The build standing on top is the (6) Warriors (4) Brawny build. It is the main build that allowed Cmel (the second Russian player in the tournament) to come very close to overtaking Snofe on the last day by winning him the 1st place in a few games.

It was quite obvious right when the new patch hit that Brawny had one of the strongest Alliance bonuses. Most people tried to make them work in (4) Brawny + Hunter strategies, which utilize the defensive Brawny bonus and the offensive Hunters bonus to make Beastmaster into a super-carry.

These strategies, however, had mixed success. This is mainly because they are very reliant on getting Beastmaster early on. If you do, he will get enough early-game kills, which would in term make him stronger and allow him to continue gathering kills in the mid and late game, especially when you increase his star-level. If you don’t get him early on, however, he won’t snowball and the Brawny buff would be much less useful, which would usually force you to transition into a normal Hunters draft. This is not terrible by any means, but it doesn’t automatically beat neither Knights nor Elusive, and it is vulnerable to Assassins rampaging on the backlines.

Brawny Warriors, however, have a much different philosophy. Instead of relying on Beastmaster to carry you, they make your whole lineup obscenely tanky and win fights in this way. The core strat is: