Piece done BY ALONSO "AlonsoAndress" Maldonado

Taiga

Enigma: With the new patch, we have seen a change in Taiga's play style. Before he would farm in his own jungle with this hero, but now he farm more often on the enemy side. Previously he would deny one of his creeps with his Demonic Conversion ability and head into his jungle to farm. Now he goes into the enemy jungle, where he blocks the first neutral creep spawns (red circle) with his eidolons. He puts down a ward (yellow circle) which gives him vision in case the safe lane heroes go to gank him and farms the camps marked in black during the first few minutes. Due to his position on the map, he constantly ganks between the enemies safe and mid lane and goes back to the jungle after. The gank at mid happens when the enemy is not under tower (unless very low health), meanwhile on the safe lane it is done when the enemy is further ahead in the lane (marked with a red line). He stays in the jungle, stops the creeps from pushing in the lanes nearest to him (marked white) and joins up with the team for a gank or when Black Hole is available, or seconds before it comes off cooldown. He is always given a hero with certain advantages when it comes to ganking. He always supports Boxi in his lane, if the lane doesn't give them any sort of complication he will look for the opportunity to gank mid.  

Qojqva

As a mid lane player, he stays mostly put in his lane, with ganks from him being few and far between. His farm is concentrated on this lane and the neutral creep camps nearest him (only when the creep wave is pushed or he is at a disadvantage) making repetitive movements as shown by the black arrows. Most of his mid-game farm is focused on his own jungle (black circles) and his mid lane. In the case where he has destroyed the enemy’s mid tier 1 tower during the early game, he starts moving around the map, with the enemy’s offlane tier 1 being his first objective. On his way to the offlane tier 1, he plants a ward in the zone marked with yellow which will let them know of a possible tower defense from the enemy. Once the offlane tier 1 is destroyed Qojqva will find his farm between the jungle (black circles) and the offlane (as shown by the black arrows) as long as he has vision (yellow circle). If not or in case of enemy heroes heading towards him, he will fall back into his own jungle or switch lanes. If his objective switches to the safelane tier 1, he will plant a ward in the zone marked green. Once the tower is destroyed and with no clear objective he will fall back to farming (white circle) but with the possibility of him and his team ganking towards the enemy’s jungle; thanks to the previously planted ward.

Micke

In the first few minutes he farms his lane, between minute 7 and 11 he rotates from the safelane to the offlane or vice versa in search of the safest and calmest farm while pressuring the lane without risking too much as well as farming the jungle. In the next image we see how he gets his farm from the safelane. If he has vision of the zone marked with yellow and the safelane tier 1 is still up he farms the lane and the zone marked with black. If the tier 1 has been destroyed he will prioritize the zone marked with white to farm. In case he decides to farm in the offlane, he will look for it in the zone marked black. There will always be a ward to avoid any possible gank on him (green circle) which is generally planted as soon as he heads towards the neutrals. Aside from the neutrals, he stops the mid and offlane creep waves from getting too far up in the lane (as long as no teammate is nearby). Whenever the offlane is being pushed there will be a ward in the zone marked with yellow and part of his team will be nearby (as shown by the blue arrow). In case the enemy decides to defend the tower, he will fall back unless he can spot the opportunity for an easy kill or has a bigger advantage. For the most part he prioritizes this zone to farm in because it is safer for him. His farm is always done in one part of the jungle, not all. Whenever he switches sides is due to him ganking, a teamfight or his team being forced into defending a tower.

Boxi

No matter what lane he is in he will always have company, at least until level 2 or 3. In case he plays Bristle or some hero that can easily farm stacks, Insania will constantly be stacking for him up to the mid game. He is in charge of putting constant pressure and creating space for the rest of his team. If he is not doing either of the two he will be farming in the zone marked black. Once his mid tier 1 is destroyed, he will make sure that the enemy creep wave does not push too much into the mid lane (black arrows). He switches lanes with Micke at around 10 minutes, always trying to defend towers, even though a lot of time he does it alone which makes him an easy pick off.

Insania

He always positions himself in the side of his lane (marked black) making it easier to harass the enemy, to pull whenever his lane is getting pushed too much (black arrow) or to cut off the enemy (white arrow). He is in charge of stacking constantly to speed up his core’s farm and does it in the upper part of the jungle (red circles) and on the lower part (yellow circles). In the mid-game he joins in as many ganks and team fights as possible with him almost always being on a hero with a key disable. He will continue making stacks or defending towers in the meantime.

Wards

  This image shows the most commonly used wards for the team. 1: Mid ward planted at minute 0. 2: Safe lane ward planted at minute 0, except when they pick Enigma. 3: Ward placed to protect the offlane core. Planted at around minute 6, its position will depend on where he will be the most (jungle or lane). 4:Ward planted when they decide to push the offlane tier 1 and/or 2. 5: Ward planted when they decide to push the mid tier 1 (in early game). 6: Ward planted when they decide to push the safelane tier 1 and/or 2.  

Towers

When it comes time to pushing towers (tier 1) this will be done in order. In case the first objective is to destroy the offlane tier 1 (triangle) they will plant a ward before or after destroying it and then proceed towards mid and safelane later, as shown in the image.  

CONCERNING FACTORS

Versus EG Game 1

They chose to create space and constantly gank between the mid and off lanes but the Tidehunter pick by EG stopped this with Abed being affected the most (he recovered quickly in the jungle) . Arteezy took over the enemy’s jungle, the place where Qojqva should have been farming. This was thanks to Fly helping Artour to push the lane and planting wards for possible ganks (wards planted in the zones marked red) that happened frequently forcing Qojqva back every time.

---

Related: Nigma Analysis; Individual movements and Strategies

---

He could not switch lanes due to Boxi being in the other zone farming and trying to push the lane. The mid lane was constantly being pushed which made it very dangerous leaving him only the off lane neutrals (black circles) which gives too little farm. Whenever Qojqva would switch lanes or zones in search of safer farm (once Boxi was not there) EG would quickly bring 2 or more heroes to gank him, either getting the kill or forcing him back.  

Versus EG Game 2

Just like in the game 1, EG takes over Liquid’s jungle with a difference that in this game, heroes are in constant movement by farming throughout the map. Liquid fail by having little in terms of disables and stuns which leads them to lose teamfights. Their heroes are taken out of their comfort zone.  

Versus Gambit Game 1

Similarly to EG, they let Naga Siren free farm due to them not having any solid disables which allowed her to escape and left them with no other choice but to ignore her. Early game favored Liquid (5v4), but in the mid-game they had no way to stop Naga Siren when she joined the fights.  

DRAFTS

Draft wise, Liquid’s “ideal” draft has 2 variables: primary and secondary. In which the primary is the dream draft with no heroes being banned from it and the secondary the most used alternatives when this does happen.  

	Primary	Secondary
iNSaNiA	Kotl/Warlock/Vengeful	Grimstroke
boxi	Bristleback	Legion
qojqva	Lone Druid	Leshrac
miCKe	Weaver	Bloodseeker/Bristleback
Taiga	Rubick	Enigma/Doom

---

Michale 'Drexxin' Lalor is the Editor-in-Chief at Esports Heaven. Follow him on Twitter at @ESHDrexxin.