either alohadance is mocking EE for being confident about this International just because they won against them on scrims OR alohadance is mocking EE for making that statement of being confident this international while losing horrible against empire on scrims
if it's the latter that could mean that c9 isn't invincible against Empire anymore (if the scrims really mean much) .. hopefully it's the former
actually even if it's the former it would probably mean shit cause cause scrims may mean nothing too(remember the weird scrim relationship between DK and EG 2014 when however is owning on scrims will actually lose on the official matches)
my read is the former fwiw
even if it's the latter i don't think it matters much cause it's scrims
and wouldn't it be ironically funny and disappointing if c9 gets eliminated not by the usual ones vg/ig/secret/eg but rather the teams that could almost could not even win a match against them (VP/Empire) and they eliminate c9 when it matters the most lol
A bit surprisingly to me their draft seemed very shaky yesterday. As far as I recall with bone7 drafting most of the time their draft has been at least alright for the early game, they've had some play issues later on that caused them to lose to Secret at MDL or iG at ESL. But yesterday the last 3 games they put themselves in a very difficult position from the lanes alone. Granted the 2nd LGD game it was made even worse by the dewarding disaster, and the 1st game against NaVi at least 2 of their lanes were alright while bone7 had a very difficult lane with his Puck. But then the 2nd game Sonneiko's ES had completely free reign over the map when c9 was dual laning.
Also as a strange detail their actions before the horn blows were a bit questionable the entire day. Against LGD game 2 they first didn't see where they placed the ward despite putting down an obs of their own, and then they conceded both bounties (or maybe one was denied). Against NaVi game 1 started by NaVi leading 3-1 in kills before the horn and NaVi getting both bounties, and game 2 NaVi also got 1st blood when a fissure isolated n0tail and they again got both bounties.
5) n0tail has been playing extremely poorly and is clearly the worst player right now on c9. His impact has been minimal apart from the one game on wisp, and he consistently gets caught out of position during the first 2-3 minutes. I struggle to think back of a single non-wisp game this TI where he has had any kind of big play. He has been feeding first blood in really really really dumb ways, and I hope that for his sake,he improves his game play.
4) Bone7 has been lackluster. He often gets off to good starts, thanks to putting himself in comfortable lanes (and sacrificing envy), but come midgame, he manages to feed away his starts instead of converting them into good space for his own team.
3) Fata showed how good he is, when he's put on one of his signature heroes (BM and DK). Unfortunately though, on meta heroes (Nevermore, Lesh, Lina, QoP) his impact is not up to par compared to the top mids this TI, something that does not bode well for the future sucess of this team. I think its upto Bone7 to draft in such a way that they are able to utilize Fata's tried and tested heroes more effectively.
2) Envy has been left hanging out to dry more than once during the laning stage, forcing him to catch up and find farm in extremely dangerous ways, which he has actually been doing really well. Of course, the lack of synergy late game is clearly evident, where you'll often see Envy farming with 4 teammates behind him, yet still get killed with no saves/return kills coming from his team. Often, they react very late, and end up feeding a few more kills due to their indecisiveness. The old C9 lived and died by Envy. Even in losing fights, they would coordinate extremely well and often times edge ahead in fights that they had no business winning, through sheer coordination. The new C9 - not so much.
1) Misery has been a standout performer in my eyes. What a player. Even in losing games, he makes big plays, especially in defensive situations, often carrying the team on his back. I almost feel bad for him.
I predict an 8th place finish, although I would gladly take anything higher.
The way the other games have gone in group A, specifically the number of ties teams in the bottom part have played, is pretty perfect for c9. Despite them losing two series already they are 4th in the group and I don't think their last 3 series are the toughest possible. I haven't watched coL play yet properly but MVP is one of the weakest in the group and iG hasn't been that convincing either. So a spot in the upper bracket seems quite possible for c9 imo.
If that happens then it remains to be seen who they get to face there. But I agree that currently they haven't looked good enough to go really deep. Some of their drafts seem very shaky early game wise (a bit surprising even given what bone7 has drafted in the last 2 LANs), and also they've given away some really silly early kills to make it even worse.
But that said there's still time to figure things out a bit. Hard to see them beat Secret later on, but for example their series against LGD hardly gave me the impression that they couldn't beat LGD if they met again.
I think its mainly the fact that this new C9 is more consistently mediocre than the previous incarnation. The previous one had higher highs, and lower lows, but you could never count them out vs ANY team (unless they were in the finals of a tournament of course). They were capable of beating VG, EG and even Secret in the odd game.
The new C9 beats up lesser rated opponents more consistently, but almost never wins vs teams that are favored vs them.
Also watching Aui_2000 play today in EG vs VG made me really salty after seeing n0tail's feeding. Was he really kicked for this?
On July 29 2015 09:56 Piledriver wrote: I think its mainly the fact that this new C9 is more consistently mediocre than the previous incarnation. The previous one had higher highs, and lower lows, but you could never count them out vs ANY team (unless they were in the finals of a tournament of course). They were capable of beating VG, EG and even Secret in the odd game.
The new C9 beats up lesser rated opponents more consistently, but almost never wins vs teams that are favored vs them.
Also watching Aui_2000 play today in EG vs VG made me really salty after seeing n0tail's feeding. Was he really kicked for this?
I pretty much agree with your assessment. Envy and Misery have been solid throughout, while Fata underperformed on day 1 but played pretty well today. Bone7 has been making too many mechanical errors at crucial moments, missing his hookshots and RPs. N0tail just hasn't looked the same since he was booted off Secret. He's had his moments here and there, but in general his play has been pretty unimpressive.
