The International 2012 Retrospective

Champion’s Run

By Heyoka

For the past several weeks, much of the talk surrounding The International revolved around the Chinese. As undisputed kings of the first DotA, expectations remained high that they would reach a similar point of authority sooner or later. Still, after their sometimes rocky online performances this summer, questions remained. With DotA 1 maintaining huge popularity, it was largely unknown just how dedicated these veterans were to learning the ins and outs of a new interface.

After the preliminary games much of that was put to rest. Not only did Asia perform better as a whole, LGD and iG put on displays of utter dominance that made fans question how they could lose to anyone. While the normal mainstays of Europe didn’t look dead, they seemed shaken, as if they might be out of place. Even so, with coL, EG, and Na`Vi placing into the upper bracket hope remained.

Come the first day of the main event, not much changed. Evil Geniuses and compLexity were sent to the lower bracket, though not without putting up a fight, and Na`Vi was able to defeat DK 2-1 to keep the winners side from being all Chinese. TongFu and EHome stayed alive in the lower portion by defeating Moscow 5 and Mousesports respectively, with an interesting Tiny-Wisp strategy being employed in the latter match.

The trend continued through the second day, as by the end Na`Vi remained the only western team remaining. LGD continued to plow through everyone, building a respectable 18-0 record going into the final day of play. Morphling became the hot topic, when it seemed no one knew what to do with the shapeshifter. Teams faced a difficult decision, as Morphling was the carry of choice but using a ban on him could mean giving Naga Siren to the best farmers around. EG had a particularly disastrous game against TongFu when they let Naga go, not realizing their opponents would also pick up Morphling to compliment the sea witch.

The third day gave us a glimpse into the Dota 2 future and became an all-out East vs West battle, as Na`Vi defended their title against the best China had to offer. After giving LGD their first loss of the tournament, they overcame the giants a second time to knock LGD into the lower half. Even more surprising was just how they did it, instead of opting to block Invoker and Naga with their first pair of bans, they chose Morphling and opted to fight Naga on open ground. Na`Vi showed what has made them champions for the last year and succeeded where other western teams failed, defeating a Naga ultimate set-up at one point in what is sure to be remembered as the moment of the tournament.

LGD’s downfall continued and they saw themselves go from undefeated to out of the tournament when Invictus Gaming beat them 2-1 for an iG-Na`Vi rematch in the finals. Na`Vi this time would surprise again, turning the tables once more when they decided instead of playing against Naga, they would try their hand at it themselves.

Unfortunately for them iG was back and stronger than before, having spent a day analyzing and discussing how to approach their adversaries for the second time. In the end iG prevailed 3-1, and were crowned the grand champions of The International 2012 while a disappointed Na`Vi took the silver.

Clash of the Titans

By Kupon3ss

The Winner's Bracket

The first game of the fated clash during the winner’s bracket played out with Na`Vi’s last attempt to play a “standard” meta and face the Chinese Juggernaut of iG head-on.



Na`Vi banned Invoker, Furion, and Dark Seer while iG banned Pudge, Lycanthrope, and Leshrac. The game would go down as one of the most one-sided of the tournament. Having been utterly crushed in every lane, Na`Vi failed to score a single kill in their rather ignoble defeat. A bit of the unease came out of my heart and I assured myself that there would be no possible way that Na`Vi, with the apparent gap in both team coordination and individual skill when compared to iG, would be able to stand up to perhaps the finest team ever assembled in the history of Chinese DotA. 1-0 iG



Na`Vi, lighter in their step than usual, seemed to bound into the booth after the defeat they had suffered at the hands of iG... almost as if a great burden had been lifted. They would throw caution to the wind and allow iG to grab a combination of heroes, which one of the Chinese commentators had previously remarked “the only counter is rage quit.” Before the game began, the casters were already congratulating iG for making it to the winner’s bracket finals. In response, Na`Vi picked what would be a lineup that made the entire Chinese delegation grin as though victory was assured. After all, what kind of ridiculous Juggernaut lineup would even be able to hold a candle to Dark Seer, Naga, and Tide? Ferrari would go so far as to take Puck, a hero that contributed to the seemingly invincible “wombo combo”, but more importantly, to beat Dendi with one of Dendi's own signature heroes.



