eLeVeN’s Clockwerk has a degree in mechanical domineering.
The first spotlight of the Summit 6 comes from the Virtus Pro and EHOME round 1 matchup. While the Chinese squad did lose the series 2–1 ultimately, eLeVeN’s clockwerk was the a big reason why they didn’t get plowed 2–0 straight by the Russian bears. Here’s a dive into what he did well in Game 2.
Defense of the Ancients is undoubtedly a team game; the esport scene’s discussions often revolve around teams performing well or poorly as a group entity. The Spotlight Series is meant to be a slight departure from that, where a MVP-worthy individual performance from the day is dissected with short clips.
Inspired by Danny Chau and the Ringer’s King of the Court series. Enabled by Dotabuff.
After getting spanked 18–3 by the good ol’ Shadow Demon-Luna combo, EHOME pulled out a Huskar-Oracle draft in Game 2 and rounded it out with a clockwerk. Huskar usually has a tough time as a damage initiator versus the crowd control & physical damage/defense afforded by VP’s lineup, so it was on eLeVen’s shoulders to facilitate two high damage but comparatively squishy heroes in teamfights.
Huskar’s early game woes reared their heads again, especially against the dual-mid lane of Death Prophet and Ogre Magi. By the 10 minute mark, Old Chicken had died three times; his armlet was severely delayed (completed at 13 mins) and he was 2.5k gold behind the enemy mid laner. Ramzes’ Sven was sitting comfortably at the top of the networth table and the Drow was forced away from the lane creeps due to the fear of Batrider. The game was heading in a direction eerily similar to Game 1 — VP had once again secured an early gold and experience lead. EHOME had only a few things going right for them at the time, and one of them was their pesky clockwerk — who had found a couple of kills on the enemy supports and kept his team in contention.
A statline of 1 Kill, 4 Deaths and 18 assists doesn’t exactly scream ‘superstar’ performance, but eLeVeN vehemently lead EHOME’s comeback starting at around the 15 min mark. His team was down 4k gold at that point, and VP were just about ready to run away with the game.
EHOME are getting a little antsy at this point. They smoke and invade the enemy jungle looking for a pick-off. eLeVeN finds the Rubick and smartly doesn’t waste his hook. While the battery assault and Huskar take down the Grand Magus, he immediately rocket flares across the tree line for vision. He correctly predicts an enemy hero’s presence and with the unused hook secures a second kill on a retreating Ogre Magi.
Even though they were just support kills, they yielded a total of 982 gold for EHOME were quite behind. Both kills also went to the starving Huskar. Within the space of a minute another fight broke out in the midlane, this time a full 5v5 collision —
With the aegis still intact, EHOME are looking to push down midlane but the entirety of VP is waiting in the radiant jungle. eLeVeN sidesteps the DP by walking west, but the Oracle gets lasso’d and the rest of the backline is silenced by the Death Prophet as Ramzes’ Sven goes to work on the Huskar. Sven almost gets the kill, but eLeVeN power cogs perfectly — pushing his carry away while trapping the Sven in with him. The Tranquils+Blademail (gives 9 armor) item choice allows him to comfortably survived the echo sabre swings of Sven, and the blademail active along with Old Chicken’s spears bring down the rogue knight. Immediately he chases the (stolen) Flesh Golem Rubick away from the teamfight taking away the beneficiary plague aura for VP while also denying additional crowd control. EHOME are able to clean up the rest of VP, losing only the Oracle in the process.
EHOME gained about 2.3k gold from that fight. The lead had swung ever so slightly in their favor and the items started flowing in. In the space of five minutes (15:00 to 20:00), Old Chicken’s net worth went up 5k as he completed a Dragon Lance & Helm of the dominator after scraping together an armlet at 13 mins. EHOME’s next fight put them in the driver’s seat —
eLeVen misses the hookshot on the Sven but keeps chasing him high ground, knowing that his team will be in position if a fight breaks out. He face-tanks a lot of VP’s stuns and even forces out a batrider lasso. This gives the green light for Huskar to go in since VP’s spells are on cooldown, but the Sven blinks for the Drow on the backline. Old Chicken (who manages to live through all the hate) puts down another perfect set of cogs, pushing Sven away and barricading VP’s access to the escaping Drow Ranger. Under the guise of false promise, Old Chicken’s Huskar makes short work of the enemy cores before falling and the rest of his team cleanup for a four-for-two exchange.
