EPTSecret’s return to the top of the podium
As three teams took the stage in the final day of Shanghai, it was known that two of them had to leave the event short of their goal. Team Secret had the luxury of waiting for Liquid or EG in the grand finals, both teams they themselves had sent to the lower bracket. So for the winners of that fight, they would not only get a shot at the title, but they would also get one more chance at toppling Puppey’s reinvigorated team.Liquid vs. EG
After the drafts in this series it quickly became apparent that EG would keep on the beaten path as they prioritized Enigma for Fear. The hero’s ability to quickly jungle up a Mekansm gives a team incredible pushing power combined with a—no pun intended—feared ultimate that can quickly turn the tides in a team fight. In the first game of the series we got to see just that. As the game balanced on a razor thin edge in which EG was barely ahead in kills and Liquid in towers, an engagement started in the Radiant jungle (Liquid’s jungle). Even though Liquid whiffed some spells early in the fight, they were still ahead, but in came Fear’s Enigma. With a beautifully placed Black Hole, Fear caught 3 out of the 4 Liquid heroes that were alive and turned what seemed to be a lost fight into a full team wipe. The path to Liquid’s rax lay open and EG was not slow to start pushing, but thanks to EG underestimating the power of Liquid’s Nature’s Prophet, Mind_Control was able to teleport to the top lane and claim EG’s top rax while the rest of Liquid performed a well orchestrated defense of their own bottom rax. Somehow, EG’s previous teamfight win ended up with a complete turnaround of Liquid coming out ahead and steamrolling them in one last fight, forcing the Americans to GG.
In game 2, we saw something of an homage to the Liquid squads of old when Kuroky decided to draft Ursa (or Fuzzy-Wuzzy as the hero really should be named) for Matumbaman. But the bear didn’t make the biggest plays of this game. For that, we have to turn our eyes upwards to the sky. For some heroes it’s incredibly important to have one item for the early game. One item that either gives you sustain in lane for harassing and farming, and for Zeus, that item is his Bottle. That’s why the course of the game was decided within the first minute as Jerax, on Pheonix, managed to snipe the Radiant’s courier while it was on its way to Sumail’s Zeus. This really put the wheels in motion for Liquid. Now, FATA could go as aggressive as he wanted in lane, which in turn secured him strong farm and a fast Level 6. Since less pressure was really needed mid, the supports could focus on pressuring Arteezy as much as possible, allowing Liquid to dominate the lanes.
Liquid rolled over EG in a 30 minute game that, quite honestly, was decided after 10 minutes. Arteezy had no where to farm and poor Sumail never recovered from that delayed Bottle, ending up 3rd from the bottom in net worth charts. With a huge lead in the game, Liquid secured the win and moved on to the grand finals.
Secret vs. Liquid
And so the time had come, a day highly anticipated for fans of both Secret and Liquid. For Team Secret, the Shanghai Major had become somewhat of their return to the major stage after their lackluster results leading up to the event. Around the internet, there was much buzz about the EE-curse. How Team Secret would ever win a major again? The team just wasn’t good enough, they didn’t have enough individual skill! So with that chip on their shoulder, Secret had a bone to pick with everyone, including themselves, and had everything to prove in the grand finals.
On the other side, you saw Liquid, a team mixed together of two highly skilled and respected veterans of the scene and three hungry and talented newcomers. Another team no one thought was a top contender coming into Shanghai. After being placed in what was arguably the hardest group, fans gave them even less of a chance, and after making it out of the group in one of its top two slots, they couldn’t catch a break in the brackets either. Every match they came into they were never seen as the strong favorite, whether it was versus Virtus.Pro, Evil Geniuses, MVP.P, or Alliance. The grand finals was no different.
In the end, we all know what happened: Secret proved to be the better team. Someone wise once said that “In a best of 5, the better team always wins” and for this series it was no exception. Over four games, Secret really outshone Liquid on every front. PieLieDie’s position 5 support was making plays left and right, EternalEnvy often out-carried Liquid, Puppey’s playcalling was godlike for most of the series, superlatives cannot describe w33’s stable play and his Invoker, and Misery constantly thwarted Liquid’s supports’ plans. Due to an underwhelming draft in game 4, Secret simply rolled over Liquid, giving the last game an anti-climactic ending. Secret showed themselves in scary form and we can only hope to see more of their brilliant play over the next half-year. For Liquid, this means that, in some ways, it is back to the drawing board, but hopefully they’ll be able to look back to this event in a few weeks time and feel happy, yet unsatisified, about what they achieved.
Stats breakdown
Highest pick/ban %: Earth Spirit (94,5% 20 picks, 66 bans)
Highest pick%: Invoker (40,7% 37 picks)
Highest ban%: Earth Spirit (72,5% 66 bans)
Highest win%: Slark (71,4% 14 games)
Lowest win%: Earthshaker (30%, 10 games)
Earth Spirit did, as predicted, top everyone’s ban list this tournament. The heroes core design makes it incredibly potent in the right hands. Having the hero banned or picked in over 90% of all games is crazy and he’s now closing up on 6.85 Tusk figures. Several small attempts on nerfing the hero have been made, but none have been really successful so far. What kind of answer will 6.87 hold for the Earth Spirit question?
Invoker Eul-vaulted the rankings in 6.86 after constant buffs, but received nerfs in the small patches. People have been complaining about the hero a lot, but personally I think it’s great to see the old magician back on the battlefield. The hero has a high skillcap and hopefully he won’t get too nerfed in the future.
Highest averages:
Kills: Iceberg - 8,3
Assists: S4 - 12,5
Creep kills: Loda - 412,5
GPM: Miracle - 648
XPM: Miracle - 599
These stats really paint a story about the Shanghai major: none of the winners of each category belongs in a team that made it far in Shanghai. In fact, most of them belong to teams that didn’t place up to expectations. Alliance, OG, and Team Spirit all went out before the competition heated up and now face an uncertain future; we know Spirit has already made some roster moves.
The teams that performed really well in Shanghai all valued teamwork before anything else. Yes, the carries got to farm their lanes, but never hesitated to TP in to help their teams when they needed it. Once again, Dota has shown us that teamwork is key.
