A Concise Guide to TI3 Teams - Part 1, Invited Teams

Sick of Googling every team? Here's all the essential information you'll need for TI3 teams.

Part 2 and 3 will be released shortly!


Part 1: Invited Teams


iG, aka Invictus Gaming
China

Summary
iG won The International 2, and placed 5th in The International 1. Highly regarded as one of the strongest, if not the strongest, team in the world. Zhou is regarded as a highly stable, often mistake-free carry. 430 is highly versatile at creating opportunities for kills. YYF and ChuaN have strong individual skills and very fast reaction times. Faith has a strong strategic mind and famed for having insane participation in team fights without being picked off easily.

Roster
Zhou - captain, p1, carry
Ferrari_430 - p2, solo mid
YYF - p3, offlane
ChuaN - p4, utility
Faith - p5, support




Orange, aka Orange.Neolution
Malaysia

Summary
Despite YamateH's departure from the team, Orange is still widely regarded as the best team in Malaysia. Mushi is a legendary figure, known for his fearlessness and experience. Ohaiyo and ky.xy has solid solo-mid skills. XtiNcT is known for having solid tactics and micro skills. Net is famous for creating important positional advantages for his team, famous for his 'pick-off' skills such as stuns and Disruptions.

Roster
Mushi - captain, p1/2, carry
Ohaiyo - p1/2, utility, carry
kYxY - p3, offlane
XtiNcT - p4, utility
Net - p5, support




Alliance
Sweden

Summary
Previously known as No Tidehunter. Alliance is a team of very highly skilled individuals, such as the legendary carry Loda and support/jungling Akke, as well as the rising talent AdmiralBulldog. s4 is known for his solid play and fast reaction times and EGM is insanely good at setting up opportunities for kills. Alliance is especially known for varying between creative and 'old school' play styles.

Roster
Loda - p1, carry
s4 - captain, p2, utility, carry
AdmiralBulldog - p3, offlane
Akke - p4, utility, support
EGM - p5, support




Fnatic
Mixed European

Summary
Fnatic is popular for their creativity, aggression, yet solid execution. Era is known for being able to see tiny windows of opportunities for kills. H4nn1 is a veteran solo mid player who rarely loses his lane. Trixi has incredibly strong 1vs1 skills. n0tail is famous for his micro and escape plays, particularly his Puck and Meepo. Fnatic often organizes chaotic, long drawn, but well coordinated fights that aim to give them an advantage after the exchange

Roster
Era - p1, carry
H4nn1 - p2/4, carry, utility
Trixi - p3, offlane, carry
n0tail - leader, p2/4, utility, support, carry
Fly - captain, p5, utility, support




Liquid
North America

Summary
Team Liquid is a household name in the Starcraft world, and they recently expanded to Dota 2, picking up old coL, EG and Quantic members. TC is a very solid hard carry player. Korok and BuLba are both versatile veterans in the Dota scene. Fluff has a highly strategic mind and one of the most stable leaders. ixmike88 has a playful personality even in game, often creating unexpected moments for the team to capitalise on.

Roster
TC - p1, carry
Korok - p2/3, carry, offlane
BuLba - p2/3, offlane, carry
FLUFFNSTUFF - captain, p4, utility, support
ixmike88 - p5, support, utility




Na`Vi, aka Natus Vincere
Ukraine

Summary
Na`Vi won the first International and placed second in The International 2. Highly regarded as one of the best teams, alongside iG, Na`Vi has seen a roster change recently, and while some consider the new team to be a stronger combination, most are unsure about their potential, considering their unstable performance recently. XBOCT is regarded by some as the most daring hard carry player in the world. Dendi is the Chuck Norris of the current Dota scene, similar to the old Vigoss. Funn1k has one of the best offlane performance, which contributed greatly to the success of his previous team Empire. KuroKy is one of the most famous Dota veterans around, and he plays a very aggressive support role.

