Pray hard boys, that the Grand Finals this year will be more TI3 and less TI4.

I've seen it said that Secret is going to roll their way to victory as Alliance did at TI3 until their second round with Navi. But honestly Secret are nowhere as strong as the 2013 Alliance, or the 2010 EHOME.

This year's TI seems pretty competitive, and there are no certainties, save for C9 throwing

 

I still think it will be a Secret - EG grand final. Secret will beat EG in UB R2 and EG will battle their way through the LB. In the final Fear will choke in Game 5 like he did in the ESL final.

Secret and EG just had a little fun with picks in the group stage, while the rest of the teams went all out I feel.

 

I haven't checked the EG games yet, but I did get the impression that Secret was testing out stuff and applying old strategy most of the time in the group stage. And it works still as clearly demonstrate by their 2nd place (I think they are like 13-0 with a s4 - QoP). I'm guessing we'll see more interesting match and draft when the stakes are higher for Secret, for now I'm guessing it didn't bother them to be anywhere in the top4.

 

Nah they lost one against LGD with s4 qop I think. 13-1 sadly. I think for one they will switch RTZ to mid again since the mid carry is slightly favoured in the patch. And I think we can expect some more heroes for Secret, like the zai Ember offlane for example.

But agreed, it will be interesting. And I also have a good feeling about C9 to be honest. If bone7 has a good game that is...

Edit: They lost against Maybe's Lesh with the s4 qop if I remember correctly...Yep, that was the imbapony stomp.

By the way, you should watch the second match against CoL. zai brood mid...crazy good.

 

I'm feeling like s4 is not performing very well when he's playing mid these last few matches. I've just watched their matches against MVP and his gyro (match 2) lost his lane so badly it wasn't even funny. They were lucky they managed a couple of team fights that put them back on track.

Damn CoL, I didn't watch that one yet. I'll get back to it. Didn't they lose one to CoL?

That combo ES+Lesh is devastating. Such a long range stun to insure Lesh lands his...I'm looking forward to trying it in pubs with my friends.

But like you said, I think we'll see them spice it up a bit more in the bracket.

 

Yeah, I had the feeling too. That's why I think they will switch it up. But to be fair, they didn't really care. Midas gaming on the supports for the lulz etc.

They won both against CoL. One with Tusk+Techies and one against Tust+Techies with zai brood mid. Crazy game.

Lesh+ES is retarded in pubs if you know how to play it. Tusk as well. I think there will be some nerfs after TI.

 

There were a bunch of surprises in the groups. CDEC came out of nowhere and look really really good. Someone also pointed out that they seem to be the only team in the tournament that prefers the Dire side. They played all 14 games there. Every other team played a more or less even split (implying both teams wanted Radiant, so each played 1 game).

The other big surprise was VG dropping the ball big time. What the hell happened there? The first round of lower bracket is BO1s too, so they could easily get nailed by a pocket strat and get sent home, even though I would pick them in a BO3.

C9 has no chance. Envy is way too erratic as a carry for that team to win unless they go on a ridiculous tear.

Secret is still the team to beat, but they are definitely beatable. One of the hardest parts of dealing with that team is that all 5 players can take over a game completely if you let them. Like a friend of mine commented, when Puppey is your worst player, you are probably in good shape.

If I had to make a prediction, LGD over Secret in the grand finals.

 

Complexity Gaming did very well as well and surprise a lot of player by snatching 3rd place I believe. Overall, it was a very interesting group stage.

P.S. I did end up watching the zai mid brood game...WoW, well worth the time haha!

 

Can't wait for more Doto tomorrow...Going to be a long night.

 

I've been having a bunch of fun in pubs playing random stuff lately, my current favourite hero to play is a Beast Master support. I basically babysit the safelane early and try to stack the jungle as much as I can. Then clean up the stacks with my 'Q' skill to get a fast blink dagger. Once I have blink I buy a smoke and go roam to secure pick offs seems to work really well. The hawk is amazingly over-powered it grants a stupid amount of vision.

Other thing I did with my friends as a joke was a Spirit Breaker, lifestealer, phoenix combo - it's a bit clowny but was a blast to play. Our lifestealer built scepter and would swallow me he'd then invest into the spirit breaker. The SB charges into a pack of enemy heroes. Then I pop out of the lifestealer and immediately supernova. We've tried it with storm spirit as well.

 

If you really want to go deep with scepter combos on naix, you should play Naix/Crystal Maiden. CM gets blink, Naix gets aghs. Infest CM, blink in, naix pops out, CM ults, then Naix eats CM, and you have a lifestealer with a moving, un-interruptable CM ult centered on him ready to eat everyone alive.

 

Or get NP, SB, LS, Zeus and whatever else. Zeus ulti to scout, SB charges in, LS infects NP and they port as well. Easy gank.

 

A good read:

http://www.liquiddota.com/forum/dota-2-general/472373-strategy-over-skill-alliance-ascendant

 

oh that article... Pretty awful imo

 

So, games starting in ~8hrs. Predictions:

LGD vs Empire - LGD 2:0
CDEC vs C9 - C9 2:1
MVPP vs Newbee - Newbee
VG vs Na'Vi - VG
VP vs Fnatic - VP
iG vs MVPH6 - iG
EG vs CoL - EG 2:0
Secret vs EHome - Secret 2:0

 

More like really awful read lol, no one would have predicted Alliance earlier in the year? They were crushing from the time they were nth. Calling the players mediocre when s4 was regarded as the best mid and drafter in the world, akke superseding Puppey as the #1 Chen + support and Bulldog being the most innovative and consistent offlaner at the time is an utter joke, when you consider how trash the other teams were back then. Unless the article is trying to compare Alliance then to Secret or something from now, which is pointless.


I'll do my predictions too, sounds fun:
LGD vs Empire - LGD 2:1
CDEC vs C9 - CDEC 2:0
MVPP vs Newbee - Newbee
VG vs Na'Vi - Na'Vi
VP vs Fnatic - Fnatic
iG vs MVPH6 - iG
EG vs CoL - EG 2:0
Secret vs EHome - Secret 2:0

 

I think EG-CoL will be closer than that. They've really proven their worth lately, taking the same amount of points in the group stage as EG, with the formers's group arguably being the stronger one. Besides that, they managed to 2:0 fnatic, who, beside a bad group stage, are a really strong team that even managed to knock off a match of Secret. They 2:0'ed C9 as well.

The CDEC-C9 match is gonna be a nail biter, unless C9 crashes horribly.

I agree with the rest though, with the VG-Na'Vi match being very uncertain. VG is the better team, but Na'Vi feels at home at TI.

 

I'm guessing as the 2 NA teams that don't utterly suck they've probably scrimmed against each other so EG should be more prepared than most for a lot of their strategies. coL has won a lot of games on the back of some rather unusual drafts I feel, although they aren't a bad team either.

CDEC C9 is just a guess, I could see any outcome from that really but went with CDEC since C9 are already choking in the group stage. Also wouldn't be surprised if Empire beat LGD again, but I'm guessing LGD has studied them in particular after losing to them so much recently.

I think group B was stronger than group A as well to be honest, the middle of the pack was a lot tighter.

 

http://wiki.teamliquid.net/dota2/User:Iceman331/The_International_2015

that's my bracket. I have no real confidence in it, but we'll see.

 

Sorry mate, but Secret whooped their asses 2-0. I highly doubt they will take a game of EG.