Free hero rotation week of Tuesday, August 4th
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Available at all levels: LiLi, E.T.C., Nova, Tassadar, Thrall
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Available at level 12: Azmodan
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Available at level 15: The Butcher
A Glance at the SEA Meta
Often times the word meta is thrown around too loosely, and with good cause, what the meta is, what the meta means, is constantly evolving. Some people even refer to Heroes as though a single 'meta' existed across all regions. The truth is, we live in a multi-meta-verse. With the Road to Blizzcon SEA qualifiers now finished, we thought it would be a perfect time to take a small glance at the South East Asia meta as compared to the unified global meta.
We considered comparing winrates, but those numbers can be skewed by a Hero with few games winning many of them, so for a quick, non-comprehensive look at the SEA regions meta, we decided to examine the most picked heroes.
What we see is that regardless of region, good Heroes are good heroes. The lists feature 9/10 of the exact same heroes, however, their placement may indicate some strategies concerning play style. The similarities do tell us about how the game is operating as whole right now. Johanna and Muradin are the cream of the warrior crop, while Anub'Arak is a great bug to bring along if you've already got a strong warrior. The mages won't be denied, as both Jaina and Kael'Thas are too strong to not pick. Zagara is the top specialist, and Uther is leading the way for supports. And then we have Valla who has been good since the beginning of time. However, where Valla is picked does start to show the divergence in metas.
The two heroes which differ on these lists are Rehgar and Sylvanas. Rehgar is of course a great healer in a team fight, allowing a single target to either dive deep, or tank a ton of damage while essentially get a second life. Sylvanas is great at split pushing and laning. Now consider where Valla is on this list for the SEA championships. Valla is a great all around character, but one of her strengths, even as an assassin, is clearing lanes and pushing objectives.
While the meta seems very similar at first glance, it would appear, just by the numbers, the the SEA meta focuses more on the versatility of a hero like Valla, who can fight, but can also push lanes extremely well. Coupled that with the non-standard-global-meta pick of Sylvanas, and it appears that the SEA region focuses less on fighting the enemy team, and more on fighting over map control.
What is dead may never die
Last week, we took a look at Leoric, and by all accounts he was a strong Hero League warrior. Another week has passed and he is the uncontested king of the Nexus. Generally, when we do these looks at winrates, a Hero will be at the top of one list, and further down on another, but interesting to note, Leoric has the highest winrate when looking across all leagues, when analyzing only Master Leagues, and even has the highest winrate in Bronze Leagues. Across the board, Leoric is winning more games in Hero League than any other Hero, and by a significant margin.
Leoric's winrate in Master Leagues is 64.2%, compared to the second place of Jaina with 62.6%. In Bronze Leagues he wins 51.8% of the time compared to Nazeebo's 51.1%, and across all leagues, he holds a winrate of 57.5%, towering over second place Nazeebo with 55.7%. Leoric is absolutely, unarguably, the strongest hero in the Nexus as the moment.
Enough praise; lets look at the dumpster fires. The worst winrate in Bronze League belongs to Tassadar, with a measly 36.9% winrate, Artanis is going to be pissed. Across all leagues, Stitches holds the bottom spot at 41.1%, as he is now viewed as a utility tank and only viable on specific maps if at all. And a bit of a surprise, as in Master Leagues the worst hero is Falstad with a 46.3% winrate. Apparently, Falstad did die.
On our mini-map: Play10Lose11
It is time to broaden our horizons. In the past we have covered North American teams, teams from Europe, and even teams from Korea. However, there is a whole other region getting in on the Heroes of the Storm action that not many people know about, yet. South East Asia (SEA) will be sending a team to the America's bracket of Road to Blizzcon, so it is high time we started familiarizing ourselves with the teams from the East.
On our mini-map this week: Play10Lose11. This team from Thailand is currently ranked #22 in our Global Heroes of the Storm Rankings after winning the SEA Road to Blizzcon Thailand finals in impressive fashion. During their run through the Thailand finals, Play10Lose11 didn't drop a single map, defeated other Thai teams such as Excalibur (Rank #273), Team HtiM (Rank #238), and team Arsenic Ext (Rank #43) twice (2-0, 3-0).
Follow Play10Lose11 as they face off against Team Bibingka (Rank #27), Mahou Shounen (Rank #31), and Team Potatoes (Rank #26), in the Road to Blizzcon SEA Championships on August 8th.
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