I've always thought kicking Aui was a huge mistake. Still kinda salty about it after all this time
I thought Envy switched out Aui just because he thought the previous incarnation had peaked. Wanted some new blood to challenge the complacency of multiple silvers.
Back in the hotel, Jacky "EternaLEnVy" Mao leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes as he blasted anime music through his headphones, devastated after the 0-2 loss to Secret. In his mind's eye he could still feel the frustration as his antimage was caught in bone-chan's stolen RP and gunned down by Arteezy's gyrocopter again and again. He could still see Clement "Puppey" Ivanov's smirk as if it were challenging both his ability as a dota player and his taste in great anime. He knew that there were even more tougher battles further ahead.
Suddenly he heard a voice in his ear. "Ganbatte ne, EE-kun!" He opened his eyes in amazement, and lo and behold, there was Aisaka Taiga winking at him while dressed in a winter coat and smiling at him. He had inadvertently opened Toradora! yet again. Suddenly the orchestral score of "Lost my pieces" started playing. He could feel the trembling in his body, the tears rolling down his eyes and, for the fleeting of moments, even a slight stirring in his groin. He quickly opened up other animes and before long, the voices of Kana Hanazawa and Ayana Taketatsu were also flowing through his ears.
As the minutes went by, and as he watched his anime waifus that he so loved and respected greatly as his idols, Jacky could feel his confidence returning to him again. While his team sat at 4th place in the group by the narrowest of margins, he reasoned that perhaps the strongest of opponents had already been faced. He and his team had weathered the storm of LGD and Secret and could now look forward to hopefully easier games against iG and MVP, after which they stood a good chance of advancing. A small grin began to form on his face, a grin that morphed into a smile and then finally a psychotic smirk as his eyes turned red:
On July 29 2015 12:52 writer22816 wrote: Back in the hotel, Jacky "EternaLEnVy" Mao leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes as he blasted anime music through his headphones, devastated after the 0-2 loss to Secret. In his mind's eye he could still feel the frustration as his antimage was caught in bone-chan's stolen RP and gunned down by Arteezy's gyrocopter again and again. He could still see Clement "Puppey" Ivanov's smirk as if it were challenging both his ability as a dota player and his taste in great anime. He knew that there were even more tougher battles further ahead.
On July 29 2015 12:52 writer22816 wrote: Back in the hotel, Jacky "EternaLEnVy" Mao leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes as he blasted anime music through his headphones, devastated after the 0-2 loss to Secret. In his mind's eye he could still feel the frustration as his antimage was caught in bone-chan's stolen RP and gunned down by Arteezy's gyrocopter again and again. He could still see Clement "Puppey" Ivanov's smirk as if it were challenging both his ability as a dota player and his taste in great anime. He knew that there were even more tougher battles further ahead.
ROFL
Sorry but I do not see what is so funny when someone prefers deep and profound anime like Toradora! and Ore no imouto ga konna ni kawaii wake ga nai over cheap romcoms like Cowboy Bebop and Legend of Galactic Heroes. Perhaps you should consider laughing at yourself if you are not able to appreciate the incredibly good anime taste of our lord and savior EE-sama.
lol, well It's not like we know for sure if Envy really prefer those two over the other two
his anime taste is very 'shounen' though that's for sure
anyway from what I saw these past 2 days the most obvious things for me is that their draft have been pretty shaky ( reminded me of EE's draft) and FATA have been underpeforming.
I think Fata not looking good in some games is also related to their draft difficulties in some of their losses. While people like to meme about Fata carrying the team, often it's not at all him alone who guarantees the good starts which allow him to then do really well, but the supports help him a lot. In some of his Lina games he was just left too alone and he got run over, and the hero is not exactly at her best when she gets behind early. Veno game against Secret there were quite a few situations where Fata was close to killing someone but they just barely tp'd away, which could have made his impact much bigger. But other than that I don't know if there was much he could do there.
The one game where I distinctly remember Fata doing some uncharacteristic errors was g1 against NaVi with his Viper, though c9 won in the end. As far as I recall there were at least a few times where he just threw his life away with some strange blink or positioning. But against Fnatic he did well.
On July 29 2015 12:52 writer22816 wrote: Back in the hotel, Jacky "EternaLEnVy" Mao leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes as he blasted anime music through his headphones, devastated after the 0-2 loss to Secret. In his mind's eye he could still feel the frustration as his antimage was caught in bone-chan's stolen RP and gunned down by Arteezy's gyrocopter again and again. He could still see Clement "Puppey" Ivanov's smirk as if it were challenging both his ability as a dota player and his taste in great anime. He knew that there were even more tougher battles further ahead.
ROFL
Sorry but I do not see what is so funny when someone prefers deep and profound anime like Toradora! and Ore no imouto ga konna ni kawaii wake ga nai over cheap romcoms like Cowboy Bebop and Legend of Galactic Heroes. Perhaps you should consider laughing at yourself if you are not able to appreciate the incredibly good anime taste of our lord and savior EE-sama.
Interviews with Misery before the tournament and with bone7 and their coach, I assume after day 2.
From the way he talks it seems that the coach has a pretty good influence on the team. But we'll see how the rest of the group stage goes. Also it's funny when ppasarel starts talking about what he heard about the team and how he was scared to become the coach based on all the forum talk about EE etc., and what it is like in reality.