Shelu's 1v1 Tournament #2 Brackets - Let's Do This!

Brackets are up boys!
Here's the link: http://binarybeast.com/xDOTA214041313

Now, let's recap some things:
-you can find the rules in the post below, on the site with the brackets (click INFO) or on www.dota2romania.com
-players will add themselves using the STEAM ID in the player LIST on the site (binarybeast.com)
-some players didn't add their correct STEAM ID, and should've been disqualified, but we did not do that; however, the player with the incorrect STEAM ID will have to add his opponent; (if the opponent with the correct ID does not receive a friend request from the opponent without the STEAM ID, after 15 min, the one with the correct ID will get a free win); if both players have an invalid STEAM ID, they will have to handle themselves, to figure it out, or add me on STEAM and ask me for my help (I will help if i can)
-since there are 91 players signed up, and the sign up period was over 2 weeks, probably some forgot about the tournament, so we expect some free wins in the early stages.
-the prize will be awarded Sunday or Monday, depending on the schedule that the paypal program and site has.
-CYA tomorrow and GOOD LUCK.

Shelu's 1v1 Tournament #2 - 100 RON

After our first tournament in which we offered rares and mythicals, we've decided to bring in some money at the table! All or nothing!
First place will receive 100 RON (via PayPal)! (100 RON = ~ 22 EURO)
Time & Date: 03.05.2014, Saturday, 17.00 EEST (Romania Hour)

The rules will be pretty much the same as before:
-RADIANT will RANDOM the hero, buy a pair of sentries, use them in base, and DIRE will pick the same hero)
-no bottle, no bottle crow
-no runes
-no neutrals
-no ancients
-no Roshan
-first to get 3 kills or 2 towers wins
-games will be best of 1
-semifinal will be best of 3
-final will be best of 5 (if the final goes 2-2, the last game will be Shadow Fiend vs Shadow Fiend with no items - only Tangoes, Salves & Clarities -> and the first blood wins)

SIGN UP HERE: http://binarybeast.com/xDOTA214041313 (if you do not have a binarybeast account, make one and be sure to add your STEAM ID)

Additional Information: Players will add each other using the STEAM ID and will confirm themselves the result.
We also need at least 64 participants for the tournament to start.
If player A adds player B, and if player B does not accept his friend request on Steam, after 15 mins, player A will receive a default win.

In case of any problems, add Shelu on steam: http://steamcommunity.com/id/shaelaw/

Be sure to like us on Facebook.

Cheers and Good Luck!

Also, this tournament is possible due to the cooperation with our beloved friends from the DotA 2 Romania website. Be sure to check them out here: www.dota2romania.com

Shelu's 1v1 Tournament #1 Winners

Congratulations to the 2 finalists of our first tournament:JM3 and RatuscaUcigasa.
Their best of three turned out to be a quick 2-0 for JM3, even though the second game featured RatuscaUcigasa having an incredible game with Storm Spirit; despite this, he went in too agressive, diving the towers and eventually JM3 won, with only 20 HP left. First game was a close game with Batrider, and the winner had a bit too many napalm sticks on the opponent. Congratulations guys!

Shelu's 1v1 Tournament #1 Standings

1st place: JM3: http://dotabuff.com/players/114524439

2nd place: RatuscaUcigasa: http://dotabuff.com/players/102003281

3rd-4th place: alinush-_- / RomanF

Cheers and see you next week!

Hero Strategy #1: Shadow Fiend

Nevermore, The Shadow Fiend

Hero Strategy #1 

This Tutorial Includes:
-pros & cons
-hero build: - early game (items & how to lane)
                    - mid game (items & what to do)
                    - late game (items & what to do)
-tips and tricks
-hero skills: -razes (link to video included)
                    -necromastery
                    -presence of the dark lord
                    -requiem of souls (link to video included)
-other useful information



PROS:
-can win easy his lane (usually mid lane)
-high damage early to mid-game and can transition to a hard-carry if he snowballs
-has the ability to flash farm extremely quick (probably one of the top farmers in the game)

CONS:
-very squishy, especially early game
-doesn't have an escape mechanism, so he is easily ganked by roaming supports
-needs good skill cap to use his razes at full power

Stats and other information:

Item Build

Starting Items #1:
1x Tango
1x Wraith Band

Starting Items #2:
2x Tango (pulled from supports)
2x GG Branches
1x Wraith Band

Early to Mid Items #1:
1x Bottle
1x Boots -> Power Treads 
1x Ring of Aquilla

Early to Mid Items #2:
1x Bottle
1x Boots
1x Hand of Midas

At this point, you will have to start to flash farm. (flash farming is farming in an extremely quickly way). How do you do this? Easy. First few levels, you simply last hit and deny on your mid lane, maintaining creep equilibrium. We will have a sepparate page with tips about little things such as creep equillibrium, pulling and stacking and so on. But basically, you will need to keep your creeps and your opponents creeps in the same spot, so they won't push to your or his tower. Of course, you will have to push when you are about to get the rune, but we will talk more about that later.

