Hello, LightRedemption here. The ultimate aim of this blog would be to gather up people and teach them about the things that would benefit them in DotA/Dota 2 in the long run while hoping to educate the general community in a positive way.
The S.E.A Metagame Analysis
Yeah, I'm here, after another 1000+ view entry I feel inclined to write another one. With the advent of the Competitive Chat forum, I have a feeling this would be a decent welcoming post. If you're asking yourself why Traxex isn't on the cover of this article, then that would be because this time it actually has something to do with Goblin Techies, in case you haven't known so already. Any who, you might wonder what exactly this blog post is for. Now saying "S.E.A metagame analysis" is about the most general title I could have picked, but I did so anyways. If you're wondering about the "girls" part, yeah we would get to that later. This entry's aim is to give the readers a basic understanding and/or update of the current DotA metagame. The US/EU has mostly shifted to Dota 2, so this is just about the most active front of DotA right now, not to mention how it has been wrongly categorized for so long. I hope to remedy that with this.
*A side note: I was not born in nor live in the Philippines
1. General Consensus
The metagame is heavily focused on one thing: pushing. It is NOT at all like the Dota 2 metagame however. You wouldn't find fast push heroes with limited late game capabilities such
and 
on all but the most dedicated fast pushing teams. It has already proven to be fallen out of favors after a while of adapting and quick AoE heroes. Dedicated hard carriers such as 
or 
are also hard to find, considering the faster paced nature of the game compared to the Chinese metagame where those heroes reign. Fret not of their viability, however, since there are still teams out there with enough dedication to put their fates upon the hands of a skilled carry, you just have to find them. Carriers are still out there, of course, but they are either put with decent pushing and/or AoE capabilities and the power of early team fights contribution. Frankly put, it is a mid game oriented metagame, in contrast to the early game oriented that is the Dota 2 meta or late game oriented of Chinese meta. Now, there is also one thing catching one's eyes when looking at the recent SEA tournaments, and that is a decent level of variation. Now, surprisingly, some trademark heroes such as 
and 
of Dota 2 and 
+ 
of the Chinese scene aren't seen nearly as much (if at all) on the more constant basis. Reasons may vary, and I'm not quite sure so I'll hold. In my opinion, though, I suppose it is simply because of the hero pool that the players hold has nothing to do with those.Also, unsurprisingly, you would see a lot, and I mean A LOT of bottle crowing.
2. Heroes & Items
A lot of the SEA competitors are from the Philippines, thus, the favorites from the large island nations make their all important appearances in the highest tier of games. These are
Aside from the occasional cameos of rare heroes and staple utilities, these heroes are almost guaranteed to show up every game, banned or otherwise. Those are more or less the defining heroes of the region, so quite no surprises there.
Extremely common supports (or at least they're played as such, appears in most games. Now, Ogre might be nowhere near popular anywhere else compared to the SEA, but he finds a welcoming home here at least. Ezalor is kind of... unique, but he hasn't done much as far as I can see. The others pretty much appear everywhere else, so there's not so much on them.
SEA plays only a minimal amount of carriers most of the time, so instead they focus on #3 or #2 and pumping them up a priority point. The pushing metagame only helps this cause even more so. Generally you have mid game monsters trying to take the opponent by storm, creating an immense amount of early domination and use it to basically roll all over the enemy team. It works, most of the time.
These guys appear once in a blue moon, but they are generally there to fill a niche that nothing else can quite fill effectively. Obscure they might appear to some people, but they at least do their job rather decently
Now, on to items.
These two items have experienced serious competitions against each other. Mostly on Queen of Pain actually. Seriously, this shit is harder to decide than...
No more references for now
Still everywhere, which would say something
Another item that is everywhere. It offers excellent pushing potential, and you see it being massed against most teams if you want a good way into your opponent's
Lothar's Edge gets its fair share of uses on DK, even if they're against things like Slardar. Seriously, this thing is better than tits if you know how to use it.
...I lied, it's definitely not better than tits.
Well, Desolater (no, I purposely spelled it like that) is commonly seen on TA actually. Thing is, I have no idea why people would choose this rather underpowered item over MoC. Speaking of which...
Why don't I see these things I don't even know. They are generally very powerful and good at what they do, not even sure why they don't see much play at all.
No.Comment.
3. Replays
I say a replay is worth almost as much as a video, and that's worth a thousand words. Well, I need to have some serious overview of the game though.
Oh yeah, on that point I made earlier, here is a replay of Bad Burn, the champion of GMPGL 4.4, against Ledion Dreamz, featuring Abbadon. Also the two teams are girls, in case that somehow matters
http://gosugamers.net/dota/replays/55231
Highlight video
About the cover photo, here, as promised, Techies, from Avengers vs. Pavilion
http://gosugamers.net/dota/replays/55174
Highlight
And here is Puck, by arguably the best Puck player in the entire region, single handedly man handled the opposing team, more or less.
http://gosugamers.net/dota/replays/54951
Highlight
I also have here, a replay of the old innovative favorite Starsboba executing excellent ganking abilities, and to make a point how ganking loses you games. Yes, you heard me right
http://gosugamers.net/dota/replays/54825
Highlight
There, that is all for now. I can update with some more videos, reviews and stuffs like that once I have the time. Again, if you see any problems or have I missed something obvious, feel free to point it out. But for now, let's just say I'm tired, sleepy and frustrated, among other things. Thus, I shall take my leave. Thank you for reading, I am LightRedemption, and this has been another good day blogging.
Total Comments 6
Comments
-
Nice analysis! And lol about the no comment part, and to the part about why they don't get those items(Tranquil, MoC HH): They do not like to experiment item builds so most of the time you see the same item build over and over again, and they rely on the builds they see in the PH competitive scene ONLY, whereas these players don't seem to notice the existence of such items.Posted 05-13-2012 at 04:29 PM by Bodge 
-
MoC and Tranq is quite underrated , but HH is actually getting is fairshare of the spotlight but of course that D2 PubsPosted 05-14-2012 at 02:49 PM by Secchan
-
You missed putting TA along with Naga etc.
That bitch be crazy yo.
Also NA should be in there somewhere among supports.Posted 05-15-2012 at 12:34 AM by Dreamish
-
I honestly never seen NAPosted 05-16-2012 at 06:51 AM by CynthiaCrescent
-
Uhhh, check I think it's iZone or SB that played him a few times. Lumi did a commentary or two on him being played.
Some crazy global bug micro ganking going on. Was exciting.Posted 05-21-2012 at 04:17 AM by Dreamish
-
What...Quote:Originally Posted by Dreamish
Uhhh, check I think it's iZone or SB that played him a few times. Lumi did a commentary or two on him being played.
Some crazy global bug micro ganking going on. Was exciting.
Most of these (read: all) are played on 6.74c, no global bug micro possible.Posted 05-21-2012 at 06:59 AM by CynthiaCrescent
