Kuroky | Thoughts about career after TI7

Posted on September 12, 2017September 12, 2017 by MOBA Expert

Life after TI7 | Kuroky

How does a person that has reached the goal of his life feel himself? How to set up to fight the team that was a step away from throwing away from the tournament? For the site – theplayerstribune.com Kuro Salehi Takasomi tell about the way Team Liquid on TI7 and about his feelings after the victory.

It’s hard to describe what The International is, to a person who is not interested in e-sports.

The easiest way to compare TI with the Super Bowl, but there is only one match. The International is an endless Super Bowl. The struggle does not stop for a second, every action you take is watched by thousands of spectators in a crowded arena and millions around the globe on their screens.

Kuroky is the captain of Team Liquid, since 2015. He helped to recruit players into the squad, many of them at that time were relatively little known. Now everything is different.

Ivan Borislavov (MinD_ContRoL) Ivanov is a world-class off-line player. Lasse (MATUMBAMAN) Urpalainen is an amazing carry, charging us with his enthusiasm and gay pals. In 2016, we signed Amera (Miracle-) Al-Barkavi, a 20-year-old Jordanian who was the first in Dota 2 to take 9.000 points of solo-rating, and in the same year, Maroon (GH) Merhei joined Team Liquid – a great support, who added depth of our draft.

TI7 | Bad day for Team Liquid

Before the tournament, the captain felt very confident. They finished the performance in groups with the score 13-3 and went to the playoffs as favorites. They knew that if they just played our Dota, nobody would stop us. We just needed to do what we can.

Kuroky was almost 100% sure that this is their year.

And then Liquid lost in the first match of the grid.

Yes, they lost two maps to Invictus Gaming. But Liquid were not so bad, but eventually ended up in the bottom grid. Now, to win, they had to win 6 series in a row. I do not underestimate the merits IG – they are a great team, they played without fear, whereas Team Liquid was too conservative. They managed to surprise all with an unusual strategy that everybody respect.

Rehabilitation of the Liquids

The International is the main goal of every player in DotA. Subconsciously, Kuroky is thinking about The International constantly, and this obsession can knock anyone off when you finally get to this tournament. In the morning, before the match, he looked at his team and realized: something is wrong. They were not uninhibited, as usual. In none of the previous tournaments, he never feels such a fear of a mistake.

At the first glance on GH, Kuroky can see that he is nervous, it was his first The International. Team Liquid was not ready for a struggle and paid for this.

And this is normal. Teams on TI regularly break down under pressure, it’s even a kind of tradition. But captain’s task was to free the players from their own thoughts. During the interview, Kuroky always stayed calm, people know this Kuroky. But after that defeat, he knew that he needed to show his other side, one that others rarely see, add rigidity to wrest us from this prostration.

Captain arranged a long conversation with players. And by “conversation” I rather mean “speech”. It is unnatural for him to raise voice; from the outside, it usually seems like he forcing himself, but when Kuroky screams – his team immediately listens. “Wow, Kuro yells, something will happen.”

If Kuroky learned something from a long career in Dota, so this is the fact that there is nothing more important than good teamwork. Of course, players should be talented, disciplined, but if you got on The International, then it’s not even discussed. Everyone at this tournament knows what he is doing. When you fight with 17 of the best teams in the world for a prize fund of $ 24 million, you do not need additional motivation. And since everyone there is incredibly strong, the level of the game, in itself – does not play such a big role. The winners of the losers are not distinguished by the ability to behave in the hands, but the ability to co-exist with their teammates.

Leadership, interaction, teamwork – that’s what determines the champion. Do your teammates trust each other? Will they not attack each other after an insulting defeat? Can you organize a team when someone makes a mistake in a gang or dies out of position? Can you keep the mood when the opponent comes forward, or drown in the negative? Of course, these phrases sound like cliches, but everyone who played at this level knows that this is the case. You can have the highest MMR in the world, but if you can not play with the team as a whole – you obviously lost.

