Heroes Super League:
DK vs MVP Black
Match Report

by r_gg

The Grand Finals of Super League was full of ups and downs. The event started out strong with an incredible opening visuals by OGN, but the initial hype soon turned into disappointment and criticisms as technical problems delayed the event one and a half hours. However, despite the delay, the players dazzled us with one of the most intense series we have seen so far. MVP Black was a strong favorite going into the series, but MVP Black's diverse tactics and strong mechanics fell apart under DK's mastery of their core strategies and well-executed drafts.

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 that are linked at the bottom.

Quick Links: Game 1, Game 2, Game 3, Game 4, Game 5, Game 6, TLDR

Game 1 - Cursed Hollow

Map Choice: MVP Black
First Pick: DK

Ban/Pick notes:

Good map for MVP Black. Has a 4-0 record.
Sonya first ban by DK, Uther ban by MVP Black. Sonya makes it difficult for Team DK’s Illidan and since DK tend to favor stun-less warriors, they ban Lockdown’s Sonya.
Illidan first pick by DK, already revealing that they are going with Illidan composition.
Johanna & Jaina by MVP Black, letting DK pick up Abathur for Illidan composition. Prioritize strong burst of Jaina and blind of Johanna to deal with Illidan.
Tyrael/Abathur from DK. Feels like MVP Black is confident about letting them have DK’s way.
Brightwing ban by MVP Black to restrain the split soak power.
Butcher ban by DK, another difficult hero for Illidan. DK is perfectly fine letting Zeratul go.
MVP takes Zeratul & Kharazim. (probably the latest Zeratul has been picked in this tournament)
DK goes with Tassadar & Rehgar right away. All-in on Illidan.
MVP Black has Zeratul that can cut Illidan off with Void Prison, so they probably should go with more damage or a warrior. All MVP need to do is focus on cutting off Illidan. MVP Black decides to go with Lockdown’s Thrall! Something they had used quite often in the past as a counter-Illidan pick but often didn’t work so well.
DK has an interesting no ranged-assassin, double support composition. This is something they tried to use at the very beginning of the patch in Nexus Cup against Snake, but was hard-countered by ETC.

Game

The goals/winning conditions of the two teams :
- MVP Black: ~~VP to cut-off backline~~ Use Thrall's thundering to split Illidan from the rest of the team, then burst him down with Seven Sided Strike, Jaina's burst and Shadow Assault.
- DK: All-in on Illidan. They have a slight advantage in the early game.
CrazyMoving is playing on Tassadar, Sniper is on Abathur.
Lockdown’s on Thrall, so KyoCha is playing Zeratul.
DK takes an early lead with good engagement and delays the first tribute top. They manage to win the team fight, take the tribute, and have strong push at bottom lane with merc & Abathur.
DK snowballs their early lead right away with their signature merc control and constant rotations.
MVP Black goes all-in on Zeratul with AA and Shadow Assault, as all they really need to do is take down Illidan and additional burst-damage is crucial. However, it’s a questionable when they are playing from behind.
Rehgar is the only hero MVP Black can pick off easily, making it difficult for MVP Black to get a lead. Abathur’s hat, Tassadar’s shield, Rehgar’s heals and even Tyrael’s shield are all helping Noblesse’s Illidan to survive.
Zeratul has very difficult time being effective against the vision of Tassadar and the chasing power of sCsC’s Tyrael.
Several perfect Ancestral Healing by JaeHyun’s Rehgar as well as fantastic dodging and Metamorphosis timings by Noblesse’s Illidan.
MVP Black on goes on a desperate boss attempt when DK’s Illidan and Rehgar is down, but CrazyMoving’s Tassadar and sCsC’s Tyrael combined with Sniper’s Abathur somehow manage to fight 3v5 against MVP Black, and actually come out ahead by picking off Zeratul and Thrall.
Perfect Illidan execution by Team DK, and MVP Black’s Zeratul seemed particularly weak in this game.
WINNER: DK

Game 2 - Dragon Shire

Map Choice: DK
First Pick: MVP Black

Ban/Pick notes:

