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Heroes Super League:
DK vs Snake Match Report
The Korean commentators in OGN Super League have great insights into the game: what are the hottest heroes in the meta during scrims, which heroes the players tend to prefer, etc. In particular, one of the commentators, 
AcE was once the founding member and captain of Team No Limit, which later on became Team DK. He is very close with many of the players and the teams, and has great insight and knowledge of the scene and the meta that is being experimented with behind the scene. Here is a draft and match analysis of the lower bracket final - Team DK vs Team Snake based on the Korean commentaries.
The VOD of the match can be found here.
This match report focuses primarily on the draft decisions, and high level flow of the game. If you want to know more about the teams and their history, check out some of my previous Super League coverage on reddit that are linked at the bottom.
Quick Links: Game 1, Game 2, Game 3, Game 4, TLDR, Interview.
Game 1 - Sky Temple
AcE was once the founding member and captain of Team No Limit, which later on became Team DK. He is very close with many of the players and the teams, and has great insight and knowledge of the scene and the meta that is being experimented with behind the scene. Here is a draft and match analysis of the lower bracket final - Team DK vs Team Snake based on the Korean commentaries.The VOD of the match can be found here.
This match report focuses primarily on the draft decisions, and high level flow of the game. If you want to know more about the teams and their history, check out some of my previous Super League coverage on reddit that are linked at the bottom.
Quick Links: Game 1, Game 2, Game 3, Game 4, TLDR, Interview.
Game 1 - Sky Temple
- Map Choice: Snake
- First Pick: DK
Ban/Pick notes:
Game
Game 2 - Garden of Terror
- A map that has been heavily favored by Snake so far, but Snake suffered a humiliating defeat against MVP Black here last time.
- Abathur ban from DK, a hero that was highly contested in their last match-up.
- A Sonya ban from Snake. Opening up an opportunity for Uther or Zeratul, and give more room for Leoric to shine..
- DK takes Zeratul for
Noblesse, Snake takes Uther and Jaina as expected. - DK decides to prioritize wave clear in the first phase with Johanna and Sylv pick.
- Snake bans Malfurion to limit option of support, and DK's JaeHyun tends to perform well with Malfurion.
- DK bans out Butcher to limit possible synergies with Uther.
- Snake takes Leoric and Kael'thas. Double mage is usually considered impractical in Korea, but Snake have had good result with the comp against DK at Nexus Cup.
- Casters suggest DK could take Raynor as a mage-counter like MVP Black. However, DK chooses to go for Valla instead which match their preference more closely. Casters also suggest a possible Brightwing to maximize global presence in a large map, but it is probably tough against double mage. DK goes for a safer Rehgar pick.
- For last pick, Snake could go with Muradin to complete safe front line and strong lock-down potential for the mages. Indeed, Snake do go with Muradin. Muradin currently has a one of the high win rate in Super League with 70%.
Game
- The goals/winning conditions of the two teams :
- Snake: The front line need to stay strong so mage can stay safe and burst enemy. Stun lock and burst Zeratul when he blinks in.
- DK: Zeratul need to time his VP well to mitigate the double mage burst. Isolate the enemy and pick a hero or two off.
- DK keeps avoiding fights and looks afraid of confronting Snake throughout the game.
- Snake simply rotates confidently looking for fight, while DK just keep on running away, giving up objectives and structures easily.
- Snake is able to pick off DK's heroes one by one, with very little resistance.
- Snake always maintain a strong lead from their early kills and structure take downs, DK need to try to challenge a team fight to catch up, but never does.
- In the end, Snake is able to march in to core together with a boss with little to no resistance. Extremely poor and passive play by DK in this game.
- WINNER: Snake
Game 2 - Garden of Terror
- Map Choice: DK
- First Pick: Snake
Ban/Pick notes:
Game
Game 3 - Tomb of the Spider Queen
- Snake bans Abathur, and DK bans Zeratul as expected. Casters criticize that DK often show very weak, predictable drafts when they don't manage to get Abathur.
- DK proceeds to pick The Lost Viking along with Jaina. Although it's puzzling why TLV pick was made so early-on, seeing the former GSL champion
Sniper play TLV would be a delight. The early TLV picks suggest DK will be going with a rotation and split-push/soak heavy strategy similar to what we saw them do against MRR with Abathur/Illidan/Brightwing. - Snake immediately reacts with strong push heroes with Leroic and Zagara.
- DK bans Sonya as she can be very strong against TLV. Snake bans out BW to limit DK's split-push/global potential.
