Sunday, December 7, 2014

Unicorns of Love Rout Team SoloMid to Reach IEM San Jose Finals

By Matt “It’sPure Luck” Lee
           

When the lineup for the Intel Extreme Masters San Jose was originally announced some people seemed to feel that the fans voted in Unicorns of Love simply for their name. Or maybe it was because of the Poppy pick in a do or die games versus Millenium in the EU LCS Spring Promotion Tournament. It simply didn’t seem to fit that a team who recently rose up from the Challenger Series should be voted in to a tournament as prestigious as IEM over a long time standout such as SK Gaming.
            
Yet in the end it was UoL who proved all doubters wrong as they managed to 2-0 tournament favorite Team SoloMid. The victory earns them a berth in the Intel Extreme Masters Grand Finals to take place later today where they await the winner of Cloud 9 versus Alliance. Using a combination of off-meta picks to catch Team SoloMid by surprise and seemingly impeccable team fighting, Unicorns of Love looked much sharper in this set than they did in their previous series against Lyon Gaming.
            

It didn’t take long for the mind games by UoL to begin. They caught TSM unaware in the pick and ban phase of game one by baiting Bjergsen into a Xerath pick when Twisted Fate had been taken the previous turn by UoL. The only problem was that it wasn’t Twisted Fate mid; it was going to Kikis in the jungle.  Power of Evil responded by last picking LeBlanc and it was a selection that worked out brilliantly for UoL. Only three minutes into the game, Bjergsen was caught pushed out a bit too far and we saw the first successful Twisted Fate jungle gank off a flash plus gold card combo. The game would calm down for a few minutes until the first Destiny attempt from Kikis came with an attempt to catch Dyrus out in the top lane. It was unsuccessful but it put more pressure on Dyrus who already had a tough matchup as Rumble against Gnar.
            
Kikis would try his luck top lane again a few minutes later but Dyrus escaped with a sliver of health. However, while this was going on, we saw something that seems to be incredibly rare as Power of Evil was able to pick up a solo kill on Bjergsen. UoL was able to pick up their first dragon a bit after this and they had control of it almost the entire game. TSM was able to pick up a kill on Vizicsacsi in the top lane off of a gank by Santorin, but Power of Evil responded by grabbing a solo kill on Bjergsen again in middle.  Kikis was also able to answer back for UoL in the top lane with a pick on Dyrus with a use of Destiny.
           
From there the game seemed to snowball out of control for Team SoloMid. UoL would make a few mistakes; including an over aggressive play by Power of Evil trying to zone Baron. But the gold difference was simply too much to overcome and the Unicorns would close the game out in 38 minutes.
           
Game two would start off slightly better for TSM, but Bjergsen continued to have trouble with Power of Evil in the mid lane. The UoL mid laner was able to pick up yet another solo kill just after the sixth minute mark as Syndra on Bjersen’s Azir. Power of Evil wasn’t shy about using his ultimate whenever he wanted to. Even if he was not picking up kills, he was forcing Bjergsen to return to base constantly.

            
UoL simply seemed to be one step ahead of TSM the entire way. The gold deficit didn’t grow as fast as it did in game one, but SoloMid just could not cut the gap as much as they needed to. It was Santorin’s steals of dragon that helped ensure they were in this game at all as it progressed. TSM did a better job this game of trading objectives with UoL, but team fighting from the Unicorns was a notch higher than that of the North American Summer champions. The gold lead slowly grew to just shy of 10k after the thirty minute mark and it seemed as if TSM could see the writing on the wall. In a desperation play they opted to try and base race UoL but it didn’t work out in their favor and the Unicorns would take the game in thirty-three minutes and the series two games to none.


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Unicorns of Love Take Down Lyon Gaming




By Reece "Sabrewolf" Dos-Santos


With their first appearance in an international event coming just before their LCS debut, some people were initially sceptical on how the Unicorns of Love would face up to the competition of IEM San Jose. But the team came out to play and play hard.

Pick/Ban phase:

Unicorns of Love stayed adamant on removing Jayce and Zed from the series along with Warwick in game 1 and Pantheon in game 2. Meanwhile Lyon saw to remove Thresh in both games but targeted Pantheon and Vizicsacsi’s odd ball pick Poppy in game 1, then opted to his Gnar instead and remove Warwick.

