how did i draft? plus after this game i love Dota even more...

please please someone watch this game and let me know how i did?

Match ID : 598964638

i was captain.

drafted well i thought... picking up Keeper of the Light and Venomancer our 4 and 5 with a Timbersaw as our three in a solo offlane and a Silencer as 2/mid and a Tiny as our position 1.

they ran out a Tinker position 2/mid with a Faceless Void as their hard carry in safelane and they countered our early Keeper of the Light pick with a Shadow Shaman and rounding out they're picks were a Ancient Apparition to fill out their safe lane Tri-Lane and a Centuar Warrunner which they ran solo off.

Then since i was captain the strategy was up to me so i decided to try and counter the SS push and the faceless late game with an aggressive early game strategy. we lost first blood to mid but after that it was probably the most cohesive and well communicated game i have ever played in. we rotated well, we forced team fights on our terms and before the 20 min mark it was our game.
entering into the middle game we stalled a bit but with some bad positioning by Centuar Warrunner we picked off a couple andforced the highground taking a rax by the 30 min mark their shadow shaman disconnected and within 5 mins after they were calling gg and they all left.

i would love some feedback from you lads and ladies on what we did right and where we went wrong and any feedback on my drafting as well would be awesome :)

Seems like your draft was good, i don't know a whole lot about drafting, but the scilencer pickup was a really good one i think. Veno OP as always. They also had no good way of stoping your timbersaw from farming and getting XP in the offlane. All in all 8/10 would draft with.

I honestly like their draft more but it seems you were straight up better.

I dont really get the tiny and kotl pick, although he is nice against void.
A slardar could also be great becouse your initiation power wasnt that good. Ofcourse the slardar needed to go blink then. Which most wont do.

Or maybe even a wraith king becouse he just respawns even if void manages to chono him. And he comes online much faster then void.

Would of preferred Wisp over KotL.

Veno and Timber would be good enough to stop the push so KotL was overkill.

I agree that the enemy had a better draft though. But you guys just played better.

Your team lacks stuns big time. The enemy didn't exploit this though so doesn't matter that much. If they'd gone Ursa it would've been painful :p

This. KotL is a really "bad" Hero in the current metagame as he's a great lane support but doesn't do much in teamfights besides pushing. Well, he's good versus Void as Blinding Light screws him up, plus he's usually good in split pushing teams because of Recall, but talking about global TPs an Io would've been better because it combos very well with Tiny and grants even more laning presence (Spirits deal more damage than Illuminate if getting close, Tether keeps both mana and HP up).

Also, I haven't seen the draft yet, but if the enemy team went for a quick Faceless Void (2nd/3rd pick) they just wanted to get outdrafted: the majority of hard carries are easily countered by a lot of Heroes that are very popular at the moment ( Ember Spirit, Invoker, Slark...), and even though their turtling/pushing strategy with Tinker and Shaman was a good way to keep the pressure on your team, every single Hero in their lineup needed that level 6 to do something. You could've just picked pushers like Pugna, Dragon Knight, Lycanthrope (my personal favourite) or Nature's Prophet to get some edge before they got their advantage, but as their team was just a bunch of Heroes with different strategies (a bit of pushing, 2-3 teamfight spells, a mid game Hero and a hard carry) they couldn't do anything properly unless they snowballed in the mid game or reached 45-50 minutes.

About your team: I love Tiny, but I only pick him with an Io for obvious reasons (even though he's still very strong in both mid game and late game). I don't understand the Silencer pick very much, but looks like it worked for you; I personally would've picked an Ember/Storm/Puck to shut down Void before he gets fed or just have some teamfight presence (which you lacked), and with such Heroes I don't think you needed a global silence that much.


TL;DR: not a perfect draft but you kind of outdrafted them. If they picked an Ursa (as suggested above), Slark or Juggernaut instead of Void the match could've been different, though.

Tiny + Keeper of the Light is something I've been wanting to try for a while, and honestly, I don't see a Io as being much better for him to combo with. I'm glad to finally see it happen <}3

Tether vs Chakra Magic (and Mana Leak. The principle is the same as it used to be with Phantom Lancer, except instead of infinite Harrass, you have Infinite Avalanche + Toss combo, if you need to chase your Target, Mana Leak is better than the Slow from Tether in some Situations, and it certainly makes the chase less dangerous, if the Target is losing Mana as they run, Tiny gets pretty fast, pretty quickly thanks to Grow anyway.

Relocate vs Recall. Granted, you're losing some of the advantages of Relocate, but with Recall you have a viable alternative. Tiny can stay in his Lane, and be Recalled into Teamfights, similar to Relocate Ganks, except you have time to Push the Tower afterwards. Alternativly, he can TP in for Ganks, then be Recalled back to Farm or Recalled into a 2nd Gank once he's done.

Spirits vs. Illuminate. Spirits might be better for Ganking, but Illuminate has its potential too, especially when used in Spirit Form. It's most obvious application is clearing Creep Waves, useful for Counter-Pushing but more importantly, for clearing the Creep Wave as soon as it Spawns when trying to take a Tier 3 Tower. In Teamfights, it's a threat, stand where you can't be seen while your Tank baits a fight. Go into Spirit Form, start chargin Illuminate, Recall any Team members in that are needed and try to force a fight under the Blast.

Overload vs. Blinding Light. The only big downside to picking KoTL over DiscoBall is that there's no real substitute for Overload, the big upside is, a good Blinding Light in Teamfights can make any Carry without a Monkey King Bar cry for 5 seconds, and when well placed, can isolate a potential victim in an easily killable position.

There's a lot of potential in this Combo imo.

Sure xyrus its a decent combo but it is a REAAALY poor mans Io. Less mobility, less regen, less durability, less escape, less carry and snowball potential.
Io was banned but i dont think he considered it.


Btw, i searched for the dotabuff link and seeing those skillbuilds made me cry. Pretty much all were mediocre at best.
http://dotabuff.com/matches/598964638/skills

I'd only pick KotL instead of Wisp if I had another split pusher like Naga Siren, Morphling or Ember Spirit in the same team: Io can gank other lanes with a support partner (e.g. when ganking mid, Veno slows and Io goes in with the Spirits), plus the Overcharge adds much more pushing potential. Also, with a Recall instead of the Relocate the "ganking" side of the global TP fades away, so you're left with a TP for pushes only.


Timber: pretty good, as Void didn't have a BKB.
KotL: good even though I would've picked a survivability item instead of the Eul's. Horrible skill build.
Veno: horrible skill build, but at least he has good items. Again, Force Staff/Blink would've been better than Eul's.
Silencer: Last Word levelled last? Other than that, I like his items a lot.
Tiny: Arcanes... But his skill build is okay.

Tinker: Agh's? I don't think it's worth picking it even after the buff to his rockets.
Shaman: nice build, but I would've maxed Hex before Shackles.
Void: MoM and BF? No comment.
AA: no Agh's and NO CHILLING TOUCH. WHAT IS THIS.
Centaur: no blink, enough said. His skill build is also messed up.