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Chen is the 3rd least played hero overall, beaten for non-existent popularity only by new heroes Underlord and Arc Warden ( Chen is the 3rd least played hero overall, beaten for non-existent popularity only by new heroes Underlord and Arc Warden ( DOTABUFF

Lacoste (Analyst) Lacoste (Analyst)

Merlini (Analyst) Merlini (Analyst)

Handsken (Pro Player) Handsken (Pro Player)

Snith delivered his now classic meme to the TI5 panel Snith delivered his now classic meme to the TI5 panel

Snith has played 4,444 matches on Chen. His Solo MMR is 5.9K ( Snith has played 4,444 matches on Chen. His Solo MMR is 5.9K ( DOTABUFF profile

Ｈｅｌｌｏ Ｉ＇ｍ Ｓｎｉｔｈ， ｐｌａｙｉｎｇ ｍｙ ２０２１４３ｔｈ ｇａｍｅ ｏｎ Ｃｈｅｎ． Ｅｖｅｎ ｔｈｏｕｇｈ ｉｔ＇ｓ ｔｈｅ ｏｎｌｙ ｈｅｒｏ Ｉ ｐｌａｙ Ｉ ｓｔｉｌｌ ｓｕｃｋ ａｔ ｉｔ． Ａｓ ａ ｃｏｍｐｅｎｓａｔｉｏｎ ｆｏｒ ｍｙ ｌａｃｋ ｏｆ ｓｋｉｌｌ Ｉ ａｍ ｇｏｉｎｇ ｔｏ ｂｕｙ ａｌｌ ｓｕｐｐｏｒｔ ｉｔｅｍｓ ａｎｄ ｇａｎｋ ｍｉｄ ａｔ ｌｖｌ ２ ａｎｄ ｆａｉｌ． Ｔｈａｎｋｓ ｆｏｒ ｌｉｓｔｅｎｉｎｇ

Ｂｒｏｕｇｈｔ ｔｏ ｙｏｕ ｂｙ ＳｔｅｅｌＳｅｒｉｅｓ™ Ｈｅｌｌｏ Ｉ＇ｍ Ｓｎｉｔｈ， ｐｌａｙｉｎｇ ｍｙ ２０２１４３ｔｈ ｇａｍｅ ｏｎ Ｃｈｅｎ． Ｅｖｅｎ ｔｈｏｕｇｈ ｉｔ＇ｓ ｔｈｅ ｏｎｌｙ ｈｅｒｏ Ｉ ｐｌａｙ Ｉ ｓｔｉｌｌ ｓｕｃｋ ａｔ ｉｔ． Ａｓ ａ ｃｏｍｐｅｎｓａｔｉｏｎ ｆｏｒ ｍｙ ｌａｃｋ ｏｆ ｓｋｉｌｌ Ｉ ａｍ ｇｏｉｎｇ ｔｏ ｂｕｙ ａｌｌ ｓｕｐｐｏｒｔ ｉｔｅｍｓ ａｎｄ ｇａｎｋ ｍｉｄ ａｔ ｌｖｌ ２ ａｎｄ ｆａｉｌ． Ｔｈａｎｋｓ ｆｏｒ ｌｉｓｔｅｎｉｎｇＢｒｏｕｇｈｔ ｔｏ ｙｏｕ ｂｙ ＳｔｅｅｌＳｅｒｉｅｓ™

