It’s really no surprise that Gyrocopter was the most picked hero of this patch. Given the early to midgame dominance of his newly-buffed Rocket Barrage, Gyro is the carry that perhaps best embodies the overall spirit of 6.84. The versatility of his playstyle effectively allows him to stand as the cornerstone of nearly any kind of lineup and be situated within nearly any kind of draft. He seems to have nested himself as the ‘safest’ safelaner of the current meta. That being said, his winrate is only a hair below .500 (exactly .499) and indeed he was only the 4th most banned hero of this patch. He is also one of the only heroes who was played almost exactly as many times as he was banned. Most teams seem to be rather confident in their ability to deal with his early game strength, which is perhaps why the majority of drafters are generally comfortable letting him through the first banning stage. However, it seems rather evident that most teams did not treat Undying - 6.84’s most banned hero - with this same relaxed and nonchalant attitude.
Undying was banned a whopping 667 times and only managed to see the pitch a mere 185 times. He was the 18th most played hero of the patch and had a better winrate than all seventeen heroes above him, excluding only Leshrac and Dragon Knight. Given the absurdity of his current strength in the early to midgame it comes as almost no surprise that the majority of teams have chosen to simply avoid dealing with him altogether.
Since Broodmother’s admittance into Captain’s Mode her ban rate has almost always outweighed her pick rate. It seems as if the majority of Broodmother’s strength in the competitive scene stems from the threat that she poses in the drafting stage - when she stands as a potential fourth or fifth pick against the opposing team’s mostly decided lineup. She is not necessarily at her best when she is actually played; but rather when the possibility exists that she will be played. She is definitely one of the patch’s most interestingly contested heroes. Given that she was banned on nearly five times as many occasions as she was picked - and that her win rate was only 50% - it seems safe to say that her contestation is of a special variety; that her presence in any given match is less an issue of making sure she is eliminated altogether and more one of teams gingerly making sure that they do not end up against her in the wrong circumstances. She is essentially the nuclear warhead of Dota picks: flaunted but (hopefully) never used.
As it currently stands Techies is the winningest hero of 6.84. Having started the patch 0-2, he went on to win the last five professional matches in which he was played. It’s safe to say that Team Secret is to blame for this truly wonderful (albeit really depressing) statistic: Kuro 'KuroKy' Salehi Takhasomi was the first player to achieve a win with the hero on this patch and is right now the most successful Techies player in the professional circuit (with a 2-0 record). After his performance on the hero at ESL One Frankfurt 2015 - and after s4’s suspiciously straight-faced comments during the trophy repsentation regarding his viability in the competitive scene - many have began to speculate that Secret has a Techies-Tusk pocket strategy in the works. For the sake of all that is good within Dota, let’s hope that this isn’t the case.
It is odd that Bounty Hunter - a generally balanced hero in the current state of things - is as it stands the most successful hero of 6.84. His support play has seen a tremendous increase in popularity recently and his focus in the competitive sphere has obviously led to promising results across the board. Despite the fact that he was only the 24th most picked hero, he held a better win rate than any of those which sit above him in that list; in fact, he holds the best win rate of any hero picked over a hundred times throughout the entire patch.
?Nothing need be said except that I’m sure the overwhelming majority of Dota fans take great pleasure in seeing that Troll Warlord and Sniper hold the 4th and 8th worst win rates (respectively) of any hero in this patch. O happy, happy day.
It does come as somewhat of a surprise, however, that Lina is the most unsuccessful of 6.84’s decidedly more popular heroes. While most of the heroes on this list amount to a series of relatively obscure or situational picks, Lina was the 8th most played hero of the patch. Perhaps her poor performance up until this point will serve to have an effect on the viability of her recent prevalence as a midlaning core and drive certain teams away from dawning her in said capacity; then again maybe the strategy just needs a bit of fine tuning: indeed we may see a development in her success as a carry during the 'mini-meta' of the upcoming International.
All statistics used are courtesy of datdota as of July 13, 2015.
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