Chapter 473: Ten Minutes, Match Over!
EI is a two-player map, with Chen Mo’s Human race on the left and Origin’s Night Elf on the right.
EI’s Chinese name is Echo Isle. This map is arguably one of the most classic maps in all of Warcraft III, and it’s also the most popular two-player map.
The reason this map is so beloved is mainly because of its balance and simplicity. On other larger maps, players must scout their opponent’s location before engaging, and spawning in different spots can heavily influence a player’s decisions.
But EI is small and resource-rich. No matter where you spawn, it basically has no impact on your strategy, reducing luck to a minimum.
Moreover, this map excels in building placement, map balance, and hero leveling routes, making it popular among both beginners and veterans.
On this map, Humans can choose a three-peasant Tower Rush (TR). That means pulling militia to the opponent’s base to build towers before even constructing an Altar or summoning a hero, allowing the towers to come out even before the opponent’s hero.
But Chen Mo didn’t choose this approach, because the risk and reward of such a TR aren’t proportional. It’s a desperate all-in attack that sacrifices early economy. It works great against noobs, but against an opponent like Origin, one mistake could lead to a disaster.
Chen Mo was going to use a more stable, yet more lethal, TR strategy.
Both sides’ openings looked very standard. Origin’s Night Elf chose to place the Ancient of War next to the Mercenary Camp, preparing to creep, while Chen Mo did his usual militia scouting and built a house in Origin’s base.
Origin chose to first-pick the Warden. The Warden is a popular hero against Humans, especially on small maps, because both Fan of Knives and Shadow Strike are very practical for killing peasants or assassinating heroes.
Clearly, Origin’s opening was just like any ordinary Human expert. After all, there’s only so much starting resources; Origin couldn’t pull any tricks out of thin air.
Chen Mo’s Altar began to glow, but to everyone’s astonishment, he summoned a Paladin?
Goph and Digua exchanged bewildered glances.
“A Paladin?”
“No way? Is he going for a neutral hero?”
“Fire Lord TR?”
Obviously, the Human race’s first-pick hero is usually the Archmage, or sometimes the Mountain King. The Paladin, even if he appears, is typically the third hero.
But Chen Mo couldn’t just build the hero and then switch, right? That would be wasting his own time. So the only explanation was that Chen Mo planned to use a neutral hero.
At that moment, Origin’s Wisp had already wandered into Chen Mo’s base. After “seeing” that Chen Mo’s Altar was lit, it turned and left.
Goph stared at the big screen: “Chen Mo is definitely going for a TR, right?”
Digua nodded: “Definitely a TR. Most likely a Fire Lord TR? Or maybe Naga?”
Digua was even more nervous than Chen Mo. He knew Chen Mo was going all-in now, but how exactly would he execute it? Which hero would he pick? Would Origin be prepared? None of this was certain.
Digua had tried a TR himself back then, but Origin defended against it, and it was basically GG afterward. He wondered if Chen Mo would be any different.
The Warden emerged from the Altar and headed straight for the Mercenary Camp. The Ancient of War stood up, coordinating with the Warden and Archers to creep.
But just then, the camera suddenly cut to the Human base. Five militia were lined up, marching across the map toward the Night Elf base!
At the same time, the peasant waiting at the Tavern in the center of the map summoned the Human race’s true first-pick hero: the Goblin Tinker!
As for Origin, at this very moment, it was awkwardly stuck in the middle of its creeping process. Give up now? Several creeps were at low health; giving up would mean all that effort was wasted!
Origin didn’t immediately return home. Instead, it chose to finish clearing the Mercenary Camp first. Even though the Human militia were already at its doorstep, the AI didn’t panic over this. It diligently executed its program: creep first, then defend.
After all, it had faced many TRs before. It knew that Human TRs looked imposing but weren’t actually that scary.
Of course, Origin reacted quickly. It immediately built a second Ancient of War at home, while its main army headed back after finishing the creep.
When Chen Mo’s militia reached Origin’s base, their duration hadn’t expired yet. They started hacking away at the unfinished Ancient of War.
But halfway through, the militia’s time ran out, so the peasants turned to building towers.
Meanwhile, the Goblin Tinker’s Pocket Factory was deployed, continuously producing Clockwerk Goblins.
Chen Mo’s frontline forces were just five peasants, three Footmen, and a level 1 hero. The hero and Footmen were all busy chopping at the Ancient of War under construction.
“Destroy that Ancient of War!”
“If we take it down, that’s a huge advantage!”
Many people were shouting. Clearly, if Origin managed to finish that Ancient of War, it could double-produce units from two Barracks and might even turn the tide.
But then, Chen Mo stopped attacking when the Ancient of War’s health bar was just a sliver away from being destroyed!
Just as everyone was confused, Origin’s Ancient of War finally finished building. Only then did Chen Mo redirect all his forces, focus fire, and chop it down in one go!
“Holy crap! Chen Mo is so sneaky! He didn’t want Origin to cancel the Ancient of War, so he deliberately waited until it was built to destroy it?”
“If I were Origin, I’d be calling the cops!”
In Warcraft III, buildings under construction can be canceled. Obviously, with Origin’s micro and reaction speed, it could have canceled the build just before Chen Mo landed the killing blow.
So Chen Mo played it smart: he waited for it to finish, then destroyed it.
Origin’s Warden was frantically trying to kill Chen Mo’s peasants, but Chen Mo kept maneuvering his Footmen and hero to body-block, trying to keep his peasants alive as long as possible.
And even if the peasants died, it didn’t matter, because Chen Mo’s three Guard Towers were almost done!
The moment those three towers were finished, they started raining arrows on the Night Elf buildings. Soon, the two nearby Moon Wells were both shot down!
Origin was now completely dumbfounded. Chen Mo didn’t need any micro anymore, because the towers’ attacks were fully automatic. As soon as Origin’s hero entered the towers’ range, a volley of arrows would fly, but if the hero ran away, the towers would just shoot the buildings!
What made it even more hopeless was that Chen Mo kept building more towers. Soon, Origin’s main base had become Chen Mo’s sub-base!
Origin was now utterly crushed. It had the micro, but it was completely useless!
After destroying Origin’s main base, Chen Mo’s Goblin Tinker, along with the Footmen and a mix of mercenaries, roamed the map hunting down Origin’s remaining buildings. No fighting—just base demolition!
By now, Chen Mo’s army was completely dominant. All of Origin’s key buildings—Barracks, Altar, Moon Wells, etc.—had been destroyed. The gold mine was gone too. Origin had no gold, no buildings, and no population to produce units!
Finally, Origin typed “GG” and quit the game.
And at that moment, the third game had only been going on for ten minutes!
Ten minutes, and the match was over!
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