Aug 5, 2015
Dota 2 - Valve
- Fixed an issue where playing after spectating a game sometimes disabled the minimap and shop interfaces.
Share: 
Pip is currently in Seattle to cover The International 2015 – Valve’s six day Dota 2 [official site] tournament. There’s over $18m on the line and a rich tapestry of professional gaming to enjoy (or unpick) – we did a cheat sheet to explain the basics. There are also bags to be clambered into and DDoS attacks to withstand. Here is what happened on Day Two…>
Find out everything you need to know about the tournament by checking out our extensive reference guide. Missed day one? Catch up with our writeup. You can find VOD links for today's games on the official International site, which is also where you'll find each team's current bracket standing.
Day two of the world s biggest Dota 2 tournament is done and favourites have fallen. Here s how it went down—for individual highlights, check the sidebar.
Game one was a game of two halves in the most literal sense as another DDOS attack (thanks, jerks) mandated a long pause right in the middle. coL had a great start off the back of an unusual draft, coordinating beautiful kills on SumaiL's mid Lina with combined force from Chen, Clockwerk, Tusk and Queen of Pain.
ddc lands a clutch Winter Wyvern ult to ensure the teamfight that EHOME badly needed.
Runner up: EG.Universe pulls off a magic snowball to save Fear.
There's no doubting their communication or teamwork. But their strategy relied on shutting down Fear's Anti-Mage and that's the one thing EG simply refused to concede.
Unlike a few of the other players to play Anti-Mage in this tournament, Fear is enormously patient and makes very few mistakes. As EG's defense rallied, he was already split-pushing tier 3 towers. Eventually his farm lead became unsurmountable, and a beautiful run of teamfights secured the win for EG.
Despite first blood going to coL, game two was far more one-sided. SumaiL's midlane Ember Spirit had a good start and an even better midgame, delivering an extraordinary performance on a sometimes-underestimated hero. Dodging Sven and Lina stuns left and right, he ran rings around compLexity in fight after fight.
Cracks started to show later one, including two overconfident deaths by SumaiL and a few mistimed Naga Siren ults by Aui_2000, but Universe's rock-solid Tusk ensured that EG never lost too much. A commanding kill and gold lead saw EG progress to the semi-finals.
I know, I know, another Rubick. But VG.fy is peerless on the hero, and his play in game one of Vici Gaming vs. C9 was inspiring. There s no spell this man can t steal and use better than the guy who cast it. Watch the whole game.
(At the time of writing, Valve haven't added a VOD link. When they do, it'll be on this page.)
Runner up #1: QO s amazing Templar Assassin in game 1 of MVP Phoenix vs. Empire.
Runner up #2: Cty s great Storm Spirit in game 1 of Team Secret vs. EHOME.
Runner up #3: SumaiL s brilliant Ember Spirit in game 2 of EG vs. coL.
Easily the series of the tournament so far. After a bloody start that saw both teams trading kills in the river, a series of misplays by EHOME saw Secret take a confident lead—the type of confidence they've earned with the long history of supreme decision making and skill. They underestimated rOtk's draft, however, particularly the impact of Winter Wyvern when combined with Gyrocopter and Bounty Hunter when combined with Storm Spirit. A run of brilliant teamfight turnarounds—including a clutch Winter's Curse around the 30 minute mark deserving of its own writeup. This gave Cty the space he needed to get out of control on Storm Spirit. Spirit Breaker chases. Courier snipes. Deep, deep dives. EHOME pulled off a 10k gold swing, and took the game.
rOtk's drafting magic delivered again in game two. With an aggressive lineup including a surprise Night Stalker, EHOME placed themselves in a position to punish Secret's early Shadow Fiend and Anti-Mage picks. S4 on the former had a terrible time, struggling to leave the game at all against a second astonishing Cty performance (this time on Templar Assassin.) Arteezy kept Secret in the game with an elusive split push on Anti-Mage, but EHOME outplayed Secret in every single teamfight. Zai's Axe managed a few heroic Berserker's Calls, Puppey landed his clutch Shallow Graves, and Kuroky's Witch Doctor pulled off his full-duration Death Ward ults, but it wasn't enough. A dieback by Arteezy confirmed Secret's fate. The unthinkable happened: this undefeated, world-beating dream team is going to the lower bracket. With the hype surrounding PPD, Puppey and xiao8, rOtk's standing as one of the world's best captains might have been overlooked. It won't be again.
Arteezy slips away from a fight gone south in the Radiant jungle in Team Secret vs. EHOME game 2.
MVP opened this set up with a combo they're very fond of—Io and Bristleback. Yet this was the pairing that fell first, losing the offlane badly to Empire's defensive trilane while Empire's own offlane Queen of Pain picked up solid farm. Yet it didn't matter. Slowly but surely, then quickly and dramatically, the wildcard team outplayed Empire. Febby's Io was the vital core of a team that each had their dramatic moments: March's Bristleback getting a double kill by taking an entire Death Ward to the rear, QO's Templar Assassin going 1 vs. 3 with an Aegis, getting a double kill, and escaping. Empire badly underestimated just how good the South Koreans are, and they paid for it.
The cliffs were quiet on day two, although a highground Tombstone in game 2 of MVP Phoenix vs. Empire helped yoky- open the game back up for his team.
Momentum is a real thing. MVP Phoenix stormed into game two with a commanding early and midgame. Their 'just keep punchin' strat saw Febby's Bounty Hunter chase Resolution's bootsless Templar Assassin all the way through his jungle while March's Spirit Breaker stood up to Silent's Anti-Mage and got the bashes (and experience) he needed. They came ahead in every fight they took, with no weak links—NutZ's Witch Doctor is the most impressive this tournament, with a run of perfect Death Wards. And all the while kpii was farming on Phantom Lancer, giving them the lategame to compete with Silent. Empire hit back hard when they challenged MVP in the Rosh pit, with yoky- picking up an ultra kill on Undying with a great highground Tombstone. Once again, however, over-aggressive blinks got Silent into trouble, and as soon as kpii was able to hunt him down with Phantom Rush the game was MVP s to lose. They didn t. What an incredible result for this underestimated team, and for South Korean Dota in general.
I often feel for the guys in the C9 t-shirts. Not just the players, I mean—the fans. Game one against Vici was right out the C9 playbook, in that it was seventy minutes long, incredibly exciting, and they lost. It opened with constant aggression from both teams and maintained that pace, with bOne7's Phoenix and Misery's Bane helping Envy to push fights in C9's direction—even to the point of sieging Vici's base. But Vici steadily outplayed them, with fy delivering another tremendous Rubick performance that warranted the respect ban he'd receive in game two. This was a game that came down to nerve and execution, and C9 had the nerve but Vici had the execution. Amazing Dota, if not what C9's fans might have wanted from them.
