I had actually intended to analyze two matches last playday, but it sped past without me noticing somehow. Some might call me ignorant of my task, but I prefer to see it as not making any hasty decisions. Oh, and if you were swayed by the previous statements, mail your bank account information to me to win fabulous prizes!

I was personally rather excited about the MYM vs wicked-cw. Little did I know that it was going to be nothing short of a slaughter. My entire pre-game analysis went down the bin; I’m almost miffed we did so well! Well, there are reasons as to why, and I hope I will make a meaningful argument in this installment.

	[0:2]
TeRRoR	Game 1 | Game 2	Shy

Game 1 (TS): Terror spawns on top, but it goes quickly downwards from there. They both creep heavily for starters. Shy creeps his natural while building a new tree nearby. Terror starts out complaining about lag but decides to play the game anyways. As is appropriate on TS, Shy picks up the Warden as his hero while Terror goes with the DK (because we undeads are pretty locked in this regard. I hope the patch switches things up a bit).

Terror uses fiends instead of ghouls, something that seems to becoming common against the Warden. It’s harder for the Warden to solo a fiend army. After confirming that Terror is on the other side of the map Shy goes into his base, slaughtering his acos. When Terror arrives at his loitering tree he ports back, and after a brief struggle the DK is killed at which point Terror surrenders. Never fight a Warden with full mana with low health on your DK, kids ~~

Game 2 (TR): Game 1 was embarassingly short, and so is game two. It seems to be more of a host problem than anything else. No good hosts were available for game 2 either. Shy starts out like all elves do on this map, with a BM. Terror goes in to harass with his ghouls, doing a fair job, stealing a creep. But when he backs off a bit he gets his DK surrounded against the trees and is forced to tp. This situation shows how much Terror is lagging. As far as game progression goes it looks okay for him as his naga arrives with a clump of ghouls to kill off archers, but unused to the delay Terror loses his DK. And he gives up then, just like last game.

Perhaps Shy will some day meet Terror under better circumstances and we’ll get a real match between them...

	[0:2]
FiveStar	Game 1 | Game 2	Grubby

If you wonder about why I spell his nick like that it’s just for fun. If he ever changes to 5Star I’ll star reffering to him as FiveStar again. Just so you know.

Okay! This match was also something I had been looking forward to (for about half an hour; after seeing the matchups) considering 5Star’s strong recent mirror record. Little did I know how far up Grubby had pulled his socks... Anyways, let’s get to the games.

Game 1 (GW): The map in orc mirror is rarely relevant as to how the game is played in the end. While build orders might change slightly it’s still the same units we’ll see game after game. Grunts, raiders, walkers and kodos. And so in this game as well.

The game starts out with the fountain guessing game (in the obs chat). In orc mirror it’s of course egal if it’s mana or health. Partly because it’s a mirror, but also because the SH is always chosen as second hero (The orc player killer_orc56 once chose the TC, but after much complaint to Blizzard he was banned for it) , and he can heal units with healing wave and regain mana from the fountain. First comes the traditional creeping of the shop gnolls for Blademaster items. Both end up with well-stocked blademasters (5Star’s BM is a pretty princess with two circlets and wearing a pair of golves over his other pair. Okay, I’ll stop this now...).

Another great orc tradition is to harass the peasant line of the opponent with the BM, forcing them to either burrow or die. Both slow down gold processing. There are a few skirmishes, but nothing serious. 5Star seems to be coming out ahead however, killing Grubby’s SH and even gets a tome of xp as he creeps the dragon. Grubby powercreeps his SH while harassing with his BM. It’s a little risky as he might be hexed and killed if caught off-guard.

That is exactly what happens to 5Star’s BM as he fumbles with it as he stalks Grubby’s army. Meanwhile Grubby has set up an expansion, and as the orc forces stumble over each other it is almost finished. The battle is even, but Grubby forces a tp focusing the enemy SH, thus solidifying his investment on the expansion. Had he lost the battle 5Star could’ve come in and destroyed his base before he had been able to profit off of the expansion.

He even saves a unit in the battle, which is unheard of in orc mirror (although he almost sends it into the golem creeps). 5Star creeps the risky red golem camp right afterwards, but he can do that in this situation because Grubby’s kodo is digesting one of his grunts. It doesn’t matter however, because Grubby has been maxing his army making it 50 vs 80 food. It’s hard to explain just how doomed 5Star is at this point. Let’s go with ”very”.