- DK picks Sylvanas for strong wave clear, and Tyrael to limit strong initiation from Snake. Interestingly, Tyrael has been chosen as a solo-tank.
- Snake takes Kael'thas as a good counter against TLV. Casters suggest Johanna would probably good for even stronger push power, but Snake chooses Kerrigan; an excellent choice for strong initiation and early gank pressure.
- DK takes Rehgar as support for strong mobility.
- A very interesting composition from DK revolving around TLV's split-soak while the rest of the team is fairly mobile.
- Snake has tons of experience playing against TLV before because TLVs were extremely popular among Chinese teams like eStar before they were reworked. Snake is actually knowing for showing brilliant anti-TLV strategies that ripped the Chinese teams apart
Game
- The goals/winning conditions of the two teams :
- Snake: Don't let DK get an exp lead, force engage a team fight with Kerrigan as they have the upper hand in terms of head-on team fight power.
- DK: Make sure to get an exp lead with Vikings. Only fight when you have the terror, and avoid direct engagement as much as possible. A Hit & Run comp.
- DK maximize split-push power of Vikings to form a 4-man rotation comp that keeps on moving from one lane to another, keeping Snake busy.
- DK is better at soaking early on, but Snake is able to stay even or ahead in levels by securing more seeds and taking down more structures.
- DK can win fights when they have the Terror, but can't win other wise. DK shows some very good coordination between Judgement/Blizzard/Silence to take out Snake's Kerrigan or Zagara.
- Snake is able to take down most of DK's structures by getting more Terror than DK in general. Despite that, TLV's split-soaking is able to keep the two teams mostly even.
- With two keeps down in the late game, Snake is about to get a terror with only a few dozen seeds left. If DK lets Snake have a terror while they don't, Snake can easily siege the core and win. DK's sCsC on Tyrael somehow manages to steal just enough seeds so both teams get a terror with perfect 100-100 split.
- DK manages to defend against incoming attack of Snake's Terror, then takes down Kerrigan and Uther as they try to retreat back. With all members still alive and a viking in their own terror, DK is able to rush for the Snake's core.
- Sniper's TLV show some crazy micro and splittings as expected from a former Starcraft champion. Sniper's TLV was the star of this match, along with sCsC's Tyrael for the clutch seed steal.
- WINNER: DK
Game 3 - Tomb of the Spider Queen
- Map Choice: Snake
- First Pick: DK
Ban/Pick notes:
Game
Game 4 - Dragon Shire
- Traditionally a strong map for Snake, and we saw DK fall miserably in their last match-up against Oreoman's Kerrigan.
- As Abathur isn't good on this map, Zeratul and Uther bans as expected.
- DK chooses to trust on CrazymovING's Jaina as first pick.
- Since DK hasn't shown to use Sonya, Leoric&Johanna could be good for Snake. Decides to go with Muradin/Sonya instead for a strong front line.
- DK goes Johanna for strong wave clear and rotation that suits the rotation-heavy style of the team. It is hard to go for Leoric when there's Muradin/Sonya, so DK follows up with Malfurion.
- Snake could ban Tyrael, but decides to ban a strong lane presence of Zagara instead.
- DK bans Kharazim expecting Snake to try a similar composition as MVP Black. DK seems to have made the right choice, as the Kharazim ban makes Snake quite awkward.
- Snake completes a heavy front line with Leoric and opts for Raynor as their main damage, trusting the heavy front line.
- DK go Valla as a safe assassin to attack the incoming warriors. Casters recommend. Anub' as the last pick for the stuns, but Dk goes with their trusty sCsC's Arthas.
- Snake decides to go with LiLi as their last pick, as DK is low on stuns, ensuring LiLi to have no problem getting Jug of Thousand cups for full duration.
Game
- The goals/winning conditions of the two teams :
- Snake: Strong lane and gank pressure to dominate the early phase. Have Sonya/Muradin/Leoric front line protect Raynor to dps down the enemy freely.
- DK: Counter the incoming initiation of Snake with Arthas and Jaina.
- Snake: Strong lane and gank pressure to dominate the early phase. Have Sonya/Muradin/Leoric front line protect Raynor to dps down the enemy freely.
- DK is rotating more confidently with Arthas in front. Snake also tries to rotate and gank in response, but can't initiate easily due to Arthas.
- It's hard for Snake to gank properly due to the lack of burst damage. Although Muradin and Sonya can provide good lock-down, the follow up is weak.
- Raynor and Lili are looking more and more like misfits in the composition, as the lack of burst makes it hard to take advantage of Muradin&Sonya, and Lili can't quite keep Sonya alive properly against the burst power of DK.
