MYM and Mouz facing off in the DotA Masters 9 Grand Final. Here is a brief description of the first game with analyze and comments on the outcome, enjoy!

A relatively passive game where Mouz managed to outfarm MYM. The game was mostly a matter of creep stats and not so much vital ganks and battles. In the end Skeleton King and Nevermore were able to seal the game with their farmed advantage in one crucial battle.

Lineups:

Sentinel -	Mouz	1:0	MYM	- Scourge
mid	mouz.KuroKy	-	MYM|Maelk	mid
top	mouz.Drayich	-	MYM|PusHer	mid
top	mouz.CAT	-	MYM|H4nn1-	top
bot	mouz.Levent-	-	MYM|MaNia-	btm
bot	mouz.Miracle-	-	MYM|slasher	btm

Early Game

Both MYM and Mouz started the game very cautiously. Slahser's Witch Doctor and MaNia-'s Earthshaker did a few attempts on getting the first blood on Miracle's and Levent's Priestess of the Moon and Dragon Knight, but nothing led to success. Meanwhile, H4nn1-'s Queen of Pain was struggling at top against Drayich's Lich who intentionally babysitted CAT's Skeleton King which he did very effectively. Both teams struggled forth and back passively for awhile with not much rune actions. Besides a failed gank attempt from Maelk's Luna with invisibility at top both teams used passive wardings to cover their lanes' blind spots (Nevermore's uphill ward and Slahser's forest ward(s) respectively).

The first real action was to be taken when Witch Doctor after 8 minutes obtained a Haste rune and attempted a first blood gank on KuroKy's Nevermore at middle. After a successful stun and Maledict on Nevermore followed by Enigma's Malefice and a nuke from Luna, Witch Doctor was taken by a surprising turn of event when Mirana's arrow popped out of the fog stunning him which allowed Nevermore to capture the First Blood kill and escape with a mere 100 health. First after 12 minutes both teams started a more aggressive style covered by more runes oriented warding. Witch Doctor and Earthshaker successfully killed Dragon Knight at bottom but were both mugged by Mirana and Nevermore giving Nevermore an easy double kill however losing Mirana a few moments later in the process.


Mirana surprising Witch Doctor with a stun allowing the damaged Nevermore to gain first blood

With only few relatively weak gank attempts of which only few of them were successful, not much rune actions, passive lane warding and relatively cautious lanes too, the early game was mostly a fight for creep stats. In this battle, Mouz got a solid start with Skeleton King in the top (mainly thanks to Lich's babysit) and with Nevermore, though going through an unpleasant beginning, following right by. Luna had farmed most well from MYM's side, but it was little compared to Skeleton King.

15min statshot (click to enlarge)

Middle game

After somewhat halting behind Mouz during the early game, MYM started their middle game pretty good when they first equalized by killing Dragon Knight and then denied the top tower and killed Skeleton King who expected the tower kill, quickly bringing MYM to the lead with +1 kill and a denied tower.


Enigma successfully denies the top tower while rest of the MYM jumps on Skeleton King.


After denying the tower, MYM kills Skeleton King who had hoped for the tower kill.

Mouz quickly remedied this though when they denied their bottom tower, getting a kill on Earthshaker and killed MYM's bottom tower respectively. Skeleton King and Nevermore were still farming unstoppably compared to MYM and Nevermore led the rank with a 4-0 score including first blood allowing him to purchase a quickly completed Black King Bar. After awhile MYM went back to a passive position oriented around the middle covered with warding. Mouz, however, moved more across the map along with controlling the rivers better allowing them to get some easy gank kills.

For the next while the teams struggled with the farming. Luna and Akasha did a good attempt at keeping up and Luna managed to farm her Black King Bar rather easily too, however, there was no questioning that both Skeleton King and Nevermore were way ahead. After the 30 minutes mark Mouz managed to kill Enigma a few times as well as pushing middle with Skeleton King who had just completed his Stygian Desolator, killing the first tower with ease.

30min statshot

However, MYM managed to win a team battle for the 2nd middle tower where they finally ended Nevermore's unstoppable streak with help from Queen of Pain's just-gained Guinsoo's Scythe of Vyse. After a a little more farming and a little forth and back pushing on the middle where MYM successfully destroyed Mouz' 1st tower, MYM got a small but elaborate comeback killing multiple Mouz heroes and bringing the scores closer to an equalization which again brought both Luna and Queen of Pain to almost the same farm level as Skeleton King and Nevermore.

A little but close to the 40 minutes mark Mouz busted MYM in a Roshan attempt forcing MYM to retreat while Mouz were able to successfully guarding for intruders while Skeleton King soloed him and obtained the Aegis which he then lost moments later in a somewhat equal team battle and whereas the farming from both teams continued.

Mouz guards their Skeleton King soloing Roshan after busting MYM's failed attempt at killing him.

45min statshot

Late game

After some weak but non-crucial action at Scourge's forest, Mouz started to push more intensely and with a well-farmed Skeleton King/Nevermore both with BKBs they were able to take MYM's 2nd middle tower leaving Luna, Queen of Pain and rest of the MYM heroes with little but close to nothing to do. Also Dragon Knight who had had an unpleasant early game seemed to have a dangerous comeback with a nearly-finished Satanic and a Black King Bar too. Anyway, straightly after the tower fell Mouz defeated MYM in a crucial team battle killing 3 MYM heroes in trade for Drayich's Lich as the only casualty giving open space for their base push that decided the game.

Mouz successfully beats MYM in the battle that sealed the game.

Though MYM gave it a last shot in a battle just after Mouz had taken Roshan a second time right after the 50 minutes mark, they were utterly outfarmed leaving Mouz to deal the finishing blow.

Final words

Throughout the game and almost until the very end both teams were very passive with both their lanes, ganks, warding and pushes. This game was mainly decided by a mere matter of creep stats. From the very beginning Drayich's Lich babysitted Skeleton King very effectively giving him excellent farm. Nevermore struggled a bit at the start against Luna and Enigma but quickly got into the game after he had capped a few kills on mainly Witch Doctor and Enigma. This allowed him to rise with astounding power and in mere 15 minutes his creep stats raised from 28 to 98. Skeleton King rised just as great and both Luna and Queen of Pain surprisingly managed to keep up on the stats as well.

However, Skeleton King's arised early game stats gave him the better advantage and eventually this ended up affecting both Nevermore and Dragon Knight's farm because MYM was forced to play passively around the middle in order to maintain their towers and ranks. This turned out to be a stab in the heart for MYM who, especially against 3 BKBs, weren't able to fully use either Earthshaker's Echo Slam or Witch Doctor's Maledict as well as the rest of the team's spells, nukes and disables. This left Mouz' teams sheer power vs MYM's physical strength and seeing that MYM was merely outfarmed they had little but no chance to withstand the pushes and win the deciding battles.

final statshot


Game1 Replay

Stay tuned and expect to see the examination of the 2nd game soon!