welcome-banner
All News
article-headline
Dota 210 years agoGosu "GosuGamers" Gamers

Pick and ban analysis of the 8 remaining TI4 teams

The following statistics are taken from the Dotabuff website eSports section and can be accessed here.

 

 

Natus Vincere

 

 

HeroPicksWin %Bans
 Razor633.331
 Io560.001
 Tiny475.000
 Enigma450.000
 Tidehunter333.332
 

 

Over the course of their group stage games, Na’Vi had a relatively concentrated cluster of a few core hero picks. Their most picked hero was Razor, who was often played by Dendi ad part of the core backbone of the team. However, they only had a 33% winrate with the hero, which was one of the lowest win rates for the most picked hero of any of the teams in the Main Event. Maybe this statistic shows that they are consistently losing with favoured strategies or maybe they just got unlucky. Similarly, they had only a 50% win rate on Enigma, which they played a decent number of times. Enigma is a classic Na’Vi pick and one of Puppey’s preferred heroes whereas Dendi has only played Razor 10 times competitively. Clearly, they have been figured out with these heroes or something needs to change with their drafts.

On the upside the Tiny and Io picks have been working very well for them, having a win rate of 75% and 60% respectively. The combo is famously very strong in the game as a whole and seems to still be popular in the current patch after the removal of Io’s Tether stun. Although other teams have been picking heroes like Faceless Void as an offlaner and Skywrath Mage support, Na’Vi seem to be keeping to classic drafts, being unaffected by the fads in the metagame. This approach has got them through this far, but we will see if it can sustain them throughout or if they will have to start being more creative to match the their opponents.

 

Evil Geniuses

 

 

HeroPicksWin %Bans
 Wraith King3100.000
 Razor3100.000
 Faceless Void366.670
 Weaver2100.001
 Mirana250.002
 

 

In contrast to Na’Vi’s Razor picks, EG have picked the hero five times but have a 100% win rate with him. Generally, Dendi played the hero as a safe lane farmer and Arteezy usually played the hero at mid, which could be part of the reason for the discrepancy. Maybe the hero is just more suited to the mid role. EG have very much bought into the metagame of the last few patched by having their other most pick heroes as Faceless Void, Wraith King and Brewmaster who has been a bit of a ‘flavour of the month’. They have a 66.67% win rate on Universe’s offlane Void and another 100% win rate on Wraith King usually in the support role.  

EG have also prudently banned out Lycanthrope five times, as the hero as seen a recent resurgence in popularity.The hero can be very dangerous, especially with the Dire advantage and a lot of players really the hero. Being amongst some of the other teams in consistently banning Lycan out was a wise move from EG. They performed exceptionally well over the course of the group stages, picking very strong heroes and having very strong win rates with them. They have a 100% win rates on both Brewmaster and Shadow Shaman. They have been playing the great heroes very well, which they will hope to continue through the upper bracket.

 

Cloud9

 
HeroPicksWin %Bans
 Skywrath Mage666.670
 Doom450.005
 Mirana333.332
? Shadow Shaman366.671

 Drow Ranger

21000
 

 

Cloud 9 were fairly consistent with their bans throughout their games, banning Doom five times, Faceless Void six times, and Brewmaster five times. It is interesting to see these bans when you look at the most picked from teams like EG and iG particularly who really favoured those heroes. Denying teams crucial heroes can work very well, as they won’t have the drafts they are most comfortable with, as we saw with Alliance. These bans also remove the generally strong and popular heroes at the moment, which seems to have worked relatively well for Cloud 9.

As for picks, they have fared quite badly with their most picked Mirana, having only a 33% win rate on the hero. Mirana is arguably a bit of a slot machine hero, as when an Arrow hits it can win a game but when you don’t get lucky she feels a bit useless. Equally, when they picked the heroes that they also liked to ban, like Doom (50% win rate) and Void (20% win rate) and Invoker they didn’t really perform as well as the pick and ban rate might suggest. They had more success with picks like Skywrath Mage (66% win rate) and Aui_2000's Visage (100% win rate). We will have to see if they can master the heroes that they know to be so strong for the lower bracket playoffs.

 

Team DK

 

HeroPicksWin %Bans
 Juggernaut366.000
 Naga Siren 250.001
? Skywrath Mage2100.000
? Lich250.002
 Morhpling2100.002

 

DK had one of the widest hero pools in the tournament so far with very few concentrated picks. This is a real strength in the competitive scene, as you do not want to get specifically banned against and end up with unfamiliar or weaker drafts. All the Chinese teams had slightly wider hero picks than the other teams, which perhaps is reflected in their success. DK did particularly favour Skywrath Mage, which was their most picked and had the highest win rate of 80%. It looks like other teams tried to mimic their success with the hero, but out of all the remaining teams, except Cloud 9, DK were the only team to have a strong win rate with the hero.

