The best baits in competitive Dota

posted by NanaKrustofski,
Being a great Dota player mechanically is not much use when your opponent is simply smarter. Baits are one of the most dramatic playstyles, so we collected some great plays where teams walked straight into some beautifully laid traps. We have all been dying in a pub at some point and then typed "space created" to defend the bad play, or acted like we intentionally baited the opponents when something surprisingly worked out in our favour. Well, pro players can actually control their playstyle and even go for intentional baits.

EG on how to set up for the perfect Epicenter vs EHOME



Baits in pubs are fun to experience, baits in normal pro games even more so. But baits during The International when every move can be worth millions of dollars are the most exciting ones. Evil Geniuses delivered a great example at The International 2015.

Sumail 'SumaiL' Syed Hassan zipping back with low health into the battlefield prompted the remaining players of EHOME to rush towards the Storm Spirit to give him the final blow. Not only did SumaiL survive this attack, he also set up the perfect opportunity for Saahil 'Universe' Arora to jump in with Epicenter.



Team Liquid vs Newbee in the TI7 Grand Finals



Staying in the highly-skilled realm of TI matches, Team Liquid were even able to up the bait-game once more – in an incredibly risky fashion. Amer 'Miracle-' Al-Barkawi set foot in the river to go for a Double Damage Rune, which exposed him to Newbee who all jumped straight on him.

Liquid were prepared for this attack and struck back in the most destructive way. A full team-wipe of Newbee while neither Miracle nor any of Liquid's players died secured their third victory in the Grand Finals, the Aegis and $10,000,000 prize money.



Sneyking and a Town Portal Scroll vs Moo



Baits can be planned by the whole team in advance, or one player might simply have a spontaneous stroke of genius. JingJun 'Sneyking' Wu performed this incredible play against David 'Moo' Hull, which might be worth copying in pubs as well.

From pretending to teleport away, to cancelling, healing back up and going for the kill himself – Sneyking completely gave his opponent the run-around.



No Tidehunter vs Evil Geniuses | The most iconic bait



No Tindehunter provided arguably THE best-known bait in the history of Dota. Evil Geniuses were on their way to the first Runes, when the notification popped up that Henrik 'AdmiralBulldog' Ahnberg was slain by Roshan. Of course, the first instinct is to rush to Rosh as No Tidehunter seemed to have tried a level-1-Rosh-strategy.

Well psych! They weren't and EG ran straight into the trap. Eight years later, this bait still counts as one of the most iconic moments in competitive Dota.



Bonus bait: canceLs's death leads to a giant explosion



This clip may not have occurred in a professional match, but it is too satisfying to leave out. Mihai 'canceL' Vasile died in a 5-1 fight and the opposing team went to further advance towards the Radiant territory. Since they have all been grouped up, canceL's team-mate who was playing Earthshaker took the chance to go for one of the most rewarding Echo Slams possible – at least for his team.



What was your favourite bait in a competitive Dota match?



Photo credit: Valve

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