By Raka
Pepegas on Ice vs License to Kill
Game 1: Braxis
Falstad, Brightwing, Artanis, Junkrat, Garrosh vs Chromie, Muradin, Anduin, Thrall, Raynor
License to Kill had an advantage for most of the early game. With Pepegas relying on the Falstad to both slow the opposing team to help Garrosh get into throw range and also to fly to the top of Braxis to help ensure that Artanis maintained control of the northern point, it seemed Pepegas would slowly lose whichever lane Falstad wasn’t in. Things grew yet worse once Chromie got her Timeloop as Garrosh wasn’t able to walk away from failed throws anymore. The game briefly turned around at 20 when, with the addition of Artanis, Pepegas were able to engage without simply having Garrosh walk forward, but the lanes were imbalanced and eventually the minions forced the team to split at which point License got a late game team fight and took the game.
Game 2: Alterac
Johanna, Tassadar, Ragnaros, Brightwing, Falstad vs Anduin, Sylvanas, Anub’arak, Hogger, Kael’thas
Pepegas had a much more dominant showing than in game 1. It seems they had identified that License to Kill was very very good at responding to head on attacks and sot hey drafted a team where all the squishies had movement abilities so they could more easily move in past the front line. This became apparent at 13 when Tassadar gained access to Shadow Walk and each teamfight was Pepegas pushing in as a crescent so whichever way BowserKing reacted, he was leaving a flank exposed.
Game 3: Battlefield
Thrall, Muradin, Li-Ming, Chen, Anduin vs Uther, Chromie, Johanna, Raynor, Sonya
Game 3 seemed to be a tale of two drafts from License’s sides. On the one hand, they went for Johanna and Chromie and seemed to want the enemy team to engage into them, but on the other side they went for Solo-heal Uther, and the Raynor played very forward and aggressive. It felt like part of the team wanted to be aggressive and limit the ability of the Anduin by diving into the team, and the other part of the team was more interested in building that defensive wall that worked so well on Braxis. In the end, neither half could be successful without the support of the other, and Pepegas won out.
Ginormous Jaegers vs Deny Defend Dehaka
Game 1: Alterac Valley
Varian, Sonya, Azmodan, Anduin, Valla vs Deckard, Tassadar, Johanna, Hanzo, ETC
Game 1 started off very even. The Dehakans were a bit more efficient at getting soak than the Jaegers due to the latter being more willing to shift between lanes, but the Jaegers were able to secure a kill or two with the shifts so experience was relatively even, with the Jaegers pushing gradually ahead as kill experience ramped up. The game proceeded to be extremely even between the two games, with 11 kills apiece going into the final offensive. Although the Jaegars got the best of the final teamfight, the Orcish Wolfriders had hit from the other lanes and the core went down. If I had to give a reason Dehaka won here, I would say Jaegars sometimes got too eager for kills. The final objective was taken by the Jaegars after killing one of the Dehakans. While it was being channeled, the remaining Dehakans went to take their bruiser camp and a fight broke out. While no one died in the fight, the Jaegars were so focused on fighting their opponents no one stopped the NPC Footmen from resecuring the prison camp, which delayed the objective and allowed the Dehakans to re-engage and, ultimately, reverse the objective.
Game 2: Volskaya Foundry
Johanna, Li Ming, Nemesis, Blaze, Rehgar vs Andion, Orphea, Varian, Valla, Leoric
Game 2 was a Field Day for Leoric. With the opposing team having 2 melee heroes (Blaze and Johanna) and 2 “ranged” heroes that tend to be closer to the action than most (Tychus, Rehgar) Leo’s Entomb would regularly get 2 or 3 heroes in it, and with both Lightbomb and Eternal Feast on deck it was difficult to survive such an engagement. That said, it wasn’t a cakewalk, the game went nearly a half-hour before it was said and done! Highlight of the game was Eternal Feast grinding a protector down to nothing while no one from Jaegars were allowed to get inside it.
Witch Rhythm vs HoTS Tuah
Game 1: Alterac Valley
Johanna, Malthael, Hanzo, Brightwing, Kel’Thezad vs Samuro, Muradin, Valla, Stukov, Zarya
This game really felt like a coinflip. The game ended 18 kills to 16 with both cores exposed, both teams won the objectives. If I had to point to one thing that was the difference maker, I would point to the Samuro. Samuro is just brutal for a Malthael to go into and the poor Malthael just struggled the whole game to try and keep up with the Blademaster. The Kel’Thezad had some fantastic ults that secured multiple kills, particularly on the Valla and the Stukov, but the Zarya did just as much work and prevented a lot of good looking engages, plus the threat of Graviton Surge forced Witch Rhythem to be cautious to move forward.
