Liquid vs IG Upper Bracket Round 1 Draft Analysis
Hello everyone! My name is Sunny and I'll be providing you the draft analysis for TI7 Main Event Games. Let's begin!
Game 1
(images will be added later, my apologies!)
Liquid has first pick, starts off the draft by banning Monkey King and then Puck. IG bans Io and Earthshaker.
Explanation:
(Liquid)
The first two bans are targeted on Boboka and XXS respectively, given how they perform on these heroes in general. MK is basically Boboka's bread and butter hero and I guess Kuro just doesn't want his team to be up against it. Puck is a very good AOE control hero that is just an overall strong pick for IG to have. Later on, the picks from Kuro proved to be picks that will generally struggle against Puck's elusiveness.
(IG)
Io is a no-brainer ban against Liquid. The Earthshaker ban is an either-or out of 3 choices --> Keeper of the Light, Nightstalker and Earthshaker. These 3 heroes are generally very strong heroes on the support position that Liquid is able to utilize effectively. They are also banning Mind Control's offlane Earthshaker option.
(In my opinion)
The ES ban is to allow Kuro to pick Kotl for GH 1st pick and then IG can snag up the Nightstalker, which Boboka plays really well as well.
Liquid first picks Tusk, responded by Nightstalker and Lycan from IG, Liquid then picked Visage.
Kuro clearly had a plan by first picking Tusk and leaving the strong meta heroes like Bat and Nightstalker for IG. The NS and Lycan pick from Q synergises well with each other - Lycan's Howl works wonders when NS's Darkness is activated, and they are generally strong picks in the meta. The Visage response is supposedly a comfort hero for GH which later has synergy with Kuro's remaining picks.
This gives IG the information that Liquid is not using a Kotl strat and also establishes a vision advantage by default with just the 1st 2 picks.
IG then bans Broodmother followed by Lone Druid, Liquid responds with Death Prophet and Legion Commander.
(IG)
IG's bans are definitely targeting Matumbaman - Brood mid is a pain to deal with and has comparable split push power as the Lycan, dominating the lane she's in. Lone Druid by itself is also a strong laner and Matumbaman's comfort heroes.
(Liquid)
Facing a Lycan, Liquid decided to remove further pushing power in the ban of Death Prophet. As for LC, I believe that Liquid simply did not want to deal with the hard lockdown of Duel and lane domination an offlane LC can offer.
IG proceeds to pick Batrider, Liquid picked Bristleback, IG picked Ancient Apparition and Liquid picked Weaver.
With Tusk and Visage showing, a Nyx pick offlane in response to the Batrider seemed unlikely. The lockdown Batrider offers is just something that's too good to pass up given that this hero is simply too good a design. Liquid's Bristle pick allows the hero to simply turn its back when being chased by Lycan, allowing more time for other heroes to follow up - it's also a general comfort hero for MC. \
In my opinion, the AA pick is a very potent pick as a Batrider lasso into Ice Blast with Lycan munching on the lassoed hero will just render the fight won by IG. The AA pick also allowed Bristle, the natural tank, to be easier to take down, thus eliminating the effectiveness of the pick. The Weaver pick follow up provides an elusive, but relatively squishy hero for Liquid. The right click from Weaver can start to stack up as it gets farm and the LC ban seems much more justified.
IG proceeded to last ban Ember Spirit, Liquid responds by banning Templar Assassin in return.
In my opinion, this is Mind Games at its finest. It might not be the case, but Q just turned the Ember Spirit ban into an Ultra Value ban as it brings to light Templar Assassin as a potential pick for IG to secure a good early game. Templar Assassin generally does well against most mid match-ups, so a ban is pretty justified. However, it allowed IG to not worry about Liquid picking it up to deal with their subsequent mid pick for OP
Liquid rounds up the draft with Invoker, IG then surprised them with the Alchemist last pick.
Oh Dear...
Kuro picked Invoker to secure a pick-off centric early game with Invoker being able to contribute with Sun Strike as well as the fact that Miracle is a god on the hero. Seeing that Invoker is most likely going to just farm and get a Midas, IG responds with greed, picking the Alchemist.
In my opinion, the first game is an utter outdraft for IG.
Let's talk about Alc and some theory crafting: If Liquid wishes to shut down Alc, they need to commit Tusk to constantly camp mid. Visage would want levels as it is a greedy support and its gank power early is not ideal to securing decisive kills onto the enemy mid Alc. If they commit heavily to doing so, IG's Lycan and Batrider will simply get their farm. If the Alc doesn't die, the game will be much harder 4 minute onwards as the vision advantage Nightstalker brings will allow IG to dictate the pace of the game much more effortlessly than Liquid. Meanwhile, the AA simply pulls and stacks for Alc to spiral out of control.
For Liquid, the saving grace is that Bristle can hold on its own against a Lycan. Otherwise, it's overall harder for Liquid to find farm on their heroes and prevent Alc from snowballing at the same time.
Thank you!
