A look at the Dota 2 meta based on the 150 games played at TI12.
Image: Arcsh on DeviantArt
Team Spirit became just the second team to lift the Aegis twice when they defeated Gaimin Gladiators to win The International 2023 (TI12). The Eastern European team displayed utter dominance throughout the tournament, and dropped only two games since the start of the event, including the group stages! This was unlike their win at TI10, when they were the underdogs.
A total of 150 games were played at TI12 – 100 during the group stages (phase one and phase two combined) and 50 during the playoffs. Nice round numbers, eh?! The entire tournament was played on Dota 2 patch 7.34d. The average game time was 42:40, which is slightly higher than what we have been used to seeing at recent TIs. In those 150 games, 113 of the 124 heroes were picked at least once, making for a pretty diverse tournament in terms of drafts. Let’s analyze the meta through the lens of the games played at TI12. All data has been taken from datDota.
Most Picked Heroes at TI12
There’s something beautiful looking at this list of most picked heroes, and that is the fact that heroes that have been on the most played list for many a tournament in the recent past are not to be seen. Heroes Ember Spirit, Mirana and Tiny are finally in a place where they don’t dominate the drafting screen in premier tournaments. An old hero that still makes it into the top 15 most played heroes is Pangolier, but other than him, most heroes are not ones that typically have high pick rates.
There is a good mix of all positions, but that could also be because a lot of the popular heroes at TI12 were flex picks that could play multiple roles. Heroes like Muerta and Invoker were used as a core or support, while others like Kunkka and Chaos Knight were used in different core roles.
Dark Willow, Chaos Knight and Spirt Breaker stick out as heroes with significantly above average win rates, with Chaos Knight way above the pack. He was the strongest mid game carry for the tournament, and while most other carries aimed to take the game late, CK had the ability to end the game before the opposing carry came online. Not even Sven was a good counter to the hero.
Most Contested Heroes at TI12
You can never get a full picture of the strongest heroes from a tournament by just looking at the most picked heroes, because a lot of them get banned too often to be picked. Looking at the list of the most contested heroes provides a more complete picture.
There were no crazy broken heroes that were contested in over 95% of the games, which is often the case. Two heroes in the top 5 are a prime example of how banned heroes fail to make the most picked list – Dazzle and Primal Beast were two of the most banned heroes of TI12, which meant they saw very limited game time. Teams were weary of playing against them, and for good reason. In the games they were picked, Primal Beast had a win rate of over 62%, and Dazzle’s win rate was over 72%! The two heroes were quite strong, and were also flex heroes that can be played as mid laners or offlaners. Dazzle’s potential was evident in the last game of the tournament when it slipped through the bans and Team Spirit picked the Shadow Priest. Gaimin Gladiators thought that picking an Ancient Apparition might deter Team Spirit from picking him, but Dazzle is way too good right now to be stopped by the threat of Ice Blast.
A couple of highly banned heroes down the list that didn’t see too many picks include Brewmaster and Templar Assassin, although Brewmaster did see a good amount of play in the playoffs. The surprising thing is the relatively low bans against Chaos Knight. Team Spirit banned the hero twice and picked him once when they had the chance in the three grand final games against Gaimin Gladiators, and won all three of the games (they had a similar approach for Weaver as well).
Heroes with the Highest Win Rate at TI12 (picked in at least 20 games)
Looking at the heroes with the highest win rates is always a fun way to discover some of the heroes which were niche picks, but ones that were very successful. Chaos Knight, as mentioned before, was far from a niche pick, and was definitely one of the heroes of the tournament. But heroes like Pugna and Ancient Apparition had their places in specific games, and they did quite well. Weaver was not so popular during the group stages, but in the final few days of the playoffs, the hero got more traction and by the time the grand final rolled in, he was either picked or banned during the first phase.
Spirit Breaker, along with Chaos Knight, was one of the highly picked and contested heroes who had a crazy win rate of over 58%. The movement speed he racks up throughout the game which converts to damage has made the Space Cow an extremely efficient wave clearing hero. He can easily hit the 700 GPM limits, irrespective of position, when the game goes over 40 minutes. Along with Dazzle and Chaos Knight, this was another hero Team Spirit got their hands on in the last game of the tournament, which bolstered their comeback from a position at which the Dota 2 algorithm predicted a 4% win probability.
Heroes Neglected at TI12 (picked in less than 5 games)
As diverse as a tournament might be in terms of hero picks, there will always be a few heroes that are neglected. These 52 heroes are the ones that were picked in less than 5 games throughout the tournament. Now it doesn't mean they didn’t have any impact. nouns turned to Witch Doctor and Phantom Lancer for crucial wins, BetBoom Team picked Dragon Knight as a counter to Puck and Gaimin Gladiators outplayed the opposition with unexpected mid picks such as Huskar and Void Spirit. But when the next balance patch (Dota 2 patch 7.34e) or major patch (Dota 2 patch 7.35) rolls in, these will be the heroes that will be focused on for buffs.
Distribution of TI12 Games based on Duration
TI12 had a lot of long games, and that is evident when the distribution of games is analyzed based on their duration. Typically, the 30-40 minute bracket has the highest number of games, as is evident based on the same bar chart for TI11. But for TI12, the percentage of games in the 40-50 minute bracket was slightly higher than the percentage of games in the 30-40 minute bracket. Also, there was a significant increase in the percentage of games going over the 50 minute mark, which made for some intriguing games.
The prize pool for TI12 might have been much lower than what the Dota 2 community has been used to seeing in recent years, but the Dota 2 on display was top quality. TI4 was a testament to the fact that fast games do not bring nearly as much excitement to the viewing experience as the long, drawn out games. The good Dota 2 was complimented by the fact that the production for TI12 was top notch, probably due to the fact that Valve were able to have the event right in their backyard in Seattle.
Here’s to another amazing Dota 2 season coming to an end. Hopefully, the next season brings a lot more inter regional action with the DPC Leagues off the table, and hopefully, Valve follow through with their promise of exciting updates for Dota 2 throughout the year.
If you are interested in more stats about TI12, check out datDota co-founder Ben “Noxville” Steenhuisen’s Substack post.
