DOTA-RTG (part 7)

At the start of the drafting phase, Jeremy saw that the team captain on the other side was the newcomer. This ignited his desire to win, even in this preliminary phase.

So he planned to use everything he's learned and draft some counters against him.

Still, he has been feeling like he's being led around by the nose.

He knew that Dire will have the first pick, that's why they were paying close attention to what they'll be picking. This first pick will also give a glimpse on what tactic the other team is planning.

Although he's quite confident about his ability to draft and his understanding of both parties' prowess, he was still shocked by the results.

For example, he was first shocked to find that the other party spent their chance to pick first on a carry Faceless Void. It was quite normal to think that Void's Chronosphere is a key for one's teamfight. However, he wasn't sure why they chose him for their first pick.

They could've picked him on their twice subsequent picks. To guarantee a hero that could synergize better with Void, will be picked right away.

Well, it could only happen if you're in the Radiant's side.

Still, they could've picked Ancient Apparition first to conceal their plan. AA can be picked together with any hero, but Void and AA combo is widely known and easy to predict.

That's why when Jeremy saw the Void pick, he decided to pick the AA for their team. It resulted to some adjustments on their side, but it was still better than having the enemy grab this duo.

'They can only blame their own mistake in picking Void first.'

Jeremy was delighted with his plan.

He initially wanted a one-sided battle, but refrained after some thoughts. He decided for a flashy wombo-combos for their draft. They've done this before in ranked All Pick, so they're quite confident to pull this off. If things went the way they wanted—which it surely will, the enemy will crumble upon the assault of their combos and will be hesitant to group up. This should be a sure-win tactic in teamfights.

With the enemy team having picked their carry already, he decided to draft everything to prevent them from utilizing him as a core in their plan.

But after all of these, there's still this lingering concern that's bothering him.

Specially their last two picks. He was caught offguard by the fact that Faceless Void wasn't their true carry and it was Drow Ranger instead. Still, it was fine. They just need to shut her down. With Void probably in the offlane, he's posing less danger than Drow. Although it rendered every counter-picks that he made useless at some point, there's nothing he can do about it. He could only give this small victory to the other team.

When they last picked Tinker, Jeremy was sure that all of this has been planned all along. Why? First, they instantly picked this hero. It's like they already knew what I'm going to pick as its counter. And that they're confident of winning against him.

Still, picking Storm is the best that he could think of. Now, he can only do his best to defeat them. He's quite confident of his Storm Spirit.

But that wasn't the last surprise.

He was sure that the pretty girl on the other team will be using Tinker in mid like she's done earlier. That's why he was confident in winning. But when he saw the IG name of the one who will be using Tinker, he was taken aback.

"Redhorse"

———

The game started after it loaded. Although he was surprised by the development, the plan was still the same. Defeat them.

Having a support player change to midlaner and their midlaner to support isn't going to be a problem. It isn't going to affect the game that much. If they were lucky, it might even became an advantage as the other players still need to adjust to their unfamiliar role.

He still couldn't understand why they would do this, but it's their problem and not his. He pushed his thoughts aside then focused on the game.

After receiving his shared Tangoes and a ward, he started body-blocking the creeps as soon as they respawned.

As he was approaching the river, the enemy creepwave was nowhere to be seen. He was surprised at this so he continued blocking his creepwave.

'Well, magaling siya mag-block ng creeps.'

When the creepwave reached the opposite shore, the enemy's creeps finally showed up. Having no other choice, Jeremy let the creepwave go as he was near the tower's attack range.

With the creepwave battling within the radiant's tower's range, the dire creeps were killed faster, only managing to kill the range creep of the enemy team.

It can't really be credited to the Dire creeps. When Tinker aggroed them towards him, the creepwave plunged deeper into the tower's range, then changed their target to the range Radiant creeps after losing the aggro effect. Due to them being far too deep, Jeremy wasn't able to secure the range creep and thus, resulting to Tinker killing it, denying Jeremy of gold and half the experience provided by the range creep.

Subsequently, when Tinker pulled the aggro towards him, the Radiant melee creeps changed their target to the Dire range creep. Jeremy focused on this creep as almost everybody knows that the range creep provides the highest experience in a creepwave. He planned to return the same price to Tinker.

But when he was about to attack it, Tinker used laser on him which made his attack miss, sabotaging his attempt to deny it. This made Jeremy frown.

Gritting, he led the remaining Radiant creeps within the range of his tower as it meets the second wave of Dire creeps, Jeremy thought that this should give him some leeway to kill the creeps. To secure them instead of being denied, he planned to use Static Remnant on a dying melee creep.

Because of the Dire creeps dying fast on the first wave, the second wave of the Radiant creeps were also able to reach the second Dire creepwave together with some of their still alive first wave melee creeps. Some called this double-spawning or double-wave—literally.

