Why this game, in particular, is very significant for the TI9 meta is because both drafts are quite off-meta. The meta picks are SD + Lesh on one side and Mirana + Tide on the other. All other heroes are played much more rarely, and the popular strategies are usually not that specialized into 5-man Dota or Rat Dota.

This means that TNC thought it’s viable to utilize a more specialized 5-man Dota draft. This makes sense, as ganking is a big part of the meta that dominated the group stage.

And instead of sticking to the meta picks and strats, Liquid simply drafted the textbook response to deal with the 5-man draft and won a convincing victory with a lineup which is even more off-meta than TNC’s.

The point is that the current meta seems to be very, very open. This is great because it means teams will have the freedom to show the best they are capable of not only in terms of play but in terms of creativity and strategic understanding of the game, unrestrained by the current popularity of heroes and strats.