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Dota 2 – The Most Picked Heroes of The International 10

The International 10 had a lot of spectacular matches. The creativity level was a bit lower than usual, simply... Radu M. | 22. October 2021

The International 10 had a lot of spectacular matches. The creativity level was a bit lower than usual, simply because the meta was so strong that few people dared venture into the unexplored. And this resulted in some heroes being picked or banned pretty much every game. Here’s a list of the most picked heroes at TI10 and the reasons behind their popularity.

Lion

Lion was picked 173 times. By far, he was the most picked hero of The International 10. He was only banned 43 times, which suggests that teams were not necessarily scared of playing against him. But they were certainly interested in picking the hero for themselves.

What Lion provides is a mixture of lane dominance, single-target control, and single-target damage.

During the laning stage, Lion only needs to reach level 3 to be a menace. At that point, he can disable a target for 3.9 seconds, slow its movement speed by 20%, and drink its mana. As you might imagine, this combination can be deadly if your teamed up with a high-damage carry.

The fact that all of Lion’s abilities are excellent at level 1 allows you to play very aggressively and secure multiple kills for your team. And if the roamer and mind do a proper job and get involved at the right times, at least one of your cores will get fed.

Lion scales well until around the 30–minute mark. His single-target control is one of the best in the game. In total, you can disable a target for 6.6 seconds when his Q and W have been maxed out. And this is more than enough time to kill most heroes if you have a high damage core with you. That amount of time gives your core the chance to attack 10+ times and use multiple abilities.

On top of that, you also have your ultimate, which deals 600 damage at level 1. Not to mention the fact that Earth Spike also deals 260 damage. At level 7, Lion brings 860 magical damage and long-duration disables to any fight. So it’s not a big surprise that so many teams decided to pick the hero.

Lion’s win rate at The International was not amazing (49.71%), mostly because he was often picked by the underdog against a very strong opponent. But his skill set was highly desirable in the TI10 meta, which focused a lot on getting pick-offs. Thanks to heroes like Spectre, Tinker, and Invoker, competitors abused the “find an enemy hero and let’s kill him” tactic. Lion was the perfect choice to find opponents that were out of position and could be eliminated before their teammates had a chance to respond. With nothing but a pair of boots and a Blink Dagger, he was a very effective roamer during the mid-game, as well as a strong lane support.

Lina

Lina was another popular choice at The International 10. Her skill set made her a perfect pick for the mid lane, although she was also played as safe lane and off lane support. The hero offers a satisfying mix of attack speed, attack range, wave clear, disables, and single-target damage. Because of that, she usually wins her lane and then scales well into the late game with the proper item build.

At TI10, people often played Lina as a heavy right-clicker. Among the best items for this hero are Silver Edge, Eul’s Scepter, Dadelaus, Mjolnir, Eye of Skadi, Satanic, and BKB. Of course, you can build Lina however you choose. But taking advantage of her fast attack speed and amazing attack range is generally the best approach.

Lina’s W provides a 250 AoE stun that lasts for 2.5 seconds and deals 230 damage at level 4. It may not be easy to land, but it gives the hero a great follow-up ability if you have another disabler on your team. Just think of Lion for example. His abilities can secure a 6.6-second disable, so you could easily stun a target for 9 seconds in total and guarantee yourself a kill with just these two heroes.

At The International 10, Lina’s win rate was 50.39%. She was picked 127 times but she also received 140 bans, which means that the hero was highly contested. And it’s understandable why.

Terrorblade

Terrorblade was the 6th most picked hero at TI10, with 108 picks. He would have played in almost every game if it wasn’t for the bans (186). Unlike the other two highly picked heroes mentioned above, his win rate was 60.19%, which is impressive.

The reason why TB is such a popular pick is simple: his laning phase is usually secured by his E and the hero’s farming abilities are incredible. On top of that, Terroblade becomes overpowered very quickly. If you just buy a few items and the enemy heroes are not far ahead of you in net worth, very few of them can stand and fight when you’re in Metamorphosis.

At level 18, TB has a 40-second Sunder, which gives him the ability to turn fights around with ease. Enemies are generally forced to either avoid or chain-stun you until you die. Otherwise, all the damage they did gets undone in a split second and one of their heroes loses almost all of its HP.

Terrorblade was the hero that won the Grand Final. In game 5, Team Spirit picked him for Yatoro and played perfectly around his timings.

 

Photo credit: Valve