Smile! You're on candid cobra! (I stole that one)

Game 2 (TM): 5Star picks TM, and on it goes. The same strategy as last game pretty much. 5Star is a little shaken however, and his decision-making suffers. He tries to steal a creep from Grubby with a very low health BM, and promtly gets it killed. Taking stupid risks with his BM seems to be a standard in his arsenal (seeing as how he did something similar last game). Grubby, not wanting to be worse (perhaps) goes into 5Star’s base and cancels his lodge.

The difference between them here however is that Grubby leaves when it starts getting too risky. Cancling a lodge, winning 15 seconds of build time isn’t worth losing your lvl 3 blade. The last battle happens at 5Star’s base. First the SH of 5Star gets surrounded, but the BM saves it by handing over his invul pot, but then his BM gets surrounded and killed instead. 5Star stays around for a while after but it’s futile at this point.

	[0:2]
Soccer	Game 1 | Game 2	Lucifer

The birther of suns vs a football. Sounds pretty settled right from the off, doesn’t it?

Game 1(TR): If you’re ever wondering what korean players are saying to each other at the start of games they are slandering players from the rest of the world and planning their Final Purge of these unclean. Or perhaps my medication is wearing off. Regardless, you’ll never really know, will you? In any event, this game is somewhat reminiscent of the Terror/Shy game because Soccer starts out with a BM. But there the general similarites cease, because Lucifer is attempting an unconventional counter.

He knows the expo is coming, but figures that the even ground you’re back on after taking it down isn’t good enough. He wants some slope to slide down and sets up his own expansion at the close spawn point. Soccer has already scouted it with his infernal (undeads hate it) hawk, but it’s too late! Not only is Lucifer right on top of him with his ghouls, he also manages to get two towers up because he can reach it.

Remember, tower AWAY from the expo when fighting elf, so they cannot easily attack it just as they get in range of the towers. Also, it gives you good space to move around on. Usually you won’t have to worry about an aereal assault. At tier 2 (elves can expo and tech at the same time) Soccer logically picks up a panda and places down a few lores. He then goes after Lucy’s main base acos; a foolish move I feel. He forgets to buy a tp scroll or even a staff and gets his lvl 3 BM killed. Lucifer places down a third crypt, preparing for a little Madfrog action of mass-o-mass gargs (with a few aboms for flavour).

Soccer does standard elf-things like expoing without a clear advantage in obvious positions, powercreeping his panda and scaring off the undead army using just a BM at the same time (if I sound bitter it’s because I am).

All fun things must come to an end, unfortunately for Soccer, because the undead army is better than your army if it can be quickly resupplied (which is generally not the case). Lucy aknowledges Soccer’s expo by setting up a second one of his own. The first attempt is canceled by Soccer’s main force and the second is a spot Soccer says he already had dibs on. Lucifer thinks otherwise however, and scares of the elf army to the sound of gargoyle wings.He then proceeds to attack the secondary expo of Soccer, who bites back pretty good until his BM goes down to nuking.

The carnage continues at expo #1. Soccer tries to hire a DR to hamper the nuking a bit, but it gets killed before it can even reach the rest of his army (this happens again as it comes back from the altar, no country for old archers...). Things look bad for Soccer until the DK releases his ultimate spell; then it looks outrageously bad. The game is over. Strategy conquers again.

Can't touch this!

Game 2 (EI): After having Lucifer run circles around him in the first game Soccer decides to pick the Warden on game 2. This must be some new standard I’ve managed to miss, because Lucifer starts a fiend build as if he knew it was coming. Perhaps I can get an answer from the man himself later... While Soccer AoW-creeps his merc camp Lucifer nuke-creeps his way across the top.

It does seem like an anti-warden strategy as high level nukes is her bane, and trying to harass a warden with a DK is even more of an invitation to pain than harassing a DH would be.

The Warden way is to SS the DK as much as possible in the field to gain map control. Even with a statue he can’t heal up quickly enough unless he stays put on blight for a while. In a moment of bad concentration Soccer’s lvl 3 warden gets killed just below the undead base, a major setback as it needs to keep up with the DK in hero levels, moreso than the DH does (because it can use mana burn to protect itself from nukes). Lucifer’s tip to undeads, mind-taken by me (imaginary cookie to anyone who gets the reference): if you’re hurtin’ from shadowstrike, buy a priest to have your DK healed extremely fast (in tandem with a statue). The harass has served it’s purpose to some degree however, as Soccer now has a filled-up expansion running, and the forces to back up his claims, namely a lvl 3 panda.

