The Bali Major group stage meta

The Bali Major started with a lot of good old heroes being heavily contested in every match. In particular, Morphling received 90 bans and was picked 47 times. And the group stage isn’t even over yet. His win rate has been 55%, which clearly indicates that the hero is a bit broken right now.

His toolkit is simply too strong and too flexible. He has excellent offensive and defensive mechanisms, he can farm relatively quickly, his laning stage is solid, and his damage output is huge. The only weakness is his movement speed. But who needs high movement speed when you can just wave in and out very frequently?

Another hero that got a lot of attention was Timbersaw. It seems that his ability to be mobile, hard to kill, and hard to escape from has made him many players’ favorite offlaner or even midlaner. His win rate so far hasn’t been great. Just 45.7%. But he still got banned 93 times and was picked 35 times.

Other popular heroes at the Bali Major

The most successful of the popular heroes have been Pugna (59.6% win rate) and Medusa (57.1% win rate). Both of these heroes have gotten numerous picks and bans and are currently in the top 10.

Options like Enchantress and Techies, despite being feared and picked quite often, have not been very strong in the current meta. Their pick rate is merely 46% and 45% respectively.

One hero that has made a huge comeback in popularity is Broodmother. She received 100 bans and got picked 35 times. Her win rate is a whopping 68.5%! Because of that, everyone is terrified of playing against her. And it’s understandable why.

Most teams do not prepare in-depth strategies for how to deal with a Broodmother. And if you don’t know what to do to counter this hero, she becomes overpowered in less than 10 minutes. And then it’s practically game over.

You need to spend a lot of resources in the early game to kill this hero. And even then, she’s a hard kill and will respawn quickly. If your safe lane tower is destroyed before the 10-minute mark, your carry will struggle to find enough farm. Before you know it, the enemy team has taken over the map and you’re left with scraps.

Other popular heroes in the current meta have been Ember Spirit, Storm Spirit, Undying, and Tidehunter.

Header: Epulze, IO Esports