EHOME were firmly in the lead at this point, and the Drow push lineup was also hitting its peak. Sylar was at the top of the net worth charts, above the notorious Sven. They took control of the radiant jungle and secured a pick off that led to a base push opportunity.
Three EHOME heroes rotate in to gank the Sven farming in the bot lane. Ramzes gets silenced out of invis — but he has support coming in while the Undying & Drow pile on the damage. Instead of hooking (or even attacking) the Sven who is trying to TP out, eLeVen trusts his teammates to finish the job and proceeds to box out the two enemy supports so that they can’t provide any assistance. Sven and Ogre Magi fall, and EHOME feel comfortable to push high ground here.
With two heroes off the map, EHOME took the aegis next and pushed down bottom lane to challenge for VP’s barracks. While VP were able to hold successfully, they lost the Sven again stunting his item progression further —
eLeVeN misses the hookshot on to the Ogre Magi, but continues to walk up high ground and draw attention towards him. He is only able to box out the Rubick as the Oracle gets lasso’d on the backline (again) and rest of VP move in from the top side. Their three cores clump up around the lasso target to finish off the disabled Oracle. eLeVen turns around, force staffs cogs the three enemy cores right before they are able to take down LaNm and split; essentially creating a poor man’s black hole in the process. With the tombstone zombies running around, the cogs become even harder to get out of because of their small hitboxes.
eLeVeN’s suicidal power cogs protected Drow from being chased & dying, and subsequently turned the fight on its head. Sylar could safely output heavy right click damage from a distance and the Huskar enough time to respawn and contribute with his second life instead of getting focused right away. EHOME did end up losing Old Chicken on the back on an overzealous lifebreak onto the retreating Death Prophet, but the cogs saved the fight from being a full-team wipe in VP’s favor. Nevertheless, radiant defended their high ground successfully and thwarted the first push attempt.
EHOME were able to find a pick on a retreating Sven top lane five minutes later— eLeVen’s rocket flare provided vision and the ensuing cog pushback gave Drow ample time to dish out the damage. The crucial pick off on the enemy carry led to another base push by EHOME, which ended up being the last 5v5 engagement of Game 2.
EHOME are sieging the bottom set of barracks with Huskar on the front lines while VP is waiting for a slight opening to initiate on the squishy backline. eLeVeN is constantly using his rocket flare to provide vision on the enemy heroes and ruin a possible blink initiation. Lil’s Rubick steals the rocket flare and gives VP information about LaNm’s position. 9Pasha goes out of dire vision with firefly and finds another lasso on to the Oracle.
eLeVen immediately force staffs towards his ally and puts down power cogs which push the Batrider north. The cogs disrupt his movement enough that the Batrider is unable to drag the Oracle onto the high ground with him which would’ve been a certain kill, and a won fight for VP. At this time, radiant is forced to relinquish their high ground positioning advantage in pursuit of the retreating Oracle, who lives barely long enough to cast the False Promise on Huskar. Old Chicken survives the ultimate due to the doubled healing and EHOME is able to clean up the remaining enemy heroes and force a rather early forfeit out of Virtus Pro.
Things could’ve certainly gone differently if Sylar’s Drow didn’t have a Linkens Sphere in that last fight — the Storm Hammer could’ve been a three-hero stun and Sven would’ve dished out enough damage towards another successful hold by VP. But, alas.
EHOME weren’t able to keep up with Virtus Pro in the other two matches of the series, and they dropped down early to the lower bracket in the first round yesterday. While eLeVeN’s spotlight came in an overall losing effort, he put on a power cogs clinic, and was the reason why the series went to a third game at all.
LaNm’s EHOME will face EternalEnvy’s Team NP in the knockout round on Nov 18th (tomorrow), in a rematch of Northern Arena LB finals. Catch the live action at twitch.tv/beyondthesummit.
