WLDL CROWN DIVISION WEEKLY WRAPUP: Week 1
WLDL CROWN DIVISION WEEKLY WRAPUP
Welcome, fellow WLDL players and enthusiasts! I am known as 4Beats, former NA DOTA content creator and current Position 1 for Savoury Characters. You may have seen me griefing your pubs by feeding the other teams offlane Pudge. Week 1 of WLDL has come to a close, and I thought I would take it upon myself to summarize the trials and tribulations of the teams that compete in my division, and to highlight some of the stand out performances I see week to week.
In future weeks, I will look at the matchups themselves, but I thought for week 1 of the blog it'd be fun to give my quickfire thoughts on each team individually. I will not go as in depth as I do here in future weeks, and I don't anticipate this being an every week thing despite my eagerness to do so. We will check in at the end of the season to see how on base I was.
Game 2 featured both Hedge Fund Manager and APE going deathless in one of the more 1 sided games we saw this week. If I were playing against this team in the future I would focus on giving my offlane and midlane as favorable a matchup as possible. Without this, you are likely doomed to a similar fate as Mudboys in game 2.
MVP: On top of going deathless in game 2. APE pulled off a Monkey King performance to rival the strength of the hero when he was first introduced into captains mode. Throughout the game I was consistently left mouth agape as this motherfucker managed to get off full duration Wukong's Commands over and over again. While having less total damage than his carry counterpart in Juggernaut, he made just about every fight simply unplayable for Mudboys. Monkey King is a hero you so rarely get to see played to its fullest potential, and for that alone we must stan.
Looming Fruit:
In future weeks, I will look at the matchups themselves, but I thought for week 1 of the blog it'd be fun to give my quickfire thoughts on each team individually. I will not go as in depth as I do here in future weeks, and I don't anticipate this being an every week thing despite my eagerness to do so. We will check in at the end of the season to see how on base I was.
Savoury Characters:
We'll start things off with my own cast of characters, the Savoury variety. Savoury Characters have gone from a scrappy team cheesing their way through the lower division to a team you can take home to mom and dad. How the hell did that happen? Well, for one, the heroes that they used to use to shock their opponents out of the sheer absurdity of their presence, the Meepos and Arc Wardens that Chiyo pilots, have all gone mainstream. These heroes are no longer pub menaces, but legitimate picks that plague even the most competitive of DOTA matchups. This combined with being placed into the middle division this season means that Savoury Characters have been forced to succeed at a more refined and respectable style of DOTA.
This week saw them facing off against off against a Razzle Dazzle team that contains a ton of raw talent. They managed to take game 1 fairly cleanly - yours truly managed to get out of THAT game without a single death on Phantom Lancer- and scraped together a win in what was a very competitive game 2. Game 2 saw them flex the Winter Wyvern, which they played in the hard support position previously, into a midlaner. This decision proved to be what turned the tide (they also picked Tidehunter)in their favor, as the heroes' range and ability to interrupt regen rendered Razzle Dazzle's Slark carry and Ogre Magi offlane combo moot once the game had gone on long enough.
MVP: This week I would be remiss if I neglected to give this accolade to our Hard Support: Owl. Owl's hard support prowess is betrayed by their current pub rank. Their performance in this series could go toe to toe with some of the best in the league. In the off season Owl put in a ton of work and even played in a different Australian based league, and it shows. It'd be easy to look at my own personal deathless performance in game 1 say that I was the star of the show, but I would not have had such a performance without a really well played laning stage from my support, followed by being brought back from the brink of death by Owl's cold embraces. There was nary a Winters Curse in the entire game that went uncapitalized on. Game 2 saw Owl put the moves on Razzle Dazzle with one of the most confident Phoenix performances I've seen from a hard support. Look at the egg they were able to get off around the Rosh pit, arguably the moment that turned the game in our favor. Mind you, they were pulling all this off while fighting a 300ms delay.
Razzle Dazzle:
2 words: Raw Talent. Razzle Dazzle is a fusing together of 2 teams from different divisions last season. Those teams being Pup's Pals and Secret Agent Roshan. Both these teams had very respectable showings last season, which makes this teams expectations fairly high. Their major obstacle this season is going to be how through the roster shuffling a few of players are playing in positions that they didn't spend time playing last season. This obstacle did not seem particularly hard to hurdle, as despite losing both games this week, nobody seemed to be struggling to find their identity in their new roles.