"Nutz with the finger! It's the global finger!"
Owen 'ODPixel' Davies, MVP Phoenix vs. Empire game 1
For the second day in a row, Lion s ultimate takes ODPixel to some silly places. Yesterday it was Banana; today, Nutz.
Runner up:
That skeleton. That value skeleton.
Toby TobiWan Dawson, EG vs. coL game 1
Game two was far shorter and far more one-sided. C9 s strange draft lacked either reliable supports or reliable disable, revolving around two dual lanes—Bloodseeker and Pugna top, Queen of Pain and Undying bottom—that both struggled despite a few early skirmishes keeping C9 in the game. Vici had their own weird pick in Super s Sniper, but the difference was that it worked: in a return to the dark days of 6.83, the hero s supreme range and nuke potential turned every fight he participated in Vici s way. Vici s far less greedy support picks, Earthshaker and Winter Wyvern, worked extremely well: it felt as if C9 had forgotten that they were up against some of the very best, most coordinated support players in the world. Vici ended C9 s International at a strident pace, a return to form that will have their own fans hoping that their recent disappointing run is finally at an end.
On day 3: Secret, compLexity, Virtus.pro and IG fight for survival; the upper bracket determines its final two. Don t miss out!
The second day of the Dota 2 International 2015 is underway, but it's been having a bit of a rough time. Kotaku is reporting that the tournament is struggling under the weight of DDoS attacks, which had left competitors unable to finish a single round through much of the day.
Reports of the problem have also appeared on PC World and SBNation, which noted that announcers confirmed the DDoS attack after the best-of-three matchup between Evil Geniuses and compLexity was halted for a third time. The action was suspended for the better part of an hour, but resumed around 4:20 pm ET, and our man on the scene Chris Thursten says things have been stable since coming back online.
That doesn't close the door to the possibility that further disruptions could occur, however. Valve is presumably working overtime to keep things rolling, but it's very hard to defend against them—you can read more about that in our breakdown of why DDoS attacks are so hard to stop—and based on the Norse Corp IP Viking map, Seattle, where The International is taking place, is still being targeted. If the tournament is knocked out again, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see some big changes in the way matches are held in the future.
Don't miss our recap of the first day of The International 2015, which saw some highs, some lows, and one \_( )_/ , right here.
Pip is currently in Seattle to cover The International 2015 – Valve’s six day Dota 2 [official site] tournament. There’s over $18m on the line and a rich tapestry of professional gaming to enjoy (or unpick) – we did a cheat sheet to explain the basics too. There is also beef chilli to be spilled in shoes and explanatory diagrams to show how Fnatic’s logo tells the story of a man being strangled by butts. Here is what happened on Day One…>
Find out everything you need to know about the tournament by checking out our extensive reference guide. You can find VOD links for today's games on the official International site, which is also where you'll find each team's current bracket standing.
Missed day one of the year's biggest Dota tournament? Get up to speed with these quick match summaries, and find individual highlights in the sidebar. Spoilers follow, obviously.
What an amazing start. On a very personal note, I got to see a commanding performance from yoky-'s Axe—snowballing into deep dunkin' dives, Empire's aggression machine in rumbling high gear. When that Culling Blade comes down, you feel it. I think I was picking up that movement speed buff myself. But they ceded every advantage they'd gained by failing to take towers or shut down Sylar's Phantom Lancer, and game one turned hard against Empire.
So many to choose from, but let s go with this: in the final act of Vici vs. Na'Vi, Vici's fy steals Shallow Grave to save himself. Prolonging what should have been a quick kill, this incredible split-second decision splits NaVi s defense crew up at a crucial moment.
Runner up: bOne7's Nature's Prophet assassinates CDEC's courier. Next level, clowny, crowd-pleasing, didn't help.
LGD patched up their midgame problems in game two and looked to convincingly take the series 2-0. But then, in a mirror of the first game, Silent emerged with an Anti-Mage who was simply too far ahead to handle—even after throwing himself into more than one unwinnable situation. Carries are vitally important in the current meta, and unless a team can end the game outright, being far ahead at 20 minutes doesn't mean very much.
Game three was long but one-sided in LGD's favour—in fact, it was long precisely because it was so one-sided. Both sides had lategame power if they could get to it, but Maybe's incredible mid Ember Spirit performance completely shut Empire out of the early and midgame. This created space for Sylar's Gyrocopter, and there's not much Silent's Phantom Lancer could do in response—as dominant as the hero can be, Ember and Gyro are both strong against him.
LGD extended their advantage steadily until the 45 minute mark, only fighting when they needed to, and then ended the game with a single devastating siege. They progress to the semi finals, and Empire drops to the lower bracket.
The right player on the right hero in the right game can make all the difference. Today, IG s ChuaN made the strongest case for the former champion s right to be here with a Rubick performance that consistently defied the hopes of MVP Hot6 s spell-happy lineup.
Short version: \_( )_/
Long version:
I was hoping for Cloud9 things and, well, I got Cloud9 things. bOne7's zero-minute courier snipe with Nature's Prophet was ballsy, silly, and took CDEC completely off-guard. Then CDEC outplayed Cloud9 utterly, taking advantage of Winter Wyvern and Agresif's rampant Gyrocopter to turn every single fight into either a victory or a favourable trade. Then the pick-off kills started: Xz's amazing Clockwerk landing hook after hook on out-of-position Cloud9 heroes. EternalEnvy decided to extend an aegis double-death by running headlong towards CDEC's base for some reason. They lost game one.
Game two lasted close to two hours thanks to an hour-long pause while Valve fixed KeyArena's internet woes, but the disruption clearly didn't effect CDEC. C9 had a great start, with a better draft and a solid laning phase. But it started to come apart after the technical issues were fixed, with CDEC's masterful timing continually getting the better of C9 in teamfights. Don't be surprised to see ShiKi's ganking Lina banned out in the semi-finals, and Xz's game-ending five-man Vacuum-Wall of Replica combo might be the main event's first perfect play. CDEC—who began their run in the wildcard—are now in the top 6.
MVP Phoenix's QO loses his pursuers in a tiny grove of trees outside the Roshan pit, preserving those precious souls.
Here's your defending champions taking on the wildcard second place—the team furthest from even qualifying for the International—and losing. Losing dramatically. The match was agonisingly close for ages, but a series of bold plays by MVP Phoenix opened the game up from the 35 minute mark. This is a team that will walk straight into a fight and rely on skill to pull through, using March's Spirit Breaker as an expendable battering ram to open up fights for kpii's Juggernaut and QO's extraordinary Shadow Fiend. A good performance by Newbee's Mu on Templar Assassin couldn't hold his team together. MVP Phoenix advance, and another former champion departs the tournament.
