DoTA 2 Clan "Alliance" Takes Home The International 3 Gold

[Denamic]

They couldn't afford to force a response from Alliance. By the time they would have gotten the mid barracks, Alliance would have gotten their bot and top, and would still be able to TP back home to defend the ancient. That would have been a clear loss for NaVi. TPing back to defend was the correct response by them, but they made a huge mistake by TPing so close to Alliance's base, a mistake s4 made the most of by interrupting Enigma's TP and delaying the other's with a perfect coil. That was a clear game changer and I'd argue that it was the moment NaVi lost. s4 later sealed their defeat with two more TPs interrupted, but by that point, I don't think NaVi could have salvaged the game even if they got back home, because they were already slapping the ancient. Even if they'd manage to beat them back, they would never be able to move out of their base, or NP would just push into their base and Io would have ported in with CK to kill off the ancient.

When Na'vi took the mid rax, they still had both their towers up. That's why they thought they could TP back to defend. But when s4 stopped their TPs, in the time it would take for them to run back to base, they were guaranteed to lose both rax already. There was no way they could stop the push without every member of Na'vi back. By going straight for throne, they'd either force Alliance to go for a base race, which Na'vi would win seeing how much damage PA was putting out, or ALLIANCE would TP back to defend, which would result in two ways:

1) Alliance would abandon taking the rax to TP back immediately, which would put Na'vi out on top because their rax was still standing.

2) Alliance would take the rax and then TP back to defend, which would also put Na'vi on top, because the tier 4's would be dead or dying, allowing Na'vi to do what Alliance did at the end of that game and go straight for the throne.

Alliance didn't have the damage or the lockdown at the time to beat Na'vi in a straight base race. If Na'vi had pushed instead of running back to defend, I'm 70% sure they'd have won instead.

You're forgetting that NP can solo push both top and bot simultaneously, and that's with mega creeps. Alliance could Take down NaVi's ancient while still defending their own with 5 members and a field advantage. Sure, it's possible that NaVi could have bursted down the last two towers and their ancient while still not dying to Alliance 5 man when they have towers and access to the fountain before NP could take down theirs, but it's extremely unlikely. NaVi is really good, but they can't rely on outplaying Alliance that much when so much money is at stake. They made a (correct, imo) judgement call to defend, but they made a mistake and it backfired.

 

[SomeLameStuff]

You're forgetting that NP can solo push both top and bot simultaneously, and that's with mega creeps. Alliance could Take down NaVi's ancient while still defending their own with 5 members and a field advantage. Sure, it's possible that NaVi could have bursted down the last two towers and their ancient while still not dying to Alliance 5 man when they have towers and access to the fountain before NP could take down theirs, but it's extremely unlikely. NaVi is really good, but they can't rely on outplaying Alliance that much when so much money is at stake. They made a (correct, imo) judgement call to defend, but they made a mistake and it backfired.

The initial decision to TP back was fine, the call to just run back to base after their TPs got cancelled was not. Also, Alliance couldn't take the teamfight. Really. There was a reason why they dodged the fight with Na'vi and went to split push instead, because Na'vi had the better teamfight team. Puck had just dropped Dream Coil to stop the TPs, and he didn't have buyback. Furion is terrible in teamfights without items. Chaos Knight wasn't that farmed at the time and couldn't put out enough damage to take on the whole of Na'vi. Wisp and Crystal Maiden... yeah, not really going to happen.

If they were really worried about dropping their tier 4s in the middle of that, they could have sent Batrider back to stop the push. Oil and Firefly would have stopped the creepwave cold, and Bat doesn't do much autoattack damage, so he's not that useful after using Lasso.

 

[coolerdude]

Watching this made me realize how much LoL has struggled. LoL wasn't built from the ground up to be an e-sport while Dota 2 obviously was. This all makes me sad because I still enjoy LoL's gameplay more so I play that instead, even though I think Dota 2 just is the better game of the two.

Anyhow, I couldn't follow the whole tournament, but what I saw was a treat to watch.

Actually, since Dota 2 itself was a direct copy from DotA on the WC3 engine, I wouldn't say it was "built from the ground up to be an e-sport". DotA itself had started out to be more fun than anything else. But after years of community feedback, bug exploitation (and subsequently meta-changing ) and public competitive plays, DotA did eventually become something esports worthy.

LoL was definitely not built to be esports material as its primary focus. The systems and mechanics they implemented (or some would say: taken out) was designed to be more casual and accessible. However, the entire ARTS and MOBA genre is well defined and extremely suitable to be a staple esport.

I'm just saying that none of these games started out to be "esports -> priority". Both definitely was more about fun. It's just that Dota 2 had years more of refinement in this regard due to it's years from DotA all the way back in 2003.