By this point, the most dedicated players have already finished Crownfall and are probably left with a question: “what’s next?”. It seems like the big balance patch is going to take some time to make it into the game, and diversifying your gameplay with off-meta heroes feels game losing. It doesn’t have to be this way, though, and today we are going to look at the heroes who went completely uncontested at the recent tournaments and qualifiers, but can work wonders in pubs, given specific setups.

Dota 2 meta is interesting, because it keeps on developing even in the absence of balance changes. This is a testament to the great core gameplay principles of the game. Even though we, like many others, are waiting for a big overhaul patch, there are still things worth discussing and exploring. Today we are going to have a quick look at some surprising new developments that are easy to implement in your everyday pubs.

There isn’t a whole lot going on in Dota in terms of meta development. With the patch staying the same for a long while, the creativity is quite limited, as the best, most reliable options dominate the field. However, there are some noteworthy outliers we would like to highlight today. These heroes might not be meta quite yet, but they can be considered playable or at least worthy of further exploration.

The second season of Wallachia was a blast through and through. Despite technically being on a patch similar to TI, the diversity of strategies and hero picks was considerably higher. Today we would like to have a quick recap of the historical tournament and highlight some of the most exciting facts.

The new post-TI patch is here and while it is not a major systems overhaul, it is a pretty meaty one. Not necessarily in the amount of changes themselves, but potentially in the ripple effect we expect it will have on the overall meta. Today we want to have a quick look over what we consider to be the biggest changes to the game and discuss what the end result of these changes could be.

One of the most hotly debated topics right now is the HP pool inflation. Over the years, the baseline and potentially achievable survivability skyrocketed, resulting in a much lower lethality of Dota engagements. Today we want to add our voice to the discussion, highlighting what we consider to be the pros and cons of the current Dota approach to time-to-kill.

Our annual The International blog posts always started with TI lauded as the “biggest esports event of the year”. It was always a celebration of Dota, the showcase of the highest level of play in the deepest, most complex online game there is and we believe that this is still true. However, it is impossible to deny that this year TI was a bit lacklustre and today we would like to discuss some things that could return it to its former glory.

The International playoffs have started and the meta is slowly solidifying. There are definitely some ideas that are slowly being discarded, while other heroes are only gaining in popularity. Today we want to have a look at the outliers — the heroes who are both popular and either very successful or seemingly weak.

The Group Stage schedule has finally been released. The sixteen participating teams are sorted into four groups, four teams each. There are no eliminations in the Group Stage of TI this year, so everyone will have a chance to show themselves during the playoffs and considering the level of the competition this year it is a good thing.