A wild Spirit Breaker appears and bashes MVP Hot6 s Heen onto the cliffs around the Roshan pit. Good job, cliffs. Glad you re here.
A heartbreaking ending to a long, tense game between two veteran teams. After a punchy start—including a 5-on-5 before the horn—and strong push on both sides, it came down to who could farm faster and more effectively. Na'Vi's XBOCT on Anti-Mage oscillated between big plays—solo killing iceiceice's Queen of Pain in his own base—and crushing deaths. Sonneiko played his heart out for Na'Vi on Io, while Vici's fy pulled out an astonishing Rubick. After one mistake too many opened up Roshan for Vici, a stolen Shallow Grave helped Vici expose Na'Vi's ancient. Then Na'Vi fought back, hard, and forced a full set of buybacks. XBOCT consumed a Moon Shard to get even the slightest advantage as Vici closed in on the ancient, but it wasn't enough. He fell. The ancient fell. Na'Vi log their worst-ever TI performance, and Vici's journey to recovery begins.
"What are you going to do when they crest him and he has butter."
Troels 'SyndereN' Nielsen, Empire vs. LGD game 3
The threat of stacked evasion items gives us the day's best caster quote. You've got to respect a slippery, buttery Gyrocopter.
Runners up:
"Shiki havin' a fish, but he pings the pit."
David 'LD' Gorman, CDEC vs. C9 game 2.
"Oh! Banana with the biggest finger of his life."
Owen 'ODPixel' Davies, Newbee vs. MVP Phoenix.
It started promising for Fnatic. A totally unexpected role swap between Mushi and Kecik Imba placed the veteran and his protege on opposite sides of their typical midlane arrangement, and they were successful in shutting out Virtus.Pro's G on Dragon Knight. Smartly dodging VP's signature aggression, the game was even and—strategically, at least—seemingly in Fnatic's favour. Then, two disastrous attempts to contest Roshan placed the game firmly in VP's control. Illidan's rampant Gyrocopter controlled teamfight after teamfight, and Fnatic's combo—Song of the Siren, Requiem of Souls, Wall of Replica—simply never worked. A final heavy push sealed the Malaysian team's fate after a one-sided mid and lategame.
The type of punchy early game draft that got MVP Hot6 through the qualifiers did some work at the beginning of this match, but IG were simply too experienced to give Hot6 the fights they wanted to take. An early kill lead didn't stop IG's BurNing from farming up on Phantom Lancer, and Ferrari_430's Shadow Fiend quickly became too big to handle. As Xi and ChuaN opened up fights across the map, IG stormed through Hot6's mid barracks and demonstrated what a substantial gold lead can do. After an attempted comeback fight went south Hot6 called GG. Only one previous TI champion would be eliminated by a Korean team today, and it wouldn't be Invictus Gaming.
On day 2: the two halves of North American Dota work out their differences; Empire strikes back; Cloud9's last chance. Don't miss it!
Happy Dota Day! It’s that day of the year when Pip slips into a malaria dream of excel spreadsheets and weird anecdotes about last hitting, the day that celebrates that holy day whence once the First Minion was born and itself begot the eternal cycle of minions which continue evermore into the infinity. I guess! I don’t know, I play League of Legends.
Today is the beginning of the main event for Valve’s Dota 2’s [official site] tournament The International, which comes with an impressive $18 million prize pool – and it’s not settled yet.
The prize pot for The International 5 has passed the $18 million mark just hours before teams are due to meet in the final week of competition. The pool is powered by sales of the TI5 Compendium, a virtual book that grants you in-game cosmetics as you level it up. 25% of Compendium profits go to the TI5 pool, while the rest—some $54m—is poured into a Scrooge McDuck style money ocean beneath Valve HQ.
The International kicks off in a few hours shortly after 10am PDT / 6pm GMT. You can watch it here, the Dota 2 client, or using Valve's very fancy new streaming beta, which includes built in stat-tracking, chat and a live minimap of the action. It's also streaming on Twitch and YouTube.
The size of the pool guarantees $6,480,556 for the winning team, so it'll be an intense competition Get yourself up to speed with our guide to the tournament, which includes a round-up of the group stages, notes on all of the teams involved and an overview of the current state of the game, which explains why the Dota 2 scene is currently being terrorised by a glowing blue centaur.
The Dota 2 International 2015 group stages, which ended on Thursday, have been brilliantly exciting and tremendously popular—but they're nothing on next week's main event. Starting on Monday, the 16 best Dota 2 teams in the world will compete for the lion's share of almost $18m. While there are favourites for the title, this is the closest-run International I've ever watched. Upsets seem likely—it's going to be a fierce six-day battle.
It'll also be loud, confusing, silly, and baffling to newcomers. You're going hear at least one adult man bellow 'black hole'. Twitch chat is going to try, collectively, to offer their energy to somebody. That guy with a massive horn from TI3 might be back. You would be forgiven for not knowing what the hell is going on at first.
This guide is designed to provide new viewers and those who didn't have time to tune in for the group stages with an overview of what's happening, what has already happened, who's involved, and how to get the most out of watching the International. This is a large, multi-part guide, so don't feel pressure to read it all at once (though you can if you want to.) It's designed to act as a reference document—don't know a team or strategy? Hopefully, you'll find some answers here.
If you're just dipping your toes into TI5, I recommend reading this page and the beginner's guide to the meta at the end first. Catching up on individual teams and the group stages can wait until it's relevant to the match you're watching.
If there's something you'd like to know and you don't find it here—or you don't find it in sufficient detail—leave a comment. I'll be reading them, making changes where I can, and applying that feedback to future articles like this one.
GL HF! Let's Dota.
Skip to a section by opening the links below in a new tab, or just use the page forward and back buttons above.
The International 2015 runs from the 3rd to the 8th of August (Monday to Saturday next week) at Seattle's KeyArena. Each day's schedule will be a little different—not least because Dota 2 matches are of variable length—but they'll all take place on Pacific Time (-8 BST).
A run of games that takes place between 10.00am and 18.00pm, therefore, would be from 13.00pm and 21.00pm on the east coast, 18.00pm-02.00am in Britain, and an hour later still in western Europe. The grand final is on a Saturday this year, however, unlike the traditional Sunday. It's definitely worth pulling an all-nighter for.
Every game will be streamed on Twitch via the official Dota 2 account. It'll also be available via Valve's brand-new, very swanky streaming channel. This is still in beta and was sometimes unstable during the group stages, but it offers a huge number of benefits over Twitch. It streams at 1080p and 60fps and offers loads of additional functionality through your browser, like a live minimap and interactive stat panels.