Even Oracle got more play time than ChenIt may come as a surprise but the least played hero of all time (outside of new additions Underlord and Arc Warden) is in fact a rather iconic TI3 hero, Chen. In the last month Chen was rock bottom picked in only 1% of all pub/competitive matches with a win rate of just 42.7% according to DOTABUFF , the 7th worst out of ALL heroes. The glory days of Chen are over but I wanted us to take a moment to honour a fallen hero that was once a God and try to figure out what exactly it is about the hero that makes him so unpopular.It has been a monumental descent into the abyss for Chen who became an iconic hero for his role in The International 3, famously for The Alliance but infamously for Natus Vincere . At TI3, Chen was the 6th most picked hero at the LAN Finals and boasted an incredible 62% win average from 65 games thanks to Alliance and Na'Vi's success at the event, both of whom went on to reach the Grand Finals. For reference at The International 7 in the summer Chen was picked just three times in 95 series.Chen was the instigator of what could be the most amusing yet devastating glitch “abuse” at TI, leading to TongFu* ’s demise in the infamous game between Na'Vi and the Chinese team at TI3.In 2013 at Valve’s flagship tournament Na'Vi took advantage of mechanics between Pudge’s Hook and Chen’s teleport ability Test of Faith to allow Pudge to hook enemy heroes all the way back to the Radiant fountain.Jonathan ' Loda ' Berg’s outrage to the move was caught on camera but although the “bug” was swiftly removed from the game it remains one of the most watched Dota 2 videos on YouTube, amassing almost 5 million views. (Watch highlights here To pull off the moveClement ' Puppey ' Ivanov would cast Test of Faith on Dendi’s Pudge which would teleport him back to base after a short delay during which timeDanil ' Dendi ' Ishutin would connect his hook onto an enemy hero. Dendi would then be teleported back but his hook still active would drag the hooked Tongfu player all the way back to the fountain where they met their death, time and time again.The game was won when Dendi managed to hook Tongfu’s carryChen ' Hao ' Zhihao who was carrying Aegis on Gyrocopter. The Fountain-Hook combo became so iconic that Valve even highlighted it in their video series The International Archives.Meanwhile in Alliance’s glorious run at TI3, Chen was a comfort pick forJoakim ' Akke ' Akterhall and it became his trademark hero based off the team's TI3 win. Akke went on to become the most successful Chen player in the professional scene with over a 70% win average from a staggering 216 games on the hero, the most out of any pro player on the competitive circuit ( view leaderboards on DatDota ).Changes to the jungle creeps and the waning presence of junglers in the game saw Chen’s popularity dwindle, and despite the odd appearance in competitive (for example the Na'Vi v Spirit game earlier this week) he is avoided like the plague by the general public... but why?"The way Dota is played right now or as you people love to call it "meta game" doesnt really suit Chen," said BTS analyst Lacoste. "The hero is super strong for the 1st 10 minutes of the game, then it falls off If you dont get any kills or towers."He has trouble finding a farm on the map, especially when playing from behind. He is one of the worst hero to have in a team when you are stuck in your base."However, the biggest reason why he is least played hero is because people don't like controling multiple units, and cant make any flashy plays and requires your team to play around you which is hard at lower MMR."Fan of Chen?"It's fun to play him from time to time. I wouldnt pick him, but if i random him I'll keep it.""If players wanted to micro they'd be playing Starcraft, not Dota," said analyst Merlini when asked about Chen's popularity."Players like right clickers and more simple heroes with a lot of action. Chen you have to get all the creeps again if you die."Nature's Prophet has no downtime and there are heroes that can scale better. Compare Pudge to Chen (most picked her of all time) Pudge no micro, lots of uptime, scales well, simple mechanics."Background info: Pudge is the most played hero of all time, featuring in over 518 million matches compared to Chen's measly 26 million. In the last month alone Pudge has been in 9 million matches whereas Chen has managed just 300,000."Well, in its concept its by default one of the more difficult heroes to get into, but its also not very flashy," said Handsken, who is one of only 17 players to have played more than 40 competitive matches on the iconic hero."If you compare Chen to a hero like Invoker, it could be a similar learning process, but Invoker is more visibly prevalent. I believe Chen is not very appealing to most because it requires a lot of studying and/or practice to master."Generally a lot of the heroes that have several units with different skillsets are not very popular in MOBAs. The hero is definitely fine as it is, but it requires a lot out of the player and the team to make it work!"Now is there is actually a man who believes in Chen. A man who even created the Chen meme, a man who has taken his love for Chen to a new level.No it's not "Chen guy" from TI, it's Snith, a Dota 2 streamer who has played 4,444 games on Chen. Yes you read that right, 4,444 games. That's 63% of all his games. The Swede has a Solo MMR of 6K, so he's had plenty of opportunities to showcase Chen against the top flight players, so who better to ask? (He's killed Singsing after all)So first off why Chen?"I still have a lot learn and improve upon and I think I have a sense of pride in still playing Chen, now perhaps more so than in the past, just because how little people think of the hero, I'm determined to make it work. I'm also a big believer in winning through high morale, and I think that utilizing Chen's early game strengths to put yourself in ahead of your opponents is one of the most effective ways of achieving that."One way Snith tried to create high morale was by creating copy-pasta messages to convince his team-mates of his decision to pick Chen. One of the most memorable was the following, a message he delivered to the TI5 panel:"I ended up creating a copy-paste message to post during matches in order to (hopefully) calm my teammates and counter the negative reactions to my pick and keep morale high," said Snith. However, Chen was not always a "bad" pick."I was inspired to play him during his glory days, when picking Chen was met with respect rather than disappointment. Micro-intensive heroes such as Geomancer and Chen (at times even Warlock) have had mixed reactions since DotA, and I think the fact that it was an odd choice along with the challenge and the caster's/crowd's reaction is initially what made me dedicate so much time into it.""Due to the public's opinion of the hero, picking Chen puts you in an uphill battle from the very start, and due to the current gold and experience mechanics of the Neutral Creeps, you have to be extremely efficient and successful in the early game to give both yourself and your team some forward momentum heading into the mid game. This challenge on its own is very difficult if your team doesn't believe in your abilities to play the hero," said Snith."You're lucky if you manage to get a hold of a big creep without upsetting your carry"So was there a particular patch that you think killed off Chen?"Patch 7.06 was definitely a struggle for Chen, as Neutrals gave 20% less experience and gold, and instead received an increase by 2% every 7.5 minutes," said Snith."This change put an immense pressure on Chen to be successful during the first couple of rotations, as farming in the jungle was less of an option, despite the fact that Neutral Creeps now spawned every minute. The scaling increase itself never really helped Chen much, as by that point you're lucky if you manage to get a hold of a big creep without upsetting your carry while he's farming and you're off split pushing a remote lane with the rest of your creeps."That said, the coordinated and competitive scene is a different story, as we've seen time and time again how effective Chen can be in capable hands, which makes IceFrog's job of balancing the hero a whole lot more difficult."Snith: "The first step of learning how to play Chen is; Don't pick Chen"I asked Snith if he had any words of wisdom to inspire more people to play Chen."Hehe, well the first step of learning how to play Chen is; Don't pick Chen," joked Snith. "Chen is one of the most difficult heroes in DotA to master. It will test your faith, focus and ability to micro, all at the same time, but if you pass, you will be rewarded!" (Snith: 'How about that? Even with the pun')Chen will most likely remain one of the least picked heroes for all eternity but let us take a moment to take our hats off to an iconic hero of Dota. Should you wish to try Chen after reading this article, I wish you the best of luck.