- Sonya and even Muradin falls against the burst/root combo of Jaina/Johanna/Arthas, making it very difficult for the two to engage.
- DK stays confident throughout the game and maintains their exp lead. Looking very different from Game 1 and Game 2.
- At lvl 19 vs lvl 17, with their mid-lane already exposed, Snake has no choice but to force a fight at the boss so they can get one last chance to teamfight before DK goes lvl20. However Snake fails and DK is manage to steal the boss and win.
- sCsC's Arthas continues his domination with 7 out of 7 wins in Super League.
- WINNER: DK
Game 4 - Dragon Shire
- Map Choice: DK
- First Pick: Snake
Ban/Pick notes:
Summary/TLDR
Post-Game Interview of DK's Sniper(source)
- DK's favorite map.
- Snake bans Abathur as expected. DK let Zeratul go to Snake in order to ban Uther, but takes Jaina and Johanna in place.
- Snake takes Leoric for the strong lane presence at top-lane, and Kael'thas expecting an Arthas pick of DK.
- DK bans kinnu's Brightwing to limit the synergy with Zeratul. This also secures Tassadar pick later on, as Brightwing's polymorph will be one thing that will really mess up Tassadar's survival.
- Casters suggest Snake to ban Arthas, but decides to ban out Zagara, probably to ensure that their Leoric is able dominate the top solo-lane. (A potential challenge?)
- DK chooses Malfurion as JaeHyun have good performance with him, and as expected Arthas.
- Snake chooses Valla for solid dps against Johanna/Arthas, and takes Rehgar as expected.
- DK finishes with Tassadar as Zeratul counter and also one of Sniper's signature hero.
- DK has their dream line up: CrazymovING's Jaina, Noblesse's Johanna, JaeHyun's Malf, Sniper's Tassadar and sCsC's Arthas.
- Snake has strong damage, but weak front line with a solo-tank Leoric.
- The goals/winning conditions of the two teams :
- Snake: Rely on oreoman's Zeratul to gank&initiate a good fight and burst enemy hero with Zeratul&Kael'thas
- DK: Strong waveclear comp and survive through the burst with Shield and Tranquility
- The only enemy hero that Oreoman's Zeratul can really target is Jaina and possibly Malfurion, as all other heroes are nearly un-killable. This makes extremely difficult for Zeratul to shine, especially with Tassadar's Oracle.
- DK is the one that manages to take control of the early game rotation between mid and bottom lane, with Arthas up top and rest of the team rotating freely below. However, Snake is able to win the top lane against Arthas with Leoric and Zeratul.
- DK's strong rotation and good synergy of Johanna/Jaina/Arthas is able to catch Snake's Valla&Rehgar off-guard and put DK on the lead.
- Oreoman's Zeratul struggles to find a good target, as Jaina is always safe deep in the backline of Arthas and Johanna. Sniper's Tassadar constantly reveals his position, making it extremely difficult for Zeratul to be effective.
- Even if Zeratul's Void Prison manages to isolate couple targets, there are very few heroes of DK that can go down. Johanna and Tassadar is able to survive very well on their own, and Jaina&Malfurion sticks together closely so they will be together even if they are VP'd. Tying down Arthas when he tries to flank worked well in removing lot of DK's damage, however, Snake manage to only have that work once.
- Sniper's Tassadar shows his signature bruiser-style immortal Tassadar that constantly diverts enemy attention with aggressive positioning and heavy storms on the back line with Archon, while remaining unkillable and soaking incredible amount of damage and spells with the dimensional shift build.
- DK is able to take the match convincingly, staying in full control all game.
- WINNER: DK
Summary/TLDR
- Casters love what they see in the upcoming patch.
- Game 1 - a very poor performance by DK where they look afraid of Snake the whole time with no real team fights.
- Game 2 - DK brings out an interesting Hit&Run push composition that relies on TLV. Snake is able to dominate most of the game, but Sniper's TLV control is able to keep the game still even on levels. Well executed seed steall and solid defense by DK help DK make a comeback.
- Game 3 - DK shows strong confidence in their rotation, while Snake's Raynor and Lili pick turns out to be a huge mismatch with Sonya/Muradin/Leoric due to their lack of burst and awkward CCs.
- Game 4 - Despite Snake securing Zeratul for Oreoman, DK's forms a line-up that makes extremely difficult for Zeratul to find a good target. Sniper's Tassadar is able to rain heavily on Snake's back line while soaking damage and baiting out Snake as he escapes through with Dimensional Shift.
