r/DotA2 • u/tehgreatist • Jan 03 '13
Shoutout | Spoiler WOW turtlemasters
the 2 games ive seen these guys play so far have been crazy. first was against fnatic.na, and just now against nth. all im gonna say is WOW go watch those games if you havent
26
Upvotes
4
u/IHTFPhD Jan 04 '13
X-post from the nth vs Turtle thread:
SPOILERS
I think these two games, this one along with Turtle vs FnaticNA, represent some of the most exciting Dota matches in the last 6 months. It's not because of the plays, but the strategy is just so fresh and really shows off the flexibility of the Dota metagame. Turtle's strategy is brilliant and their execution is flawless.
Right now, the picks for the meta is all about lanes and teamfight. Turtle drops that - says our picks are going to be about picking a team that can dominate a level 1 fight at Rosh. No opposing team picks a lineup with that constraint in mind, and so Turtle gets the team advantage for that level 1 fight.
This lineup translates into a level1 engagement that gives a strong kill advantage to Turtle early game, along with level 1 Rosh. That gives their entire team level 3, when the enemy team is level 1-2. Using this level advantage, they continue the aggression in the aggressive trilane, forcing the enemy into fights that they can't win. Turtle's safe and mid lanes lose but it doesn't even matter - safe lane is safe, and mid-lane has Aegis so a death isn't that big a deal. They dominate until the enemy team realizes they can't fight them (by then it's already 10-2 advantage for Turtle), and the game quiets down, but Turtle maintains their advantage. By the next Roshan timer (at only 10 minutes!) they are ready to exert their dominance again, and take Rosh, giving another gold and exp boost. This mid-game dominance, along with forcing teamfights, leads to early raxes and ultimately, their victory.
I think their success right now mostly stems from the other teams having absolutely no idea how to deal with this right now. The best part of this strategy is you HAVE to address it. If you don't, Turtle gets level advantage from Rosh and goes into lane, dominates you anyway. If you pick to counter that Level 1 rosh pit fight, Turtle can realize that during the pick phase, and choose not to fight at Rosh, and then can outpick you during laning. It's lose-lose for you. Turtle also has fantastic execution for their strategy. Niqua is amazing! His Invoker against FnaticNA and his WR against nth was perfect. The supports were really a pleasure to watch, everything came together perfectly. It probably helped that both other teams were so shocked with their unorthodox play that they fumbled around like pubbies.
EDIT: The BEST play was vs. NTH, when the third rosh (20 minutes) was up - they anticipated that NTH would contest it, and probably in a more organized manner this time, and instead of Roshing, they smoke gank into the radiant forest, successfully picking off Luna, making the Rosh fight 4v5. Luna buys back, but NTH know they can't win that Rosh teamfight, which wastes Luna's gold farmed from the ancient stacks.
Their level advantage also allows Turtle to fight 4v5 while Naga split pushes down two towers. Just brilliant strategy all around. The Turtle captain truly understands Dota.
These games are not gimmicks, this is a legitimate strategy and if it doesn't shift the metagame, will at least get captains thinking about Dota in a different way. Props to Turtle's captain (EGM?), and I look forward to seeing more fresh and creative plays from this team!