Frankfurt Major Playoffs - Day 5 & 6 Recap
The first major in history has come to an end and what a show it was! Historically, the last games between the top teams have been the most exciting and interesting ones and this tournament was no exception.
EHOME vs Vici Gaming
For the first time in history the majority of contenders for the championship were from the West: at the start of this match OG, Team Secret and EG have already secured themselves at least Top 4 position and two Chinese "new age" powerhouses were deciding who will remain the last hope for the region. And despite a very friendly atmosphere between the teams, there was no mercy shown in the games themselves.
LaNm is shaping up to be one of the most prominent Chinese captains/drafters and unlike xiao8 he is not conservative in his picks. While it was extremely unlikely for the latter to lose the draft and his team has always had a decent composition, the former has shown that he can win the game at the draft stage - his unorthodox picks have proved to work extremely well in the matches against Vega and LGD.
At the same time Vici Gaming could boast more experience and arguably higher individual skill of support players. The offlane match-up was also in favor of the team (at least that's what people felt before this game), while other positions were more or less equal. This team came into the game as favorites even after the loss to Team Secret, but unfortunately for Vici Gaming they just couldn't adjust fast enough to the developing meta and once again have fallen short in games of "untypical" Dota, where you do not play against the most popular heroes, but rather against something new and unexpected.
Game 1 - Recommend Watching
The "deathball" meta once refined and successfully utilized by VG themselves has ironically re-surged against them in one of the most crucial matches of the tournament. With a rather tanky pick with tons of healing, EHOME has cut through VG's defenses, despite being behind in terms of XP for the whole game and only slightly getting ahead in terms of Net Worth - ~5500 at its peak.
And it is not like VG didn't have heroes to put up a fight with - Gyrocopter, Slardar and Tiny are all decent fighters, but with the exception of the former they are definitely not good enough in early 5v5 teamfights, especially with a heavy gank-oriented item-build on Slardar and Tiny, where they both went for an early Blink Dagger to catch some enemy heroes off-guard and develop a gold lead through kills, while Gyrocopter was farming. This rushed Blink Dagger without stat items simply doesn't work if the enemy team gathers as 5 with all their heals and early game skills and start pressuring your towers. Moreover with EleVeN showing one of the best Tusk performances to date, VG have been unable to utilize their burst to full effect.
In the end, slow response to the imminent push resulted in a very action packed game where Burning's Gyrocopter was the only thing which effectively tried to delay the inevitable and while he did it in a very convincing manner, it was simply not enough and EHOME took the first game in 35 minutes.
Game 2 - Highly Recommend Watching
A very similar in style but a very different in draft game number two between EHOME and VG was one of the most intense games played in playoffs - a definite must watch. As previously, EHOME was drafting a very aggressive early game push which did not sacrifice late-game potential, while VG have learned their lesson and went outside of their comfort zone with their picks, finally finding a game for iceiceice's 
Timbersaw to shine in. And it could potentially be an easy win for VG if it wasn't for LaNm's last pick 
Pugna - the first appearance of the hero in the LAN part of the tournament.
The beginning of the game was a textbook VG game - Super's 
Invoker was doing well mid, capitalizing on a mistake made by old chicken and getting a solo kill, while iceiceice was getting a lot of XP and Gold in his safelane. Offlane 
Doom + 
Lich for Burning and Fenrir also did quite well - after all it is one of the scariest offlane duos currently played in the meta.
After what looked like a very good start for VG (5k gold lead 18 minutes into the game), EHOME unexpectedly started gathering as five and pushing towers. It was backed up by Tombstone, Nether Ward and Healing Ward and any intention of VG to come close was severely punished. Given tankiness of front-lining old chicken's 
Bristleback stopping them was almost impossible yet VG managed to hold off for the longest time - this hold was beautiful to watch and I recommend watching the game from start to finish since it was one big highlight - not often you see a support Pugna deal the most damage in a game.
Team Secret vs Evil Geniuses
The second to most anticipated series in the tournament deserved all the hype it got - both Team Secret and Evil Geniuses have shown incredible performance throughout the tournament and both could boast a wide hero pool and a lot of different strategies that they knew how to utilize effectively.
Naming the favorite match is pretty hard - the teams were incredibly equal and it certainly showed - all three games could easily go both ways up until the very end and there were a lot of incredible moments - huge plays from EternalEnvy in Games 1 & 2 on his 
Ember Spirit and even a throwback for SumaiL on his 
Storm Spirit.
