Another match was completed last night: WDF vs. F.E.A.R. As both teams featured some big names, this match promised to be a thriller. The final score read 39-9 in favor of WDF after around 43 minutes of hard fighting. The score wasnt really a good summary of the game, as it was much closer than the score suggests.

Heroes
WDF:
Mimi         : Centaur Warchief
Niro          : Demon Witch
Skillz         : Medusa
Hawk        : Faceless Void
isuru666    : Moon Rider

F.E.A.R:
Tin-Man           : Witch Doctor
Breakerrox       : Shadow Fiend
OMGitsRyan      : Dwarven Sniper
Rockpunkguy    : Magnataur
hellz|satan       : Dragon Knight


Laning:
Top/left lane
WDF: Centaur Warchief & Moon Rider
vs.
F.E.A.R: Dragon Knight & Shadow Fiend

Mid Lane
WDF: Demon Witch
vs.
F.E.A.R: Dwarven Sniper

Bottom/Right Lane
WDF: Medusa & Faceless Void
vs.
F.E.A.R: Magnataur & Witch doctor



In this clash of titans, a few nerves made themselves apparent. OMGitsRyan, undoubtably itching to sight his enemies, planted a ward a little too close to the sentinel's first tower. After this though, the nerves subsided for the most part, and both teams suddenly became very complex and proffessional -- attributes they carried right through until the end of the game.

The first sign was when WDF began pulling their creeps on the bottom path. The second sign was F.E.A.R's swift counter: a well placed ward at the creep spawn point (planted by tin-man).

First blood (7:37):
The fact that first blood was drawn as late as the 7th minute is a clear indicator of the level of proffessionalism shown by both teams. First blood was drawn by Moon Rider with the help of Centaur Warchief -- on Shadow fiend and Dragon knight. Yes, a first in the GCDL: First blood double kill.

It all started of in a seemingly regular harrasing move by WDF. Moon Rider and Centaur warchief rushed past the last 2 creeps of the scourge creep wave and began attacking Shadow Fiend. Shadow Fiend, who was caught off guard, became the victim off a well timed hoof stomp. After coming back to his sences, his escape was further hindered by a lucent beam. The ministun allowed Moon Rider and Centaur Warchief to get a few more hits on him. Moon Rider finished him off with a second Lucent beam to claim first blood.

As Cetaur Warchief was in front of Dragon knight, the 2 sentinel heroes, sensing opportunity, turned to him and began attacking him. DK, sensing opportunity himself, used Dragon tail on Centaur and proceeded to reduce him to red HP. Luckily, luna was around to fire another Lucent beam, killing DK and clinching a double kill.



This picture was taken less than a second before Luna's fatal Lucent beam was fired. Centaurs HP shows that DK didnt make a stupid decision, but rather, was outsmarted or outplayed by his WDF counterparts.

This can be considered a turning point of the game, because after this, WDF always had control over the top/left lane.

Only 3 minutes later, Demon Witch joined Centaur and Luna to gank Shadow Fiend and Dragon knight. Demon witch succeeded in killing DK while Luna pawned the head of Shadow Fiend, achieving the firth killing spree of the match.

That move sparked a torrent of ganks. Heroes frequently left their lanes in search of kills. It seemed that both teams fell behind in farming. WDF, who semmed to be farming more poorly than F.E.A.R, managed to gain a substancial lead in kills. The success of their ganks was only a sign of things to come, and the sustained pressure lead to F.E.A.R's eventual demise.

Demon witch in particlar was a definite agent of chaos, running around the map collecting runes and creating ganks. Also, his wards were a common sight in the sentinel forests, and he and Witch Doctor were often seen destroying the other's wards after planting his own.

Restless heroes and wards were a dangerous mixture and several games of "cat and mouse" emerged. Then, in the 25th minute, 1 game kept growing bigger and the teams drew closer, until it erupted into a 3v3 battle in the sentinel woods.



Later on in the battle, Dwarven Sniper killed Lion while Luna killed Shadow fiend to extend her streak to "dominating" status.

After that loss, F.E.A.R. committed all 5 heroes onto the middle path in a sudden push. Centaur was killed early on. As they pushed on, they realized that they were susceptible to a gank as WDF had the power to surprise them (especially with heroes like Lion and Faceless Void and Luna). To avoid this, they went through the fores, along the mid path to gank WDF at the second tower.

