Been a rather long time since the previous post, and I haven't done half the things I hoped to have done. Isn't much time left in the holidays, and next year isn't one I'm looking forward to.

Sitex doesn't have much to write about. Didn't feel like playing and so I commentated for most of the games. Bout of sickness and lack of sleep results in lacklustre performance, and nothing significant happened, besides some cheesy events.

GXL was rather fruitful though, with 3 back to back games with rather good performance.

Game against DiSc wasn't much to speak of. We went drafting Warlock and QoP after getting first pick, decided to go draft Tinker, KOTL, and Beastmaster. As you might be able to tell from the draft, it was mostly a relax and pwn kind of game. Nothing much to speak of except that ice uncharacteristically ends up with the worst ratio in our team, still more kills than deaths though.

The next two games feature rather unorthodox drafts though. With 2nd pick against eMo, we had Qop, Zeus, Bear, THD, ES up against Warlock, Viper, Chen, Lich, Morphling.

Early game goes on rather evenly. Chen goes around trying to backstab, and ends up underlevelled and very dead. Lack of any form of escape leads Lich as well to a lot of deaths. The power heroes of eMo, Morphling, Viper, and Warlock, are farming much better than the QoP and Bear on our side. When both Morphling and QoP have farmed a Perseverence, but Morphling has 1.2k more than QoP that early into the game. Well, seeing as how the QoP was mostly soloing Viper (a consequence of the ice-pangseh syndrome) and the Morphling was busy letting the Lich feed on his behalf.

And not just Lich. Chen was feeding too. With a Bear having Treads and Relic, Chen and Lich are Bear food. With the Warlock busy farming the middle, Viper on top, and Morphling below, locked in their lanes, Chen and Lich are mostly dead once they're caught outside those lanes. And die a lot they do.

Unfortunately, it's impossible for our current draft to stop all of the Morphling, Warlock, and Viper from farming. Viper dies twice, but hits level 17 before any of us hit 16. Trying to keep us in suspense or someting, he plainly refuses to buy any items, even after dying, and we KNOW he's farmed enough to buy any item he wants to. QoP early game isn't much control, and a wandering Chen means that when the bear gallavants up to the top lane it can only hinder the Viper's farming for a short time. Before the QoP can touch Skadi, Viper disappears into the fog with 5 Ironwood Branches, and appears with Radiance, and other minor accessories like Boots and a Stout Shield and whatsnot.

At the same time, Morphling appears with a Linken's Sphere, this one not so sudden because he buys his items slowly.

Warlock farms mid everlastingly with a Perseverence and a Ring of Basillus. It's mostly one (well two) Bears up against him, resorting to snatching last hits and avoiding Shadow Word Pain. I mean, what good is it harrassing a Warlock? It'll take about 4 roots in a row to do any lasting damage, and even with the better-than-normal luck I'm getting in this game, I'm not planning to get 4 roots in a row.

Backstabs to the mid usually result in the Chen or the Lich uncannily trying to backstab mid at the exact same time, forming an effective meat shield for the Warlock (well farmed full-hp fat warlock with Infernal and heal or a paper, no blink, no heal, no escape Lich? I wonder who to kill first eh?)

A 3-man backstab from a Bear (with newly-farmed radiance), THD, and Earthshaker, lands the Warlock finally dead (though it takes a rather long time to kill him). Viola! He appears with a Refresher Orb and a BKB, and other small accessories.

If you count total gold farmed by the late gamers of eMo, they're definitely leading, with Warlock and Viper getting free reign of lanes for a large part of the game. If you count allocative farming though, Diffusal Blade is up to counter the Warlock who has gone a build with very little damage output, meaning he's rather useless without Infernal. The Morphling with Linken is still more of a distraction than a threat, though he has survivability. Viper (going BKB), though having damage output, lacks the survivability required to dish out damage in a big battle.

Soon, capitalising on the double Infernal and the fact that Chen is not yet completely useless, eMo decide to push. LuX's Earthshaker becomes very happy. 2 failed pushes from eMo result in us gaining a rather large advantage.

It should be noted that before the pushes, the game was rather on even ground by my opinion. After the failed pushes though, it was a different story.

Attempts to push back from our part fail in getting any buildings taken down, but the engagements that follow are greatly to our advantage. I can't even keep track of how rapidly I'm farming. Aegis, Diffusal Blade, and MKB go up in shorter than I can ever imagine. Tofu as well is farming rapidly.

