One Tiny, Two Dark Seers, Three Games, and the Argentinian's Revenge

I had the pleasure of being talked into casting recently by Antie. I'd been umming and ahhing about it for a while, not really convinced I had anything to offer, but I saw a free slot and the story of four Argentinians and a Falklander taking on Money Talks and had to take my foray into casting. Fun experience, one I'd like to do again, but I won't dwell on that here. Instead I want to talk about a genuinely fantastic series between two Mid Division sides.

Game 1

I loved everything about 4AAFs' draft in this game and how they set up to play. Spectre and Zeus global ults giving them total control over vision in a teamfight was already selling it to me, I just didn't clock until halfway through how the Tiny fit into it all. Mark played a blinder.

Money Talks' damage was always going to come through lev's Drow Ranger, but every time Zeus and Spectre started their attack, there was no save and no running away. Just Mark. Avalanche, toss, see you later Drow. That's the whole story. Even with the most handsome hero in the game, Underlord, on their side, Money Talks couldn't get their Drow online fast enough to survive the burst this draft offered.

Game 2

If you need a lesson in why you ban Phantom Assassin against lev, this is the game to watch. There wasn't a single moment where he looked anything less than fully in control. The enemy popped two or three smokes, dedicated real time, sent scans, all in a hunt for lev. Every time they went looking, his sixth sense kicked in and he was already somewhere else. Either he's got a map hack or he's just that good. Maybe he's also just insanely lucky.

Tom cash spent most of this game putting purge on himself instead of his teammates, which lev didn't seem to mind either way, since he was too busy clearing the enemy backline and then farming forward, murdering anyone in his path. To be fair to Tom, that purge did save several teammates along the way.

Shout out to Léïnád, who spent the whole game farming on Zeus with shard. It did net him the second highest damage in the game, so credit where it's due, but I saw the drawings on the map from Tom Cash.

NoTrades had a fun game on Dawn that didn't look too flashy but was necessary, with the makings of a genuinely good ulti mixed in with a couple that showed exactly what a bad one looks like too.

Game 3

This was the one we were hyped for. Nova on a signature hero, aggressive anti carries in Vengeful Spirit and Razor, and Bryn finally playing something that isn't Dark Seer.

Bryn made my favourite hero look genuinely handsome, refusing to die all game while he controlled the bottom half of the map, farming, taking towers, and shoving Radiant away from it every chance he got. An early Aghanim's into Octarine Core meant the map turned into a minefield of venn diagrams, and movement for anyone on Money Talks became close to impossible.

It didn't help that NoTrades spent most of the game getting forced out of his top lane, turned into little more than Razor's lunch whenever he tried to get a farming rhythm going.

Sadly, the treant and cataclysm combo ended up with Tom Cash pressing it, probably screaming for Nova to cataclysm whilst he was busy doing some other combo, then being out of time and hitting nobody with their huge damage. It was so close lads.

The upshot

A brilliant series that could genuinely have gone either way, and one that showed both teams' identities taking shape more with every week they play together. This result also confirmed that Money couldn't talk in the Mid Division, but I have high hopes for them if they stick together for next season. I hope to catch up with some of their members for a discussion around what that will look like.

My only regret from the day is that England lost the lower bracket game.

Thanks for reading as always.

ART