UNGL Destiny CUP 2011

The DuskBin.HoN team has become well known and loved in the community as being one that is incredibly entertaining to watch, what with their hyper aggressive gameplay style and intense ganking strategies. With its aggressiveness and difficult to anticipate gameplans, DuskBin.HoN has managed many amazing triumphs and winning comebacks over the seasons. In one of its greatest triumphs to date, Team DuskBin.HoN has taken the win in the UNGL Destiny Cup. The team dominated its way to the finals with a cleansweep victory against all opposing teams.

Going into the finals however, the team was to play against one of big 3, team Fnatic.MSI. Despite its dominance all the way through to the finals, the threat of Fnatic.MSI still struck a worrisome chord on the heartstrings of the team. I interview Captain of DuskBin.HoN [DskB]Capt`mike as competitive insight into the choices and gameplay in the Finals against Fnatic.MSI.

"I was both nervous and excited to play against Fnatic since most our previous encounters were losses."

[DskB]Capt`mike / Ninjaboogie

Game 1

Game1 BANS

"Like always i did some research to get an idea of what heroes to ban against them but even with the amount of research MSI is still a great team."

[DskBCapt`mike / Ninjaboogie                 

Ryu : Hi Mike, could you run us through the bans real quick? Why the straight up Pharaoh ban? Player Specific?

 

[DskB]Capt`mike : Yes definitely, fresh (MSI.Freshpro) plays a crazy pharaoh.

 

Ryu : Haha, well for the MSI bans they seem pretty solid, great gankers and initiators and burst damage among those bans. Yours however seem a little strange in comparison. Slither? Not really seem much in competitive play recently. Any particular reason for your choices?

 

[DskB]Capt`mike : Well, in my research on MSI, all 4 of the heroes I picked were ones that certain MSI Players have as their favorites.  Freshpro = Imba pharoah, N0tail's Chipper, Fly's Tort, Trixi's Slither.
 

Ryu :  In that case, why not Glad or Valk for Trixi? Or Madman for Freshpro

 

[DskB]Capt`mike : I did consider those, when i compared them i decided they were less ban worthy as compared to the 4 i chose for that match.       

Game1 PICKS

Ryu : So moving into the picking phase, did you feel confident in you heroes?

 

[DskB]Capt`mike : After the banning stage i was confident since we were able to pick up andromeda for first pick. Then MSI then followed it up with Myrmidon and Hammerstorm.

 

Ryu : I guess you new right off the bat then that they'd be roaming huh.

 

[DskB]Capt`mike : Yep, with the metagame now its quite obvious what heroes will play what role. When we saw that Hag and Magmus was still available, we took them immediately. We felt great getting heroes we are comfortable with even though we knew MSI.N0tail would play SS.

 

Ryu : I see, well a pick that i find really stands out was your choice in Aluna. I've seen you play her in Garena HoN, and if my memory does not fail me, you lost. :P

 

[DskB]Capt`mike : Haha, that was before. We already discuss as a team the strength of Aluna in the tri lane, but SK Gaming showed us her true potential during Game 3 of the HoNor Tournament and after that i did some practicing with her.

 

Ryu : So how did you feel overall before the game-start countdown?

 

[DskB]Capt`mike : When i saw the completed drafts of both teams i felt we out-picked MSI. We had Hag and Magmus, both having great clash presence, Andro as a great support, Electrician as tanker/initiator and Aluna as semi-carry. We had to play aggressive because MSI had 3 carry heroes (Soulstealer, Puppet Master and Soul Reaper)

The Game begins with MSI moving as an aggressive 4 man hunting party in the legion forest, Duskbin.HoN choosing to launch with a trilane top conversely have 4 heroes around the top rune. After the lack of any encounters, both teams begin to spread lanes.

Crossing through the bottom rune, MSI.NoVa_ on Hammerstorm picks up an Invis Rune and, chaining his throw with MSI.Fly's Myrmidon's WeedField, manage to get Bloodlust on [DskB]Mr.Swish. DuskBin.HoN realise that their current position is untenable.             

Ryu : How did the more aggressive style of roaming play from FLY and NoVa_ factor into your game plan?

 

[DskB]Capt`mike : Once our ward spotted Fly and Nova heading to mid with an Invis rune, we were forced to counter. I decided to send Justawluts and iskaputski to counter their roaming supports and help Mr`Swish secure mid. We were planning to catch soulstealer first but they were able to initiate first.

