I cannot stress how impressed I was by the tournament's operation. If I had to speak to a referee, I could find one quite easily or one would come find me. When I went to inquire about food, I was told it had just arrived. At the end of day 1, when we were dealing with the side issue (discussed in more detail below), the head referee was very receptive and attentive regarding our suggestions. And regarding production value, G-1's was on par with other tournaments. But did you know that the moving video on the ground was not automated, but instead was operated by two people? One pulled the cart, with the other controlling the camera. G-1 has shown me that you don't have to blindly throw money at a tournament to up the production value.



Thinking of the fans reminds me of the Brood War days

The way seating worked at G-1 was that premium seats were reserved for paying customers, but anybody could come in for the regular seats for free. On its own, that's already a great way to attract fans. In addition to that, the seats were very close to the playing field (right above it, in fact). Though I was in the pit, not the stands, I could definitely feel the crowd's closeness; the energy the crowd gave off spilled over immediately to the players directly below and in front of them. The players still had their privacy in the stadium main and in sequestered rooms, but this was a tournament where the fans were definitely not kept away from those that they came to watch.





Constructive Criticism



Increase interactions between players and fans



More of this, please! More of this, please!

While players did do some signings between games and while there were a couple on-stage interviews, there's definitely room for more player-fan interaction. Of course, this requires player/team consent, but I think everybody would be happier if there were more chances for the fanbase and the players to interact. Signings for shirts and other memorabilia could also be announced a bit better. While I know some players don't want to spend their time signing shirts, others would love to be able to get to know some of their fans just a bit better. Additionally, just having small, semi-impromptu interviews near the entrance (with the G-1 backdrop) so that people can be close during the conducting of the interview. Perhaps they can even ask some questions. These interviews can then be used almost immediately afterwards as content to fill dead space in between games.



Cut the downtime or have more filler

The days at G-1 were long, starting early in the day and ending late at night. A big part of this can be attributed to mechanical issues with computers, or with foreign teams having issues with swapping from Chinese or vice versa. While no issue stayed on the field for a long time, the between- or pregame issues still took time to be rectified. G-1 had commercials prepared, but they were few in number and of limited selection. When Alliance, a Swedish team, starts perfectly chanting along with the Chinese 爱游戏 (ai you xi) commercial, one thinks they might have seen it a few times too many. By shortening the downtime between games, G-1 can better keep spectators entertained. The filler content (prize awarding) was good, but there's so much potential for growth. Perhaps have highlight videos of past games/days to show, or make use of the replay value of the semi-impromptu interviews discussed above.



Popping the bubble (format)

The bubble format offered a fresh twist in today's double elimination tournaments. It has its pros, and it has its cons. In an ideal world, I would do group stages with Bo3s in order to maximize fairness and team-team interactions. Yet, timing-wise, that is highly impractical. Thus, the Bo1s that transpired were absolutely necessary. I obviously cannot speak for all teams, but it seems Liquid enjoyed the group stage portion. The fact that all matches were Bo1 kept them on their toes, and served to make each engagement against an opposing team more meaningful. Yet, the bubble format led into a slightly deflated finals day compared to the two days for group play. While I'm not yet sure of an ideal method for meshing the group play with the championship day, I think there's a way to increase the excitement of the final day. Also, finals Bo5 please!



Foodwise, foreigners are picky

Nobody starved. But Liquid didn't go into the games with full bellies either. This is part Western pickiness, part lack of preparation for Western tastes. G-1 did a good job given the time and information they had in getting food for the two Western teams, but it seemed that for the players, the food was at best just nourishment. In theme with the "bridging the gap between West and East," there's room for improvement on both fronts. We can become more acclimated and accepting of Chinese cuisine, and also work with G-1 in future events to better cater for Western teams. I did think the burgers, fries, and pizza were nice, but we Americans do eat more than McDonald's and Pizza Hut... every now and then.



Don't get carried into the abyss (or feel the need to do everything alone)

It's hard enough fluently translating conversation between two highly dissimilar languages; attempting to convert semi-poetic Chinese into English can lead to nightmares. This point isn't meant to be a criticism against the well put-together introduction video. Instead, I just want to say--Carson, we've got your back for these pre-tournament translation situations next time, and for any other translations as needed.



Qualify earlier, prepare for longer

Eastern qualifiers for G-1 came earlier than the Western ones. Of course, one cannot run everything at once, else there would be too many games to keep track of (and having too many games detracts from the value of each game). Yet, regarding Western teams, something can be done to ease the rush that this season felt. There's nothing that can be done about the DDOS attacks delaying the games (and massive props to G-1 for dealing with the situations promptly and effectively), but with Western qualifiers done earlier, more time is allowed for both sides to prepare. Western teams don't have to rush to get their Chinese visas and can better prepare to go overseas, and G-1 can use the advance time to book cheaper flights (save some money!) as well as figure out player tastes regarding food.



Moving forward with All-stars



Let's do better next time! Let's do better next time!

There's been enough discussion about the incident with the All-stars match. I'm not here to talk about that. Instead of harping on the negative points and slightly disappointing outcome of the showmatch, I want to instead talk about what future tournaments can draw from G-1's initiative. The voting thing was excellent, but there's something to be said about team parity. While Team China had a decently organized lineup based on player roles, Team World consisted of 4 farming players and one support. Supports don't get enough love as it is; let's get them into the next All-stars match. Additionally, there should be clear designation as to how "for fun" an All-stars match is. If it's meant to be entertaining, perhaps do all random or reverse captain's mode. Random draft kind of mixes the seriousness of a real match with the goofiness that comes with random chance (in the hero pool), and that definitely confused Team World. I hope that future tournaments with All-stars matches (I'm looking at you, TI3) will be able to look at G-1's example and grow from there.



Communication is key

And on that note, I'll move on to my final point. Overall, better communication from both sides will lead to greater things. The first day of gameplay, all sides (and thus BP order) for games were already decided without player input. Both G-1 and the players are at fault here. The night before the games started, there was a meeting in which coin flips were to be used to determine sides. From my understanding, at least half the teams did not show. Liquid wasn't there, because we didn't know about the coin flips being done there. As such, the sides were locked in based on the information given on the schedule. While for most teams, this wasn't an issue (all teams but Liquid and Orange had 1 game as Radiant, and 1 as Dire), Liquid found itself on Dire twice (meaning both times second pick). After speaking with the referees (who were more than willing to try to make it as fair as possible for Liquid going forward), we came to the consensus of meeting during the night to do the coin flips for day 2. That time, every team showed up, and the need for the meeting was clearly broadcast to all parties. The situation wasn't large to begin with, but the side/pick discrepancies could have been prevented with better initiative on both sides. In the last pre-games night, we could have asked G-1 if there was anything administrative left for us to do, and G-1 could have reached out as well to make sure we knew of the coin flip meeting.



Closing thoughts

I want to thank G-1 for hosting such a wonderful tournament. All criticisms aside, the pluses definitely outweighed the minuses. It was truly a pleasure being able to be there and watch Liquid compete not only in its first LAN, but also as one of the first foreign teams to play professional Dota 2 matches in China. I hope that in the future, there will be more opportunities for East and West to coalesce, to not have the regions divided as they are now. Besides Western teams going to China, the opposite can also happen. One day, I want to see LGD compete in Dreamhack, or DK at EMS. And hopefully, should G-1 allow Western teams qualification chances in Season 6, we'll see an even more exciting tournament than this one, filled with endless storylines and powerful, cross-continental rivalries.









Kunkka: The Tall Torrents of the Admiral By flamewheel



Master Commander Admiral Pirate Ghostlord McNinja Trafalgar de Kunkka, hereby known as "Kunkka", is a Tidehunter-hating, sword-swinging, ship-smashing, critstrike-cleaving hero that splashed down in a big way at the G-1 LAN finals and has been making waves in the Asian scene. While historically he has surfaced here and there as a niche pick or a SingSing hero, only recently has he been a reliably influential hero. Notorious for his hard-to-land spells that kept players unsuccessfully fishing for kills, Kunkka was shunned by the professional scene that favored sureness. However, when played with other heroes that help keep targets immobilized, the Admiral has all the time in the world to land his devastating combos, and make no mistake about it, when rigged properly, he does a boatload of damage. Soon, I expect him to fully spill over from the Eastern scene to the West.



In this article, I will briefly explain Kunkka's rise to prominence, detail his skills and utility, outline item progressions, and conclude with a few drawbacks that still can leave the Admiral adrift. Wherever possible, specific examples will be provided.



