The Southeast Asian (SEA) Dota-style is one of the enduring traditions of high-level Dota 2. SEA Dota is characterized as hyper-aggressive and front-loaded; it emphasizes securing kills as the highest ideal — even at the expense of important map objectives.

It is also known for being sloppy, messy, and overall an inefficient way to play Dota 2 at the premier leagues. Denying the kills early or drawing the game out to a macro game is often enough to make SEA Dota fold. Poor showings from various SEA teams in international tilts, coupled with the inherently chaotic and unstable nature of teams in the region have produced very few proofs in favor of it as a style of play.

You can imagine then how surprised analysts, casters, competitors and fans were when MVP Phoenix, decidedly one of the underdogs at the Winter Major of Dota 2 currently being held in Shanghai, China, stomped their way through a swath of veteran teams without dropping a map on the way to securing 6th place.

In a snippet of an interview done at the site of the Major, Kim “QO” Seon-yeop, the Korean squad’s ultra-aggressive midlaner, said that their high-tempo games are a tribute to, you guessed it, SEA Dota.

While I am personally a self-admitted fan of MVP from their IeSF days and Nexon, even I had trouble believing the amount of success the team enjoyed against battle-hardened squads.

Much has been said about the reasons for MVP’s unexpected run. But upon looking at the math, it’s clear that MVP’s successes so far have been well-earned and it’s because they’re doing something that really is unexpected: They are playing some excellent Dota 2.

QO is a VERY aggressive, fighting midlaner

Leading the charge is MVP’s midlaner, QO. In their first match series, MVP dismantled recent MDL winning team EHOME. Even more surprising was the 18 minute defeat MVP handed favorites Team Secret on their way to securing a 2-0 and a spot as Group A’s top seed.

If you’re thinking that QO just suddenly turned into a play-making machine, then you would be pleased to know that QO’s style has always been attack, attack, attack. When the team won the IeSF Asian Championships in 2014 in Cebu, Philippines, it was on the back of QO’s Slark, Templar Assassin and Queen of Pain picks.

However, what has become apparent in Shanghai was that QO not only upped the tempo on his aggressive ways, but that the Korean midlaner has also improved on his shortcomings: his poor macro economic game and his KDA ratios.

Since The International 5, QO has been improving his Gold Per Minute averages, maintaining a high farm rate despite being present in a lot of early-to-mid game fights.

In their series against LGD and EHOME, QO managed double digit Assist numbers. While using Slark, he posted insane kill numbers with 13 kills, 1 death and 10 assist.

While QO does not post the best creep scores (also owing to the fact that they have had the shortest games in the tournament) among mid players in the upper bracket, QO maintains a high GPM through a combination of Hero Kills and Tower Pushing. Yes, QO is farming heroes and towers to gain massive gold advantages against opponents.

QO also ranks third among all the other midlaners in the upper bracket in Hero Damage. This, again, is in the face of the fact that MVP’s games just don’t last that long for QO to really lay on the pain. Yet he is only trailing in average damage dealt to s4 and Suma1l.

It’s important to note here that QO is not the mechanically best midlaner of the tournament. While his stats are insane (and he deserves a large part of the credit), his success is bolstered by the performances of his two roaming supports. Both Kim “DuBu” Doo-young and Kim “Febby” Yong-min routinely post high Assist average across their games so far, with a majority of their focus on the midlane.

TRAVELING. In MVP’s game 1 against LGD, DuBu essentially traveled the breadth of the right side Dire’s half of the map, scoring key ganks against the Chinese team’s cores (Photo from Datdota.com).

All of these, and another factor, are the pieces to MVP’s success…

MVP is very good at taking objectives

All of the data so far points to one thing: If SEA Dota is anchored on the ability to go for kills, then QO’s insane KDA ratios, DuBu and Febby’s rotations are so far par for the course. But in truth, QO’s high GPM scores are also predicated on another factor: MVP’s abilities to take objectives cleanly off the map, without suffering much in the way of casualties in protracted trades.

Lee “FoREV” Sang-don particularly stands out, although their safelane core player Pyo “MP” No-a also puts up large numbers in Tower Damage. Across six games, MVP has drafted at least one hero with a dedicated tower pushing ability, indicating that their play style is clear from the get-go: Kill heroes, push a tower, then back away. Repeat as often as needed before the GG.

Here, FoREV is a team stand out, acting as the team’s front-liner in team clashes near tower objectives or just straight murdering opposing heroes as Nature’s Prophet before proceeding to apply pressure in the lane.

Once kicked into gear, MVP’s ability to take towers off the map doubles every five minutes. That’s two towers down by 10 minutes, four by by 15 minutes, eight by 20 minutes and ultimately forcing the concession by 25 minutes.

The overwhelming aggression, the speed by which towers are taken off the field and the constant barrage of pressure from all sides have been the hallmarks of MVP’s play so far. A singular, so-far-successful, plan.

While one-dimensional, the team has seemingly perfected its execution. Not even picking team fight and counter-engage line-ups have been able to stop the Koreans so far, as evidenced by LGD’s draft picks of Tidehunter and Chen.

MVP’s trip is not over. If I were to make a prediction, I would say that the team would realistically finish at 3-4th. While they are very good at what they do, their final tests lie with both OG or Evil Geniuses, two of the most strategically diverse teams in the tournament.

It would be great to watch them try and topple EG through a straight up match between the team’s single-minded game play focus vs. the experience and smarts on Peter “PPD” Dager and Clinton “Fear” Loomis.

MVP also have to overcome a streaking Team Liquid fresh off of a great series against tournament darlings, The Alliance. While I believe they have the skill and numbers to pull of a win, they would need to outplay Jesse “JerAx” Vainikka who is gifted in shutting down aggressive rotations. In this match-up, MVP cannot afford to cede either Earth Spirit or Moltres Phoenix for JerAx, opening up interesting an interesting draft strategy for Team Liquid.

But from everything we’ve learned so far, my one takeaway is this: If this is the SEA Dota that MVP is espousing, then give me more of it. Clean, efficient hero assassinations into fast tower objectives. No nonsense. Just high-octane Dota 2.

READ: Dispelling the myth of the Korean gaming house

If the entry of a good Korean team into Dota 2 means a strict upgrade of one of the most maligned play styles in the game, then I for one welcome our new Korean Overlords.

For more bite-sized ramblings about Dota 2 (the good kind) and general jokes about eSports (the bad kind), you can follow Paolo on Twitter at @The Sandata

Banner photo from Dota2.com

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