Two most praised captains have also shown some beautiful mindgames in the drafting stage for geeks such as myself. It wasn't quite LaNm level of drafting (as I said, he has shown some incredible understanding of the game in three previous series for EHOME), but it was still interesting to watch how the strategies played out.
Game 1 - Highly Recommend Watching
As per usual, the first game is closest to what people consider standard in the current meta. Secret has drafted their usual combination of 
Magnus and Ember Spirit, while EG has all-ined on the early game with Universe 
Axe (to counter Puppey 
Dazzle), SumaiL Timbersaw and Arteezy 
Windranger
The game has played out more or less according to EG plan - they have shown early game dominance and managed to get a sizable lead and even take the middle lane of barracks. Unfortunately for them, this is the time where EternalEnvy's instincts have kicked in and he built 
Divine Rapier. With the extra damage and, more importantly, cleave from Magnus Team Secret has managed to turn around multiple fights at their base and have successfully defended until EE got his second rapier and Aegis, and they eventually won the game.
Game 2 - Highly Recommend Watching
Game 2 was very similar to Game 1 in the sense that PPD has drafted very well around Ember Spirit timings and went for a complete shutdown of EE forcing him to go for Rapier once again. And it would end the same, if it wasn't for a very impressive play by SumaiL at what many have considered the end of EG in the series. A well farmed Storm Spirit with a "free" Rapier showed no mercy and the game was eventually won by EG.
The game is also notable for the amount of fails it produced. SumaiL has exposed how weak Storm Spirit is in the current patch - playing him similarly to how he was played in 6.84 is a mistake and it wasn't uncommon for SumaiL to tactically feed his opponent when he had wasted all his mana. Misery has performed rather poorly on Magnus, using several consecutive Reverse Polarities into nothing and Envy, despite incredible next-level performance in the first game, has managed to "look at the moon" in Game 2.
Game 3 - Recommend Watching
Third game can be considered an outdraft from Puppey - in the last stage he managed to corner PPD in a situation where he had to ban 
Broodmother or 
Huskar with one ban left. PPD has chosen not to play against Broodmother and paid a huge price in the form of EE Huskar.
The game played out as expected - Huskar + Dazzle were pretty much unkillable and w33 Windranger managed to get a huge lead on SumaiL Ember Spirit with the help of pulling Pieliedie 
Tiny.
There were a couple of interesting fights and a huge mistake from Team Secret when they fought under the effects of Tombstone for its full duration, but otherwise the game was less interesting than the first two.
OG vs EHOME
Many kind words have already been said about EHOME, yet OG are equally as deserving of praise. Despite being a post-TI "random" stack, which have a really low life expectancy, OG not only pulled through, but have also shown some incredibly good professional Dota and got themselves a lot of fans - N0tail was probably who brought most of them.
Playing on the home turf probably also had quite a bit of an impact - ever since the stadium started getting filled with the European crowd the team has been on the rise - it certainly showed in games against CDEC and Virtus.Pro.
The match was also interesting because the teams, at their core, are quite similar - they both prefer aggressive playstyle in the early game and they both consist of old veterans, who still have quite a bit to prove, as well as new blood - Miracle- and KaKa were top MMR players in their respective regions.
Game 1 - Highly Recommend Watching
An interesting game where OG were allowed to take their priority heroes and the game looked extremely equal from the start - there were successful ganks from either side, and Tiny+Wisp pretty much destroyed old chicken's WR in mid, while Miracle- Ember Spirit was suffering bot. That was until Bounty Hunter by KaKa got his level 6.
What was happening after that point was extremely heartbreaking for EU fans - being ahead in terms of teamfight potential and even in terms of kills, OG were slowly losing the game with the growing gold advantage of EHOME. Even after good trades for OG, the Chinese team managed to get a bigger advantage - they committed less resources and the track gold was winning them the game.
It ended up with a huge Net Worth lead of almost 30k for EHOME, in which OG were still putting up a fight.
Game 2 - Recommend Watching
The OG ultimate strategy, which develops on pre-existing Tiny+Wisp combo, has already sent one team home from the tournament and it worked once again - the addition of a semi-support mid 
Alchemist we discussed in earlier blog post proved to be extremely beneficial when you have a very natural Aghs carrier such as Tiny in your team.
An early fed Aghs completely destroyed all chances EHOME had in this game - Tiny was outfarming them at a pace similar to Alchemist and in fights there was close to nothing EHOME could do to him because of Io and Undying heals and an early 
Butterfly.
