Well, as many of you must be knowing, MYM was out of SMM Grand National Tournament'09 held at Malaysia in the first round of the tourni, this came as a big surprise to me and everyone actually. No one expects the top team of Europe to get out in the first round getting defeated by a not well known Malaysian team and it's no wonder that the match deciding MYM's fate became the most discussed replay of the month on Gosugamers (not just in top 10, it is rank 1) within 20 hours. If you haven't seen the replay here are Pick/Ban details with download link...
Match Details
Map Version: 6.64
Warcraft III Patch: 1.24b
Download Link (900 Kb approx.)
Now, as the result of the game were not anticipated, people have been thinking over why did the game ended that way? To me, MYM were already in deep trouble with the pick/ban session followed by a sub-par team leading and gameplay.
How did MYM ended up picking the heroes they did?
Okay, so here is my hypothesis explaining why both the teams ended up picking the particular heroes.
1. FTZ pick Puck
With a Puck pick, FTZ try to have a strong position in team battles. A Puck with Blink Dagger means an instant setup for the team to f*ck enemies. How? Puck blinks between enemies, silences and coils them making sure they don't move out of place and cannot retaliate with their own spell stuff.
2. MYM pick Lion, Zeus
Lion and Vengeful are staple first picks for MYM. Vengeful was banned (reason being MYM not wanting Ftz to first pick her) and Lion got picked.
Zeus, as most know is used as an anti-blink hero due to Thundergod's Wrath, gets picked as a counter to Blink Puck initiation.
3. FTZ pick Crixalis, Spectre
Ftz continue making a stronghold in team battles and pick Crixalis, who forms a team combo with Puck. (Puck blink, silence, coils -> Sand blink, epicenters)
Spectre was picked so MYM don't go global / anti-dagger. (Spectre is already a great pick in current metagame anyways)
4. MYM pick Kunkka, Earthshaker
MYM were a bit screwed at this moment and they knew it. Their only hope was that Zeus uses a timely Wrath and saves them from a non-favorable team battle. Anyways, MYM realized that if Ftz pick Kunkka, things would totally go out of control. So, good or bad, they had no other option than to pick him.
Now, lets suppose MYM deals with team battles some or the other way, but what about Spectre? She's a pain in the a*s if got beefed up. Here, MYM decide to go a tri-lane against Spectre and picked Earthshaker who was supposed to keep Spectre down with Lion.
5. Ftz pick Warlock, Medusa
Ftz knew they have pretty much outpicked MYM. What they need to care about now is make sure Spectre farms while have some way of keeping Kunkka down (he's also a pain in the a*s apparently). For obvious reasons, Spectre needs a healing baby-sitter to farm properly. Two names come into mind when we talk about healer baby-sitter, Dazzle and Warlock. Dazzle was not a worthy pick the enemy damage being mainly magical and cleave damage, so we're left with Warlock who also forms another big+ in team battles.
About keeping Kunkka down, Medusa forms a personal choice to screw with him.
6. MYM pick Obsidian
MYM continue with their attempt to counter-pick Ftz and picked Obsidian which again, is a personal choice to screw Medusa. [Sanity's Eclipse to sweep away Gorgon's mana]
Proof that my hypothesis is correct
[00:30 game time] Ftz could sixth sense the incoming tri-lane to counter Spectre. Therefore, they send Spectre-Warlock combo mid instead of anticipated top lane. This means Medusa would face a tri-lane and therefore we can notice her keeping on backfoot until and unless all enemy heroes are visible on the mini-map. Also, after noticing a mid Spectre, Earthshaker & Lion go mid to gank her.
What decisions could've let MYM end better? (by UTDC.Justin)
The combination of Lion-Zeus was very poor, MYM usually tends to play something like Lion Sandking (Hello Mania SK) or could have two strong teamfight heroes (SK/Spectre -> allow two lane picks (Lion/ES/Slardar) -> Warlock/Pirate). Anyways, after the Spectre pick, though, picking more immobile heroes (ES/OD) wasn't the best of decisions. Medusa more or less made it easy for them to fight out their battles and simply win it on attrition later on. OD isn't a bad counter for Dusa, just not very functional with the rest of the lineup (kind of like old Dusa to counter Omni sort of mentality)
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