The Concordia Dota 2 team lost their best-of-three series 2-0 against the University of Alberta on Nov. 15.
The first match started off with Concordia grouping up in the bottom lane of the map’s three lanes, and rushing towards their opponent. Concordia secured the first kill of the match. Early in the game, Concordia and the University of Alberta traded kills equally back and forth.
In the initial stages of the match, Concordia’s midlaner was constantly pushed back to his own tower. A midlaner is someone who patrols the middle lane of the map. Even though he was being pushed back, he did not lose experience because he was killing creeps. Creeps are small creatures that automatically spawn at your base and move down one of the three lanes towards your opponent’s base. Killing creeps, which is called farming, gives you experience and gold.
“The matchup for [the midlaner] wasn’t too good,” said Michael Di Feo, the coordinator of Concordia’s Dota 2 team, after the first game of the best-of-three series. “We need our mid to farm more.”
Halfway through the first game, the University of Alberta pulled ahead, winning team fights as well as gaining advantages by putting pressure on Concordia.
At the 20-minute mark, it seemed to be over for Concordia. The University of Alberta was pushing down the middle lane towards the opposing base. Concordia managed to fight them off. A few minutes later, the University of Alberta tried to break the base once more. The greedy play from the opposition ended with Concordia killing all five players from Alberta. Concordia also moved forward, breaking many of Alberta’s towers.
After 30 minutes, the Albertan team still had an overall gold advantage, but Concordia was playing well and pushing. However, due to their slow start and the opposing team’s gold lead, Concordia ended up losing the game. At around 38 minutes, the University of Alberta initiated another team fight, which they won, and then broke Concordia’s base.
“We are going to continue improving our early game so that we can nail that down and be able to transition into the later segments of the game better,” said Dimitry Vinokurov, one of Concordia’s support players.
The second game of the best-of-three series ended a lot faster than the first. The University of Alberta came out with guns blazing, running over Concordia. The University of Alberta took immediate control, getting kill after kill, while Concordia struggled to keep up with the opposition. In the end, Concordia couldn’t fight back and lost the second match quickly.
“I feel that games that we lose but learn from are more important than winning at this stage so that we can improve our plays as a whole,” Vinokurov said.
The Concordia Dota 2 team’s next game will be on Nov. 18 at 3 p.m.
Graphic by Zeze Le Lin.
