Two games today. Bleh. One of them with Tammy quitting at lvl 10 and me playing QoP. And we won (with my QoP!!!!) Of course, Tammy did tell us long before the game started that she would be leaving halfway into the game, I just didn't expect it to be so early. Made things more interesting though.

Me: She had to go. Continue.
Opponent #1: SHE?!
Opponent #2: LOL SHE?

WAS IT THAT SURPRISING?

We did proceed to thrash them with liberal use of the suicidal leaver. The game does prove though, that ice getting kills and me getting kills are mutually exclusive. I.e. Either ice KS's everything, or I do.

He's leviathan, he does his ultimate, and I proceed to follow up with wave. HE TRIPLE KILLS. I get nothing. Bah.

But nothing much noteworthy that game. The next game though, was long and good and even though we were without hope for most of the game, we fought hard and fought to the end. 102 minutes, a dull story with a bang of a finale. Viper QoP Visage Zeus Chen is what we're up against with LoA Warlock Sandking Veno Enchantress.

oLeh's LoA doesn't touch BKB. Thus, as you should be able to infer, he didn't touch a single of their heroes in battle, what with grave chill and everything else the late gamers throw at him. Warlock DCed at halfway into the game. Sandking, with the exception of a few good catches that sadly didn't amount to anything, helped the other team more than he helped us. Plus point was at least he didn't catch the visage in epi. Minus point was that he didn't catch the rest of the 4 heroes either. Venomancer wasn't spectacular either.

An hour into the game and we're playing a good round of "deplete their aegises". QoP has got one aegis down and buys another one, Visage has not many charges left, viper is being hit hard and hasn't got his yet. Their pushes are being held off and it seems that this game could go on until each hero has used 12 charges of aegis. Then oLeh's refusal to buy BKB or aegis lands him dead in enemy territory, leaving an enchantress, a leaver, and 2 punchbags to defend the base.

Their first counter-push after taking down the LoA results in two punchbags and a leaver valiantly sacrificing their lives while a generally unkillable enchantress fends them off for long enough for the dead undead to come back from the dead as undead (hoho pun). Unfortunately, it doesn't take long for it to dawn on them (it's a small d! no names mentioned!) that the puny dryad can only defend one lane. The next time the little white man falls from his horse (his rightly deserved fate for oppressing the little black man), they decide to push two lanes. Naturally, one lane falls. As if that's not bad enough, the little white man on a horse chokes on a pretzel and dies once again, resulting in yet another lane falling.

See, as good as the enchantress is in holding off a push, she can only delay it for a really long time without being able to actually push it off and move on to another lane (or perhaps I just farmed too little... perhaps...). Thus we have two lanes down, one late gamer that can't do damage because she just lacks the agility to do so, one late gamer that can't do damage because he can't reach the enemy, and one late gamer that can't do damage because he left halfway into the game and doesn't have the items that he should have.

Cue peaceful resolution after the story's intense climax. No wait, the protagonist refuses to go down silently! Will the story stop abruptly with a tragic battle?

Me: We've lost already. This is a desperate measure.

Thus, operation: desperate measures begins, or perhaps it should be named operation: let's hope that they're too stupid to notice us.

As viper, brandishing his new divine rapier, crosses the river in the middle lane, as chen and zeus and the queen of pain brutally demolish the final tower at the top lane, as the visage glides peacefully met with no resistance into the bottom of the sentinel base, five desperate souls, the last hope of the sentinels, make their way towards the frozen throne.

Just like Lord of the Rings ain't it? Oh look our entire army is being decimated by 234265123 orcs! The only hope we have is to rely on some kids we sent into the enemy's territory and hope they drop the ONE RING into the fires of Mount Doom!

The Lich King sitting in the frozen throne does resemble Sauron a little bit doesn't he? Except throwing the one ring into the fires of Mount Doom is about the same as sending a chicken with a ring of health into the fountain of health. Killing the frozen throne is like Frodo and Sam turning up before Sauron's tower and pwning him (well, Sam did pwn the entire tower of orcs to rescue Frodo after he was fuxed by the giant spider, figuratively speaking, hopefully not literally, I wouldn't know).

Anyway, where was I?

A badly timed charge results in creeps spawning right as our five dear sentinel warriors make their way to the frozen throne. Nevertheless, they bravely charge forward. The leaver warlock summons two infernals, and dies to creeps rather soon because we forgot to micro him. The first tower beside the frozen throne falls.

At this point, the scourge realises we're on to something and proceeds to wail on the last ancient protector beside the world tree. That thing was made out of a wisp you know? Why can't the damn enchantress' wisp go and sprout 9 ancient protectors next to each other. That would be kind of fun.

At this point I'm thinking we're kind of screwed. First, in my hurry to take down the throne (and in my resignation to believing we were already screwed), I failed to tp to delay the death of that last ancient protector (some protector of the ancients this enchantress is). Next, I realise that there's absolutely nothing stopping them from TPing over and handing us a pwning.

So hey, blue runes appear by the last spirit tower beside the frozen throne, and in pops a dwarf. Seconds later, in pops a green guy on a wolf. Viper, QoP, and Visage, are busy gallavanting in our base letting the world tree mourn at the pitifulness of an ancient tree being destroyed by 2 birds and an overgrown bat.

Never despairing (actually despairing was already over), our 4 valiant heroes (because the warlock got eaten by ghouls, ewww) eradicate the spirit tower before proceeding to pummel at the frozen throne.

Meanwhile, the world tree wonders how pathetic the heroes defending it were to have lost to a green flying thing, a dead bird shooting skulls from its tail, and an overgrown undead bat. Oh wait, the world tree realises, they weren't even bothering to defend him! So much for defense of the ancients eh?

As the world tree burns, a flame lights up in the distance, and the world tree realises that the frozen throne is burning as well. Various OMGs and screams are exchanged as both teams relentless pound on each other's main buildings.

With a healthy 100 hit points left on the frozen throne, the Queen Of Pain throws her final spear to finish the World tree off.

With the frozen throne only a few hits from destruction, the Queen Of Pain throws the final spear to bring down the World tree.

Sad ain't it?

To be so close from stealing victory, yet being unable to attain it.

Both teams exclaim at how close the game turned out to be. I mean really, if the Queen Of Pain had any more strength in throwing her spear, her spear might have just finished off the World tree before the Lord of Avernus, in a moment of poetic irony only possible in AllPick mode, reduced the Frozen throne to nothing.

I'm not kidding, it was that close. Projectile-flying close. Perhaps some would say we were undeserving of that win, we definitely didn't play as well as they did for most of the game, but it was the best win I had ever felt, because we stole victory from the hands of defeat, and because it was so damn close.

Moral of the story is to never ever give up. When the game drags past 100 minutes, the victor's cup still belongs to anyone's hands.

Oh, and if you can't touch their heroes, go for their buildings. Remember that heroes can move, but buildings can't.

Kudos to oLeh, his feeder friend, our leaver warlock, and our silent venomancer for making this possible. If they had played better, this game would have been over long ago and I wouldn't have the chance to experience this game.

I wanted to insert a few comments about the previous posts on this blog, but I guess this post is already far too long. It does make a nice story to tell though.