Home Gaming Bravado-Energy Grudgematch results

Bravado-Energy Grudgematch results

8 min read
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By Ben “Noxville”  Steenhuisen

Last night saw the two South African powerhouses meet in what was billed to be a “grudge match” following the January shuffle. There seemed to be a lot of playful banter between the players, both in-game (when there was an extended pause due to Doni having some technical issues) as well as in the lobby. The match was a pre-season (that is, pre-DGL) show match, organised by Zoot to get some exposure for the local community, and as an icebreaker for him into the Dota 2 casting world. Zoot is a well-known face in the Quake scene, casting at top-tier events both live and online.

Energy eSports were the slight favourites to win according to Dota2Lounge bets, initially with a 65% bet rate, dropping down to 55% just before bets closed. 16147 people placed 46671 bets on the game, which is relatively close to the amount of bets one would normally see for a professional match in a top tournament.

Game 1

The first game started off with wide open drafts from both sides. Bravado on the Dire side (with scant as a drafter) went for the first pick Visage, a deadly laning hero that provides both offensive and defensive capabilities that can be devastating with his familiars, especially in fights surrounding Roshan. Energy (with Shanks drafting) went for the Alchemist and Timbersaw, both versatile heroes that can lane in various situations. Bravado grabbed the Clockwerk, a signature Doni hero to seal off the first pick phase.

After Luna was picked up as the 3rd hero for Energy, Bravado quite quickly grabbed Viper, a hero excellent against all three of the heroes revealed thus far by Energy. With scant, Doni and seem on signature heroes, it looked like Bravado’s lanes were beginning to take shape, looking for another support and a carry hero. Energy on the other hand still had options, with safe-lane Luna being the only guaranteed position as Timbersaw could mid with an aggressive trilane, or Alchemist could mid with two supports to be picked. Bravado went for their support first (a Shadow Shaman – no doubt wanting to abuse the Roshan ward trap made popular in recent competitions by s4 from Alliance, which is to be patched in the latest patch – 6.80), in response to a Crystal Maiden which Xera would no doubt play. Energy settled on Mirana; even with that final pick, they still had many laning options. Bravado sealed their deal with just “mid-game good stuff” in the form of a Juggernaut – not an extremely hard carry, but one that can make plenty of solo-kills throughout the game, and can push very effectively with his Healing Ward. Shanks selecting the Mirana told Bravado that the lanes for Energy were definitely going to be a mid Mirana (against their Viper), a top lane Timbersaw (against the Juggernaut and Shadow Shaman) and a bottom (safelane) Luna against Doni on his Clockwerk.

Game1

The early game seemed to be a set of trades in which Bravado came off slightly better in most instances. Flarez was relatively untouched in the top lane, able to free-farm on Juggernaut, whereas a lot of pressure came in the bottom lane as Doni was able to harass both Clitsybananas on Luna and Xera on Crystal Maiden. This aggression from Doni led to him getting an early bottle and boots, but he did get picked off by a timely rotation by the Energy players in which Doni almost managed to snag Clitsy before dying. Bravado managed to make some great snipes on heroes and push objectives; during one key fight in the bottom lane, Bravado dropped some players but managed to pull back and take the Roshan whilst the Energy players scrambled to defend their towers. What could have been a turning point in the game for Energy was when they used Mirana’s Moonlight Shadow to initiate on the Shadow Shaman when Bravado were out of position. This led to no wards or disables being used by him, and Energy’s great teamfight spells demolished Bravado five for one as Flarez importantly managed to kill Clitsybananas before dying. Even with Aegis, Flarez was unable to escape and died a second time.

Screenshot 4

Bravado respawned and regrouped and began a slow push focussing on mid and bot, with Doni occasionally split-pushing top. Ultimately the bottom rax fell after a great hex initiation on Clitsy by Chosen1 (on Shadow Shaman), and he wasted his BKB on almost no health, so even if he could buy back, he couldn’t teamfight. As the second rax fell, Energy called “gg” and game one was sealed up for Bravado.

