[Competitive] SMM - everyones talking about it...

So last weekend was the much anticipated SMM tournament in Malaysia, which was supposedly going to settle the age-old debate of whether European or Asian dota was superior. In actuality, MYM was the only european team attending, though PokerIdol from US/Canada also attended and their style can be likened to that of europeans (but with more sniper action, lol). So really I don't see that a vast amount of knowledge can be gained about whether europeans or asians are technically more skilled at dota, however we can draw some information from the competition.

Asain dota truely does live up to its name as a farm-fest. My God.. some of the matches were sooooo boring, no more than 10 kills at 20mins sort of stuff, bleh. But if thats the best way for them to win games, then fair play to them, winning is winning.

MYM managed to lose 2 of their group games, against not the highest skilled of asian teams.. but if you look at their heroes, its disgraceful, they've gone completely out of their compfort zone and attempted to pick asian-style lineups. Thats ridiculous, they should have simply stuck to what they're best at playing, not a single Sandking or Storm spirit pick - thats rather depressing. They spent their time trying to out-farm asian teams, and it simply didnt work. In one game where they did pick a much more gank oriented lineup they actually completely destroyed the opponents, PMS, though these arent a top asian team, so its difficult to draw much from this either - maybe MYM would have destroyed them regardless of the lineup. Heres the lineup they used though:

Much more action to be seen there than some tide/ medusa/ necro /warlock / razor/ whatever lineup.

However maybe simply bringing the european ganking to those 3-carry, defend, farm lineups wouldn't have been enough for MYM to win even at the top of their play. PokerIdol did that brilliantly, and still it didn't pay off against the absolute best asian teams.

I'll use this replay as an example of beautiful gank play, against defensive farm play: EHOME vs PokerIdol

EHOME:
PokerIdol:

PokerIdols lineup just screams gank, also it looks just like a lvl1 roshan strat (watch the replay to see what happens there). EHOME's lineup is full of heroes that buy tanky items so that eventually they just stay alive in the clashes and are able to continue farming up. Its absolutely worth watching, and if you dont want to know much about the game, dont read the next passage.

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*SPOILER*
Basically, the early game goes brilliantly for PI, they gank gank gank, and hold onto a solid 10-kill advantage through into mid game. Then EHOMEs heroes start to build up their vanguards, hoods, bracers, strength treads, and they start to become much much harder to kill. Razor and medusa proceed to continue farming, and die much less in the team fights. Eventually, PI manage to lose a couple of teamfights, find themselves raxed, and lose. Was such a shame, defensive play beating offensive play in such a manner. You can see it by the item builds - PI have daggers on 3 of their heroes - offensive much? EHOME have multiple bracers, vanguards, treads and hoods everywhere, boring or what? The game finishes with PI still on more kills, and beastmaster still on something like 10-2 (can't quite remember), but they simply cant compete with the tankiness of ehomes heroes.
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I havent even bothered watching the replays of the finals between FTD and cD, apparently they're not worth watching at all... all farm and no gank, not worth the btoher IMO.

So, after me ranting on about asian dota being a boring way to play, what can I conclude? Perhaps the asian style is actually superior to the european/north american styles of play, as it manages to decisively beat it. You can still be the best at something by winning it, regardless of whether you do it in a fashion that spectators enjoy, and on that basis, asian dota can be considered better than european - their play style at the moment will probably win more games.

*HOWEVER* - dota is a game right? it should be enjoyable, and most definately a ganking style is more interesting to both play and watch than a defensive farming style which quite frankly is straight-up boring. The fact is, european teams are rarely going to play against asian teams, so it simply doesnt matter which continent is "better" at dota, and I for one would much rather play in a style thats fun... so european dota is certainly the "better" type for me to be involved with.

In terms of the top players, would the top asians be able to win with gank lineups against the european top players? we simply don't know. So by playing a different style and winning, does that mean they're better overall dota players? I think not... skill is hard to judge, and its somewhat dependant on what you're doing with it. i.e. is mania a better player than loda? (two european players) you cant actually compare the two because they play different styles, one is predominantly a gank player, the other predominantly ganks.

Europeans play dota their way, Asians play it a different way, each seem reasonably happy doing it in their respective manners, and so should be happy about that. Doesn't matter who's "better" really, because in actuality no low or mid tier teams from either continent are likely to come into contact with each other... its completely unimportant.




Well, after that big long complain about nothing important... fnatic are going to China for the 30 day tournament throughout december. Naturally this is going to bring the same euro vs asia questions straight back up. I just hope fnatic bring some proper european ganking to china, and make the games fun to watch :)