MMR Match 7: Attack the Buildings!

Hello one and everyone! Safecyn here. It's been a while, I know, but there was moving Grandparents in and then TI5 and then blah blah blah I PLAYED ANOTHER MATCH, OK?

Yeesh.

That's pretty much how I felt after it ended, yeah.

The MMR standings this time were an average of 2615 on Radiant, our side, and 2616 on Dire. Now I know what you're thinking: "gosh, Safecyn, if you were that outmatched by the enemy team, why didn't you just throw in the towel right then and there?" Well perhaps that's the normal and acceptable reaction, but we Cyndaquils are made of sterner stuff.

I was forced into picking first this match, choosing my hero literally as the timer was about to hit 0 and we were going to start losing gold. Not wanting to bank on any of my teammates picking a support, I went for one myself, opting for Winter Wyvern since she's strong all around and can have a pretty big impact even in the later stages of the game. A few minutes later, and the combatants were set:


The game begins and the lanes are set: Weaver mid against their Bloodseeker, Spirit Breaker and Ancient Apparition in the offlane against Riki and Dragon Knight, and the Femme Fatales safelane bottom against Slardar and Mirana. The laning phase starts out insanely well: Weaver snags three kills on Bloodseeker, including first blood, Spirit Breaker picks off Dragon Knight, and I help Broodmother secure a double kill as we push the tower. All in the first four minutes of the game! I'm picked off soon afterwards when I tank a five second arrow and the Bloodseeker rotates down towards our lane, but Brood escapes unharmed and I'm not worth much. Not a minute later, I grab a kill on Slardar, and Weaver kills the courier and Bloodseeker. 8-1 isn't a bad lead after 6 minutes of play.

Tier 1 tower on bottom lane soon falls thanks to our relentless push. Weaver continues to find kills, and tier 2 bottom is below half health before the ten minute mark. Bloodseeker ganks again and both Brood and I go down, though is punished by spiderlings who snag a last hit on him. Weaver takes the tier 1 mid just as the game hits its 10 minute mark, and the t1 top falls seconds later... almost in unison with tier 2 bottom. Things are going pretty dang well, and we've secured more than a 7500 net worth lead.

Weaver is killed pushing t3 bot and hands almost 800 gold back over to Bloodseeker. A few more pick-offs happen, but we maintain our momentum overall. T2 mid falls around the 14 minute mark, after a nice team fight where we trade no heroes for three of theirs. It's when we begin to rotate to take their last t2 that things go a little sour: Ancient Apparition and Weaver don't rotate with us, and get caught out: AA blows up immediately, while Weaver manages to evade while we come barelling back to try and save them. He gets low and I use Cold Embrace... but Time Lapse goes off right before my spell lands. Mirana, seeing an opening, throws an arrow and... uh...


Although we get the Bloodseeker, the Weaver gets hit by a multi-second arrow and dies. He immediately begins pinging me and spamming 'Good Game, Well Played' in All Chat. Because people are so niiiiiiice. I do get a Glimmer Cape out of killing the BS, so that's an upside, but our momentum has definitely begun to slow. Weaver gets an invis rune and rushes into three heroes, trying to burst them down with Ice Blast as back-up... and gets himself picked off again, my ult coming a second too late as I desperately try to get in range to help him. He decides to push bottom a minute afterwards and I go with him this time to attempt to keep him safe, but the enemy rotates four down and kills him again: I only escape thanks to my Glimmer Cape. More 'Good Game, Well Played' spam. The guy's really growing on me.

Broodmother manages to split push down the last tier 2 tower, though we trade three for one defending her as she runs away. The Weaver is one of those deaths and... surprise surprise, he spams 'Good Game, Well Played' in all chat. He has had 5 deaths in about 7 minutes, so it makes sense he'd feel that way. At the very least, we haven't lost a tower as of yet, as our team's pretty good at counter-pushing. Weaver gets tired of Moonlight Shadow and Riki and buys a gem, but after a slow retreat from a failed push up the mid lane, he dies and loses it. Luckily, Spirit Breaker goes in and, against all odds, grabs it back.