Lucifer, naturaly prepares to set up his own expo, while Soccer naturaly comes over to prevent it. He comes close, but it doesn’t quite happen because of the game-deciding skill known as Death Pact. Still, it’s a dangerous game he plays. Had the DK been killed there, instead of saved with 70 hp left the game would’ve been Soccer’s right there. So I guess that’s tip #2: if you’re going fiends, it’s not really speed your after anyways so you might as well get pact fourth, especially if you’re facing warden. The most important parts of the game are now covered, so I’ll be skipping ahead a bit.

Soccer contiously, and overconfidently, attacks Lucy’s expo, getting driven off time after time by nuking. He makes a critical mistake in tanking too much with the fragile Warden. It should really just be there to sting and back off, not stand surrounded by undead heroes, towers and frost wyrms like some kind of DH. Soccer tries to lure Lucifer away from his expo by killing his main base acos with the Warden, but Lucy reads him like an open book, going in to meet the bulk of Soccer’s army, nuking away two bears before they have time to transform.

The second time he tries it Lucifer staffs in his heroes only and nukes the warden dead. From hereon things never really get that exciting. Soccer builds up armies and Lucifer nukes them dead until he eventually takes down both elf heroes, ending his match.

Solid play from Lucifer, showing a bit of progressive strategy on TR and solid counters on EI.

Too little, too late...

	[0:2]
MichaeL	Game 1 | Game 2	FoCuS

Ah, Michael, always playing above his own ability. Only Bjarke could do that, but now he’s gone forever (from warcraft that is). When playing an orc of Focus’ caliber you’d have to have your strategy down to the last detail (and your micro too) to have it work. Michael tries original strategies in both games and fails horribly. I’ll be marking his questionable moves with questionmarks, like they do in chess notation. ~~

Game 1 (EI): Some light creeping begins the game for both players. While Michael tries to creep a larger camp Focus is just as intent on stopping it which he does quite effectively with his BM. He hires a priest to dispel WEs; a very powerful trick early on. Focus steals the mage creep but is caught by militia and forced to tp out. Michael seems confused however.

First he moves down towards the expansion with his now-peasants milita but then changes his mind, sends them back and tries to harass the orc peons (?) with a lvl 2 AM (???) which of course fails horribly. It is hunted down by the BM, forcing him to tp.

Once back (and teching to tier 3 while training a paladin (?????????) he realizes that he is built in (?) and is forced to do some lumber-focus to get out. Focus, seemingly tired of Michael’s antiques goes in for the kill as he attempts to creep out his expansion without militia support (?). Even though he has a teleport scroll he doesn’t use it but lets his poor AM die (?). In a final excercise of futility Michael produces a gryphon which of course gets ensnared and killed together with his paladin.

Game 2 (TS): Game 2 goes slightly better for Michael, but his consistantly bad decisions reveals his lack of experience. Focus arrives like a bully after his lunch money, creeping his side of the map while his footmen are busy running into the merc creep camp without backup. Michael goes off to return the favor, but then proceeds to get his AM trapped by the SH and a few units and is forced to tp out. Afterwards he tries to set up an expansion, but gets attacked by FoCus’ army. His AM pops an invul pot while at low hp and then... stands around until the effect wears off right next to the blademaster. Had the MK been low on mana at this point the AM would’ve been stone dead. Now he gets a few extra seconds, but this was a reflex save.

I have to give Michael credit for his base-build though. No orc is getting at those arcanes, and the casters are small enough to be able to get out. Focus decides to walk away for a while when Michael ports but soon returns with a vengeance and destroys what remains of his tattered forces. He bites back pretty good, but the lvl 5 BM decides it.

	[0:2]
Soccer SouthSea	Game 1 | Game 2	MYM]Lucifer MYM]Susiria

Yes, MYM wins this match, but my point still stands! And I’ll try to explain why. Failing at that I plan to delete the previous articles and act as if nothing ever happened. Possibly kill anyone who has taken copies of them. But let’s see how well I do my explaining before resorting to such measures, eh?

