Monday, August 19, 2013

TI3 Recap (Part 1)

I'm feeling quite saturated with DOTA2 from watching all the TI3 matches over the last two weeks. Plenty of analysis has been written online about the matches (and by much better analysts than me) so I don't particularly feel motivated to replicate all that work. I may revisit some of the noteworthy matches in the future, as examples of where specific heroes had the opportunity to shine. Bulba's Clockwerk was amazing, truly impressive game between Liquid and LGD China. One of my favourite games in the tournament, and a reminder of just how potent Clockwerk can be in the right hands.

Anyway, since I like stats, I've put together an infographic of hero pick frequency. Visage was picked in 54% of the TI3 games. It sounds like a lot, but Thresh, a support in LOL, was picked in 58% of the Summer Season LCS games. While LOL has 20 more champions than DOTA2, it just ended up adding to the unpicked list (there were 39 unpicked Champions in LOL, while there was 13 unpicked Heroes in DOTA2).

It's interesting that both games have very similar pick distributions. If the games were better balanced would the pick distribution be more even, or would they end up like this anyway just due to trends and player preferences.

As a side note I will probably not be blogging much until I return from Africa, in about mid September. I will be climbing Kilimanjaro, it's a 70km trek over 8 days reaching almost 20,000 feet and it will all be done in tents with no access to electricity or running water, with expected temperatures down to -15C so... if I don't make it back alive, RIP this blog I guess. Lol.