So, when the guys did not find their place after the defeat from IG, Kuroky told them – “all your problems in your head, do not doubt your skill.” You can not let The International intimidate you. Yes, in fact, this tournament is very frightening, but thinking about the arena, what is at stake is tantamount to suicide. In fact, you need to deceive yourself, make you believe that this is just another tournament. “Do not think about winning! Just try to perform well. ” Because if you do it, everything else will fall into place.

Preparations for the TI7 Finals

Kuroky is an ordinary person, and also prone to fears and doubts. He visited seven The International, took second place in 2013, was in the top 8 in 2014, 2015 and 2016. Aegis became the goal of his life, and as a leader, he was able to look at things from the other side and understand the feelings young teammates who were not completely ready for this race.

“Guys, listen, I lost this tournament 6 times. And I’m not afraid to lose in the seventh, so do not be afraid either. We played a lot of tournaments together, and this one is just one of them. “

When you’re afraid to fly out, you’ll fall right in the dirt – which happened to the Team Liquid against IG. But on the other hand, one thing I can say for sure: when Team Liquid is playing for fun, they are the strongest team in Dota 2 in the world.

The next day we had a game against Team Secret, against them they always played well. In the first game, however, Liquids were simply destroyed. Everyone played badly, everything turned out disgusting. They should be charged with energy to play easily and freely, as they usually do. In the end, Liquids did not have a choice. If they did not play as usual, they would go home.

They win two maps in a row and got a ticket to the next stage of the tournament. From now on, they have kept a balance in every aspect of the game. Team Liquid defeated Team Empire, Virtus.pro, and then successively beat LGD and LGD.ForeverYoung. So they ended up in the grand finale with Newbee.

In the end, they defeated them, with a score of 3-0, which happened for the first time in the history of TI. The best way was to reach the final, where they deserved to be. When we went to the game, I noticed how my guys are driving the crowd. After the first game, leaving the booth, MATUMBAMAN ran his hands across his throat in front of the camera.

“I know it’s hard to believe – there’s still a whole season ahead and a lot of other Dota 2 tournaments – but all my thoughts about The International. I tried to convince myself to live for today, I understand that such an obsession is not good, but in my case, everything went too far.

I am reassured by the knowledge that I am not alone in my thoughts. I am happy to play in the most hardworking, most magnanimous team in the world. Team Liquid is a truly unique team, they responded to each victory or defeat with diligence, discipline and mutual assistance. It’s an honor for me to be their captain, and we are ready for everything that awaits us ahead. The victory on The International was incredible. I knew that it would be so. But these guys made this victory really special.”

Dota 2 – patch 7.06

Posted on May 18, 2017 by MOBA Expert

Dota 2 is rebalanced again in 7.06

Recently Valve surprised us with the new update. You can always check patch notes all by yourself at the special page on the official Dota 2 Blog, but here I will highlight all main changes of this New Dota 2.

New EXP gaining system

Now it is much more useful to deny your creeps because denied creeps now give 30% of EXP to you, and only 70% of EXP to the enemy. Yes, an enemy now will receive much more EXP, but in the end, you will gain level much faster. Looks like IceFrog is trying to teach players a deny mechanics, so they will use it much more often.

Only in one thing, I’m terrified, this new mechanic may lead to the new game mechanics exploit. I hope that Valve ready for this.

Roshan now have cheese earlier

Now Cheese lovers do not have to wait for the third Roshan – Cheese appears in the inventory of the stone monster on the second respawn. On the other hand, the team’s reward for the murder of Roshan has been reduced from 200 to 150, and Roshan slightly more quickly gaining armor.

Do not die

Dying is becoming more dangerous – now the time for buy back recharging is whole eight minutes. It is expected that this will partially solve the problem of endless matches; And on the other hand, players will have to use this opportunity even more cautiously.