20000 Leagues Under the Sea

Similar to how Clockwerk found his way into the metagame as detailed in our



Since 6.72, Kunkka has received buffs in almost all aspects, in both stats and the four skilled abilities. Kunkka's base Intelligence, base Strength, and Strength growth have improved; Tidebringer has been blessed with both a cooldown reduction and increased area of effectiveness; Torrent's AoE and slow have both increased; X Marks the Spot has been granted a cooldown reduction; Ghost ship's cooldown, stun duration, AoE, and allied buff effect have all improved. Although Kunkka wasn't touched at all in the 6.77 changes, he's still far stronger than the hero he was two years back, and the recently-released 6.78 buffs Kunkka even further. Combined with nerfs to the most popular core heroes of 6.77, we'll be sure to see this seafarer continue to rise in prominence.



Metagame-wise, recently teams have been favoring more dual-core and even tri-core lineups. Kunkka, as a scaling semi-carry hero with decent laning ability, good teammate synergies, and excellent teamfight, stands alongside heroes such as Dragon Knight as part of a resurgent wave of core heroes. In a teamfight-centric lineup, Kunkka is extremely good. From a safe distance, Kunkka can use X Marks the Spot to force opponents into difficult engagements, where he excels with his AoE damage. In particular, his ultimate, Ghost Ship, greatly magnifies the strength of allied core heroes, and thus a team's fighting strength is exponentially multiplied by having more core heroes, who benefit more from CoCo's Rum. More on this will be discussed specifically in the skills section.



So what exactly makes Kunkka such a fearsome fighter? We'll examine the underlying factors in the next section.



Tactical Abilities and a Good Sense of Direction

Kunkka's skillset has not been reworked in a long time, but they have received continuous buffs. Ghost Ship in particular has almost become a ludicrosity. Below, I will discuss each skill at length and point out any possible synergies.





Torrent is an AoE nuke with stun and slow components. Its level 1 damage is quite high (at 120), but when maxed out deals an average of 300 damage. This skill is quite hard to land on its own, as it has a small AoE and a 2 second setup time. Yet when combined with other strong disables, such as Shadow Demon's Disruption, this nuke is devastating. The 1.53 second stun time is average, but the 35% slow increases in duration as Torrent is maxed out. Of special note should be the ridiculously long 1500 cast range, making it one of the most far-reaching skills in the game.





Any laning opponent of an Admiral will have learned to curse this this skill. Tidebringer is a passive cleave skill with a cooldown that reduces as it is leveled up. The AoE is significant (500 for levels 1-3, 600 for level 4), and on top of the 100% cleave, a Tidebringer attack also carries bonus damage. Like Refraction, the bonus damage is not eaten up by hitting allied creep, so in the laning phase the added damage really helps in denying your opponents. Tidebringer is generally the first skill to be maxed out, as the damage increase and cooldown reduction allows Kunkka to dish out effective and widespread AoE damage during midgame skirmishes.



Laning against Kunkka means getting splashed by this skill, and since cleave ignores armor you're taking the full brunt of his attack damage. With such a large AoE, Tidebringer is quite hard to dodge as well. Tidebringer burns through enemy regeneratives quickly, pushes the lane in conjunction with Torrent to make contesting runes in middle lane easier, and scales beyond the laning phase. When maxed out, Tidebringer's 4 second cooldown allows Kunkka to deal massive physical damage in teamfights, where clumped up enemies will be splashed by the powerful cleave. Again, since cleave ignores armor and magic immunity, even extremely strong and durable carries can have their HP pools dropped quickly. If and when Kunkka starts building damage items, look out.



Watch





X Marks the Spot is somewhat unique in the fact that players occasionally choose not to max it, leaving it only at rank 2 even when at level 25. Basically, once an enemy is X'd it returns to the spot the X was cast after a short period of time. For an additional 50 mana, you can return the enemy immediately at the press of a button. The casting range and max delay before return both increase with level. Because the return time at rank 2 is 2 seconds, it synergizes well with Torrent. Simply X an enemy and immediately Torrent the same spot, and that enemy will return at the exact moment the Torrent procs, guaranteeing a hit.



There is merit to maxing X though, since the casting range increases to 950 at rank 4. Most heroes only have 800 night vision, which means you can X them before they can see you at night if there are no wards or alternate forms of vision up. Even during the day, the 950 cast range is barely shorter than the 1025 dispel AoE of Smoke, leaving your prey with very little time to react. X Marks the Spot is a great way for Kunkka to initiate teamfights in a reliable and safe fashion, and can often force enemy teams into making a difficult choice. If they return to save their X'd ally, they are clumping up for a Torrent plus Boat combo.



It should be noted though that X isn't the most reliable form of initiation. Going magic immune or invincible (BKB or something like Storm Spirit's Ball Lightning) will prevent the target from returning to the X. It does, however, provide another way Kunkka can prevent enemy TPs. On a side note, it also can be used for some nifty little tricks like sending yourself home to refill a bottle.





Alongside Tidebringer, Ghost Ship (colloquially known simply as Boat) has come a long way in defining Kunkka. Let's look at the numbers for the Admiral's Ultimate first. There's a magic immunity-piercing stun component (1.4 seconds across all ranks), 350/450/550 damage upon impact in 425 AoE, and two extremely good buffs: an 8 second 10% movement speed boost and a temporary 50% damage reduction for allies that are standing in the ship's travel path. Did I mention this is all on an insanely short cooldown? 60 seconds at rank 1, 50 seconds at rank 2, and a mere 40 seconds at rank 3. You can use Ghost Ship in every fight. You can use it farm creep camps. You can use it as an impromptu range finder.



The 'balancing point' to this ultimate is that it's hard to cast and catch people in it. It's not a simple point-and-click spell, and requires a bit of prediction and skill to land the boat on enemies. Basically, the boat will travel 1000 units in the direction Kunkka is facing and take three seconds of time before crashing. The boat doesn't move fast, so it's difficult to land. After X is fully leveled up, landing the Boat is much easier. From 950 range, simply X, Torrent, Boat one location, then bring the X'd target back after two seconds.



Landing the boat pretty much breaks a teamfight in your favor. The damage output is already quite substantial. Even in early post-level-6 teamfights, a level 1 Boat combined with a maxed Tidebringer and level 2/3 Torrent grants around 600 magic and 100 physical damage in an AoE. The stun also pierces magic immunity, which comes into play as carries farm up BKBs. Yet this is only looking at the offensive side of the Boat. Defensively, the 50% temporary reduction is the big thing. When affected by the buff, allies only take 50% of the damage for 8 seconds, at which time they receive the other 50% as non-lethal damage. Since most fights are decided in a matter of seconds, these 8 seconds effectively double an ally's HP pool. Suddenly, that 800 HP Crystal Maiden is extremely tanky with 1600 EHP. The 10% movement speed bonus is just icing on the cake for this ultimate. And if you can't kill that Crystal Maiden, good luck killing the 1500 HP, now effectively 3000, Luna.



I fully expect Kunkka's Ghost Ship to scuttle a few teams in the upcoming months before being hit by the nerfbat. It's just that good.



Compass, Spyglass, and Magical Sword: The Admiral's Tools

Kunkka can build a variety of items depending on team need or whatever floats your boat, but in professional games he hasn't deviated too much from a select pool of items. A typical build would be Bottle -> Phase -> Bracer/Drum -> Shadow Blade -> BKB -> Crystalys -> Daedalus. Below, I'll briefly discuss which items to get and why they're good on the Admiral.







Bottle - As mentioned above, Kunkka is a mana-hungry hero. Even if you don't go mid, it's generally worth getting a bottle just because you can keep your mana topped off. A Kunkka without mana for his combo is just a sad landlubber.



Phase Boots - Kunkka isn't a right-click hero, so Phase Boots work out well. The bonus damage synergizes nicely with Tidebringer, and when combined with Drum and/or Shadow Blade, the Admiral can move quite quickly.



Bracer / Drum - The Strength, damage, and Intelligence are all very relevant on Kunkka, and the Bracer can be built into a Drum later on. Sometimes Kunkka players will choose not to upgrade to the Drum, but if necessary Kunkka is as excellent of a Drum carrier as other core heroes.



Shadow Blade - Gives yet another form of initiation, a semi-escape, and most importantly, adds a ton of damage to your Tidebringer if you can get the cleave-strike off after a Windwalk. In Dota 1, the added 150 backstab damage would be applied only to the main target, but in Dota 2 the damage is added to your main attack. This means that the additional 150 damage lands on all enemies within the the AoE. Kunkka is arguably one of the best users for Shadow Blade, and probably one of the only heroes this item is absolutely "core" on.



