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fnatic.Shy		WE.InFi

Shy is, like Sase, somewhat inconsisten. Sometimes he plays brilliantly and sometimes like an inconsiderate leper. For the most part you can count on him to do some damage however, and he will need to fish out his best moves when he now faces the human phenomenon InFi.

InFi has continously improved since last season and has become a definite world class player. I'd be surprised if he let Shy snag even a single map.

Game 1 (TS): TS is a good map for fast-expanding. There is a close mine with strong creeps or a far mine with weak creeps. The time spent is about the same before you can start construction.

However, it also a very good map to use the Warden on. There are several spots where blink can save you a tremendous amount of time and it is also useful for harassing building expansions.

Warden is also the hero of choice for Shy while InFi hires old man Maneth and his bootlicks (that is to say, an AM and some footies). To avoid needless damage to his henchmen InFi rings the town bells and militia-creeps the laboratory. Shy AoW-creeps his laboratory and places down another AoW in preparation for stopping InFi’s expansion.

And an expansion IS coming! InFi places it on his natural. Shy finishes off the shop creeps, just getting lvl 3 before heading off. Even with lvl 2 FoK Shy doesn’t manage to do much damage to InFi’s troops.

One measly footie and a few water elementals is all he manages before he is driven off. Shy techs, which is a questionable move. Even if he hopes that the glaive thrower upgrade is going to let him kill peasants more easily his standard army is still rather smallish and it would be relatively easy for InFi to fight them off.

Oh, no... My water elementals. I'm surely doomed...

Shy brings most of his wisps over to InFi’s expansion site and builds a shop close by. He hides his warden in shadows, waiting for his mana to hit 110 so he can FoK up InFi’s peasants, but a 50-gold reveal forces him to staff out.

He researches vorpal blades, but before the upgrade even finishes InFi arrives in a zeppelin to harass his throwers. It’s a quite successful harass too, and Shy is forced to back off for a bit. By now InFi’s tech is done and he places down two workshops and trains a mk. Shy towers the expo with protectors.

Trying to keep as much heat off his expo as possible, InFi lands his units in Shy’s base and goes after his moon wells. He manages to lure the warden away from the expo. Protip: scroll of rejuvenation even affects units inside things, like zeppelins.

InFi triggers a scroll and loads his footies on board it. They quickly heal back their lost health without risk of getting FoK:ed. Mortar teams commence training in the workshops while Shy hammers in futility on InFi’s towers. InFi retrains to blizzard to counter the throwers which works pretty well since Shy doesn’t seem to want to use shadow strike.

The warden is wounded and forced to back off, at which time InFi breaks Shy’s siege with blizzards and mortar-fire. InFi loves the smell of mortars in the morning, I guess. The supply difference is at this point around 20. Shy's risky and seemingly weak strategy has failed. The game is over.

Game 2 (AI): Shy picks AI as his second map. It’s harder to expand on AI, but it is far easier to tower. A risky choice, like when orcs pick SV against humans. Shy trains warden once again, fully expecting InFi to attempt an expo again.

I grant him, with InFi’s track record it’s pretty damn likely, but he is adding to the risk of getting towered. InFi tries to militia creep his laboratory, but he is intercepted by the warden.InFi aborts his first plan and goes for a towering instead.

Towered? When using warden on a straight-forward map like this? Surely not!

With his second AoW taken down, very few units and only a lvl 1 warden Shy is forced to deto wisps to keep his head above water. He skills FoK second in an attempt to keep the flood of footmen at bay, but to no avail.

The first tower goes up and InFi places down an item shop. It is always useful to have when you tower, but in this case it’s crucial. Shy tries to use only FoKs against the footman hoards, but scrolls of rejuvenation makes it a wasted effort.

Shy tries to produce glaive throwers, but his only AoW is outside his base and thus they become easy targets for InFi.

Realizing his FoK:ing mistake Shy tries to SS the AM to force a tp, but his moon wells are now empty and cannot provide him with the necessary mana.

This should’ve been his initial strategy. Shy tries to hold on for a while, but then his warden dies... which gives the AM lvl 3... which he uses to skill blizzard which he uses to kill off the wisps repairing structures. It is hard to explain just how doomed Shy is at this point.

The match goes quite easily to InFi!