Inside Division 3 NA: Round 3

Round 3 of Heroes Lounge North America has been played, and it hasn't gotten any less exciting. I'm LazyHydra, and in this post I'll be guiding you through some of the best matches and most interesting info from the past week or so of matches, so that you can get some insight as to what the meta of Division 3 is looking like after this round.

Round 3 Recap

Let's start by looking at all the matchups we had for Round 3:

TriggeredBySalad vs. Can't Counterpick Stupid: These two teams have both shown promise, each 4-1 (map score) before this series, so it's no surprise it went to 3 maps. Despite taking the first map, beating Can't Counterpick Stupid's D.Va pick, TriggeredBySalad wasn't able to finish out the series, as CCS took it 2-1.

Ban Cho vs. Annie Oak League: This was another match between two highly ranked teams, Ban Cho having only dropped 1 map, while AOL had gone completely undefeated. Despite map records, Ban Cho managed to win 2-1, a reverse of how the matchup went last season when these teams faced off. It was extremely close, though, with all 3 maps going at least 23 minutes.

Team Rainbow Strike Go! vs. Deep Fried Pizzas: Team Rainbow Strike Go! has had a great start to their season, as well, while Deep Fried Pizzas has struggled a bit more, winning one series, while losing another. In the end, despite DFP's best attempts at keeping up, Rainbow Strike was able to snowball the series 2-0.

BEHOLD... ragaros vs. Snow Storm: Snow Storm had a mixed start to the season, losing 2-1 against Ban Cho after taking a bye in the first week, with their opponents, BEHOLD... ragaros, being another team which had won and lost a series so far. Continue to the Deep Dive portion to hear about the exciting series, and it's eventual winner.

Please Clap vs. Bazzzzinga: Please Clap looked strong last week, taking the series 2-0 and adding another win to their score, although Bazzzzinga has showed some great teamwork and coordination, with good play around Bunker and Entomb through the games.

Blood Bath & Beyond vs. Always E In: Despite two very close maps between these teams and some great Medivh play on the side of Always E In, Blood Bath & Beyond managed to get picks at important times during the series between these two teams, winning it 2-0.

ReGen Blue vs. FAT Aquaman: Unfortunately, this round saw ReGen Blue making the decision to sit out for the rest of the season. Best of luck to them, hopefully we'll see these players in competitive again in the future!

Blackheart's Booty - BYE: Since UArk Esports dropped out last round, this round Blackheart's Booty took a bye.

All these teams are looking great, and we'll be able to understand these match-ups better and better in the weeks to come.

Deep Dive

This week was packed with intense matches, so let's dive into some of the best maps that were played during round 3!

BEHOLD... ragaros. (BR) vs. Snow Storm (SS)

For our deep dive this week, I chose to cover this match as it had some of the most highly contested maps of the week, as well as some exciting picks. This match WAS casted by Svenla, so if you'd rather, you can watch her cast HERE.

Game 1 - Garden of Terror: The series started out interesting, with Infernal Shrines, the most popular map, having been banned out by BR and Garden of Terror picked by SS. Things only got crazier, as SS elected to draft Alexstrasza, Leoric, Lunara, and Cho'gall! BR responded with their draft of Johanna, Kharazim, Tychus, Kael'thas, and Sonya to respond to the giant hero. BR poured on the early pressure, exploiting the weakness that Cho'gall has in the opening stages, managing to get an entire fort before capturing the first seed. Continued aggression led to BR getting the first push with Garden Terrors, while also having a level 10 advantage. Things looked dire, and by around level 14 SS had lost all their forts, and was still down a level, while BR was close to getting yet another wave of Garden Terrors. Luckily, SS did manage to win the fight over the next seed, finally executing the deadly Cho'gall combo and taking 4 kills while only losing Lunara. As it turned out, though, the consistency was somewhat lacking, and SS wiped over the next seed, only killing 3 members of BR.
It seemed likely that this would be game, as two Terrors immediately broke through the keeps and pushed to the core, but SS managed to miraculously defend, leaving 33% on their core. It seemed like the lategame scaling of all the members of SS, they might be able to hold on, so BR started to play it slow, taking camps all over the map. As the next seed spawned, it looked like SS might be able to finally depush and maybe get the objective, but as they were seen far out in the middle lane, BR pushed in from a bush in top lane and barely ended the game with a fatal backdoor.