It really is good. You can check out players' inventories without waiting for the casters to do so and pull up whatever graphs you're interested in. The chat is better than Twitch by virtue of being smaller—100,000+ people watching one stream devolves into meaningless noise, whereas I've seen the occasional conversation strike up on Valve's stream. Actual conversations! About the game! It's far from perfect, mind, and it's still likely a good idea to close chat entirely using the arrow at the top right of the screen.
Finally, you can watch every match in-game using DotaTV. You access this by booting up Dota 2 and clicking 'Watch' at the top of the screen. The International 2015 should be listed on the left-hand side. Click that and you'll see a list of all currently live matches and any recorded replays.
The benefit of using DotaTV is that you can control the camera yourself, access all the same functionality that the casters use, and disable the cast entirely if you feel like it. A fun way to watch Dota 2 is to sit on Skype/TeamSpeak/Mumble/Ventrilo with your friends and commentate the matches for yourselves. Now you can be the one to miss first blood!
Sixteen teams. Ten teams were invited to the International directly, at Valve's discretion. A further four won their spot by coming first in a regional qualifier—either in Europe, the Americas, China, or South East Asia. The teams that came second in each regional qualifier entered what is known as the 'wildcard'—a chance to earn one of the two remaining spots by winning a one-day bracket that occured right before the group stage.
In the group stage, those sixteen teams were divided into group A and group B. Every team in a group played a best-of-two against every other team in their group. Winning both games in a Bo2 earned 3 points; a 1-1 draw meant that both teams got 1 point; outright losers got nothing. These points were then used to determine group rankings, with the top four teams in each group progressing to the upper bracket in the main event and the bottom four ending up in the lower bracket.
At the main event, teams that begin in the lower bracket have to win a best-of-one—i.e, a single match—to avoid outright elimination. The survivors will then play teams that are defeated in the best-of-threes happening in the upper bracket, which is why group stage placement is quite so important. It's not impossible for a lower bracket team to make it to the grand final, but the road is long and every match is an elimination match.
Find out how the brackets stand at any given point by visiting the schedule on the official tournament site.
...and all of those numbers might go up with further Compendium sales. Crikey.
International prize pool fact: in 1985, the killer whale Keiko—later known for the role of Willy in the film Free Willy—was sold to a Mexican aquarium for $350,000. In 2015, that's about $780,000. This means that the top eight finishers at this year's International could afford to collectively buy a killer whale, while the grand champions will be the only players able to buy a killer whale each. This is the most pointless prize pool fact I could come up with.
Next: the teams, part one.
Here's a quick overview of all the teams in contention, plus video links should you want to watch a mini-documentary where a star player's dad/brother/grandmother cries. Valve are good at those.
Members: xiao8, Sylar, Yao, MMY!, MaybeOrigin: ChinaHeroes to look out for: Io, Anti-Mage, Dazzle, LinaEmotional soft-focus player bio: xiao8
LGD were gigantic in the group stage, demonstrating the commanding skill that comes with lots of experience. Including former members of DK, Vici Gaming, and last year's champions Newbee, this is the most successful Chinese team in contention—expect to see them continue that success. Midlaner Maybe had one of the most impressive runs of any individual player in the group stages, with a dominating kill/death ratio.
LGD are completely at home in a metagame that favours aggression, making good use of map-controlling teleporting magic ball Io and demonstrating superlative skill with the rest of the current top-tier heroes. Don't necessarily expect too many out-there drafts from LGD, but do expect them to use what they've got incredibly well.
Members: Silent, Resolution, yoky, ALWAYSWANNAFLY, ALOHADANCEOrigin: Russia/UkraineHeroes to look out for: Bloodseeker, Magnus, Nightstalker, assorted pubstompers, AxeEmotional soft-focus player bio: ALOHADANCE
Despite being the best-performing Eastern European team in the group stages, Empire's performance won't have been quite what they were hoping for. They're very aggressive, drafting heroes like Bloodseeker, Nightstalker, and Spirit Breaker and doing what they can to keep their opponents off-balance throughout the match. There's a degree of calculation to all of this, however—it's not just blind fury. Carry Silent has one of the most impressive gold-per-minute records of any player in the tournament.
There's a lot of experience on this team—despite the youth of captain Resolution—but no International titles. Empire is a team that is used to doing well on home turf and is now, at the onset of the main event, within reaching distance of their best-ever result.
Aside: offlaner yoky is known to play Axe, a big red man with an axe who remains inarguably the best hero in Dota 2 and there's nothing you can say to convince me otherwise.
Members: Garder, Q, Agressif, Xz, ShikiOrigin: ChinaHeroes to look out for: Bounty Hunter, Broodmother, Visage, EarthshakerEmotional soft-focus player bio: None.
Formerly LGD's youth squad (a term of questionable value in a sport this young), CDEC have had a great run so far. Carry Agressif is, well, one of the most successfully aggressive carries in the tournament. Having come second in the Chinese qualifier, they conquered the wildcard to enter the main event. Then, in the group stages, they finished joint first in their group with EG. Normally, wildcard teams languish in the middle of the pack. Not so CDEC.
They've been called the future of Chinese Dota and that may well turn out to be true. They're very good at controlling the pace of the game with heroes like Bounty Hunter, and transition well into the later stages of a match. The biggest roadblock they've encountered so far was EG's Techies, a hero known to be good against the Chinese metagame in general. If they don't fall afoul of the western meta again, they should do very well.
Members: EternaLEnVy, N0tail, bOne7, FATA-, MiSeRyOrigin: North America/EuropeHeroes to look out for: Anti-Mage, Io, Batrider, Earthshaker, Meepo, BeastmasterEmotional soft-focus player bio: n0tail
No team inspires more image macros than Cloud9. This is an energetic, characterful team that always does well but never seems to win anything. As a result, they're very easy to root for. Carry EternaLEnVy is one of the Dota scene's most notable personalities, known for his ability to match moments of superlative strategic decision-making and skill with, er, throwing just a little bit sometimes. EE-sama plays like every Divine Rapier could be his last (it never is) and is best summed up by this quote:
"When game is going this bad I just want to create chaos. Create so much chaos that no one understands Dota anymore."
He's matched with a group of European veterans with a huge collective hero pool. MiSeRy, FATA-, bOne7 and N0tail have all put in great individual and group performances in this tournament so far. Expect creative drafts and incredibly long games that get real weird past the seventy-minute mark.
Members: Fear, PPD, Universe, Aui_2000, Suma1LOrigin: North AmericaHeroes to look out for: Clockwerk, Dazzle, Storm Spirit, Techies, whatever Fear is playing todayEmotional soft-focus player bio: Suma1L
These North American favourites had a very strong showing at ESL Frankfurt last month and won the Dota Asia Championship earlier in the year. In Fear they have one of the most experienced Dota 2 players still in the game, in PPD one of the most experienced captains, and in Suma1L one of the youngest rising stars. As the most popular North American team they are followed everywhere they go by chants of "USA! USA!" (how ironic this is depends on whether or not they're winning.)