Another change touched talents, that reduce the time of revival – all 42 of the are just removed from Dota 2. Replacements can not be called equivalent everywhere (there is hardly anything as attractive). Nevertheless, some of the proposals are very tempting. For example, the Beastmaster will be able to summon a second wild boar, Io will stun when using Tether, and Techies will receive 250 points of an additional damage.

Another patch another item changes

Valve love to completely change the items. This time, the recipes for Aether Lens, Force Staff, Rod of Atos and Urn of Shadows have been reworked. Developers also keep a course on the rejection of recipes (non-useable scrolls) – to get the Heart of Tarrasque or Mask of Madness now will require stats items instead of those scrolls.

Aghanim’s Scepter is now better

Aghanim’s Scepter is reworked by several heroes – by tradition, it seems as imbalanced as possible. We offer to look at some of them:

Dazzle: Shallow Grave becomes a spell working within a radius of 450
Medusa: Mystic Snake turns enemies into stone for 1 second + 0.2 per jump.
Magnus: Shockwave returns back, dealing damage and slowing enemies down by 60% for 2 seconds.
Bane: Brain Sap cooldown reduced to 1.5 seconds, the skill penetrates magic immunity

Some balance fixes

Several popular heroes of the latest patches were very strongly nerfed. So, Monkey King was nerfed incredibly strong – Wukong’s Command no longer gives bonus damage, and the Basher and Abyssal Blade effect do not work in the Ultimate. Among other changes, the points concerning Naga Siren are also highlighted. Song of the Siren is now less effective, and in general, the hero is much harder to use.

Alchemist will also become less popular – this character has lost some of the bonus from Greevil’s Greed, and Unstable Concoction can now be used less often. In fact, the two abilities have lost their power, and now it’s not so easy to return to the peak of the form as a new alchemist.

New Valve’s Favs

A few words about those who in the new patch should definitely become more popular. Shadow Shaman received 6 points of damage and talent on bonus snakes, and Bane will now be able to cast Brain Sap through BKB and looks stronger in terms of performance. Among the core characters, you should pay attention to the changes Brewmaster and the invisible Windranger.

IceFrog, plz staph

Remember what kind of reaction caused the jumping Earthshaker with Aghanim. It seems that sometimes IceFrog is able to come up with something that no player would have thought of. We present you several updates, which should be the basis for 7.06-dota.

Night Stalker: The ability Hunter in the Night gives a flying movement for 2 seconds;
Queen of Pain: Talent level 25 now gives +550 to the AoE range of Shadow Strike;
Warlock: Talent level 20 now allows you to turn a hero after his death into a burning golem;
Nature’s Prophet: Talent level 25 now gives no cooldown to Teleportation.
Wraith King: Talent level 25 now with Reincarnation you will automatically cast the Wraithfire Blast.

And this is only a small part of the whole update with nerfs and buffs, changes in creeps and buildings, and dozens of edits. It seems that Dota 2 will become surprisingly unusual and new – however, this happens almost after every big patch so everything is as usual.

Look at some my next articles about various Moba genre games:

Dota 2: Chuan is back

Posted on April 18, 2017 by MOBA Expert

Returning of the legend: Chuan’s comeback

The last team of this legendary players was Newbee Boss team that participated in The Internation 2012. This team always played just for fun, and for fans. But Chuan – is professional and soon he will prove this to all world.

In the sixth of the April in his twitter Wong “Chuan” Hock tell about his plans to return into the Dota2 with a humorous message – “I’m back.”

Today we already know his team, and it is Vici Gaming. This is because ddc will be transferred to the LGD.Forever Young.

The Vici Gaming do not participate in tournaments for a long time (they lose at the qualification matches DAC 2017 and Manila Masters), that why we so excited with the Chuan’s comeback. He already wins the battle with his weight, and now preparing for other victories.

Vici Gaming team:

Yang “End” Pu
Zeng “Ori” Jiaoyang
Zhou “Yang” Haliyang
Xu “Hym” Zhi
Wong “ChuaN” Hock Chuan

Dota 2: Speculation about new heroes

Posted on November 18, 2016 by MOBA Expert

That is no secret that Valve transfer all heroes from Dota in Dota 2. The point in this process put Underlord. It would be difficult to find ideas for the further expansion of the list of characters, but at the last TI6 Valve announced the Monkey King, than surely have pleased fans of the game.

