RD Replay of the Month - Back to action

It’s been awhile since I post anything about Dota, not since the conclusion of SGNDT 2010. Partly because since coming back from Australia, I had to wait till February for my PC to get shipped, and in the mean time, using a worn-out 5 years old laptop which didn’t have WC3 installed. 2 months without dota is a nightmare I tell you.

Anyway, that still didn’t prevent me from following the competitive scenes. Since the start of the year, much changed had happened, and by now I’ve almost completely only follow Chinese/Asian scene. Not that the European scene was uninteresting or something, it’s just that I simply lost my passion to follow their scene. Back to the Asian scene, there was quite a good number of games that catch my eyes, unfortunately some of the games didn’t have any replay available for download (so far). I’m referring to Chinese’s Lunar Cup which was featured some exciting games in the final between LGD and Nirvana.cn. The game was still available for view on youku, but I’m not sure if the replay was ever released.

One game that caught my attention recently was an ADC game of Scythe.sg vs AEON.MUFC.

Events: Asian Dota Championship (ADC) IV
Maps/version: Dota-allstars 6.71b, version 1.24E
GameMode: -cm
Length: 80:48 minutes

replay download: [gosugamers]

rating: 7.5/10

It actually wasn't that long, since about 10 minutes of the total 80 mins were used for -cm drafting. Although it was not that epic compared to the classic LGD-EHOME encounter we've seen throughout last year, the game was still rather tense and interesting, especially the final 20 minutes. A close game.

From the picking phase, we've seen a clear intention of AEON to win by sheer carrying power of Medusa, supported by Invoker and Puck. Scythe had other idea though, as their final pick of Antimage provided the trump card against a farmed up Medusa. And Yamateh's Antimage did just that, also thanks to great combination with Hyhy's Tinker.

Medusa did the best he could, maxing her inventory real fast - Linken, Manta, Skadi, Butterfly; and by that point she was almost unkillable, but then made one mistake that cost them the game: buying a Divine Rapier (as a classic Medusa always did) and lost it very soon after. Not having a BKB against Tinker with Guinsoo and Antimage on the opposite side proved to be suicidal. She did have money for buyback, but recent changes with the addition of cooldown to Buyback means she couldn't afford to die a second time, which she did later when Scythe pushed to AEON's base, and hence unable to buyback, leaving their base open to demolition.
Scythe then went on to win the semi-final against LGD, and the grand final against Nirvana.my to lift the ADC season IV title.

On a side note, Lich as solo was... kinda good. Depend on situation I guess, but Sharky did a nice job playing a semi-carry Lich. In the end, he even had a rapier lol. Oh, and a bad invoker play.