The Metagame: A Fascinating Look at Dota 2’s Hero Trends
When it comes to Dota 2, the metagame has a rich history. Over the years, the hero pool has evolved from limited options to an extremely diverse selection. While we all remember iconic heroes from past tournaments, such as Batrider and Alchemist in TI3, there are heroes like Chaos Knight that had a significant impact on the grand finals despite being picked less frequently than expected.
A web developer and Dota 2 fan named “zokemo” has created a website called “The Metagame” to help us remember these early days of the game. The website provides an interactive, visual representation of pick and ban trends at Valve events since TI3.
The data for the website is sourced from statistics website datdota, which compiles matches and hero numbers for each event. The hero icons from the Dota 2 client are then used to represent the pick and ban rates. The size of the hero icon on the website corresponds to its popularity in a specific event.
Users of the website can sort the table to view the icons in descending order and even access a chart that displays the most and least popular picks at an event. The heroes on the left side of the graph are considered top tier selections.
The chart also displays the median pick rate for each event. For example, TI7 had the highest median pick rate of 12.8 percent out of all the tournaments included on the website.
Aside from the statistics, zokemo offers commentary on the trends and shares thoughts on how game balance has evolved over the years under the guidance of lead developer IceFrog.
The Metagame is a dream come true for Dota enthusiasts. Hopefully, zokemo will continue updating it throughout the current Dota Pro Circuit and beyond, allowing fans to track the history of the metagame for years to come.
Dota 2, metagame, heroes, trends, Valve events, pick and ban, Dota 2 client, datdota, website, top tier selections, TI7, Dota Pro Circuit, game balance, IceFrog