The Chongqing Major gave Dota 2 fans a lot to chew on.
The meta had developed, the rosters had settled in the aftermath of The International, and teams had found identities in and out of competition. This was reflected in the tournament’s statistics, which Reddit user “ellanarkJESUS” compiled in a smooth infographic.
There are a lot of takeaways from the numbers, but the biggest is the possible transformation of Team Secret into the new Virtus.pro.
For the last two seasons, VP has been defined by its aggressive style and enormous hero pool. The team has historically been able to take almost any five heroes in draft, dominate lanes, and convert early leads into wins inside of 30 minutes. This was on full display at the Chongqing Major, as the Russian team flaunted a typically deep hero pool and posted a number of quick wins en route to a second-place finish.
But Team Secret managed to best Virtus.pro at its own game in the final. While previous squads led by Clement “Puppey” Ivanov haven’t necessarily been known for early aggression or unorthodox compositions, Secret was bold and adventurous in Chongqing.
Secret drafted the greatest number of heroes of any team at the event by a considerable margin, with Michal “Nisha” Jankowski, Yeik “MidOne” Nai Zheng, and Ludwig “zai” Wahlberg all showing flexibility. Secret also posted some of the quickest wins of the event, including besting Virtus.pro in the shortest game of the tournament.
Turning to individual performances, Wang “Ame” Chunyu was the likely MVP of the tournament. The PSG.LGD carry topped the charts in both KDA and average GPM, putting up the best numbers of any core player.
This came at a crucial time for his team. Though PSG.LGD is still widely regarded as an elite team, the TI8 runners-up limped into the Chongqing Major with mediocre showings at the Kuala Lumpur Major and MegaFon Winter Clash. The Chinese side needed a strong showing here, and got it largely thanks to Ame’s play.
Finally, looking at the hero picks and bans is important for understanding the logic behind many of the changes in the 7.21 patch. Many of the most common picks and bans received multiple nerfs, with Lich, Grimstroke, and Earth Spirit taking some of the biggest hits.
From a macro perspective, the list of unpopular heroes helps explain some of the changes made to base stats and movement speed. Strength heroes make up a disproportionate share of undesirables, with carries in particular being the worst off. The overall boost to HP gain and extra mobility granted to heroes like Legion Commander and Lycan will hopefully help in balancing the game and send some of those heroes back into the pro meta.