New heroes in Dota 2

All you have repeatedly heard about the Monkey King, and maybe even familiar with its history, so it makes no sense to repeat. An interesting point is that the Monkey King is the owner of the very Monkey King Bar – the well-known artifact of DOTA 2. What is interesting in it? Perhaps in this way Valve reveal the principle that new characters will be added to DOTA 2. There is a probability that they, like Monkey King, will be taken from the lore of DOTA, which, incidentally, very well established. It contains references to various mythologies, the cult and the history of the world of Warcraft.

Tarrasque – French dragon

The character of a famous French mythology, which is based on one of the most expensive items in DotA Heart of Tarrasque. According to legend, a dragon lived on the banks of the Rhone, near the village of Nerluk. Now this place is called Tarrascon, in honor of the dragon itself. The beast devoured animals and humans; especially it like the taste of a virgin. Residents of Nerluka have sought to overcome Tarrasque, but they can not.

Tarasque looked like half-animal, half-fish, exceeds in thickness – bull, in length – horse. His teeth were like a sword blade, sharpened on both sides, and there were sharp like horns. On each side, he was armed with a double round shields. He was hiding in the river and kill all who try to pass it and drowned ships.

Skadi

Skadi – guest from Nordic mythology, was the patroness of hunting. Originally she was probably a fertility goddess in its winter incarnation. Skadi is winter and ice, is the wife of Njord. As you might have guessed, that to he refers artifact Eye of Skadi.

According to Scandinavian mythology, when the Æsir (in Nordic mythology, a core group of gods and goddesses) killed her father Pjazi, Skadi armed and went to avenge him in Asgard. However aces offered to Skadi as a ransom for his father to choose one of the gods as her husband. She agreed, but only if they set off laughing her. After reconciliation Odin (Supreme God) took Thiassi eyes and threw them into the sky, creating the stars of them; so between Skadi and aces became peace. It was she who helped to Scandinavian gods conclude Loki by putting on him a snake, that exuding poison.

Aghanim

Perhaps you did not know, but Aghanim’s Scepter, which can be collected are now by almost all the heroes of DotA was named in honor of this great dark wizard that serves as an antagonist in the game A Link To The Past (it is possible to play it on SEGA). In addition, it is believed that he is a father of the hero, who is in DotA for a long time – Rubick.

Many heroes have specially prepared phrases that they pronounce with the purchase of this scepter. I wonder what they will say, if they met the greatest magician, part of the power that they use. If developers will continue to add new aghanims in the game, then it is very likely that we will see that character.

Other moba articles that you may find interesting:

Replays – way to improve your gameplay

Posted on September 15, 2016October 17, 2016 by MOBA Expert

Best way to learn your mistakes

Every time, when you play Moba games you need to find ways to improve your game play. Many people thinks that to improve his skills they need more practice. But this is not the only way to the top. You may look at yourself by a different angle, and look at all your mistakes with help of the replay system.

If you are the player, which want to learn, then i highly recommended to start watch replays. When you playing it is hard to criticize your decisions and see the whole picture of the game. Right here replays will be very helpfull.

You may be shocked with things that you may missed during the match. Ability to pause the game and rewind it, that what makes replay system so great. You may analyze every target if you want. You have full control and you can find what went wrong in fight which you lost.

Start criticize yourself

So, what you want to do, when you watch replays? There is a various things. You may look at all your death or opportunity of ganks that you missed. You may look at map timings and mistakes that you made. May see how aggressively you play, when your healer has low mana. By other words, you can look at yourself and criticize as it is a different player.

The most easy way to improve your game, by watching replays, is to watch every your death. When you see that you lost a big chunk of HP then try to understand why this happen. You was out the preferable position? Run for enemy too far, and opposite team used it?