Your Inventory should look similar to this:

Mid Game Items

1x Shadow Blade/1x Blink Dagger
1x Black King Bar (90% of the time you will need it)
1x Crystalis -> Daedalus / 1x Helm of the Dominator -> Satanic / 1x Manta Style/ 1x Desolator

Your Inventory should contain the same items as before, and something like this extra:




Late Game Items

1x Satanic
1x Butterfly

1x Eye of Skadi
1x Divine Rapier (situational)
1x Assault Cuirass

Your Late Game Inventory should contain some of the following:


 

Laning Phase aka Early Game

You need to master a couple of things in order to win your lane and transition good into the mid game.
1. Good Creep Block at the start of the game (If your block is better than your opponents, your creeps will be on the cliff, making your opponent to have a 25% chance to miss, thus increasing your chances to get faster souls)
2. Good Rune Control (Rune Control will keep your health and mana high all the time, and also you will have to posibility to gank, since Shadow Fiend does not have a stun or slow, the Haste or Double Damage Rune will usually result in an early kill on your safe lane)
3. Do Not Die (Shadow Fiend is a snowball hero, meaning that if you have a good start, it's pretty hard to lose in late game, but if you keep dying early game, the chances of recovering are not that good; of course, you will still be able to farm faster than others, but it would be hard to comeback from a 0 - 4 streak)


Tips for the Laning Phase

1. Use your razes to get last hits if your opponent has a higher base damage than you (this is before you get all of your souls), but also try to harass him at the same time.
2. The Runes spawn at every 2 minutes (00:00, 02:00 etc.), so you would want to push the lane at xx:50, in order to secure a free rune. (of course, your supports should ward the rune spots and you need to be sure the enemy supports won't gank you or steal the rune)
3. If you are too afraid to get out of your tower range, because you got dewarded or the supports are missing, you can easily kill the whole enemy creep wave with two razes (lvl 4 razes, of course), and then you can quickly go into your jungle (preferably be Radiant) and kill some medium neutral camps over there.
4. If you miss the rune, don't worry, you can still bottle crow. Your supports will make the courier a flying one and you will be able to keep sending your bottle back and forth, keeping you health increased.

Mid-Game

In the mid game, you should already have some items; let's say Power Treads, Bottle, Ring of Aquilla (which you will activate only when you want to push, because it gives your creeps +2 armor) and Shadow Blade.
You should have already easily out farmed and out harassed your enemy mid laner, so he probably is gone to other lanes to gank. In that case, you need to call MISS, alerting your allies, and also start choping that Tier 1 Tower. With your high damage, you will easily take it down.
When the tower is gone, do not venture to forward up to the Tier 2 Tower, because you will be easily ganked. You can go to other lanes, with a rune or without a rune, gank some squishy heroes and maybe push a tower. If you have a Shadow Blade, it will also be easy for you to escape and also extremely easy to land your ultimate. Your ultimate does a higher ammount of the damage if the target is closer to you, so, because Shadow Blade allows you to cast your ultimate while still being invisible, you can position yourself extremely well to one-shot any support.
Depending on the enemy team composition, you might want to consider the BKB, if they have a lot of disables. Shadow Fiend is very squishy, so the extra HP and the temporary magic immunity will serve him good.

Late Game

This is the part of the game when anything can happen, if the game is at least decently balanced. One mistake can cost you the game. In here, you can't go alone, you need to keep going with your team and try to push, or gank. Ask your supports to buy Smoke of Deceit and lots of Wards, since map control is crucial here. Your inventory should have some items by now, maybe a Desolator and a Daedalus, or a Butterfly. If the enemy team has a Doom, get a Linkens, since you will be the first target he will think of. In the Late Game, your razes will no longer be so efficient, so you will only rely on your ultimate (not only for damage, but for the slow) and your right - click. A good initiation from your supports should put you in the position of just hitting and killing everyone you see. A farmed Shadow Fiend is a very though to kill one and can snipe supports or other squishy heroes with just a few hits.
Kill some of their heroes, break their base and win the game.
Some other tutorials about the Late Game in general will come in the near future.


Shadow Fiend's Skills

    Shadow Raze



Shadow Fiend razes in front of him, dealing damage in a specific area. You have 3 Razes: The short one, the medium one and the long one. The first one razes in front of you at 200 range, the second one at 450, and the last one at 700. The combined damage is 900 magic damage at level 7 (if you max razes) only for 225 mana (this is huge!)

Below you will see a link of a short video on how the razes are used the maximum capacity.
Shadow Fiend Razes

    Necromastery 



Your lane winning skill. Basically, for each creep kill or creep deny, you will get a soul, meaning 2 extra damage. You can get up to 36 souls, meaning 72 damage. That's insane! At the first few levels, since SF has a low base damage (41-44), last hitting will be a bit harsh, but once you start adding soul damage, you will find it easier to last hit and deny everything! And I mean everything!