Game 2: Tomb of the Spider Queen
Anub’arak, Thrall, Gul’Dan, Brightwing, Sylvanas vs Imperius, Chromie, Valla, Rehgar, Muradin
Witch Rhythm was a lot fiercer in this match. With a slight edge in wave clear on the map all about wave clear in the form of Sylvanas and Gul’Daniel, combined with three different engage ults (Mind Control, Horrify, and Cocoon) it constantly felt like Hots Tuah were trying to survive the assault of Witch Rhythm which, to their credit, they did admirally. Many teamfights ended up going towards the Tuahns, but the wave clear advantage meant that whenever Witch Rhythm had an edge, they took buildings because of it and, with the map objectives favoring a pushed lane, that translated into a heavier and heavier advantage as the game pushed on.
Game 3: Towers of Doom
Rehgar, Lunara, ETC, Dehaka, Falstad vs Chen, Johanna, Valla, Chromie, Anduin
This game really felt like a victory for Witch Rhythm. They got to 10 first and were up 6 kills to 1 at one point. They drafted double global and kept using it to pull out fights out of no where. However, the fatal flaw in their comp was lack of engage. ETC went for stage dive and Falstad is more of a counter engage. Whenever HotS Tuah would take and defend a structure it became increasingly difficult for Witch Rhythm to take it back. Still, it was a close match, with Witch Rhythm leading in kills (12-8) when the last shot landed.
Cats On My Keyboard vs Heavy Group Therapy
Game 1: Garden of Terror
Sonya, Anduin, Valla, Azmodan, Muradin vs Sylvanas, Brightwing, Leoric, Falstad, ETC
Game 1 seemed slightly HGT favored, with them getting the first Terror Spawn and seeming to move the map and take camps more proactively. Cats on my Keyboard fought hard and managed to delay turnins and lengthen skirmishes long enough for Azmodan to continually soak and push through the bottom lane. Eventually, HGT over-extended and took a crippling loss in a late game teamfight which led to a Kitty Pounce on the Core.
Game 2: Infernal Shrines
Sonya, Anduin, Tychus, Li-Ming, Muradin vs Orphea, Maiev, Johanna, Leoric, Auriel
There is little to say about this game other than it felt mean. The combination of Maiev’s Warden’s Cage and Orphea’s Eternal Feast made it extremely difficult for CoMK to stand their ground and aggressive rotations kept the Cats on the backfoot. As the game lengthened, it felt like Cats on my Keyboard kept trying for an epic engage to turn the game around, but without an Azmodan soaking the whole planet to keep experience even it wasn’t to be this time around.
Game 3: Cursed Hollow
Sonya, Rehgar, Cassia, Samuro, Johanna vs Anub’arak, Brightwing, Leoric, Hanzo, Jaina
Much closer game with both teams pushing into the other in several places. It felt like Cats on my Keyboard was a little disjointed, however, because the first tribute they staged a valiant fight 4v5 while Samuro soaked the bottom lane, but Samuro wasn’t ten yet and had no bladestorm and so he didn’t get the value from pushing that another bruiser might. As the game played out, Hanzo’s Zoning Arrow regularly was used to blunt the enemy team and, of course, Entomb into Arrow deleted cats. The cats fought back hard, the natural synergy between Cassia and Johanna bringing HGT to the brink of death multiple times, but the brink isn’t actually dead and HGT were able to recover and re-engage.
Maximum Thrust vs Bad Rats
Game 1: Sky Temple
Valla, Lucio, Tyreal, Chromie, Hogger vs Falstad, Rehgar, Dehaka, Mei, Sylvanas
Game 1 started off feeling very Maximum Thrust favored. While kills were relatively even, Thrust tended to get into key positions on the map better and were able to drive the rats back. It really felt like the Mei, Dehaka, Falstad comp was designed to defend a location and the Rats really struggled when they weren’t the ones defending. However, conversely, Maximum Thrust had built a Tyreal run down tank (with Judgement), a Chromie to prevent escapes, and a Lucio to make escape difficult. Later in the game, when the Rats started getting to locations first, we began to see the tables turn and Maximum Thrush have serious problems dislodging them. The comp of “Don’t let them escape” turns out to struggle into “We’re not TRYING to escape.”
Game 2: Volskaya Foundry
Tyreal, Brightwing, Deathwing, Varian, Junkrat vs Zarya, Aurial, Valla, Leoric, ETC
This match wasn’t a knife fight, it was a sumo match. With both teams being incredibly beefy (Sanc Tyreal, Smash Varian, and Magewing going against Zarya, Leoric, and ETC) fights went for a long time and often resulted in zero deaths. Still, once again it felt like whichever team got to a location first had the advantage, and with Deathwing’s slower rotation it felt like the Rats got priority more frequently than the Jets did.