The game’s progression was not at all what one would have expected. The Juggernaut-based push composition, while seeming to falter as iG launched their invincible ultimates, would come back with renewed fury. Mid lane had been a draw. Na`Vi's push had been surprisingly effective but not overwhelming. But on top of all of this, iG had the ultimate weapon.

The smoke and engagement from the river looked perfect. Na`Vi had been caught as 5 men in a single screen, and many fans eagerly awaited the 5-0. The inexorable countdown of Naga's Song continued, the harbinger of massacre calling for blood.

One was barely able to note that Zhou’s positioning was off as he huddled around the Enigma when the unthinkable happened. The fight was indeed a 5-0, but not the 5-0 the Chinese fans expected. Surprisingly, I found myself cheering in a moment of utter amazement and confusion, my conception about DotA shattered.



Mechanics Explanation:
In Dota2, when comboed correctly, the Naga Siren Song into Dark Seer Vacuum into Tidehunter Ravage combo does not allow for an enemy to use Black King Bar. Even if an enemy can pull off BKB (meaning that the combination is not perfectly executed), having Naga to the side to simply net the BKB user puts the end to game-changing channeling ultimates. For iG, had Zhou just netted Enigma out of the combo they would have won. Basically, what occurred was a colossal error when Ravage was slightly mistimed and stolen with Naga Siren placed incorrectly, to horrific result.

Xiao8 would simply explain this as: “Zhou was overconfident in ravage hitting and him instagibing Enigma."

The rest of the game was fairly straightforward application of an insurmountable advantage. Down a set of barracks and with the radiant heroes so tanky as to be able to survive a combo even should the perfectly opportunity present itself, iG folded. The crowd cheered as Na`Vi crushed through, surging to a convincing victory. 1-1 Na`Vi



Yet what occurred in the mere minutes between the second and third game was a thing of breathtaking beauty. It was DotA taken beyond the confines of the game itself.



Na`Vi would ban the exact same heroes almost instantly, all whilst smiling and staring down iG across the booths. It was not the heroes they drafted, but the way they did it. Na`Vi again threw Naga-Tide at the feet of iG, reminding the Chinese team of their utter failure the previous game in order to chip away more at the cracks in iG’s seemingly invincible armor. This was Puppey in all his genius, taking the mistake of his enemy and turning it into not only a singular win, but also a crushing blow impacted upon iG’s mental slate, utter shattering their will to fight.



iG was a lost and broken team, and their draft showed it. Resorting to a Luna lineup that has almost no potential for victory against top-tier teams, they began playing a game whose conclusion was already decided. Ferrari took mid, but there was no sharpness nor flair in his movements as he, still reeling from the blow of the last game, felt the penetrating gaze of Dendi staring him down both across the river and across the stage.

For the second time, Na`Vi crushed a Chinese team before the game even began, and for the second time I left the hall after watching but 3 minutes of a game, unable to bear watching the empty husk of a team before me play against one so full of confidence and life. I’ve often said that it was not truly skill that determined victory among the top teams, but a magic best described as an “aura of majesty." Na`Vi had that in spades against an iG that appeared little more than doomed men, marching numbly and mechanically to their inevitable defeat. 2-1 Na`Vi

---

I sat numbly through the rest of the night’s games, utterly thankful for the format and schedule of the games. The Na`Vi that had appeared before me was an echo of FTD during 2009, or EHome in ESWC 2010: an invincible team cloaked in the strength of their confidence and momentum, exuding an “aura of majesty” as bright as the sun. I firmly believed that had the finals been the same day, Na`Vi would have been the clear favorites, and history might have looked differently upon this International.

The Finals

The grand final saw a rematch starting fresh, rather than a continuation of iG’s fall. Coming into the grand final, iG had recovered their form. The day had washed away the taste of defeat and left only the lessons, and the trip through the loser’s bracket had reinvigorated the team that was deemed invincible when playing with an advantage. They walked to the stage as a team. Their mission was to clear the wrongs of the previous day and to expunge them utterly. Vengeance was on their minds, and the thought of it in every movement.

Meanwhile Na`Vi approached the stage in the carefree manner they have become known for, their glow of victory slightly dimmed by the hiatus of their day. With boyish confidence they stood in stark contrast to the grim faces of the Chinese men across the stage.

