Replay 72: ADC IV: FF.Gigabyte vs LGD.sgty

1.24e / 6.68c

(Warcraft Version Switcher)

Download Replay

Game Played: 27-Sep-2010

Game Length: 54:32 min

The Picks

FF came for this game with a pre-loaded line-up set in their mind which focused largely on team battles. The usual approach by them in team fights would be Ghost Ship -> Black Hole -> Global Silence -> Requiem of Souls -> Freezing Field which could be used in other permutations as well. Seeing FF’s lineup, there are two things LGD should take care of – 

1. Pick out one or two FF heroes before a team battle begins and/or they use their ulti. To pick out heroes you need vision of the complete map so that you actually know when one hero is away from his team members, therefore the Venomancer pick whose wards give a huge vision of the map and aid in pushing as well.

2. Keep dispersed among themselves so that they’re not all caught together in a single ulti as it would chain devastation for them in that particular team battle. Chen was picked for his heal as an assurance so LGD heroes last longer in team battles.

Overall, I would say FF successfully outpicked LGD as they got the heroes they wanted and LGD ended up somewhere between a gank and push line-up.

Laning Phase

The lane distribution was quite as expected by both the teams. Chen going down was the right thing to do as he could support Alchemist there but soon he moved to the top jungle after he got First Blooded in the Sentinel Forest.

Chen could've guessed that he was being followed

Problem started for LGD as Alchemist wasn’t able to farm or even level up properly against the tri-lane. Even after Maiden and Nortrom left, Kunkka farmed up much more easily than Alchemist owing to the significant level difference between the two heroes.

Things weren’t improving for LGD by any means when Kunkka took a splendorous Triple Kill at bottom lane (11th minute). He was also the leading Creep Killer at this point of time.

Mid Game

Starting from the 12th minute, ZSMJ (Alchemist) tried to move into a state of seclusion and farm important items in the jungle. However, the pressure from FF didn’t reduce and he had to return back to the lanes for defending towers. He got his golden opportunity to farm from the 17th min to 20th minute in which he earned more than 2800 gold (thanks to his skill Goblin’s Greed) and completed his battlefury. After this there was no stopping his farming as he moved around in jungles and FF towers started falling down thanks to quick pushes by Chen and Venomancer.

Game started to look in LGD’s favour at the 24th min when FF weren’t able to push the mid lane. Alchemist got too tanky whereas Enigma seemed confused where to Black Hole as all Scourge heroes moved at quite some distance from each other.

Late Game

Things started looking grim for FF when they lost Kunkka at the top lane (27th min) and Alchemist completed his Radiance. However, they made a small comeback when Venomancer mistakenly moved away from his team and got pinpicked. Loss of Venomancer cost them the Aegis. The kill score at this time was 18/9 in favour of FF.

LGD won an important team battle at bottom Scourge tower (30th min) and then another team battle at the middle lane (35th min) when all FF focused to kill Lion and Alchemist whereas Vol’jin took advantage of the situation securing a triple kill.

The game never looked into FF’s way after this. They could just pray if Kunkka hits a critical-cleave to all heroes (which never did in team battles as he was generally disabled) and win them the game.

Nice Things

[Game Start] Observer Ward showing creep camp as well.

[5th min] Nice double creep pulling by S (Silencer)

[11th min] Splendorous Triple kill by Kunkka.

[12th min] Tower Deny by Silencer.

[35th min] Vol’jin getting the Triple Kill.

Team LGD never staying close to each other confusing Enigma where to place the Black Hole for the best results.

Irritating things

Kunkka preferring a Buriza over BKB - I don’t understand why Buriza is replacing BKB on Kunkka? (Last game I watched the same mistake was Razer.3gp vs StarsBoba) Are the teams praying for a critical-cleave? I mean, that’s not a very bad idea as it also gives +81 damage but it’s a bad item choice when your team depends so heavily on you and you can’t do anything about enemy disables.

Nicknames of FF – ByD, S, AAA, X, ko – C’mon guys, show some creativity! However, this might even be their strategy so that the enemy doesn’t get to know who’s playing which hero. ;)

Recommended Game for Kunkka, Alchemist.

Winner :: LGD.sgty

Note: Game 1 of this clash was also recommended to me. However, I haven’t been able to watch it yet. If you want to check it out, please visit the Playdota Forums for the same.