    Presence of the Dark Lord



This skill is a pretty simple one: it lowers the armor of everyone in a radius of 900. This means your right clicks will do more damage. We recommend you take this later on, because if you get it early, the enemy creeps will also have the armor reduced, meaning that you will push the lane and you will put yourself in danger by standing closer to the enemy tower, rather than yours. Situationally, though, you should skill it early (for example, in a pub No-Raze build, you can go just Souls and Minus Armor, and start going for a tower push <-> if you maybe have a Chen or Enchantress in your team).

    Requiem of Souls



Your sick ultimate. Deals a ton of damage if used properly. Remember those souls we mentioned above? Well, the higher number of souls you have, the higher the damage. Also, the closer the enemy is, the higher the damage. This means that if you have 36 souls and you stay right on top of your enemy (using your Shadow Blade, maybe), you will get the maximum amount of damage. Also, it reduces and slows the attack damage of the enemies (in late game, when your magical abilities are no longer that important, you can use this just for the sake of the slow).
Tip: When you die, even if you casted or did not cast your ulti, another one will automatically unleash upon your enemies, dealing half the damage.
Below you will find a link to a video of Shadow Fiend's ultimate:
Requiem Of Souls

Other useful Information with Tips and Tricks

1. If you want to win your mid lane easier, you will need to be the complete master of last hitting. How do you do this? Practice, of course. Usually, after 10 minutes of play, you should have an average of 50 creeps. Can you go higher than this? Can you farm every single lane creep and also the neutral ones?
Well, if you can't, make a lobby and play by yourself. Go on your mid lane and start last hitting and denying. See how many creeps you get in 10 minutes. If you get below 50, keep practicing.

2. If you can farm up decently the Boots of Travel before 12 minutes, go for it! It will save you a lot of money and you can show up on the map and help your allies.

3. If you go for the fast Helm of the Dominator, quickly dominate a neutral creep and start stacking Ancients at the xx:53 mark, in order to get more and more farm. With your high damage and lifesteal, you can clear those later.

4. You will need some reliable stuns in your team and you will be able to raze better, so good allies would be: Mirana, Tiny, Earthshaker. Enemies that would make your life harder would be Pudge, since if he hooks you, you are dead, Templar Assassin, because she has high damage very early and, of course, Doom. (he counters everyone)

5. Get a Magic Stick! It can save your life when the enemy thinks you are dead and it can also provide you with the mana necessary for that one last decisive raze.

6. I said that Radiant is better for a Shadow Fiend because you can access your medium neutral camp faster and increase your GPM (Gold Per Minute). Sometimes, you will be Dire, so I will offer you a funny tip. (It works well especially if the enemy mid laner has higher base damage: Bloodseeker, Templar Assassin, Puck) Get Venomancer in your team, ask him to level up his snake Wards and go really fast next to roshan (just above his pit). Ask Venomancer to plant a Serpent ward there, Roshan will attack it once, and then you will be able to deny it, thus giving you 2 damage. You can do this about 6 or 7 times before you need to go back and block the creeps. This way, you will get 14 damage before the creeps spawn! Insane!



These being said, I hope this guide will help you master Shadow Fiend a bit better and will make you win your lane easier. Thanks for bearing with me and feel free to add comments below. Don't forget to like our blog!

Cheers!

Shelu's Strategies

Ok guys, it's time to start the strategy part of our blog.
We're gonna post weekly hero strategies, feel free to rate them, comment, or offer tips.
Later today we will have our first one, featuring one of our favourite solo mid heroes:

 Shadow Fiend

The strategy will include common item builds, specific ones, how to lane, how to win and also some advanced tips.

Stay tuned!

Shelu's 1v1 Tournament # 1

Date: Sunday afternoon - 06.04.14
Hour: 16.00 EEST
Mode: Single Elimination/MID Only/Same Hero (Radiant RANDOM, buy 2 SENTRY wards, use them in base/Dire pick same hero as Radiant)
Rules: -No bottle/No Bottle crow
           -No Runes
           -No Neutrals/No Roshan
           -First to get to 3 kills or destroy 2 towers wins
Prizes: 1st place  -> 5 Random RARES + 1 Random Mythical
                 2nd place -> 2 Random RARES

Registration deadline: Sunday, 06.04.14, 12.00 EEST
SIGN UPS are open here:  http://challonge.com/shelu1

Tournament will be held if and only if more than 16 participants are registered.

Keep yourself informed on our facebook page: www.facebook.com/dota2shelu

For information, add admin on steam: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198126005644/ 

First giveaway!

Ca sa condimentam un pic toata treaba pe aici, vom incepe prin a oferi o arma de Axe.
Tot ceea ce trebuie sa faci este:
1. Like - Blog.
2. Like - Facebook Page - DotA 2
3. Comment si share la statusul postat pe pagina de facebook, legat de giveaway.

Castigatorul va fi anuntat duminica, 30.04, ora 20.30, prin random.org.

Giveaway deadline: 30.04.2014, 20.30

Item given: Red Mist Reaper's Scythe (Axe)

Good Luck!