Replay Analysis - hoorai.DieSeL vs DeltaBenQapm

The international WarCraft III scene is arguably at its peak right now. There are so many leagues and tournaments taking place simultaneously that it is now almost impossible to follow each and every one of them. With tournaments like these, the number of quality replays that are produced on a daily basis are also on an all-time high.

 Lately, there has been a growing trend of solo online tournaments… a trend set by incup. While incup itself is not active anymore, we have seen new tournaments as such, which include ZOTAC cup, Excello cup (Euro, America and Asia) and WHL cup just to name a few. The replay that I will cover today is a semi-final from ZOTAC #22 between Canadian Undead “apm” and Bulgarian Night Elf “DieSeL”.

 apm is part of Team Delta and is definitely Canada’s top most player. The only other person who might be stronger than him is KiWiKaKi.  DieSeL is also extremely talented, but he probably was in his prime back when he used to be in WE.eu. Currently, he plays for hoorai. 

The game takes place on Echo Isles and DieSeL spawns on the left whereas apm on the right. DieSeL opts for a tavern hero build, which is a very common thing for NE to do on this map. He places his Ancient of War near the mercenary camp and creeps it with his newly acquired hero, the Dark Ranger. apm opens with the standard Death Knight and ghouls and decides to creep himself instead of harassing the NE. He chooses a very different creeping pattern, creeping the Goblin Merhant straight away and then proceeding to the market place.

Both players start teching to tier2. DieSeL’s tech is a bit slower than apm’s, which is perfectly normal since NE’s invest in more archers that aid the tavern hero in creeping. While DieSeL has managed to level up his DR to lvl3, apm’s DK is just a few experience points away from lvl3. Nevertheless, apm heads off to DieSeL’s base with some ghouls and forces a cancel on the Tree of Life that DieSeL put up only a few moments back.

As he reaches tier2, apm instantly starts teching to tier3, choosing not to go for gargs. He keeps a check on DieSeL’s creeping with his DK and ghouls, but loses a few ghouls in the process. DieSeL gets the Panda as his secondary hero and pushes apm’s base (knowing he won’t have too many units) with archers and mercs while his expansion and Lores go up. DieSeL’s masses of skeletons and archers overwhelm apm’s few fiends, but the power of coil nova along with the orb of Annihilation is able to repel DieSeL’s push at the cost of one fiend and a destroyer.

Back in his base, DieSeL starts pumping dryads from two Lores and breaks the 50 food mark. apm on the other hand; being at a disadvantage; cleverly sets up an expansion with towers and banks under 50. Both players creep a bit untill DieSeL discovers apm’s expo. DieSeL is aware that UD can easily stay under 50 food with towers at their expo and main, slowly crippling their opponents resource wise and with growing levels on the DK and Lich. Therefore he decides to push with his larger food count and a level3 on his Panda.

A major battle takes place, at the end of which both players lose nearly all of their units. The outcome would have been very different if DieSeL had timed his attack a bit earlier so that he did not have to fight in UD towers. Both players replace the units they lost and DieSeL plans his next wave of attack while teching to tier3 for bears. apm decides he has saved enough gold under 50 and puts up two more slaughterhouses for a total of 3, and makes an all-out shift to abominations and destroyers. apm gets caught in an awkward position outside his base and has to TP. Soon after that DieSeL plays safe and TP’s out of the fight that takes place at apm’s main. 

DieSeL makes another desperate push in which 80 food armies that are heavily upgraded clash with each other. The fight turns out pretty even but DieSeL is forced to TP since his DR gets very low. This time apm gathers the confidence to leave his side of the map and moves towards DieSeL’s expo. DieSeL does not have a TP and loses his expo by the time he walks back. He knows that he won’t stand a chance if the game goes on any longer and stands up to fight. 

The final battle takes place. DieSeL has higher hero levels but apm puts his faith in his 9 abom army with lvl3 coil and statue support… he knows they won’t go down easily. The DR turns lvl6 during the battle and charms one of apm’s aboms. However, the lvl5 lich deals way too much damage and the lvl5 DK keeps most of the aboms alive. Ultimately, DieSeL loses all his units and apm nukes his way to victory!

I’ve uploaded the replay on replayers.com. You can download it here. Enjoy!