The carry meta of PGL Arlington Major

PGL Arlington Major is just five matches away from concluding. The winner will probably be either PSG.LGD, Team Spirit, or OG.

Throughout the tournament, some of the carry heroes were picked a lot more than others. This clearly indicates that there’s a meta to Dota 2, and that meta will not change until IceFrog gives us another big patch. Most likely that will happen at the time of the TI11 Battle Pass release.

Most picked carry heroes of PGL Arlington Major

By far, the most loved carries of the tournament have been Razor, Juggernaut, Viper, Dawnbreaker, Chaos Knight, Alchemist, Nature’s Prophet, and Bristleback. Not all of them were successful, but the teams went for them over and over because their minds were stuck on a fixed set of strategies.

The Alchemist strat was one of the most polarizing. Some teams did really well with it while others lost badly. This hero is a complete mess if you fall behind in the early game and it is very difficult to make a comeback with him. The only team that succeeded to do that was PSG.LGD, but OG made huge mistakes in the process.

Most successful carry heroes of PGL Arlington Major

Among the heroes that were picked at least 5 times, Spectre, Necrophos, Wraith King, Pudge, Lone Druid, Visage, Lycan, Bristleback, Chaos Knight, and Viper had excellent win rates. The lowest win rate on this list was ~59%, which is huge.

In the case of Spectre and Necrophos, teams clearly knew how to utilize them to perfection. Both of them have a win rate of 100%.

Perhaps the most surprising core at PGL Arlington Major is Pudge. Nobody would have guessed a few years ago that Pudge would become a serious pick at top-tier Dota 2 tournaments. But here he is, having a win rate of 80% in 10 matches.

Most banned carry heroes of PGL Arlington Major

The most banned carry heroes of the tournament have been Viper, Razor, Bloodseeker, Dawnbreaker, Faceless Void, Bristleback, Juggernaut, and Lycan.

We can clearly see that most of the highly picked carry heroes were also among the most banned. That’s because the teams usually study their opponents’ playstyle and try to figure out what would disrupt it. In many cases, the answer has to do with their preferred carries.

In Faceless Void’s case, the hero was banned so often that we rarely saw him make an appearance. Only 12 games featured a FW.

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