Issue 16: Twin Roshans and safelane ODs
A fan favourite takes an extended hiatus from the scene, and more
Here’s your 30-second summary for this issue of Ancient Tidings:
A remake of a DPC game caused twin Roshans to spawn
A long-established, iconic duo separates due to unfortunate circumstances
Weird safelaners take the stage, much to the detriment of your pubs
YapzOr announces an extended break from Dota 2
If you’ve been watching Team Secret’s more recent games, you’d have observed that they’re playing with a stand-in. They did this not once, not twice, but four times… prompting the community to wonder whether YapGod, as Secret’s former pos 4 was popularly known, had been kicked.
Why exactly Yapzor is taking a break from the scene is unknown at this moment, but clearly it is serious enough, given that Valve approved a mid-season roster change for Secret.
Puppey and YapzOr have been one of the most prolific support duos pro Dota 2 has ever seen, with their significant greed being a hallmark trait of several Secret roster iterations. YapZor in particular has been a notoriously greedy pos 4, frequently securing kills and securing more farm than the cores in his matches.
Secret.Yapzor will be missed.
Zayac joins Team Secret
No surprises here. After standing in for the squad for four series prior to the announcement, Secret decided to make things official.
Zayac has big shoes to fill. Only time will tell how this new change works out.
Symetrical out of Alliance
Alliance’s disappointing run in Div 1 this Tour clearly warranted changes. Symetrical was… unfortunately, the first on the chopping block.
What are your thoughts about the above 2 roster changes?
Ryoya announces his retirement
A staple of the NA tier 1.5-tier 2 scene, Ryoya was one of those players who always came tantalizingly close to having a big break… only to fall short in the end. His skill was consistently praised by pro players and talent alike, with him even standing in for Evil Geniuses not too long ago.
Goes to show… being a professional player in a high cost-of-living region like NA, and not being on a tier 1 squad makes it insanely tough to scrape by, given the nature of the DPC. Hoping against hope that the DPC is made more financially sustainable for teams.
A server remake leads to twin Roshans
Yeah, you read that right.
Game 1 of this B03 was held as originally scheduled, game 2 however had an unusual lobby bug that resulted in EHOME having a slot for a 6th player. Yes.
In the interest of fairness (and also because the teams refused to replay the game from scratch, especially because there were curveballs like a safelane Marci involved), Perfect World and Valve managed to remake the game a few days later, keeping the in-game time, networth, items, map in general the same before the unexpected interruption.
However, this resulted in another bug, this time hilariously with Roshan’s long-lost twin making an appearance at the Rosh pit.
No, there were no duplicate aegises dropped.
The entire series was fun to watch, which is why I added the highlight above.
Western Europe
Division 1
Team Secret vs Team Liquid
Secret vs Liquid has always been a classic match between these orgs. Puppey vs Matu and Zai makes it only more so.
This series we begin to see hints of Crystallis’ hero pool, hopefully convincing the community that he is in fact not a 12K player with a hero puddle.
Tundra vs Entity
Nine isn’t the only core picking weird heroes in WEU… not when Pure is around. The title of the video gives his off-meta pick of the day away but… there’s only one way to find out whether a safelane OD worked against a team like Tundra, that specializes in zoo strats.
A strat OD has historically been weak against.
Southeast Asia
Division 1
T1 vs Talon
One of the grudge matches of the SEA region this Tour. T1, who kicked 23Savage for Gabbi… after they were doing pretty well, if you were to ask me. Gabbi, a member of Talon’s first Dota 2 roster, a squad that failed to make it out of Div 2. Gabbi even commented on how difficult it was to play with a “greedy mid” regarding his Talon days… so yes. A match with some history, especially since Gabbi’s replacement helped Talon climb to Div 1.
Both teams historically have a reputation for being a bit on the slower-side; for one team the grudge proved to be a significant enough power-up to clutch the victory.
I’m just jesting, they’re professionals, stuff like grudges surely doesn’t exist in the pro scene.
Fnatic vs SMG
The gatekeepers of the region versus the team everyone loves to root against, given recent events. Fnatic, BOOM and T1 have recently been the undisputed top dogs of the SEA region, but given T1’s slump in performance… perhaps there was a potential vacancy at the top.
A vacancy MidOne and his boys are hungry to take.
North America
Division 1
Nouns vs Quincy Crew
Safelane OD, meet safelane Enchantress.
Say what you will about the former 4Zoomers stack, they’ve always been a bit weird with their picks, ever since their Brax days.
Doing this against an undefeated team though takes serious levels of confidence, that’s all I’ll say.
That’s it for this issue of Ancient Tidings! Of course, instead of coming out on Mondays like how it always does, this one was delayed by a few days due to me falling sick for a few days. Needless to say, I’ve recovered now, and the next issue will be out as scheduled.
Thanks for sticking by, and don’t forget to subscribe for more! (It’s free)
RIP Yapzor :( hope he comes back soon I love his rubik play