Roster
XBOCT - p1, carry
Dendi - p2, carry, utility
Funn1k - p3, offlane
Puppey - captain, p4, utility, support
KuroKy - p5, support, sometimes carry




Zenith
Singapore

Summary
Zenith is a fan favourite. YamateH is a legend in SEA Dota. xy- plays a highly solid carry role. iceiceice is known for being creative and loves taking insane calculated risks. Overall, the team excel in having great communication and coordination in executing team fights and pushing strategies.

Roster
YamateH - p1, carry
xy- - p2, carry
iceiceice - captain, p3, utility, carry
xFreedom - p4, utility
Ice - p5, support




Dignitas
North America

Summary
PotM Bottom was immediately recognised as a strong team, and acquired by Dignitas shortly after its inception. Aui_2000 is a highly versatile and unpredictable carry, Sneyking has strong solo mid skills and Universe is one of the more respected veterans in the scene. Although Fogged and Waytosexy do not have particularly outstanding play styles, they have shown themselves to be highly intelligent and diligent in supporting team fights.

Roster
Aui_2000 - p1, carry
Sneyking - p2, carry, utility
UNiVeRsE - p3, utility, carry
Fogged - captain, p4, utility
Waytosexy - p5, support




VP, aka Virtus.Pro
Russia

Summary
Virtus Pro is one of the oldest organizations in the Dota scene. The current roster, consisting of two of the veterans since the old days (NS and Ars-Art), has extremely high potential, but suffers from lackluster performance lately. Illidian and Crazy are fearsome carries with unpredictable aggressiveness. kSi has strong micro play and overall a solid player. NS and Ars-Art have been legendary support players since the old VP days.

Roster
Illidian - p1, carry
Crazy - p2, carry
kSi - p3, offlane
NS - captain, p4, utility, support
ARS-ART - p5, utility, support




DK
China

Summary
DK experienced major roster changes in 2012 and finalized their roster before the year ended. The current roster has yet to achieve a major achievement in 2013, but it is a force to be reckoned with under the leadership of BurNIng, the fastest farmer in SEA Dota. DK plays a conservative old school Chinese style, often opting for a long drawn out game to maximize the potential of BurNIng in the late game.

Roster
BurNIng - captain, p1, carry
Super - p2, carry, utility
rOtk - p3, carry, utility
QQQ - p4, utility
X!! - p5, support




LGD.int
Mixed

Summary
LGD.int brings together a group of the better players in the Western Dota scene and trains them to incorporate the strengths of Asian Dota into their arsenal. The result is a highly flexible and versatile all-star team. LGD.int recently stabilized their roles as follows

Roster
MiSeRy - p1
God - p2
Pajkatt - p3
Brax - p4
1437 - captain, p5




MUFC, aka Invasion MUFC
Malaysia

Summary
MUFC is undoubtedly one of the more stable SEA teams at the moment. dabeliuteef, also known as HONTRASHPLAYER, is one of the most outstanding carries in the Dota scene. TooFuckingGood is one of the best offlaners in SEA, and WinteR, the team captain, is a highly intelligent individual who opts for a solid, conservative play style for the team. MUFC, as a whole, is renounced for their brilliant executions of both offensive and defensive strategies.

Roster
dabeliuteef - p1, carry
fzfz - p2, carry
TFG - p3, offlane, carry
Ling - p4, utility, support
WinteR - captain, p5, support, carry




TongFu
China

Summary
TongFu became famous for their convincing victory in the Eastern Qualifier in The International 2, dropping only a single game to MiTH.Trust. TongFu underwent a major roster change, picking up the talented and driven KingJ, famous for his micro plays and pushing abilities. Hao is known for having great farming skills and being an insane diver. Mu loves action and will never stop to farm creeps if there's an opportunity to gank. Banana and Sansheng are veterans in the Chinese Dota scene and both are known for their ability to initiate ganks flawlessly.

