Welcome to the recap of the debut of FnaticRaidCall DotA 2 team in the Premier League

Former DotA 2 squad member, Andre_, has prepared a recap of FnaticRaidCall's game against team Mineski in the Dota 2 Premiere League. 

First Ban phase

FnaticRaidCall has a first ban and they decide to remove Nightstalker, one of the most common bans in the first ban phase. Mineski replies by removing Furion, one of the heroes who is either a first ban or first pick for most of the teams. His ganking/pushing ability and the constant pressure that he is abe to provide, is simply something that most of the teams won't allow to their opponents.

FnaticRaidCall decides not to allow Mineski to get Broodmother, another great pushing hero, while Mineski removes Lich. So far, very standard bans from both teams. Broodmother is known to be one of the "annoying" heroes, as she can easily push a lane and take towers, if she is left alone. Lich on the other hand, can control a lane with his Dark Ritual ability, and therefore ruin the farm for the enemy carry.

First Pick phase

FnaticRaidCall goes with the Anti-mage, an obvious first pick, as he is one of the most agile late-game carries. Mineski instantly replies with Windrunner and Vengeful Spirit. Windrunner is one of the best utility heroes and a common sidelane solo hero due to her survivability , and Vengeful Spirit is one of the most common roaming heroes picked, as her abilities can benefit the team in all aspects of the game, ganking and pushing, as well as teamfights and lategame.

FnaticRaidCall pick Tidehunter and Venomancer, the two standard picks for them. Tidehunter has one of the best initiating abilities, his ultimate, and even without blink dagger, it can be devastating in teamfights. His minus-armor nuke is also very useful, in early-, in mid- and in lategame. Venomancer on the other hand is very versatile hero, who can both be played as support and a solo hero. Wards are also great for scouting and pushing, so he makes an obvious choice at this point of picks. Mineski picks Slardar, who, combined with a Vengeful Spirit, with their minus armor abilities, makes a very nice lategame potential for Mineski.

Second Ban phase

As Mineski lacks a solo mid hero, FnaticRaidCall goes with the Beastmaster ban. His hawk's scouting ability, an aura which empowers pushing and teamfight potential, and an ultimate which goes through magic immunity make this hero an orthodox mid lane pick. Mineski replies with Batrider ban, a hero known to be played by Grizine. Another standard mid-lane hero who can easily dominate most of the heroes in early game and therefore control the lane.

The last hero banned by FnaticRaidCall is Weaver. The hero who was one of the stars of The International, and also very popular in European as well as Chinese DotA for quite some time now. And the last hero to be removed from the game is Ancient Apparition, mostly picked as a solo hero, but can also be used as a support. Together with Tidehunter and Venomancer, this combo can be devastating in teamfights with an insanely useful ultimate from Ancient Apparition.

Second Pick phase

FnaticRaidCall reveals their sidelane solo, in a form of Priestess of the Moon, and known to be played by Mitch. Mineski replies with Chen, one of the best support heroes in the game due to his ultimate, Hand of God, which is a global heal ability, and Holy Persuasion which can teleport both heroes and creeps to base, while he also levels up fast in jungle, and improves pushing potential. FnaticRaidCall decides to pick Shadow Shaman, who is usually played on mid-lane and, together with Venomancer wards, makes a lot of pushing power for the Dire team. Last pick in the game is Dazzle, kind of an unorthodox pick for this composition, but combined with the other heroes minus-armor and healing abilities can also be very useful adition. 

 

Mineski              Sentinel	FnaticRaidCall                  Dire
BANS
PICKS

 

 

Conclusion

Mineski is definitely going for the early-mid game pressure and their goal is to take the towers as soon as possible. Their strategy consists of making the advantage by taking towers and farming up their team items, such as drums, mekansm and pipe of the insight. Pushing lanes as 5 in the mid-game is something that they will want to achieve. On the other hand, FnaticRaidCall put their focus on the lategame, while in the early and mid game they want to hold their towers as much as they can, and on the other hand push as many towers as they can. Their strategy mostly consists of 4 heroes pushing and ganking, while the Anti-mage farms his key items for the lategame.

The early game

Both teams start off by warding their opponents' woods. FnaticRaidCall puts Anti-mage on the middle lane, as it is the lane where he can farm the best. He is supported by Venomancer and probably on the safest position. Chen decides to stay in opponents woods.

Heroes positioned at the beginning of the match

Editor's note : When you click on the time stamps ( for example 1st minute ), it will directly lead you to the situation itself, so you can follow what happend and is described in the text bellow 

1st minute:

Tidehunter removes the ward which blocks the camp near the top lane, and finds Chen farming in woods. With the help of Venomancer and Anti-mage from mid, Chen is being picked off as a firstblood. The money goes to Anti-mage which makes it a perfect start for FnaticRaidCall carry.

2nd-3rd Minute:

Second kill of the game goes to FnaticRaidCall, as Anti-mage and Venomancer kill Dazzle on mid, and ensure the farm for antimage. Venomancer continues to the top rune, where he gets found by the Windrunner who activates the illusion rune. With the help of Windrunner, Dazzle gets the first kill for Mineski and makes it 2:1 for FnaticRaidCall.