Game 1 saw them winning or getting very close to winning every lane, and parlaying that into a level of aggression on the map rarely seen in this league. They had Lost Boy's own Rufio standing in for them in the position 4 for this game, but it didn't seem to interrupt their flow in any real way. Their midlaner was able to come out ahead in a matchup against a player nearly double their MMR in this game as well, proving that there's no one you can ignore when considering your opponents draft. Game 2 was a similar story, with Mort absolutely embarrassing Savoury Characters offlane and leveraging that into kills all over the map way earlier in the game than any hard carry has the right to. If I had to give one reason as to why these early successes didn't translate into wins, as someone who played in these games it'd be transparency. When you're playing with a new group of people, it's very easy to fall back on what you know works, but this also makes things easy to read for the other team. Despite Razzle Dazzle's easy aggression, it seemed like we on Savoury Characters were able to read where they were currently or where they were going with relative ease, with the exception of a few very impressive ganks around the map. This is surely something that will improve once this team gets more comfortable with each other.
MVP: Razzle Dazzle's mvp for this series has to be Mort. Mort proved to be a nearly unstoppable force in game 2 with his Slark performance. Right out of the gate Slark was finding impossible kills on Savoury Characters' offlane. As the game went on, Mort almost became the sole initiator for his team, catching out Radiant's hard carry in the most random of map positions. He managed to get over 10 kills before dying at around the 25 minute mark. He managed this with one of the most hyper aggressive builds I've ever seen, finishing the game off with Mage Slayer, Shadow Blade, Bloodthorne, and Aghs all making an appearance. Slark had his way with you.
Mudboys:
There's something about the way Mudboys play that remind you of how fun DOTA can be. In the draft, you can tell that they're always looking for some hidden pick that will be more fun than it'll be effective, and most of the time how effective it ends up being will shock you. During the game they'll go from making some of the most clean and impressive rotations, only to have their cores die in the most clowny way of all time. You can tell that this team is made up of at least some people who have a life together outside of the game, because without that aspect holding them together they would almost certainly disband after their cores dived fountain for the 80th time.
This week saw them facing off against Team Drip, who looked scary good. Despite Team Drip looking like Vishnu controlling 5 different heroes in a state of pure nirvana, Mudboys managed to give us easily the most exciting game of the week. Game 1 featured Mudboys pushing Team Drip all the way to the 66 minute mark, and it looked like anyone's game until the end.
Game 2 was a fair bit more 1 sided in Team Drips favor, but Mudboys did not give up the win easily. With no one having a catastrophically bad performance.
MVP: Have to give it up to ZYGGI_GEE this week. ZYGGI_GEE showed the rest of us in WLDL just how effective a position 4 player can be. They managed to come out of game 1 with the second most damage on their team, finishing with 34.9k hero damage done on support Gyrocopter. A support Gyrocopter is threatening in the hands of any player, but in the hands of a master, it looked like it could have soloed the entire other team. BAN GYRO AGAINST THIS TEAM.
Razzle Dazzle:
2 words: Raw Talent. Razzle Dazzle is a fusing together of 2 teams from different divisions last season. Those teams being Pup's Pals and Secret Agent Roshan. Both these teams had very respectable showings last season, which makes this teams expectations fairly high. Their major obstacle this season is going to be how through the roster shuffling a few of players are playing in positions that they didn't spend time playing last season. This obstacle did not seem particularly hard to hurdle, as despite losing both games this week, nobody seemed to be struggling to find their identity in their new roles.
Game 1 saw them winning or getting very close to winning every lane, and parlaying that into a level of aggression on the map rarely seen in this league. They had Lost Boy's own Rufio standing in for them in the position 4 for this game, but it didn't seem to interrupt their flow in any real way. Their midlaner was able to come out ahead in a matchup against a player nearly double their MMR in this game as well, proving that there's no one you can ignore when considering your opponents draft. Game 2 was a similar story, with Mort absolutely embarrassing Savoury Characters offlane and leveraging that into kills all over the map way earlier in the game than any hard carry has the right to. If I had to give one reason as to why these early successes didn't translate into wins, as someone who played in these games it'd be transparency. When you're playing with a new group of people, it's very easy to fall back on what you know works, but this also makes things easy to read for the other team. Despite Razzle Dazzle's easy aggression, it seemed like we on Savoury Characters were able to read where they were currently or where they were going with relative ease, with the exception of a few very impressive ganks around the map. This is surely something that will improve once this team gets more comfortable with each other.
