EPT* The New Meta Deathball
Before the finals, VG had 8 sub-20min GGs from their deathball push style. 5 of these were in the group stages, and even in the playoffs where teams should definitely have been prepared against this strat, VG still rolled over them in no time. The only team which had success was NewBee, but even then they still dropped one game in the finals in 24 min.
VG brings pushing to the next level. In the previous year, we have seen many teams get a quick T1 tower on the enemy's offlane. This is usually done by having a Chen/Enchantress, rotating in either the mid or offlaner and picking off the enemy offlane, followed by a 4-5 man push on the tower with summons, a Basilus and other auras. Teams will usually be content after getting the tower and disperse. However, in VG's case, their judgement of their pushing power allows them to take multiple towers, be it the following T2 tower or a T1 tower in another lane, and sometimes both.
It may be unfair to say that VG purely play for the early game push. It may be that their comfort zone is with getting early towers and that with the gold earned, they snowball out of control, leading to the deathball. Nevertheless, we look specifically at how VG built their draft which led to so many early GGs.
* The Deathball Draft
When we think of Dendi, we picture an aggressive mid, finding and poking openings to break the enemy's formation, through which he controls the tempo. We picture heroes such as TA or Storm. For Mushi, his unparalleled 1v1 wins the mid lane through outskilling the enemy mid and with early Lvl 6 rotations leads to a strong snowball tempo. His signature heroes would be QOP and SF. For S4, he plays heroes with teamfight-winning utlimates around which Alliance builds their tempo, with heroes such as Puck and Magnus.
On the other hand, Super's style is characterised by strong pressure, not through gangs or teamfights but by his presence in the push. By him being there, the enemy team does not want to engage in a teamfight. His signature heroes of Viper, DP and Razor are all able to consistently poke at the enemy with low cooldown long range nukes (strong slow orb in Viper's case), be extremely tanky early in the game with a Bottle, Magic Wand and Buckler/Meka and have the ability to make the enemy think twice about engaging (Corrosive Skin and Viper Strike, Unstable Current and Eye of the Storm or Exorcism). When the enemy team does not want to engage against a push, all they can do is sit behind their tower and hope a positional mistake or over-aggressive dive provides an opportunity for a counter. VG unfortunately doesn't give them that chance.
Super's mid role is complemented by VG's support duo, fy and Fenrir. The emphasis is on supports which have high impact in the early levels. Unlike other greedier teams, they forgo their EXP in exchange for getting good starts for their cores. For example, fy's Sand King is always active on the map instead of jungling for an 8 minute Blink. Other players on Sand King might rush the Blink straight after Brown Boots but fy will go for Arcane Boots as his team's pushing lineup needs it.
VG aren't worried about the low levels on their supports. As long as their cores are farmed and the enemy cores are suppressed with constant pressure, the deathball push will be unstoppable. This is done through supports always roaming, making the enemies play defensive by just being constantly missing from the map and forcing unfavourable TP rotations which result in another lane left defenseless to an incoming push.
In VG vs Liquid, Fy and Fenrir both Lvl 1 at 4 minutes in. The push is nevertheless uncontested. The enemy offlane tower is taken at 6 min 30 seconds with Leshrac's Lvl 2 Edict, followed by the enemy safelane at 8 min. Another is VG vs DK with Fenrir Lvl 1 at 8 minutes, but a Shadow Demon with only Disruption already has so much utility for the team.
The support duo is usually features 2 high burst supports, typically with one or both having targeted and undodgeable disable skills, and the other a followup nuke to guarantee a kill. We see combos such as the age-old Leshrac + Shadow Demon, Sand King/Earthshaker + the new meta Skywrath or the top support pick Rhasta + anyone.
The second core on the team is rOtK. Usually the offlaner, his heroes are usually have strong teamfight, such as Doom, Tidehunter and Venomancer. rOtK's playstyle has definitely changed coming into VG. In the past, we remember rOtK as the offlaner with the crazy aggressive gambles, diving past T1 towers for a low-percentage kill and miraculously coming out ahead. But now, he plays the stable offlaner, getting his farm and levels.
The last core, on the carry role, is Sylar. Sylar's heroes are those carries strong in the early game and midgame, able to solo against an offlaner and have some burst or disable to pick off the offlaner together with the supports. These are heroes like Morph, the TI2 deathballer Luna, the tower-destroyer and extremely strong 1v1er Lone Druid and another strong 1v1er Weaver.
Sylar also plays a No. 1 Nature's Prophet. Furion is extremely strong in the push lineup due to his ability to TP across the map, summon Treants and suplement the other lanes with a push. Putting him in the No. 1 role allows him to get a quick Orchid which completely shuts down enemy cores so early on. This allows VG to burst down heroes like Brewmaster, who are usually extremely hard to kill in the midgame and also to stop enemy initiation from heroes like Void with his scarily quick reactions. One of his fastest is at 9 min (EG vs VG game 1), and that's with Phase Boots first. VG also puts him in a solo safe or off lane, allowing them to run aggressive trilane strats. We see with Furion, VG runs Pugna trilanes, and even one with Venomancer.
