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On April 16 2018 13:20 DavoS wrote:
How long ago did 33 and zai swap roles?
Between Katowice & Bucharest. 33 looked lost half the time at Katowice as a pos 4 in the games when he didn't get much farm.
https://www.dotabuff.com/matches/3745831943
Last game at Katowice, while they didn't win with the Brood, it was 33 playing core and Zai playing pos 4. They did try to pick Brood into Miracle's TB & Gh's Kotl, which ppd hasn't attempted to do since. 33 just really isn't a pos 4 in skill set, at least at this stage in his career, while Zai is a Tier 1 player there. The hero pools also work out better as well.
CCnC played well this tournament, and ppd has been working out how to draft with this team. He's got Pajkatt figured out, he's expanded his own hero pool, but working out the layering of 33, Zai & CCnC has taken some time. It helps that CCnC is getting better on frontline heroes, where his main skills are on Ranged Cores.
Optic lost 3 matches at Starladder, 2 against first phase TB and one to a Bane they could never get the jump on in 4 successive team fights. TB also went 8-3 on the LAN, and somehow TB seems more overpowered when you're able to defend highground so well. Thus, if you aren't taking TB, ban it.
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NA has qualifiers for ESL One & the Super Major starting Thursday and running through next Wednesday. It struck me there is some hilarious Brood drafting approach that ppd could abuse on lower-tier teams.
With first pick, if Optic drafted TB 1st and Broodmother 2nd in the first phase, that would leave 3 bans & 3 picks to exploits whatever the other team is going to do in response. TB generally is dealt with differently than Brood for counters, so you can force the other team into a very big "pick your poison" response. Obviously works best against 1-2 cores picked that are weak against Brood by the team in the first phase.
I don't think it'd work on LAN, but I'd still be hilarious to see.
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One of those bans would have to be Leshrac though. He deals with both heroes well and NA teams love picking him.
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Dark Seer is now meta. I hope 33 enjoys playing the hero.
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Optic 3-0 VGJ.Storm, punching their ticket to ESL One Birmingham. A little revenge for the MDL Qualifier.
Super Major group stage starts tomorrow, so let's hope Optic doesn't lose to any low-tier competition with some wonky drafts. Optic vs VGJ.S is in 2 days and will likely decide the group.
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It was looking real bad for Optic in the Super Major group, then Immortals just 2-0'd Complexity. So, this one will go down to the wire.
Moo appears to be drafting and came in with a really good approach to these games. Game 1 was their TB counter, which NP + NS really worked well. Pango is too weak against that much gank potential early and didn't offer enough. Game 2 is a little different, as I think it was an anti-Optic special. As we saw in Game 2 against Immortals, Complexity actually doesn't play around the Visage very well, but Optic was expecting the type of pressure they do. I also think the Bristle just wasn't the pick, especially since they didn't ban Moo's Timbersaw, who counters two cores, and he's probably the best player in the world on the hero.
This group is, however, far from over. VGJ.S normally beats Complexity, so every match counts from here out. Immortals still has a chance to win as well. Then there is still a chance for a 3-way tie-breaker.
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A lot is gonna be riding on getting a 2-0 vs VGJ.S. But I'm having flashbacks to DAC when all Optic had to do was beat Keen Gaming to win the group and they couldn't do it and started that massive group stage tiebreakers.
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Oh Baby! Optic come out of the group stage in first. All they need to do tomorrow is beat OG in a BO1 and it's straight to the semis and some sweet, sweet DPC points! Let's go boys!
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On May 24 2018 07:12 Sassback wrote:
Oh Baby! Optic come out of the group stage in first. All they need to do tomorrow is beat OG in a BO1 and it's straight to the semis and some sweet, sweet DPC points! Let's go boys!
Their DPC points don't matter unless they end up winning the major.
But they played really well though. That QOP in game 3 vs Mineski was too good.
I am really hoping for 2 of Optic, Mineski and Fnatic to play the grand finals; looking at DPC standings, best if Optic & Fnatic play the BO5 finals.
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Fnatic optic would be a pretty awesome finals, if optic sneaks in top 8 that would be nice to see
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Well they are top 4 - but after getting slaughtered by VP, I don't think they have much hope of winning.
At least they'll have a chance of making the finals I guess.
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Maybe Pain Gaming will take out VP and it can be an all Americas affair.
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On May 26 2018 00:45 Sassback wrote:
Maybe Pain Gaming will take out VP and it can be an all Americas affair.
That would be pretty awesome. If Pain _do_ take down VP that would be quite the run: recent TI champ, major champ, 3x major champ.
Looking forward to the Fnatic v Optic matches!
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On May 26 2018 00:45 Sassback wrote:
Maybe Pain Gaming will take out VP and it can be an all Americas affair.
Pain actually has modeled themselves off VP quite a lot, in early game & laning strategy. They're a "Discount VP", but we've seen teams have a great run before. And you only need to win 2 matches. For Pain, beating VP is also 40k in each of their pockets. For a SA team that doesn't get a chance at the big prize pools much, that's a lot of money for those guys.
Main thing is Optic's normal play style is pretty hard countered by VP's. The VP vs Optic match, while a pretty heavy beatdown, also showed a fairly different look from Optic, and a way they will probably try to adapt against VP. (Plus, they'll more harshly target Rodjer in bans, I think.) It's important for Optic, as VGJ.Storm & Complexity beat them in the Super Major qualifiers with "discount VP" approach to laning. (Basically, Nightstalker & NP mess up Optic pretty good because of the timings they favor.)
As for today's match, it's slightly Optic favored. (Literally. 1.71 vs 2.10 betting line at the moment.) We'll see which teams show up to play today. Optic has been pretty consistent since they switched 33 & Zai for positions, but you never know which Fnatic is going to show up.
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VP vs Optic in the ESL Finals! Lets go boys! One best of five series against arguably the best team in the world is all that stands in your way of getting that direct spot to TI! Maybe if they win a major we will finally get that flair..
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Optic has one chance to get a direct invite tomorrow, let's see what the Salt Lord can do.
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Imagine what this team could do if they had a capable carry...
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On May 28 2018 05:27 Racket wrote:
Imagine what this team could do if they had a capable carry...
Pajkatt's never been their issue. VP just 10-0'd a Major for a reason. Optic's main issues are they don't rotate that much in the early game, CCnC's hero pool (or his not-quite Tier 1 positioning on fragile heroes), and some weird farming inefficiency in the late laning/early mid-game time period. (Still not sure what it is, but if they have a good laning stage lead, they rarely are able to extend it from 5k to 15k by 20 minutes. Unless it's a hard snowball.)
Optic just took 2nd at a major, only losing to VP. It was a very good tournament for them, and I hope they are able to qualify for TI8. They have a chance to do really well there, especially if they can keep improving their form.
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Yeah, I think they could get top 8 at TI if they make it. They have a good chance at qualifying also given the situation in NA right now.
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EPT