- While DK showed extremely poor performance in the first game, they showed more and more confidence as the series went on. Apparently they came back to Game 2 after switching out their team uniform.
- Sniper has really showed incredible performance this series, with his TLV and Tassadar plays that spiced up the team. There were some talks that he was falling out of form recently, but he really stepped it up when the team really needed him.
- Although Snake started out strong, lot of their draft fell apart after their loss in Game 2.
- DK finally gets to advance to the Grand Finals to face MVP Black, and gets one step closer to their dream of going to Blizzcon; something they've been dreaming for since their days of Starcraft.
- sCsC's Arthas continues on with his perfect record of 8 out of 8 wins in Super League so far.
- DK was heavily criticized before this series that they are too passive and is too predictable on their draft and strategy due to their heavy reliance on comfort picks. However, despite the extremely rough start Game 1, they were able to surprise us with TLV pick on Game 2, and showed much more confidence and active engagements in Game 3 and 4. Their anti-Zeratul draft in Game 4 with Tassadar worked exceptionally well.
- Snake, the team that has been considered the No.1 favorite at the start of the tournament, has to unfortunately settle for 3rd place after their loss against the rising star MVP Black and their old rival, Team DK. While Snake showed strong, solid performance most of the tournament, they seem to have really got shaken up by their loss against MVP Black.
Post-Game Interview of DK's Sniper(source)
Q. How do you feel about advancing to the Grand Finals?
A. We are glad we were able to win against our old foe Snake. We've played them way too many times, and we faced them again after losing in the upper bracket. We felt pretty pressured, but thankfully we won. Think we'll be able spend the Korean Thanksgiving with ease now.
Q. Why did you lose the first game so helplessly?
A. We were able to experience again why Snake is so strong in Sky Temple. We were constantly playing from behind the whole game, and got lost our members left and right. By the time we regained our composure, it was already too late.
Q. How did you prepare The Lost Vikings?
A. We are pretty confident with Garden of Terror. We learned during practice that TLVs are quite good in Garden, but we weren't able to show them because we were using Abathur. Our past preparations were able to shine in this game. The fact that I was confident in my multitasking when using TLVs due to my background as a SC2 progamer also had a big part in it.
Q. Your enemy picked Lili in Game 3
A. We didn't think it was a bad pick. But since Lili is a healer specialized in "sustained healing", we reassured ourselves that we can stay on top as long as we can burst them down in an instant.
Q. How about the surprise Tassadar pick in Game 4?
A. As we went into the draft, we decided to choose Tassadar and let them have Zeratul. We figured giving away Uther encourages Oreoman to choose from a much wider selection of heroes.
Q. Your bait-plays with Tassadar were exceptional
A. After level 16, you pretty much don't die as Tassadar even if you roam around alone. They would chase me down thinking my dimensional shift was on cool down, but fortunately I had it come back just at the right moment.
Q. What are your thoughts on facing MVP Black
A. We were really surprised by what we saw on their match against Snake. We were shocked by how strong they have become. We plan on spending rest of our time exploring as many strategies against them as possible. We have experience winning against them back when we were TNL, but MVP Black definitely got much stronger since then. However, since we have won against them before, I think we'll be able to take them down if we play confidently.
Q. The team played more aggressively unlike before
A. We came to a conclusion that we were indeed playing too passively. We were trying our best to be more aggressive, and things were definitely working better from the laning phase.
Q. Any last words?
A. Thank you all for coming to the studio despite the holiday weekend. We are trying our best, and we definitely want to win. I want to take this time to thank my family for their constant support. Lastly, our manager and others who support the team came here (from China) to watch our match today. We want to answer to their expectations and take the trophy.
r_gg's Heroes Super League Coverage on reddit
- Group B 2nd Match - MRR vs MVP Sky, about MRR
- Group A Winner's Match - Team Snake vs MVP Black, on Snake's Oreoman
- Group B Winner's Match - Team DK vs MRR, on DK's sCsC
- Group A Loser's Match - GameAde Top vs Danawa Joker + History of KR scene
- Group B Loser's Match - MVP Sky vs RAVE HotS, on RAVE's 555 nickname
- Group A Final Match - Snake vs GameAde TOP
- Group B Final Match - MRR vs RAVE HotS
- Playoffs - 1st Match - MRR vs MVP Black
- Playoffs - 2nd Match - DK vs Snake - the great rivalry
- Winner Bracket Semi-Final - MVP Black vs Snake - player by player matchup
- Lower Bracket Semi-Final - DK vs MRR - rising from the ashes
- Lower Bracket Final - DK vs Snake - last stand
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