Evolution of Heroes: The International 1 to The International 5
What adds to the thrill in Dota 2 is its continuous change. It is what makes players get hooked in the game.
For games like Dota 2, patch changes stir the pot enough that entirely new hero combinations shake up the scene.
What better way to add more excitement to these changes than pairing it up with the biggest tournament in the game: The International. The gathering of the world’s top Dota 2 players always sets the stage for new and innovative strategies that dazzle and amaze. New heroes rise in popularity and item builds change along with the competition that surrounds Dota 2’s grandest stage.
Let’s take a look at the evolution of strategies and hero picks from the first International forwards:
The International 2011
The first International was the time where players were still experimenting on heroes. It was when no one had any idea which heroes work best with what role or which strategy was more effective. Roles weren’t even fully established then. Rubick and Leshrac for example, changed roles from one game to another; they can be both mid-laners and supports.
most picked
Vengeful Spirit — 33% win-rate
Earthshaker — 60% win-rate
Windrunner — 46% win-rate
most banned
Anti-Mage
Night Stalker
Spectre
most picked support
Vengeful Spirit
most picked carry
Mirana
most picked offlaner
Beastmaster
most picked midlaner
Puck
Did you know:
Mirana is the carry with highest win-rate during the first The International. The hero saw a win-rate of 72%. It was followed by Anti-Mage with a 70% winrate.
Patch after patch, Mirana’s game-ending prowess was reduced. Her Sacred Arrow’s minimum stun duration was reduced from 0.5 to 0.01 seconds. Its vision was also reduced from 800 to 650. However her recent buffs, like Moonlight Shadow’s cooldown decrease and duration increase made her a very useful support hero.
From most picked carry in The International she became the most picked support in The International 4.
The International 2012
In the second International, almost all of the popular and unpopular heroes in TI2 had something to do with pushing strategies.
Popular heroes included Enchantress, Tinker, Nature’s Prophet and Broodmother. Naga Siren’s Rip Tide was changed in time for the event, with the skill adding its 450 AOE damage to her illusions. The skill was also changed to have no cast point, basically allowing it to be instantly cast once the key was pressed. This made her notorious among the teams for her ability to farm multiple areas of the map by sending her illusions to the jungle or side-lanes.
She was banned prominently throughout the event, second to Lycan who also proved to be a notoriously strong pushing hero in his own right.
most picked
Leshrac — 54% win-rate
Venomancer — 50% win-rate
Invoker — 46% win-rate
most banned
Lycan
Naga
Dark Seer
most picked support
Venomancer
most picked carry
Morphling
most picked offlaner
Tidehunter
most picked midlaner
Invoker
The International 2013
The Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade on Visage granted him to summon three familiars, making it a useful too in split-pushing and in team fights. Visage adds to the split-push type of strategy was popular in TI3.
Of the heroes that defined the split-push metagame, TI3 would forever remember the offlane Nature’s Prophet, made popular by that year’s champions The Alliance.
most picked
Visage — 56% winrate
Weaver — 57% winrate
Nature’s Prophet — 49% winrate
most banned
Obsidian Destroyer
Wisp
Batrider
most picked support
Visage
most picked carry
Weaver
most picked offlaner
Nature’s Prophet
most picked midlaner
Dragon Knight
Fun fact: The Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade of Visage, ability to summon three familiars, proved to be very effective in team fights and split pushing. The battle between Team DK and Orange: former Team Orange member, Joel Chan ‘XtiNcT’ Zhan executed a 4-man stun with his familiars during a team fight in bottom lane.
The International 2014
If TI3 was the year of the split-push (a metagame defined by singular heroes breaking off from the rest of their team to push lanes separately), then TI4 was its polar opposite.
This year was the end of split-pushing strategy and it revolved around counter-picking and being aggressive as a team to gain full momentum in the game.
Teams focused on picking heroes with good initiation. Once they farmed up their Blink Dagger, giving them the advantage in starting fights, they can control the whole game. Heroes like, Tidehunter, Brewmaster and Treant Protector were proved to be very useful in-game.
With gold values for destroying towers giving such a huge early game swing, teams adopted a group-up-and-fight strategy that ended games within 20 minutes. The strategies and hero picks for TI4 drew mixed responses from the community.
most picked
Mirana — % winrate
Treant Protector — 57% winrate
Shadow Demon — 47% winrate
most banned
Batrider
Lycan
Doom
most picked support
Mirana
most picked carry
Doom
most picked offlaner
Tidehunter
most picked midlaner
Brewmaster
The International 5 so far:
In the lead up to this year’s The International, traditionally strong heroes like Mirana and Batrider have dropped completely out of the picture due to their recent changes.
This TI5, Queen of Pain is leading the race as the most picked and one of the most banned heroes. She has an excellent AOE damage potential, especially with an early Aghanim’s Scepter.
Meanwhile, Undying is a newly emerging top pick due to his huge impact in team fights. He is a tanky hero capable of holding his own in an extended engagement and can dominate the laning stage which can secure a team’s advantage.
But TI5 is proving to have shades of TI4, with a lot of emphasis in early team fights. Heroes such as Leshrac and Queen of Pain dominate the mid-laner picks for their ability to bring a lot of area damage with only a few key item pickups.
most picked
Queen of Pain — 53% winrate
Earthshaker — 50% winrate
Rubick — 45% winrate
most banned
Undying
Io
Queen of Pain
most picked support
Earthshaker
most picked carry
Gyrocopter
most picked offlaner
Clockwerk
most picked midlaner
Queen of Pain
Leshrac
Patch changes serves as a pumping blood of Dota 2. Without it players might get tired with the monotonous hero and strategy picks. Like it or hate, change is necessary for survival — both for the popularity of the game among its casual users and the teams competing at this year’s event.
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