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fnatic.FoCuS		WE.TED

Allow me to start with a patheic attempt at humor!

It was a particularly gruesome process for FoCuS to cover up the MYM mark engraved on his left butt-cheek with branding iron. His fnatic salary could only afford him a bottle of sulphuric acid and a dull spoon (yes, a dull spoon) for the removal process, but through pure orcish dauntlessness he persevered. Or so the rumors say...

Personally I think you can still make out one of the Ms if you look closely enough.

TeD has been busy ”dealing with” his tournament failures to such an extent that all the floors in his apartment now have water damage and air humidity stays at a constant 100%. Those who dare venture into these rainforest-like conditions will however find that he has been hard at work, practicing, taking gamer drugs (like caffeined drinks!) and sacrificing tadpoles to his dark gods. Clearly, this match could go either way!

As a side note, all this is pure speculation on my part. It’s even possible FoCuS had nothing but bleach at his disposal...

Game 1 (AI): With the sparse changes actually made in the latest patch it seemed as if undead actually got most of the goodies, and as the new WC3L season came along it seemed like they got their own map as well in Ancient Isles. With easy access to the opponents base, easy creeps and with a general point of being easy to traverse Ancient Isles looks like a suitable place for undead players.

However, because of this it has also become orcish hunting ground. Although it’s slighly harder to base-race an undead after ziggurats were allowed back their initial armor the matchup was left virtually untouched and as such still in the Orcs favor. It is still of course up to the individual player to make the right decisions at the right time, but it remains far more crucial for the undead to do so.

FoCuS and TeD spawn at the top and bottom respectively, with TeD deciding on fiends while FoCuS plays the standard orc build. That of course includes a blademaster. FoCuS heads off to creep for items.

Note how TeD attempts to block off his goldmine with his altar and ziggurat and graveyard and how he starts to whittle away at the green camp creeps with his fiends before his Death Knight even pops. Saving time is all-important.

Once lvl 2 TeD proceeds to the orc base but meets FoCuS half-way there and battle ensues. Being completely out-orced by FoCus’ item-buffed BM, TeD withdraws to his base. FoCuS hires a TC and trains stomp. He creepjacks TeD and forces a tp after trading a grunt for a fiend and places down an expansion. By now TeD’s lich is out and it skills frost armor.

FoCuS power-creeps his TC while stalking TeD’s army creeping. Note that TeD teched straight to tier 3 to get an orb as quickly as possible. TeD discovers FoCuS’ expo just in time for him to cancel it, but in return he brings FoCuS’ wrath down upon him.

TeD attempts to stealthily hire a Pit Lord for a decisive attack on FoCuS’ base, but he fails to notice that the orcish army was close by, and it gets caught and killed, making TeD lose momentum. TeD trades his TP for an invul pot and begins the assault.

FoCuS uses items to great effect to lure TeD into bad positioning. First he uses a sentry ward to keep track of his movement, and finally a speed scroll where he send his heroes off to the right and his units straight into TeD’s flank when he tries to focus down the isolated TC. TP-less as he is TeD is forced to surrender. Undeads should try to never fight on an orcs terms. Sadly, there are several ways for an orc to force exactly this.  

                                             Fising tips: Dangle an entire cow in front of an undead army and it's almost guaranteed to bite!

Game 1 goes to FoCuS!

Game 2 (TS):  TS might seem a strange decision at first. It takes quite a bit of time to travel to the enemy base, and there are several gold mines for the orc to expand on. However, it is easy to creep and has plenty of choke points for a fiend user to utilize.

The spawn points remain unchanged from the last game and so do the build orders. After some light creeping FoCuS proceeds to hamper TeD’s. He performs a dangerous feint. He first makes it clear that his blademaster is present at the shop which makes TeD keep his attention focused on getting those creeps.

He even pulls them towards his base to avoid getting creepjacked. FoCuS, however, takes the opportunity to steal TeD’s natural expansion creeps. TeD is playing a variation of the fiend strategy this game. Rather than teching to tier 2 he plows his money into producing a multitude of fiends.

Once he hits lvl 3 on his DK he heads off to attack. FoCuS tries to once again lure TeD into bad positioning, but fails rather badly and gets most of his grunts killed. TeD started teching just in time for his assault but kept producing fiends during the upgrade.

A lvl 3 BM cannot alone defeat such a huge army of fiends; FoCuS is forced to use hit-and-run tactics, hoping to get his tech army in gear in time. TeD immediately destroys the voodoo lounge; a good move since it is imperative to prevent the BM from healing itself.

Raiders start coming out around the same time TeD’s tech finishes. Since he’s fighing an uphill battle at this point TeD wisely teleports out before he loses too many fiends. TeD is now in excellent condition to fight while FoCuS has several grunts in the red and no lounge back up yet.

TeD returns to FoCuS’ base with a lich in tow, and after a short struggle FoCuS realizes his folly. Note however that FoCuS hires a shredder to deal with TeD’s fiends. Had the battle been more even this could’ve been a game-winning move, but in this case it simply isn't enough.

Game 2 goes to TeD!

Game 3 (LT): It’s around this time that the orc says ”Pulled out a win, eh? Well, I’m picking LT now so why not just surrender?”.  Or something like that...  And waddayaknow? LT!

TeD lucks out by getting a semi-close spawn at least; easy access to FoCuS’s natural expansion spot. FoCuS creeps for items in the temple while TeD actually sets up a fast expansion. Now, if you have seen the series Sase vs apm you would know how to easily prevent this fast expansion and win.

FoCuS doesn’t quite have his priorities straight and tries to go for the DK rather than the expo and he is forced to tp out. He discovers the expo rather latish as well which is sloppy considering it is, to be quite frank, TeD’s only real chance on this map.

Keeeep hitting the DK instead of the expansion. That aught to... not do much...

TeD has his timing down pretty good. He knows that orcs like to creep the center around this time so he proceeds there to... slow it down. A prolonged fight at the fountain would be a costly affair for an undead player, and it would probably not even be a prolonged fight. Simply quick death.

However, it would give him time to reinforce his expo and start his own tech, which is exactly what it buys him. Once the SH arrives he is forced to leave. Off of creeping the center FoCuS gains lvl 3 on his BM, a large mana potion and a mana stone.

Perhaps not the best items in the world for a quick push, but handy if the game would drag on. A SH that can replenish its mana easily means one tough bloody orc army. It's also worth quite a bit of dosh.

FoCuS manages to force TeD to tp while he attempts to creep his merchant, and not only that: he outright slays the DK! In normal circumstances this would be a game-ending move at this stage of the game, but TeD is able to chase the horde off since the SH is only lvl 1 and consequently cannot heal the BM.

FoCuS brings in demolishers, planning to siege out TeD’s expo. TeD plays very carefully, waiting for his lich to come in and proceeds to tech to tier 3 while replacing his spiders back up to 50 food. FoCuS loses his raiders and his demolisher and decides to back off and power-creep rather than tangle with a fiend army surrounded by nerubian towers.

It would probably have been much better for FoCuS if he had expanded himself after he was forced to tp while TeD’s expo was building. It’s first now that TeD has a mobile army worth anything, but now he has both the tech advantage AND the economy advantage.

In a battle on the path to FoCuS’ expo, TeD defeats the orcish army. It’s not a complete victory but it is made clear that the next battle will have to be perfect for FoCuS unless he wants to lose. TeD builds a bone yard, but he never gets any wyrms out in time for the fun.

With his newly recruited crypt lord TeD proceeds to FoCuS’ expansion spot where the final battle is fought and won by the now superior undead army.
Game 3 and thus the match goes to TeD!