As we head into the final stretch before TI13, here's a look at what heroes have been preferred in professional games in the 2023-2024 Dota 2 season.
The International 2024 (TI13) is about five weeks away. While there will be Dota 2 tournaments on the road to TI13, there won’t be any premier tournaments which will see all the top teams in the world compete together. The next time that happens, it will be at TI13.
The question on a lot of people’s minds is whether there will be a new patch before the fight for the Aegis begins – may it be a small balance patch or a major patch in the form of Dota 2 patch 7.37. Considering there is one, who deserves to be buffed and who needs to be taken a notch down before the most prestigious Dota 2 tournament of the year? To answer that, GosuGamers made a chart of the picks and win rates of all heroes since the end of TI12 in all professional games. This season has seen around 3400 games played, in which the picks and win rates for all heroes is shown below. All data has been taken from datDota.
High Pick Rate Heroes
The attention first goes to the highfliers with over 600 picks and the ones among those who are currently relevant – Tiny, Pangolier, Hoodwink, Dragon Knight and Phoenix. Viewers are probably tired of seeing these heroes being played continuously. If there is a patch before TI13, they are the ones that need to be nerfed.
High Win Rate Heroes
Chen has the highest win rate of all heroes, in the 60-65% range. Heroes like Chen and Enigma are banned very often, which is why their picks are between 200 and 300. But when picked, these heroes are devastating as they offer a lot in lane as well as throughout the game. Also deserving candidates for nerfs.
Low Pick Rate and Low Win Rate Heroes
These are the heroes that most deserve buffs, with the likes of Necrophos and Silencer being the ones at the forefront. These two heroes have had very low picks in professional games for the past year, and in the games they have been picked, their win rate is abysmal. Granted, they are probably not the most exciting heroes to see on the big stage, but all heroes serve a purpose in the game and should be decent enough at least to warrant a few picks.
Low Pick Rate and High Win Rate Heroes
This is probably the tricker group to balance, and can be based on how relevant they are in the current meta. Although not necessarily very high win rate in this distribution, heroes like Brooodmother, Huskar and Tinker are often cheese picks, and need to be treated as such (although Broodmother in recent years has become a high contest rate hero). From this distribution though, none of the low pick rate and high win rate heroes are too relevant in the meta right now, so they could use some love.
There is no doubt that balancing a meta is tricky business, especially so close to one of the biggest tournaments of the year. However, the way professional Dota 2 stays entertaining is with meta stirrups, and we are in need of one before TI13. While it is more likely to be a balance patch, hopefully, it does bring a good chunk of new heroes that will make games in Copenhagen more interesting.
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