This article was originally published on GameSpot's sister site onGamers.com, which was dedicated to esports coverage.

　　

Rise of the Early Game

It’s hard to pinpoint the exact starting point of any given trend in Dota, but when it comes to the emphasis on early game dominance, Moscow 5 under the leadership of Vladimir 'PGG' Anosov seems a fair place to start. During an interview nearly two years ago, PGG stated that they preferred drafting heroes which could dominate the laning stage. While this might not seem all that out of character for the hyper aggressive CIS scene, this was a time when Moscow 5 and another team, the 2012 DTS reincarnation lead by Artur 'Goblak' Kostenko, were having a noticeable impact on the Western metagame. DTS contribution in a fairly conventional scene was to draft lineups that tended towards a single tanky carry and four utility intelligence heroes, again creating a strong early game which accrued an advantage during the lanes and then used this advantage to outplay their opponents during the early mid game through good positional teamfighting. And then, Darer broke up DTS.

　　As both of these teams did not last, their contribution would be easy to dismiss, if not for the fact that key players and concepts of theirs would survive. However, before this could come to pass the second International happened; a triumph of solid Chinese play where no Western notions of aggression had any place. Or at least so one might have concluded at the end of the groupstages, but during the playoffs the pinnacle of Chinese 4-protect-1, LGD and to a lesser extent DK, both came up short. Instead in the finals we saw iG rise up to become the champions, defeating the ingenuitive Na`Vi through their own early game orientated strategy known as the “face rush”. While the metagames again diverged after the International and the strength of the laning phase in the Chinese meta devolved for a time, iG's dual cores and strong early presence did have a noticeable impact on the direction of the meta.

　　DTS 2012 running a trademark support heavy lineup against mousesportsShortly after the second International the talents behind DTS which had failed to shine through under the banner of Darer moved on to join Empire, where Goblak trademarked the aggressive trilane along with Clinkz dominating the 1v1 match-up on the safelane. This was a hero which he had previously used in DTS as well and which provided great early game presence. However, the laning stage of Empire was still a bit of a delicate balance, where the opponents had a lot of room to fight back and preventing Empire from truly becoming a championship team. In fact disrupting the oppositions plans became an important factor at this time with the musical chair laning of Fnatic as well as Alliance coming to the forefront through the efforts of Henrik 'AdmiralBulldog' Ahnberg on the offlane and Joakim 'Akke' Akterhall in the jungle working hard to force their opponents attention and produce an early game lead from what had generally been considered relatively passive positions.

　　Alchemist became one of Na`Vi's favourite heroes after their stay in ChinaWhile Alliance were crucial in putting renewed focus on the hardlaner and the active jungler, they were also a great team at playing from a position of disadvantage, which meant that their strategies were never quite as purely about the early game. Their ability to follow a decision tree during the draft and lead into any number of complete strategies allowed for a certain fluidity in terms of the strongest point of the draft. This changed with the introduction of the changes to the drafting phase in 6.78, which moved us towards establishing synergies between individual strong heroes and a focus on reactionary picking. The draft no longer followed as clear of a script and instead decisions made during that crucial span of moments became a heavily discussed topic. This was also the time when heroes such as Alchemist became a premium commodity within the game for their strength at every point of the game and their general versatility. What mattered in the new system was flexibility and all-around strength, which started from the strong early game.

　　By the third International it was clear that both sides fought their own battles for control of the early game, and those who failed to keep pace were some of the greatest disappointments of the competition. Alliance set the tone with their dual cores and giving Jerry 'EGM' Lundqvist heroes which were able to evolve from strong lane supports into mid- and lategame powerhouses. Na`Vi put a premium on the Alchemist and Lifestealer, looking to always secure a strong early game pointman for their aggressive carry player. And Orange built their drafting strategy around counter-picking their opponents and utilizing Chai 'Mushi' Yee Fung’s versatility and their strong ganking supports in order to set up a strong early position which helped carry them to victory more often than not. The International in many ways was the culmination of this journey towards the strong early game.