 

             

With the disables of MSI.Fly and MSI.NoVa_ used to kill [DskB]Mr`Swish, the incoming [DskB]justawluts and [DskB]iskaputski while unable to save the Wretched Hag, were able to chain disable and take down the squishy SoulStealer in mid. This prevented an early shift of power in the mid lane and prevented Soulstealer from acquiring too much of an advantage.

Constant action characterized the early game with the two roamers from each team constantly putting pressure on the solos in each lane. The survivability of Electrician early game proved to be a great asset as [DskB]Jojoflow was able to escape from ganks attempted on him while the marginally more frail SoulReaper for the Hellbourne Top went down to the combined 3 stuns from Aluna, Magmus and Andromeda.

Ryu : I have here [DskB]Ismification / iskaputski, and i just wanted to ask, with the successful pressure you and [DskB]justawluts were able to put on both mid and top solos for the Fnatic.MSI lineup, why didn't you guys choose to roam down to bot to address Freshpro's farm? In terms of pure farm he was doing a beast of a job early game, holding the highest GPM for most of the early game going into mid game.

 

[DskB]Ismification : Hi, basically we were ganking Trixi because he was alot easier to. We were pretty sure they had wards up for Fresh, as well as Fly and Nova_ being right behind him most of the time.  Fresh also kept a dominated ogre in the jungle for additional vision. That made it a little too hard to gank him, so we just stuck with ganking Trixi whenever we could.
 

[DskB]Capt`mike / Ninjaboogie proved to be a global threat once he hit level 7, allowing him to retain control of the top lane while his ultimate allowed him to assist with a PowerThrow whenever necessary. The additional  350 damage nuke with global range boosted the deadliness of [DskB]Mr.Swish's Wretchad Hag Gank abilities.

"FIGHT IMMA HIT HIM"

[DskB]Capt`mike / Ninjaboogie

Despite the effectiveness of the ganks carried out by the DuskBin.HoN roaming supports, the balance of the game was kept level by the equally brilliant play from MSI's roamers. MSI.Fly on Myrmidon had an 8-0 kill death ratio at the 18th minute and with MSI.NoVa_'s Hammerstorm skills they were both able to severely limit the farm of [DskB]Mr.Swish in the early game.

Meanwhile, MSI.Freshpro's excellent farm on PuppetMaster sets Fnatic.MSI up to enter the mid game in a dominant position. With his 20+minute Shroud and Whispering Helm, MSI.Freshpro could take down any hero on the DuskBin.HoN side solo, and with relative ease. Fnatic.MSI cash in on their dominance and go on to take Kongor. DuskBin.HoN forces a clash at mid immediately and although Fnatic.MSI emerged in an advantageous position after the clash, PuppetMaster's Token was used up.

During this period of time, [DskB]Mr.Swish manages to farm up his Puzzlebox3 and the truesight his spawned minions gave greatly aided in their countering of the well-farmed Puppetmaster. This proved particularly effective as DuskBin.HoN manages to catch Fnatic.MSI attempting Kong a second time. Excellent initiation from [DskB]Justawluts on Magmus and [DskB]Jojoflow on Electrician set the stage for Wretched Hag and Aluna to mow down the Fnatic Team. The victory however sweet came at the cost of too much DuskBin.HoN healthpoints, which prevented a counter Kong and forced them retreat to regenerate.

Wards again give DuskBin.HoN the map awareness to catch Fnatic.MSI attempting to drop the low HP Kongor and the sheer amount of crowd control on the DuskBin.HoN team swings the clash in their favor. Fnatic.MSI is again forced back with 4 down, traded for the loss of Magmus on the DuskBin.HoN team. This time, DuskBin.HoN are able to take Kongor and the with the token on Wretched Hag, they proceed to push forward.

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The combined crowd control of DuskBin.HoN's heroes and the addition of a Sheepstick on Aluna prove extremely effective over the Fnatic.MSI lineup and 2 genocides and a quadkill from [DskB]Mr`Swish later, DuskBin.HoN takes the win

Ryu : So mike, How did you feel going into the late game after Fnatic.MSI's dominance of the mid game? I'm sure you guys had a specific game plan down to deal with MSI.Freshpro's amazing damage output.

 

[DskB]Capt`mike : Since i had sheepstick, i told Iskaputski to swap Freshpro so we can lock him down and make him useless with chain disables.

 

Ryu : Sweet, team spirit must have been through the roof after that win.

 

[DskB]Capt`mike : Yeah, We felt alot more confident going in game 2, being up 1-0 means the pressure is on them and means we can be much more relaxed.