Black King Bar - Although Kunkka can choose to not be in the center of the battle in the early fights, as the game moves towards later phases, more damage is dealt with Tidebringer's cleave. This requires Kunkka to be close to, if not in the direct center, of an engagement. Black King Bar helps immensely with survivability when mass nukes and disables are flying around everywhere.



Crystalys / Daedalus - If you think Tidebringer hurts on its own, then a critical hit with Tidebringer will hurt even more. While Crystalys/Daedalus aren't guaranteed to proc on a Tidebringer cleave-strike, when they do, the results are amazing. Hitting a Daedalus crit for an unreduced 600 against all enemy heroes in one single strike is a ton of damage in an instant, and can be repeated in 4 seconds' time.



Heart of Tarrasque - Adds damage through Strength and a lot of survivability. It is a good item if you have the money, but not a must-have. In terms of survivability in fights, BKB generally suffices. Heart can work quite well against many BKB-piercing spells on the opposing team and allow Kunkka to tank through all the damage that is volleyed at you in fights.



Assault Cuirass - While not the best Cuirass carrier, Kunkka can still make use of it. It doesn't syngergize with Tidebringer, but Kunkka does have armor problems later on in the game with his measly 1.96 base armor and low 1.3 Agility growth.



Divine Rapier - While I haven't seen a Kunkka with a Rapier in a professional game yet, it's only a matter of time before one makes its appearance. Just like a Rapier on Gyrocopter with Flak Cannon on can singlehandedly win a fight, so can a critical hit from a Daedalus-Rapier empowered Kunkka. Just be careful not to drop it when you wade into the fray.



White Whales and Krakens, Weaknesses and Deficiencies

Despite Kunkka's prevalence in the game today and his numerous strengths as both an individual hero and as a chain in a lineup, he's not without his shortcomings. In this last section, I will quickly analyze the Admiral's weaknesses.

Relies on team synergy at lower levels before you start getting X Marks the Spot. Boat and Torrent are slow spells and require help to set up against skillful opponents, and even though Kunkka functions well on his own as a middle hero, he needs people to set up for him. Kunkka is also pretty predictable in terms of lane. Either goes mid or as an offensive trilane hero. Tidebringer automatically pushes the safe lane, so he's not the best choice for that.





Combined with the last point, he cannot be fit into any random lineup. Makes it harder to pick Kunkka late in the draft or as a surprise pick. But I suspect that he's going to start seeing a lot of bans.



Four active spells as a Strength hero with a not-so-impressive Intelligence gain leaves Kunkka without much mana in early situations. Thankfully, he should have enough for his combos in fights if he's full. Carry around a Bottle or ferry Clarities to keep your blue bar topped up.



Not good in solo-core situations. CoCo's Rum is great for the team, but is much better on carries. Without other strong core heroes, the awesomeness of the half now, half later damage is reduced. Kunkka doesn't scale nearly as well as other hard carries and doesn't offer as much in terms of sustained damage.



Cannot lane with Tidehunter. If this happens you lose automatically.









Sgamer's G-1 Recap By CountChocula

Author: MoLong

Translator: CountChocula







I'll try to brief about the competition portion of G-1. Typing words is tiring; doing analysis is bitter. Every match was exciting, strategies were full of variation, hidden stratagems were plentiful and aggression was abundant.



The strongest feeling I got from G-1 was that training by playing in tournaments and scrims is more effective than only scrimming.



If we recall the rise of Chinese DotA, the reason was exactly because there were more and more competitions, so the total skill level became ever higher.



There's a saying in Starcraft: strategies improve in leaps and bounds; one strategy will counter a variation of another strategy and both are improved as a result. Could Dota be like this too?



Playing scrims is a good way of practicing, but would a top team reveal their hidden strategies in scrims? For example a team can come up with a strategy and refine it into a hidden weapon. In scrims, they would use strategies that were similar, but only in an actual competition will they bring out the big guns.



The further up a team finishes, the less likely they are to reveal their true strength.



Watching SC2, what's the biggest difference between Chinese tournaments and Korean tournaments? Chinese tournaments aren't consistent. Korean players are able to train and improve by showing the results of their practice in tournaments, while in China there are only a handful of SC2 tournaments. In terms of training, are Chinese players really not as diligent as their Korean counterparts? Those who have seen professional Chinese teams train say they do it for 14 hours a day, but without consistent tournaments how can their strategies improve?



Strategies are not something one or two teams discover and everyone else copies, but something that requires demonstration, confirmation, revision, patching weaknesses and refinement to be developed into a proper system.



An old Chinese aphorism says the best results come from collective wisdom and efforts. If everyone stays cooped up and hidden, how will you obtain confirmation whether your system really is feasible? In your mind, this system may be invincible, but on the tournament stage can you really guarantee your system is not counterable and that it has no weaknesses? Korean SC2 tournaments allow their teams to constantly develop new strategies, refine old ones and study their opponents' strategies.



Recently, I watched the movie "The Grandmaster". There was a saying in the movie, "Only if there is shortcoming, can we improve. Only if there is interaction with others, can we reach perfection."



Without interaction with others, the first time that a new strategy is unsuccessful, you will quickly recall your glorious past and retreat to the safety of the familiar, clutching at obsolete systems that will only lead to certain death.



Historically-speaking, what Chinese people are most known for is their propensity to study and improve. Chinese dynasties all started out with a culture of openness and willingness to learn, bringing in untold prosperity. Then eventually every Chinese dynasty closed their doors to new ideas and lived in blind arrogance.



Before TI2, Chinese teams were greedily signing up for all sorts of foreign tournaments. Despite several hundred milliseconds of ping, they continued to play in these competitions and study. Whether it was iG's powerful Luna strategy or LGD's Lone Druid, it was only through experimentation and refinement in a tournament setting that they were able to succeed.



The difference between the recent successes from VG and TongFu, and that of the Big Three, is that the former have been diligently attending various small South East Asia (SEA) tournaments and using them to test whether their strategies worked like they imagined they would, helping them improve their strategies and fix their mistakes. For old TongFu, their strength has clearly risen; for young VG, they're able to take at least one game from the Big Three.



Recalling the imposing DK of old, it was precisely the fact that there were so many tournaments that they needed to grind through that they were able to maintain high morale, because as soon as you stopped putting in your best effort, your opponent would overcome you. Even though you'll feel physically exhausted, it's only this way that your mind can stay in top form.



During qualifiers, DK was getting destroyed, but by studying while the competition was going on, they managed to cut down LGD.int, and like descendants of thieves steal themselves a spot in the offline portion. Without any competition in between, they let themselves relax.



Even a legendary sword needs to be cleaned once in a while. A sword hidden in its scabbard will slowly rust away and lose its luster. At G-1, it was only after they lost three in a row that DK changed their gameplan, bringing out LGD's Kunkka, and snuck into the playoffs. Their meeting with Orange revealed them to be in dire straits. They remembered the way they won during the qualifiers with an incredibly farmed Alchemist and held onto it as their only lifeline. In the end, they lost due to a lack of courage. They went for stability with AM, yet went back for change with Kunkka. Ultimately, their nondescript lineup lost them the game. Even after this long, it's still the same old story: stubbornly going 3-core, getting crushed, then being forced to turtle and reminisce about the past. When seeking change, you shouldn't seek braindead change, but seek change that suits your team's playstyle. In the finals after dropping the first game, LGD similarly lost their courage and returned to their conservative play. Having lost your spirit, how can you win?



It's fine if the Association of Chinese E-sports (ACE) wants to ruin Dota 2, but I expected more from DK and iG. (TL note: This article was written before the



Looking back, regardless of whether it's Alliance, Orange or LGD, you would notice that they've been playing a lot of tournaments lately. When you ask why LGD has been so strong since bringing back DD, you will realize it's because they've been playing in the TI3 Qualifiers recently and DSL matches. They've constantly been validating their strategies in tournaments. At DSL, in the first three games against TongFu, they shutdown TongFu early-game, and yet TongFu almost forced a comeback, while at G-1 LGD completely stomped iG and DK. From this, one can see that playing in tournaments will improve your level of play whether it's maintaining a team's form or refining strategy.



Alliance attends all sorts of Western tournaments, whether the prize money is $500 USD or $5000 USD. Before they swept the G-1 qualifiers, they won Star Ladder. As for Orange, there are practically no SEA competitions that they do not attend, and if there are any tournaments in China, they sign up immediately.



They've come a long way since the time when they relied on Mushi to either stomp or be stomped by the other team. They're slowly building up the aura of a real team as opposed to five individuals.