　　

How Early Game Gives Way to Lategame

If you forgive the generalization, watching tournament games leading up to the International last year it became clear that most games were decided on the draft and the early game. Generally for both scenes one team or the other managed to create an advantage during this stage of the game which either lead them to be within striking distance of victory during the first half of the mid game in the West or which set the tone for the slightly more cautious grind towards a very predictable finish for most of the Chinese games. We also saw it in how players spoke about games, looking to the draft and the laning stage for explanations for the outcome of many if not most matches. A year and a half after Moscow 5 had felt it noteworthy to mention that they focused on the early game, it was not the default position that everyone seemed to agree to without really feeling a need to vocalize it.

　　These days it's quite challenging to create any meaningful momentum during the early gameThere's a certain problem that comes along with such a consensus however. Over time, the differences teams have been able to produce through a well executed laning stage has started to fall off. When both sides draft for strong lanes neither is going to be able to get an upper hand without the other making a mistake, and this has further been exacerbated due to the changes to pulling and experience ranges. It's more difficult than ever to really devastate your opponent through a smart laning stage decision and to do so means committing a lot of resources on what can easily turn into an all-in play. Even when advantages are gained, the greater bounties allow the opponents a strong comeback mechanism in the early teamfights, leaving a very slim margin for any team that wants to fully commit to the early snowball strategy.

　　This is not to say that the laning stage no longer matters. The strong innate early game was a large part behind the rise of the Hand of Midas meta towards the end of last year, allowing teams a less risky way to try and build an early lead into a game winning snowball. It's also the basis for other strategies which came upon around the time and which have persisted even after the Midases have lost some of their shimmer. Notably DK during their visit to MLG Columbus took advantage of strong laning heroes like Dragon Knight and the lane support provided by Visage in order to move into a midgame which relied heavily on sustainable aggression and tankyness. This theme was reiterated by ViCi-Gaming during their victory at EMS One, building on Bristlebacks ability to stay in a fight for longer and deal constant damage. These themes also became influential in the Western scene in January, leading up to the 6.80 patch.

　　Empire make use of AA's ultimate in order to punish Speed Gaming for an early Roshan attemptOver the past months we’ve started to see certain patterns both in terms of how games progress and how lesser known teams are approaching the game. These lesser known teams tend to explore more as they try to find any edge they can in order to establish themselves, and for a lot of them that edge has been coming from lineups which focus on gaining the upper hand around the 15-20 minute mark, around the time when they first group up. A team such as Empire tend to do ok on the lanes, but they pick for initiation and teamfights, in particular having brought the Ancient Apparition back into play with a vengeance. Meanwhile the North American sensations SADBOYS are also favouring supports with a strong teamfight presence such as Crystal Maiden and Earthshaker, while giving their star mid player Artour ‘Arteezy’ Babaev either Shadow Fiend or Outworld Devourer more often than not.

　　Ancient Apparition is having a chilling impact on the midgame right now - Drawing by Mrscrake It's also not just that the supports are being relied upon to have a considerable teamfight presence, but we are seeing the often initiating offlaners take on a more utility role as well. Around DreamHack Winter it was being discussed that solo mid's were stepping back in order to allow the offlaners to play more greedy, farm orientated heroes, but now this dynamic is changing again as while the offlaners are still being given some space to farm, this farm is going into taking responsibility for the early teamfight items, which in turn frees up the supports to get items that they need in order to have their bigger impact by the early midgame, for example the CIS preference for rushing boots into Aghanim's Scepter on Ancient Apparition as a support hero.

　　Teams such as Empire have come to exemplify this recent trend of domineering the 15-20 minute span of the early midgame where the first real differences are being made, the first towers are being pushed, the first teamfights are won and the first Roshan's are being threatened. These teams also build off of great mid players who are capable of winning games on their own when given the tools to do so. The indication then is that the focus of the modern Dota 2 team is now on winning that midgame, because the team who is able to take control of this portion of the game gets to set the tone for the match that follows.