Overall, it is hard to call this game particularly exciting, since we've already seen this strategy in action and the game felt really similar to the one OG played against CDEC. If you haven't seen the previous one, however, out of two, EHOME have put up a better fight - their heroes were slightly better at dealing with what OG at their best had to offer.
Game 3 - Do not Recommend Watching
Game 3 of the series was weird to say the least. With a very aggressive pick which was focused on getting kills with Track, EHOME decided to play passive, even against a better late-game lineup. Even after their LaNm 
Earthshaker got his blink dagger, they were reluctant to fight and instead decided to split farm, which ultimately led to a series of successful ganks by OG and lost them the game.
Overall, the game felt really unexciting to watch - a multitude of very poor decisions have led to a victory which, while deserved, did not felt achieved, but rather presented. Though N0tail has played one of the best 
Phantom Lancers this patch and deserves a lot of credit.
EG vs OG
EG came into this tournament with a lot to prove - they had a new roster and they were the defending champions. Following their usual pattern they have lost Winner Bracket finals and were awaiting OG in the lower bracket ones.
OG on the other hand, have been going the long away through the lower bracket - they started the playoffs in a game against Fnatic and have fought their way through five bo3 series.
A lot has already been said about both teams, so we won't keep on discussing them and instead concentrate no the games themselves.
Game 1 - Recommend watching
EG have all-ined on lane dominance with little to no late-game potential (PL vs TA is really strong late game). And their bet has worked out - they have dominated all lanes despite Fly 
Treant Protector and managed to win the game in a very convincing manner.
It was also quite disheartening to see Miracle- under-perform on Shadow Fiend, however it is worth noting that he was not at fault as community might think from 0/10 SF, but rather he was hunted down every step.
Game 2 - Recommend Watching
A surprise 
Tinker pick for SumaiL was greeted with excitement from the crowd, yet it didn't exactly work out as planned - even with a very unexpected first blood for Tinker on mid against Miracle-'s 
Razor, the hero never felt like it achieved much. He was delaying the inevitable, but while it might have worked against more aggressive and undisciplined teams, OG just used this time to get a huge Gold and XP lead and only came knocking on EG's door when they felt confident enough.
One the biggest highlight of the game came, unexpectedly, from MoonMeander. His offlane Earthshaker was doing the majority of heavy-lifting for the team in the mid-game and it was quite enjoyable to watch, with the exception of the last 5 minutes of the match, where Moon decided to try and snipe Tinker on a different lane and pretty much wasted a lot of time. Not that it mattered though: 1:1 OG vs EG!
Game 3 - highly recommend watching
OG were extremely close to making the same mistake EHOME did in crucial match against them - with fighting items and heroes they were playing too passive. It almost cost them the game - this slow start allowed Arteezy 
Anti-Mage to catch up in Net Worth with the help of SumaiL Magnus. Yet a couple of luck-based mistakes by the former resulted in a lot of momentum gain for OG and they managed to get a very improbable victory.
The last 10 minutes of the match have been among the most exciting and incredible ones not in terms of skill and performances, but in terms of tension they created - a must watch for anyone cheering for EU Dota (or N0tail specifically) and a great pastime for everyone else - unless, of course, you are an EG fan.
Grand Finals: OG vs Team Secret
Puppey vs two former Team Secret members. Miracle- vs w33. EU vs EU on home turf. What else could any fan ask for?
The hype was real and, in my opinion, it was even higher than at TI5 - a glorious finish to what already was one of the best Tournaments in the history of Dota!
Game 1 - Must watch
The most chaotic and exciting game where action has started before the game even officially began - the score before 0:00 was 3:2. OG have taken a huge tempo lead and started rolling hard - hardest in this tournament. Amazing plays from MoonMeander and Cr1t coupled with Miracle- genius have left very little chance to Team Secret.
It's really hard to point to a single mistake or play - the whole game was one huge highlight and worth the title of the first game of Grand Finals
Game 2 - Must watch
It is really hard to write these recaps as the tournament progresses - I have made a new category for the previous match thinking it could not be topped - how wrong could I be? This game was even better than the first one.
The second game in the series has once again shown an incredible early game dominance from OG - they managed to take a lead and were extremely close to finishing the game almost as early as the first one. Team Secret decided not to give in as easily and have shown highground defense comparable to what LGD did in the period of their dominance - perhaps even better.
EternalEnvy was playing out of his mind on 
Slark - not the flashiest of heroes, yet he did a lot of heavy-lifting for his team. Playing from 20k gold deficit, Team Secret have shown what a good team can do even without big items and almost turned around a botched beginning of the game.
