The Kiev Major: Analysis by the Numbers

A lot of Dota 2 tournaments come and go throughout the year, but there are few that have the same level of excitement attached to them as the Valve-endorsed or run Majors and The International. The Kiev Major took place in the last week of April and boy did it deliver! OG claimed their fourth Major (of the five played) and rewrote the history books while Virtus Pro gave a strong indication of what to expect from them in the upcoming tournaments by making it to the Grand Finals. SG e-sports were the team (from Brazil) who lived a Cinderella story as the unknown entity knocked out Team Secret and were on the verge of another upset as they nearly defeated Evil Geniuses.

The main event had a total of 15 series played. Of the 15, 10 went to a deciding game including the best of five Grand Finals. This was the first time that has happened at Valve event since Alliance’s triumph over Na’Vi at TI 3.! When a team is on the brink of elimination, it naturally draws out the best Dota from them, which made it a treat to watch for the spectators!

A total of 116 games were played at the Kiev Major (74 group stages, 42 main event). 103 heroes were contested throughout the event. The playoffs boasted of a total of 93 contested heroes, higher than the main event for the Boston Major (82) and DAC 2017 (81).

Group Stages + Main Event Main Event

Picked and banned - 83 Picked and banned - 70

Picked but not banned - 16 Picked but not banned - 17

Banned but not picked - 4 Banned but not picked - 6

Total - 103 Total - 93

After the Alchemist-Lifestealer-Magnus-Monkey King-Earth Spirit debacle at DAC 2017, this tournament came as a refreshing change with varied picks. However, an unlikely winner turned up in both the overall LAN event stats (group stages + main event) and the main event stats: Crystal Maiden. Not only was she the most picked hero in both the categories, she also had the highest win rate (considering heroes with 10 or more games) in the main event with a staggering 65.22% win rate! Here are the top 11 heroes to be picked throughout the event and just for the playoffs:



Most picked heroes at the Kiev Major: Overall tournament and main event (source: datdota)

Two heroes who proved to be clutch picks throughout the tournament were Templar Assassin and Slark. Even though they weren’t picked in too many games, they had an over 70% chance that the game would be in the bag when they were picked! If picked too early, the heroes are easy to counter and fail to make an impact, but as fourth or fifth picks, they can have a monstrous say in the game.

Hero Tournament win rate Main event win rate Templar Assassin 75% (20 games) 63.64% (11 games) Slark 77.78% (18 games) 77.78% (9 games)

Win rates for Templar Assasin and Slark for the entire tournamnet and the main event (Source: dotabuff)

In the final few games of the DAC, a meta of its own was generated. That did not happen in Kiev and the numbers here are a testament to the statement:



Most contested heroes in the playoffs of DAC 2017 and the Kiev Major (source: dotabuff)

While Crystal Maiden was either picked or banned in 85% of the games (36 out of the 42 games) there wasn’t any other hero that was concentrated upon too much. Monkey King may be the common factor in both the lists, but his win rate has gone down significantly (39% for the entire tournament). Credit should be given where it is due and I must say, the guys at Valve along with IceFrog have done a decent job of balancing out the meta in 7.05. Whether CM will be hit by the nerf hammer is something I can’t say, but I can say for sure that she doesn’t irk me as much as the two roamers from the list on the left.

One of the best features of the tournament was that teams opted for their own style of play instead of everyone latching onto the same thing. While OG continued their use of illusion heroes like Terrorblade, Naga Siren and Alchemist, Virtus Pro picked Magnus in every other game and used it to near perfection. It wasn't a case of banning out heroes without looking at who you were up against.

Most watch every tourney happily; but there are those select few that grudgingly sit in the corner and have no contribution whatsoever, or the unpicked heroes, as they're known. 99 heroes were picked while 14 never made an appearance in game (of the 103 contested, four were just banned but never picked).



The unplayed heroes of the Kiev Major (source: dotabuff)

My heart goes out to Bloodseeker. He can be positive as much as he wants (or A, AB, O positive), but the guy just doesn’t make the cut. JerAx and ZfreeK did experiment a bit with him as a position four hero, but BS just doesn’t compare with the other roamers currently ruling the meta. Mirana’s exclusion comes as a surprise and Necropos, who seemed like becoming a regular after the 25 second Reaper’s Sythe, has been forgotten again. You’d think with so many Templar picks, Viper would be on someone’s mind. Looking at Zeus, I think the professionals have forgotten the hero even exists as he was neglected at DAC as well. The Thunder God definitely deserves a buff.

Game durations have seen a shift from 7.04, the patch on which DAC 2017 was played.



Distribution of game times at the Kiev Major

While the games were quite evenly distributed in the 30-40, 40-50 and 50-60 minute windows at DAC, Kiev saw the average game time reduce with more games stacked up in 30-40 minutes and the number of games in the 50-60 minute window going down drastically. A possible explanation for the reduction could be these changes that were implemented in 7.05:

Towers base armor reduced by two

Towers now gain 1 more armor per nearby enemy hero (three total per enemy now)

Towers bonus armor based on nearby enemy heroes AoE increased from 1200 to 1400

Shrines base health regen reduced from 100 to 90

Absence of an enemy makes it easier to take down the tower. Additionally, the shrines heal for less. Although these might seem like small changes, it does add up to create a combined effect that makes high ground defence a bit tougher.

The road to TI 7 has begun and we have a good five premier tournaments to be played before we settle in Seattle. The most prominent ones would be the Manila Masters, Epicenter and Summit 7, which will see the top teams competing for supremacy. I believe TI 7 will be played on 7.06, but can’t think of any major changes the meta needs. It will be intriguing to see what is Valve’s say on the issue.

What changes do you think are necessary in the 7.06? Let us know in the comments!

QUICKPOLL Do you think CM needs a nerf looking at her staggering pick rate and win rate? Yes

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