When you see what caused your death, then you will understand what you did wrong in that situation and learn to not do it in future. Of course you could understand it in the match, but the reason why we watch replays – too see what we missed during the match.

Another thing that you can do, while watching replays – learn every teamfight. Look at your position, cooldowns. Your position and aggression must be at the same level as your allies has. No matter on which role you play, if your allies retreated, you must run with them.

Recap

Thank due to replay system, you can watch at all your decisions at a different angle. It will allow to not do the wrong decision in future matches, and improve your game play style.

Every one who want to improve his game, must give a chance to replays. Enhancement that you can get through it is incomparable with anything else. Watching replays – is the one of the most profitable ways to improve your gameplay, but unfortunately not too many people bothered to use it.

Also try to check another articles:

Dota 2: The International

Posted on August 15, 2016October 17, 2016 by MOBA Expert

The International 2016

The International 2016 is the sixth annual edition of The International. The tournament will be hosted in Seattle; it is the third consecutive year that the Main Event takes place at KeyArena, an arena with a total seating capacity of over 17 thousand.

The format consists of an open qualifier from June 21^st to June 24^th, a main qualifier from June 25^th to June 28^th, a Wild Card qualifier on August 2^nd, the group stage from August 3^rd to August 5^th and the main event from August 8^th to August 13^th.

Open qualifier

The open qualifier consists of eight regional single-elimination tournaments, having two brackets for each region. The winners advance to the respective main qualifier.

Main qualifier

The main qualifier has four regional qualifiers. The winner advances directly to The International while the second through fifth place teams advance to the Regional Double-elimination Playoff Bracket. The winner of each regional playoff bracket will join the six directly invited teams in Seattle.

The third place teams advance to the Wild Card round which consists of a four team double-elimination bracket where the top two teams advance to the group stage and the bottom two teams are eliminated.

Group Stage

The group stage consists of two groups of eight teams. The teams play every other team in their group in a best of two and the top four teams in each group advances to the upper bracket of the main event while the bottom four advance to the lower bracket.

Main Event

The main event consists of sixteen teams playing in a double elimination format over six days. The first lower bracket game is best of one, while all other matches besides the Grand Finals are best of three. The Grand Finals are best of five.

Crew

The event is hosted by Paul “ReDeYe” Chaloner, while the matches are analyzed by Dominik “Black^” Reitmeier, Charlie “Charlie” Young, Jacob “Maelk” Toft-Andersen and others. The matches are commentated by Annie “Anneedroid” LeClair, William “Blitz” Lee, Toby “TobiWan” Dawson, David “LD” Gorman, etc.

Teams

The invited teams are

OG, with n0tail, Miracle-, MoonMeander, Cr1t- and Fly,
Team Liquid with MATUMBAMAN, FATA-, MinD_ContRoL, JerAx and KuroKy,
Newbee with Hao, Mu, kpii, ChuaN and Kaka,
LGD Gaming with Agressif, Maybe, xiao8, Banana and MMY!,
MVP Pheonix with MP, QO, Forev, Febby and Dubu,
Natus Vincere with Ditya Ra, Dendi, GeneRaL, SoNNeikO and Artstyle.

The qualified teams are :

Evil Geniuses with Fear, SumaiL, UNiVeRsE, zai and ppd,
Wings Gaming with Shadow, bLink, Faith_bian, Innocence and iceice,
Team Secret with Arteezy, EternaLEnVy, BuLba, Puppey and pieliedie,
TnC Gaming with Raven, Kuku, Sam_H, eyyou and DeMoN,
Digital Chaos with Resolut1on, w33, Moo, Saksa and MiSeRy,
Vici Gaming Reborn with Zyf, Nono, Mikasa, fy and DDC,
Alliance with Loda, s4, AdmiralBulldog, Akke and EGM,
Fnatic with Mushi, MidOne, Ohaiyo, DJ and 343.

