Game two in the match SK.DotA vs. Executioners, in PDL Playday 5. After a pretty one sided show in game one, XcN did not make the same mistakes as before and started off with strong picks and a much better performance into game two. Of course, SK fought back as a loss wouldn't be acceptable for them. So let's see how this game went.

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Bans and Picks

Bans (SK first): Warlock, Omniknight, Terrorblade, Beastmaster, Dazzle, Nerubian Assassin, Faerie Dragon, Chen
Picks (SK first): Earthshaker ; Dragon Knight,Zeus ; Lich,Priestess of the Moon ; Skeleton King,Tidehunter ; Slardar,Shadowfiend ; Lina

Short Pick Analysis:
SK Gaming had the first pick of the game and went with an Earthshaker, a very strong hero especially in the latest patch because of the Sandking nerf and greater focus on team-battles, Hailo is also one of the best players in the world with the unit.

Executioners went with a Dragonknight and Zeus as their first and second picks, both are top tier heroes due to the fact that the two perform well on any lane as well as in skirmishes during mid- to late game.

There were no surprises in SK's second round picks, a Priestess, as she's quite a common hero in competitive play due to her adaptability in all aspects of the game, and the Lich whose a strong force on the lane and in team-fights especially when combined with Earthshaker's Echo Slam.

XcN picked Tidehunter and Skeleton King. We can begin to see Leoric focusing on the late game force combined with the Dragon Knight, since the late game is really becoming more important in this version. Tidehunter is used to initiate with dagger and ultimate to take down key heroes like Lich and Earthshaker before they are able to cast.

Now SK unleashes one of their specials: Slithereen Guard. He was utilised several times by SK in the .48b patch and has proven to be a good hero in competitive play. Here he represents a counter to the Dragon Knight's massive armor together with the Shadow Fiend pick. Lina is taken as the last pick because of strong lanes on XcN's side and for some nice hero focus.

Early Game:
The early game is the phase for individual skill to shine. The aim here's to establish lane control and translate it into map control by dominating the opponents on the lanes. This is achieved by out-farming and out-leveling the enemy by killing or continued harassment.

Accomplishing this will force the enemy to stay on the lane for a longer time since they've to acquire the proper level and items to start roaming, therefore making you able to gang them on the lanes. Early game dominance doesn't guarantee a win by any means, but one could say that it gives a temporary advantage through map control and "gankability".

In order to provide you with the best overview of the early game I'll give an insight of what happened on each lane.

Top-lane
-SK: Priestess of the Moon (played by toMpa), Earthshaker (played by Hailo)
-XcN: Zeus (played by mutz)

*Notice here that both Zeus and potm buy a package of sentry wards at the beginning. Short explanation: on one hand mutz wants to avoid his creepspot getting blocked, and on the other hand toMpa wants to block the spawn to make it harder for mutz on the lane, as he would not be able pull.

ToMpa buys sentries here for two reasons: the first one is, that sentry wards have no cooldown, while observers do after you have bought several packages and the second reason is to block the spawn and counter a possible opponent's sentry at the same time.

So at 1:50 mutz places his sentry ward and goes onto the lane waiting for an enemy ward to pop up, at 2:17 Tompa pays the ward a little visit and destroys it. The only problem here's that Tompa doesn't place the ward directly into the spot, thus not blocking it and consequently making Zeus able to creep-pull*

Now onto the actual incidents. Zeus is playing pretty defensively while trying to harass and grab last hits with his arc lightning. Priestess and Earthshaker are aggressive at first, but somehow they dont keep it up. A few seconds later Tidehunter (played by RitteR) joins Zeus at top lane, whose just died on mid-lane. So mutz immediately goes for the first pull, to nullify RitteR's experience disadvantage.

Zeus starts to harass the Priestess really hard leaving her with very little HP. At the six minute mark the Priestess gets killed by the Tidehunter as a consequence of underestimating Gush's range and damage, probably.


Around 6:55 Hailo manages an awesome fissure block on RitteR, and with Tompa back on the lane, Tidehunter finds himself in a bad situation. As the fissure disappears Tompa tries to arrow Leviathan, but unfortunately he misses, since there is a creep right in front of him. They keep chasing him to the tower but eventually RitteR escapes with 50 HP.

Mid-lane
-SK: Shadow Fiend (played by Minitito)
-XcN: Dragonknight (played by Lakuci)

Shortly after the second creepwave - at 2.45 - there is an attempt by the hasted Tidehunter, to first blood Shadowfiend together with Dragonknight. In the end they fail to kill him, as they give away 2-3 extra hits and keep chasing behind the tower and so Leviathan dies, almost getting lasthitted by Minitito.


Now there is a lot of micro-action going on, in addition to some harassment, mostly from Shadow Fiend, but there is no significant advantage for one of them.

