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It was inevitable. 33 DotA teams fought in Dreamhack 2007, but it was already obvious which two teams would fight for the championship: Team Team (T_T) and Meet Your Makers (MYM). The setting was almost too perfect. Probably the two strongest DotA teams in the world clashing at the world's biggest DotA LAN event. Meet Your Makers had won the last Dreamhack, but at that time their roster sported Loda and Akke—now prominent players on T_T. Since then, MYM had added the Americans Ben 'Merlini' Wu and Walter 'p0c' Lu, both of whom would play at Dreamhack. More recently, T_T had dismantled MYM 2-0 in the finals of MYM Pride 5, but at Dreamhack MYM was given an opportunity for revenge. Furthermore, Dreamhack represented another step forward for DotA in several aspects. First, it was the first major tournament to use 6.44b as the official game mode (previously the latest version used had been 6.43). The MYM members had recently met in real life at Denmark and, after playing copious amounts of DotA, seemed prepared to change the metagame once again with the innovative new strategies they had invented during their rendezvous. And—although for only one game—XL mode was used for the first time in a major DotA tournament (previously having only been used in WCL). The first meeting between the two teams met for the first time at Dreamhack in the Upperbracket Finals (to clarify, these were not the overall finals; the winner is given one free victory in the overall finals best of 3). Following is a detailed (warning: and long) analysis of each game in this classic series. Upper Bracket Finals Game 1 MYM Sentinel pugna MYM|H4nn1- (Top) TS MYM|Merlini (Mid) Chen MYM|Maelk (Jungle) Panda MYM|MaNia- (Bot) SS MYM|LevenT (Bot) T_T Scourge Zues T_T|Akke (Top) BeastMaster T_T|KwoM (Top) Sven T_T|Bogdan (Mid) EarthShaker T_T.Renji (Mid) PoM T_T|Loda (Bot) This match was unique in that it was played in -xl, a mode that MYM has been training heavily for and the mode that will be used in MYM Prime Defending 6. The lineups alone hint at the greater variety that –xl offers due to the exclusion of three heroes by each team. Judging by MYM's choices of Pugna and Chen alone combined with the lack of a lategame hero, it seems likely that MYM would be trying a full out push strategy. Push strategies were once dominant; in 5.84 the sentinel push strategy involving Rhasta/Morphling/Silencer/etc. was nearly unstoppable. Even during the first CAL season, games were won or lost by 5 on 5 pushes. Since then, however, push strategies have generally been replaced by lineups with farming lategamers and gankers. Pushing lineups, while having the potential to quickly win a certain game, have a few major drawbacks. Most noticeably, they lack late game strength, meaning they are forced to push during early to mid game. Pushing is inherently difficult due to the way the DotA map is set up; to reach the opponent's crucial barracks, a team has to push up a ramp without vision against a high damage base tower. Creeps can become a problem as well because they spawn right at that ramp location where the push is likely occurring. To compound the difficulty, heroes revive quickly during the phase where pushing is most effective and the opposing team's fountain is fairly close to the battle, meaning that a dead or almost dead hero can rejoin the conflict after only a short while. In once of the recent patches, IceFrog took out regeneration for towers to encourage push strategies. While this did indeed encourage more pushing, the biggest obstacle for push strategies remained: certain heroes, such as Sand King and Silencer could completely destroy a push (Sand King with Epicenter, Silencer with Global Silence). In -xl though? A team can easily exclude those heroes from the pool then run a pushing strategy with fairly high effectiveness. MYM did exactly that, excluding Sand King and Silencer from the pool then picking their lineup. While the early phase (laning) of the match was fairly even, MYM executed their strategy to perfection during midgame. The hero lineup of T_T simply didn't have enough AoE spells to defend against MYM's devastating push. MYM's strategy hinged on three major factors: numbers, health, and Pugna. Their pushes involved up to an absurd 11 units not counting creeps: four heroes, 3 small pandas, 2 Necro Warriors, and 3 Chen creeps. All these were supported by two Mekansms, one on Chen and one on Pugna. During engagements, the Ladder background of MYM's players was put on exhibition with Maelk microing his three creeps, his hero, and his necrobook to perfection and Mania disabling two of T_T's heroes with the Earth and Wind aspects of his ultimate. Merlini and Levent played excellently as well, with Merlini taking a beautiful triple kill with Haste during early game and Levent trapping heroes with his Serpent Wards several times. The two weeks