Matchmaking Scoop

The latest Hon Patch (1.02) unfortunately switched from using the always fun Banning Draft (BD) mode back to the oppressively boring Banning Pick (BP) mode for Solo Matchmaking.  If you love seeing the same heroes and bans every game, wasting an extra three minutes before the game not playing but making these turds of picks, or otherwise having a terrible experience then you are stoked about this change.  Sure BP might be the best mode for competitive team tournaments, but Solo Matchmaking should use a different mode, and BD was working great for it!  Support BD or at least something other than BP for Solo Matchmaking on Hon Forums.

Something else that was changed: S2 added a maximum spread to the games so you don’t end up in games with people whose ratings are really different from yours.  Now games can take 10 or more minutes to start instead of 1-2, and no more steamrolling noobs :( .  Check out some players I was placed with one game in the old setting:

A 1300 along with two 1200s and two 1000s; the kind of epic garbage that makes KingRaven’s Chronos look good.  Dumping on pubs this bad is most of the reason my ranked stats are 16-1 right now, and damn that shit was fun.

Alas, even with competition this terribad Clan Milk International’s leader, Milkfat, still felt the need to stack the teams to swindle some wins.  Private Investigator and Solace wannabe “Zerak” dug up some great dirt showing Milkfat stacking teams with his goons who would either try really hard or intentionally feed the way to a Milkfat victory depending on which team they ended up on.  (It’s pretty easy to get in the same matchmaking game with people you know by hitting the search button at the same time, since it is a not a popular setting yet.)  Check out this tantalizing excerpt:

But then you start to notice that the same two players are repeatedly showing up in this guys Match Making games “MadFred” and “PanMan”. And in every game where they’re not on the same team as Milkfat they feed to a more or less obvious degree, from grabbing 4 homecoming stones at game start to repeatedly port out and run into the enemy tower. Or just standing still whenever getting ganked by Milkfat.


TK-Netman goes 2-14; slax goes GODLIKE at 13 minutes

fatty in the house

fatty in the house

Netman 2-14

terriawful 2-14

Clan Milk "Swindle Squad" ripped up 58-39

Needless to say, talk of swindle was in the air when the DXD bot placed all three Clan Milk players on the same team. However, 21-4-20 and 22-5-10 performances by daggius and feared- elevated a heavily newb-laden Scourge team to a tremendous victory. The game was perhaps best characterized by the relentless pounding in the bum of daggius’s Viper on Milkfat’s Sniper, a rivalry that began in the middle lane before manifesting itself in ganks on all parts of the map as Milkfat searched helplessly for free farm. None could be found. Overall, daggius went 16-2 against Clan Milk players. GOT MILK? Feared-’s Weaver was equally impressive. Nurturing a spree 17 kills long for much of the game, he fed heavily on Sentinel players, especially the horribly incompetant NTD.ManhaE-, who went 1-10 in this individual matchup. The.new.me. played respectable support, earning 22 assists for the Scourge team with his Dagon Zeus. After a slow start, Milkfat found his footing later in the game, amassing 16 kills with a Lothar’s Edge and MKB in a surge that was, unfortunately for Clan Milk, too little too late.

Milkfat ninja-ganked at nearest-to-base Creep Camp.

Milkfat's early farming efforts were thwarted by ninja-ganks like this one at the nearest-to-base Creep Camp.

milkasaurusrex joins in the feed.

Milkasaurusrex spent 12 minutes dead, nearly one fifth of the game.

As the feed became insurmountable, the excuses began to flow.

As the feed became insurmountable, excuses began to flow.

Pimp my Viper.

Pimp my Viper.

Replay: http://www.dota-allstars.com/replay/54364/index.html

Victory despite dag's epic feed.

feed

I think this screenshot speaks for itself.