WDF reacted fast. Luna rushed towards the 5 oncoming heroes, but unfortunately was stunned and killed before she could unleash her ulti. Sniper also managed to pawn Gorgon's head. Lion replied by killing Witch doctor and escaping with a dozen HP.



Luckily for WDF, F.E.A.R. were forced to stop their push at this point, before they could destroy the second tower. F.E.A.R. were never able to control the game after this.

WDF made their bold reply only 2 minutes later on the top path. Despite being outnumbered 3-4, WDF got an advantage thanks to Centaurs tanking and Luna's ulti. The other 2 WDF players quickly TPed to the scene, further strengthening WDF.

During the chase, Luna picked off the head of Dwarven Sniper with a Lucent beam. Witch Doctor, left behind by his faster allies, tried to stealthily double take back. Unfortunately for him, a vigilant centaur warchief spotted him and he soon found himself at the mercyy of the entire sentinel team. Needless to say, despite his best efforts (ulti and all), he did not last very long. His teammates, probably confused and regretful for leaving their comrade behind, returned, only to gift another kill to the sentinel.

It was all downhill from there for F.E.A.R, who went on to clinch only one more kill (as opposed to WDF's 21!).

The biggest gainer in the pwnage that followed was Luna, who clinched 3 triple kills and 6 double kills (including the ones scored bfore), to reach beyond godlike status.

F.E.A.R could not match WDF; with the damage output of luna, faceless and gorgon, the spells and disables of lion and the tanking capabilities of centaur, they became seemingly invincible.



Its such a shame that a clan as good as F.E.A.R. were eliminated so early in the tournament. However, we must also apprecate this little loophole in the draw because it gave us a round 1 game worthy of a semi (or perhaps a final, but thats not for me to decide).

GG to both teams. Well played!

Well played both teams... And nice review mumble... Was hooked on to every word of your review... Really nice to read such a review... Even though i watched the reply it was a very interesting read.

Of course ..Nice review men...GG writing skills..

Somehow when u read mumbles posts u feel u hav 2 finish it. Awesom wording and summarizing

There's alot to learn from this.. English and strategy

Yeah Yeah... I totally agree with this review.. But I gotta say, we were interested in winning the game rather than farmin... It was me who was supposed 2 farm, but of cours the botto lane combo made sure that neither of us wander near creeps :p

lol lol.. of course d ward.. stopped me pullin creeps for few mins... bt Luna + Lion + Warchief worked hard towards my failure and filled it out...

Of course, dats TEAM WORK.. which won us this game.. Congrats WDF... FEAR played well, but my point is thier combo is less stronger than to ours..

i dont think your combo was any better than their combo was. It was just that they paired the lanes poorly. Imagin DK, and witch doctor together wudve have owned the lane (dual stun + maledict + fire), and sf is a far better solo hero than sniper wud ever be. in the end the mid and top lane were controlled by wdf and although bot lane was hard for void and medusa they got through early game pretty much unharmed(although a bit underfarmed)

Nevermo n DK... Nt a good combo. Wit doc hes good as said by aces.

Give some credit to Dsrt_eagle... He helped a LOT.

Hehe.. I wish writing skills were propotionate to game playing skills... Thanks for the compliments guys.

And I agree, DotA is a team game. It's the strongest team that wins, not the strongest individual. I still remember a game from a year or so back when someone got a 40 kill streak and still lost the match. Unbelievable but true.

And good luck in your future matches WDF... *cough cough toxic cough cough*...

hey man nice mstch review mate .. just now got read it and its perfect .. keep it up ..

Ane mumble. Ur super DotA pro. So stop pretending.

Lol yeah mumble quit coughin.. I kno wt ur 'toxic' cough meant lol... anyways, we hope 2 giv a good fight n a different play style

Aite, red_aces.. some points r true enuf bt i would like 2 make up a point abt dat Witch Doc + DK laning... As mch as I kno (I kno i kno vry little) DK holds a very small mana pool as well as mana regen.. as ur combo says DK needs 2 stun + fire @ d same time he would nead around 200mana in evry move, which i say DK would b able 2 once.. Of course he can keep runnin 2 d base or use a courier 2 fill up a bottle

bt magnus on d other hand holds a pretty strong nuke with a 90mana cost early game.. My personal opinion was witch docs stun was sufficient enuf.. They jst couldnt execute dat combo well enuf..

good point