Dota 2: EPICENTER Major – Meta Analysis

ESTNN's Veselin Ignatov walks players and fans through the Meta Analysis for last week's EPICENTER Major.

The EPICENTER Major was the last big tournament for this DPC season. Now we know all twelve teams with a direct invite. Additionally, the open qualifiers for the rest start in just a few days from now.

In addition to that, literally minutes after the tournament ended, Valve released 7.22d. The patch itself has a lot of tweaks for several of the top heroes. However, the overall meta will most likely be the same, unless there is yet another change just before TI.

Let’s take a look at some of the most successful heroes at EPICENTER. The data for this article has been gathered from DotaBuff.

EPICENTER Meta Analysis

Dark Seer

Dark Seer has been one of the top picks in the last couple of tournaments. Of course, this is expected, considering the current state of the game.

This hero works wonders with some of the top carries right now. Apart from the usual Sven or Juggernaut, Slark also seems to be rising in popularity recently. He is another hero which copes very well with Dark Seer.

During EPICENTER, Dark Seer was picked 61 times and had around 56% win rating. However, his bans are probably more impressive – a whopping 229 times across the full tournament.

Morphling

Morphling was the most contested hero at EPICENTER Moscow. If you think about it, he is pretty much the ideal carry for the current meta. Apart from having a good farming speed, Morphling also does insane damage in nearly all stages of the game. What’s more, he can be extremely hard to kill, especially if he has a defensive item. This all adds up to his popularity and the 272 total picks and bans prove it.

Despite his strengths, Morphling has 45% win rating out of 82 games, which is not all that impressive.

Batrider

Similar to Dark Seer, Batrider has been the go-to pick for the vast majority of teams out there. In fact, he has been in the top four picks for the last four big events. Why is that?

Firstly, the hero provides a very good laning stage, something which is very important in professional games. Second, he has the needed tools to keep a target in place in order for his team to do the job. There are plenty of other positives about this hero which all add up.

Batrider is one of the heroes which is way more successful in professional games rather than pubs. That’s because in pub games, especially in the lower MMR brackets, you have to mainly rely on yourself. Unfortunately, Batrider rarely carries a game on his own.

At EPICENTER, teams picked the hero a total of 85 times.

Doom

Doom is another hero that has occupied the top picks in recent events. Honestly, unless there is a major nerf to this hero, he will most likely continue to be among the best.

Apart from being hard to kill, Doom provides a decent amount of damage output. What’s more, he is also one of the fastest farming heroes in the game, especially when players buy Hand of Midas.

Last, but certainly not least, his ultimate is a game-changer on its own. A well-placed Doom can completely shift the balance of power in a team-fight, especially during the later stages of the game.

Enigma

Enigma has the exact same amount of picks and bans as Doom. This is expected because the hero has one of the strongest ultimates in the game. However, landing a good Black Hole is definitely easier said than done, especially in professional games.

Despite that though, the sheer presence of this hero in the game force the enemies to play more cautiously. These mind games have a huge role in professional games and they are more often than not the key to success.

Apart from that, Enigma is one of the best lane keepers of the game, making him the perfect offlaner. Thankfully, Lich was changed so you can’t pair them together anymore. After all, this was undoubtedly one of the most annoying duos to lane against, period.

Another interesting fact is that Enigma has been picked only 55 times and has 211 bans. On the contrary, Doom has double the picks, but half as many bans.

Nyx Assassin

The last hero on our list is the infamous Nyx Assassin, one of the most annoying heroes in the game. He has a similar pick/ban total of 262, however, unlike the others, this hero has the whopping 64% win rating out of 50 games. That's one of the highest overall win ratings of any hero at the EPICENTER Major.

Having said that, this was expected, considering the top core picks right now. Nyx just makes most of them either very hard to pull off or just unplayable. We are yet to see if 7.22d will bring any changes to the table but it does not seem like it will.

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