King of the Hill Dota Series: Week 5 – New Kings on the Block

The King of the Hill DotA Series is sponsored by Rectron and powered by eGamer and Twilight Gaming

Warning: I wrote this at 5am so if you’re offended by cheap shots and sarcasm, you probably shouldn’t read this.

 

The Buildup

Before we get started, just so you all know; I Fatbob did not choose this week’s KotH game name. It was chosen by Nitrate who is a HUGE New Kids on the Block fan (Ed: Some 90s boy band for those of you who don’t know). Now that we’ve got that out the way, yes we’ve got a new King of the Hill. With some server issues (courtesy of some Iranians haxing our host and some 200 odd servers), we didn’t get all that many votes. Ol’ SloJ and friends (wait SloJ has friends?) beat out tankh by an eyelash, winning the vote 11 to 9. There have been some rumors that Tankh will never win a vote again due to the fact that Scant called a certain member from the egamer team “king of the n00bs”. Of course there is no truth to this. Good Luck for the vote this week Tankh, and good luck to all the teams.

To vote for this week’s challenger press the voting button right at the top of the page, or click here.

There is a replay and yes I recommend watching it right up until a certain player drops. I won’t ruin the surprise of who this is, but I will tell you we had to restart the game 9 times because of the bongle (Ed: Isn’t that punishable?). I suggest you never ever let this player into a pubbie, because he will drop. Replay link http://www.dota-allstars.com/download/replay/132082

 

The Overview

Now this week was the second meeting between Mint Gaming and Dedicated’Abuse (dedA) in the Koth series, of course with Mint having 5 players this time things should have been a lot closer than last time. To check out what happened last time check out http://egamer.co.za/2009/05/king-of-the-hill-dota-series-week-2-one-or-none/

Unfortunately due to some connection stability issues, we only got started at around 21:30pm on Tuesday. However the stream was stable and we had quite a few spectators this week. Mint represented the Sentinel this week and also was randomly selected to begin the draft.

 

The Bans

For a second week in a row, both Rhasta and Krobelus were banned.  Along with this, the remaining “unpickables” (Tauren, Necrolyte and Zombie) remained banned. Enigma was also banned, despite having little impact in last week’s game. And not surprisingly, Mint banned Bane who has been a stable in the dedA picking diet.

Mint – SentineldedA - Scourge

The Picks

Now the picking started off fairly normal, with both teams getting a little creative at the end. This was also one of the longest picking phases we’ve ever had, as Mint needed to use all of their picking time as well as every last bit of overtime. And yes, I’m still convinced that dedA misclicked on their last pick and picked blood seeker and no one is going to convince me otherwise. ;)

Mint – Sentinel dedA - Scourge

 

The Assignments 

Sentinel – Mint	Scourge – dedA
SloJ – Anub’arak – Nerubian Assassin	Phobos – Mirana Nightshade – Priestess of the Moon
Waz_Mac – Aiushtha – Enchantress	Azen – Strygwyr – Bloodseeker
SwissRoll – Puck – Faerie Dragon	Bananas – Mogul Kahn – Axe
MrAsssMan – Zeus – Lord of Olympia	CryT_T.zz – Crixalis – Sand King
Lemon-Gr^ss – Mangix – Pandaren Brewmaster	BonKers – Rylai Crestfall – Crystal Maiden

 

The Game and the Kills

Both teams picked great combos this week which produced at least 20 minutes of exciting dota. Both teams also opted for 2-1-2 in the lanes, although the game was quite volatile and from early on there was quite a bit of lane switching going on. Although I’m still not entirely sure why bloodseeker (Azen) was soloing Zeus (MrAssMan). 

Both teams played very aggressively.  In one of the never ending remakes, we actually saw a first blood before the creeps spawned, however a certain player’s unreliable internet connection saved Bambi (Waz_Mac) the shame. Some early escapes by by SloJ and CryT_T (also known as xera the n00b) drew out first blood a little longer this time, with Mint getting it in the 3^rd minute, Lemon^Grass boxing Xera into a bit of a corner and introducing the Sand Kings head to the end of his bamboo stick (wow that sounds kinda dirty). Lemon Grass fell shortly after however keeping the scores tied at 1-1. Just a minute later it was again Lemon Grass picking on the scourge, killing Phobo’s kitty. However again this was short lived, as Xera/Bonkers were waiting in the bush and had a little surprise for Lemon grass bring the score back to a tie at 2-2.