Around 8:30 Dragonknight is getting ambushed by Slardar with a haste rune. Dragonknight has very low HP after they jumped on him and so they decide to chase Davion into the tower, but abruptly Lina joins the action from bottom lane. Scoring a stun on Slithereen Guard in tower-range, the low HP Davion and Lina try to go after him, when they suddenly get stunned by Earthshaker. As result, Lakuci survives with VERY LOW HP, while Lina is able to kill Loda with a well placed dragon slave.

Bottom-Lane
-SK: Lich (played by Bogdan), Slardar (played by Loda)
-XcN: Skeleton King (played by stamx), Lina (played by melen)

This is a tough lane for Slardar and Lich, because it is hardly possible to farm for Slardar, while Lich has to be afraid of getting killed frequently. So SK tries to avoid facing them on the lane, with a lot of creep pulling. Bogdan is pulling every wave possible, and gets visited on almost every pull by Leoric and Lina.

At around 5.30 Lina scores first blood on Lich, because of Leoric having found a haste rune.


Melen shows a really aggressive play so Loda has a hard time farming. At 11 minutes Skeleton, Tidehunter and Slayer come to blast down Slardar, who dies within 2 seconds. Lich, who has been going back to the tower, gets ambushed by Leviathan shortly after, since he has been taking the way through the jungle. So they take him down too. At 14 minutes, Slithereen Guard gets killed another time, and Lina is on a dominating streak now.

Don't miss an awesome fight at around 15mins on top lane. Slardar who just died on bottom lane, went top farm something. Not much later he gets attacked by Tidehunter and Zeus, but surives with 150 HP and hides in the trees left of the tower.

Now Bogdan teleports to save Loda, and uses Chain Frost and Frost Nova on the pretty low HP Zeus to finish him. As the spell combo does not take Zeus down, Lich throws in normal hits, but as the fatal blow is in the air, Lich gets killed by Tidehunter, granting mutz a level-up and so he survives Bogdans attack with 15 HP.

Meanwhile Earthshaker teleported top and used a stun on Leviathan, who's taking quite some damage now since he's in tower-range. Lina who ran top as well, tries to stun Earthshaker, but fails and so Hailo is able to chase down RitteR into the river. There Tidehunter tries to go up-ramp into the scourge woods, but gets blocked by a great fissure. Shadowfiend who has made his move from middle already, finishes the low HP Tidehunter with a Shadowraze.


Early Game Update (17minutes):
Score: SK 4-8 XcN
Shadow Fiend: lvl 9, 66-22 creepstats – Dragonknight: lvl 9, 46-20 creepstats
XcN has the overall level advantage, but no one has significant items yet

Midgame:
In the first phase of the mid game XcN seems to have the advantage over SK. Around the 19th minute there is another skirmish at SK's bottom tower. Zeus, Tidehunter, Lina and Skeleton King are pushing the tower and manage to kill Nevermore and the rest of SK, who have been trying to defend it by teleporting. On XcN's side only Tidehunter went down.

Now SK tries to hang on and farm, while XcN is roaming and pushing, thus trying to create pressure on SK. It's obvious that XcN wants to take down the first towers of SK fast, to have an easier time ganging, since they have a weaker late game than SK.

Next action by XcN at 20.45: Dragonknight is pushing the top tower by himself, after a while Lich and Earthshaker arrive to defend it. As the tower goes down Slayer and Leviathan engage from behind, brining down Lich quickly and Earthshaker afterwards. However SK strikes back and kills all 3 heroes of XcN, Minitito gets a double kill.

23rd minute, another big push by XcN, now on SK's mid tower. As they push it, Lakuci is moving offensively around the tower and scores a stun on Earthshaker, creating a 5on4 situation in favor of XcN now. Earthshaker gets killed instantly, so Tidehunter walks in getting damaged hard, but casts a Gush and Ravage before he dies. Afterwards Lich and Slardar are getting killed.
XcN has taken all of the first three lane towers now.


Watch out for an awesome fight around 25 minutes! Slayer, Leviathan and Dragonknight are scouting the sentinel woods and meet Lich, Priestess and Earthshaker. The fight is on and Lich gets blasted down within a blink of an eye, but still manages to cast his chain frost, eventually turning the tide in this fight. Shadowfiend teleports instantly on the bottom tower and charges in with BKB – Hailo fissures and Minitito pulls off and awesome ultimate, getting a double kill, as Chain Frost scores a kill on Lina.

Zeus and Skeleton King who are coming up the ramp out of the river now try to turn around and run, but Leoric gets caught by the sprinting Slardar at the scourge tower. Leoric gets killed, but when he ressurrects surrounded by 4 sentinel heroes, he stuns Slithereen as last resort. Mutz uses the opportunity given him and takes down Loda. Zeus tries to make a run for it, but Tompa scores and incredible arrow on him, allowing Minitito and Hailo to get the kill. Meanwhile, RitteR and melen revived, teleported on the tower and took care of Minitito and Hailo.