One could feel the chilly killing intent of iG’s first draft of the match. An Ethereal Blade, not manifested in physical form but ever present, lay in the air. Gone was the customary garb of the Chinese team clad in the armor of formational play and armed with the spear of the hard carry. Faith drafted Broodmother, Nightstalker, and Templar Assassin. You could see that Ferrari wanted blood.

Against this was Na`Vi, suddenly taking up the Naga never before used by a western team. Stifled by a draft of their own creation, there was no choice but to try and take up the Chinese Naga style, but a perverted style with one crucial element was missing. Dendi was no longer smiling.



The well-honed blade cut through the unfamiliar shield as Na`Vi was restrained by an enemy they had not faced before. iG’s play resembled little of the slow methodical destruction they had wreaked in the hours before and spent their cold fury upon Na`Vi. Even when iG's wanton aggression seemed to go awry, the unfamiliarity of the situation at hand caused Na`Vi to slip. With Dendi missing a critical Sonic Wave, XBOCT popped the Song of the Siren. Yet iG would take the scrappy fight, allowing them to begin dismantling the western team. In a scene not unlike the fall of Julius Caesar, Na`Vi was pierced with strike after strike coming from every direction, with the singular shield of the Naga Siren insufficient to ward of the incessant rain of blows save only to block a few. 1-0 iG



The following draft was markedly similar to the previous affair, iG drew the same blade, slightly chipped and stained with blood. Surprisingly, Na`Vi seemed content to take up the Naga that had just failed them. The evolution of this team was astounding. Na`Vi, in the space of mere hours, had come to the inevitable conclusion of the Naga lineup – the fact that it relies on dual cores.




Dendi on a semi-carry Dragon Knight was a rather strange sight to behold. Yet it made the Naga combination tighten up, with Na`Vi's lineup becoming much more solid and defensive. With a tanky DK in the front line and proper utilization of the Naga's Song of the Siren, Na`Vi executed a one-two punch that defied iG’s relentless aggression. And just like the winner’s semifinals, there was a gap in the quick strikes of iG. They set up a single fight incorrectly, and Na`Vi punished them and took a 15-minute barracks as a result. In this game it seemed as if the roles were reversed, iG looked the CIS or SEA team, endlessly crashing into Na`Vi Chinese-like defensive lines.

This win sent the crowd formed into thunderous roars as Na`Vi had taken the “invincible” combination of the Chinese, defeated it, and had now reversed it as a weapon against its very creator. The ability of a captain to adapt new strategies at such a rapid pace, along with the talent and skill of the players to immediate execute anything Puppey could envision–this is the essence of DotA. 1-1 Navi



Yet iG did not look least bit phased; instead, their assassin’s masks only tightened. They had grown as well, through victories and defeats, triumphs and lessons – this was the ultimate trial by fire of a team whose adaptability and organization was always questioned, but never its talent and potential. iG would be the one to freely give Na`Vi the feared Rubrick, Furion, and Naga, three of the most sought-after heroes. Only when Puppey took the set of the very most “imbalanced” heroes freely did he notice something wrong.



The requirements of Naga dual core do not allow for the resource allocation of Prophet, and the need to pick a second source of physical damage output collided with the normal placement of Dendi’s solo mid Rubick. Na`Vi was now trapped into Dendi’s sole playable semi-carry, as well as a Furion/Naga combination that had almost no synergy yet still required incredible amounts of farm. iG's trap was completed with the Disruptor pick, a hero that utterly destroyed the power of mobility and rendered each Naga ult as no more than a trap for Na`Vi to walk into. Time after time Na`Vi support would teleport in, ready to strike after the song ended. And ceaselessly, this backup would be sent back home by a quick Glimpse.

