Round 10 match report - InVain vs Diablo Immortal

Greetings, I am here with the last match report of the season. This round features InVain against Diablo Immortal in division 4, where the teams before the round 10 match are placed respectively 7th and 9th. In other words, both teams are in need of a win to qualify for the playoffs and the one who losses will stand to be just be short of it. Can InVain keep Diablo Immortal at bay or will it all be in vain?

Division 4

   InVain vs Diablo Immortal  

Match link: https://heroeslounge.gg/match/view/8839

Previous standings

This is InVain's third season in Heroes Lounge, all three being in division 4. Where their previous placements were 19^th in season 9 and 13^th in season 10. For the current season they started with a loss against Munchies, before they went on a small winning streak throughout round 2 to 4 against TGHF, The Trying Dutchmen and GubbaGaming. Then they repeated the same cycle of one loss in round 5 against Zchmerglings , before another win streak of three games against A - Team, Team Ice Block, Massive Anger Disorder. In their round 9 match, you guessed it, they lost again against TEAM!!! BabyRage.
Diablo Immortal is also in their third season in Heroes Lounge, but their two previous seasons took place in division 3. They placed 16^th in season 9 and last place on 22th place in season 10. In their first 4 rounds they won two matches against Hired Goats and Something's Wong, and lost the other two matches to Unstopable and TEAM!!! BabyRage. Then throughout round 5 to 8 they won against Kubota Yellow Sox, Nexus' Most Wanted,  A - Team and Owl Exterminators. Before the leaders of division 4, AFK For Cocoa, put a stop to their win streak in round 9. 

Result

Game 1 took us to Infernal Shrines were Diablo Immortal secured themselves the first and second Punisher, and got two forts out of it. An overchase from InVain side right after the second Punisher died led to them losing 3 heroes, and Diablo Immortal could get a keep and a 2 level lead over their opponent. Later in the game when Diablo Immortal was about to push with the third Punisher InVain tried to set up a trap. They didn’t succeed however, and Diablo Immortal could end game 1.
In game 2 on Volskaya Foundry the first Protector went over to Diablo Immortal. After level 10 talents were on the table, Diablo Immortal began to take over the game. As a consequence InVain decided to forfeit the second Protector due to talent disadvantage. Diablo Immortal kept dominating the game, but somehow InVain without level 20 talents and keep managed to fend of the third Protector. Therefore a last teamfight over the fourth Protector was necessary. There a massacre ensued on both sides, but Diablo Immortal came out on top and could end game 2 and the match. While also knowing they are qualified for the playoffs.

MVP

The MVP of the match goes to flex player Wak from Diablo Immortal. In game 1 he went Junkrat and his opponent struggled hard to deal with Junkrat's chaoticness. His Mines were especially impactful and gained his teams several kills. He got good use of his level 4 talent BOOM POW which reduces his cooldown on the Mine by 10 seconds if it hits a hero. It would be safe to say he almost setup half of the kills for his team. As any good Junkrat Wak poked away on his opponent as well. Then there's also him single-handedly winning his team a fight over the second Punisher (check play of the game). Though I have to mention he did not get much out of his ultimate RIP-tire during the game.
Game 2 Wak switched role completely and went on the solo lane as Leoric. There he met Deathwing in the solo lane and dominated completely, in the end Deathwing had to just stay under his towers. Later on he would go to bully Deathwing even more with his ult Entomb, as he on several occasions only Entombed Deathwing so he and his team could focus him down. He also made a conscious effort to use his Wraith Walk in combination with his level 13 talent Omnious Wraith to reduce the enemy teams damage.

Play of the game

In this play Wak on Junkrat makes good use of his Mine to win his team the teamfight over the second Punisher.

Highlights

Here InVain was so far behind that they tried to set a trap before Diablo Immortal pushed with the third Punisher.

The fight over the fourth Protector ended in a massacre and with a quad kill from Chromie.

Interview

Today iieBaggins, Bubulos, Wak and Vintex from Diablo Immortal are joining me for the interview.

First of all congratulations with the victory, with this win you have secured yourself a spot in the playoffs, how do you feel? 

Bubulos: I am very happy to be in the playoff. All of the team is very, very happy. We really wanted to be in the playoff and play more games. We really enjoy The Heroes Lounge format, and we are happy with what we did this season.

IieBaggins: To be fair our first two seasons of Heroes Lounge were much more complicated than this and we had much more mitigated results. This season started off with another tournament, french tournament called Nexus Cup, where we had a really good performance. And it kind of kick started this absolutely amazing season that we had in the Lounge. I don’t know what the other guys on the team think about it, but this is like a really nice ending to this season, where we finally get to the playoffs.

How high in stakes was this game for you guys, as you had to win to get to the playoffs?

Wak: We knew we had to win this match to reach the playoffs. So, we have some pressure, but in all of our other matches we try to do our best. For me, I really appreciate that, playing to our fullest in these Heroes Lounge matches. I think it’s the same for the others as well.

IiBaggins: Honestly, the only extra step we did in this match was kind of figuring out who was going to play in it. Since we have multiple players, like seven I think, so we kind of found out who was going to be playing tonight. We did a little bit of training Monday and Saturday night and just rolled with it. In all honesty, if you put too much pressure on yourself, that is just how you lose games for nothing. In the end Heroes Lounge is also for fun so just go and play your best.

