TI9 Playoffs Day 2 - EG and how to get initiated on

On day 2 of TI9 main event EG beat Team Secret in a drawn out 3 game series. Game 2 was an especially entertaining game with big teamfight heroes on both sides. Secret had Earthshaker, Enigma, Faceless Void and Invoker, EG had Rubick and Tidehunter. One interesting thing to keep an eye on in such a game is how teams position themselves in various situations.

Often positioning is brought up in situations where a fight clearly is going to occur. For example a team clumping up when going for a base push or trying to kill Roshan is very obvious. However, it’s sometimes not all that visible what teams do when there is danger from their perspective with the limited vision that the other team is smoking on them, but they can’t be sure where the enemy is.

In these sorts of situations you can be completely willing to take a fight if the other team comes at you, but you have to know which heroes of yours can get initiated on for it to work out. If a team truly doesn’t want to engage in the mid to late game, for example due to ultimates or buybacks being on cooldown, we can even see teams just sitting in base. But what to do when you are willing to take a fight if it comes to you but are not quite ready to look for it yourself?

Some of EG’s play in games 2 and 3 was a good showcase of what can be done. At 33 minutes EG has Tidehunter’s Ravage still on cooldown for a while, and Secret is looking for a fight. EG isn’t perhaps completely ready to challenge them head-on, but they are willing to fight if they can bait Secret into a bad position. What we see below is the Tidehunter sitting in front on the high ground ready to break the potential smoke. Leshrac and Sven are farming, but hang around close enough to be able to assist.

Secret try to engage, perhaps largely because they have vision in the area, but the fight results in an advantage for EG and them killing Roshan. Just moments later EG seems to be wary of a potential smoke play from Secret. The Ravage is again down, and Secret has both Chronosphere and Black Hole available. EG is willing to take the fight if it comes to them, but they want the Tidehunter with Cheese in his inventory to get seen first.

Some minutes later EG is again on a high ground. Roshan will spawn again soon, and EG want to stay in the area. Again they are in a position where if Secret comes to contest it’s the Tidehunter that Secret have to get through.

The game deciding fight happened on more open ground. When you are moving through the map it gets tougher to keep some sort of a formation where certain heroes aren’t vulnerable. EG walked straight under Secret’s ward, Shadow Demon was on the other side of the river, and the Rubick with a Refresher Shard in his inventory, but no buyback, was the first guy Secret got to. This allowed Nisha on the Faceless Void to find a good jump, and with the Rubick gone Zai was free to use his Black Holes.

Similar positioning was also on display in game 3. One of the big turning points was the 30min fight around top bounty runes. EG had killed Zai’s Sand King on the right side of the map some time ago and had some room to maneuver. Fly managed to walk across their jungle and plant vision around the Radiant shrine. EG stuck around the bounty runes knowing that they have a huge vision advantage with their wards and the high ground position. EG wasn’t really in a place to simply go on Secret, so instead they waited in formation for Secret to come closer. Both the Magnus and the Shadow Demon position themselves in a way that it’s extremely unlikely Secret gets to them first. In the end this fight results in 3 kills for EG with Secret walking in a bit one by one, not expecting EG to be quite so prepared.

There are times in the game when it’s about how you get the best jump for a fight yourself. But sometimes a good start for a fight is forcing the other team to initiate on the target you want. Opportunities come for example when the enemy team knows that some of your abilities are on cooldown. It’s common that the other team will look for a fight trying to take advantage of it, and it’s always an important judgement call whether you can make use of that yourself. The EG-Secret series showcased many important aspects of how to do this correctly: utilizing high grounds, planting vision when appropriate, hiding your backline even when you don’t know a fight is imminent, and having the correct target in front tanking the initiation.