Which heroes had a big impact during Dreamhack All Stars - Valencia? Which heroes were surprisingly missing from play or struggling mightily to have an impact?
Obviously, things could change drastically before the next EU Regional, especially with this event being played on the Medivh patch and Sonya being globally banned due to the Auto-attack bug. Nonetheless, let’s see what the EU meta looks like now.
Meta Heroes Missing from Games
Sonya was globally banned due to the Auto-attack bug.
Xul was picked a total of 3 times in 37 maps, and lost all 3 maps. For a hero who is prized on Tomb of the Spider Queen, Infernal Shrines, Dragon Shire and even Blackheart’s Bay for his wave clear, this was shocking.
Before the Summer Global Championships, Thrall was one of the most highly contested heroes in the game for competitive. However, it appears the large number of nerfs have finally gotten to him - the World Champions Tempest said he’s no longer that good, and now the rest of the competitive world seems to agree. Thrall was picked a total of 4 times, and he won 1 map for a 25% win rate.
Worst Hero Commonly Picked
Look, Li Ming is a solid hero with good poke and burst potential. But her win rate in competitive play has been below 50% for a long time now, yet her pick rate remains really high. This indicates that teams are either picking her when they shouldn’t or over prioritizing her in the draft. But Dreamhack All Stars - Valencia was the hero’s worst tournament by any standard: she won just 4 maps out of the 15 she was played, for a win rate of 27%.
The Fear of Illidan is Lifting
Ever since his rework, pros have greatly feared the hatred of 10,000 years - and responded by making sure he felt the force of 10,000 bans. But a funny thing happened during the playoffs of Dreamhack All Stars - Valencia: he was banned a total of 2 times in the playoffs out of 11 maps and lost the one map he played on. He also had an abysmal win rate in the entire tournament, winning just one of the 6 maps he was played on.
The Queen of Infernal Shrines
With Sonya globally banned and Xul rarely being picked, Kerrigan became an unstoppable juggernaut on the map: out of the 10 times Infernal Shrines was played, she won all 5 times she was picked and was banned in 4 of the 5 games that she did not appear. Considering that Kerrigan appears to be even stronger so far in the Gul’dan patch, Kerrigan’s dominance of the map appears to be as solid as her control of the Zerg.
Europe protects the wilds
It always seems that top level teams in Europe are big nature lovers. When mYinsanity was dominating Europe, they constantly picked Lunara. In this regional, Fnatic and Team Dignitas were the top dogs, and Fnatic repeatedly picked Lunara. While Dignitas did not usually pick her, they won Games 4 and 5 of the finals with Lunara. mYinsanity had their worst showing in an EU regional all year - so you might be asking: how many times did they pick Lunara in Valencia? It just so happens that the answer is zero.
For the tournament, she won 8 out of the 9 maps she was played on, for a win rate of 89%. But her real impact came in the playoffs, where she won all 5 maps, including a perfect 3-0 in the hotly contested finals. It remains to be seen if she can have this kind of impact in any other region, given that EU has always had a playstyle that is the most conducive to her success.
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