Finally, at the 30 minute mark, we decide enough is enough and go take Roshan, giving the Aegis to Weaver. Between my Medallion and his Deso, the beast goes down quickly enough and we get it for free: not even trading a single t1 tower! We pick off three heroes as we charge up mid, and take out that lane of rax. Instead of rotating over and safely taking out another lane, however, the Weaver dives the Riki under tower, loses Aegis, and then we lose both him and two others from our team as we scramble desperately to save him. He, of course, immediately begins spamming 'Good Game, Well Played' in all chat.

...I'm being too mean. I just can't help but feel that the game would have ended half an hour earlier if this hadn't happened. Spirit Breaker charges a bit too recklessly to defend our T1 mid, gets picked off, and loses the gem, but a new one is off cooldown so I snatch it up. Both our t1 mid and top go down. We manage to get a good teamfight at 40 minutes in and knock on their bottom t3, but Weaver decides he'd rather dive in far away from us and get killed by the Riki than stay ear us and attack the buildings. Four of us die. The enemy team tries to rosh off of it, but we successfully prevent it, though we trade four for three in the process. Our creeps pushing in at mid take a t4 and they're forced to back off and defend. Riki takes out t2 bottom tower. Our Ancient Apparition has been putting his Midas to good use, however, and has both an Agh's and an Octarine Core: the enemy team has a very hard time pushing off of our deaths when the lanes are always pushed out.

At 46 minutes in, the enemy gets Roshan and puts the Aegis on Dragon Knight. The enemy pushes down mid and Weaver rushes forward into all of them... but this time, we're able to catch up with him in time. He gets a triple kill, pops Aegis, and I'm able to Glimmer Cape him away before Riki murders me. The other three members of our team kill Dragon Knight a second time, and Riki runs off. He's able to pick off the Spirit Breaker, but Broodmother manages to push down the tier 3 bottom tower and TP out. The second t4 goes down to creeps thanks to an Ice Blast that forces the Bloodseeker back from defending it.


A disastrous teamfight in our jungle leads to us trading 5 for 2, and Riki and Bloodseeker charge up mid lane and take our t2 mid while Mirana defends base. They knock on our t3 but we respawn in time to rebuff them, and on the way out Spirit Breaker manages to pick up both Riki's Gem and his godlike spree. We push up mid and go for throne, but multiple buy-backs push us away and force a buyback from our Weaver. A teamfight breaks out bottom and though Weaver and Spirit Breaker die, Brood lives to push the bottom rax down while DK, Mirana, and Riki are left dead without buyback. Mirana calls GG, and only says it once, right as her ancient's about to fall. As it should be. GG.


The Dotabuff page for the match can be found here, and you're all welcome to download the game and watch yourselves if you'd like. Post any comments you want, but I'd ask you to direct your focus on me, yeah? No reason to drag anyone else through the mud about this game... any more than I have already, sorry. As for me, I'll chip in my own preemptive mud-dragging:

1) Positioning again. Whenever I watch my replays, I always find a teamfight or two where I got caught out and unable to participate, and this game is no different. Definitely something I need to practice.

2) My timing with Glimmer Cape is off, I think. Sure, the enemy team was pretty good about constantly carrying Dust and Gems, but I'm still pretty sure there are a few times I could have saved someone where I messed up.

3) I'm selfish when it comes to using Glimmer Cape and Force Staff, instinctively using them to save myself before someone else. Bad support is bad.

Only three matches to go! I told you I was gonna get this done.

Safecyn, signing out.

The Entire MMR Experience
Match 1: Grains in the Hourglass
Match 2: Defense of an Ancient
Match 3: Death, Death, Death, Death, Death, Death, Death
Match 4: Snowballs and Space Cows
Match 5: To Hell and Back
Match 6: Sacred Blood