In terms of games played, we’re probably just passing the 60% mark of The International 10.
It’s really crazy to think about how much Dota has been played in just three days, and how the public perception of players, teams, and heroes have all shifted in that time.
All the teams have zero, one, or two remaining series to go in the TI10 Group Stage later today — possibly followed by tiebreakers. Then the pacing of the event slows down drastically and every matchup becomes more detailed and precise.
Now’s a good chance to take a look at how the metagame has evolved in that time.
TI10 Group Stage hero picks
There are three heroes dominating in picks and bans right now, Monkey King (98.33% pick/ban rate), Io (95.83%), and Tiny (95.0%). After these, there’s a significant drop-off to the next most contested heroes, Invoker and Tidehunter (each at 72.5% pick/ban rate).
Earthshaker, Elder Titan, and Snapfire are the most picked heroes — each appearing in more than a third of the games so far.
What’s really scary is that of the heroes picked twenty or more times in the event, Monkey King and Tiny both appear in the top five most successful heroes, with 60.7% and 58.8% winrates respectively; Earthshaker is in sixth place with 57.1%.
It’s interesting that the most picked heroes are also the most winning heroes — normally these highly flexible heroes are the key indicators of a balanced patch which are carefully kept close to (or below) 50%.
Gyrocopter is performing awfully with a 4-13 record, 3-9 of which are when played alongside Io – it seems weird to see this iconic pair doing so dismally, especially at a TI.
Currently, 107 heroes have been picked and 95 have been banned, so just 12 heroes have been totally ignored in the drafts thus far.
All of these heroes have actually been picked at some point in the 7.30 patch, except for Lone Druid and Meepo.
This doesn’t indicate that they’re all likely upcoming picks however, the various minor balance patches have muddled up their value. As teams are eliminated each day you’d expect to see fewer unique heroes being played but as with all TIs, there are always some tricks in every team’s arsenal.
Hungry for more Dota 2? Check out the Heroes of the Game documentary presented by foodpanda.
READ MORE: Noxville’s official TI10 Teams Tier List
