Battle Cup Weekend - Game 1

Our second attempt at the Battle Cup for TI7!

We had entered the week before, and lost in the semi-finals. Our first game the week before was a completely stomp, but we were completely out-matched in our second game.

This week, we thought we'd try to stall our first game, the logic being that if we finished our match early, it would mean we had clearly outplayed our opponents. We'd then get matched with another team who had also clearly outplayed their opponents. If we managed to stall the game out, we'd be matched against another team who struggled to beat their first opponent. Seems somewhat seedy and underhanded, but it was probably our only way to win.

 So this week, we formed a team. Hag wasn't available, so the team was: me, Pharmacist, redbeanpork, their friend Mr Moustache, and his friend Ridehunter. redbeanpork made a logo for our team which featured The Hound from Game of Thrones, and a plate of chicken (possibly Gami Chicken, as MrFodder and I had it for dinner without inviting redbeanpork). Our team was called "I'M GOING TO EAT EVERY CHICKEN".

Pharmacist plays safe-lane carry, redbeanpork, MrMoustache and I all play support, and Ridehunter can play any role. Since I have received training for mid, the deal was that I would play mid if we could get Shadow Fiend, otherwise Ridehunter would take mid and I'd take the offlane role.

The first game (Match ID: 3314724235 / OpenDota) was a bit of a stomp. Final score: 42-26.

Radiant
MrMoustache: Kunkka
redbeanpork: Crystal Maiden
Pharmacist: Morphling
Me: Shadow Fiend
Ridehunter: Clockwerk

Dire
Warlock
Clinkz
Monkey King
Abaddon
Spirit Breaker

It was a disaster at the start, I gave away first blood. And got ganked again not long afterwards. But I had redbeanpork and MrMoustache come and help me out, and caught up at around the 10 minute mark. Pharmacist farmed well, and their towers started dropping. Soon, we had pretty good map control. Ridehunter got off a lot of good hooks and once we started picking off Warlock quite reliably before he could drop his ult, it helped a lot. I did hit Abaddon while his ult was up a few times, but got a bit better at it towards the end of the game.

I really struggled against Monkey King at the start, but after picking up Silver Edge, it helped a lot! Clinkz did like to hang around our back line and pick off the supports, but redbeanpork and MrMoustache did a good job of keeping vision and true vision up.

It was a great early win for our team, and our plan to string the game out failed, as we finished our match in 34:17.

Oh well, a positive start to the cup!