MVP: Razzle Dazzle's mvp for this series has to be Mort. Mort proved to be a nearly unstoppable force in game 2 with his Slark performance. Right out of the gate Slark was finding impossible kills on Savoury Characters' offlane. As the game went on, Mort almost became the sole initiator for his team, catching out Radiant's hard carry in the most random of map positions. He managed to get over 10 kills before dying at around the 25 minute mark. He managed this with one of the most hyper aggressive builds I've ever seen, finishing the game off with Mage Slayer, Shadow Blade, Bloodthorne, and Aghs all making an appearance. Slark had his way with you.
Game 1 saw them winning or getting very close to winning every lane, and parlaying that into a level of aggression on the map rarely seen in this league. They had Lost Boy's own Rufio standing in for them in the position 4 for this game, but it didn't seem to interrupt their flow in any real way. Their midlaner was able to come out ahead in a matchup against a player nearly double their MMR in this game as well, proving that there's no one you can ignore when considering your opponents draft. Game 2 was a similar story, with Mort absolutely embarrassing Savoury Characters offlane and leveraging that into kills all over the map way earlier in the game than any hard carry has the right to. If I had to give one reason as to why these early successes didn't translate into wins, as someone who played in these games it'd be transparency. When you're playing with a new group of people, it's very easy to fall back on what you know works, but this also makes things easy to read for the other team. Despite Razzle Dazzle's easy aggression, it seemed like we on Savoury Characters were able to read where they were currently or where they were going with relative ease, with the exception of a few very impressive ganks around the map. This is surely something that will improve once this team gets more comfortable with each other.
MVP: Razzle Dazzle's mvp for this series has to be Mort. Mort proved to be a nearly unstoppable force in game 2 with his Slark performance. Right out of the gate Slark was finding impossible kills on Savoury Characters' offlane. As the game went on, Mort almost became the sole initiator for his team, catching out Radiant's hard carry in the most random of map positions. He managed to get over 10 kills before dying at around the 25 minute mark. He managed this with one of the most hyper aggressive builds I've ever seen, finishing the game off with Mage Slayer, Shadow Blade, Bloodthorne, and Aghs all making an appearance. Slark had his way with you.
Mudboys:
There's something about the way Mudboys play that remind you of how fun DOTA can be. In the draft, you can tell that they're always looking for some hidden pick that will be more fun than it'll be effective, and most of the time how effective it ends up being will shock you. During the game they'll go from making some of the most clean and impressive rotations, only to have their cores die in the most clowny way of all time. You can tell that this team is made up of at least some people who have a life together outside of the game, because without that aspect holding them together they would almost certainly disband after their cores dived fountain for the 80th time.
This week saw them facing off against Team Drip, who looked scary good. Despite Team Drip looking like Vishnu controlling 5 different heroes in a state of pure nirvana, Mudboys managed to give us easily the most exciting game of the week. Game 1 featured Mudboys pushing Team Drip all the way to the 66 minute mark, and it looked like anyone's game until the end.
This week saw them facing off against Team Drip, who looked scary good. Despite Team Drip looking like Vishnu controlling 5 different heroes in a state of pure nirvana, Mudboys managed to give us easily the most exciting game of the week. Game 1 featured Mudboys pushing Team Drip all the way to the 66 minute mark, and it looked like anyone's game until the end.
Game 2 was a fair bit more 1 sided in Team Drips favor, but Mudboys did not give up the win easily. With no one having a catastrophically bad performance.
Team Drip:
There is no team in the division currently as scary as team drip. I don't believe they've shuffled out any players in the off season, and they play like a team that's been playing together for over a decade. Last season saw them finishing as strong as my preamble suggests. They easily had the highest expectations going into week 1, and they exceeded them handily. What's the secret to this success? If you were to ask me I'd say that having your 2 highest mmr players playing the highest priority roles probably helps, but that's just on the surface level. Hedge Fund Manager (Hard Carry) and APE (Mid) are supported by 3 other very strong players that provide them all the support they need to look like the best players in the division.
Their first game against Mudboys was very tightly won off the back of some Monkey King ultimates that looked simply impossible to pull off. However, if you were to ask me the secret of their final success in game 1, it has to be Master Salty's Nightstalker picking up a Giant's Ring and having a model so big it was impossible to target anything else around him.
Their first game against Mudboys was very tightly won off the back of some Monkey King ultimates that looked simply impossible to pull off. However, if you were to ask me the secret of their final success in game 1, it has to be Master Salty's Nightstalker picking up a Giant's Ring and having a model so big it was impossible to target anything else around him.