Similarly to EG, DK banned out Lycan five times alsom sensing his strength that he has currently in the game. They also had a 75% win rate when they banned Tinker, who is also favoured amongst some of the teams that are left. With Naga Siren picked twice with a win rate of 50%, Juggernaut picked three times with an 66% win rate and Storm Spirit with a 100% win rate, DK showed all round strength when it came to drafting. They will most likely continue this maybe even picking even more widely from the hero pool.

 

Invictus Gaming

 

HeroPicksWin %Bans
 Rubick450.000
 Earthshaker333.330
 Brewmaster333.331
 Doom366.672
? Mirana366.670
 

 

As stated above iG knows the power of Doom (picked three times; 66% win rate) and Doom (picked four times; 75% win rate). They followed suit with many other teams and used these heroes to their full advantage. They however had mixed results with Rubick at 50% and Earthshaker. It was enough to see them through to the main event, but was perhaps was not what Chuan was hoping for on his two of his favourite heroes.

With bans they had exactly the same strategy as DK, banning out both Tinker and Lycan five times each. These are two very strong heroes if they get even a little bit of space, so iG shut down these two very momentum based heroes. Surprisingly, they banned and picked Razor a combined nine times, but only had a 20% win rate when he was picked, showing that they have not quite got the hang of the hero, as this statistic is quite significant.

 

Newbee

 

HeroPicksWin %Bans
? Shadow Shaman683.330
? Rubick633.331
 Tidehunter560.001
 Ancient Apparition575.002
 Enchantress450.00

1

 

The number one hero that Newbee picked was the support Shadow Shaman, which has been very popular with some teams, but not really showing in the group stage statistics. They picked the hero six times and had a 83.33% win rate with him, which is very impressive. The support players of the team have been doing a great job of using this hero to control team fights and take very fast towers out of Shadow Shaman’s great abilities. Newbee have had quite a large selection of choices, but have done particularly well with Tidehunter, picking and banning the hero a combined six times and having a 66.67% win rate on the hero. Clearly they know the power of the big green fish.

Although a few of the teams haven’t had the greatest success with Razor, Newbee have banned him out seven times as well as Naga Siren being removed the same number, as she is particularly threatening when given space by a farming team. Again, Void shows up being banned 4 times for just being an great intiator and team fight controller.

 

LGD Gaming

 

HeroPicksWin %Bans
 Enigma666.670
? Mirana666.671
 Viper580.000
 Invoker4100.000
 Razor425.003

 

Fighting their way out of an elimination position, LGD have ended up in the lower bracket with Enigma as their most picked hero at six times with a win rate of 66.67%. Viper has also seen some play for them unlike other teams. The hero has been picked five times and has a very solid 80% win rate for LGD, showing they can use the hero well at mid, by farming a quick Mekanism and snow balling very quickly. For some reason they have also seen the lack of success that many others have been facing with Razor, having picked the hero four times but only having a 25% win rate. They conversely had more success on heroes like Mirana and Enigma, both being picked six times and having a win rate of 66%, than other teams.

Impressively they are also one of the only teams to have Invoker so high up their most picked list, having been chosen four times and actually having a stunning 100% win rate with the hero. We might see this stat change though, as teams perhaps recognise that they can play the hero well and ban him out against them in the main event. As for bans they have had a lot of hate for Brewmaster, banning him eight times, more than any other team and rightly so given his strength and win rates with their opponents in the lower bracket Cloud 9.

 

Vici Gaming

 

 

HeroPicksWin %Bans
? Shadow Shaman560.000
 Tidehunter475.000
 Shadow Demon3100.000
 Razor333.330
 Lone Druid250.00

1

 

Top seed’s of the group stages VG have a slightly different bunch of heroes in their most picked. Similarly to Newbee they have favoured Shadow Shaman (picked five; win rate 60%) and Tidehunter (picked 4; win rate 75%). However the team have also done very well with less common picks in this tournament like Shadow Demon (picked three; win rate 100%) and had moderate success with Earthshaker (picked twice; win rate 50%).They also have racked up a mighty 100% win rate on Luna having been picked twice.

Arguably the difference between VG and the other top team, EG, is VG’s very slightly wider selection of hero choices. The Americans have a lot of 100% win rates near the top of their most picked, which is a key indicator of their success, but the Chinese likewise have strong 100% win rates, but they are not all clustered together at the top of the most picked. Nearly all of the heroes they have only picked once or twice has a 100% win rate. This could be the difference between the good and the great when it comes to the final stages of TI.

 

 

It's the holy grail of The International 4 coverage!


Highlight clips are aviailable on our YouTube channel. You can also visit our wiki page for more information on The International 4. 




> More featured articles

All Esports

Entertainment

GosuBattles

Account