Beset on all lanes, cast into a team with no cohesion, and facing a lineup just waiting to Song of the Siren, Na`Vi suffered a taste of their own medicine. This was perhaps the only game of the tournament in which we saw Na`Vi severely outpicked against iG’s ingenious setups and lanes. The feel of Naga ulting and setting up for death, intent on wiping iG's Enigma off the map... to be hit by the power of the Dark Seer Disruptor combination must not have been pleasant. Even the passion of the crowd would wane as they began to boo each time Na`Vi sought to escape with Naga's ultimate. The resounding din contrasted so starkly with the fervor that had existed just moments before. Na`Vi’s movement was reminiscent of the iG of just a day before, a team lost and dejected. 2-1 iG



The tide had turned in iG's favor, and they sought to complete their revenge, to finally right the wrongs of “the accident” and to showcase the invincible weapon of the Chinese metagame in its full glory and majesty. Naga, Dark Seer, and Tidehunter were chosen by iG. Na`Vi once again took the Juggernaut and Rubick that had previously been successful and combined them with Syllabear, perhaps the strongest pushing carry in the game. The stage was set for a repeat of the clash that had so defined the journey of both teams to this grand stage.



With one pick each left, the lines were drawn. iG entered the battlefield with Keeper of the Light. Puppey responded by bringing Nyx Assassin into play.

This pair of highly unusual and yet completely ingenious heroes is perhaps the highest level of Dota 2, in which opposing captains can pull unique heroes out of the pool to construct an exclusive team at will. Keeper of the Light is a great anti-pusher and completely wrecks offensive trilanes (a given based on Na’Vi’s previous picks). Additionally, he provides the mana to Naga to continuously farm at a hilarious pace with Rip Tide. Yet on the other end, Nyx Assassin sat. With the reworked damage return and stun interruption of Spiked Carapace, Nyx in theory solidly countered Keeper of the Light in lane and later on could facilitate the Ravage steals in addition to synergizing with Leshrac with a reliable stun and high damage output.

This is the vision of the games to come on the grandest stage of Dota 2, a stage in which every single hero was playable and every combination possible, with teams taking anything and everything from the infinite potential of the game to push the boundaries ever further.

In this situation of two gambles, only one paid off. Having learned from the previous Na’Vi games, Tide ravage was stolen only a single time. iG solidly won each lanes, and the invincible weapon of the Chinese metagame crushed all before it. Rubick was hunted down by Tidehunter in fights, Illuminate discharged 500 points of magic damage into each Na`Vi hero, and Puppey's theoretically excellent Nyx Assassin became virtually a non-factor. 3-1 iG




The iG that had appeared before now had become a terrifying force, one that had transcended the defeats and squabbles of the past to combine the inexorable force and methodical aggression of the Chinese metagame, the killer instinct and violent bloodshed of SEA DotA, and now even the versatile adaptability and unquenchable spirit of Na`Vi themselves. To see a team finally reach that pinnacle was a beautiful sight to behold, and perhaps only Na`Vi was capable of giving them that final transcendent push. The 2012 International clashes between iG and Na`Vi will comprise of history-writing matches. Both teams grew and adapted, and both left stronger because of the other's ingenuity.



Na`Vi then performed perhaps the single greatest play of the entire tournament. In a hall shocked by the loss of the (newly adopted) hometown favorites, the crowd looked at the stage with stunned silence. During the award ceremony, the clapping was stifled and forced. Yet Na`Vi embraced defeat with smiles and hugged iG with all the passion they would have displayed in victory. No other team in the world could possibly face such a gauntlet of deadly foes with such nonchalance, and still be standing after defeat, eagerly passing the aegis of champions. Following Na`Vi's stead, the reluctant crowd would eventually cheer, while the memory of 430 would be burned into the minds of every person at the stage of the grandest single tournament in ESPORTS.

The International 2012 comprised many separate story lines. What is written down in history will be the one where iG overcame all to take the championship. Yet another story line will shine just as brightly, that of Na`Vi, their unconquerable spirit, their adaptability in the face of danger, and their heartwarming magnanimity in defeat.

All Quiet on the Front

By Shostakovich

Is Dota 2 a fair game where the more prepared always triumph over the less prepared? Before The International 2012, everyone was expecting a complete domination from the Chinese teams. A three-month boot camp from Chinese teams that do it systematically for important tournaments makes that prediction reasonable. And it happened, kind of: five Chinese teams were in the top 8 and iG won the tournament. But to call it 'Chinese domination' not only cheapens the tournament, but it's also an injustice to some.