5th-6th Minute: 

Successful tower diving by Vengeful Spirit, Slardar and Chen provides a kill on Priestess of the Moon for Mineski, while Slardar dies to Venomancer who came to support the bottom tower. Mineski continue pushing the tower, with the Venomancer holding them off just enough for Priestess of the Moon to tp and collect a double kill on the 2 remaining heroes pushing. The score is 5:2 for FnaticRaidCall.

7th Minute: 

Another successful kill on Priestess of the Moon by Vengeful Spirit on the bot lane. Meanwhile, Shadow Shaman takes the tower on the top lane, which makes it the first tower to go down in the game.

8th Minute:

The first team fight was held on the bottom lane, and involved 4 heroes from FnaticRaidCall and 3 heroes of Mineski. It started off with both Slardar and Venomancer dying, and Priestess of the Moon collecting a double kill by killing Vengeful Spirit later on. Chen was able to pick the Priestess of the Moon off, while Shadow Shaman teleported and finished Chen off which made it 3:2 in favor of FnaticRaidCall, and 8:5 in overall score.

Analysis for first 10 minutes

Even though the score is pretty close, FnaticRaidCall didn't lose a single tower, and most importantly - Anti-mage didn't die a single time, as well as Shadow Shaman. FnaticRaidCall also got the tower on the top lane which gave them huge advantage. Note that FnaticRaidCall's tower is still up on the bot lane, even though Vengeful Spirit, Chen and Slardar are putting constant pressure on it and they also killed Priestess of the Moon two times. Until now, FnaticRaidCall was able to completely shut down the Mineski early push. Meanwhile Anti-mage is farming the middle lane.

11th Minute:

FnaticRaidCall decided to push the mid lane together. The teamfight involved all the heroes from both teams and it was another 3:2 fight for FnaticRaidCall with another tower being destroyed. The only heroes who died for FnaticRaidCall were support heroes, which put them in a great early game advantage. They haven't lost a single tower, and their key hero was able to get two kills, a decent farm in form of 60 creeps, and haven't died a single time. The overall score is 11:7 for FnaticRaidCall and they have a 5000 gold advantage in overall farm.

14th Minute:

Mineski decided to do a 4 man push on a bottom tower without a Windrunner who came late, which resulted in them killing only Tidehunter. FnaticRaidCall held them just enough for an Anti-mage to come from the back and collect a double kill on Dazzle and Windrunner.

 

A great usage of Shallow Grave by Dazzle, and Holy Persuasion by Chen, saves Slardar, but Mineski loses 2 heroes later on in the fight

16th Minute:

Priestess of the Moon manages to kill Slardar alone and is able to push the Tier 2 top tower alone, while the rest of the team manages to destroy the Tier 2 bottom tower of Mineski, as well as get 5th kill for the Anti-mage.

19th Minute:

After a successful gank on Slardar, FnaticRaidCall applies pressure to the mid lane, and found a teamfight after a gank on their PotM, and the great ultimate by Tidehunter provided them enough space to win the teamfight. Mineski had no chance in a 4v4 fight, and even though they managed to kill the Tidehunter, they lost 2 heroes of their own, and once again Anti-mage managed to survive a teamfight.

Analysis until now

FnaticRaidCall towers are all up. They won every major teamfight. Priestess of the Moon kills on Slardar resulted in one extra tower pushed, while the rest of the team took yet another tower at the same time. Everything is looking in favor of FnaticRaidCall, as they are doing the thing that Mineski's strategy was based on - pushing towers. Anti-mage has 6:0 and over 100 creeps, as his team gave him a lot of space to farm up his items and start dominating the map.

22nd Minute:

After another 5v5 teamfight, Anti-mage manages to get a tripple kill, and dies afterwards. With a score 9:1, and 120 creeps in 22 minutes, he is more then confident with his farm. Shadow Shaman and Priestess of the Moon manage to kill the remaining of Mineski heroes, which makes it 5 for 3 in favor of FnaticRaidCall, and they manage to get yet another Tier 2 tower.

25th Minute:

The first Roshan goes to FnaticRaidCall and aegis is picked up by Anti-mage, naturally.

29th Minute:

FnaticRaidCall is pushing the top base tower, while Chen gets the first tower for Mineski, the bottom tower of FnaticRaidCall. Teamfight went in favor of FnaticRaidCall once again, and, without anyone dying, they were able to take the top barracks as well as middle tower and middle barracks. Before leaving the base, they destroyed the bottom base tower, which left Mineski with only bottom barracks, a very bad situation to be in. After another triple kill by Anti-mage, FnaticRaidCall pushed the remaining barracks, which forced Mineski to call a gg at a 32nd minute mark.

Final thoughts

Everything went pretty much in favor of FnaticRaidCall. They managed to completely shut down the Mineski strategy, and with few important kills to take the tower advantage and gain the map control. Anti-mage didn't die for first 20 minutes, and was able to get all that he needs in order to completely dominate the game. Great play by the whole team resulted in a one-sided game and a 36:16 victory for our team. Smart laning by FnaticRaidCall provided a lot of space for both Anti-mage and Shadow Shaman. Venomancer managed to, together with Priestess of the Moon, hold a bottom tower for a significant amount of time. This game is a proof that, even if you pick pushing heroes, and you base your strategy on push, it is really important to set your lanes straight as well as win the teamfights.

The game was played on the US East server and both teams had ping issues, and although from what we know it must have been worse for Mineski team, it couldn't be decisive in this match. You can watch the VOD of the whole match on the next link.