Screenshot 5

Game 2

Game two’s draft seemed to have an obvious strategy from both sides. Energy went for first pick Venomancer, an excellent hero who’s really bounced back into the international meta since his buffs in 6.79. With really strong offensive capabilities, good teamfight potential and both push and counter-push effective wards, it’s a no brainer (Veno was banned in game 1). Bravado’s response was Mirana and Bane, a classic combination of support that sometimes have support/roaming Bane and/or support/roaming Mirana to set up guaranteed maximum distance arrows for easy kills. Energy went for another hero banned in the previous game – Invoker, a hero Shanks himself is very familiar with. With a Lich and Rubick picked up by Energy, they were missing just a hard carry and Gyrocopter was almost a telegraphed pick. Bravado instead had Death Prophet and Weaver, but with their final pick decided on Nature’s Prophet, adding a new large threat that would require precision from Energy to deal with effectively.

Game2

Energy had clearly better team fight heroes, provided they could combo them effectively. Lich’s Chain Frost, Venomancer’s Poison Nova, Gyrocopter’s Call Down and Flak Cannon and Invoker’s menagerie of spells meant that any small-area team fight would be hard for them to lose. Bravado had the skill set on offer to play rat dota should they so wish, but also had sufficient spells to stop pushes with Mirana’s Starstorm, Death Prophet’s Exorcism and Nature’s Prophet Wrath of Nature; this meant they were not helpless against Energy’s pushing potential. Bravado managed to use their highly mobile lineup to make kills constantly, taking key objectives after every successful team fight.

Doni and Flarez collectively grabbed 20 of their team’s 34 kills in the game, and part of this was Flarez’s slightly unorthodox item build of Dagon 2 before boots. This, in conjunction with Teleport, and some excellent arrows from scant led to many early pick-offs, especially given the several low-HP heroes in Lich, Rubick and Venomancer. Even though the Mekanism came early from RandomHero’s Lich, no player would be fast enough to heal in the split-second between getting nuked from any random spell like the Death Prophet Crypt Swarm and getting Dagon to death right afterwards.

Energy lost map control relatively early in the mid-game and had to rely on some crucial fights, blowing all their ultimates, just to hold rax. Despite Bravado often coming out unfavourably in these skirmishes, they were getting chip damage on the tier three towers and raxes, and were also containing Energy within their base, allowing Bravado to safely farm the Dire jungle while Energy starved within their base. During one team fight just after Bravado had grabbed Roshan and slapped the Aegis onto Weaver, a costly leap by scant led to him and Chosen1 being caught out by the defenders-turned-aggressors in Energy.

Screenshot1

With every successful hold, Energy just became further and further behind, or remained as far behind as they previously were; they seemed unable to start an assault on the gold and experience advantage that Bravado had amassed. The most significant hero for Energy was obviously the Gyrocopter (played by Clitsybananas) and Bravado attempted many times (unsuccessfully) to gank him in the late stages of the game.

Screenshot2

Finally they picked him off, forcing him to buyback, and after killing him a second time they had sealed the deal. Bravado took the show match 2-0.

Game2 results

After the game I posed the same question to the two drafters to see how they felt about the match: “How do you feel about your performance tonight? Do you think it was up to the standards you’d like or what key areas you think you guys could improve on?”

Scant:

I was very happy with our performances this evening and am generally happy with all of our performances so far since we started playing together!

We’re still a very new team and can still learn to understand one another a lot better. We’re also still missing 1 of our players so this sort of progress is necessarily hindered in the meantime.

Shanks:

I feel that our laning early game is pretty good, but we always seem to slip up with movement and control of the map; but the biggest thing was that we made a lot of bad decisions in the mid-game which cost us a lot.

Play of the game

To me, the play of the match was definitely Flarez’s very low HP escape where he managed to juke a large number of the Energy lineup, run from the Necronomicon units, sprout and teleport out.

Flarezplay

Videos of the match are available on Zoot’s Youtube Channel. Or click here for game one or game two.