Compared with the Chinese teams, the squads on the western front were severely underprepared, even though one can argue if it's fair to make such comparison. We had teams like Absolute Legends and Mortal Team Work who were far from ideal form, but still showed glimpses of the methodical and systematic Dota that made both known. DARER, Mousesports and M5’s passionate, nearly-suicidal Dota wasn't enough to get them good results, despite being experienced in LAN events. CLG completely dominated their domestic rivals, but couldn't bring their best game against the eastern front.

The gap between west and east (especially the Chinese) was made visible. But there were also good surprises.

Despite being a very young and inexperienced team, compLexity won matches against TongFu, EHOME, Na'Vi, Zenith and Orange. As long the team continues to follow the foundations set up by FLUFFNSTUFF and compLexity keeps supporting them wholeheartedly, their future looks bright. EG was victim of their own volatility. The American powerhouse got utterly out-laned and dominated in some games, while completely out-laned and dominated the opponents in others. And they really threatened iG's run in the Winners Bracket. If EG get all his players in the same page in terms of LAN experience, only good things will come from it.

Na`Vi made a strong case about Dota not being a fair game. Even though they were underprepared compared to the Chinese teams, Natus Vincere won games against all the Chinese teams, dismantling iG and LGD inside their own systems. Na`Vi’s run can be described as an accident, but one should remember that life isn't possible without accidents, and that finding a treasure buried in a beach is also an accident. Despite not getting the first place, Na`Vi were arguably the best team in the main event.

The eastern front was dominated by the Chinese, but things weren't smooth. Orange kept winning as long as YamateH and Mushi brought their A game to the field. Like EG, Zenith was inside their own rollercoaster, alternating between good and bad performances, ultimately losing to more stable teams. TongFu fell victim of internal conflicts, and EHome is still under the ghost of 2010 EHome, not being able to follow LGD and iG closely, and saddening fans for not letting Dai play at mid. LGD and iG are one level above the teams and words are unnecessary to say how strong they are.

But when Na'Vi dismantled iG in the semifinals, a big challenge was set ahead of Chinese Dota. Back in 2010, when DTS won against EHome in the World Dota Championship, many fans said that the weakest point of chinese Dota were the inability to adapt. And they knew that they needed to answer Na`Vi cleverness: in the end of the Main Event's second day, BurNIng told the reporters that DK would spend the night analyzing replays, especially Na`Vi's.

In a game like Dota where anything can happen and where pre-conceived notions can put everything at risk, the ability to forget is as important than the ability to learn and train. Curiously, this is present in the classical Chinese philosophy: The Dao De Jing teaches that those who follow the Way (道, way, course) aren't the ones who keep learning and studying (學, to learn, to study), but the ones that keeps forgetting (損, to lose, loss, damage). This is iG's merit and what makes their win well deserved: the ability to take the loss to their hearts and adapt their game accordingly. Vouched by their superior preparation, iG found the way out of Na`Vi's labyrinth. The losses were certainly painful, but the maxim "No pain, no gains" is what dictates Dota. As the ancient Chinese philosophers say, only he who has accepted the dirt of the country can be lord of its soil shrines; only he who takes upon himself the evils of the country can become a king among those what dwell under heaven.

Luna on the Stage

By Kipsate

During TI2, iG picked Luna, a hero that had not been chosen in competitive play in ages, a fair amount of times. Why was this hero chosen? What does she offer to the team? Why did iG pick the heroes that they did with Luna?

Luna is strong in team fights. Eclipse is a scary ultimate that deals critical amounts of damage to targets, with supports getting demolished if they get hit by multiple beams. Even stronger heroes will take significant damage from Eclipse, and it only takes a single second to activate the spell. This means that enemy teams only have one second to react and scramble, all while Luna is continuously throwing high-damage physical glaives at her opponents as well. In smaller engagements early on, the damage boost from Lunar Blessing matters quite a bit. In the later stages of the game, Luna's single target damage is not that high, yet her glaive bounces allow her to simultaneously demolish multiple opponents. In one instance, Zhou hilariously forced some EG heroes back as Luna's glaives bounced from the buildings of EG to the defending heroes. Through both physical and magical damage, Luna excels whenever enemy heroes are even remotely close together.