They're highly creative and versatile, with a good balance of virtuoso skill—particularly from SumaiL—and really solid support. Universe is among the very best 'utility' offlaners in the world, and Aui_2000 pushes the concept of support as far as it can go—as demonstrated by his aggressive Techies in the group stages, or his Naga Siren 'carry support' at ESL One. EG are, with Secret and C9, likely to draw the loudest and warmest reaction from the crowd in KeyArena.
Members: Zyzz, swindlemelonzz, MoonMeander, Zfreek, FlyOrigin: Americas/IsraelHeroes to look out for: Dark Seer, Nature's Prophet, Sven, TechiesEmotional soft-focus player bio: swindlemelonzz and Zfreek
The legacy of Heroes of Newerth stretches far into the Dota 2 scene, particularly in North America, and compLexity are the most recent example. Captain swindlemelonzz and his brother Zfreek were both HoN champions and have made the transition remarkably well—and remarkably quickly. Nobody expected compLexity to achieve much in the group stages, being so new and only really having the NA qualifier to their name. Then they came third in their group—behind only Secret and LGD—and a lot of people ate their hats (or their rares.)
They're not afraid to experiment in crucial games and have made good use of lesser-seen heroes like Wraith King, Sven, and Juggernaut. The biggest challenge they face in the days ahead is the fact that, hopefully, everybody else in the scene will have stopped underestimating them—and they've never competed at a live event of this magnitude. But that doesn't stop them from being within reach of the final, and that's extraordinarily exciting for a new team.
Members: Puppey, Kuroky, Zai, S4, ArteezyOrigin: North America/EuropeHeroes to look out for: Anti-Mage, Techies, Broodmother, Rubick, ChenEmotional soft-focus player bio: S4
Considered by many to be the best team in the world going into this event, Secret is comprised of veterans from the European and North American Dota scenes. They've been winning LAN tournaments left and right all year, they're rightly loved or feared or both by everybody, and their coordination and creativity is second to none. They have an uncanny ability to turn bad situations around through sheer skill.
Every individual player is extremely experienced and capable in their role. They have a legacy of legendary performances going way back: Kuroky's Rubick. S4's Puck. Zai's Broodmother. Puppey's Chen. And even if they have a rough start, Arteezy's supreme farming ability has a tendency to pull them back into position—an awful lot of Team Secret stories end '...but then, Arteezy happened.'
Members: Zyf, Cty, rOtk, LaNm, DDCOrigin: ChinaHeroes to look out for: Razor, Winter Wyvern, Earthshaker, ClockwerkEmotional soft-focus player bio: rOtk
A revival of one of the oldest names in Chinese Dota, the new EHOME mixes new blood with experience. Captain rOtk is a cornerstone of the game and lead Vici Gaming to their second-place finish at the International last year. LaNm is one of the most exciting support players to watch, too, particularly his Earthshaker.
EHOME had a very good performance in the group stage but not quite good enough to secure a top-place finish—they lost a game to CDEC, the team they beat in the Chinese qualifier, weakening their position. Nonetheless, they seem to be coming together as a team—particularly their newer players.
Next: the teams, part two.
Members: kpii, QO, March, Febby, NutZOrigin: South KoreaHeroes to look out for: Naga Siren, Queen of Pain, Ember Spirit, Spirit BreakerEmotional soft-focus player bio: None!
The Korean Dota dream is more alive than it's ever been. Having scraped through the wildcard in second place, MVP Phoenix barely missed out on inclusion in the top half of group A. They've proven that they can take a game off anybody—including Team Secret—with creative drafting and aggressive play that has earned them a lot of fans.
Carry kpii has demonstrated great judgement over the course of the group stages and midlaner QO is reliably punching above his weight. MVP Phoenix are most fun to watch when they're rocking unusual heroes, but this doesn't always deliver the results they want—respecting the meta helps from time to time. Their first game against Secret in the group stages demonstrated just how good they can be when it all comes together.
Members: Rabbit, Mu, June, Banana, SanShengOrigin: ChinaHeroes to look out for: Dragon Knight, Disruptor, Ember Spirit, LinaEmotional soft-focus player bio: Mu
Last year's champions dropped off the radar after their surprise victory at TI4, but their performance in the group stages established them as a going concern—if not the dominance force they were in the past. Having adapted well to the new metagame, 2015 Newbee is aggressive, coordinated, and at their best in a five-on-five teamfight.
They're one of the few Chinese teams to experiment with Techies, and have enjoyed good results with Dragon Knight and Lina. Midlaner Mu's aggression makes him really entertaining to watch, and Newbee's supports—Banana and SanSheng—have been having a strong tournament too. Newbee came from nowhere to snatch the Aegis of Champions this year—or so it seemed—and while their run of draws in the group stages suggests that this won't happen again, it'd be a mistake to count them out entirely.
Members: Hao, Super, iceiceice, Fenrir, fyOrigin: ChinaHeroes to look out for: Sand King, Bounty Hunter, Rubick, TuskEmotional soft-focus player bio: fy
Vici will be surprised (and unhappy) to find themselves in the lower bracket. They came second at last year's International and have had a great run in the year so far, including a second-place finish at the Dota Asia Championships.
They boast one of the best—if not the best—support pairings in the world with fy and Fenrir, and one of the world's best offlaners in iceiceice. While they've been playing the meta with their picks for Super and Hao, it's in these lower-priority roles that they demonstrate the most creativity—even if the results haven't quite matched up to it yet. They were tipped to do very well this year, and have struggled, and will need to enter the main event with a more consistent approach.
Members: XBOCT, Dendi, Funn1k, SoNNeiKO, ArtStyleOrigin: Russia/UkraineHeroes to look out for: Earthshaker, Gyrocopter, Tusk, Dazzle, Storm Spirit, Pudge why notEmotional soft-focus player bio: XBOCT
Na'Vi underperformed at last year's International (as did many western teams) and the subsequent shake-up—that led to Puppey and Kuroky forming Team Secret—has resulted in a very different team. They performed commandingly in the European qualifier but really struggled in the group stages, finishing up at the bottom of their group.
In a game that is increasingly punishing to risk-takers—just ask Cloud9—Na'Vi struggle to clinch games, particularly when playing from behind. That said, you can't count them out. New addition SoNNeikO is an enormously talented support player, demonstrating some of the best Earthshaker and Winter Wyvern play in the scene. Dendi, XBOCT and Funn1k remain the fan-favourites they always were, and regardless of the results this is a team that still comes with a devoted following.