Last Updated: January 28, 2014

31 Comments

  1. RinceThis2014

    January 28, 2014 at 14:34

    “There seemed to be a lot of playful banter between the players” was that before or after they tore into Gavin for bringing up racisim in the sports 😛

    Reply

    • Dean

      January 28, 2014 at 14:37

      I think it was during the time they wanted to rape things…

      Reply

      • RinceThis2014

        January 28, 2014 at 14:37

        HAHAHA! 🙂

        Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      January 28, 2014 at 14:42

      Every time I read stuff like yesterday I want to get into Dota just to troll people but I’m better than that.

      Reply

      • RinceThis2014

        January 28, 2014 at 14:49

        Agreed man. It’s also the way they defend it. I know it isn’t all of them, but my boet is part of the DOTA SA community and he says it happens so often it’s shocking. Like you have to graduate as a damn moron in order to join. Very sad as that element is making the DOTA community, of whom most are decent, look bad.

        Reply

        • Matthew Holliday

          January 28, 2014 at 15:53

          you dont graduate, dota 2 is like the borg, you are assimilated.

          the more time you spend there, the more they get used to you, and the more you become like them.

          Reply

          • RinceThis2014

            January 28, 2014 at 16:08

            This for comment of the week 😉

  2. Dean

    January 28, 2014 at 14:39

    Yeah… after watching the first game I lost all faith that it would actually, you know, be a match worthy of being called part of a sport. So I played Minecraft

    Reply

    • noxville

      January 28, 2014 at 15:05

      In the professional circuit, best of three matches very often have games that are a lot more one-sided than the first game last night. Bravado were cleaner at execution, and did a great job at shutting down Clitysbananas. I would have said that Energy could have taken the second game on paper; and I think that I might have suggested that I thought that their draft seemed better on paper.

      Reply

      • Matthew Holliday

        January 28, 2014 at 15:51

        poor clitsy, treads and a yasha by end game, worst feeling.
        second draft had the damage, but lacked the synergy, just needed one change, which they had several options available.
        laning stages looked ok, wouldnt have given either team the edge, all down to play

        Reply

        • noxville

          January 28, 2014 at 16:37

          Doni did an excellent job at harassing bottom lane.

          Reply

  3. RinceThis2014

    January 28, 2014 at 14:51

    Nice writing to the guest writer here. Very cool indeed 🙂 Are you a shoutcaster? Seem very comfortable in detailing what happened.

    Reply

    • Exalted Overlord Geoffrey Tim

      January 28, 2014 at 14:53

      He is indeed. was the shoutcaster for this particular match.

      Reply

      • RinceThis2014

        January 28, 2014 at 14:57

        Very nice to see this. Shows that there are indeed professionals linked with DOTA and that the vitriol we have come to associate with the game is from a small number of ill-mannered children.

        Reply

        • Her Highness the Hipster

          January 28, 2014 at 15:01

          amen to that! there are people who take eSports seriously – it’s the immature few who ruin things for the rest

          Reply

          • RinceThis2014

            January 28, 2014 at 15:06

            Sorry Zoe, I have to tell you, I label you in that small sect! Trololo *RUNS!

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            January 28, 2014 at 15:10

            Shut your stupid face because it’s face-like & stupid!

          • RinceThis2014

            January 28, 2014 at 15:18

            Yeah! Well your ping is so slow using the word ‘noob’ on you would be an insult to noobs!

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            January 28, 2014 at 15:31

            Poop!

          • Her Highness the Hipster

            January 28, 2014 at 15:19

            shut it! i’d teabag you if i had the parts! 😛

          • VampyricSquirrel Monk

            January 28, 2014 at 15:26

            LMAO!!!! I’ll remind you of what you said to Gavin… You can not win comment of the week… even tho you should with that one!!!!

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            January 28, 2014 at 15:28

            You could try using alternate parts, but run the risk of being motorboated.

          • SheHulkNigri

            January 28, 2014 at 15:55

            Your cat shags hippo’s!

        • Matthew Holliday

          January 28, 2014 at 15:47

          the ill-mannered children still take their dota seriously, theyr just ill-mannered.
          even the trolls are decent okes, its like the difference between the SAESA and the dota 2 fb group, same people, different attitudes.