that MYM practiced together before Dreamhack were readily apparent, as MYM's coordination was essentially flawless. But the key to the push strategy was MYM|H4nn1's Pugna. Pugna is nearly critical to any push strategy because of Nether Ward and Nether Blast. Because MYM was pushing, T_T was forced to engage with Nether Ward set up, putting them at a heavy disadvantage. Nether Blast is simply the best sieging skill in the game, as it hits towers for sizeable damage and can be used even as TP's are being cast on the tower. Overall, though, T_T seemed unprepared for MYM's –xl push strat. The next game, however, would be in T_T's mode of choice: AP Draft. Upperbracket Finals Game 2 MYM Sentinel QoP MYM|p0c (Top) Furion MYM|Maelk (Jungle) Tinker MYM|H4nn1- (Mid) BeastMaster MYM|Merlini (Jungle) Zues MYM|LevenT (Bot) T_T Scourge Silencer T_T|Bogdan (Top) Warlock T_T.Renji (Top) Shadow Field T_T|Loda (Mid) Pugna T_T|Akke (Bot) Sand King T_T|KwoM (Bot) By conventional thinking, T_T has the far superior lineup, featuring the previously dominant Sand King/Silencer/Warlock combination as well as Loda playing Nevermore, his favorite hero. MYM, however, won this match by a ridiculous margin using their new dual jungle strategy. How did their unconventional lineup work so well? The most noticeable facet of their lineup is the Beastmaster and Furion poaching in the jungle rather than playing in the traditional lanes. Jungling isn't a new strategy, but recent changes have increased its popularity dramatically. Jungling a hero has some obvious advantages: it provides the jungle hero with a dependable and consistent way to gain gold and levels and allows another hero solo experience. Furthermore, a jungle hero has a strong element of surprise; ganks are often foreseen by "calling missing," but a hero that's always missing can't be called. Thus jungle heroes are very useful in ganking. Even so, jungling has had a few major drawbacks that have prevented it from being used more extensively. The jungle hero often ends up being underleveled because neutrals tend to give less experience than lane creeps. A jungle hero can be shut down entirely with wards, which prevent neutral creep spawn. But in versions 6.43 and 6.44, the cost for wards was increased considerably. While IceFrog had made this change to encourage ganking, it had the side effect of making it nearly impossible to completely deny the neutrals for a jungle hero. As for levels, Merlini's incredible use of axes to hit multiple creep camps solves that issue to some extent; Beastmaster was as high leveled as any of T_T's heroes for most of the game. Nearly everything went right for MYM this match. Both their jungle heroes faced little opposition, gaining levels at a decent pace. All three lanes went fairly well for MYM as well, with H4nn1 getting an early kill on Loda. MYM had run essentially this exact same strategy before, against x6 in a TFL game. In that game, x6.tiger (better known as ezy) was ganked ruthlessly every time he walked past his tower. In this match, Loda was given the "ezy treatment," eventually going 1-11. The ganking heroes of MYM were able to completely suppress the carry hero of T_T and rack up kills on the others, giving them the victory. The key to the match, however, was not the jungling idea. Recall that T_T used a "global strategy" throughout most of MYM Pride 5. This lineup is a pseudo-global strategy of MYM's own. With Merlini acting as gank leader using Beastmaster's Primal Roar, Tinker having infinite mobility with Boots of Travel, Zeus's Ultimate, and Furion's teleport, MYM was consistently pulling off 4 man ganks or turning 3v1 fights into 3v4. The reason this strategy, as well as the global strategy, works so well is simple: in DotA, much like in real life, the side with the most heroes at the key point of conflict will win the battle. The mobility of Tinker and Furion allow MYM to put the most heroes at the point of conflict nearly every time. The number advantage was why MYM's strategy worked so well and allowed them to ward the entire map, establishing complete map control; in fact, T_T had to take refuge in their base for a prolonged period of time for fear of getting ganked immediately upon exiting. The concluding sequence of the game illustrated the thorough domination of MYM. T_T landed Epicenter, Infernal, Requiem of Souls, and Silence—and still lost the fight, not killing a single hero. The key number in this match was 2970—the amount of gold Loda lost by dying. T_T is an elite team, however, so the next match—coming one day later, with T_T having time to plan out a counter for MYM's strategy—would be much better. Because of MYM's victory in the upper bracket finals, T_T would have to win the next two games to win Dreamhack. How could they respond to MYM's new strategy? Overall Finals Game 1 MYM Sentinel QoP MYM|p0c (Top) SF MYM|H4nn1- (Mid) BM MYM|Merlini (Jungle) VS MYM|Maelk (Bot) Silencer MYM|MaNia- (Bot) T_T Scourge Zues T_T|Renji (Top) SK T_T|KwoM (Top) Warlock T_T|Akke (Mid) Furion T_T|Loda (Bot) Spectre T_T|Bogdan (Bot) As previously mentioned, the key in Upperbracket Finals Game 2 was that MYM had more heroes at the point of conflict nearly every time. In the Overall Finals, T_T recognized that if they picked Furion before MYM did, it would not only eliminate a critical component of MYM's dual jungle lineup but also allow them to run their now famous "global strategy" with Furion/Zeus/Spectre's excellent mobility. I've already discussed T_T's global strategy in depth in a previous article, but it worked well again against MYM. T_T played noticeably better than the previous two games, dominating both the lanes and the forest. In particular, T_T made a more concerted effort to stop Merlini's Jungle Beastmaster, warding the forest and ganking him in the forest on a few occasions. Though T_T outplayed MYM fairly thoroughly this match, they also outpicked MYM. While Nether Swap is an excellent skill, Vengeful Spirit seemed out of place the majority of the time and contributed little to the team. While missile makes Vengeful a decent ganker, her low mobility compared to heroes such as Furion and lack of a global such as Zeus gave T_T the ganking advantage. In addition, Vengeful/Silencer wasn't a strong enough lane to prevent Spectre from getting decent farming early game. The primary reason T_T won this game, though, is the same reason MYM won the previous game: they were able to outnumber MYM in the majority of the battles and so emerged victorious in the majority of them. Akke played particularly well as Warlock, farming a level 3 necrobook quickly. Combined with the global heroes and Sand King as gank leader, T_T was able to establish complete map control, which allowed Spectre to farm a quick Radiance. At that point, the game was essentially over, setting the stage for an epic Game 2. Overall Finals Game 2 T_T Sentinel Sven T_T|Bogdan (Top) Lina T_T|Renji (Top) SK T_T|Kwom (Top) Warlock T_T|Akke (Mid) SF T_T|Loda (Bot) MYM Scourge Furion MYM|Maelk (Top) Zues MYM|LevenT (Top) Tinker MYM|H4nn1- (Mid) BM MYM|Merlini (Jungle) QoP MYM|p0c (Bot) Though MYM picked the exact same heroes as they did in their impressive Upperbracket Game 2 match, some adjustments by T_T somewhat nullified the advantages of the strategy. First, T_T instituted a trilane with Sand King, Lina, and Sven in top lane in order to allow two heroes to solo. H4nn1-‘s Tinker had slaughtered Loda's Nevermore in the previous game, and T_T had no intention of allowing a repeat of that, so they solo'd Nevermore in bottom lane and put Warlock—perhaps the solo hero best prepared to handle Tinker due to Shadow Word—in mid lane. T_T also continued their assault on Merlini, continually warding and trying to gank the poacher of the jungle. With these changes, T_T held up much better during the early game phase. Another noteworthy change: Maelk laned as Furion in top rather than jungling, perhaps to help Zeus against the trilane of T_T. T_T played, in fact, very well during the majority of the game, keeping the kills even and allowing Loda a sizeable lead on creep kills over the rest of the heroes in the game. Both teams withheld on pushing, preferring to farm the map for most of the game. One late sequence, however, turned the tide. T_T attempted a five man gank on Merlini's Beastmaster and (I think) Levent's Zeus. What seemed like a sure victory for T_T turned into defeat as Queen of Pain joined the battle and Furion/Tinker teleported in. In the end, MYM's ability to farm multiple areas of the map allowed them to prevail. Almost every hero obtained at least one level 4: Tinker had Skadi and Guinsoo's, Beastmaster had Heart and 3000 HP, Queen of Pain had Guinsoo's and Skadi, and Furion had incredible DPS with Manta Style and Burize (remember, critical strike works on images). While Loda's Nevermore had great items as well (Satanic, Blink, etc.), MYM's overall money advantage overwhelmed T_T and allowed them to take home the victory. And that concludes Dreamhack. Thanks all for reading, a round of applause for T_T—the valiant runner-ups—and a big congratulations to MYM for their victory! 鉴于大家比较懒得看这么长的英文我大致翻译一下，阵容就不翻译了 T_T在上次MYM Pride 5 以2比0 赢了MYM，这次MYM卷土重来此次比赛用的是6.44b的地图赛制很奇怪，先是打了所谓的Upperbracket Finals，三局两胜，赢的能在overall finals(也就是最后决赛中获得1:0的优势) 于是MYM在Upperbracket Finals中2:0拿下T_T，第一把用了-xl的模式，MYM练习了很久但是T_T毫无防备，第二把T_T选择了-ap模式可是仍然输了于是MYM在overall finals开始即拥有1:0，第一把T_T又用了他们最经典的Furion+Zeus+Spec的阵容获得胜利比分1:1 比赛变得扣人心悬 MYM派出了跟Upperbracket Finals第二场类似的阵容，由于之前T_T的SF中路solo对阵tinker完全被打败，所以SF这次被安排到下路solo，中间是warlock，其他人都去了上面。整场比赛的大部分时间T_T都打的不错，但是就在五个人去gank Lini的BM和Zeus的时候，被及时赶到的QoP Tinker Furion 反gank了。最后MYM的每个人都基本上拥有一件4级装备，Tinker : skadi and guisoo; BM : heart; QoP : guisoo and skadi; Furion : Manta Style and Burize,虽然T_T的SF也拥有非常可观的装备(撒旦跳刀等等)但是MYM的普遍金钱优势最终赢得了胜利。

MYM.DotA wins Dreamhack Summer 2007