We see TongFu, VG, and both RS teams diligently participating in SEA tournaments and through them achieve their current form, but on the other hand we see FL train behind closed doors and getting stomped at DSL...one cannot help but question whether FL really is the team with the unstoppable Weaver from G-League of past? I daresay that in DSL's Group B, both RS teams will take at least one game off DK, LGD.int and Orange, while FL will drop game after game without a fighting chance. Imitating without your own ideas will only result in a substandard copy. iG copied RS's Mekansm Alchemist but did not test it in a competitive setting, so how can you expect to vanquish your opponents like Director Luo?



Even though domestic competitions have been kept down by ACE, there are still many SEA tournaments. Great iG, mighty DK - can you not look past your status and learn from them? Does DK really think they are naturally talented? Do you think the $500 USD prize money you got from winning a $500 USD tournament before TI2 is all the reward you got?



Whether it's iG or DK, don't fall into feelings of self-satisfaction and reminisce about old glory days. Humble yourselves and go participate in various tournaments. If the manager doesn't let you compete, tell him he's grown arrogant getting the salary he gets every month. If you don't do well in tournaments, you will be the ones kicked and replaced. You are nothing without results, because a team's players are like a revolving door. If you still have a desire to win, then bravely flame your manager. If you still have the thirst for glory, then stop trying to build cars behind closed doors, because everyone else is already using combustion engines and you're still stuck on wooden wheels. Study other people's combustion engine technology to improve your own car manufacturing technique and you will be the top team.



With this article, I want to commemorate the glorious G-1, the G-1 that knocked you out of your senses, and I look forward to an even grander Season 6 of G-1 Champion's League.



Pikaxiu and all G-1 employees, I want to thank you during these cloud-covered times for using your splendor to awaken those still in deep slumber.



I thank you who through your sweat and toil brought us such an exciting tournament.



Once again, I hope that Season 6 of G-1 Champion's League kicks off as soon as possible in order to bring us the most amazing Dota 2 tournament.



Source:









Post G-1 PikaXiu Interview By BurningSera

The G-1 Season 5 Dota 2 LAN Finals was recently concluded by Alliance’s 7:0 perfect score. They went undefeated throughout the tournament! In contrast, the performance of Chinese teams was rather underwhelming: iG placed last in the group stage; DK was later eliminated by Orange; while LGD.cn looked hot during the group stage, they came second after being defeated convincingly by Alliance with a 0:2.



The amazing games were praised and supported by the majority of the community, but many voices still criticized the chaotic live scene, poor broadcasting quality, and numerous pauses due to technical difficulties while being belittled when compared to some other All-Star tournament that was held at the same period of time. The head organizer and commentator, Pikaxiu, suffered several mental breakdowns at the live scene due to the stressful situations. Sgamer reporter ‘Xiao Shou’ interviewed Pikaxiu after the event to talk about his G-1 tournament experience and opinions on the domestic development of Dota 2 in future. Let’s have a look!







XS: Thank you for accepting an interview from us at SGAMERS.com. Please briefly introduce yourself before we start?



Pikaxiu: Hello everyone, I am Pikaxiu.





XS: There are many mixed reviews coming from gamers and players toward the G-1 Season 5 tournament. Do you feel that the event has achieved what you wanted?’



Pikaxiu: I think that it has improved a lot compared to the previous G-1 but there is still much room for improvement. This G-1 lasted for two months which is the longest season of all G-1s yet, and a long season tournament is inevitably going to encounter different kind of difficulties and emergencies. I'm just glad everything was resolved in the end, and overall I think that this G-1 has achieved what I expected.





XS: What is the deepest impression from this G-1?



Pikaxiu: My biggest dilemma would be the series of DDOS events during the NA/EU Qualifier. It was one of the biggest issues we had and eventually we fixed it. As a tournament organizer, a large part of effort is spent on solving different issues. Unlike the community, who may think that the three days of LAN events was amazing, leaving them with deep impressions, my most memorable moments were the rehearsal run-downs. We were afraid that things would go wrong in the live event so we repeated our rehearsals several times.





XS: There are many examples of people giving up because of the tremendous amount of pressure involved. Will there be a next G-1?



Pikaxiu: It was actually very difficult at the beginning of G-1 Season 5. Thankfully my boss, Jing Ling, (not the Jing Ling from PW) has been supporting me. The next G-1 will be decided from an internal company meeting and of course external conditions are also very important.





XS: G-1 Season 5 brought us the first global offline tournament of the year. If there is to be a next G-1, will you invite more foreign teams to the tournament?



Pikaxiu: It depends on the decisions of the company. First we need to decide if we are going to have the next G-1, and secondly it depends on the budget. There are too many unknown factors so it is too early to tell.





XS: Alliance's undefeated victory made the community wonder if it was caused by the fact that there are too few Dota 2 tournaments in China at the moment. Do you think that’s true?



Pikaxiu: It is partly related to that but certainly not entirely. I think that Alliance has prepared for this tournament much better than the rest of the teams. Combined with the fact that they are a strong team in the first place, they truly deserved the win. Opportunities are for people who are prepared.





XS: You just said, ‘I think that Alliance has prepared for this tournament much better than the rest of the teams.' Did you get that impression after seeing them at the live scene?



Pikaxiu: I heard that from the others, plus our translator has also talked to them a lot.





XS: Some of the community are blaming the losses of Chinese teams on the ACE Dota League. Due to the G-1 tournaments, you should be in relatively close communication with them. As an organizer, what do you think of the

functions of ACE Dota League?



Pikaxiu: I understand ACE Dota League. They need to consider the benefits of the teams from their point of view, while we tournament organizers need to find the balance between a few big LAN tournaments and numerous smaller online tournaments. Organizing the event itself is not a good profitable business model, and organizers can't afford it if the event cost is too high - that’s why a lot of tournaments disappeared. The truth is that the G-1 Season 5's net expense is more than 2 million yuan (~$350,000). I think that is the limit; even a businessman would think twice about what would be the return if he was spending that amount of money, let alone a company.





XS: Did the ACE Dota League provide any help to you, or did they make any ‘ridiculous’ demands?



Pikaxiu: Thanks for the help with fixing the schedule clash regarding the DSL and TI2 East Qualifiers.





XS: How did you come out with the idea of organizing G-1 in the first place? Is it very hard to be both organizer and commentator at the same time?



Pikaxiu: Initially it was due to my love of DotA. I personally have some experience on organizing tournaments, and I felt like I could do something for the DotA scene and 17173. The responses from the community are fairly positive after every G-1; it is very rewarding and that has been the reasons that I keep doing it. You won’t find it hard to do something that you are actually interested in, though admittedly sometimes I feel a bit tired when I encounter ignorant comments and slander. I agree on what my co-worker once said: ‘It is normal that you don’t understand me so you would misunderstand me, but don’t slander me because of that.'





XS: I heard that you were planning to start your own business but you stayed after all. Why?



Pikaxiu: I am very grateful to my boss Jing Ling. We talked a lot and I believe that I have my values in 17173, so I think I should stay.





XS: Every tournament manager has his own dream. What is your dream?



Pikaxiu: I talked about my dream with Hai Tao (a renowned commentator). It is to make a LAN tournament in The Great Hall of the People. (translator’s note: meaning that E-sport is officially recognized by the country; the hall is used for legislative and ceremonial activities by the PRC and the Communist Party of China, and it functions as the meeting place of the National People's Congress, the Chinese parliament.) I believe that I can do it!





XS: Speaking of commentators - you have co-operated with plenty of commentators in the past. Which commentator do you like the most or who works best with you?



Pikaxiu: Every commentator has their own style, and it was a pleasure to cast with them. Personally I know 09 better so we work best together, though we don’t contact each other often because we are all so busy.





XS: How do you evaluate 2009?



Pikaxiu: Personally I really appreciate the support from 2009. He created a lot of precedents in the Chinese E-sport scene. He is very smart and sometimes he has some next level thinking. Sometimes we don’t quite agree with each other but our directions are actually the same. He wants to be a role model in the E-sport scene while I wish to make the best E-sport tournament.





XS: It’s been two years since the very first season of G-1 held back in 2011. What is the biggest thing about your journey?



Pikaxiu: My personal growth and improvement along with my team and influence in organizing events. I was the only 17173 employee who worked as the event organizer and commentator back in G1 Season 1. I needed to use a temporary director who wasn’t even working on the directing position in the first place. I remember a co-worker (coterie, preferred not to use uncommon noun) who was constantly saying that I lack of the skills and abilities to run an event, while even attacking me in front of the boss. 'I am going to prove it to you' - that was all I had in mind. Now that I think back about it, it was laughable – we should strive for our dreams, not to prove anything to anyone.





XS: The G-1 team has been getting larger and larger after two years of growth. What can you tell me about them?