Lucian and Corki premiered as the only ADC’s picked across the two games played but every other role saw a range of variety, the biggest surprise factor being Kikis’s decision to bring out a Jungle Kayle which in the end worked out rather nicely for him as his team. Generally Unicorns Of Love opted for a “stun and destroy” theme across their team comps focussing on having Braum in both games as well as picking up Syndra and Gnar in game 1 and Irelia in game 2. Meanwhile Lyon Gaming clearly had the idea of picking comps designed to make plays across the map employing a roaming Alistar support in game 1 with Lee Sin and Leblanc. This was attempted again with Orianna, Sion and Evelyn in game 2. The fault in Lyon Gaming’s team comp set ups and playstyle choice however was that they required Lyon to not fall behind and still maintain the ability to actually set up all the plays that the champions enabled, unfortunately for them they simply weren’t ever allowed. 

Game 1:
Game one started off slowly but it was evident that the Unicorns were clawing ahead slowly, by the 6 minute mark both solo lanes were ahead by over 10 cs and Dodo on Alistar had begun to start roaming in order to try and get a 3 man catch with their jungler Thyak. Unfortunately for Lyon this led to unsuccessful gank attempts on Power of Evil and eventually led to Dodo being pink ward baited and killed seven and a half minutes in.

The situation then only began to get worse for Lyon as the solo lane cs lead had doubled to 20 in favour of UOL by 10 minutes and Dodo became more desperate to land another attempt on ganking Power of Evil. By the time they finally succeeded, it only left Maplestreet to get return killed in the bottom lane and put further behind. Thyak managed to land a dream steal on dragon at 13 minutes meanwhile Vizicsacsi increased his cs lead to 50 while taking a tower moments later.
The pressure on Lyon Gaming was evident as Dodo remained fixated on using his Alistar to roam and make plays but they simply never fell into place, instead Maplestreet on Lucian remained a sitting duck to ganks and eventually got pushed out of relevance entirely.

Things looked like they might change as UOL made a sloppy play in topside in an attempt to take an inhibitor tower and gifted away 4 unnecessary kills but the chokehold they had amassed up until this point was simply too much to handle for Lyon Gaming. With 3 dragons, 1 baron and a 14k gold lead, Unicorns of Love took game 1.

Game 2:

Game two in my opinion played out like a mirror image of game one. By the 5 minute mark Vizicsacsi was 10 cs up ahead of Porky again. The clear difference in his impact to Porky’s was so big he was able to teleport bottom lane for the first blood on Dodo, not get the assist for it and still go back to being dominant on his lane. Meanwhile Power of Evil was picking up easy kills on Seeiya.

Lyon however made good use of their Evelyn pick by flanking bottom lane and synergizing the surprise with another surprise appearance of Sion as well. Lyon had also learnt from the mistake of leaving Maple alone and he was provided with more support from Dodo and his team this time around. However by the same point of near 14 minutes Vizicsacsi had once again amassed a 50 cs lead and was fast becoming a monster. This was backed up the sudden 4 slaughter that occurred around 19 minutes lead by Vizicsacsi’s first picked Irelia.

Going into 20 minutes Lyon Gaming had however managed to take 2 dragons but on the flipside they only had 3 kills which were all on Thyak’s lessening impact Evelynn.

In almost an exact repeat of their first game mistake, Unicorns of Love go in big for an inner turret and Vizicsacsi manages to hard dive the team for a kill. But things appear to go south for the Unicorns in the 3rd dragon dance as they once again over aggress and fall prey to a 4 man shockwave, into Sion Q, into Corki rockets that removes 4 Unicorns from the map instantly. However like in game 1, 4 kills for Lyon appear to mean absolutely nothing as they simply cannot find the resources to hold off the Unicorn’s relentless aggression.

Outlook:

Overall the Unicorns looked impressed throughout this series; they appeared to ramp up as time went on and they got more into the flow of the games but the biggest worry throughout this was their clear over aggression in the mid game period which could be attributed to over-confidence. If Lyon were more able to grab hold of momentum swings they could have heavily punished the Unicorns in both games but once put behind they struggled to have any kind of late game presence. The overall series MVP in my eyes was Vizicsacsi, his top lane dominance was outstanding and entertaining to watch.

