#195 - The reports of our death have been greatly exaggerated

Stan Hayward-Williams (0:12)

Hello, welcome back to New Meta Podcasts, Episode 195 There were rumors swirling around on the web that the podcast was dead. And we're here in the flesh to prove that they're wrong. For now, but like we said, 195, so I feel like I'm gonna make it to 200 before there's any sort of like hospice care, retirement home for the podcast.

But anyway, Marco and Adam join me as always. Marco, welcome to the pod. How are you doing?

Marco (0:45)

Great to be back, recording. Nice to do. Yeah, all good.

Stan Hayward-Williams (0:49)

Nice. It's been, I actually, how long has it been? Do we know? When was the last pod? Well, it was halfway through TI, right? It was like the post group stage TI pod. That was like three, two months. That was October, wasn't it, actually? Couple months.

Adam (1:10)

I'm scrolling up the Discord, looking for an at everyone.

Stan Hayward-Williams (1:15)

Couple months, I reckon.

Adam (1:16)

That'd be October 28th.

Stan Hayward-Williams (1:21)

Less than two months.

Adam (1:22)

Two months. Yeah, less than two months.

Stan Hayward-Williams (1:24)

Crazy, we've not even been gone. Adam, how are you doing? Welcome back.

Adam (1:29)

I'm good. Stories of our demise were greatly exaggerated.

Stan Hayward-Williams (1:34)

Yeah, exactly. I mean, a lot has happened in the last month and a half. And by that, I mean, TI happened, and then not a lot has happened. There's been patches. There's been lots of games. There's been stuff. No real structure today, other than just talk about games, talk about fun stuff, talk about heroes that are good, items that are good, straps that are good, all bad.

But yeah, congratulations to... God, who won TI?

Adam (2:03)

North America. Dude, North America.

Stan Hayward-Williams (2:06)

Oh, it's Tundra. Tundra. Tundra Esports. Remember that team, the one TI? That was pretty good.

Adam (2:13)

Yes, Tundra Esports, the North American Bastion. Snake King.

Stan Hayward-Williams (2:20)

Snake King, God. Snake King, Rana.

Adam (2:23)

Aoi, the two time. Snake King wins a major and a TI before Arteezy. Just how we all wrote it up.

Stan Hayward-Williams (2:34)

Yeah, of course.

Marco, do you have any comments on TI? Or is it just so far away that you decide, yeah, I can't remember. I just remember that it was a 3-0 final. It's kind of boring.

Marco (2:48)

I mean, it was interesting. It was disappointing from a viewer perspective. I thought I had after was, if EG were Tundra and won the grand final 3-0 in a snoozefest, would I say it was the greatest TI final of all time? This is my question.

Adam (3:05)

No, because it'd be TI5 when EG won 3-1 with the million dollar Echo Slam.

Marco (3:14)

And that's exciting, without a doubt. But the way that Tundra won this one, I am a lover of the strategy, macro play. That's all cool, but it did just feel like, this is a stomp. You've out drafted every game. You've built, rave packed every game. Gratz33, great player.

I don't know.

Adam (3:38)

It was a TI4 death ball snoozefest meta. But instead of death ball, it was damage reduction.

Marco (3:45)

Yeah. It was the exact same thing, but glyphs delayed the game 20 minutes.

That's harsh. The tournament obviously great fun. Maybe I need to re-watch those games in full. It was fun to watch them with Joe and Stan. I think Adam, you joined us on some of those grand final games.

Adam (4:06)

I had already watched them.

Marco (4:08)

Yeah, we had watched them already.

Adam (4:13)

I wasn't a fan of The Time Difference. The Time Difference made it very hard to watch live, so I wasn't a fan of that.

Stan Hayward-Williams (4:24)

Yeah. I think you guys are pretty hush. I mean, it's easy to say it's an outdraft, because I feel like every DotA game is like an outdraft. I feel like you could say pretty much every win is an outdraft. It's like, yeah, Tundra are just better at having a better understanding of the games. They draft better heroes because they have a better understanding of the game. That's so much for pro DotA.

Adam (4:45)

I don't want to get roped in with Marco's negativity. I didn't say anything.

Stan Hayward-Williams (4:50)

I feel like Marco calls 90% of DotA games an outdraft. Maybe that's accurate. Maybe 90% of games are an outdraft.

Marco (4:56)

I love an outplay. I love having the worst draft and winning.

Stan Hayward-Williams (5:01)

But you always say games are outdrafts, I swear, like every time we review biographies.

Marco (5:07)

Nah. When what? If we review our pub games?