Replay 74: WDC Qualifier: XctN vs XtC

1.24e / 6.68c

(Warcraft Version Switcher)

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Game Played: 2-Oct-2010

Game Length: 65:39 min

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The Picks

The last picks of both the teams were quite interesting. I can’t really make out what specific reasons if there were, for the Invoker and Obsidian picks but the most probable reason I see for the Obsidian pick is mana regen (Essence Aura) for his caster team while the Pinoys (XctN) seemed to have confidence over Beho’s Invoker. You can read out TSE/deon's nice explanation of the two picks in the comments below.

Looking at the picks, we have 5 ranged heroes on the Scourge side and no proper tank as such, which means they’ll be relying on a Vanguard-Hood-Meka Necrolyte for eating Sentinel nukes. They also have the ability to pick-out unsuspecting heroes with swapper-Vengeful and blink-Lion. On the other hand, the Sentinel side has 5 stunners and that would mean XtC would be in dire needs of BKB and Hoods to play effectively.

Overall, I wouldn’t say one team outpicked the other but XctN had the advantage as they had a clear plan for team battles which XtC lacked.

The Lanes

The lanes were quite as expected however, we could have had a solo Tinker instead of solo Obsidian. There were some nice ganks during the late-early game. Obsidian played a nice game dodging a number of stuns and projectiles. The following pic taken at 9:45 shows him dodge Sven’s Storm Bolt.

Obsidian’s dodging skills led to the death of all three – Sven, Invoker and Tidehunter

Both teams farmed nicely in the early phase. The score was 14/13 while both the teams had lost 3 towers.

Mid Game

The game picked up on action here. A 2-min long epic team clash happened from the 16^th min to 18^th min at Sentinel bottom lane making the score 19/19 at 18:00.

One can easily notice how the Sentinel team focused on killing Obsidian somewhat forcing him to go for a Vanguard skipping his core items. Meanwhile, Necrolyte took advantage of the Sentinel’s over-concern with Obsidian and farmed a shit-load of items very quickly. His total Gold earned at 19^th min. was around 8500 – higher than any other player in the game. Here’s a picture of his inventory at 19^th min.

But still, he was not tanky enough to just move into the enemy and still survive. XctN took advantage of the lack of a proper initiator and/or tank in Scourge Side and started pushing hard. There was no resistance whatsoever because of the stated reasons. We got to witness some amazing life saving swaps and use of force staff by Vengeful during these pushes.

One should notice how XtC lacked vision of the map. Lion saved money for his Dagger while Vengeful also preferred completing her Force Staff first of all. On the other hand, XctN.Ironhide bought Sentries to destroy XtC’s existing wards. As a result, the Scourge didn’t even have vision over the crucial spots of the map and could never suspect enemy actions. This was a big setback for XtC as they actually required taking out enemies before team battles and without vision this was almost impossible.

Late Game

XctN took over the game now. Windrunner completed her Oblivion Staff and silencing Necrolyte was a big problem for XtC. Now, time for some insight... XtC made a big mistake by not making Khadgar’s Pipe on either of Tinker or Necrolyte. There are a number of reasons to support this view - 

- Scourge team was in dire need of Khadgar’s Barrier as they died to enemy nukes too quickly (talk about the mass damaging Meteors)

- The slow from two Shiva’s Guard don’t stack

- The enemy wasn’t really about physical attacks as such.

[34:53] XctN eliminated Scourge’s base at bottom lane completely and took away their mid-tower as well, applying huge pressure on XtC. Mistakes from XtC’s galore as they were caught unprepared for Invoker’s wind-walk while he actually used the skill a couple of time earlier also.

[38:53] I don’t know why, but none of the Scourge heroes made a BKB most importantly on Tinker. Blademail however, was a good choice from Necrolyte as the Sentinel team had a lot of AoE. The team battle went to XtC’s favour this time as they successfully took out 3 Sentinel heroes including Invoker at the loss of only Lion.

The Scourge lost their mid base and the Spirit towers near Frozen Throne at the 44^th minute. The game went on for quite some while though it always looked in XctN’s way. Watching Necrolyte go beyond Godlike was a treat and XtC’s refusal to accept defeat was worth appreciating as they put up a great fight for the top towers of Scourge base.

[46:30] There seemed to be some miscommunication between the players of XtC as we could note Lion blinking in and Vengeful swapping Tidehunter at the same time which actually made him safe. I mean, WTF? Too bad I couldn’t take Print Screen of the hilarious blunder.

As you can see, the scores were pretty even at the end (45/43)

Recommended Game for Invoker and Vengeful Spirit.

Winner :: XctN [Execration]