MoonMeander once again deserves a lot of praise - his 
Clockwerk initiations might have not been on point every single time, but he easily outclassed Misery's 
Slardar.
Overall - an extremely enjoyable game and unlike many games which are played from the deficit, it did not feel one-sided - yes, there was early and mid game dominance from OG, but it could easily go both ways until the very end. Congratulations, OG: 2:0 against Secret.
Game 3 - Recommend Watching
Team Secret with their back to the wall have shown once again why they were considered favorites for the tournaments - great individual play and more importantly strategic decision making have made it possible for Team Secret to gain a Net Worth lead, while their good draft ensured that this Gold Advantage translated into victory.
OG were trying to play their typical game and were partially successful at it - they managed to do great rotations and even secure kills from them during the laning stage. This time around, however, it lead to them outsmarting themselves - they looked more convincing in the early game, as they usually do, but Secret managed to gain a small advantage in each engagement. Moreover, one really poor Roshan fight has almost doubled an already sizable lead for Team Secret and they began gaining an unstoppable momentum.
They ended up pulling ahead enough to close out the game, where the turn around almost happened - a misplay by EternalEnvy, who miscalculated his mana pool on 
Wraith King could potentially be the beginning of an end and if not for impressive play by the rest of a team, which managed to disengage with minimal casualties.
Overall, it was a great "textbook Secret" game which felt slightly too one-sided to reach the tension two previous games had.
Game 4 - highly recommend watching
A definite outpick from OG and a very good utilization of it - the N0tail 
Brewmaster pick was the perfect fit against the lineup of Secret and OG gameplan - while Alchemist was up in the air for 6 seconds they were pressuring the tower with their 
Shadow Fiend.
Alchemist actually had a 25% Win Rate when played with the Radiance + Manta build, mainly because it results in a huge tempo hit for your team and delays the growth of your power level. OG are amazing at capitalizing on opponent's tempo loss and they showed it once again - as soon as they saw 
Radiance they just went in and took a lane of barracks 18 minutes into the game.
It was all downhill from there - with the loss of barracks Team Secret made one successful attempt to turn around the game - a huge play from Misery allowed them to slightly bounce back, but it also cost them two buybacks. However with no lanes pushed they could not translate it into anything more meaningful or even force buybacks from OG. Slowly but surely they lost the game.
Closing Comments
We at Dotabuff were pleasantly surprised with the Majors - the one-in-season format works pretty good and it came at a very right time - people got some rest from TI5 and most of the people I know were excited about this tournament - maybe not as much as about TI, but hyped nonetheless.
Personally, I have rather mixed feelings about the end - on one hand I will definitely miss some excellent Dota, on the other - there is a bit of an overdose. Hopefully the next Major held in Shanghai in March will be as good, if not better. And I really hope the Chinese teams will show what they are truly capable of on the home turf, especially after a very convincing showing by the EU teams.
OG absolutely raped this tournament
Currently the Enchanted Mango only has a 36.43% win rate. Together, we as a community, have the ability to fix this problem and end this horrific tragedy. Please help. It is our duty as gamers to give this item the respect it is due.
OG DOTO BEST DOTO ! enjoy the big prize guys !
Mango has bad winrate because of his 0 sec cooldown of being buyed by a single player. Afk-ers and whiners at fountain love to sell all their items and buy a lot of mangos to fill the fountain before they completely lost. In other cases, going hardlane with 2 mangos on heroes such as Nyx, Balanar, Doom gives us almost 80% winrate :D
scdcx f
It was some very good dota especially on the last day, credits to teams for that! And OG had an amazing run :)
On another topic, I'd prefer 3 Majors per year instead of 4 but maybe it's because of regions and to standardize with other Valve product events. 3 months is too often for events this big imo.
ПУСКАЕМ ЖОТМА РАБОТЯГИ
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Tuskar is OP. Almost all games in the Frankfurt Major match you'll see a tuskar banned, or picked.
fucking tuskar every game xD (
"EternalEnvy was playing out of his mind on Slark Slark" - I guess, if out of his mind means he played effin bad, with like 80% pounces missed(I mean the offensive pounces ofc) . Am not flaming, I actually cheered for the OriginalGangsters.
The Dream is REAL! xD OGDota
I would put Secret vs EG Game 1 as a must watch. That was by far the best game of the tournament. It was simply amazing from both teams throughout the entire game and was incredibly exciting.
Sad Secret Lost at Grand Final