Mid Game Update (27minutes):
Score: SK 15-23 XcN
Shadow fiend(lvl 14): 5/2 stats, 133 creepkills – Dragonknight(lvl 13): 1/2 stats, 85 creepkills
Nevermore has BKB, 2 Wraithbands, Bottle and a Claymore on the chicken, Dragonknight has Power Treads, 2 Bracers, Quarterstaff and an Oblivion Staff, Lina has got a Dagger now
SK has lost 3 towers, XcN not a single one



XcN keeps going very aggressive in this game, by placing offenisve wards, roaming around and ganging the sentinel woods. They always manage to pick off one or two, but most of the time Shadowfiend is able to grab a kill with good timing and placing good ulitmates.

A nice example of this is when XcN heads off Lich in the woods at around 33minutes and go for a Push on the bottom tower.

They initiate with Ravage on SK's remaining heroes and Dragonknight uses his Orchid Silence on Earthshaker, who's not able to do anything now. Nevertheless SK strikes back as Minitito runs in with Lothars and Avatar, laying down a really painful ultimate on XcN. In addition to that Slardar is charging in with his newly aquired Armlet of Mordiggian, and so SK takes down all of XcN heroes.

After this fight there is a period of farming on both sides in order to get their core items, to perform better in fights and ultimately turn the game in their favor.

Around 41mins XcN kills Roshan, but SK intercepts them afterwards taking down 3 heroes as result.

*Another thing to look out for is the great ward placement by Bogdan, with a poor farm and stats of 6-12 he still manages to fulfill his ward duty, allowing the team to farm safely*

At about 45 minutes Tidehunter got his Dagger and Dragonknight his BKB which leads to XcN moving out for a middle push.

When they reach the river both teams are facing each other, and so RitteR does not hesitate to blink in and cast Ravage. Having catched SK off-guard now, XcN walks away with 3 kills only having lost Leviathan. They destroy the second mid tower and even go for the barracks. Melen places a sentry ward into the base in order to kill Minitito, so they go aggressive on Shadow fiend instead of destroying the tower. Now all heroes of SK respawned and so they are able to catch the fleeing Dragonknight and Skeleton King.

Late Game:

Late Game Update (50 minutes):


The Late game is really intense, so there is a lot of action and teamfights going on, showing that the two teams really want the win at all costs. Taking a look at how both sides play, it is clear to see that XcN goes offensive most of the time since it's getting worse the longer the game lasts for them, even though they have Dragon Knight AND Skeleton King. SK however, is getting stronger and stronger, and it seems like they slowly take the upper hand in this game.

51 minutes - XcN manages to take down the Melee Barracks on midlane, due to a sentry ward placed by melen in the push before.

53 minutes – Dragonknight tries to solo Roshan with Double Damage, but gets spotted by SK. Dragonknight runs away and so SK takes Roshan down really fast with Slardars amplify damage.

55 minutes – Big clash in middle, Tidehunter engages with a Blink+Ravage again, forcing SK to fight. The fight is going really bad for SK this time, Lich goes down instantly, without casting Chain Frost, afterwards Slardar, Mirana and Earthshaker go down. Shadow fiend gets killed as well, but he took the aegis from Roshan.

57minutes – another skirmish on the Midlane, Slardar enagages with a crush on Skeleton King and the fight is on. Both Earthshaker and Lich are blasted down within seconds. Loda is able to escape with very low hp, Minitito dies and Tompa manages to get away with a double kill. Anyhow, XcN takes down the ranged barracks on midlane, but shortly after Shadow fiend is back alive and so SK is able to kill Leoric and Lina.

*Notice that a lot of sentry wards are placed by melen in order to counter Shadowfiend's lothars and Mirana's ultimate*

62 minutes – awesome fight for SK in their woods, the armor reduction really kicks off now. All 5 heroes of XcN down, Minitito walks away with a triple kill.

65 minutes – Midlane fight forced by SK, as they were going in with Priestess' ultimate, Lich goes down on SK's side, but they are able to take all scourge heroes in exchange. The result of the fight is, that XcN lost mid and top barracks. It looks extremely well for SK.

68 minutes – XcN decides to push bottom, however it turns out to be a bad idea when SK opens a fight with Moonlight Shadow and Nevermore going in with Lothars, Avatar and his ultimate. In the end SK only lost Slardar, while they took 4 heroes of XcN, Tompa gets a triple kill.

71 minutes – SK attempts to push the last barracks of XcN, but XcN showing a solid defense and taking down Earthshaker, Priestess and Slithereen Guard.

74 minutes – Final Push by XcN into Sentinel's mid lane, Tidehunter engages with his Ultimate but, he leaves like 0.5s between his blink and the ultimate, which allows Loda and Minitito to activate Avatar before they get hit by Ravage. SK
wins the fight without casualties and so mutz calls it „gg“ !

Final Stats:


What an exciting game! Very impressive play by both sides, and interesting until the very end. While it looked pretty grim for SK.DotA during Early and Midgame, they were able to turn the tide in Lategame, with awesome teamfights, better farming and the strong armor reduction strategy.
With this win SK.DotA takes the lead in PDL and continue their dominating streak in the dota scene.