Pikaxiu: There aren’t many members in the team and they are relatively new to the scene. Apart from myself, they all officially joined 17173 for no longer than 1 year. However they are growing very rapidly, and many of them are capable to work independently in a short period of time. I have to say that everyone tends to show their greatest potentials in a pro-active team - I would hereby like to express my sincere gratitude to my team members for all their hard work and outstanding contributions.





XS: Is G-1 now profitable?



Pikaxiu: No, not at the moment. You can see that we didn’t even put in any advertisements during the tournament. We don’t really aim to make profits out of the community, but aim to merely promote E-sports (translator’s note: admission to the LAN Finals was free). I sincerely hope that everyone will remember us at 17173, including our leaders; we are all passionate gamers with a sense responsibility.





XS: The dispute between LoL and Dota 2 is getting intensified. Will you, as a Dota 2 event organizer, always stand firm with Dota 2?



Pikaxiu: I am the head organizer of all 17173 broadcasting events, not only for Dota 2. I know that there are many Dota 2 players against LoL, but it is really unnecessary. The popularity of both LoL and Dota 2 can bring positive effects to E-sports. Let Valve and Riot be concerned about the competitiveness between their products; we as gamers should be happy with the increasing popularity of E-sports. If there will be a day that E-sports becomes an Olympic Sport, we should all be cheering for that, regardless of whether it is Dota 2 or LoL, or something else entirely.





XS: Would you like to conclude our interview?



Pikaxiu: Thank you XS for the interview, we are always moving forward!



