If I do a comparison between players, inevitably it will appear that criticism is necessary.
But please understand that my root is not criticism. I am just describing what I see (Which may be wrong. Two seasons ago I said itachi had an edge over zewqew).
There are many flowers in my garden. You are perfect as you are, as an individual.
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There is a Chinese saying: don’t worry if you don’t know the value of something; you will know it by comparison.
Two seasons ago I took a look at the offlaners. Let’s revisit the topic and see how our opinions have evolved.
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ZombiesExpert has seasonal arcs the way TV shows do. He is a hero spammer, but with different heroes over seasons. Two seasons ago, he was playing Beastmaster and Spirit Breaker. The past few months, he’s been main-ing Centaur, and lately Axe.
In one way, he’s still the same. He will take a hero and go into it deeply, specializing in it. Two seasons ago, I watched his Spirit Breaker replays and was wowed. At the start of this season, I watched his Centaur replays. He wins every lane. Verily, he is playing them similarly to Centaurs at the highest level, unlike his Beastmaster before, where he diverged. But watching a specialist at a skill level a little closer to yours is also educational. In the parlance of rd2l folk, he’s “min-maxed” the hero, and showing you how to beat the people you play against.
But in another way, Zombies has changed lately. Before, he played more like a core-offlaner, and these days, he’s playing more like a support-offlaner. Maybe it’s to do with the patch, or maybe it’s just what he found works for his teams right now.
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Hobo, on the other hand, has blossomed into a thousand-petaled lotus this season. In all seasons past, he seemed to be a flavor-of-the-patch hero spammer. But now, all that requisite training has been completed, and we see Hobo radiating in his full glory.
In a way, he is to offlane what Zewqew has been to mid/carry. I also thought Zewqew was more of a puddler specialist, before, and he now reveals himself to be a complete carry.
There is another chinese idiom, 融會貫通: to master the subject via a comprehensive study of surrounding areas
We are in for a treat this week, with redground facing mooshack, and hobo facing zewqew. A meeting of two masters!
Redground, if it were me, I would probably target the underlings. I.e., mooshack and the offlane companions.
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Appendix
Timber Hearth is mechanically terrific, and in our games I often find the off-lane winning lanes I didn’t expect them to.
One amusing thing to me about our series against Zombies was that all 3 games we went to a difficult ratty late game, and we won 2 of them. Arguably, we would’ve won game 2 also if I tp’d back on OD instead of the Underlord.
Now, #1 the games were a clowny mess. On what earth is trading 1 lane for 2 profitable, in game 3. — I was raging inside at this, as much as my robot heart is able to rage these days. In many of our games this season, I’m unhappy with our macro play. But part of this is the distribution of our mmr, lacking high immortal cores (who move more efficiently), and the larger part is my own inability to decisively lead.
But anyway, what I’m saying is, normally I would expect the “better team” to win in the long run. But in the series last week, we were the ones winning in the long run.
Yes, it was partly due to dumb luck, but call a spade a spade, it’s also a series of decisions that add up.
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