A lot of people have been telling me that they’re enjoying these draft analysis posts, so today I’ll take a break from clowning on Talon and go over a draft where both teams actually drafted really well IMO.

Before we get started, I should mention that HKA was given the option to choose the blue side or the red side first since they had the better record in the group stages. They chose to be on the red side which is fairly standard in the early games of the series since this allows you to get two OP heroes or some kind of synergy with your first two picks. Now let’s get started with the draft:

BZ ban:

Florentino – Standard ban, nobody wants to deal with Florentino in the slayer lane if they don’t have to. He’s just such a potent hero that doesn’t even need a lot of farm when played well, and Outcast definitely plays him well enough.

Elandor – Standard ban here as well, could’ve been Dirak/Riktor as well. No need to ban Zip when you’re playing the blue side, the Red team will ban it 99.99% of the time.

HKA Ban:

Zip – This is an auto ban when you’re on the red side, can’t let Zip go through.

Riktor – Very standard first ban as well, could’ve been Dirak as well but I guess HKA preferred to deal with Dirak than Riktor in this game. Riktor really has no counters while Dirak is somewhat soft countered by aggressive initiators such as Maloch, so this ban made a lot of sense.

BZ Pick:

Dirak – No brainer pick here, you can never go wrong with a Dirak first pick. Other decent choices would’ve been Capheny/Laville/Omen, but you reallllly don’t want to give Dirak to the red side when you can pick him yourself.

HKA Pick:

Maloch – Very good pick here, like I mentioned Dirak is scared of heroes that can jump in and force team fights. Maloch just ults in, and the rest of the team will follow up. Maloch is also a good flex pick because HKA has played Maloch support before, and of course he can also go mid or DS lane. Heck, I’ve seen them play Maloch dragon lane with success so yeah, very flexible pick.

Capheny – HKA wanted to secure a top tier MM and Capheny definitely does better against Dirak than Laville IMO since she can just pop sprint and run around Dirak’s shield after Maloch ults. Again, not really a Dirak counter or anything, she just gets countered by Dirak slightly less. It’s not like you can afford to not pick a MM in this meta, so might as well pick Capheny. Somebody mentioned that her lasers goes through Dirak’s shield? I’m pretty sure they don’t lol but I could be wrong.

BZ Pick:

Kriknak – I like this pick here because Krik does well against both Capheny and Maloch (does % damage so he bursts down tanks very fast). This might seem a bit premature since HKA hasn’t officially picked their support but it is actually a really good pick IMO because you’re unlikely to pair another tank support with Maloch mid, so even if HKA doesn’t end up using Maloch support they’ll have to pick another ranged support who are usually quite squishy.

Lumbrr – Another good pick by BZ here. Lumbrr and Dirak combo makes them EXTREMELY dangerous to fight in the jungle. There are way too many aoe stuns between Lumbrr ult and Dirak S1-S2 that if they force a fight in the jungle, it’s basically a wipe to the other team.

HKA Pick:

Preyta – I see what HKA is trying to do here, they want to match Dirak’s wave clear without having to use resources on a top tier mage like Ignis whom they probably want to save for later. They’re most likely going for a late game comp with this pick since Preyta is VERY good at delaying pushes with his S1. Although his S1 gets blocked by Dirak ult, his S2 can kind push Dirak out of the shield. This is a pretty underrated pick because Preyta is mad strong late game as well.

Thoughts after phase one B/P:

It’s pretty obvious what both teams are trying to do. BZ is going for a very aggressive lineup and will be looking to fight while HKA wants to delay the game as late as possible for their Capheny.

HKA Ban:

Omen & Lubu – Fairly standard bans since BZ hasn’t picked their slayer laner yet, they also have the first pick coming out of these bans so they can get first pick on their preferred slayer laner. At this point we are most likely looking at a support Maloch.

BZ Ban:

Paine – Questionable ban here because I don’t think HKA would’ve went for Paine as their jungler as teams are hesistant to have multiple AP heroes these days, but I suspect they’re scared of the Maloch/Paine combo which is a legitimate concern so ok.

Rourke – BZ must’ve noticed HKA’s bad early game so far and wanted to ban a strong early game jungler. Not a huge fan of this ban since HKA haven’t really used Rourke much at all dating back to the GCS tournaments. Think a Zephys ban would’ve made more sense, since Zephys does well against Kriknak and provides HKA with much needed CC.

HKA Pick:

Kilgroth – I don’t like this pick, but at the same time I like this pick, I’ll explain why. I don’t like this pick because it adds another late game hero to an already very late game oriented team, and doesn’t help with the lack of CC on the team (the only CCs available so far are Maloch ult and Preyta S2). However, I like this pick because Kilgroth is going to have a great time laning against any potential picks on the DS lane by BZ, and Kilgroth is really good against Dirak as he can’t be CC’d with his ult. HKA’s plan is pretty clear here – use Kilgroth to assert pressure on the lanes, and delay the game with Preyta until everyone on the team (especially Caph) is farmed. Can they get there though is the question.

BZ Pick:

Valhein – I see where BZ is going with this pick, they’re just going all in on an early game comp and going to try to stomp HKA before 15 minutes. I would’ve liked some kind of late game assurance with a Laville pick, but I guess they want to save him for later games. That’s understandable, and this would be a good pick if they can execute.

Qi – They don’t have a lot of options at the DS lane, it’s basically a coin flip between Qi and Yena at this point and none of them are really good against Kilgroth in lane. I think BZ took Qi because she has some really nice synergy with the rest of the team even though she’s not great against Kilgroth. This Qi pick ensures that they’ll absolutely destroy HKA in the jungle with those Lumbrr ults, Qi ult, and Dirak CC.

HKA Pick:

Quillen – REALLLY not sure about this pick tbh, they’re just going all in on these extremely late game heroes. I would’ve liked to see a Zephys here because at the very least you have SOME fighting power in the early/mid game. Maybe HKA thought that their team is already so late game that having a single strong early game hero doesn’t really make a difference, so they went all in on late game heroes. Late game Quillen is actually very good against the Dirak and Valhein. He can also one shot the Kriknak and Qi late game since Qi doesn’t usually build a lot of defensive items. But again, they have to get there first. They’re going to have to be prepared to lose at least one side of the jungle in the first minute of the game because BZ will 100% invade the Quillen.

Final Thoughts:

HKA has a very questionable early game since literally all of their heroes need farm in order to be effective, however all of them are extremely strong once they reach the late game. For those of you who are unfamiliar with HKA’s play style, they are experts at delaying games so if anyone can reach the late game with this roster it’s HKA. HKA needs to avoid team fights early on, especially in narrow areas like the jungle if they don’t want to get wiped earlier on.

On the other hand, BZ needs to be forcing these fights early on especially in the narrow areas of the map. BZ needs to create a huge lead in the first 10 minutes, go for the first T3 tower at around 12 minutes and look to close the game out at around 15-17 minutes. They cannot let HKA get to full builds before they get all T3 towers, because there’s literally nothing they can do against the Kilgroth and Capheny late game.

With that said, I think both teams were very well drafted. None of them overused their resources, and the win conditions are very clear for both teams. Both coaches did a superb job and at this point it’s basically up to the players. Well done, looking forward to analyze the rest of the series.