Members: Illidan, God, DkPhobos, Lil, fngOrigin: Russia/Ukraine/BelarusHeroes to look out for: fng's lovely hair, Earthshaker, Silencer, Shadow Shaman, LycanEmotional soft-focus player bio: fng
Virtus.Pro have had a very good year, including a respectable showing at ESL One Frankfurt—but their lower bracket starting position is evidence of their inconsistent performance in the group stages. They're most comfortable playing aggressively, but have demonstrated an ability to smartly outdraft their opponents—running Silencer against Empire's teamfight lineup, for example.
Losing the tiebreaker game at the end of the group stages puts VP a game from elimination, so expect them to come out swinging with a punchy, end-the-game-in-20-minutes draft.
This is a team with decades of collective experience, they know what's at stake, and they've proved that they can beat the top-tier. Now they just need to do it.
Members: kYxY, Mushi, Ohaiyo, Kecik Imba, JoHnNyOrigin: MalaysiaHeroes to look out for: Queen of Pain, Bane, Centaur Warrunner, Templar AssassinEmotional soft-focus player bio: Kecik Imba
Formerly Team Malaysia, the new Fnatic comprises stars of the Malaysian Dota scene—a part of the world that has always excelled at The International but is yet to take home a title. Midlaner Mushi is one of the most versatile and experienced players in his role, and his dominating performance over Secret in the group stages demonstrates what can happen when he's let off the chain. His protege, Kecik Imba, is emerging as one of the best new support players around.
Despite this, Fnatic have had a tough time so far. They're simply inconsistent: when they win, they win hard, against seemingly anybody, and when they lose it looks like a washout.
It'd be a real shame to see this team go out in the first round, given each player's history with the event, but it's a real possibility at the moment.
Members: BurNing, Ferrari_430, Luo, ChuaN, FaithOrigin: ChinaHeroes to look out for: Enchantress, Anti-Mage, Storm Spirit, RubickEmotional soft-focus player bio: Ferrari_430
The TI2 champions seemed to be in good form right up until the group stages, and are now languishing in the lower bracket. This is despite having, in BurNing, one of the most talented and experienced carry players to ever play the game; in ChuaN and Faith, two of the very best supports; in Ferrari_430, a legendary mid; a brilliant leader in Luo. They're all great, but they're a game from elimination.
They don't seem entirely comfortable in the current meta, although they're adapting—and perhaps that'll be enough to get them through their best-of-one elimination game.
Look to them for the coordination that comes with a lot of experience of working together, and drafts that mix on-meta picks with longstanding personal picks.
Members: Forev, MP, SunBhie, JerAx, HeenOrigin: South Korea/FinlandHeroes to look out for: Lina, Clockwerk, Bloodseeker, Zeus, OmniknightEmotional soft-focus player bio: Heen
MVP's primary Dota squad won the South East Asia qualifier, although their performance in the group stages was substantially worse than their wildcard-bound brother team, Phoenix. As with Phoenix they draft somewhat unusually, pulling out Tinkers and Omniknights and Invokers during their group stage run (although admittedly these were nested in otherwise on-meta lineups.)
It'd be great to see Hot6 double down on their own style going into their elimination game. This is a team that is known for its daring play, particularly when things are going well, although that dependence on flair can be a crutch when matches go south.
Next: what exactly happened in the group stages?
A lot of upsets, is what. The four-day group stages saw fan favourites drop games to teams that had to climb up through the qualifiers and fresh ideas clash with a metagame that has stabilised around a few key heroes and strategies. When the dust settled, no team had gone undefeated and two qualifier teams—including one who came through the wildcard, the longest road to the International—had made it into the top five. That's almost unheard of. It's been very dramatic.
Skip to the bottom for the TL;DR version.
Let's kick off with a gigantic teamfight where everybody dies, shall we? This bloody battle was the highlight of Vega vs. CDEC game 1, and demonstrates just how much both of these teams wanted to qualify. Also notable for TobiWan's breathless casting and for giving TI5 its first quotable moment—"WHERE'S YOUR STUN? YOU DON'T HAVE ONE."
The four teams to finish second in the qualifiers played each other in a best-of-three double-elimination bracket with the top two finishers progressing to the main event and the bottom two going home.
The Chinese and European wildcards, CDEC and Vega Squadron, were tipped to take those places.
That's not what happened. First CDEC took down Vega 2-1 despite strong resistence while MVP Phoenix—brother team to MVP Hot6—beat North American hopes Archon (formerly North American Rejects.) CDEC then went on to 2-0 MVP Phoenix while Vega did the same to Archon, eliminating them from contention.
Finally, in the biggest upset of the day, MVP Phoenix took down Vega Squadron 2-1 to score the final place in the International 2015. This is the first time there have ever been two Korean teams in the tournament.
Tough choice, but I'm going with a moment that confused the casters as much as the players—coL.Zefrik's massive surprise Black Hole in game 1 of MVP Phoenix vs. compLexity. It looks like he'd blown his ult trying to kill MVP's Naga Siren, but had actually stashed a Refresher Orb on the courier—ready to devastate MVP's later push.
This was a brilliant first day. Juggernauts LGD took two games off C9, which they might have been expected to do, but not without a 70-minute struggle from the fan favourites—including an incredibly ballsy Divine Rapier purchase from EternalEnvy.
Meanwhile, Secret were expected to do well against Fnatic—they dominated them at ESL One Frankfurt—but ended up getting taken apart by Mushi's Queen of Pain in their second match, drawing 1-1.
Upsets continued as American qualifier winners compLexity took down MVP Phoenix 2-0, and Phoenix drew 1-1 with Na'Vi.
The rest of the day developed more or less as expected in terms of results, but not without a lot of inventive play—Divine Rapiers on Ios, all-in Huskar play, and so on.
LGD emerged as the strongest team having not dropped a single match.
Secret's KuroKy counters C9's Roshan contention by stealing Magnus' Reverse Polarity. This is why you don't let KuroKy get Rubick. Plus bonus triple-cliffing by C9's bOne7 on the Magnus. Moments like this are why everybody get excited when teams clash around the Roshan pit.
C9's dream took wing with a 2-0 over Fnatic and then took, er, whatever the opposite of 'wing' is with a 0-2 loss to Secret. Secret went on to 2-0 Na'Vi, confirming their dominance, and IG became the first team to take a game off LGD.
The biggest upset of the day by far was compLexity's 2-0 victory over Na'Vi: from being ignored by most observers, coL were starting to look like top-four material.
Virtus.Pro took two games off CDEC but lost to Empire who then went on to lose to CDEC, demonstrating how close this tournament has been.