This time it’s DK’s favorite map.
MVP Black bans Jaina to limit CrazyMoving. (Zeratul has fallen so much). DK bans Sonya like before.
MVP Black chooses Uther as expected.
DK takes Johanna for Noblesse and Valla for CrazyMoving. A strong, standard opening for them.
MVP Black goes Leoric and Zeratul. Lockdown will most likely pick up Zeratul this time.
DK bans KyoCha’s Azmodan composition. MVP Black denies sCsC’s Arthas.
DK goes Sylvanas and Malfurion. Another standard pick for them. Sustain-oriented with Malfurion while denying lot of burst potential from MVP Black.
MVP Black goes with Sake’s Raynor and KyoCha’s Butcher for the synergy with Divine Shield.
Muradin seems the best for DK in this case to deal with Butcher, although it’s not favored by sCsC. He goes with Tyrael instead.

Game

The goals/winning conditions of the two teams :
- MVP Black: Dive in with Butcher and try to melt one down, although it feels a bit awkward with Raynor as their main dps.
- DK: Need to survive through incoming Butcher and watch out for Zeratul’s Void Prison isolating their heroes.
DK is the one that dominates the mid-bottom rotation with strong waveclear. Even the top lane is going in DK’s favor. (Tyrael vs Zeratul).
DK manages to trade well against MVP Black early on and takes a lead but ends up letting MVP Black have their first Dragon Knight. DK seem to always let the enemy has the first dragon for some reason.
MVP Black’s ults revolve around cutting off their enemy front line and bursting one down (i.e. Void Prison, Lamb of the Slaughter) However, this gets countered by Tyrael’s sanctification. Some mis-timed Divine Shield by merryday.
DK takes a pretty convincing lead all game, having complete map dominance. Strong peeling by Noblesse and sCsC allow their backline to DPS freely on the melee-heavy composition of MVP Black.
“Stealth” is completely useless against the trained eyes of ex-Starcraft pros. Noblesse’s Johanna and sCsC’s Tyrael manage to reveal and chase Lockdown’s Zeratul with ease most of the time.
Lockdown’s Zeratul together with KyoCha’s Butcher manages to pick off DK’s Jaina and Malfurion at a critical moment to delay a core push, but that doesn’t manage to turn the tide of the game.
WINNER: DK

Game 3 - Tomb of the Spider Queen

Map Choice: DK
First Pick: MVP Black

Ban/Pick notes:

Same initial draft as Game 2, with Jaina/Sonya ban and Uther / Johanna&Valla first picks.
MVP Black tries to switch things up. Goes with Leoric & Azmodan. Revealing the Azmodan poking composition early.
DK bans Zeratul. To quote the caster aMeBa: “The only reason Zeratul is banned here is because Void Prison is the thing that can help Azmodan escape and buy the necessary time to get into the late game.”
MVP Black should probably ban Malfurion, as Malfurion is good against the poking of Azmodan. They could ban Arthas, but that didn’t quite work last game, and Tyrael quite good against Azmodan comps by providing a hard engage. MVP Black decides to ban Sylvanas since she has good lane presence and wave clear. It also limits the burst potential of DK.
Arthas isn’t ideal against Azmodan’s poking style since you want a good initiation, but sCsC might make it work. Also, it’s tough hero to give away for MVP Black as it fits well with their comp. sCsC’s Arthas is in. Can he continue on with his winning record?
MVP Black goes with Raynor again for long-range DPS and good peel. Muradin for another strong peel.
DK goes with Zagara as expected for strong push power and vision in the early game, since Zeratul and Sylvannas are banned.

Game

The goals/winning conditions of the two teams :
- MVP Black: Azmodan composition with Raynor (Seasoned Marksman). Weak early game, but can be unstoppable in the late game.
- DK: Need to dominate the early game with strong lane presence and deny stacking as much as possible.
Early game seems to go well for DK at first, but several positioning errors by JaeHyun’s Malfurion allow MVP Black to get the lead.
KyoCha’s Azmodan manages to stack with ease since they have a slight lead in the game combined with the lack of strong engage by DK.
DK manages to take some good engagements in the late game and game goes back and forth, but MVP Black’s strong late game comp manages to seal the deal.
While sCsC’s Arthas managed to boss his way through MVP Black’s backline from time to time, he can’t disrupt the backline as freely as he usually does because of the tankiness and death laser of Azmodan.
MVP Black becomes to only team to successfully raid sCsC’s Arthas for the first time in Super League, stopping his 8-game winning streak.
WINNER: MVP Black