The wild card teams are

compLexity Gaming with Chessie, Limmp, swindlemelonzz, Zfreek and Handsken,
EHOME with iceiceice, old chicken, eLeVeN, LaNm and Fenrir,
Escape Gaming with Era, qojqva, KheZu, YapzOr and syndereN
Execration with Nando, Abed, RR, Tims and Kim0.

Prize

The prize pool consists of almost 20 million dollars. The first place earns 44% of the pool while the second place receives 16.5%, the third place receives 10.5% and the fourth place receives 7%.

Weekly Dota 2 News #2

Posted on August 9, 2016December 11, 2016 by MOBA Expert

Weekly Dota 2 News #2

Another Minor update

On the eve of the main part of The International developers released another minor update that contains several changes related to TI.

List of changes:

In the main menu, adds support for the Chinese translation
Small changes to the special effects that will take place on the stage during the match The International.

The Hateful Eight

Only eight characters were not selected or banned in The Internationale 2016.

With the exception of the Arc Warden, which is banned in Captain Mode, during the group stage were selected and already banned 102 hero. Let’s look at those left out in the cold:

Bloodseeker
Centaur Warrunner
Jakiro
Leshrac
Lina
Techies
Treant Protector
Visage

However, another character has been banned once, but never taken. His name Necrophos .

This list would be greater if the team would not have tried to implement some of the other characters. What came of it we’ll see below
Natus Vincere could not realize Omniknight against OG, Sniper has not helped Vici Gaming Reborn against the mighty men of
EHOME, Newbee lost with his Gyrocopter to Koreans from MVP Phoenix, but Nao still beat Team Secret with Spectre.

Facts gathered by users reddit:

Gyrocopter, Leshrac and Lina were the most popular characters on The International in 2015, and now they are on the bottom of the sea – Gyro was taken in this tournament just once and failed. Pdd could well afford to choose Treant Protector, S4 perfectly plays as Leshrac, and EGM famous with Jakiro. With the rest of the characters is not so smooth, but their appearance is quite possible.
From heroes, taken at least 10 times, Ursa, Assassin Nyx and Elder Titan – the owners of the biggest win rate – 80, 78 and 73 percent respectively.
Well, now for those who are at The International 2016 is loved and appreciated.

Here is the best characters in terms of KDA and GPM:

Weekly Dota 2 News #1

Posted on July 31, 2016October 17, 2016 by MOBA Expert

Weekly Dota 2 News #1

Welcome in this new rubrick i’ll try to inform about all important changes of Dota 2 per week. Lets start.

Legion Commander Prestige Item set and Quest Path

Today Gabe released an cool item for Legion Commander, that contains Prestige item and Quest path. It available to all Battle pass owners with 225 level. When you complete Quest Path you will receive an alternative look of Prestige item

You can look at this HERE

6.88b balance patch

Dota 2 has been updated to 6.88b version. Here you can find all changes:

Wiki

Weekend Sale – Battle Level Bundle

The International 2016 has begun and with it Valve decided to start a Sale.Only this weekend they sell Battle Level bundle only for 14.99$.

This Bundle contains 50 Battle Levels, 2x Immortal Treasure I, 2x Immortal Treasure II, and 2x Collector’s Cache

30 july Bugfixes

The developers have released another minor update for Dota 2, which aims to correct various errors, including those related to the Battle Cup and alerts.

Bug fixes:

Fixed an issue where players were unable to leave the group Battle Cup;
Fixed a bug due to which it was necessary to move the Battle Cup today.

Users Interface:

Removed the button “Publish the game“, which is designed for use by developers and turned into a public client by mistake;
Removed window UPDATE 6.88b, in its place added to the registration window for a collector’s version of the Champions Aegis;
Small interface improvements for viewing via Twitch games in virtual reality mode.

Notifications:

Added a new warning to the pop-up window, which refers to the transfer of the Battle Cup;
Notification of a global audience chat is now redirects to a page with details of the Compendium;
Added code for unreleased warning that during the early matches on the page directs the group stage of The International.

Some interesting articles: