Dota 2: What players can learn from ESL Birmingham 2019

ESL Birmingham gives a glimpse ahead of the upcoming DPC tournament. With a fair competition format, long group stages and low risk, everyone gets to see a lot of new and interesting strategies and hero choices. Here’s what we’ve learned from the tournament, especially since patch 7.22c just came out.

SVEN VERY STRONG

It’s not surprising that Sven became the top pick at the tournament and will probably continue to dominate in the pro arena and in the pub. This hero is good at lane, farm fast and strong enough late game to finish the game.

An average match is about 38 minutes, approx 2.5 minutes compared to the previous patch. That allows Sven to go up to 6 slots and be able to kill all other core heroes while BKB is on.

This is good news for most pub players, given the hero’s relatively simple gameplay. Maximum lifting Great Cleave, Hit jungle creeps for about 10 minutes, rotate to defend, and destroy everything with economic advantage.

TROLL WARLORD IS OVER-ESTED IN THE PRO LONG PUB

Win rate of less than 50% in pub and under 40% in professional arena makes Troll Warlord one of the underrated heroes compared to true power in the current meta. Players now know how to deal with Trolls.

In addition, this hero does not have an attractive skill set. Slow, Root and Blind are all good effects, but in teamfight they are completely outclassed by disables. Hand trolling is very effective, but this meta requires the ability to farm faster or be more independent in teamfight.

Everything changes when Troll combines with Magnus, but this is still not the perfect combo. Whirling Axes are nerfed in 7.22c making Trolls even weaker, while players also have more reliable and stable position 1 options.

WARLOCK AND SHADOW SHAMAN ALWAYS WERE CONSIDERATION

Shadow Shaman needs no introduction or much explanation. This hero has two strong disables, strong push and high damage when playing in position 4 if max Ether Shock. This hero is successful in both pro and pub, however, reducing attack speed by 10 can affect Shadow Shaman a bit.

Warlock is a bit strange in the professional arena and high rank pub. A longer game average and harder to push offers more opportunities to pick greedy core heroes who don’t need to overwhelm lanes, but can turn into monsters later in the game. This way of thinking forces players to choose supports more defensively, and Warlock with its ability to spam Shadow Word will ensure the safety of the team’s carry.

Not to mention, the new Fatal Bonds also become an effective lane-squeezing tool, drawing blood to make the opponent not dare to play too aggressive.

CHEN CAN STILL STRONG

Valve decided to change Chen significantly in patch 7.22c, making it unclear for players whether Chen will be better or worse.

On the one hand, the extra healing makes the lane better. On the other hand, bonus damage used to play a decisive role in last hitting and denying. This hero has clearly become less active and has to play more defensively.

EPILOGUE

Dota is a game that is constantly evolving and what was right yesterday doesn’t mean it will be right tomorrow. More importantly, sometimes the change is not due to outside influences (specifically Valve), but players slowly learn how to handle situations, discover new things, and try old lessons again but again. unexpected effect.