          Reply

    • noxville

      January 28, 2014 at 17:41

      Thank you very much. I’ve written a few articles for ESFIWorld and Bravado Gaming, so I’m not 100% noob. Ok, I am. 🙂

      Reply

  4. UltimateNinjaPandaDudeGuy

    January 28, 2014 at 15:05

    Enjoyed watching it, but it showed that eN needs a lot of practice with the new line-up.

    Reply

  5. Matthew Holliday

    January 28, 2014 at 15:43

    The first match wasnt as close as it sounded.
    after BVD got teamwiped in the late game, they just waited to respawn and casually took two raxxes into a “gg” call by energy.

    second game looks like eN totally lost it on the draft. since when are wombos a viable scheme in the current meta?great damage, but no synergy without some real lockdown.
    it relied totally on the invoker getting an amazing ice wall, who in the mid game will be struggling with having low wex for ice wall meatball.

    and no 1v1 potential, gyro is a great teamfight carry with calldown and flak, but put him 1v1 against a weaver or NP, he’ll drop fast.

    not really a fair fight though, BVD got 3 players who have been playing with each other for ages, which means theres only 2 extra players to synergise with, and one of those who has been palying against them for ages aswell.
    eN have a totally new lineup, new drafting, with new players who havent been on a properly serious team in years.

    aside from that though, energys draft in that second game was just missing something.
    a puck or storm spirit would have been better than an invoker (unless they were banned)

    or bringing back the darkseer or enigma
    or disruptor instead of veno

    Reply

    • noxville

      January 28, 2014 at 19:13

      I think that it wasn’t reliance on *just* a full wombo combo working every time, but there were many like, ‘mini wombos’ that were possible, each of which could have worked effectively. You had the Veno Poison Nova always going off and Venomous Gale hitting a hero or two. This was always they key initiator. Clitsy would ideally have Flak and a Call Down going off, or Invoker would be clearing with his spells. This would open up room for Lich Chain Frost to be devastating. It was working fine for eN for a period of time, their issue wasn’t their draft in that regard, it was that they always lost key heroes to start a battle of. One has to give credit to the Bane, Mirana and Shadow Shaman who so acutely controlled the teamfights for Bravado; and Doni and Flarez who just had massive DPS. Both Shadow Shaman and Bane Elemental can take two heroes out of a fight (Nightmare into Fiends Grip, Hex into Shackles), so it really creates a huge amount of pressure on the eN players to position well, and set up for good counter-engagement.

      When Energy got so far behind, they really needed another item or two on Gyrocopter, and more levels of Wex on Invoker; neither of which was forthcoming. Gyro with a MKB + Satanic could have 1v1’d anyone, but the farm slowed down too much for Clitsy in the early bits of the late-game, and Seem, Doni and Flarez caught up too quickly. I’d have liked to maybe see him go just raw damage (ignore IAS), and getting Alacrity from Invoker, but that in itself is possibly too unreliable.

      I think that both teams are going to get a lot stronger in the next few months, and that alone is an exciting prospective for SA Dota!

      Reply

      • Matthew Holliday

        January 28, 2014 at 20:29

        personally, i think 90% of carries, with equal farm, would bench a gyro, he has no steroid for 1v1, no escape and no instant lockdown, his passive damage and stat gain isnt enough. I think a draft with that much CC and damage, should have a more 1v1 orientated skillset, for the gyro to work.

        amazing teamfight carry, flak +call down absolutely shreds, but relies on set piece rather than reaction or counter engagement.

        While I do think the draft could have been better, i do agree that the draft isnt what let them down, rather more good play by bvd.

        and yeah, not much to go on with this game, new teams, good potential. should make for an interesting season

        Reply

  6. hairyknees

    January 28, 2014 at 15:52

    Nice write up 🙂 I really thought Energy would take game 2! I think both teams will just get stronger and stronger as their synergy grows.

    Reply

  7. Lord Chaos

    January 28, 2014 at 18:41

    Honestly, All I’m picking up from local e-sports is: “My dick is bigger than yours”. Faith lost and they should rather come back when the average national IQ rises.

    Reply

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