North American favourites EG took two games off Vici Gaming and MVP Phoenix, asserting their dominance, but MVP Phoenix managed to stave off a run of losses by taking a game away from Fnatic.
There have been a lot of Divine Rapiers in this tournament so far, but none as timely nor as immediately devastating as this pickup by MVP.QO in their match against IG. While the play itself isn't amazing—IG simply lose three people immediately to Ember Spirit's Sleight of Fist—it's a crazy power spike given that this was a 70 minute game.
The two most favoured teams, Secret and LGD, kept things ambiguous by trading 1-1. C9 defeated IG 2-0, keeping their own hopes alive while badly wounding those of the TI2 champions. Na'Vi and Fnatic—both struggling at this point—also tied, and Na'Vi went on to lose to LGD.
MVP Phoenix's rise from the wildcard was halted briefly by their encounter with C9, but they went on to take an unexpected 2-0 away from IG—furthering IG's woes. Their brother team MVP Hot6 lost to both Virtus.Pro and EHOME, while the latter traded with EG. Newbee lost to CDEC, as did Vici Gaming—we're talking a wildcard team taking games off the giants of their own scene, here.
compLexity, meanwhile, got shut down by Secret—game two of their set is definitely one to watch, featuring an absolutely astonishing performance on Broodmother by Secret's Zai.
Techies has steadily emerged as an important hero in this meta, rather than the fan-pleasing novelty pick they're sometimes seen as. Multiple teams have run it, but Aui_2000's performance against CDEC was, to my mind, the best. He's active and aggressive on a hero known for its passivity, and the clutch stasis trap in this teamfight demonstrates what the hero is capable of.
The final day of the group stage was a treat for anybody who really, really loves maths. There were a lot of knife-edge series that would determine which teams finished in the top four of their groups, and while LGD handily picked up the two wins they needed against Fnatic,
Secret only traded 1-1 against MVP Phoenix—definitely an upset. Even more so: compLexity's 2-0 victories over Cloud9 and Fnatic, which secured this qualifier team a place in the top four.
IG beat Na'Vi 2-0 in a TI2 finals rematch while Vici Gaming and Newbee went 1-1 in a TI4 finals rematch. EHOME picked up pace by beating Virtus.Pro 2-0 before going 1-1 against CDEC. MVP Hot6 enjoyed mixed fortunes, going 1-1 against Newbee but losing outright against Empire. EG made a strong statement in their games against CDEC, winning both handily.
The final positions necessitated an tiebreaker match to determine top four placement for Virtus.Pro and Empire, which was played as a best of three that Empire won 2-1.
LGD, Secret, compLexity and Cloud9 formed the top four for Group A and EG, CDEC, EHOME and Empire formed the same for Group B. MVP Phoenix rose from the qualifiers to narrowly miss inclusion in that set, while all of the previous International-winning organisations still in contention—Na'Vi, IG, and Newbee—found themselves at the bottom of their respective groups.
These were incredible, knife-edge, heartbreaking games. It's the first time an International group stage has been this closely fought, and it's unprecedented for teams that didn't get invites, who had to fight their way up from the bottom, to do so well—CDEC and compLexity in particular. The old Dota 2 pro scene died at TI4. The year-long gestation period of Dota 2's new status quo ended dramatically with this group stage, and it really is tough to predict what might happen next week.
Next: a beginner's guide to the current meta.
Dota 2 is a complicated game and that can make it tough to watch. Last year, I wrote a general guide to spectating Dota 2 as a newcomer that's still broadly relevant. Yet the Dota 2 metagame changes substantially every year, and the heroes, skills and strategies in play change with it. If you tuned into last year's International and felt like you got to grips with it then, you may find yourself having to start over for this tournament. This guide is intended to help with that.
If there was a title card for this year's International, it might look like this:
Dota 2 is currently in version 6.84c, and the metagame is pretty stable. It's very likely that we'll see a lot of the same picks and bans—particularly Gyrocopter and Leshrac, as visualised above—with relatively few surprises (although ask me next week if I want to take that particular prediction back.) That said, the heroes that are currently in vogue make for dynamic games on the whole—this isn't like last year, when the winning strategy actively made the game shorter and less fun to watch. If nothing else, having a relatively reliable set of top-tier picks makes the game easier to pick up for newcomers.
Pro games of Dota currently tend to be very aggressive, with lots of rotations—that's what it's called when a hero leaves their lane to try to make a play somewhere else. This is done in pursuit of map control, which is a really important concept to understand.
One way to think about is that 'map control' refers to the total amount of the map that a team can safely move across and farm. If a team destroys lots of towers or drafts heroes that specialise in suddenly picking off opponents, the effective area that is safe for that opponent to be in shrinks.
Most teams want to be able to achieve map control in the first 10-20 minutes with most of their players while at least one player—the carry—is farming gold for the lategame. Often, the results of early fights are only important insofar as they translate into map control, and therefore gold for the carry. For this reason, the scoreboard—which displays kills—can be a little bit misleading. Teams can be behind on kills but overall ahead if their key heroes are out-farming the enemy.
By tracking down and killing the enemy carry, placing vision wards, and seeking out other objectives, players and tip this equation in their favour. Usually, movement around the map will be related to one of these goals.
This isn't the only way to play or win, of course, and you'll see other strategies too—all-out pushes, drafts designed to end games early, and so on. As a beginner, however, the above is the most useful strategy to get to grips with.
There are hundreds of items in Dota 2, and you'll hear commentators talk constantly about what a player might be about to buy and what it means for the game as whole. It'd be impossible to cover all of them, and honestly you probably don't need to know that much at this stage. Here, though, are four easy-to-remember items you should pay attention to.
This allows a character to teleport to a friendly building. It has a channeling time that can be interrupted by stuns, and is used to escape, return to lane, or just move around the map. Not having a town portal scroll—or having one on cooldown—can be a disaster if a player is caught in the wrong part of town.
Typically bought by midlaners, this grants the player three charges of health and mana regeneration. It can be refilled by returning to the fountain or by picking up one of the rune power-ups that spawns at the top and bottom of the river. It's very important for sustaining a midlaners presence in lane: if they drop low and their bottle is empty, they may find themselves in trouble.
Blink Dagger gives heroes the ability to instantly teleport short distances, which is a major boost to mobility. It's often bought on initiators—characters that specialise in starting fights by diving into the centre of the enemy and letting off their ultimate. Often when a character like Earthshaker or Axe gets a Blink Dagger they'll be careful to reveal it at a key time—once they know that an opponent is capable of blinking, teams tend to be much more cautious.
Black King Bar makes heroes invulnerable to magic damage and crowd-control effects for a limited period of time. This allows big damage-dealers like carries to get a lot done in teamfights without the threat of being stunned, silenced, or turned into a pig. A character with an active BKB glows gold and gets a bit taller—you can't miss them.
