Virtus.Pro has been on a run of dominance unlike any other team in the history of Competitive DotA. They have won three consecutive Meet Your Makers tournaments, which are considered the biggest tournaments in DotA today. There will always be a debate about who the best player is—even though vigoss has been making a convincing case lately, but the debate over the best team ever is all but over.

But how, exactly, has Virtus.Pro been so successful?

There are some obvious reasons: their collection of talent is unmatched by any team. Each player has a perfect idea of his role in the team: Jolie is the strategist, Admiration and vigoss the omniscient hero killers, ARS-ART the assassin, NS and Sahka the perfect supporting complementary pieces.

But beyond just skill, Virtus.Pro has developed a very recognizable playstyle with distinct characteristics—a winning formula, if you will.

The usual league match can be broken into three different phases: the early game phase (which involves bans/picks and the initial laning), farm/gank phase (where teams move around to kill as many opposing heroes as possible while gaining gold to set up their own late game), and the end game phase. Virtus.Pro approaches each of these phases in a unique and effective way.

The early game phase

A common misconception is that lineups and picks are the most important part of strategy. Certainly they do matter, but for most teams—and VP especially—the general playstyle and dictating the flow of the game is more important than the exact heroes.

This is not to say, of course, that Virtus.Pro can pick any heroes it wants or win even while getting badly outpicked. Rather, they have a reliable picking strategy: they choose heroes that play to their strengths and enhance the effectiveness of their playstyle. For example, it’s been previously observed that VP often picks heroes (Twin Headed Dragon, Pudge, Priestess) that have nontargeted disables that can keep a hero still for a long period of time.

From then on, VP nearly always wins the laning phase. This occurs partly because their players are so supremely talented, but because they have a strong commitment to lanes with high killing power (Sven/Lina, Pudge/THD, Sven/SK, etc) and ward the runes much earlier than most teams to maintain rune control. Another strength of Virtus.Pro is their arrangement of lanes: they often put a dual lane or Shadow Fiend, strong ganking heroes, in middle lane to permit easy access to either side of the map—giving their main gank heroes the opportunity for early ganks.

The farm/gank and lategame phases
Midgame is the phase where Virtus.Pro truly shines. The key is simple: map control. VP consistently gains a level and farming advantage over the opposing team with map control.

Everyone has a vague idea of what map control is; yet, few can define it precisely. A critical component of map control, however, is the actual space on the minimap that one team “controls.” Virtus.Pro consistently establishes early ownership of two-thirds to three-fourths of the map (kind of like Risk, but in DotA) using the outer towers. Ever since MYM Pride 6, VP always, always defends their outer towers as much as possible any time they are under attack and takes down the opposing team’s outer towers early.

But what does this do? Wouldn’t destroying the outer towers make it easier for the other team to farm?