July 2014 marks the end of the 2013/14 competitive Dota 2 season, culminating with The International. In this post I will go through the stats for the month, with graphs and other interesting tidbits. This includes both the pro scene and the pub scene. For pros I rely on datDota, but focus on highlighting trends and changes from previous months. For pubs I compare my data with my data from the previous month, and will go through the changes in pick rate for every hero, and present them to you with a short explanation with the biggest gainers/losers for the month.

Pros – Landscape and Tidbits

Out of the 180 professional games played this month, 172 of them were part of The International. The other 8 games were at the start of the month in SEA for the DotaTalk DatBet Championship. The 180 games is down heavily from last month’s 440. While other games were played, datDota only counts games they consider to be at the professional level. Data for complete picks are available on datDota, or in the monthly image from Anasteria. Anasteria always cuts off a lot lower than datDota, often resulting him in having a skewering amount of low tier games in his lists.

– There were 18 heroes this month that were a Top Pick (over 40% P/B)

– Promoted to Top Pick this month: Void, Skywrath, Tinker, Shadow Shaman, Earthshaker, Nature’s Prophet, Enigma, Wraith King.

– This is the first time that Faceless Void, Skywrath Mage, Tinker and Earthshaker have been a Top Pick (Data only includes the past 19 months.)

– This is Enigma’s 2nd Top Pick, the last being way back in December 2012.

– Demoted from Top Pick this month: Invoker, Treant, Enchantress, Rubick, Shadow Demon.

– Tinker was predominately banned, with about 4 bans for every pick. Lycan was 7 bans per pick.

– 6 heroes were neither banned nor picked this month: Huskar, Spirit Breaker, Bloodseeker, Phantom Lancer, Keeper of the Light, Crystal Maiden.

– Lycan returns to being the most contested hero in the pool, which brings an end to the 9 month streak of having a different #1 hero each month, which started in October with Naga Siren.

– The above graph also nicely illustrates the fall Batrider had this month, dropping to 56%

– You can also see the exact point Lycan shot up; I wrote an article here at the end of his massive boost in March. It would seem that it March really was the month to boost Lycan into the scene for a long time, going on five months now.

Pubs – Winners and Losers

Last Month, we saw a massive shift in pick rates for heroes with a recently released Immortal as well as a boost for popular heroes at The Summit. The following table is the list of heroes who are being picked more in all pub games for July.

– Skywrath, Void and Razor lead the charge, likely as a result of their similar shift in the pro scene. Or as I joked last month; “Pubbers have a bad case of Mono”.

– Other popular TI4 heroes were bumped up a notch, with Earthshaker gaining ground as he asserts his position as the most popular support hero for pubs.

– Phoenix, Terrorblade and Ember Spirit have been dropping in popularity ever since the major 6.80 nerfs, however Ember managed to gain in popularity this month, after a few months of heavy drops.

– Tinker appeared in about 6% of pubs 2 months ago, this month he appeared in 13% as he continues to rise (17th most popular hero this month).

– Brewmaster always turns up as a big winner in the actual % graph. He’s an incredibly unpopular hero who gains strongly, who is now 18% more popular than last month. Interesting to see Meepo in there too.

– Ever since Counter Helix was changed to PRD, Axe has been dropping every month. Where as all the Immortal heroes increased in pick rate last month, it appeared that the Immortal just canceled out most of Axe’s decline. His pub win rate also took a hit, and is this months biggest pick rate loser. He will continue to fall steadily unless he is buffed next month. Rightfully so too, I don’t bother with him much anymore. His early jungling, cutting, and lane dominance all took a heavy hit

– Popular Pub heroes like Invoker and Pudge fell as people flocked to TI4 heroes.

– Many heroes who received an immortal last month also dropped, which is just a fallout from the surge last month.

– Ultra-Unpopular heroes fell this month; the 9 least popular pub heroes all fell slightly. Such as Beastmaster, Chen and Visage.

– Terrorblade (-9%) and Phoenix also continue to fall (as reasoned when I spoke about Ember Spirit)

– Finally, Treant and Dark Seer lost some players. Probably as neither hero was as popular at TI4 as they’ve been in the past.

Summary

A massive drop in pro scene games as caused by TI4, while there was a similar amount of pub games this month as last month. A massive surge in pro heroes in the middle of a patch suggests to me the patch is still breathing, and the big pro gainers this month should be mostly left alone to see how the scene deals with them over time. Although it is evident that some heroes need to be changed as they are continuing their long term trends of being very (un)popular, such as Huskar, Medusa, Lycan, and Doom.

I intend to do a similar article to this each month, so keep an eye out for that. In the mean time I’ve linked my previous two articles below. Additionally, instead of referencing Darude – Sandstorm over and over, here’s a fairly solid song with a similar ‘Dota 2 connected name’; Pheonix – Lisztomania.

For non-noob Dota 2 tips, follow @ZotaTips

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Previous Feature – What I think Ice Frog should do after TI4, and I’m not talking about simple hero buffs/nerfs.

Previous Stat Article – Analysis of Anti-Mage, and how his pub win rate hit an all time low of 40.6%, and what could be the best way to help prevent this.