Mephisto's Pick Rate, Ban Rate, and Win Rate

Mephisto's Player-Specific Performance

Mephisto's Map Record and Composition Data

Mephisto's Priority in the Draft

Head-to-Head / Duo-Queue

The Final Word

Hello again, everyone! Today, I'd like to talk about Mephisto. The Lord of Hatred was released on September 4, 2018, and has so far seen use in Week 10 of HGC NA/EU/KR, as well as the HGC Playoffs and the HGC Crucible. I'd like to take a look at this hero's standing so far in professional play, including some head-to-head matchups and heroes that have paired well with them. Keep in mind that, as is always true of HGC games, some of this data will be skewed due to the differences in skill between teams. No hero has yet managed to completely overcome a skill deficit between teams or regions. I will try to take this into account in my writings.Here are Mephisto's hero stats at a glance:Mephisto has premiered in the Nexus as the new most popular mage, though this is largely thanks to Korea's higher ban rate on the hero over the last few weeks (31%) and the continued decline of Chromie from competitive play. His overall 31% popularity rate doesn't come even close to competing with other heroes released this year, with one exception: Deckard Cain, who also premiered at a 31%. In his case, this was largely due to him being released during the reign of Malfurion as the king of competitive healer play, so it took several weeks for Deckard to claim his spot as a top healer. What this means for Mephisto is unclear, however, as the damage dealer role is generally much more versatile. North America showed the lowest overall interest in playing or banning the hero at a 19% popularity rate, and Europe had the highest pick count at 8 total picks, or a 22% pick rate.Here's a look at how Mephisto's win rate breaks down by player:Mephisto's lack of success in the HGC largely owes itself to the teams that have played him. Method sports a 1-3 record on Mephisto overall on the back of Adrian "adrd" Wojcik during Week 10 and the Playoffs as part of a failed late-season bid to make a run at Blizzcon. They went 3-7 in games over that same period. Similarly, in North America, Endemic's three losses on the hero, as played by Michael "MichaelUdall" Udall account for the majority of Mephisto's record in that region. Endemic had a slightly better record over that period at 5-8 in games, but also lost their chance at Blizzcon in the second round of the playoffs.Here's a look at how Mephisto has done on each of the maps:While Mephisto's pick data is lower than most heroes, we do have enough to get a clear view of what he's being picked for. His top maps are Infernal Shrines and Volskaya Foundry, which are both maps oriented around a single objective point and largely suited to team fights. This makes plenty of sense given that his design centers around engagements to pump out large quantities of hero damage and win fight, and thus is poorly suited for other macro-focused play styles or maps.In almost all of these games, he was drafted alongside a second damage dealing hero, whether it be standard auto-attack damage like Raynor/Tychus/Hammer, a bruiser like Thrall, or even as a second mage like Chromie or Nazeebo. In only one game was he drafted as the sole damage dealer, though he did see a few games alongside Maiev or Genji. This seems to imply that pros are relying on him more in a secondary role for damage, using other heroes to set him up and to help supplement his less reliable damage.Here's a look at where Mephisto is prioritized in the draft:Mephisto has seen 16 of his 17 total bans in the pre-draft portion, accounting for 43% of his game presence overall. His picks, by comparison, are more equalized between the first and second halves of the draft, with about 30% in the first half and 24% in the second half. His overall saturation in the first half of the draft, including picks and bans, is about 73%. This doesn't quite reach the levels of other top-heavy heroes like Tyrande (86%) or Maiev (98%) but it's still fairly high. Again, however, this is largely due to Korean influence, so it's hard to tell if Korea knows something that we don't, or if it's merely a precautionary ban to avoid facing a hero they're not as comfortable against.Here's a table of some of the most popular heroes to be selected against Mephisto:Here's a table of some of the most popular heroes to be selected alongside Mephisto:I'm sharing this data to be thorough, but I want to be clear: the relatively lower pick rate of Mephisto combined with the time period that this data covers means that this data isn't necessarily very useful. Week 10 is often known for featuring some oddball compositions, and the Crucible can often yield similarly odd strats in the effort to achieve an HGC slot. When you put that together with a hero that isn't picked much to begin with, it's hard to give much credit to the data here. There's no clear indication here that this affected his results too much, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. I don't want to mislead anyone by trying to interpret tables with a low amount of data in them. So, enjoy looking at them for curiosity's sake, but don't read too deep into them.If you're still wanting some insight as to how to deal with Mephisto, however, I can make a few recommendations of my own. Mephisto relies heavily on his shade for engaging, but this also makes him predictable. Try to pick heroes that can abuse the inevitable warp back to his starting point, either with well-timed CC abilities like Tyrande or Muradin, or well-timed AoE damage such as Jaina and Chromie. There won't be much that Mephisto can do about it, which will force him to use his shade more carefully and already gives you an edge in combat aggression.Mephisto is a hero whose overall appearances have been limited thus far, though he has seen a decent amount of banning on the Korean side of things. He has a very poor win rate thus far, though largely due to the teams playing him. Expect to see him drafted primarily on maps focused around one objective with lots of opportunities for team fights, and expect to see teams try to counter him with reliable CCs and AoE damage to limit his teleport value. With Blizzcon soon to arrive, will Mephisto continue his streak and become the most popular mage in the Nexus? Only time will tell!Looking for more of my work? My last HGC article focuses on Tyrande and the rise of double support. That article is located here. Feel free to let me know your thoughts to this article in the comments section below, or on Twitter at my handle @CriticKitten . I look forward to your replies!Hope to see you again next time!