[Game]"Team" Drafting

Gonna give this one to the Dire, Radiant has some nice Ganking potential, but I don't think they can win the game before they get overrun by a Carry Alchemist + Outworld Devourer.

It's true, Radiant has nothing to "Out-Carry" an Alchemist and with his Farming Speed, he can easily Snowball out control. However, the Treant Protector pick doesn't look like it will provide much here. He's really good at Prolonging a game with Living Armor, or using it to assist Tower Dives in early Push Strats. His ult is useful in Teamfights, after Radiant breaks out the BKBs and it does nicely setup a Sanity's Eclipse if he can get it off.

Not too sure about the Vengeful Spirit pick either. With a possible Bane + Mirana Offlane, this would leave the Clockwerk a lot of breathing room to cause havoc and gain some levels, she doesn't really add anything to a Tr-lane either with little follow up to a Nightmare. Vengenace Aura is a nice way to boost Mirana's and Slark's Right-Click, but I'm not sure how effective it will be.

Gotta think of the crazy damage from the minus armor stack from Alchemist and Dazzle. The combination of Acid Spray and Weave is really nasty.

Thanks for the formatting tips Xyrus!!

Damnit, had to rewrite all of this because my Internet went down as I was posting it.


The Slardar pick was a bit random, but I understand that giving it to the Dire would've basically given them the victory. And also, with the fifth-pick Vengeful Spirit, the Radiant has extra armor reduction that synergizes with him, along with more crowd control and even an ability to disrupt Clockwerk's initiations!


About the draft itself, Radiant wins this in my opinion. Both Alchemist and Outworld Devourer needs some levels and items to come online, while the aggressive trilane with Mirana and the safe lane Slardar just have to stay in lane for 15 minutes before getting their core. A Quas- Wex Invoker is also a ganking machine, and if he gets an early point in Exort (level 10-11) they can also dominate teamfights with Deafening Blast and Ice Wall.

In the later stages of the game things are more interesting: the Radiant team has a three-core lineup while the Dire only has two cores, but they scale much better: Outworld Devourer should deal a huge amount of damage with his Arcane Orb to both Mirana and Slardar, and we aren't even considering Alchemist! But still, if Invoker gets an early Scythe of Vyse and Bane lands good Fiend's Grips, the Radiant are in a better spot.

Summarizing, I think the Radiant can easily win the mid game; but if they don't, things will get pretty interesting.

Says the man who blocked my Slardar Ban 8{3

Says the man who's unsure about the Vengeful Spirit pick. :D

i favor the dire lineup here.

Sure, the radiant team has some very strong CCs and some good pickoff potential, but i simply cant see them killing an Alchemist who has his Chemical Rage up and Dazzle and Treant Protector standing in the back. Clockwerk also is a very good counter-initiator, in case a member of the dire team should get caught in the beginnings of a teamfight.

Radiant would have to play very very aggressive in the first 20 minutes of the game (were Invoker and Slardar are quite weak though) and needs to get their Slardar and Invoker snowballing hard, which i dont really see happening (Invoker cant do **** vs OD and Slardar is at a disadvantage against a Dazzle)

Says the man who...-3 Competetive Analysis 8{P

I've seen Dazzle + Treant + 1 carry before. Pretty frustrating for the other team, couldn't kill the carry at all :D

I chose Slardar specifically as a denial, he can do work vs alchemist, especially with the lockdown from bane. Treebeard eh he has his moments, his ultimate has the potential to ruin people's day in team fights, can be used as a means to disable bane in case he ults no? The lack of team fight control because of OD will be painful too, *** he forces Invoker into a Quas Exort build to make up for the damage hell lose from Astral Imprisonment.
Dire has the ability to play incredibly defensive early if they're forced to, and they're setup should handily win the laning phase, although they can do well to play an aggressive trilane potentially with mirana+bane+venge, lots of cc, essentially take tree out of the fight, and blow up one of the others.

Radiant(or did I loose track?) first ban: Crystal Maiden