On January 16 2013 09:14 ldDOTA wrote: Aww shucks, thanks everyone. I never expected people would actually like my casting when I started about a year ago; I just decided to try my hand at it because I thought it would be fun and entertaining for my close friends. If you want a good laugh, check out how awful I was when I first started. I know I still have tons of room for improvement, and I'll be busting my ass this year to get there!
You mean you didn't consider what you were already doing busting your ass?
Oh boy.
I think that sums up why LD is in my opinion, the undisputed best caster
dat humility, work ethic and will for self-improvement
Cool to carry this over to DotA, sadly the awards weren't actually that exciting. I kinda agree with some (f.ex nth vs EG), but not with most of them. Awesome to see LD get best caster btw, he's great!
Nice write-up, but I think we should have awards for best at each position. Chuan is an amazing 4 (def best Rubick for q some time). He was an amazing 3 (I would say for windrunner the best 3 for q awhile), and used to be a pretty damn blardy good 1 and 2 too but never better than Yamateh. So anyway, can't compare 4 w 5, cause Faith is just incredible w his heroes w practically no farm...
First of all, awesome coverage. My heart died with BW, but when TL picked up Dota, it sprang to life once more. This game is the epitome of e-sports teamplay (slightly moreso than CS).
Now on to my comments:
1. Chuan should have beaten Faith. It's pretty clear that Faith is the soul of iG, but Chuan is the most awe-inspiring support out there. His ability to make impossible plays has led to iG time and time again to a dominating win, even coming from behind. While Faith is consistent and reliable, he is not the x-factor that Chuan is. I think that Faith is underappreciated, but since we're picking BEST support, you'd have to go with the more skilled player.
2. Burning should have beaten Zhou. Zhou is a terrific, top 3 carry, but he is not nearly the machine Burning is. Burning consistently outfarms every other carry. Whether his team is behind or not, you know that Burning is there last-hitting better than anyone. At the back of your mind, you know that there's a clock ticking, and if you do not defeat DK before that clock strikes, Burning will destroy your team. Moreover, he is a much better positional player than Zhou and Sylar. He's also the most consistent player in DK, which makes that team a threat to anybody despite playing badly. He's also the carry who hesitates the least, committing fully to an attack or not at all, ensuring his safety or domination every time. I dunno - maybe once ZSMJ comes back we can rehash the arguments, but I think Burning has shown that he's the number 1 carry in Dota 2, nevermind the lack of golds. He also has a bigger hero pool than Sylar, just like Zhou.
3. I feel that Mushi, LOH, and YYF especially should be given some love. Maybe most versatile player? Mushi goes 1-3. LOH goes from 1-4, and YYF is in a class of his own, playing whatever hero is needed to change the momentum of the game.
Otherwise, I agree with pretty much everything here. Congratulations once more!
Amazing piece of work. Have to agree with "biggest play", biggest antiplay contender might have been the Dendi blackhole as rubick where he double tabbed his dagger and blicked away from the teamfight.
Like the caster award, personally would have given it to Draskyl but second place is fine ^^ The award for EternalEnvy and AdmiralBulldog is nice, really didn´t catch that thread on TL and EE was completely new for me till No Tidehunters strong showing.
On January 16 2013 21:22 Hondelul wrote: Like the caster award, personally would have given it to Draskyl but second place is fine ^^
The problem with Draskyl is that it seems like he barely watches any matches outside the ones he casts (which isn't many). You very rarely get any type of insight into how teams play, their history. It's very much just generic knowledge from someone who's quite good at the game, which I guess is interesting to some, but not to me. If he was actually casting as much as LD/Tobi then I'm sure this would be different.