 

After 5 minutes, Mint were leading in the farming war with 64 creeps to dedA’s 23, Zeus and a jungle bambi racking up loads of creeps, however neither team was giving an inch on the hero kill front. A 3 on 1 gang was dedA take a brief lead as Xera dispatched of MrAssMan’s Zeus, only to have MrAssMan return the favour to Bonkers’ Crystal Maiden.

 

Both teams regrouped and got back on to the farming, however it wasn’t long before the deadlock was broken in the 10^th minute with an epic 3v3 battle. Xera/ClitsyB/Azen picked a fight with Sloj/SwissRoll/MrAssMan in a battle for Mint’s top tower. Some bloodrage to shut the Zeus up and a call from ClitsyB’s Axe along with some fancy footwork from Xera saw dedA take this mini battle 3-0 and after the 11^th minute dedA had taken the lead 3-6. Oh and the tower survived unscathed. :)

Mint regrouped and both teams teleported all over the show, looking to further increase their kills and try to swing the game in their favour. Mint pulled one back in the 13^th minute, finding a stray bloodseeker who obviously didn’t get the memo to push top. The score was now 6-4 to dedA.

 So yes dedA soldiered on after Azen’s tragic death to push Mint’s top tower and were first to take a tower 13 minutes and 44 seconds in. Of course the party was short lived, as those sneaky folk from Mint Gaming also had some plans to take a tower and pushed dedA’s bottom level 1 tower just 13 seconds later keeping the game even steven (And if you’re reading this, Hi Steve!).

The next 30 seconds were filled with peace and tranquility but the peace and tranquility was short lived. Waz_mac had decided that one tower was not enough, and got started on dedA’s level 2 bottom tower. Of course dedA weren’t going to take this lying down mass teleported down to bottom to have “a word”. Bloodraged and Ruptured, Waz_Mac made a run for it but was caught by Xera’s spike. Xera began an epicenter; preparing to give Waz_Mac a 30 second break and a one way trip to his fountain. Of course Waz_Mac had all of this planned, and who should spring out of the bushes to “have his back” but his old pal SloJ giving Xera’s SK a spike of his own. And of course where there’s a SloJ, there’s an AssMan and a Swissroll and even a shot of lemon grass. DedA were caught on the back foot this time, with Mint taking the mini battle 3-0 and bringing the score to 7-6 in Mint’s favour. Yes that’s right, Waz_Mac’s bambi survived. Mint’s lead didn’t last long, as an unaware AssMan was caught by Bonkers bring the score to 7-7 after 15 minutes with the towers at 1-1.

Things were still neck and neck, with really just Mints lead on creep kills (195-107) separating things. Another epic battle was fought middle around 17 minutes, this time Mint handing out a 4-1 panking, bringing the score up to 11-8. This also left dedA vulnerable with only Kitty to defend and Mint quickly capitalized on this taking dedA’s level 1 tower middle. dedA did strike back quickly to bring the score to 12-10 however keeping Mint’s kill lead to a minimum.

And that’s where it ends folks. Xera’s troublesome connection which was the main cause of the 9 restarts died again and with this in mind, a very late start and lots of players writing exams a decision was taken not to load. A very disappointed dedA played on but 4-5 the outcome was inevitable. Mint started on a pushing frenzy taking towers all over the place, while dedA defended and picked off heroes where they could. After 23 minutes the score 12-12, although Mint were leading 4-1 on towers and were just pulling the game away from dedA. After 31 minutes Mint were leading 22-14 and dedA conceded, surrendering the game and the hill.

 

The Vital Stats

Click here for the final scoreboard

 

The Summary

And there you have it, Mint are King of the Hill after beating a 4v5 (Ed: Ironic isn’t it) dedA. Unlike their first meeting, this match was filled with 20 minutes of really great dota and who knows how it would have gone down if Xera hadn’t dropped. Both teams played really well, and I’m sure both will hypothesize about how they had the edge and they would have won it. I think it was too close to call, Mint were better farmed but dedA were strong in the team battles and still had a strong hold on the control of their side of the map. Both teams played extremely well and produced some of the best dota we’ve seen this far. I don’t know if we’ll see another game as close as this soon, and with Mint’s main rival’s bvd pulling out of KotH due a shakey starting lineup, I think it’s going to be up to dedA or Tankh to unseat the new Kings on the Bloc… errr Hill.

Gank you in the bushes – FatBob

P.S. Bukris is NOT champion, and whoever believes this is a <censored>. *hint it starts with a P.