@Selira said in The Esports thread:
Dota 2's grand finales are happening right now. How has this been going? How is it meeting up to expectations, any surprise showups or stomps in the games?
lol, so VERY belatedly yes. The defending champions, OG, won the grand finals against Team Liquid, making them the only team to win TI twice. They are also the only five people to have won TI twice, which is bizarre because there's basically a roster shuffle every year.
OG is known for being VERY goofy and wholeheartedly embrace it; their philosophy is to play their professional games like any other game of Dota and just have fun. This year they had a temporary feature where you could plant a flag that had your steam profile picture on it. The following screenshot is from their first game in the upper bracket this year after they fountain dived Newbee.
One of the most exciting things this year was an unusual hero pick they used to crush a number of games. If you're a League player and haven't played Dota before, you might not know how different hero scaling and design can be. 'AP' doesn't exist and there are only a few abilities in the game that scale with a hero's stats. In other words, levels are more important for spell damage than items. As for design, most conventional supports in League have ultimates and abilities designed around enabling their team (CC, healing, buffs).
That is not the case in Dota. Some of the highest damage abilities are on supports heroes. In some matches, they can singlehandedly win a team fight or win the game. Most of them can be effectively played as a mid or solo laner, they just usually aren't because items aren't as effective on them.
This year, Ana (their position 1, the equivalent of an ADC) wanted to play position 1 Io. This is Io.
Io is literally a floating ball of light. He does not have eyes, hands, or feet. He cannot speak, so he communicates with the world by beeping and booping his emotions. His job, basically all he does as a hero, is tether himself to an ally unit so he can buff them, heal them or teleport them across the map for a short duration. He has one damaging ability, which summons a few orbs that float around him and explode on contact for light damage. He's a fantastic support and has only ever been played as one in professional games. He does not scale.
Every game OG picked Io for Ana, they put all their focus on ensuring he could get gold and experience. Every hero in Dota can buy Aghanim's Scepter, which gives them a unique upgrade to one of their abilities. When Io gets Aghanim's Scepter, the balls just spawn passively around him every few seconds. If he hits level 15, he can get a talent which gives the balls a small damage boost. Support Io can never afford Scepter and the damage talent is just there to keep the ability relevant.
But if he can hit level 15 ahead or at the same time as the other position 1/2 AND have his Scepter upgrade, the damage is basically impossible to deal with. The first game Ana picked it, everyone assumed they were picking on their opponent for being a weaker team. The second game he picked it, everyone realized it was going to be a reoccurring thing and NO ONE had prepared for it. A lot of the pro players actually spammed position 1 Io on days they didn't have games, trying to get a grip on what it was strong at and how they could counter it.
OG did a lot of silly things with it, I think all but one of their games ended within five minutes of Ana getting the scepter/level 15 - even one where they were down 20k gold (which is a LOT) in team networth AFTER winning.
As a consequence of Ana showcasing position 1 Io, the hero's pick rate in pub games rose dramatically and his win rate mirrored that. Except you know, in parallel because pub players aren't pro players. Ana did the right thing and issued a public apology for ruining so many games.
After TI they nerfed Io into the ground. The end.
Other than that, all but 3 out of the 115 heroes in Dota were picked or banned in the tournament, which I think is pretty neat and represents what I love about the game, its balance.