Source -







Writers: flamewheel, kupon3ss, CountChocula

Gfx: Hawaiianpig, Heyoka

Editors: Tangeng, Firebolt145, scintilliaSD

Some images from: SGamer

(With apologies to J. R. R. Tolkien.)East rode the knights of Dol Amroth, driving the enemy before them: batriders and night stalkers that hated the sunlight. South strode AdmiralBulldog, and men fled before his face, and they were caught between the bear and the other bear. For now, men leaped from the ships to the quays of Shanghai and swept north like a storm. There came S4 wielding his Magnus, and Akke with the Chen, and EGM with wards on his brow. But before all went Loda with the Flame of the West, Phantom Assassin like a new fire kindled, Phantom Lancer re-forged as deadly as of old: and upon his brow was the Hood of WESC.The Captains bowed their heads, and when they looked up again, behold! their enemies were flying and the power of the East was scattering like dust in the wind. As when death smites the swollen Broodmother that inhabits their crawling lanes and holds them all in sway and Earthshakers will wander witless and purposeless and then feebly die, so the heroes of China, Antimage or Kunkka or Bane spell-enslaved, ran hither and thither mindless; and some slew themselves, or cast themselves in pits, or fled wailing back to hide in holes and dark lightless places far from hope. But the Men of LGD and of DK, iG and Orange, saw the ruin of their war and the great majesty and glory of the Captains of the West. And those that were deepest and longest in self-adulation, laughing at the West, and yet were men proud and bold, in their turn now gathered themselves for a last stand of desperate battle. But the most part fled eastward as they could; and some cast their weapons down and sued for mercy."Men of Western DotA, hear now the Steward of this Realm! Behold! One has come to claim the kingship again at last. Here is Jonathan Berg, Lord of Dol Amroth, chieftain of the Alliance of Sweden, Captain of the Host of the West, bearer of the Star of the North, wielder of the Sword Reforged, victorious in battle, whose hands bring healing, the L-God, Laoda#正义 of the line of SK, T_T,once and future son of MYM. Shall he be king and enter into the Seattle and be crowned there?"And all the host and all the people cried yea with one voice.G-1 S5 is long over, but the tournament just keeps delivering, and not just in terms of fan fiction (the snippet above adapted from LoTR by our very own kupon3ss). This second G-1 Retrospective from TL Dota 2 Coverage comes packed with goodness from the Chinese scene. Firstly, our Senior Chinese Correspondent, George "flamewheel" Zhao, writes about his experiences in Shanghai at the G-1 S5 LAN finals . Then, he also takes us into the world of Master Commander Admiral Pirate Ghostlord McNinja Trafalgar de Kunkka , or Admiral Kunkka as he is known to many.Then, we launch right into content from behind the Great Firewall. TL writer CountChocula brings us SGamer's official G-1 Recap . Read it to see what one of China's biggest esports sites makes of the LAN. Finally, TL trial writer BurningSera is here with an interview with G-1 organiser PikaXiu And with that, we're done with our G-1 coverage, we promise! See you soon for more Dota 2.We are now more than a week removed from the G-1 Finals in Shanghai, China. Alliance has returned to Sweden, Liquid to the US (and Canada, hi TC), Orange to Malaysia, and Chinese teams... well, they're still in China. Overall, both the players and I really enjoyed our time at G-1. The tournament was well-run, and from a non-player "staff" perspective I had an excellent experience. Yet, in moving forward, there are always things that can be improved. In this article, I'd like to quickly talk over what G-1 did well, and how 17173 can make the Season 6 finals even better.While G-1's fourth season featured EG qualifying for the league, the fifth season directly gave foreign (non-Eastern) teams a chance to come to China through the Western qualifiers. This was the first time in Dota 2 history that a Chinese tournament had explicitly given Western teams access to a LAN final in the mainland, and I hope that with this open invitation, 17173 has started something new in bridging the gap between East and West.Though China's come a long way in the last generation or so, it still can be a confusing place for foreigners. Recognizing this, G-1 not only flew over Liquid and Alliance from abroad, but also had people picking them up from the airport--I'm pretty sure Carson made at least two trips since our players came in at such different times. I can't speak for Alliance, but in the days before I arrived in Shanghai, G-1 had people constantly with Liquid, helping the players find food, get in cabs, and stay alive. When the tournament itself started, the foreign teams' needs were always in the minds of the staff, who specially ordered some Western cuisine for lunches and dinners.While the header may be a bit uncouth, it's the best way I can describe G-1's monetary awards for competing teams. In Season 4, the total prize pool was 330000 RMB with a 180000 RMB first prize. This increased in Season 5 to 400000 total and 250000 to first, a record-breaking amount. Money speaks (and draws attention), and G-1's generous prize pool has definitely caught the interest of spectators and potential sponsors alike, as well as set precedence for future tournaments having even better payoffs.Hindsight is 20/20, so I'm going to ignore that. Going into G-1, you've got a situation where the stars of the West competed against the stars of the East, not only in an All-stars match, but also in all regular games. Other criticisms aside, the bubble format was a good way in showcasing each team against each other. While on paper, Bo1s may seem somewhat rushed and unfair in some cases, they kept the round robin fast-paced, and it's not like there was a shortage of games. The Chinese casters, as usual, were spot-on in their analysis, and definitely kept the crowd engaged and attentive. While the games themselves were sometimes of suspect quality, the casts for the games were most certainly not.You might not have realized it from all the orange shirts in the staff area, but G-1's actual paid staff number is quite low. Many of the orange shirts you saw in the pit were volunteers, people who dedicated their weekend to help keep the tournament running smoothly. In return, they were in the pit with all the players with excellent viewing of the games. Many tournaments use a similar sort of volunteer structure, but I feel that out of all the tournaments I've been/worked at, G-1's volunteers operated most efficiently. I did not see a single staff-side operational issue throughout the weekend, and on top of that every volunteer I interacted with was incredibly friendly and eager to talk.Following up on that last point, let's give G-1's paid staff more recognition as well. Again, I cannot stress how impressed I was by the tournament's operation. If I had to speak to a referee, I could find one quite easily or one would come find me. When I went to inquire about food, I was told it had just arrived. At the end of day 1, when we were dealing with the side issue (discussed in more detail below), the head referee was very receptive and attentive regarding our suggestions. And regarding production value, G-1's was on par with other tournaments. But did you know that the moving video on the ground was not automated, but instead was operated by two people? One pulled the cart, with the other controlling the camera. G-1 has shown me that you don't have to blindly throw money at a tournament to up the production value.The way seating worked at G-1 was that premium seats were reserved for paying customers, but anybody could come in for the regular seats for free. On its own, that's already a great way to attract fans. In addition to that, the seats were very close to the playing field (right above it, in fact). Though I was in the pit, not the stands, I could definitely feel the crowd's closeness; the energy the crowd gave off spilled over immediately to the players directly below and in front of them. The players still had their privacy in the stadium main and in sequestered rooms, but this was a tournament where the fans were definitely not kept away from those that they came to watch.While players did do some signings between games and while there were a couple on-stage interviews, there's definitely room for more player-fan interaction. Of course, this requires player/team consent, but I think everybody would be happier if there were more chances for the fanbase and the players to interact. Signings for shirts and other memorabilia could also be announced a bit better. While I know some players don't want to spend their time signing shirts, others would love to be able to get to know some of their fans just a bit better. Additionally, just having small, semi-impromptu interviews near the entrance (with the G-1 backdrop) so that people can be close during the conducting of the interview. Perhaps they can even ask some questions. These interviews can then be used almost immediately afterwards as content to fill dead space in between games.The days at G-1 were long, starting early in the day and ending late at night. A big part of this can be attributed to mechanical issues with computers, or with foreign teams having issues with swapping from Chinese or vice versa. While no issue stayed on the field for a long time, the between- or pregame issues still took time to be rectified. G-1 had commercials prepared, but they were few in number and of limited selection. When Alliance, a Swedish team, starts perfectly chanting along with the Chinese 爱游戏 (ai you xi) commercial, one thinks they might have seen it a few times too many. By shortening the downtime between games, G-1 can better keep spectators entertained. The filler content (prize awarding) was good, but there's so much potential for growth. Perhaps have highlight videos of past games/days to show, or make use of the replay value of the semi-impromptu interviews discussed above.The bubble format offered a fresh twist in today's double elimination tournaments. It has its pros, and it has its cons. In an ideal world, I would do group stages with Bo3s in order to maximize fairness and team-team interactions. Yet, timing-wise, that is highly impractical. Thus, the Bo1s that transpired were absolutely necessary. I obviously cannot speak for all teams, but it seems Liquid enjoyed the group stage portion. The fact that all matches were Bo1 kept them on their toes, and served to make each engagement against an opposing team more meaningful. Yet, the bubble format led into a slightly deflated finals day compared to the two days for group play. While I'm not yet sure of an ideal method for meshing the group play with the championship day, I think there's a way to increase the excitement of the final day. Also, finals Bo5 please!Nobody starved. But Liquid didn't go into the games with full bellies either. This is part Western pickiness, part lack of preparation for Western tastes. G-1 did a good job given the time and information they had in getting food for the two Western teams, but it seemed that for the players, the food was at best just nourishment. In theme with the "bridging the gap between West and East," there's room for improvement on both fronts. We can become more acclimated and accepting of Chinese cuisine, and also work with G-1 in future events to better cater for Western teams. I did think the burgers, fries, and pizza were nice, but we Americans do eat more than McDonald's and Pizza Hut... every now and then.It's hard enough fluently translating conversation between two highly dissimilar languages; attempting to convert semi-poetic Chinese into English can lead to nightmares. This point isn't meant to be a criticism against the well put-together introduction video. Instead, I just want to say--Carson, we've got your back for these pre-tournament translation situations next time, and for any other translations as needed.Eastern qualifiers for G-1 came earlier than the Western ones. Of course, one cannot run everything at once, else there would be too many games to keep track of (and having too many games detracts from the value of each game). Yet, regarding Western teams, something can be done to ease the rush that this season felt. There's nothing that can be done about the DDOS attacks delaying the games (and massive props to G-1 for dealing with the situations promptly and effectively), but with Western qualifiers done earlier, more time is allowed for both sides to prepare. Western teams don't have to rush to get their Chinese visas and can better prepare to go overseas, and G-1 can use the advance time to book cheaper flights (save some money!) as well as figure out player tastes regarding food.There's been enough discussion about the incident with the All-stars match. I'm not here to talk about that. Instead of harping on the negative points and slightly disappointing outcome of the showmatch, I want to instead talk about what future tournaments can draw from G-1's initiative. The voting thing was excellent, but there's something to be said about team parity. While Team China had a decently organized lineup based on player roles, Team World consisted of 4 farming