Game 4 - Sky Temple

Map Choice: MVP Black
First Pick: DK

Ban/Pick notes:

Both teams hate the map, but MVP Black has a slightly better record recently.
DK goes with Sonya ban again, determined to deny Lockdown’s Sonya. MVP Black bans Sniper’s Abathur to keep DK from having their way too freely.
This time, DK is the one that gets Uther. MVP Black takes Johanna and Jaina again.
DK puts emphasis on wave clear with Sylvanas and Arthas. A pretty early Arthas pick than usual to secure the pick for sCsC and let him have a chance to take revenge for breaking his record.
MVP Black targets CrazyMoving with a Valla ban, limiting DK to a Hammer or Kael’thas (possibly a Raynor?). In pre-game interview footage, MVP Black cited CrazyMoving’s heavy reliance on Jaina and Valla as one of DK’s main weaknesses.
Zeratul ban on DK, which goes in line with the later Hammer pick, as Zeratul can burst her down easily.
Raynor from MVP Black again. Seems like Sake is quite determined to play Raynor this series, which is uncharacteristic. Merryday decides to play Malfurion for a sustained fight against Uther.
Kerrigan or Butcher will be good for countering MVP Black’s comp by exploiting the lack of escape of MVP Black’s backline, but it’s not something that we ever see from DK. DK goes with a safer Hammer & Muradin for protect-the-Hammer composition.
MVP Black would need a good initiation against Hammer. Tyrael seems a safe choice, but goes with Lockdown’s E.T.C. instead.

Game

The goals/winning conditions of the two teams :
- MVP Black: Need to rely on ETC for good initiation and a potential Mosh pit.
- DK: Protect-the-Hammer composition. Watch out for incoming Mosh Pit, and counter initiate.
MVP Black’s composition is questionable when it comes to laning and wave clear. ETC and Raynor have quite lackluster wave clear.
MVP relies on their front line to protect Raynor and Jaina, but ETC can’t stand up against Arthas and Hammer’s poking, leaving Johanna to fend for herself.
DK exploits MVP Black’s lack of waveclear through fast rotation and heavy push power of Hammer.
With a failed team fight at the bottom shrine where DK manages to get a full team wipe, MVP Black loses the control of the game completely.
Lockdown’s ETC can never get a chance to have Mosh Pit go off properly, as he needs to make sure every hero except Arthas is in. 1) Uther can Divine Shield someone out, 2) Sylvanas with her wailing arrow, 3) Muradin as he can stun him, and 4) Hammer can knock him away with concussive blast. DK knows this and always have their heroes spread out.
One time Lockdown succeeds in getting mosh pit off, CrazyMoving’s Hammer knocks him back out, which is actually reminiscent of what happened in Game 1 of HTL finals.
DK manage to snowballs their lead with ease through Hammer & Sylvanas.
WINNER: DK

Game 5 - Garden of Terror

Map Choice: DK
First Pick: MVP Black

Ban/Pick notes:

One of DK’s strongest map.
The Lost Vikings first ban from MVP, respecting Sniper. DK bans Uther instead of Sonya this time. (In an interview, they say they planned on picking up TLV this game while letting Sonya free, but their original plan goes amiss with the TLV ban)
MVP Black finally gets to pick up Sonya for Lockdown. DK decides to go with their favorite Illidan & Abathur composition regardless,
MVP Black picks Brightwing to keep DK’s split push in check and also counter the global presence of Abathur.
DK bans Zeratul as usual. MVP decides to ban Rehgar to limit burst heal.
DK goes with Jaina and Tyrael as expected without much hesitation.
MVP Black goes with AA-heavy Raynor despite Illidan. Looks like they are expecting Sonya to be able to keep Illidan in check. MVP Black goes with Muradin to strengthen the front line, and reduce AA damage with Reverberation.
Support options for DK are a bit weird at this point. Malfurion doesn’t work too well with Illidan, but goes for it anyway. It will require Illidan to be able to keep himself alive properly.
DK is going with their standard compositions, while MVP Black has been trying different comps with lot of emphasis on Raynor this series.