To round up, the draft usually consists of 2-3 heroes who can be classified as tower pushers who can do considerable damage to towers during a push. These include midlaners like Death Prophet and Dragon Knight, supports like Leshrac and Rhasta, carries like Luna and Pugna and offlaners like Venomancer and Furion. Every role is able to add to the pushing power, making the lineup extremely flexible.
* NewBee's Counter
NewBee had 2 days to prepare for the other finals contender. Of all the possible teams, VG was probably the one they were most prepared to play against, seeing as they had just won them off the WB semifinals and that they were extremely comfortable with this meta of aggressive push, even when done at VG's level.
In all 4 games of the finals, NewBee's first 2 bans are always Death Prophet and Razor, fearing Super's potential on those heroes. They aim to push Super out of his comfort zone and force him into an unfavourable matchup in the mid lane. This was made easier by rOtK leaving Super's pick to later in the draft. Only in Game 1 did VG pick Brewmaster in the first pick phase, forcing NewBee to react rather than VG having to.
NewBee's 2 counterpick heroes which they used in 3 of the games would be Ancient Apparition and Alchemist.
AA at Lvl 6 can easily shutdown a push with his ultimate, forcing the enemy back for 7 seconds while they wait for the buff to wear off or sniping a target with a combination of long range nukes. However, reaching Lvl 6 is an issue for a support with no hard lockdown, limiting his ganking and early teamfight potential.
Alchemist, too, easily disperses a push with Acid Spray, and more importantly, he doesn't need Lvl 6. With a huge AOE covering the entire lane, Acid Spray melts the enemy creep wave and any summons. It forces the enemy team to keep away from the tower for fear of the minus armor and DoT. Game 3 is where this strategy shines. xiao8 is placed in the safe lane against a solo Venomancer while Hao's Weaver is put against the trilane. Trading levels and farm with rOtK, xiao8 reaches an early Lvl 4 and gets his Soul Ring. When the push comes at 4 minutes in, xiao8 rotates to the offlane and the low level trilane is unable to fight through the acid and get the early tower.
We also see their Rhasta + Chen combo in Game 3, which they also used in the WB semifinals. Chen gets his levels from the jungle while Rhasta gets solo support EXP on the lane. Against higher level supports and a large Creep, VG's roaming supports aren't able to be as aggressive and cannot find opportunities for ganks. Chen's creep(s) then allow for a push against the enemy offlane T1, resulting in VG having the first tower falling.
On VG's side, they placed extremely high priority on Furion. This makes their laning more predictable. NewBee can also place a more greedy solo against Furion as there is no threat of him being solo killed. Picking Furion so early on also signals that they intend to go for a push draft, and NewBee can adapt accordingly.
VG's second pick following Furion, were Viper, Venomancer and AA. All of these heroes have zero hard disable. This made NewBee able to pick beefy tanks or extremely mobile heroes which VG could not lockdown or burst. These included Brewmaster, Ember, Puck, Weaver... the list goes on. These heroes are able to break VG's formation and snipe out the weak supports, stopping the push outright. Without any disables on half of the enemy team, NewBee placed higher priority on these heroes in the second phase of the pick.
By focusing so much on getting early towers and winning early fights to gather snowball, VG find themselves lost when NewBee easily stops them with stronger teamfight off Brewmaster/Puck, strong antipush with Alchemist, or facing a stronger enemy push with Chen. Seeing no way of comeback, VG taps out sub-20 min in Game 3 and 4, a victim of their own deathball.
* Conclusion
VG's deathball certainly made its impact in TI4. It seemed as though VG did not come into TI4 with maining the deathball strat in mind. In their earlier games we see them having lategame power with Sylar's Morph. However, with their first sub 20 min win, VG realised the meta wasn't prepared for the deathball.
VG's overemphasis on the push might be their undoing in the finals. It might also be that NewBee and VG both wanted to play for the early game aggression hence the competition for similar picks such as Furion or Rhasta, ultimately leading to VG picking for their push strat.
In the pre-finals interview, rOtK mentioned that he had more strats lined up. Their lategame carry strat typically involves Sylar's Morph together with rOtK's Doom or Super's Ember. NewBee's targeted picks and bans also led to many openings for surprise/pocket strats. These include a Wisp + Tiny, Tinker or Naga, which might catch NewBee totally offguard, providing a swing in momentum.
Will we see more of the deathball? Some viewers might not like the sub 20-min GGs from top teams, but others might like the amount of aggression and stuff happening compared to the ricing era of yesteryear. Only the next patchnotes can tell.
References:
datdota.com
