Mag: "Mars and Io will be banned often"

After the Adrenaline Cyber League 2019 semi-final Natus Vincere - Virtus.pro, in which the "born to win" lost 1:2, our journalist Evgeny Kondratyev talked to team coach Andrey "Mag" Chipenko about the last match.

What are your feelings from the last game? What was done right and where the mistakes were made?

- Let's start with the pick. Initially, we were pleased with our draft. We had a word with ArsZeeqq after the decisive map. We banned Lycan, and it was evident that VP wanted to take it. Storm Spirit was good.

The guys might not have been waiting for this, although I said that they could take this Storm in the last phase of the pick, and it was the perfect option. Also, it was possible to take Spectre. They needed a hero who could get to our Sniper.

We had worse things at the laning stage in comparison with the second map. Another critical point was that it was hard for us to save Sniper. The "four" also became a factor: we had Nyx Assassin in the second game. Having the sixth level, he could make some mess on the map. Here was Sand King, who could do nothing after what happened at the beginning of the game. He needed Blink Dagger, and he didn't have enough time to farm it in the hard lane because we started to push all over the map. In many ways, it all came down to laning.

It might have been worth replacing that four and taking Earth Spirit so that he could roam early, help mid, help the bottom lane, and generally improve our business at the laning stage. At the same time, we could have done a little different, we had several options, but it turned out how it happened: we played a similar pick, as on the second map. But the enemy had already played better, picked better, and VP deservedly won.

A new patch came out yesterday. Were there any surprises that you discovered right during the game?

— Objectively, Drow Ranger was nerfed, and Doom as a "four", but he's still useful as a "three" and will be in picks often. We could see Io on the first map, and non-standard heroes like Chen, Luna, Omniknight at VP. We wanted to take Luna, and it was unexpected ... Meepo with Chen is, of course, imba. We could see something new on the first map, and then everyone played according to the old schemes.

I guess that Io and Mars will influence meta very strongly, and they will be banned very often. Not many players can play well on Mars at the bottom lane: I can say it with confidence, and Io ... People need a little time to remember the effective stacks with this hero. These heroes will almost always be banned in the upcoming Major and Minor.

You will be an analyst during WePlay! Tug of War: Dire, which starts very soon. What are the expectations of the tournament?

— I'm curious to see the draft of the teams. A new patch is an excellent opportunity to watch other regions. In the Americas, China, Southeast Asia, the style of the game is somehow different, and it will be curious to see how these teams will show something interesting. In this regard, the patch came out very timely - just before my appearance in the analytics studio!

Don’t forget to follow us on social media to get the latest news and take part in the giveaways: Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.