Normally this would be longer, but tiredness and this feeling of suddenly wanting to work on a TFT Map should shorten it.

GXL went rather smoothly. Azure (the LAN shop) is the worst damn possible place to host a game from (Singnet + LAN Shop = GGLAG). However, it's really sweeeeet for playing LAN. Screens are good, seats are comfortable, equipment is good, etc. Plus today we got to sit in this room where the comps are used by sitting at floor level, and there's lot of leg space, a nice floor-seat thing, and a comfy cushion to add on. That and because our opponents were sitting outside, we got to shout all we liked.

Oh and add that to the fact that for the most part Tofu was sitting seperately from the rest of us, for one match even on the corner outside, far away from anything we could hear, and we have a rather smooth going match.

Match with Micronology went rather well. I have absolutely nothing bad to say about our coordination that game, except that I have no idea why we won it so well, and that because I have no idea what we're doing, I fear that other teams might actually catch on to what we are doing before we do, and we might even lose this coordination. Mostly it was a 4v5, with Tofu farming an empty lane for about all of the game, before buying himself a Heart and a Divine Rapier (look ma, no aegis!), killing a THD, a VS, and then politely handing the Rapier over to the opponent's QoP, which gave ice the perfect opportunity to be the first Zeus to obtain a Divine Rapier in a serious game.

As an evolution to blink-stomp of the 5.84c era (bad memories of a certain Centaur reside), I have now the blink-Infernal move! I'll never miss an Infernal again!

Oh and LuX's bloodseeker is "kinda" imba. Zeus is also an effective stunner sometimes, today because we stunned them by picking it first.

Match with eMo was closer than we would like to have played it. They didn't touch our base or even most of the second towers, but we had a much harder time breaking into their base than we would like to have. We also more or less copied their strat, except choosing to drag the game instead of pushing fast, seeing as how their Warlock obtained a Refresher Orb in about 3 seconds into the game (warning: timings may be exaggerated). Night Stalker as a pick, Bear as an early 2nd pick, and Chen earlier than we were used to.

Tofu proceeds to die a lot more than we would like him to as Viper early into the game, falling to a Lvl 1 first blood. This is actually more of a good thing than a bad one because perpetually aiming Tofu means that I am free to farm without being backstabbed. Relic and Treads go up in 25 minutes despite having to share a lane with the hungrily-farming-for-dagger Enigma. The Enigma proceeds to have about 1 good Black Hole casted in the entire game and goes for a Diffusal Blade, whereby he attempts to continue Black Hole casting, and ends up being dead before even having a chance to purge an Infernal.

Though granted, the Enigma helped a lot in lane control, but not in the big battles. Strange?

By virtue of Tofu getting aimed, and also by virtue of us not bothering to help him because he is sitting far away in a distant outside world, we completely outfarm our opponents in the mid-game. We proceed to push 4v5, while Tofu well, takes an empty lane and farms for a good part of well, the entire game. Very bad engagements lead to our pushes being repelled and us getting taken down rather badly, despite having the farming advantage, courtesy of a Warlock and a farmed Zeus, and the lack of a good Black Hole. Sandking farms himself an Aegis, QoP farms well... nothing much really, and RK farms himself an Aegis and Radiance (along with a BKB he had long ago).

I also learnt that "Hunter in the Night" isn't really "Hunter in the Night" unless ice happens to use the Night Stalker. THEN we learn what it really means to be a Hunter in the Night.

A spree of catches lands ice a very early reaver, and a Heart (weren't vampires heartless?). As the pushes start, he obtains himself an Aegis.

No wait, how does one become more unkillable with Heart, and Aegis, a silence, a slow, and imba movement speed? One buys a Satanic, which ice promptly does.

Contrary to expectations, it took a very long time to break their base. Bear with Aegis Basher Radiance Heart patrolling the bottom, and Night Stalker with Heart Satanic Aegis (and I forgot what else) at the top lane did a very good job holding around and not dying, but Aegis-Rapier RK, refresher Warlock, and Zeus, are surprisingly difficult to break.

Nevertheless, base was broken after a very persistant effort to distract them from two directions and actually entangle something.

The question of the day is, why the heck does Sandking need an Aegis for, even getting a second Aegis after the first one runs out (very quickly)? Well, there's a story of Ant's "miss burrowstrike FTL" Sandking against LuX and Musica, but it's one I'll share another time.

And if you notice that I like to shoot Musica a lot (he was the Enigma this game. RAWR), well, I do. Tofu gets his fair share of being shot at by everyone else.