Any moment in particular that you want to highlight from the games today?

IiBaggins: Honestly, our biggest highlight weren't even during the games, they were mostly during the drafts. Our captain Kam (Acta-Kam) is really good at drafting and really good at reading the draft. He was like “Ok, we are gonna ban this and they are gonna pick this” and they picked it. “Now we are gonna pick this and they’re gonna pick this” and then they picked it. It was just kind of fun, we were just laughing all along. So yeah, that was pretty funny. There was obviously that oh shit moment when we just got quad killed by Chromie at the end. But in the end it worked out.

Bubulos: What we appreciate during the two games, I think is how patient we were and how we deal with the teamfights. Because sometimes in other games we have played together or during training, we are very impatient. We go in and we don’t check if we got out ultimates up or things like that. I think in this game what I like is the fact we were more patient than in any other game we played before.

Vintex: I agree with the rest of the team. We really enjoy the game because we manage to pressure the enemy team. All along the two games by our draft, rotations and calls on different objectives on the map. So, for me, it’s just no one action in each game, it’s really the management of the whole game that is important to me. Where we can say for example, Chromie who one shoot 4 people of our team. We already were in a good position having taken all the keeps and having catapult pressure in each lane. So, even if we make one or two mistakes that will probably happen during the game. We just need to follow the good macro calls from Kam. That will ensure us the victory for our team and not one particular action from one of our players.

Looking at the statistics, your top 3 heroes picks are Greymane, ETC and Sonya. Your win rate on these three heroes have been between 50 to 60 %. Why does your team like these heroes? 

Vintex: For me, Greymane for example, is a pick with flexibility. You can do camp, you can do rotations, you can do all of the things you must have in a game. I think Sonya is more pick for certain type of map. You see her at Infernal Shrine, it’s one of the best pick together with Leoric there. It’s more the idea that we have in draft that makes us pick and prefer her.

IiBaggins: To continue a little bit on what he was saying. On top of having those heroes being really good with those maps, they also really fit our playstyle. The things we tend to be good at is to roam around the map. We have a pretty tight macro, so we do camps and rotations at the right moment. That gives us a lot of opportunities to catch an enemy out of position. All of those heroes you mentioned are really good at just blowing someone up the moment you just get to him. In the beginning the season we even used to be absolute meme lords, playing Uther solo support. Because that had even more bust and stun to burst people down in that playstyle. So, it’s kind of our thing you know.

You guys are veterans at this point having played 3 seasons now, could you tell me the history of the team so far and how you went up to division 4.

IiBaggins: The thing is, our team has a very weird composition. If you look at our roster, we have gold players, we have plat players, when we used to play division 3 we even had silver players and we have all the way up to master. We have a really wide range of different skill levels and rank in our team. Still, we pretty much make up for it with our macro. We sometimes struggle with micro, especially when we started playing. Our first season in division 3 we had played together for a month or two so we weren’t really that good of a team yet. Having a team with all these different ranks playing in div 3, which is mostly master and diamonds, is pretty tough. But in all honesty, even if we didn’t end up high in the rankings those few victories we managed to get of teams that were high diamond or master felt really good. Because it sometimes felt like we were the underdog. But yeah division 4 is much more, I don’t want to say easier for us, cause there are a lot of other good teams in division 4, but it’s a fairer game for us let’s say.

Bubolos: What I can add to what Baggins said, is that me and Vintex are new to the team. So, it was a bit of a learning period to understand how the other players are playing.

The team consist of only French people as I understand it. Do you think communicating in French gives you an advantage over having to speak English when you are from different countries.

Vintex: It’s logical that the team with the same origin can have a better understanding of each other. When we are an international team for example, if you don’t have an appropriate level of English you can’t do the right activity from the call. So I think it’s really useful for us to have a team of friends in French.

IiBaggins: If you need to take a split second to understand what your mate said, that is a split second you’re not playing the game, and that can sometimes be the difference between life or death. So yeah, being forced to speak English can complicate things.

Bubulos: The other thing is, is that I really want to say a big thanks to Acta-Kam our captain and coach. It’s really good to have him, cause when I try to learn to play better, he just look at my game explain me what I should have done and everything like that. It’s even easier when he and the whole team is French because we can understand very well what he wants from us. So yes, I agree it’s an advantage.

Being veterans of Heroes Lounge, how has it been for you this season? What went well, what could we improve on?

IiBaggins: That’s a hard question.

Vintex: For me, you can always improve your micro because you level for each improvement on a hero you have. You can expand your hero pool continuously as well. It helps the team for the draft strats.

IiBaggins: I think one thing that went well this season, it might sound dumb, but we just won more games. And the thing is as we won more we were in higher spirits which in turn made us play better, which meant that we had even better games. That was actually really nice, cause losing a lot is kind of demoralizing sometimes. For something that can be improved, he is definitely right, I think we can largen our hero pool. Learn to play different things, I am still absolutely garbage at Malfurion when that pick is really strong. So, that is something I can work on, but overall it was a pretty nice season.

Thank you for your time, anything you would like to add before the interview ends?

IiBaggins: Well, then I think we can ask the most important question. DO YOU GUYS NOT HAVE PHONES!?

That's all for this season of match reports. I hope you found them useful. Also, many thanks to the members of Diablo Immortal for the interview.