Game

The goals/winning conditions of the two teams :
- MVP Black: Need to stay on the game till lvl 16 when Raynor gains a stun to fight off Illidan.
- DK:Maximize soak with Illidan & Abathur in the early game. They are at a disadvantage in straight-up team fights since Illidan needs to survive through Sonya’s slam, Muradin’s stuns, BW’s polymorph, Johanna’s blind, and a potential double-stun from Raynor. They need to gain the upper hand in the early game through good early-soaking like they did against MRR.
DK’s early game goes well with merc steal against Lockdown’s Sonya, leading to early kills.
DK’s terror pushes are terribly weak because their team fight power is significantly lower when Illidan goes on terror. This makes it very difficult for them to snowball their early lead against MVP Black.
Noblesse’s Illidan manages to stay alive and take the team fight brilliantly in the early game, but he can’t keep himself alive toward the late game.
WINNER: MVP Black

Game 6 - Infernal Shrines

Map Choice: MVP Black
First Pick: DK

Ban/Pick notes:

DK bans Lockdown’s Sonya again, and MVP Black bans Abathur.
DK goes with Johanna first for good wave clear and control of the shrines.
MVP Black takes Leoric and Uther as expected.
DK decides to go for Valla and Malfurion instead of their usual Jaina. Seem to be prioritizing mobility and the longer range of multishot for safe pokes.
MVP Black bans out Tyrael to setup for their Butcher and Hammer pick. It also ties in with their Arthas pick later to limit sCsC’s options. DK bans Zeratul to limit synergy with Uther.
MVP Black pulls out their Butcher and denies sCsC’s Arthas. This completes the protect-the-Hammer composition with their Hammer pick later.
DK go Sylvanas for burst and better wave clear. sCsC’s options are pretty limited, but decide to go with Muradin to keep Butcher in check.
MVP Black takes Sgt. Hammer since there’s no one that can initiate properly on her and they have strong front line with Uther to support her.
MVP Black looks to have a superior, strong, counter-initiation composition. Leoric, Butcher, and Arthas can bully away Muradin and Johanna easily with their damage and root/stun potential combined with Uther, and Hammer can poke freely to secure the shrines. It will be hard for DK to engage onto Hammer.

Game

The goals/winning conditions of the two teams :
- MVP Black: As long as they can set up position properly with Hammer, Leoric and Arthas can deal with incoming engagement. Butcher can try to gank squishies from the back or support the frontline together with his high damage.
- DK: Take advantage of their mobility and strong wave clear to rotate quickly and position on the shrines before Hammer can. Muradin needs to choose his engagements wisely.
DK manage to take advantage of their fast rotation and good mobility to secure their position in the shrines first.
MVP Black also manage to get Sake’s Hammer in place, but KyoCha’s Leoric and Sign’s Arthas position themselves too aggressively, losing out on health too much and allowing rest of DK to jump in and secure the shrines.
The huge early-game lead allow DK to gain complete map control and dictate the pace of the game.
More questionable positioning by MVP Black’s front line ensues. KyoCha’s Leoric is too far ahead, which baits Sign’s Arthas to follow, and everything spirals out of control for MVP Black.
Too eager to finish the game, DK goes for a core push prematurely and ends up giving away their level lead with the core at 44%, but at least mid and bottom lane of MVP Black are completely destroyed.
MVP Black have a chance at a comeback with a strong push down the middle lane with Hammer all the way to the core.
Here, MVP Black makes a controversial core push where they continue on pushing after taking down the keep and Hammer starts bombarding DK’s core in siege mode.
sCsC’s Muradin is constantly pressuring from the back, but Lockdown’s Butcher keep him in check, making it difficult for DK to engage in.
It seemed a bit of a stalemate at first, but once again, Sign’s Arthas chases into enemy territory a bit too deep and he gets heavily focused down by Sniper’s Sylvanas and CrazyMoving’s Valla. This forces Divine Shield to be used on Arthas instead of Hammer, urging MVP Black to retreat.
DK is quick to exploit MVP Black’s retreat. MVP Black neglects to take care of Sake’s Hammer for a moment, leading to the game finishing team fight and DK marching to the core.
There’s lot of opinions about MVP Black’s last decision making that sealed their fate. While it may have been a “safer” choice to pull back immediately after they took down the keep, with their mid and bottom lane completely pushed out and core at 44%, DK can easily dance around MVP Black by pretending a backdoor, taking back map dominance again and getting an easy win on the next shrine to secure the game. Voice Comms reveal MVP Black felt they were pressed for time.
The core pressure was a risky move, but it was a way for MVP Black to force DK to engage them on a head-on team fight, which can help them turn the game around. It was also questionable whether they would have been able to retreat back safely with sCsC’s Muradin constantly threatening from the back, looking for an opening to engage. In the end, everything fell apart when Divine Shield got wasted on Sign’s Arthas.
WINNER: DK

Summary/TLDR(?)

Game 1 - Cursed Hollow, MVP Black’s favorite map. However, DK takes the game convincingly with Noblesse’s Illidan and Sniper’s Abathur play combined with Tyrael/Tassadar to shut down Zeratul.
Game 2 - Dragon Shire, DK’s favorite map. sCsC’s Tyrael is able to fend off the dives of MVP Black’s Butcher with ease using sanctification and holy ground.
Game 3 - Tomb of the Spider Queen. Azmodan composition from MVP Black successfully takes down sCsC’s Arthas, stopping his winning streak.
Game 4 - Sky Temple, a weak map for DK. sCsC’s Arthas take revenge on MVP Black as their attempt at ETC fails miserably.
Game 5 - Garden of Terror, a strong map for DK. Another Illidan comp from DK, but MVP Black manage to get Sonya this time, and forcing Malfurion on DK by denying all burst heal/shield. DK is able to get an early lead, but can’t capitalize on it properly due to weak Terror push. MVP Black manage to turn the game around with their stronger late-game comp against Illidan.
Game 6 - Infernal Shrines. DK manage to dominate the early game due to the questionable positioning of MVP Black’s two front line. DK was on the verge of throwing the game, but MVP Black’s risky core push end up sealing their fate.
Final Score: DK 4-2 MVP Black
We again saw DK showing strong performance against Zeratul with Tassadar or Tyrael. The draft priority of Zeratul dropped dramatically in this series, never being first pick or ban. It is quite possible that we would have seen Zeratul continue to drop if the current patch were to go on for few more weeks.
In the pre-game interview footage that was shown before the game, MVP Black cited low hero pool of DK to be their weakest point. In particular they claimed CrazyMoving and sCsC were of little threat as long as they deny Jaina and Arthas from them. What we saw in this series was a complete opposite, as CrazyMoving displayed great performance as Tassadar, Hammer and Valla. While sCsC’s Arthas was on-point as usual, it was his Tyrael and Muradin plays that really shined in this particular series.
While all the other teams were busy following the latest “hot” heroes set by MVP Black like Sonya and Butcher, Team DK was the only team that persistently refused to play those heroes, believed in their playstyle, and continued refining their strengths to utmost perfection while covering their weakness through smart drafting.
What ended up stopping MVP Black’s highly experimental style of play wasn’t some wacky composition or an unorthodox strategy, but the standard, textbook style of Team DK that stayed true to the basics. Team DK’s deep fundamental understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of their composition allowed them to fully exploit any weaknesses or holes that were present in MVP Black’s compositions.
MVP Black seems have become dependent on Lockdown’s Sonya more than they realized, as Team DK’s persistent ban on Sonya was critical in limiting many of MVP Black’s choices and led Team DK to dictate the flow of the draft.
The “wide hero pool” that MVP Black touted came to bite them in many of their games today, particularly KyoCha’s Zeratul or Leoric that couldn’t fulfill their role effectively at all.
Many of the previous undefeated records were beaten. The 8-win streak of sCsC’s Arthas, MVP Black’s 3-0 record on Cursed Hollow, and Team DK’s 3-0 record on Garden of Terror. However, DK still remains undefeated in Dragon Shire, with a dominating 5-0 record (1 Rave, 2 MRR, 1 Snake, 1 MVP Black).
Lots of emotions coming from DK, particularly CrazymovING, Noblesse, and sCsC. These three players have been professional gamers for almost 5 years and showed great talent and promise in Starcraft 2, but were never able to win a big tournament. They were also the founding members of Team No Limit back in Alpha, and were the first ones to dedicated themselves in playing Heroes professionally. Their long years of struggle has finally paid off.