Jeremy tried to use the same tactic as the Tinker did. He aggroed the double wave of Radiant creeps then diverted their attention to the range creeps. Then again on his second attempt to deny the second range creep, a Laser hit and blinded him. Causing another fail attempt.

Tsk. Jeremy could only click his tongue. "Mamaya ka lang pag nagka-ulti na ako!", he declared silently.

Because of the tower's cooperation, the double wave was cleared before the second wave of Dire creeps were killed, only killing two of its melee creeps. This caused for another double wave by the third creepwave, but now on the Dire side.

Having denied of two ranged creeps, Jeremy still need some xp to reach level three.

The double wave met with the third Radiant creepwave again near the tower due to the Tinker blocking them.

Again with the creep aggro, the Dire creeps were pulled deeper into the tower.

After leveling up to level 2, he chose to distribute it on Overload. He was planning to attack the Radiant ranged creep under the beseige of his melee creeps, then use Static Remnant to proc Overload on the traveling projectile, to secure the range creep.

But he was quite sure that Tinker will use his laser again to make him miss. Well, it wouldn't hurt to try. With a level 2 Tinker, he was sure that he won't die.

As the ranged creep was getting nearer Jeremy's attack range, something unexpected happen.

Tinker also moved towards him then started attacking him.

"Strange, I thought he'll be near the range creep to make sure he'll deny it. Di mo rin naman ako mapapatay sa level mo eh. Well, kung ibibigay mo rin naman to sakin eh, salamat nalang," he thought.

When the ranged creep was finally within his range, Jeremy attacked it then used Static Remnant, activating his passive Overload. Consequently, Tinker was already next to him. This made him suffer from the Remnant.

Seeing that he was able to kill the range creep, while damaging Tinker, Jeremy was delighted.

But Tinker was still attacking him.

Jeremy retreated with the Tinker tailing near him, launching a normal attack on him then moving again, then launching another attack, then moving again.

Jeremy wasn't expecting the Tinker to go aggressive at this time. As his life was getting lower and lower, he was sensing a foreboding crisis ahead. But after seeing the level of Tinker, he was able to sigh with relief.

Level 2. With this level, he was sure that he won't be killed with a Laser, Rocket combo.

Then, a golden light shone on Tinker which made Jeremy's heart skip a beat.

Level 3!

After tailing and attacking Jeremy until his life was near 20%, he was sure thay he will die even if he uses Faerie Fire to instantly heal him.

"That level up came at the wrong time!" Jeremy could only curse inwardly.

Just as he was expecting, a Laser and Rocket combo flew at him when his life reached below 20%. With the level 2 Rocket or Laser, the damage was substantially increased. The result was of course...

First blood!

Tinker pawned Storm Spirit!

...he died.

While waiting for resurrection, Jeremy reviewed the cause of his death and that sudden level up,. Afterwards, he finally got the reason.

That was the double denies and the double spawning. Which made the Tinker able to gain an advantage in the experience lever. Even though he's quite sure that he's able to secure more cs than him because of his Remnant, Tinker was still leading in experience.

This definitely highlighted the importance of denies.

As for the double-spawning, it should only be a coincidence. He was only good at blocking the creepwave and thus, resulted in a double-spawning.

"Yup, coincidence lang yun." Jeremy convinced himself. Because if it wasn't a coincidence and was thoroughly planned, that would mean that his enemy right now, is a terrifying guy. He shook off this thought. "Nope. He isn't. Coincidence lang yun. Careless lang talaga ako. I'll make up for my mistake nalang mamaya."

"Kailangan mo na ako mag-gank?" his teammate asked him worriedly.

"No, di na. Careless lang ako. Di na yun mauulit. At saka, mga bobo lang yan, beginner's luck kumbaga," Jeremy answered.

6 minutes later, Jeremy has been true to his words. He didn't die again as he had said. This made his team relaxed again.

Only Jeremy knew the truth.

After teleporting back to midlane, he was suppressed again and again by the Tinker.

At that Time, Tinker was already level 4 and he had just reached level 3. This level gap became a huge hole to patch because of the high burst potential of Tinker.

Tinker kept advancing on the Dire's highground to zone him off from the creepwaves.

This is a very risky move, because the possibility of being ganked and dying is high when you're too far from the protection of your tower.

Nevertheless, it was quite efficient in early game because the skills at this time still have low damage.

This made the gap between the two midlaners wider. The earlier advantage of more CS that Jeremy had was long gone.

Jeremy then decided to call for a gank. Although he was unwilling, there's no point in lying to himself. He's knew that he's been losing his lane to this guy. So he swallowed his pride and asked for help.