GG 2-0 to the Unicorns of Love


by Reece "SabrewoIf" Dos-Santos

Saturday, December 6, 2014

IEM San Jose Bracket- Day One Update


Day 2 Schedule- Sunday 07.12
15:00 Semifinal 2 - Cloud 9 vs Alliance

18:00 Show Match- Celebrity ARAM

19:00 Grand Finals- Unicorns of Love vs Winner of Alliance/Cloud 9

Thursday, December 4, 2014

IEM San Jose Bracket

Saturday, 06.12.
15:00 LoL Quarter Final 1
18:00 LoL Quarter Final 2
21:00 LoL Semi Final 1

Sunday, 07.12.
15:00 LoL Semi Final 2
18:00 LoL Show-match Celebrity ARAM


Tuesday, December 2, 2014

The Rise of Teamwork MOBAs



by Louis "Guichex" Lemeillet

Recently I got lucky and saw the Heroes of the Storm icon pop up on my Blizzard launcher, so I dove in and played it the hardcore way to discover the possibilities of the game, both casual and eSports wise. Also, along with thousands of other viewers, I watched the small tournament hosted during Blizzcon featuring several big gaming structures. So I can ensure now : HotS is a teamplay-based game, very different from League of Legends, with great potential. It was what Blizzard publicized and they held on to their promise: short games, never-ending action and teamwork on various maps. In the end, my personal feeling is that Blizzard took the best out of Dota 2 and Counter Strike to make their own MOBA. But, as much as it will help the casual gamer enjoy this kind of game more easily than in Dota or LoL, isn't it dangerous regarding eSports and competition ?

Team too heavy, can't carry alone.

These words, we at least heard them once during our solo queue adventures in League of Legends. Why ? Because, to some extent, it is possible because of the inherent meta to have one player shine above others with a top-notch performance and help his team carry on and get the victory. It is almost impossible to do that in HotS for two reasons: shared experience and no gold/items system. In League, you can grow stronger and faster than your opponent because of the gold and the powerful items you can buy. If you farm better and get a few kills, you'll have more experience but also more gold - therefore more items and more power. You can then proceed to walk on the map and help your team secure objectives, kills and help the team grow stronger as a whole. Quite simple.

In HotS, it is almost impossible (if you take two players of the same level) to perform a 1v1 kill. You'll need help from your team to make a kill or to secure the big “objectives” on every map. And even if you get a kill, you won't be stronger than your opponent when he comes back. You'll have a bit more exp but that doesn't help you - except if you could secure another skillpoint (which are not available at every level). And if you have one more skill point, it doesn't mean you can really pressure your opponent, nor is it always worth doing so. Almost every time you try to go for a solo kill, you'll take too much time and the enemy team will be able to catch and insta-gib you. 

Even if you look at Assassins, which are supposed to be able to kill opponents easily because of their permanent invisibility, their burst might be not enough and one CC can easily turn the situation. They can't grow stronger because of items, therefore their potential is limited, especially in end game. 


One of the best things in the game : play an Elite Tauren Chieftain

If I can't outplay my direct opponent, what's the point ?

Well, the point is that your team can outplay the opponents, not just you. And when I talk about this around me, there is a clash of opinions. “Heh, I can already never count on my team on LoL, why would I be able to do so in HotS?” “I would never play a game where I can't feel that I'm making a difference on my own,” “Well, at least it should reduce the number of people trash talking because you lost your lane a bit,” “I don't care as long as I can watch Kerrigan's booty.”

While the latter seems a very constructive point, I'd prefer to look at a very interesting opinion here: “I want to feel that I'm making a difference.” And truly, who doesn't ? If we play videogames, we want to personally be the hero, to perform better than the others, to show off a bit. That's the point of several videogames, and moreover, that's the point of competition. HotS may be a more casual-oriented game, but it still is a MOBA, therefore a competitive game where your ranking is important. Ranked games aren't available yet so I couldn't test what is going on and if teams were truly behaving like they should (with reduced toxicity.)

Until I can experience ranked, I'm still worried about that point since I've been seeing a special type of champion inside the game: the “siege specialists.” It means what it means, those champions are literally afk pushing lanes the whole game, or even afk in base giving a few buff to the team if you look at Abathur. It means that in several games you'll play almost 4v5 or face a split-pusher in a teamplay-based game. Of course, it increases the number of strategies, but it'll just lead to more toxicity and trash talk.

In HotS, you have to pay Gangplank so he can throw his ultimate for you.

So...Should I watch it ?

