Issue 14: Weird Radiance purchases and other shenanigans
New meta indeed
Here’s your 30-second summary for this issue of Ancient Tidings:
Radiance Visage? Yes. Radiance Slark? Also yes.
The Tour of upsets continues
HoN shuts down, officially.
Personal picks
Game of the week: NGX.Sea vs Talon, game 2.
Player of the week: 23Savage, for his performance versus none other than BOOM.
Play of the week: Quad rampage. You’ve seen double rampages. You may have even seen triple rampages. But a quadruple rampage, in a Div 1 match? Check it out.
Heroes of Newerth officially shuts down
The Dota 2 Beta before the Dota 2 Beta, Heroes of Newerth, more popularly known by its abbreviation, HoN, officially shut down its servers as of 20th June, 2022. While I personally can’t speak of a personal connection to the game, it is undeniable that HoN changed the face of our game forever. Players like Kyle, PPD, iNSaNiA, miCKe, MoonMeander, N0tail, Fly… they’re all former HoN pros that moved to Dota 2. Players still look back on some heroes with wistful nostalgia, hoping fervently that Valve somehow manages to port some of HoN’s more popular heroes into Dota 2.
Hey, maybe that’s the Great Confluence, right?
B8 bids adieu to its Dota 2 squad
Dendi has been one of the most famous faces associated with the scene, ever. From winning the first International to gaining an absolutely massive fan following due to his free-spirited gameplay and persona, few pros have inspired players to the degree the original Supamida has.
When he decided to form his own org fans were understandably hype… but B8’s results have been far from satisfactory, as various iterations of the squad have gone on some truly spectacular losing streaks.
Despite this, though, quite a few of B8’s past players have risen to prominence rather rapidly, lending credence to the fact that perhaps Dendi does have an eye for budding talent… he just couldn’t make it work, for whatever reason. For instance:
Crystallis: A former player on B8, went onto Creepwave, then Entity in Div 1, and now, Team Secret… under the captaincy of Dendi’s former captain, Puppey.
Fishman: Similar trajectory to Crystallis, except he’s still on Entity.
Watson: Currently in Div 2 with Hellraisers, a team that did play in the regional finals of EEU in Tour 1 of the DPC.
SexyFat: Was in the SA Regional Finals with APU King of Kings. They did, however, drop to Div 2 later on.
What do you think? Will Dendi make a comeback, all cylinders firing? If you’re a fan of his streams you’d notice he has been grinding particularly hard recently…
China
Division 1
Aster.Aries vs Xtreme Gaming
Most people would have already listed this series as a wash for XG. After all, XG has been one of the favourites to reign atop a hotly contested region… whereas Aster.Aries isn’t even the best team under the Aster org. A recently promoted team versus a contender for the top spot in the Division… not a lot of ways those matchups usually go.
Vici Gaming vs Aster
The big brother of the Aster teams vs a VG squad that has only been looking better ever since they brought back Yang.
Since the Singapore Major, Aster gained a reputation for showing up big time versus opponents closer to home, only to drop the ball when it came to international Dota (leading to the hilarious moniker, Tea Master). In contrast, VG wasn’t even in contention for top 4 until they switched out Irving for Yang.
Some would say VG were the underdogs of this match…
Also, not every day you see a safelane Pudge go up against a Radiance Slark.
PSG.LGD vs Vici Gaming
VG were underdogs in this match yet again (although to be fair, every team is an underdog going up against xiao8’s monster of a squad); they needed every victory they could get. Their opponents already had their TI slot all but guaranteed.
We get to see Ame’s Pudge this series.
Western Europe
Division 1
OG vs Tundra
One of the most hotly anticipated matchups after the Stockholm Major ended up being one of the quickest series, period. The overall result may not have been all that surprising, but the way it played out certainly was.
One of these games features an ATF Pos 4 Void Spirit. Reasonable to assume this switcheroo was Taiga’s brainchild since him and Boxi did this all the time back when they played together.
Gaimin Gladiators vs Team Liquid
Matumbaman’s Lone Druid is fun and all, but a mid Sven? Rushing Wraith Pact?
Yes. If there’s one thing insania’s squads have been consistently doing, it’s being innovative.
OG vs Entity
Oh man, ODPixel was at his absolute best during the climactic ending of the first game of this series.
Entity’s Pure, despite the controversy he was recently embroiled in, started this Tour with the intention of showing that he has been entirely unfazed, playing like an absolute beast the first 2 series Entity played. A supercharged Entity against the Major winners promised an exciting series… and you know what? It turned out to be just that.
Southeast Asia
Division 1
NGX.Sea vs Talon
Late game SEA Dota continues to hit like nothing else in the world of Dota. So much chaos, so many individual plays, so much frustration as viewers.
Talon vs BOOM
The recently crowned kings of SEA vs a team that couldn’t even climb to Div 1 during its first iteration.
When in SEA, you can never count anybody out.
Quick note: 23Savage went off this series, good god. Against a team known for their aggression too, no less. We finally got to see BOOM branch out a bit, with new strats like FBZ’s Lycan!
RSG vs Fnatic
Spicy all-chat makes for spicy series… well, almost. A 3-game series between the gatekeepers of the SEA region vs an OQ stack that climbed all the way to Div 1 (gaining an org in the process).
You thought Core Visage was scary? Wait till you see Radiance Visage. (First Slark, now Visage. What next?)
North America
Division 1
Quincy Crew vs TSM
Casual Fata enjoyer here.
The new(?) Quincy Crew taking on the top dog of NA, trying to prove to the world that they don’t need no sponsor to beat like 2 other teams to be the best in their region.
Jokes aside though… a matchup like this generally occurs in the latter half of a DPC Tour. Getting it this early was a bonus. While it wasn’t a close series… it was pretty entertaining.
Always nice to see some EU Flair in NA.
You know what? I’m gonna say it. I’m glad Pudge is a meta pick. He may be cancerous in pubs, but it’s a lot of fun to see our favourite chonky boi finally be relevant in the pro scene.
Heroes like Dawnbreaker, Juggernaught and Marci are entertaining to see as well. 7.31d may have been minor but I like seeing the variations it caused!
Seeing Alch isn’t fun though.
That’s it for this issue of Ancient Tidings! To keep up to date with my weekly issues, consider subscribing!
OG made alch look so strong against visage I was wondering why it isn't just picked up every game lol. Alsop pos1 pudge supremacy