players and one support. Supports don't get enough love as it is; let's get them into the next All-stars match. Additionally, there should be clear designation as to how "for fun" an All-stars match is. If it's meant to be entertaining, perhaps do all random or reverse captain's mode. Random draft kind of mixes the seriousness of a real match with the goofiness that comes with random chance (in the hero pool), and that definitely confused Team World. I hope that future tournaments with All-stars matches (I'm looking at you, TI3) will be able to look at G-1's example and grow from there.And on that note, I'll move on to my final point. Overall, better communication from both sides will lead to greater things. The first day of gameplay, all sides (and thus BP order) for games were already decided without player input. Both G-1 and the players are at fault here. The night before the games started, there was a meeting in which coin flips were to be used to determine sides. From my understanding, at least half the teams did not show. Liquid wasn't there, because we didn't know about the coin flips being done there. As such, the sides were locked in based on the information given on the schedule. While for most teams, this wasn't an issue (all teams but Liquid and Orange had 1 game as Radiant, and 1 as Dire), Liquid found itself on Dire twice (meaning both times second pick). After speaking with the referees (who were more than willing to try to make it as fair as possible for Liquid going forward), we came to the consensus of meeting during the night to do the coin flips for day 2. That time, every team showed up, and the need for the meeting was clearly broadcast to all parties. The situation wasn't large to begin with, but the side/pick discrepancies could have been prevented with better initiative on both sides. In the last pre-games night, we could have asked G-1 if there was anything administrative left for us to do, and G-1 could have reached out as well to make sure we knew of the coin flip meeting.I want to thank G-1 for hosting such a wonderful tournament. All criticisms aside, the pluses definitely outweighed the minuses. It was truly a pleasure being able to be there and watch Liquid compete not only in its first LAN, but also as one of the first foreign teams to play professional Dota 2 matches in China. I hope that in the future, there will be more opportunities for East and West to coalesce, to not have the regions divided as they are now. Besides Western teams going to China, the opposite can also happen. One day, I want to see LGD compete in Dreamhack, or DK at EMS. And hopefully, should G-1 allow Western teams qualification chances in Season 6, we'll see an even more exciting tournament than this one, filled with endless storylines and powerful, cross-continental rivalries.Master Commander Admiral Pirate Ghostlord McNinja Trafalgar de Kunkka, hereby known as "Kunkka", is a Tidehunter-hating, sword-swinging, ship-smashing, critstrike-cleaving hero that splashed down in a big way at the G-1 LAN finals and has been making waves in the Asian scene. While historically he has surfaced here and there as a niche pick or a SingSing hero, only recently has he been a reliably influential hero. Notorious for his hard-to-land spells that kept players unsuccessfully fishing for kills, Kunkka was shunned by the professional scene that favored sureness. However, when played with other heroes that help keep targets immobilized, the Admiral has all the time in the world to land his devastating combos, and make no mistake about it, when rigged properly, he does a boatload of damage. Soon, I expect him to fully spill over from the Eastern scene to the West.In this article, I will briefly explain Kunkka's rise to prominence, detail his skills and utility, outline item progressions, and conclude with a few drawbacks that still can leave the Admiral adrift. Wherever possible, specific examples will be provided.Similar to how Clockwerk found his way into the metagame as detailed in our last article , Kunkka has found his bearings in today's game through a combination of continual buffs as well as increasing relevance as part of multi-core lineup. I'll explain the more obvious direct changes before moving on to the metagame shifts.Since 6.72, Kunkka has received buffs in almost all aspects, in both stats and the four skilled abilities. Kunkka's base Intelligence, base Strength, and Strength growth have improved; Tidebringer has been blessed with both a cooldown reduction and increased area of effectiveness; Torrent's AoE and slow have both increased; X Marks the Spot has been granted a cooldown reduction; Ghost ship's cooldown, stun duration, AoE, and allied buff effect have all improved. Although Kunkka wasn't touched at all in the 6.77 changes, he's still far stronger than the hero he was two years back, and the recently-released 6.78 buffs Kunkka even further. Combined with nerfs to the most popular core heroes of 6.77, we'll be sure to see this seafarer continue to rise in prominence.Metagame-wise, recently teams have been favoring more dual-core and even tri-core lineups. Kunkka, as a scaling semi-carry hero with decent laning ability, good teammate synergies, and excellent teamfight, stands alongside heroes such as Dragon Knight as part of a resurgent wave of core heroes. In a teamfight-centric lineup, Kunkka is extremely good. From a safe distance, Kunkka can use X Marks the Spot to force opponents into difficult engagements, where he excels with his AoE damage. In particular, his ultimate, Ghost Ship, greatly magnifies the strength of allied core heroes, and thus a team's fighting strength is exponentially multiplied by having more core heroes, who benefit more from CoCo's Rum. More on this will be discussed specifically in the skills section.So what exactly makes Kunkka such a fearsome fighter? We'll examine the underlying factors in the next section.Kunkka's skillset has not been reworked in a long time, but they have received continuous buffs. Ghost Ship in particular has almost become a ludicrosity. Below, I will discuss each skill at length and point out any possible synergies.Torrent is an AoE nuke with stun and slow components. Its level 1 damage is quite high (at 120), but when maxed out deals an average of 300 damage. This skill is quite hard to land on its own, as it has a small AoE and a 2 second setup time. Yet when combined with other strong disables, such as Shadow Demon's Disruption, this nuke is devastating. The 1.53 second stun time is average, but the 35% slow increases in duration as Torrent is maxed out. Of special note should be the ridiculously long 1500 cast range, making it one of the most far-reaching skills in the game.Any laning opponent of an Admiral will have learned to curse this this skill. Tidebringer is a passive cleave skill with a cooldown that reduces as it is leveled up. The AoE is significant (500 for levels 1-3, 600 for level 4), and on top of the 100% cleave, a Tidebringer attack also carries bonus damage. Like Refraction, the bonus damage is not eaten up by hitting allied creep, so in the laning phase the added damage really helps in denying your opponents. Tidebringer is generally the first skill to be maxed out, as the damage increase and cooldown reduction allows Kunkka to dish out effective and widespread AoE damage during midgame skirmishes.Laning against Kunkka means getting splashed by this skill, and since cleave ignores armor you're taking the full brunt of his attack damage. With such a large AoE, Tidebringer is quite hard to dodge as well. Tidebringer burns through enemy regeneratives quickly, pushes the lane in conjunction with Torrent to make contesting runes in middle lane easier, and scales beyond the laning phase. When maxed out, Tidebringer's 4 second cooldown allows Kunkka to deal massive physical damage in teamfights, where clumped up enemies will be splashed by the powerful cleave. Again, since cleave ignores armor and magic immunity, even extremely strong and durable carries can have their HP pools dropped quickly. If and when Kunkka starts building damage items, look out.Watch this clip for a demonstration of lategame Kunkka in action. Take Tidebringer, add a Daedalus, and top off with a Rapier or two. Love or hate him, SingSing does give us some entertaining games.X Marks the Spot is somewhat unique in the fact that players occasionally choose not to max it, leaving it only at rank 2 even when at level 25. Basically, once an enemy is X'd it returns to the spot the X was cast after a short period of time. For an additional 50 mana, you can return the enemy immediately at the press of a button. The casting range and max delay before return both increase with level. Because the return time at rank 2 is 2 seconds, it synergizes well with Torrent. Simply X an enemy and immediately Torrent the same spot, and that enemy will return at the exact moment the Torrent procs, guaranteeing a hit.There is merit to maxing X though, since the casting range increases to 950 at rank 4. Most heroes only have 800 night vision, which means you can X them before they can see you at night if there are no wards or alternate forms of vision up. Even during the day, the 950 cast range is barely shorter than the 1025 dispel AoE of Smoke, leaving your prey with very little time to react. X Marks the Spot is a great way for Kunkka to initiate teamfights in a reliable and safe fashion, and can often force enemy teams into making a difficult choice. If they return to save their X'd ally, they are clumping up for a Torrent plus Boat combo.It should be noted though that X isn't the most reliable form of initiation. Going magic immune or invincible (BKB or something like Storm Spirit's Ball Lightning) will prevent the target from returning to the X. It does, however, provide another way Kunkka can prevent enemy TPs. On a side note, it also can be used for some nifty little tricks like sending yourself home to refill a bottle.Alongside Tidebringer, Ghost Ship (colloquially known simply as Boat) has come a long way in defining Kunkka. Let's look at the numbers for the Admiral's Ultimate first. There's a magic immunity-piercing stun component (1.4 seconds across all ranks), 350/450/550 damage upon impact in 425 AoE, and two extremely good buffs: an 8 second 10% movement speed boost and a temporary 50% damage reduction for allies that are standing in the ship's travel path. Did I mention this is all on an insanely short cooldown? 60 seconds at rank 1, 50 seconds at rank 2, and a mere 40 seconds at rank 3. You can use Ghost Ship in every fight. You can use it farm creep camps. You can use it as an impromptu range finder.The 'balancing point' to this ultimate is that it's hard to cast and catch people in it. It's not a simple point-and-click spell, and requires a bit of prediction and skill to land the boat on enemies. Basically, the boat will travel 1000 units in the direction Kunkka is facing and take three seconds of time before crashing. The boat doesn't move fast, so it's difficult to land. After X is fully leveled up, landing the Boat is much easier. From 950 range, simply X, Torrent, Boat one location, then bring the X'd target back after two seconds.Landing the boat pretty much breaks a teamfight in your favor. The damage output is already quite substantial. Even in early post-level-6 teamfights, a level 1 Boat combined with a maxed Tidebringer and level 2/3 Torrent grants around 600 magic and 100 physical damage in an AoE. The stun also pierces magic immunity, which comes into play as carries farm up BKBs. Yet this is only looking at the offensive side of the Boat. Defensively, the 50% temporary reduction is the big thing. When affected by the buff, allies only take 50% of the damage for 8 seconds, at which time they receive the other 50% as non-lethal damage. Since most fights are decided in a matter of seconds, these 8 seconds effectively double an ally's HP pool. Suddenly, that 800 HP Crystal Maiden is extremely tanky with 1600 EHP. The 10% movement speed bonus is just icing on the cake for this ultimate. And if you can't kill that Crystal Maiden, good luck killing the 1500 HP, now effectively 3000, Luna.I fully expect Kunkka's Ghost Ship to scuttle a few teams in the upcoming months before being hit by the nerfbat. It's just that good. Did I mention that its cooldown is simply insane? In the link provided, Liquid underestimates the time it takes for Ghost Ship to come back online, which, among other things, causes them to lose the fight at the Roshan pit.Kunkka can build a variety of items depending on team need or whatever floats your boat, but in professional games he hasn't deviated too much from a select pool of items. A typical build would be Bottle -> Phase -> Bracer/Drum -> Shadow Blade -> BKB -> Crystalys -> Daedalus. Below, I'll briefly discuss which items to get and why they're good on the Admiral.- As mentioned above, Kunkka is a mana-hungry hero. Even if you don't go mid, it's generally worth getting a bottle just because you can keep your mana topped off. A Kunkka without mana for his combo is just a sad landlubber.- Kunkka isn't a right-click hero, so Phase Boots work out well. The bonus damage synergizes nicely with Tidebringer, and when combined with Drum and/or Shadow Blade, the Admiral can move quite quickly.