Roster
Hao - captain, p1, carry
Mu - p2, carry
Banana - p3, utility, carry
KingJ - p4, utility, support
Sansheng - p5, support



Discuss

The Jungle Advantage

The DotA/Dota 2 map is not symmetrical along the river. Aside from Roshan and secret shop accessibility, the difference in the jungle is a major consideration in a team's game plan.

Let's start with the obvious difference between the jungles.




Some Terminologies

T1/T2/T3: Tier 1/2/3 towers. Tier 1 towers are the ones closest to the river and the Tier 3s are inside the base.

Easy/Medium/Hard camps: Refer to the image below

Credit goes to Xenasis's Jungling 101 Guide here

Mountain: The cliff below the Radiant's closest (to the base) hard camp and above the Dire's closest hard camp.




Vision

Placing a rune ward will reveal one of Dire’s Medium camp as well as movement between the medium camp and the safe lane large camp. What this implies is a common rune ward is able to detect slight jungle activity, especially an active jungler such as Chen or Enigma. A rune ward on Radiant’s cliff side, however, will not reveal any jungle activity, which is why the current trend is to place the ward at the high ground behind the hard camp (on the left of the medium camp).

Warding Dire’s mountain (right above their closest hard camp) will reveal rotations between the top and middle lane through the jungle whereas Radiant’s mountain ward will only reveal movement in the jungle between the T3 and T2 mid towers and their T2 safe lane blind spot.

When I say T2 safe lane blind spot, I refer to the fact that there is an additional route behind the T2 tower. For defensive purposes these trees are usually cleared if possible, but as long as the trees are there the Radiant side is at an disadvantage if they were in a defensive position.



Entrances

River: 2 different entrances from the river for Dire, as compared to 1 forked entrance for the Radiant.

Safe lane: Partial visibility into the jungle near T1 for Dire but practically no vision into the jungle at Radiant’s. Radiant has a wider and deeper vision into their jungle behind their T2 as compared to Dire (only during the day though). Additionally, Radiant has a blind spot behind their T2 tower.

Mid lane: Movement from the jungle to the secret shop is undetectable on the Radiant side, but easily detectable on the Dire side. Note that the juke spots behind the T1 is linked to the jungle for Radiant but independent from the jungle for the Dire (which is easily accessible from the river). Dire’s blind spot is a high ground entrance as compared to a uphill cliff for the Radiant. 

Off lane: Radiance’s offlane entrance allows the Dire to roam freely behind the T1s and T2s of both the mid lane and the safe lane. Dire’s offlane, however, has a cliff and a large neutral camp that slows down movement and entry is easily detectable with a simple aggressive lane ward.

Implications

Statistics show that the Dire tends to win longer games and the Radiant tends to win shorter games. From the differences listed above it is clear that Radiance has a slight edge in ganking potential early game, as their Jungle is safer as compared to Dire’s, requiring only two wards to detect entry into their jungle early game. Dire has to place three wards to fully cover all possible entrance into their territory.

However after the T1s are gone, a protected Radiant jungle is spookier than the Dire’s. Dire’s safe lane is wider and the forest is thicker and tighter, giving them greater defensive power. A single mountain ward will allow them to anticipate ganks from the two exits at their T2. 

Radiant’s mountain ward defends against only one of two possible gank routes for both the mid and safe lane. The worst case scenario for the Radiant is to have Dire pushing their T2s at mid and bottom concurrently. Dire has the high ground vision advantage in the middle push, and blind spot uncertainty advantage for the bottom. 

On top of that, it is more difficult to contest Roshan. Radiant need to cover a greater distance, move through their jungle and in the process passing through either the blind spots or risk moving up the high ground. The only exit leading to the Roshan pit is easily scoutable, which is why smoke is staple for a Roshan attempt for the Radiant.

