European Qualifier:
Leshrac seems to have been the European division’s most ‘offensive’ presence: that is, the hero who saw the most action, he who, more than any other, was banned significantly fewer times than he was played. Having been picked 65% of the time—the most of any hero throughout all 52 matches—Leshrac was only banned 35% of the time, making him the 7th most banned hero of the tournament. Given that he was picked first 29% of the time, most of these teams must have either felt confident in their ability to run the hero themselves or, alternatively, thought they had developed a strong enough counter-measure with which to oppose the threat he often poses in the current patch. The fact that his win rate was only just shy of 60% provides solid ground for the idea that most European teams are probably just as comfortable playing against him as they are playing with him.
Despite his seemingly permanent status as a competitive pick throughout all of pro Dota, Wisp had an ever so slightly larger presence in the European drafts than in those of any other region. He tied both Leshrac and Queen of Pain for the division’s most contested pick. If Lesh was Europe’s ‘offensive’ presence, then Wisp was certainly its ‘defensive’ one: not the hero who was banned the most across the board, but he who teams were more inclined to ban than to run themselves. Despite having had a 100% pick/ban rate throughout the entire tournament, the hero only ever saw playtime 31% of the time (and 23% of the time he was the first pick). Indeed the hero was banned a whopping 36 times, all of which were made in the first phase. However, despite the apparent hesitance that European teams seem to show towards the hero, Wisp won only 6 of his 16 matches played, boasting a pretty harmless win rate of only 38%.
North American Qualifier:
Despite him having been a top tier pick throughout all of the regions, it was in the North American Qualifier where Gyrocopter had what was by far his best showing. He won his matches 75% of the time, the most of any of the tournament’s most frequently picked heroes. This is matched only by his win rate of (roughly) 60% in the Chinese Qualifier, since—despite his status in the current metagame—he fell short of placing even in the top five of the other divisions’ winningest most picked heroes.
Gyrocopter was second only to Dazzle as the region’s most triumphant hero: having been played 15 times—the same number of times as Gyro—he won a solid 83% of his matches. This makes Dazzle the most successful top pick across all four regions.
It should also be noted that the hero with the highest win rate in this division (without taking into account volume of play) was Pudge. Having been picked 4 times, Pudge boasted a 100% win rate, holding a 4-0 record.
Chinese Qualifier:
The Chinese Qualifier seems to be where teams were most intimidated by the power of Undying. Being the region’s only hero with a 100% pick/ban rate, he was banned almost 80% of the time. Moreover, of the 11 matches he was played, he proved the victor in 8 of them.
As far as what separates this region's drafts from the others, China’s most unbeaten hero (of the top picks) was Viper, having won 73% of his 15 games played. His success doesn’t necessarily come as a surprise, however, given that Viper has long been rooted in the early push strategy which is signature of the Chinese playstyle. Speaking of push: Drow Ranger had the highest win rate of any hero in the Chinese Qualifier: she was banned a total of 26 times and won 8 of the 9 games in which she did in fact manage to make it through the draft.
South East Asian Qualifier:
This region seemed to place less emphasis on Gyrocopter than the other three. He was picked only 20 times in the SEA Qualifier (making him 6th in the ranking) and won only 8 of those matches. Of all the times he was picked, only a whimpering 4% were made in the first phase.
Despite the fact that Earthshaker was the most drafted hero of the SEA Qualifier, having been picked a staggering 38 times, his similarly heavy presence in the Chinese Qualifier makes it fair to say that SEA’s most distinguishable trend was the consistent drafting of Witch Doctor. He was the fourth most picked hero of the Qualifier (drafted 51% of the time) and the 7th most contested (picked or banned in 70% of all matches). Most notably, however, the hero achieved victory in 22 of his 27 matches, boasting a truly impressive win rate of 81.5%.
All statistics were taken from datdota and Gosu's very own hero database.
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