With the same bouncing glaives, Luna is a decent flash farmer. She can push waves and clear jungle camps quickly, and many people who play Luna will stack Ancients with a Helm of the Dominator creep. Once an Ancient camp is stacked a few times, Luna can easily clear it with bouncing glaives and lifesteal, gaining impressive amounts of farm and experience. Yet Luna's ability to flash farm does not kick in too early on; at earlier levels, she will usually want points in Lunar Blessing for the damage, and taking glaives too early pushes a lane for no discernible benefit. Therefore, Luna's farming rate will not increase till much later in the game, when she is higher-leveled. Yet when she starts picking up glaives, her farming rate accelerates dramatically; with high movement speed, good agility growth, and high base movement speed, she can farm at an insane rate in the later stages of the game. In one game, Zhou had 400 creep kills at the 48 minute mark. While this number may not be too impressive for a professional hard carry, once you consider the fact that he participated in 18 out of iG's 20 kills at that point, you can see just how quickly Luna farms.

Yet despite all the praise we have given Luna thus far, she is not without problems of her own. She is extremely squishy and will die very quickly to burst damage. Unlike other carries currently played, she has no defensive capabilities besides her fast movement speed and 1800 night vision. Her range is also quite abysmal: with an unimpressive 330 range she has to move even closer than Morphling to hit creeps, yet Morphling is able to survive with Morph and Waveform. Luna's range also limits her in team fights, where she has to be in the middle of the fight to do damage, quite paradoxical given her aforementioned fragility.


To compensate for Luna's lack of defensive capabilities and lackluster regeneration, Zhou built Luna with Tranquil Boots, Ring of Aquila, and Drum of Endurance.Tranquil Boots allowed him to stay in lane through additional armor and passive HP regeneration, and to regenerate in between skirmishes and fights without having to go back to base. Ring of Aquila gives Luna a decent amount of survivability through additional armor, extra damage, mana regeneration for Lucent Beam, and the ability to push when Zhou wanted to by toggling the ring's armor aura. Afterwards, Zhou would grab Drum of Endurance, a cost-efficient item that grants small bonuses in many areas. Besides the additional stats, activating Drum made Luna and her team incredibly quickly. When combined with Tranquil Boots, an activated Drum would allow Luna to move at a whopping 471 movement speed.

Yet these three items are meant for the early and middle stages of the game. To solve the survivability problems afterwards Zhou built Black King Bar, negating potent disables and magic damage from the enemy team. With magic immunity, his Luna could charge quickly into the middle of the enemy formation, glaives bouncing and Eclipse beams scarring the ground. Following Black King Bar, Zhou would move into more traditional carry items: Manta style, Butterfly, and Satanic. Tranquil Boots would be disassembled and remade into Power Treads, as the heal became less useful as games drew on.

As you can see, the early items that Zhou built were efficient both in terms of cost and slot usage. Using Luna, Zhou wanted to fight early on with the rest of his team, and his item choices reflected that. He knew that while, say, an enemy Morphling is powerful with Waveform, iG had the stronger teamfight due to all the burst damage that Luna could bring to the table.

To take a closer look at Luna, let's analyze one game in which iG picked her: game 3 of EG versus iG in the winners' bracket. We will look at why iG picked Luna in this particular game and how the rest of iG's picks complemented her.






Even with just one point, Luna's Lunar Blessing gives her full (1800) vision at night, an advantage she enjoys over more shortsighted heroes. Guess who prolongs the night? Our favorite Night Stalker does, and in game 3 of EG versus iG the blue demon was manned by Ferrari.430. With longer nights, Zhou felt just a bit safer, and was able to act more offensively or defensively than normal. As an added bonus, Luna's Eclipse turns day into night for 10 seconds, allowing Ferrari's Night Stalker to perform at his full potential for those 10 seconds despite the shining sun and his ultimate being offline.

As mentioned beforehand, Luna needs to stand in the middle of fights to deal damage. And early on, without Black King Bar, how can she do this? Simple: just disable everybody. Tidehunter's Ravage is excellent for this, allowing Luna crucial seconds to demolish the enemy lineup with glaives and Eclipse.