Game 1 (GW): Yes, they do play the same strategy as before, our beloved 2s team, but they support each other much better. For example, as Lucifer creeps an item shop Susiria keeps guard with his DH, fighting off the enemy DH. Southsea seemed a little mesmerized, fighting the enemy DH and running away at the last moment as if he was playing elf mirror. Sadly, he wasn’t and it goes down to a well-placed coil. Susirias DH dies soon thereafter, as it’s chased down by the BM of Soccer, but that really was a hopeless situation he was in, and it was just lvl 1.

With excellent timing Lucifer comes in to cancel one of Southsea’s AoLs, but quickly runs away when caught 2v1. This is the last time that happens however. There are no raiders yet, so this time there was no real risk involved. Soon MYM attacks Southsea’s base. Lucifer makes a point of staying around even after Susiria’s DH dies, because they still hold the advantage. Susiria blocks as well as he can with the few hunts that remain to buy time. Only at the last moment does he leave, and has by then maximized the damage they could do in that battle, taking down heroes and units and making Soccer waste tons of gold, not only buying back his BM from the tavern, but also forcing a tp before escaping.

Wicked is unable to really recover from the first battle, and when the second real battle starts they are behind on both supply and hero levels. Soccer tries to down the main tree of Susiria but his basebuild is developed especially to prevent that and he wastes far too much time trying to get into good position on it. They trade tps once again. During the last commotion Susiria set up an expansion, something wicked will now have to try to take down. The last battle happens in the middle of the map, where nuking is the order of the day. Heroes drop like flies and MYM takes game 1.

So why did MYM win this game when they lost on the same map to BeT? Well, first of all the teamwork was better, and secondly wicked played more of a mirror strategy than an actual counter to the hunts/spider mass, with single-kill heroes like the Naga and SH. The micro was better on MYM’s side too. There, I think I’ve managed that one. No one needs to die... yet. On to game 2!

Game 2 (TR): Ah! Yes! Finally! How I have waited! Dual undead! It’s a very rare sight, but I suppose it works better on a small map with much to creep than a large map like GW. Let’s see what this holy combo has to offer!

The first trick we see is super-quick creeping of a turtle camp. That many fiends that early is deadly even to high-hp heavy armor units like the gargantuan turtle. In this instance it’s actually better to creep together than separate. Partly because a single fiend army has a hard time keeping a harasser at bay, but also because very powerful camps can be crept right of the bat. Right after the turtles and the shop they go for the ogre camp, but they are found by the enemy BM. Wicked on the other hand seems to have forgotten that the enemy has switched strategies and are doing the masser counter of PL/TC second. The combo does help driving the mass of fiends away, but both Lucy and Susie have been teching up...

And, while Lucifer goes off to creep a red camp Susiria heads back to the orc base to kill some burrows. As MYM arrives in the orc base for the final attack neither the TC nor the PL have quite reached lvl 3 yet. Not that it would’ve mattered very much. Nuking from 4 undead heroes takes care of the TC and Lucifer’s DR takes care of the PL’s RoF. As with the mutual nuking of the TC there both MYM players are highly observant of each others’ heroes, helping with coils where needed, foiling any attempts by wicked to drive them off with hero focus. Once the BM goes down the game is a sealed deal.

They can't counter you if you kill them!

Conclusion: We’ve seen a rise in both teamwork and innovation in this clan war; the exact parts I was previously worried about. And look at the result: 10:0 against a Wicked on a killing spree! Wicked really seemed shocked but determined in this clan war. Game 2 were consistantly tougher affairs, but they took in general too many risks. 5Star with his BM, Soccer with his Warden, Michael with pretty much everything(?). MYM, however, played it safe and well, not overreaching where such things were unnecesary and thus we end up with a perfect score. Lucifer took no risks in his games against Soccer, expanding and then delaying instead of trying to outright rush down the expo, ending up with an sub-optimal army.

Grubby switching over to Serpent Wards from Hex when they both went over 50 food, since Hex isn’t as useful when large unit masses clash, because it’s too easy to cover the escape of a hero with a large army. Pure damage helps far more at that point. The 2s team played it safe, even if that’s not what it looked like. They covered each other, they ported not a minute too late, but not a minute too soon either. There was very little soloing going on basically. As a side-note I hope to see more Dual Undead in the future, just because it’s so bloody brutal! So we have snapped out of it, yes. But that won’t be enough once we face SK. Until then there are still strats to be practiced, standards to be set. Until then, dear friends. Until the moment of fate.

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Wicked		MYM

myMYM's WC3L Coverage