The International 2016: The most fluid finals yet
This year’s International tournament is perhaps the most evenly matched tournament ever. The difference in skill between the favorite of the tournament, OG, and one of the lowest ranked teams, TNC, is so small that TNC knocked OG out of the tournament.
If you can’t outskill your opponent, then the way to differentiate yourself is through strategy and coordination. The grand finals illustrated this by pitting the two teams with the most varied drafts against each other. Sure, they both had plenty of high level play throughout. You can’t make it far without having highly skilled players. But the drafting and shot calling of the two captains, Misery and Y’.Innocence were more dynamic and on point than any other team in the tournament.
Digital Chaos
From running Skywrath Mage mid to Sand King support, they took heroes and played them outside of normal roles when matchups presented themselves. It didn’t always workout, see Jakiro in game 2 against EG in the loser bracket finals, but Misery always had the guts to pick something unorthodox in order to exploit an advantage.
Game 3 vs. Evil Geniuses in the loser bracket finals showed the shot calling ability of Misery. He didn’t have a lineup conducive to split pushing, but with EG barrelling down a lane with Terrorblade they needed a way to alleviate the pressure, so he sent Moo to the bottom lane to push while Resolut1on was at the top lane pushing, both of them playing heroes not really prone to split pushing. But Moo had Beastmaster’s vision advantage and Resolut1on had Slark’s escapability, which made them capable of what Misery was asking.
This is how they made the Grand Finals, guts and drafting. And having such a fluid draft that they could implement a different strategy should the need arise.
Wings
Wings, on the other hand pretty much dictated every game they played, whether they won or lost. Their drafts felt disjointed and crazy, but looking back with hindsight they make perfect sense. Unconventional, yes, but crazy no.
The keys, as Wings saw it, was countering the two heroes that DC had been using to near perfection in the tournament, Timbersaw on Moo and Mirana on w33. DC got both heroes in the final 2 games and were countered by Wings a few different ways. Nyx and Kunnka were used to stop the spell casting and the mobility of both heroes. In the final match, they drafted Anti-Mage who controls the mana of the heroes and matches their mobility.
The true key to Wings though was their knowledge of their composition’s power curve. What I mean by that, is they understood when their team would be strongest due to items and levels. Each hero has a power curve, and combining those to get a team power curve can be complex. Most players do this subconsciously, often seeing similar compositions of the opponent and using that experience. Playing against Wings, however, doesn’t really give you that shortcut due to their unconventional compositions.
And to top it all off, they use those unusual team compositions with clear direction in team fights. They pick heroes for a specific reason, even if that reason is not commonly thought of as a strength of the hero. The Pudge pick in the first Grand Finals game was not made to put pressure on lanes with a ganking hero staying off the map. He was picked to hook Storm Spirit out of Chronosphere should be get caught.
This Grand Finals was my favorite yet, and it was helped for sure by these two fluid teams. They are pushing the envelope in drafting and strategy and their success on means great things for this game as teams try to mimic and evolve those techniques.
