A closer look at how double (or more) Warrior teams impacted the recent tournaments in China and EU.
The second European Fall Regional took place last week at Gamescom, where Team Dignitas reconfirmed their presence at Blizzcon with another win and Fnatic defeated Misfits in a tiebreaker match for the second slot. Just a couple days ago, China's Gold Series finished up with ZeroPanda and Super Perfect Team winning their places at the global championship in November. In both regions, multiple Warrior drafts were frequent; comprising 63% of all teams in each tournament. This was perhaps best symbolized by the only hero to achieve a 100% pick/ban rate in both contests: Tyrael. Not Falstad, not Rehgar (both in the high 90s), but Tyrael.
China's Gold Series stats:
- 52 games, 104 drafts, 66 multi-warrior combinations.
- Dual Warrior comprised 50 of those, 2 games with Cho'Gall (both losses.)
- Warrior bruiser was used in 10 games, mostly with Sonya, but 2 with Diablo and 2 with Artanis.
- Warrior-Warrior-bruiser was used in 4 games, all with Sonya; Warrior-bruiser-bruiser in 1 with Sonya and Artanis, and Super Perfect Team pulled out the triple Warrior (Muradin, Anub'arak, Chen) in a loss to eStar.
- Multi-warrior compiled a 34-12 (.740) record, with only 6 games without a double Warrior on at least one side.
Stats from European Fall Regional:
- 44 games, 88 drafts, 55 multi-warrior combinations
- Dual Warrior made up 47 of these, 1 with Cho'Gall (a loss, of course.)
- Warrior bruiser was used in 8 games, all with Sonya except 1 with Diablo.
- Bruiser-bruiser was used once with Sonya and Diablo (a win!)
- Multi-warrior compiled a 29-11 (.725) record, with only 5 games without a double Warrior on at least one side.
What did we learn, Palmer?
Multi-warrior has been dominant in EU competitive play for some time, but it's taken hold in China more recently. Multiple nerfs to top choices like Muradin haven't affected it and the recent buffs (and subsequent nerfs) to Tyrael only reinforced its presence. Battleground selection didn't seem to have a great deal of impact with Sky Temple, Infernal Shrines, Tomb of the Spider Queen, and Cursed Hollow being the favored maps in both tournaments, which will doubtlessly be similar in the upcoming 2nd NA Fall Regional.
Map breakdown:
- Sky Temple: 18 matches, 20 teams with multi-Warrior (55%)
- Infernal Shirines: 19 matches, 23 teams with multi-Warrior (61%)
- Cursed Hollow: 17 matches, 23 teams with multi-Warrior (68%)
- Tomb of the Spider Queen: 17 matches, 22 teams with multi-Warrior (65%)
There are a couple minor differences in overall preference, however. For example, EU included Arthas in 27 games (12 wins, 12 losses, 3 bans) while China included him only once (1 loss.) China, OTOH, included Johanna in 32 games (14-14, 4 bans), while EU used only once (1 loss.) Both of those heroes can fill similar roles (high durability front-liner, strong wave clear) but Arthas has greater impact with his heroics, while Johanna has a better escape with her trait.
Another significant difference was China's use of Dehaka in 12 games (5-4, 3 bans) while EU involved him only once (1 loss.) Dehaka has a global presence with Brushstalker and, indeed, was played most on the larger maps (Temple, Hollow) and by the eventual champions, ZeroPanda, with an 83% win rate. Maybe it's time for other regions to take another look at the primal Zerg?
An interesting trend in Europe was that 3 of the 11 losses by multi-Warrior comps were by Fnatic against Misfits in their semifinal. In 3 straight games, Misfits went with a single Warrior (Stitches, Muradin, Tyrael) but also went with Tychus, Rehgar, and at least one other significant damage dealer (Thrall, Illidan, Kerrigan) and a specialist. Were they specifically drafting against double Warrior in that case? They also avoided the comp in 3 of their 5 games against Dignitas in the finals and 2 of 3 against Fnatic in the tiebreaker (both losses.) ZeroPanda and Super Perfect Team, OTOH, hewed closely to the comp in their finals matchup, both using it in 4 of 5 drafts in the grand finals; ZeroPanda going 3-1 with it in their 4-1 series win.
Now, again, the aforementioned Tyrael nerfs may have some impact on his presence and NA's meta. For some time now it has been dominated by damage dealers, rather than front-liners, so there's no guarantee that multi-Warrior will make the transition. Tyrael did however make an appearance in many drafts throughout the qualifiers and as dual Warrior has long been a presence in Korea's Super League, NA may be ready to make the jump.
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