But halfway, he told them stop because the Tinker finally retreated and was nowhere to be seen after clearing a wave. He knew that if his supports were to wait for Tinker to show up, it still not guaranteed that they can kill him. Even if they could, it would still drastically decrease the pressure and stability of the other lanes. That's why he told them to abort their plan.

After a while, Tinker returned.

Because of the pressure caused by Tinker, Jeremy judged that he should at least secure the range creep first. So he focused his attacks on the range creep.

In order to further secure the range creep, he planned to walk near it then use a Remnant to kill it.

However, when he did so, Tinker used March of the machines in reverse. The marching robots wave that could damage anyone that makes contact with them started from the Dire highground towards the Radiant side. Thus, after killing the range creep, Jeremy had to face the marching robots if he want to retreat. Though the damage from one robot isn't high, it was another story when there's many of them. Plus there's still the threat of a Laser, Rocket combo.

If Jeremy decided not to retreat, he would have to face Tinker head on. With the Tinker already harassing him the moment he tried securing the range creep, he knew that he will die if he were to face him head on.

Left with no other choice, Jeremy went sideways, further into the river then circle back to his tier 1 tower.

Because of this, Tinker again seized the highground to zone him off, and the distance between them continued to widen.

When he reached level 4, Tinker was already level 6.

The same scenes happened repeatedly.

Whenever he will try to deny a range creep or kill the enemy creep using normal attack, Tinker will laser him to prevent it. Even when the attacks has Overload, it won't proc when he can't hit his target.

If he were to use his Remnant to secure one, Tinker will use March. Though now, he decided to retreat and face the line of March because he already has some item, he still paid a significant amount of health.

After these, Tinker will always seize the highground to zone him off.

The only compensation would be that Tinker seemed to retreat right after clearing a creepwave. Sometimes even when the Radiant range creep is still alive.

Although Jeremy was wondering where he could be going, he was still thankful for this opportunity.

When Jeremy finally reached level 6, he was elated with the idea of finally being able to give a payback to Tinker. So he alerted his team that he might call for a gank in order to fully secure a kill.

But to his disappointment, Tinker never went outside his Tower's range. He will just cast March then disappear again.

Jeremy also noticed that after all this time, Tinker's items never increased. His Bottle, Soul Ring, Null Talisman and Boots of Speed remained as the contents of his inventory.

Jeremy knew that he must be saving up gold for Boots of Travel.

After 8 minutes, Jeremy gave up on gangking him and decided to roam instead.

His first target, Drow Ranger.

After capturing a Double damage rune on his bottle, he headed down to the bottom lane, signalling his teammates.

One of their newly placed ward saw the Tinker farming stacked jungle camps, then used a tp. Probably to go back to their base to replenish his life and mana.

With the Tinker's tp on cd, Jeremy was pretty sure that with four of them, they could kill the DR even with their two supports helping her. If Void chooses to TP too, they would choose to retreat. Though they will give up on killing Drow, it will relieve their carry's burden. Either way, it's a winning situation for them.

So Jeremy unhesitantly activated his double damage rune. And with the Ion shell from Dark Seer, used his Ball Lightning to jump onto the Drow Ranger that's beneath the tower who's too occupied in killing the creeps that's also in the tower's range.

The Elder Titan's Astral Spirit was also sent forth and has used Echo Stomp on the two supports at the back to prevent them from helping the DR. And the Ice Blast's trajectory has been locked on her.

Now, it's all up to Jeremy and his Storm Spirit.

After reaching the Drow Ranger who was either caught offguard to cast a silence or she hasn't leveled it up yet, he normal attacked her then use Electric Vortex to Disable her.

When he was about to attack her again with his normal attack that's buffed with a double damage rune, a laser hit him from the trees behind the Radiant's tier 1 bottom lane tower, that caused blindness to him for 3 seconds. Missing his attacks.

Subsequently, level 4 Heat-seeking rocket missiles bombarded them.

The damage is quite huge considering its in the early game with their low hp pools.

Undoubtedly, it was the Tinker.

"What? Paano siya nakapunta dito? Don't tell me na Travels na siya!" he exclaimed.

Jeremy knew he should stop with his attempt on killing the Drow Ranger.

With Tinker there, I won't probably have the chance to kill DR considering that my attacks would continue missing with the Laser and Rearm. Plus the missiles are definitely something we cannot ignore.

If he were to change target to the Tinker hidden beneath the trees, the supports would have probably regained their consciousness from the Echo Stomp. With Jakiro's long-range Ice Path and the potential silence from the left behind Drow, I'm probably a dead meat if I were to dive deeper. Plus, there's still Void which could tp anytime.

Damn!

"Back! Back!", he said to his teammates after some contemplating.

With only this, the tables were turned.

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