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Hey guys, thanks for tuning into this week's episode Level 1 Roshan, where we bring you
Dota 2 news, stats, meta analysis, and more!
First up, everyone's still talking about Ti4's date change - this year The International
will be held in July, due to Valve being unable to secure a venue for August, and also will
be moving to a location larger than Benaroya Hall. An exact date has not yet been nailed
down, but between Dreamhack Summer June 14th-17th, MLG Anaheim June 20th-22nd, ESL June 28th-29th,
and Ti4 in mid-July, players could be expected to attend and compete in four major events
in as many weeks, AND pingpong back and forth between Europe and the US.
It seems as though MLG Anaheim would lose out the most from this schedule, so MLG officials
are currently in talks with representatives from some of the teams to discuss scheduling,
but we wanna know what you guys think. There's already been plenty of backlash about Ti4
being held in July, with many feeling that July is too soon, but again, it's not really
Valve's fault as they couldn't secure a large enough venue for August. But go ahead and
leave a comment on this video and let me know your thoughts on the matter!
On to the meta analysis - this time we're going to be taking a look at how February
as a whole stacked up in the competitive scene, as compared to January. The hardest hit hero
last month was Alchemist - in January we saw him get picked in 98% of games, but after
6.80's nerf to Unstable Concoction and Alchemist's nighttime vision, his pick rate dropped to
about 31% in February. Crystal Maiden and Venomancer's pick rates also fell due to 6.80
nerfs, but also due to the rise in popularity of others supports such as Sand King, Bane,
and Dazzle.
Nyx and Invoker saw a noteworthy increase in banrate in February, each getting banned
about 50% of the time, and joining Visage in the top three popularity spots - all three
heroes were either picked or banned in over 80% of matches played. In fact, they were
also the three heroes that got picked first most of the time, with Invoker getting first
pick 89 times, Visage 69 times, and Nyx 66 times - for comparison, the next most first
picked hero was Clockwerk, at 33 first picks.
OD and Dragon Knight saw the biggest drop in popularity month-over-month, falling 35%
and 30% respectively.
As for winrates, Mirana saw the biggest leap (slight pun intended), up to nearly 60% in
February, as compared with a 37% win rate in January. Gyrocopter went up a bit, winning
37% of his competitive matches last month, a minor improvement from his 23.8% win rate
the previous month. Pugna's win rate plummeted from 66.7% in January to 25% in February,
which could be a mark of players adjusting to his playstyle, or because of the decline
in popularity in necrobook-based push strats. Also down are Wisp and Storm Spirit, both
of whom fell 16% in winrate month over month.
That's it for this week! As always, be sure to subscribe if you haven't already, and I'll
see you guys next time! Until then, enjoy the game.