EPTTurns out it's still true -- for some of them.
The DAC has been an interesting tournament. Most eastern teams have adopted a familiar strategy: sacrifice everything, force high ground defense, and win in the late game. We've seen the emergence of ultra-hard carries like Medusa, turning games in to races against the clock.
"Lets see you break high ground," Burning might say, casually split-shotting wave after wave. The earthshaker waiting in the shadows might giggle, clutching his 32-minute blink dagger.
Lets contrast.
Western dota has been a slow-cooker of calculated trades and efficiency. Over the past year, EG created a farming metagame around their mid player and the world adapted around it. Teams like C9 and EG pushed greed to its limits. We saw 4 position junglers like enigma explode in popularity, strangling gold from neutrals and forcing down towers. Support players became popular for finding farm and being allocated farm in unusual ways: farm priority became the words of the west. Just ask Aui.
That's why its so damn interesting analyzing a team like VG. While everyone seems so interested in squeezing every bit of value out of the resources on the map, VG is more interested in winning every lane. And winning them hard.
You don't have to look deep to uncover their fundamentals. Fenrir and Fy are very likely the two best support players in the world, and the duo are characterized by their aggressiveness and diverse hero pools. They are roaming on Shadow Demon and Leshrac, Vengeful Spirit and Witch Doctor, Lion and Bounty Hunter. Their presence is felt all over the map. Mid players are hesitant to push out the wave. Offlane players hide well behind their tower. The jungling supports are -- well, often times -- dead and underdeveloped.
Take game 3 of Vici and Secret. An early Shadow Fiend pick reveals Secret's hand. While other teams are content to try to counter-pick to win the lane, Vici opts for strong roaming supports to pressure Arteezy and control the game. Despite a shaky first few minutes, an arrow-disruption combo wins their safe lane and puts zai behind on an already awkward offlane Juggernaut. While the Secret side has Puppey disrupting mid lane with slaps on the wrist, Vici has multiple stacks in the jungle for their Batrider and constant pressure on all three lanes.
And quite suddenly, the team with Medusa and Sniper is ahead by a few thousand gold. Game is won.
A look at a not-so-great start. Game 1, VG vs Hellraisers. VG opt for Venge and Mirana on Fy and Fenrir, while HR take the defensive-minded Rubick and Witch Doctor. Within seconds, Super is cliffed by Rubick, and strong ward coverage means there is no safe way to recover him. VG's safe lane farm is destroyed by 3 minutes. Disastrous is an understatement.
Fenrir to the rescue. An early cross-map smoke rotation at two minutes ensures first blood on the safe lane warlock. The Vici supports understand their safe lane is lost, and try to capitalize where the aggressive lane isn't. At 7 minutes, Fenrir's arrow secures a kill on the strong Antimage. And the wheels fall off from there.
So how do you control VG? And why did they struggle to get going out the gate?
Perhaps their aggression falters against traditional, safe, cautious play. BigGod vs Vici featured a dominant laning phase for Vici, but Burning was waiting, atop his high ground, smiling, waiting. The Chinese greed beats Chinese aggression.
Maybe its just how this tournament shakes out. Vici's aggressive style seems perfectly matched against teams like Secret and EG -- teams that don't crack when faced with breaking high ground, but throw in the towel after a poor laning phase. In Secret's dominant form throughout the round robin, their only falter was against VG in the early game. It turns out it might have been a fitting preamble for the later stages of the tournament.
Regardless, Vici's success, or lack thereof, rides quite solely on their two cores: Fy and Fenrir.
Lets see how (and, if?) their opponents adapt in the finals.
