If you liked my first article on the Vainglory metagame, you’re going to love this one! If you hated it, I’ve got a wonderful seaside property to sell you in Utah. Metagame or Meta refers to the game play needed to play a game at a high level. This is a constantly evolving beast as new patches come out, new heroes are introduced, and existing heroes are tweaked and balanced. I took some time to play the 1.6 patch and talk to some players from around the world. I’ve compiled what I feel is the current meta for North America and how it stacks up against the metas in other server regions.

North America (Pre-Worlds)

In my last article, I talked about meta heroes. However, in this article I’ll be covering the meta of team compositions. When 1.6 first came out, I still saw a lot of Vox, Taka, and Fortress; one of the dominant compositions from 1.5. Then, Adagio also started appearing more often as a support because of his buffs in 1.6, strong early game with Koshka, and late game potential with Vox. PONtheoriginal noted that “this meta fell off after people began to realize that pushing your early game advantage with a Ringo was much stronger than waiting for late game with Vox, since you would gain such a big lead early and not allow the Vox to farm”.

This also had a lot to do with the fact that the Vainglory World Invitational matches have started airing. Now Vainglory is global. We’ve had servers across many regions for a while now, but never before has there been a competition between all of the different regions like the Invitational. We are seeing things that have never been seen before, and it is greatly impacting the metagame across all regions.

I got a chance to speak with PONtheoriginal, ROAM, LostBoyToph, Xelciar, FlashX, gabevizzle, and CullTheMeek about what they feel the current top team compositions were (post-Worlds). It’s quite interesting to say the least!

North America (Post-Worlds)

It’s no coincidence that this comp used by Invincible Armada in the first quarterfinal match of Worlds is quite popular. Highly mobile (Ringo and Taka both have movement speed buffs), high weapon damage (Ringo and Taka both have critical strike perks), combined with the weapon damage buff of Adagio and the sustain of his heal, equates to early game domination. That’s exactly what this comp aims to do, dominate the game from level one.

This comp offers high mobility (all three heroes have movement speed buffs), high burst damage, and additional CC (crowd control) from Koshka’s stun. Koshka has one of the best level one’s on a hero in the game. Koshka and Fortress were being banned in almost every game so far in Worlds.

laners

ROAM had an excellent insight about how the game is much more balanced right now. In blind pick (our current ranked queue, where you can’t see what the other team is picking), you never know if you will be countered. As such, he and others in NA feel there are three top laners:

Ringo beats Vox, Vox beats Glaive, and Glaive beats Ringo. Rock. Paper. Scissors. It’s a circle. StanSmith from Divine Brothers, an EA server guild, agrees with the Ringo and Vox picks. ArcticJelly, a Vainglorious player on SEA, agreed with StanSmith, adding that “Ringo and Vox are two top laners, but Vox is a dying hero. He is too easily pressured early game.” I definitely saw the early game aggression with Ringo from Invincible Armada in the first match of the World’s Invitational. It was highly effective.

It’s interesting to note that Glaive is a popular lane or jungle choice on the NA server. Likely popularized by the play of CullTheMeek, FooJee, and ShinKaigan, Glaive is definitely played often in North America. In contrast, when I spoke to Jetpacks and MYQ from the EU guild R3D, they opined that the best laners were:

Cream from Team Unknown said, “we love CC comps in Europe, lots of stuns and silence.” It makes sense that the laners of choice have stuns, slows, and silences. It also helps when you have a Vainglorious Gold player named BestCelesteEU popularizing a hero. Celeste offers a strong mid to late game, CC, and incredible range that can outclass Vox.

junglers

Everyone across all regions agreed that the top junglers are:

No surprises here. Strong early games, high mobility, and great burst damage.

supports

As for support heroes, North American players feel that the top supports are:

Fortress’s early game pressure helps dominate matches. As such, we saw a lot of Fortress bans in the World’s Invitational. The players from EA and SEA agree on these two supports being the strongest, with a slight edge given to Fortress. However, the EU region favors a different support hero.

Cream, Jetpacks, and MYQ all agreed that Catherine was one of the top supports in EU. She has the most CC of any kit, including a stun, silence, and damage reflection. They sure do love their crowd control in EU!

The World Invitational continues to have a huge impact on the meta not only in North America, but around the world. The meta will continue to develop as more matches are broadcast and the public gets to see what works and doesn’t work on a global level. However, just because something is meta, does not mean it is the only way to play! Go and experiment, find that new OP hero. Go play SAWpport, so that the devs will say “WHAT IS GOING ON. I DON’T EVEN KNOW.” Make that CP Fortress work! You can do it!