The winner of the Arcana Vote this year will be unveiled in less than four weeks and we take a look at the heroes who have made it this far.
Among the plethora of goodies available exclusively to Battle Pass owners, one that is highly anticipated every year is the arcana vote. It’s Valve’s sort of democracy - making the community choose the best cosmetic in the game for the hero they think deserve it the most. With Phantom Assassin winning the Arcana Vote over Juggernaut two years ago – and eventually getting the Manifold Paradox - and Lord Zeus winning it over Queen of Pain last year, being honored with the Tempest Helm of the Thundergod, a tough competition is expected this year too as the grand final will take place three weeks from now.
Last week’s Arcana vote was one of the most exciting ones yet, having produced some uncanny results too. Already, there have been quite a number of heroes that made it through despite no one having expected them to. The battle for the superior ES continued between Earthshaker and Ember Spirit and after a close week, Ember Spirit won with about nine percent more votes. Drow Ranger also managed to win over Lion in a rather close (but not as much voted upon) match-up.
image source: Wykrhm Reddy
A notable mention here is the increasing love of the community for Io. At last week’s vote, the owners of the Battle Pass voted for the Guardian Wisp over Invoker. Io, albeit a very popular hero in the professional scene, is the third least played hero in pubs, with an abysmal win rate of a mere 35.60%, seemed like an odd choice of the community. This is emphasised when you consider he's been picked over the Arsenal Magus, who is the third most popular hero in the game picked in almost 26% of all games, a number which may have fallen due to him being a hot favourite to be banned in Ranked All Pick. Not only this, the battle between Invoker and Io was not even remotely close, as Io’s votes were a little over two million over Invoker’s.
While many voted for Io due to the fact that not a single cosmetic for him exists in the game, many voted for him just because of their overwhelming hate towards Invoker. With Invoker being so prevalent in all matches, public or professional, few players want to see more Invokers in their games and evolving into the so-called “pub cancer”. Another reason was the high quality Dark Artistry Immortal set that was released for Invoker as the Very Rare version of the second Immortal Treasure, which influenced a lot of the voters into believing that it would be unfair for him to get an Arcana too, with all the polished cosmetics he already holds. Yet, the emotion of the community towards Io has not changed after his victory against Invoker. Mr. Disco Ball leads against last year’s finalist Queen of Pain in this week’s Arcana Vote, and it will be interesting to see who survives at the end of the week.
If we compare the current results of the Arcana Vote to the ones from last year, half of the heroes are the same this year too – in Juggernaut, Windranger, Pudge, Storm Spirit, Slark, Tinker, Ember Spirit and Queen of Pain. This may prove that players are more likely vote for their favourite heroes and ones they enjoy playing rather than those that they are more likely to win with, and that the ever-spinning wheel of the meta does not have significant influence over hero preferences.
Support players who own the Battle Pass mourn again this year, as after receiving no dedicated quest line for supports, the Arcana vote doesn’t seem to be tilting in their favour either. Crystal Maiden remains the only support hero with an Arcana, and out of the sixteen heroes in the arcana vote, only Io is left as a true support, with Mirana’s increasing popularity in the middle lane.
Next week, we shall see eight more of these heroes stripped of the opportunity to receive an arcana for themselves, as the list of the contenders continues to shorten. Yet whoever wins the vote, it will be interesting to see what concept Valve come up with. Every year, the true creativity of the developers is brought out by the Arcana Vote and with pleasing Arcanas through the years, we await to see what Valve has in store for us this year.
The International 6 Coverage HUB
Click here for results, VODs and all the other information