You'll see many more heroes in play than the dozen or so below, but understanding these and their key abilities will help a lot while spectating this year's games.
Gyrocopter is an incredibly popular carry because he farms well, makes good use of items, and is dangerous early—and therefore both a boon to his team and tough to shut down. Key abilities to look out for are Rocket Barrage and Call Down. Rocket Barrage deals high damage over time to the heroes nearest Gyrocopter, and you'll either see it as a salvo of rockets or lasers depending on cosmetics. Call Down is Gyrocopter's ultimate, a massive AoE missile strike that does damage, slows, and is often deployed at the beginning of a teamfight.
Leshrac is arguably the most overpowered hero in Dota 2 at the moment, so you'll see him banned—a lot. He's so powerful because he's hard to lane against, he has a stun, a nuke, and a slow, he can demolish towers quickly with AoE magic and, later in the game, he becomes incredibly difficult to kill. All of his spells are strong, but the one most likely to be missed by newcomers is Pulse Nova, his ultimate. This causes Leshrac to glow and deal heavy damage in an area around him—look for the telltale disco lights.
Queen of Pain is a popular midlaner and sometimes played as a carry or offlaner. She can blink naturally, giving her high mobility, and offers AoE burst damage in a few different flavours. The most impactful of these is her ultimate, Sonic Wave. This is a cone-shaped attack that deals pure damage—without going into the details, this means that it can't be countered by magic resistance items or Black King Bar.
Tusk is played offlane and sometimes support. He's useful because of the amount of utility and control he offers, as well as significant burst damage if he gets far enough ahead. Key spells to look out for are Ice Shards, which is a projectile that forms an impassable barrier where it strikes, and Snowball. The latter is the most complex. Tusk targets an enemy and rolls up into a ball, but doesn't start moving right away. Then, the player may bring other allies into the snowball to increase its speed and size. All players inside the snowball are completely protected from anything happening outside, giving the ability the power to save people as well as initiate fights.
Dazzle's a powerful support who can sustain his teammates for a long time. He has a unique ability, Shallow Grave, which manifests as a column of pink light around Dazzle or an ally. While affected by Shallow Grave, a hero can lose health but can't die. While there are edge cases where Shallow Grave can be negated, for the most part it's a very powerful way to keep a carry in the fight. If you see a low-health hero survive for ages in a bath of pink light, Dazzle has happened.
A mobile spellcaster with huge lane presence and phenomenal single-target magic damage. Lina is popular because she tends to win her lane and can dominate heroes that are vulnerable to burst damage. In addition to a nuke and stun, it's worth looking out for her ultimate—Laguna Blade. This is a massive lightning bolt that does a huge amount of damage at high mana cost. When and where Lina deploys Laguna Blade in a fight tells you a bunch about the player's priorities.
Earthshaker is a support who offers a lot of control early on and who, later in the game, can single-handedly turn teamfights. Fissure is a long linear stun that creates an impassable wall for a few seconds. Even if a character isn't affected by the stun, in the vast majority of cases the wall itself is still an obstacle—Earthshaker is great when he can trap an enemy in dangerous territory. His ultimate, Echoslam, is a point-blank AoE nuke that 'echoes' off any enemy it hits. For this reason, it's best when used against the largest possible group—creeps and all. A good Earthshaker waits until his opponent is grouped up and then—boom.
Bounty Hunter is nowadays most often run as a highly mobile support that specialises in scouting, harassing across the map and attempting to assassinate the enemy's courier as it delivers a key item. Able to go invisible from level 1, Bounty Hunter's most important ability is his ultimate, Track. Placing Track on an opponent allows Bounty Hunter's team to see them wherever they go—even if they turn invisible—and if a Tracked opponent dies then the gold reward is higher. Over time, lots of Track kills add up to a significant gold advantage.
Bloodseeker is highly lethal with powerful potential to heal himself and the best teamfight cleanup ability in the game. He gets faster and more aggressive as enemies get low on health, and can even see through invisibility if the enemy in question is wounded enough. His kills return a lot of health to Bloodseeker if he's played right. Blood Rite creates a massive sigil in blood on the ground which detonates after a few seconds, silencing and damaging enemies caught in the vicinity. Rupture is his ultimate, placing a debuff on enemies that causes them to rapidly lose health if they move.
Undying is popular for his incredible presence in lane—he's among the very few offlaners who can take on three other heroes solo and, in the right circumstances, win. This is in part because of the way that he steals the strength stat of his opponents—which dictates health pool, among other things—and adds it to his own. His most disruptive spell, however, is Tombstone. This creates a mausoleum that steadily spawns zombies at the feet of enemies. Zombie hits cause a slow and as the target loses health the zombies become more aggressive. They mount up over time and quickly become overwhelming, but destroying the Tombstone itself immediately kills all active zombies.
Winter Wyvern is the most recent support to be added to Dota 2, and is considered a hard counter to drafts that rely on physical damage (powerful regular attacks, rather than spells, for the most part.) Cold Embrace is a big part of that. It's a heal that roots the target to the ground while they receive health over time. During this period the target can't do anything, but is also completely immune to physical damage—but vulnerable to magic. Winter Wyvern's ultimate, Winter's Curse, completely disables a single target for several seconds and creates a cursed field around them. Any enemy who enters this field is forced to stop what they're doing and attack their ally. Used right, this can cause the whole enemy team to 'et tu, Brute?' one of their own before the fight has even started.
Sometimes played as a carry, other times as a support, the most important of Naga Siren's abilities to understand is her ultimate—Song of the Siren. This creates a huge area around Naga Siren—expressed as subtle blue wavy lines—that puts enemies to sleep and prevents them from taking damage. It lasts a while, but can be cancelled early by Naga Siren (or resisted with BKB). Song of the Siren is sometimes used to escape, but most often used to reset a team's position in the middle of a fight—it's possible to put the entire enemy team to sleep, get everyone into a better spot, and then start the fight over from this advantageous position.
Techies are... well, they're Techies. Techies are three goblins pushing a minecart full of bombs, and they behave like no other Dota hero. While weak in and of themselves, they plant mines around the map that can annihilate whole groups at once. Bringing Techies into a match can force a long game by slowing down pushes, and places huge pressure on enemy supports by requiring them to buy sentry wards to detect the bombs. In addition to traditional proximity-detonating Land Mines, there are also Remote Mines and Stasis Mines. The former can be detonated whenever Techies likes, and the latter stuns. Finally, Techies' Suicide Squad, Attack! ability allows them to sacrifice themselves in a huge explosion.
Phew! That's it for now. Check back on Monday the 3rd of August for the first part of PCG's daily International coverage