In the game we are looking at, EG picked Morphling, Bounty Hunter, and Leshrac as well as Crystal Maiden. Morphling has short range, Bounty Hunter has melee range, and Leshrac needs to be in the middle of the fight to do damage with Edict and Pulsa Nova. These are all excellent targets for Luna, who will bounce glaive damage between the enemy heroes that are forced to enter close quarter combat while also striking them with Eclipse beams. Oh, and sad Crystal Maiden just dies to any glaives or Lucent Beams that touch her.

Morphling as of late has often been built with Ethereal Blade first. This item allows Morphling to instantly feed upon supports, thus exerting overwhelming map presence when the item is first picked up. The recent Morphling buffs have allowed him to favor this offensive item often instead of say, the more defensive Linken's Sphere. However, when you go Ethereal Blade first on Morphling you are incredible fragile before Strength Morphing. When silenced by Night Stalker, you will die. When you use Ethereal Blade, you and your opponent both take 40% more magical damage. While you may kill off an enemy support, you most definitely don't want to get hit by 4 Eclipse beams when Ethereal. As a result, Fear's Morphling was forced to go BKB and Manta Style instead, a much more defensive build that kept Chuan's Rubick, Faith's Venomancer, and even YYF's Tidehunter safer.

flamewheel's note:
While Zhou's Luna executed almost flawlessly in the third game against EG, do know that this was a strategy that only iG could employ. Other teams had not practiced with Luna, and would very likely not have formulated their hero lineups around Luna as specifically as iG had. To give an example, in one of DK's matches all of BurNIng's normal carry heroes were banned. In desperation, he picked up Luna last. The game was a disaster, as you can see from the statistics page here. With absolutely no practice on Luna and without a team composition to back him up, BurNIng was doomed to failure, and DK was absolutely slaughtered by Na`Vi.

But this isn't fair to DK. Zhou also had a bad game as Luna in the third set of the winners' semifinals between iG and Na`Vi. In both the DK-Na`Vi game and the iG-Na`Vi game, two factors are similar that set the stage for the Luna-picking team's loss. First, in both games Na`Vi was running a lineup with both Anti-Mage and Queen of Pain. With Blink, these heroes can chase effectively, lessening the effectiveness of Luna's high movement speed. Additionally, in those two games Luna's team was not suited to help her in team fights. Luna's allies lacked area of effect disables, and without those, Luna became food to the enemy team.
/End note

In conclusion, iG showed that Luna definitely has potential in today's competitive scene, albeit as a situational pick. I feel confident in seconding Zhou when, in an interview, he stated that "iG is [was] the only team that can pull off a Luna strategy." The reason to that lies behind the way Zhou approaches his 1st position role on iG.

Due to iG's team dynamic, Zhou is one of the least-babysat 1st positions among the top Chinese teams. Instead of passively farming for huge items early on, Zhou looks for something else. His primary reason for his relatively cost-efficient items is to grab levels and out-lane a single enemy once Zhou's support leaves the lane. With levels, Zhou can participate in team fights with Ferrari.430 controlling the tempo of the match. As talked about earlier on, with Zhou's cheap-but-powerful items combined with 430's lane dominance and map control, you have the reason that iG's Luna composition looks so nice as it rolls over the enemy team. At level 11, Luna is one of the strongest carries in team fights, and with Zhou actively participating in fights, he can extend his team's advantage or pull back from a disadvantage through Eclipse. Traditionally, Luna players with Helm of the Dominator and Treads at that point would be much more fragile than Zhou's Luna.

The Moon Rider is a strong hero, and perhaps we will see more out of her in the future. At the very least, she definitely made an impact at the International 2012, and was instrumental in helping iG on their way to the championship.

Year of the Dragon

By riptide and SirJolt

An Irishman, a Sri Lankan, an American and a Chinese guy walk into a bar. The Chinese guy doesn’t do anything until he has manta style.

Were you in Seattle this weekend? We were. Team Liquid Dota 2 was at Benaroya Hall with Heyoka and Flamewheel taking it all in from the press box. The two of us were there too though, and we enjoyed every moment of it from our darkened rooms in Colombo, Sri Lanka and Dublin, Ireland respectively.

The world was in Seattle this weekend. The best Dota 2 teams were there, of course, but so were you and I. Whether you were watching on stream or enjoying the flexibility and statistics offered by the Dota 2 client, you were there, listening to Bruno’s words of wisdom between games, and playing Opa Dendi Style as the kill-count mounted.

