By Ruglord
Gen.M Esports takes it 2-0 over Fancy Flightless Fowl
Game 1 was a 30+ minute banger. FFF showcased a very interesting tech here, opting for Tarrasque at level 20, which served as a Monstrosity that could cleave. However, it was GenM who claimed the superior map control, with lane pressure ultimately bringing FFF to 44% and then 20%; at that point the level 27 Punisher was just too much. I think GenM probably could’ve ended a bit sooner, but their patient play still paid off.
I guess GenM needed to head to bed after that because Game 2 was a much faster, 17 minute game. It was also GenM’s chance to innovate, bringing out Colossus Smash Varian for an extremely short ranged comp, that held the reins for the entire game for the most part. A solid performance from a team that is looking to be one of the strongest among Div A.
gillyShark at !Bingo night takes it 2-0 over Spooky Ghosts
Game 1 took place on Dragon Shire, where I think gillyShark proved they had just slightly cleaner macro. They were able to consistently pressure top and ultimately, Spooky’s defenses just crumpled. Dehaka forced immense pressure late game with a push that almost single handedly took the game but even with Spooky’s defense, it was too little too late, as the 27% core was no match for the Dragon Knight.
Game 2, Spooky Ghosts busted out the tech with a Deathwing last pick. It’s actually really good if you think about it. The map is on Alterac and in ranged form, DW has a perma up time ranged damage puddle; you literally can not channel the objective if he’s around. And Gillyshark took Stitches and Junkrat so DW is one less potential hook/trap target. Again though, I think Gilly was just a bit cleaner on the macro. The very short cooldown, very strong camp on this map is often at the core of creating imbalance and in the end Gilly did a much better job taking it on time. The first time Spooky got the camp, Gilly had done theirs twice and had already captured the objective; Spooky was forced to use it as an anti push measure. Blaze was really the only one on Spooky that could do it reasonably fast but he was stuck top the whole game, fighting an uphill battle while Gillyshark once again demonstrated how proficient they are at applying pressure all around the map.
Magnitude: Epicenter takes it 2-0 over Came From Behind
Game 1: In Chess, a “sharp” line is a line where there is a lot of room for traps and mistakes from both players; basically both players have to tread very carefully. I’ve never heard anyone describe HOTS in the same manner but I think this game may be a good example if there ever was one. Both teams drafted very dangerous pick comps, whether its Garrosh + Uther + Greymane or Anub + Tychus + Stukov, everyone is dead the nanosecond they step out. I think it’s very telling that for the first 11 levels, there was exactly 4 deaths on both sides, with every teamfight seemingly resulting in a 1 for 1 trade. There were some serious imbalances in the compositions though, as Came From Behind had Leap Sonya and % damage Imperius for extra punch while Epicenter had a bit more defense with Uther’s 2 cleanses and Garrosh’s 1. I think this is very well demonstrated in the final team fight where a massive 4 man 20 Leap is countered by a 4 man 20 Divine Shield, winning Epicenter on the spot in a game that honestly, they had been struggling a bit in since the mid-game.
Game 2: The Garrosh returned for Epicenter on Infernal Shrines, while CFB brandished a shiny new Abathur pick. These two characters are interesting because whereas Abathur has a bit of a weak early game that requires you to take uneven fights that leverage hat to gain an advantage before ultimately scaling into Hivemind, Garrosh is very strong early and allows you to basically bully you way through any encounter with even numbers. Unfortunately for CMB, Epicenter was a lot better at leveraging their end of the advantage, as there was pretty much no point where CFB really gained any ground. To be fair, their end is quite harder to play. 5v5 fights are a real struggle with early Abathur, at least until you get Ultimate Evolution, and on a map like Shrines where you can’t just wait out every objective, that can be really tough. And by extension, I think CFB’s job became a lot harder when they opted for Monstrosity over Ultimate Evo. Monstro absolutely has a place, usually as an alternate ult when you have such a juicy hat target, replacing it with Evolution is actually worse, the most infamous example probably being Samuro. And hat + Skullcracker Mura is definitely not bad. In the end, however, it wasn’t good enough. CFB never even got 20. I do think the Aba pick is reasonable and definitely workable as both Sonya and Mura would’ve been great hat targets and at 20 it would’ve been extremely scary for Epicenter’s backline. However, it can be difficult to stem the bleeding until you get 20 on a map like Shrines where the objective is usually quite strong and especially when the enemy team also has an Odin.
The High Inquisitors winning over 2-0 Can’t Pause Wont Pause
Game 1 was on Garden, which featured in my opinion two very different teams. The Inquisitors packed Valla, Malthael, Greymane, Muradin, and Rehgar. CPWP instead had Falstad, BW, Junkrat, ETC, and Blaze. Both of these teams want to hit 20 on one of the slowest maps in the game but have very different game plans to get there: Inquisitors want to fight and stack their Valla (and Greymane as it turns out) while CPWP can afford to take things slower and play the map, utilizing their globals and long range Junkrat grenades to stall objectives. In the end, Inquisitors would take it in stunning fashion with Greymane living the ultimate dream: jumping into a soft backline with cleave 20 and Wizened 7. He would claim 2 lives and softening up the rest before falling and his team cleaned up. It’s moments like this that make me wish Cleave 20 also applied your AA talents to the cleaved targets (Janitor get on it!) I do think CPWP could’ve taken fights a lot slower. They kind of played into Inquisitors’ hand by fighting for so many objectives, including the very first one in a very difficult position on the enemy side of the map.
Game 2 would be on a somewhat similar map: Cursed. Here, the Inquisitors cruised to a pretty comfortable victory. I honestly don’t have much more to say than that. I think Inquisitors proved in teamfights to just be a bit more organized.