- The Strength, damage, and Intelligence are all very relevant on Kunkka, and the Bracer can be built into a Drum later on. Sometimes Kunkka players will choose not to upgrade to the Drum, but if necessary Kunkka is as excellent of a Drum carrier as other core heroes.- Gives yet another form of initiation, a semi-escape, and most importantly, adds a ton of damage to your Tidebringer if you can get the cleave-strike off after a Windwalk. In Dota 1, the added 150 backstab damage would be applied only to the main target, but in Dota 2 the damage is added to your main attack. This means that the additional 150 damage lands on all enemies within the the AoE. Kunkka is arguably one of the best users for Shadow Blade, and probably one of the only heroes this item is absolutely "core" on.- Although Kunkka can choose to not be in the center of the battle in the early fights, as the game moves towards later phases, more damage is dealt with Tidebringer's cleave. This requires Kunkka to be close to, if not in the direct center, of an engagement. Black King Bar helps immensely with survivability when mass nukes and disables are flying around everywhere.- If you think Tidebringer hurts on its own, then a critical hit with Tidebringer will hurt even more. While Crystalys/Daedalus aren't guaranteed to proc on a Tidebringer cleave-strike, when they do, the results are amazing. Hitting a Daedalus crit for an unreduced 600 against all enemy heroes in one single strike is a ton of damage in an instant, and can be repeated in 4 seconds' time.- Adds damage through Strength and a lot of survivability. It is a good item if you have the money, but not a must-have. In terms of survivability in fights, BKB generally suffices. Heart can work quite well against many BKB-piercing spells on the opposing team and allow Kunkka to tank through all the damage that is volleyed at you in fights.- While not the best Cuirass carrier, Kunkka can still make use of it. It doesn't syngergize with Tidebringer, but Kunkka does have armor problems later on in the game with his measly 1.96 base armor and low 1.3 Agility growth.- While I haven't seen a Kunkka with a Rapier in a professional game yet, it's only a matter of time before one makes its appearance. Just like a Rapier on Gyrocopter with Flak Cannon on can singlehandedly win a fight, so can a critical hit from a Daedalus-Rapier empowered Kunkka. Just be careful not to drop it when you wade into the fray.Despite Kunkka's prevalence in the game today and his numerous strengths as both an individual hero and as a chain in a lineup, he's not without his shortcomings. In this last section, I will quickly analyze the Admiral's weaknesses.Author: MoLongTranslator: CountChoculaI'll try to brief about the competition portion of G-1. Typing words is tiring; doing analysis is bitter. Every match was exciting, strategies were full of variation, hidden stratagems were plentiful and aggression was abundant.The strongest feeling I got from G-1 was that training by playing in tournaments and scrims is more effective than only scrimming.If we recall the rise of Chinese DotA, the reason was exactly because there were more and more competitions, so the total skill level became ever higher.There's a saying in Starcraft: strategies improve in leaps and bounds; one strategy will counter a variation of another strategy and both are improved as a result. Could Dota be like this too?Playing scrims is a good way of practicing, but would a top team reveal their hidden strategies in scrims? For example a team can come up with a strategy and refine it into a hidden weapon. In scrims, they would use strategies that were similar, but only in an actual competition will they bring out the big guns.The further up a team finishes, the less likely they are to reveal their true strength.Watching SC2, what's the biggest difference between Chinese tournaments and Korean tournaments? Chinese tournaments aren't consistent. Korean players are able to train and improve by showing the results of their practice in tournaments, while in China there are only a handful of SC2 tournaments. In terms of training, are Chinese players really not as diligent as their Korean counterparts? Those who have seen professional Chinese teams train say they do it for 14 hours a day, but without consistent tournaments how can their strategies improve?Strategies are not something one or two teams discover and everyone else copies, but something that requires demonstration, confirmation, revision, patching weaknesses and refinement to be developed into a proper system.An old Chinese aphorism says the best results come from collective wisdom and efforts. If everyone stays cooped up and hidden, how will you obtain confirmation whether your system really is feasible? In your mind, this system may be invincible, but on the tournament stage can you really guarantee your system is not counterable and that it has no weaknesses? Korean SC2 tournaments allow their teams to constantly develop new strategies, refine old ones and study their opponents' strategies.Recently, I watched the movie "The Grandmaster". There was a saying in the movie, "Only if there is shortcoming, can we improve. Only if there is interaction with others, can we reach perfection."Without interaction with others, the first time that a new strategy is unsuccessful, you will quickly recall your glorious past and retreat to the safety of the familiar, clutching at obsolete systems that will only lead to certain death.Historically-speaking, what Chinese people are most known for is their propensity to study and improve. Chinese dynasties all started out with a culture of openness and willingness to learn, bringing in untold prosperity. Then eventually every Chinese dynasty closed their doors to new ideas and lived in blind arrogance.Before TI2, Chinese teams were greedily signing up for all sorts of foreign tournaments. Despite several hundred milliseconds of ping, they continued to play in these competitions and study. Whether it was iG's powerful Luna strategy or LGD's Lone Druid, it was only through experimentation and refinement in a tournament setting that they were able to succeed.The difference between the recent successes from VG and TongFu, and that of the Big Three, is that the former have been diligently attending various small South East Asia (SEA) tournaments and using them to test whether their strategies worked like they imagined they would, helping them improve their strategies and fix their mistakes. For old TongFu, their strength has clearly risen; for young VG, they're able to take at least one game from the Big Three.Recalling the imposing DK of old, it was precisely the fact that there were so many tournaments that they needed to grind through that they were able to maintain high morale, because as soon as you stopped putting in your best effort, your opponent would overcome you. Even though you'll feel physically exhausted, it's only this way that your mind can stay in top form.During qualifiers, DK was getting destroyed, but by studying while the competition was going on, they managed to cut down LGD.int, and like descendants of thieves steal themselves a spot in the offline portion. Without any competition in between, they let themselves relax.Even a legendary sword needs to be cleaned once in a while. A sword hidden in its scabbard will slowly rust away and lose its luster. At G-1, it was only after they lost three in a row that DK changed their gameplan, bringing out LGD's Kunkka, and snuck into the playoffs. Their meeting with Orange revealed them to be in dire straits. They remembered the way they won during the qualifiers with an incredibly farmed Alchemist and held onto it as their only lifeline. In the end, they lost due to a lack of courage. They went for stability with AM, yet went back for change with Kunkka. Ultimately, their nondescript lineup lost them the game. Even after this long, it's still the same old story: stubbornly going 3-core, getting crushed, then being forced to turtle and reminisce about the past. When seeking change, you shouldn't seek braindead change, but seek change that suits your team's playstyle. In the finals after dropping the first game, LGD similarly lost their courage and returned to their conservative play. Having lost your spirit, how can you win?It's fine if the Association of Chinese E-sports (ACE) wants to ruin Dota 2, but I expected more from DK and iG. (TL note: This article was written before the interview with King, the ACE chairman, was published, which clarified some misunderstandings many held.)Looking back, regardless of whether it's Alliance, Orange or LGD, you would notice that they've been playing a lot of tournaments lately. When you ask why LGD has been so strong since bringing back DD, you will realize it's because they've been playing in the TI3 Qualifiers recently and DSL matches. They've constantly been validating their strategies in tournaments. At DSL, in the first three games against TongFu, they shutdown TongFu early-game, and yet TongFu almost forced a comeback, while at G-1 LGD completely stomped iG and DK. From this, one can see that playing in tournaments will improve your level of play whether it's maintaining a team's form or refining strategy.Alliance attends all sorts of Western tournaments, whether the prize money is $500 USD or $5000 USD. Before they swept the G-1 qualifiers, they won Star Ladder. As for Orange, there are practically no SEA competitions that they do not attend, and if there are any tournaments in China, they sign up immediately.They've come a long way since the time when they relied on Mushi to either stomp or be stomped by the other team. They're slowly building up the aura of a real team as opposed to five individuals.We see TongFu, VG, and both RS teams diligently participating in SEA tournaments and through them achieve their current form, but on the other hand we see FL train behind closed doors and getting stomped at DSL...one cannot help but question whether FL really is the team with the unstoppable Weaver from G-League of past? I daresay that in DSL's Group B, both RS teams will take at least one game off DK, LGD.int and Orange, while FL will drop game after game without a fighting chance. Imitating without your own ideas will only result in a substandard copy. iG copied RS's Mekansm Alchemist but did not test it in a competitive setting, so how can you expect to vanquish your opponents like Director Luo?Even though domestic competitions have been kept down by ACE, there are still many SEA tournaments. Great iG, mighty DK - can you not look past your status and learn from them? Does DK really think they are naturally talented? Do you think the $500 USD prize money you got from winning a $500 USD tournament before TI2 is all the reward you got?Whether it's iG or DK, don't fall into feelings of self-satisfaction and reminisce about old glory days. Humble yourselves and go participate in various tournaments. If the manager doesn't let you compete, tell him he's grown arrogant getting the salary he gets every month. If you don't do well in tournaments, you will be the ones kicked and replaced. You are nothing without results, because a team's players are like a revolving door. If you still have a desire to win, then bravely flame your manager. If you still have the thirst for glory, then stop trying to build cars behind closed doors, because everyone else is already using combustion engines and you're still stuck on wooden wheels. Study other people's combustion engine technology to improve your own car manufacturing technique and you will be the top team.With this article, I want to commemorate the glorious G-1, the G-1 that knocked you out of your senses, and I look forward to an even grander Season 6 of G-1 Champion's League.Pikaxiu and all G-1 employees, I want to thank you during these cloud-covered times for using your splendor to awaken those still in deep slumber.I thank you who through your sweat and toil brought us such an exciting tournament.Once again, I hope that Season 6 of G-1 Champion's League kicks off as soon as possible in order to bring us the most amazing Dota 2 tournament.Source: http://dota2.sgamer.com/news/201305/150632.html The G-1 Season 5 Dota 2 LAN Finals was recently concluded by Alliance’s 7:0 perfect score. They went undefeated throughout the tournament! In contrast, the performance of Chinese teams was rather underwhelming: iG placed last in the group stage; DK was later eliminated by Orange; while LGD.cn looked hot during the group stage, they came second after being defeated convincingly by Alliance with a 0:2.The amazing games were praised and supported by the majority of the community, but many voices still criticized the chaotic live scene, poor broadcasting quality, and numerous pauses due to technical difficulties while being belittled when compared to some other All-Star tournament that was held at the same period of time. The head organizer and commentator, Pikaxiu, suffered several mental breakdowns at the live scene due to the stressful situations. Sgamer reporter ‘Xiao Shou’ interviewed Pikaxiu after the event to talk about his G-1 tournament experience and opinions on the domestic development of Dota 2 in future. Let’s have a look!Source - http://dota2.sgamer.com/news/201305/150722.html damn, i was two days from retirement