The game swings rapidly in our favour. Zeus, Bear, and QoP go on a Beyond Godlike streak that doesn't end for Bear and QoP because they have Aegises up quickly. With the farming of eMo being halted relative to the quick farming on our side (with the exception of the Morphling who manages to buy himself a Burize, meaning he's rather easy to kill at this point in the game), we win shortly.

Somehow my Bear seems to get luckier, or maybe I'm just expecting the worst with it, that's why I appreciate every successful root. Then again, the roots in that game just seemed to come up at the perfect moments.

We were contemplating whether to go for Lunch or head straight to Expo, and decided to go for Lunch. A rather lucky decision, since we didn't know that we actually had a 3rd game scheduled. A call hurries us back to E-Games to play a rather unexpected match against -ClicK-.

Lucky first pick! Woot! Warlock and Qop fall into our hands, followed soon by Zeus, LoA, and Chen. -Click- proceeds to shock with Viper, Veno, THD, ANTIMAGE, and DOOMBRINGER. By request of Musica, and also Tofu (because he doesn't want to play QoP again), Tofu is entrusted with Zeus, and Musica with QoP.

Since when was giving Tofu and Musica the heroes they wanted a good thing? Eh oh!

7 minutes into the game, after getting first blood and mostly pwning everything he meets with 2 spawns of Centaurs, ice's Chen DCs and the game is remade. Which is good for me since a bad block had resulted in me being toe-to-toe with Viper. The next game results in a better creep block for me, and considering the multiple intrusions from enemy heroes, I guess I can say I'm doing well against him.

Doombringer ends up eating a lot of Creeps, leaving ice with very few creeps throughout the game. Very good Doom-sense as well as aid from teammates gives the LoA no chance at all to Shield Doom away. With RoH and RoR, nothing can stop the Doombringer from farming. Especially with him feeding on the QoP aplenty.

With LoA accompanying her, our dearest QoP is feeding. Many thanks to the massive backstabs from Doombringer and Venomancer and everyone else. Zeus as well is feeding, which can be attributed to the fact that Tofu is using Zeus.

And all the backstabbing on the side lanes means I have the luxury of having a nice 1 on 1 with Viper in the mid lane without any interference. Well, we know how this mostly goes. Viper does manage to snatch a few creeps by abusing Fog of War, but overall his farming is rather slow, for a Viper at least. Meanwhile, I farm enough without dying to not know what I should buy.

Oh dear. I'm farming more than QoP. No wait, it's QoP that's farming less than me. I guess it's a noble sacrifice to allow the rest of the team to farm.

Then again, the QoP is still feeding, regardless of whether it's noble or not.

Unable to get any creeps for the long term without having them devoured, ice buys himself a Stygian. As I leave lane, LoA is given opportunity to farm a quick Radiance after being refused the opportunity to farm for the entire game having to accompany the QoP.

Warlock, seeing how the THD has managed to farm a Diffusal, decides that a Refresher would be a waste of valuable cash. He opts to aim for a Guinsoo and Skadi, along with an early Blink Dagger because he doesn't like dying. This along with Radiance LoA, Stygian Chen, and Zeus (and a bit of QoP I guess, I think it was a 50 minute Skadi or slower), we have more damage output than one might expect. Antimage with a BKB and Viper too with BKB and Crystalis means that the other team lacks strong damage output and the Doombringer being the only tank.

Our first push takes no buildings down, but gives us an advantage from hero kills, and serves as an excellent way to deplete my Eul's Sceptre to make way for Guinsoo's. LuX goes for even more damage output with Battle Fury and Cranium Basher, leaving him with about 1.6k hp at the high levels, which FYI, is VERY DAMN LOW, for an LoA.

With Guinsoo's on Zeus and Warlock, (and I can't remember if it was on Chen), AM opts to go BKB to stop himself from getting hexed to death. Unfortunately this means he has absolutely nothing for him in terms of HP. He dies in the span of one Infernal stun. Hex goes on to be used on the Doombringer and Viper, and the massive damage output of our team leaves them rather pwned.

There are a lot of rather nice battles, but since the replay is unavailable, and it's 1030AM (no I didn't just wake up), I regretfully won't report on them yet. Once I get my hands on the replay for this I think I'll go do a report on it. It's quite a good game, for a rather unexpected draft.