Dota 2: TI 9 Meta Analysis

We can safely say that The International 2019 was the best one we have seen yet. Everything, ranging from the cast to the players themselves was top notch.

We witnessed some of the most incredible Dota 2 games in the last couple of years. Having said that, one team just re-wrote Dota’s history by winning two consecutive TI’s in a row. OG, ladies and gentlemen, have proven once again they are the best team in the world. Even though they had an incredibly rough DPC season, as soon as Anathan “ana” Pham came back, things changed for the better.

Unfortunately, TI is over which means that the “great depression” until the next DPC season begins. Despite that, let’s take a look at which heroes were the most popular during this incredible tournament.

The Most Popular Heros

Elder Titan

ET has been an “on and off” hero in several tournaments now. However, he completely exploded in terms of picks at this years’ TI. In fact, he is the most contested hero at the entire event with 75 picks in total. In addition, Elder Titan is rocking a solid 56% win rating, which is a very solid score. There are many reasons for his high popularity. Apart from being an awesome hero for team-fights, he is also very strong against a certain type of armor-based heroes due to his passive skills. There were numerous times where people just got one-shot out of nowhere because of this.

Last, but definitely not least, let’s not forget about his recently added Aghanims. It makes him that much better in certain scenarios.

Shadow Demon

When you are thinking of an annoying hero, SD has to be one of the first names that come to mind. This hero has been one of the go-to supports for some time now. In fact, he has been in the meta ever since the good old Luna + SD combo, which was eventually swapped out for Morphling.

During TI 9, this hero has been picked a total of 70 picks. Also, similar to ET, he is rocking a solid 56% win rating.

Tiny

There are not that many words that can describe the state of Tiny right now. Not only is one of the biggest damage dealers in the game but his versatility makes him unpredictable and one of the go-to picks for nearly every single team during TI 9.

We’ve seen this hero played in pretty much every single position throughout the years. Nowadays, he is most commonly played either in mid or as a position four. In both cases, his disables are what make him so strong in the current meta. Also, let’s not forget the utterly-retarded Aghanim which can one-shot anyone in the game.

However, unlike ET and SD, tiny has “only” 53% win rating out of 62 games. As a wise man said in the TV series Chernoby; “not great, not terrible”.

Ogre Magi

Ogre has always been a somewhat controversial hero in the Dota 2 scene. Of course, right now he is pretty much as popular as a hero can be because he just won the arcana vote against Windranger but there were times where people did not really like the hero all that much.

A very cool thing about Ogre is the fact that he can be played either in the offlane or support. He is very tanky by nature, which makes him a pretty good offlaner actually. Also, let’s not forget the decent damage output as well as Bloodloost, allowing him to be hard to catch as well.

Even though the hero was picked a total of 62 times, he does not have a high win rate. In fact, it is one of the lowest compared to the other top heroes right now – 44%

Ogre is currently the most loved hero from the Dota 2 community. Having said that, as soon as the new patch lands, it is possible to see some nerfs.

Gyrocopter

Despite the fact that Gyro has 10 fewer picks compared to Ogre, his 62%  win rating is very, very impressive.

Similar to Tiny, Gyro has been in the meta for many years now. At one point, he was even the top carry that everyone was looking to get. Nowadays, he is also one of the strongest heroes but the meta is a little bit different so he is not always the go-to pick in every single game like it used to be during TI 5 for example.

One of the most popular combos was pairing this hero with IO. However, we are not just talking about any IO. The International 9 champions re-invented the meta once again with their carry wisp. In fact, this was one of their strongest weapons throughout the entire tournament.

Conclusion

TI 9 was truly a magical experience for every Dota 2 lover out there. Having said that, if you missed any of the action, be sure to check our full recaps here. It is strongly advised that you re-watch some of the most interesting series if you missed them. Also, if you are interested in the stats of other heroes, click here.

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Images via ArtStation, Dota2Wallpapers and DotaFire.