That’s unfair; you didn’t have to be a Na`Vi fan to enjoy this weekend (though there can be little doubt that it helped, especially if you were on Team Liquid), the rest of the world was well represented in Seattle as well. Fans of Chinese DotA no doubt enjoyed watching the likes of LGD, iG, and EHOME execute the careful, farm-heavy style that has become the hallmark of their play. If you liked the European teams, there was plenty of mouz, CLG and Na`Vi to watch this weekend. That’s not all though, with Orange from Malaysia, Absolute Legends from Australia, and EG from the USA, we saw Dota 2 from four continents this weekend.

In the end, that meant that we got to see signature heroes. From Mushi’s Morphling to Sylar’s Siren, and Dendi’s Rubick, fans were treated to the players we love, playing the heroes that we adore. More than that, though, we got to watch, pause, rewind, and watch all over again in slow motion.

It suits those of us responsible for the reportage to talk about the clash of cultures at The International, to give narration to the collision as the Chinese style met the rest of the world, but to do so feels dishonest. Perhaps it’s fairer to think of the tournament as a confluence of cultures, those cultures coming to represent conflations of style and approach. If so, they should be considered not in terms of confrontation, but in terms of construction, with these teams collaborating, contributing to something larger, coming together to construct something incommensurate with Dota’s age... something really wonderful.

So, on opposite sides of the earth, we let the late night games eat into an unhealthy portion of our sleeping hours and chatted throughout on Skype. The truth is that neither of us could shake the feeling that we were witnessing something unique, something spectacular. Dota 2 is a young game and, while the community overlaps heavily with the original DotA proscene, there has also been a huge influx of new players (admittedly, to the chagrin of veterans at times), and so The International 2 felt very fresh.

The weekend, of course, belonged to the Chinese. LGD went undefeated in their bracket till they met Na`vi, and while our Ukraino-Russian lads took them out in style, the Chinese came back in the form of a Luo "Ferrari_430" Feichi and Wong Hock “Chuan” led Invictus Gaming. And what a comeback it was, dispatching the great white hope in a convincing 3 - 1 win on Dota 2’s grandest stage.

It’s not just the Grand Final win though. As Bruno would say, statistics don’t lie. EHOME’s Zhang "Lanm" Zhicheng and LGD’s Liu "Sylar" Jiajun lead the average kills per game leaderboard, and Sylar appears again on top of the gold per minute standings alongside DK’s Xu "BurNIng" Zhilei. In fact, 7/10 players in both lists are from Chinese or South Asian teams. Above all though, the brackets tell the story. The only non-Asian team to make it past Round 2 was Na`vi, and they too were shut down in the end. Conspiracy theories aside, it was a Chinese tournament, and for good reason too. On the last day of August 2012, Chuan held that Aegis up high, and the world of Dota 2 moved into the Year of the Dragon.

They came. They farmed. They conquered.

And we enjoyed every minute of it. What a weekend it was!

There’s no doubt that Valve deserves special mention here; the production of TI2 has been nothing short of groundbreaking. From commentary to the wide range of viewing options, the way content was delivered at TI2 has set the bar high for future Dota 2 tournaments.

Ultimately, however, this weekend was memorable because different worlds came together. iG’s rock solid Asian style was levelled on Na`Vi’s off-the-wall, often lunatic approach to the game. Fans of the original DotA sat together with new inductees, and rooted for teams from both spheres. In Dublin and Colombo, we sat at our computers and, though we were worlds apart as we watched, we came together to see, if not the birth of a new esport, at least its coming of age.

Here, under the scrutiny of so many, Dota 2 became something special this weekend, and we’re glad we were here to watch the transformation. Moreover, we’re glad we were able to share it with you, and 500,000+ other people from all over the world. Worlds collided in Seattle this weekend, and the fallout was wonderful, a fact that is best illustrated by this moment between Na`vi and iG. The two best teams in the world, united by a love for a game and a community, showing us that East or West, Doto is Doto.

It was a wonderful 72 hours, and while we enjoyed every minute of it, if we had to pick one play that sums up our entire weekend, it would be this.



Neither of us were in Seattle, and yet, by the end of this we were both certainly standing.