With that being said let's go over what is hot, and what's not. A bonus 4th point will cover the world cup!
HOT
1. Arachna
- We have been seeing Arachna in nearly every match lately, and for good reason. She offers a nice damage aura and a snare as well as being able to tank quite a bit of magic damage with the hardened carapace. She is a capable ganker and carry, and does well in many lane combos.
2. Teams NEVA (Especially Milkfat) and Empire Gaming
- NEVA has finally delivered in winning a couple of events, in this case the NEVA 9 qualifier and the first round of the new Game Replays series (which included a victory over team 5.) Milkfat is of course always sexy, but the big news was Brized on no-grip/1 level grip electrician. Empire gaming of course managed to win HoNcast 7 and came 2nd to MSI in the TWL Grand Finals.
3. Ganking
- Beastmaster was ported, Fayde is nearly always banned... Basically the game is becoming more and more gank oriented. We have seen crazy examples of this such as portal key Arachna by Angrytestie of 5, and great roaming play by various behemoths and Andromedas.
4. South Korea
- The Red devils looked strong in their first match of the group stage of the world cup, hopefully they will have a strong showing against Argentina on Thursday!
NOT
1. Pollywog Priest
- With another nerf on Pollywog, he has been relegated to the sometimes picked territory. While he is a strong pusher, the metagame has shifted away from insane pushing and he has been left behind in favor of heroes like Arachna.
2. Teams t7h and Loaded
- t7h got smacked around by NEVA in the log awaited first meeting of the two teams. They have been fairly quiet on the scene recently, but expect Amingo and company to have a comeback if he ever gets a decent computer. Loaded has apparently lost top players Warden and Chu for the time being, and lost to 5 in a recent finals match. They also exited a recent tournament earlier than expected due to being Chu-less.
3. Pushing
- With nerfs to both Pollywog Priest and Slither, the insanity of pushing has died down considerably. I suspect engineer will also be receiving some further nerfs soon, and that will probably put pushing in a good place. Pushing should be a strategy you have to commit to with 3 or 4 picks, not just an Engineer tinker and Slither/Polly wards.
4. South Africa
- With everyone up in arms over the Vuvuzelas, and a crushing 3-0 defeat at the hands of Uruguay, times are looking tough for Bafana Bafana.
That wraps up this weeks article, please feel free to debate my opinions in the comments below!