I'm only getting to the main point now, but I wanted to offer sufficient background to those who couldn't play the game at all yet. Whenever I see a MOBA now, I can't help but think of its eSports potential. Competition and a strong community are the keys to MOBAs success and it'll be a truly successful game only when it gets a competitive scene on its own, with its own large community. Blizzard clearly showed, by hosting a tournament during the Alpha, that they want to be on that eSports stage, and not just wait to watch what will happen like for Hearthstone.

So what of HotS potential? I'm torn. On one hand, I know a lot of people have gotten sick of the League of Legends scene because of the toxicity, the failures, and because it got boring. And Blizzard is a force that cannot be stopped when you consider its marketing and communication potential. They might be the gaming company with the strongest loyalty too, because of their history. An example? How many of us consider that the future Warcraft movie has poor casting and will probably result in a deception, but will still go see it? And the sequel? If you've been playing Blizzard's games for a while, you cannot not go see it. Another example, just recently they launched Warlords of Draenor and got 3 millions players back by snapping their fingers. No other company is able to do such a feat.

But let's get back on track. Do I want to watch a competition where I can't see outplays on an individual scale? Let's just take a look at the famous Faker vs Ryu Zed/Zed outplay. We were all stoked to see this. And we will continue to shout at the top of our lungs each time a 1v1 or a 2v2 trade engages. Almost none of those trades in HotS will result in a kill and you may only see 5v5 teamfights. I can't help but think that it'll get pretty boring very quickly, even if games are shorter. I want to see teams battling each other and outperform their opponent on a strategical point of view but I also want to see individual actions. And I want to be able to catch my breath between them. In HotS, it's action 100% of the time: no laning phase, no anything, and I'm afraid some viewers will be lost in what's going on and never get the time to understand it, since the game is already over twenty minutes in.

On the other hand, Blizzard has found a counter to this by offering a large panel of maps with different objectives and strategies, and they plan to bring more to the table. That's the Counter Strike side of the game: teams will be able to perform better on some maps while their opponents will outperform them on others. And along with the pick/ban phase of every game, you'll have a drafting phase of the map choice like for Starcraft or CS. Strategy-wise, it's pretty interesting and appealing, so long as teams don't decide that some maps are hard to play and never pick them. (I'm thinking about the Dragonshire map where taking the objective in a 5v5 premade scenario is almost impossible without taking drastic risks.) But we'll have to wait a bit more until we can see that.

Just an Alpha, yet a tournament with Fnatic, EG, C9 and more. 
That's how powerful Blizzard is.

It's not LoL, it's not Dota, it's not CS:GO, it's...different.

The major advantage of HotS is that it's a game bringing something new to the table and it benefits from Blizzard's very strong marketing power. We've seen what they can do on a game where eSports is not one of their first objectives, like Hearthstone, and damn, their studio at Blizzcon was amazing. For HotS, I have high expectations and I want to see what they can deliver. It's extremely interesting to see a new scene potentially rising up. Will they implement a league system? Will they copy the WCS model? What will the studios look like? Will they partner with Riot to create a global eSports convention?

Of course, I also might be dead wrong and teamplay-based games with non-stop action is what people want to see. Maybe they want to see 5v5's all the time, and how one team will outperform the other on this specific objective. But I mostly think that HotS will appeal to a more casual genre of gamer, and moreover, a casual genre of viewers. Studies have shown that a large part of the eSports viewership is not part of the “hardcore” gamers and they might be drawn by this casual looking MOBA with no pauses and no time to look away. It could also attract lovers of Bo3/Bo5 instead of Bo1 since it'll most surely be the standard format for this game.

In the end, HotS will probably be a success on the eSport scene and all the big multi-gaming structures will have a team. But I might not be watching if I can't find a way out of its repetitiveness. I do have high expectations that the pro teams will prove me wrong and show me how many strategies they can pull off in a game where an individual's performance is minimized, but how do you identify which player might have bigger potential than another? Do you only rely on personal affinity to recruit a new player? If your team is performing badly, how do you identify the weakest link?

One thing is for sure: Heroes of the Storm is a new kind of game inside the MOBA genre and is one of many. TOME, which just came out on Steam, is looking strongly like HotS on some points and trying to make a name in the competitive teamwork market. For now, I can only wait and propose a whole bunch of questions for which I'll be eagerly looking for answers. 

----

 by Louis "Guichex" Lemeillet