That’s the irony of the Radiant jungle: It is easy to scout the enemies’ entry, but it is just as easy for them to scout your exit. This is the reason for the frequent ward wars in the Radiant jungle.

The Dire has different woes. Their jungle is more risky early game as rotations are more common along the river and they suffer from lack of vision into their own jungle from their T1s. Thus their T1s (and the heroes defending them) are undoubtedly easier to bring down, but if they survive the disadvantage, they will be compensated by their advantage over the Radiant’s exposed T2s.



Discuss

Introduction - the 3 games

RoX.KIS vs The Alliance


The strategy behind the gimmick is unconventional, but simple:

1   Furion has a global teleport
2   Heroes with Boots of Travel can teleport to Beastmaster's Hawk
3   Naix's ultimate enables him to teleport together with a teammate
4   KOTL can recall a teammate

What appears to be a lone KOTL pushing deep into a lane while his teammates are split-pushing is actually a highly tempting, yet risky bait for the enemy, as the fight can turn from a 1v3 into a 5v3 within seconds, from all possible positions.

Ironically, RoX.KIS lost the game, because of several bad timings with the gimmick strategy, allowing Alliance to pick off individual heroes before the Naix bomb and Beastmaster roar can arrive on time to fight with their team. Nevertheless, RoX.KIS gained a huge amount of respect for attempting to pull off this strategy against one of the best EU teams in the competitive scene. (Sadly, this game is more famous because GodZ read Harry Potter during a long pause while waiting for a DDoS victim.)



This match highlights the fact that there'll never be an end to what strategies you can come up with in a game of Dota 2. The DotA scene has seen many shifts in trending strategies, from the popular Chinese 4-protect-1 style to the currently ubiquitous 3-1-1, with individual players specializing in their "positions", a priority system for distributing farm to scale effectively as the game progresses.

Aside from an overarching game plan for farming, other strategies include pushing, ganking/hunting, straight up fighting sequences, gaining vision for defensive and offensive purposes, counterpushing/defensive backup plans and many others.

Some captains have a knack in spotting a common exploitable loophole in the enemy team, whether it lies within their lineup or their current state. Two fun examples are Na`Vi vs EG (WePlayDota2 Showmatch Game 2) and EG vs sqL (G1 League Qualifiers Game 1).


Game A: Na`Vi vs EG

EG's lineup: LD, SS, TH, AA, VS
Na`Vi's lineup: SkeleK, Magnus, BH, Rubik, KOTL

What's wrong with EG's lineup? Squishy supports and a squishy, mana dependent mobile semi-carry. Furthermore, EG picked SS after Na`Vi picked KOTL, which defied an important rule in drafting: never pick a hero knowing the opponent already has a counter for it. Na`Vi did so well that by the 10 minute mark, SK promptly went for a dagon and.. so did the rest of his team. At first this might seem like a blatantly disrespectful troll, but Na`Vi exploited the fact that the initiators were so underfarmed that they can be easily burst down, including the Tidehunter.



Game B: EG vs sqL

Situation: Radiant's barracks are all down. Dire's mid T3 is down. Although the score sits at 17-22, Radiant's carries have the highest net worth in the game. Roshan was just killed by the Dire. Dire has vision of the Radiant jungle and Radiant has vision of the mid lane. It is apparent that Dire moved into the Radiant jungle to scout or bait an engagement.

What would you do if your lineup has greater firepower, but hasn't been doing well in teamfights? Would you try to engage a team that has been dominating you despite your better farm, and this time with an Aegis and Cheese in their arsenal? Would you turtle in base and wait for the mega creeps to push in slowly, then buckle to the pressure of a fight while the creeps destroy your base?

Note that it was the 3rd or 4th Roshan and the carry picked up the Aegis. The other carry probably took the cheese. When you need a slot for Aegis/Cheese, what would you usually sell?

sqL's captain promptly called for an all-in smoke into a backdoor at mid. No one in EG carried a TP. sqL won.


Discuss