Game 2 featured both Hedge Fund Manager and APE going deathless in one of the more 1 sided games we saw this week. If I were playing against this team in the future I would focus on giving my offlane and midlane as favorable a matchup as possible. Without this, you are likely doomed to a similar fate as Mudboys in game 2.
MVP: On top of going deathless in game 2. APE pulled off a Monkey King performance to rival the strength of the hero when he was first introduced into captains mode. Throughout the game I was consistently left mouth agape as this motherfucker managed to get off full duration Wukong's Commands over and over again. While having less total damage than his carry counterpart in Juggernaut, he made just about every fight simply unplayable for Mudboys. Monkey King is a hero you so rarely get to see played to its fullest potential, and for that alone we must stan.
Looming Fruit:
Looming Fruit is another team that's become a mainstay in the league. This team knocked us out last year in the lower bracket, and quite honestly I couldn't even be mad. Something about this team just makes them very fun to play against. When you're drafting against them, you can just tell that this is a team that does the homework, and puts the time into trying to figure you out. As a member of a team and scouter who likes to do the same, I have to put some respect on the art. I could be totally off base and they are just naturally good drafters, but it nevertheless makes every game feel like a fun challenge.
Game 1 is where I really want to put my focus on, as game 2 felt more like a continuation of the momentum they got from the first. Game 1 featured Looming Fruit coming out of lanes fairly far behind, and that trend continuing throughout the midgame with the gold graph consistently moving in Marci Beaucoup's favor. But what's that....in the distance...? Is that...is that Diokratos with his Warhammer ass steam Avatar having a nearly flawless performance on Mid Visage and literally putting the entire team on his back? Is that the rest of the cores and supports on Looming fruit managing to scrape together just enough farm to have their item timings all hit at precisely the right moment to wipe their opponents and completely shift the game in their favor? It is! To someone who's unfamiliar with the league and this team, it might seem like a surprise that this happened, but to someone who has played against them it's anything but. If you have ever had to pleasure to catch one of position 4 Whitehawk's casts, you would immediately understand the vibe of this team. Cool, calm, and collected through any and all strife. I have to believe that that demeanor carried them through this comeback.
MVP: Do I really have to say it? It's obviously Diokratos on his mid visage. Being the only player to come out of his lane ahead, he then when on to manage to maintain that advantage into an unlikely victory for his team. His Ember Spirit performance in game 2 proved why you NEED to ban this hero early and often, especially when their midlaner is adept at it as Diokratos.
Marci Beaucoup:
Marci Beaucoup is admittedly the team I know the least about coming into this season. They are a mishmash of teams from last season (Coming Winter and Greg Pulino both played on free agent team Press Buttons last year), with some new faces making their first WLDL appearance. This means that they're the team with the most to prove going forward, especially given their 0-2 defeat in the first week. But this should be more motivating than it is discouraging. If you've never played league DOTA as I hadn't before last year, you're in a really special position. You will learn more about the game you've been playing for years in a few games of WLDL then you ever will watching a Jenkin's Herald review. Teams grow fast and a 0-2 in week one can quickly turn into a 2-0 the following week in this league.
Their success in game 1 was cut short by a single teamfight that didn't go their way, but it's important to highlight that success even if it didn't result in a victory. Their draft here shows an understanding of the game that could have easily carried them to victory had the teamfight went in their favor. Their offlane Slardar in this game was a definite standout, and something I would definitely considering banning against this team in a future matchup. I fear that the story of game 2 betrays the actual potential of this team, and we'll just have to wait and see what that turns out to be.
MVP: relapsegamer was the only member of his squad to manage to pull out a positive performance in game 1 against Looming Fruit with his offlane slardar. He along with an almost equally impressive pudge performance by The Ssef Lord made Looming Fruit's safelane very sad. If I was a team anticipating a match vs Marci Beaucoup in the coming weeks, this would be the player and lane that I would put the most focus on. At the very least don't let this guy play the most annoying offlaner to go up against in the game.
MVP: relapsegamer was the only member of his squad to manage to pull out a positive performance in game 1 against Looming Fruit with his offlane slardar. He along with an almost equally impressive pudge performance by The Ssef Lord made Looming Fruit's safelane very sad. If I was a team anticipating a match vs Marci Beaucoup in the coming weeks, this would be the player and lane that I would put the most focus on. At the very least don't let this guy play the most annoying offlaner to go up against in the game.
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