Game 2 - Volskaya Industry: Game 2, things got serious, with SS going for the much more standard comp of Sylvanas, Varian, Li-Ming, Johanna, and Deckard, facing off against BR's Garrosh, Rehgar, Jaina, Raynor, and Malthael. Both teams played the map in the standard style, taking turrets early. While each team got a single kill on the first objective, SS managed to take it, though it was forced back effectively by BR's good burn, leaving it to not get much value. BR started looking strong, and took 3 kills over the healing beacon camp, though it was stolen by SS after a pick on Rehgar, who was holding it. The next Protector went to SS, once again, though BR managed to take 2 kills on members outside of the Triglav, helping to keep levels even despite a growing structure disadvantage for their team. Looking for more aggression to even the game up, BR attempted to invade the turret camp of SS, but this backfired as Malthael died, with objective having just spawned. With the surplus of items secured by SS, as well as a few picks off of the Protector, they were able to push to core and tie up the series.

Game 3 - Battlefield of Eternity: Going into the final map, SS was looking to carry their momentum through, using a similar draft of Greymane, Varian, Muradin, Jaina, and Deckard. On the other hand, BR looked to take the series for themselves, drafting Johanna, Brightwing, Valla, Artanis, and the newly reworked Junkrat. Early game went back and forth, with BR nearly getting kills, but never quite able to secure them. SS managed to draw the first 2 kills defending their Immortal, which allowed them to win the first objective, albeit with very little shielding. Momentum seemed to be in SS's hands, and they took 3 kills and a fort using the level 10 talent tier that they had over BR. However, BR was able to use the time SS spent pushing to soak for 10, meaning they had more ultimate abilities available approaching the second objective. The map was evened out, as BR pushed their immortal and took down a fort for themselves.

Over the minutes before the third Immortal, though, SS managed to get even more kills, and it seemed like BR might have one last even talent fight before SS snowballed out of control, with the kills being 10-3 in SS's favor. Against all odds, BR managed to defend at their Immortal, trading 3 kills for 1. Before SS all came back, Greymane was picked off as well, when he tried to take down Junkrat, who was at around half health. This last kill secured the 3rd Immortal for BR, and by diving as soon as the gate was down, BR was able to take another kill and push all the way to the keep, leaving it low.
Suddenly, the game was turned on its head, and it was BR getting picks on slow rotations from SS, leaving them in a position of advantage come the fourth Immortal of the map. Despite SS performing strong, they had to reluctantly retreat from the fight, and defend, given that Jaina (who had been picked most recently) came back just as the race phase ended. The defense was solid, but SS now had only a very low top keep, and levels were much closer. Trying to force a fight in the small window they had 20 over BR, SS attacked the remaining fort of BR, but BR was more than happy to give it up, so the next fight would be 20 vs 20. SS still looked capable, but in one of the most clutch plays of the series, Artanis got a huge swap on Jaina, who was quickly rip-tire'd, and 2 other members were killed as SS tried to find their footing. The full-shielded Immortal was more than enough to finish the last, low-health keep, and BR took the final map of the series with a great comeback.

The MVP of this series goes to Jim of BEHOLD... ragaros, whose Tychus and Valla play were crucial in some of the most important teamfights during games 1 and 3 of the series. I think this series, more than those I have covered before, was really close, though, and all of the players had moments where they showed their skill and played a key role in their team getting a crucial win.

Statistics

With this round being the 3rd played so far, things are starting to look more consistent, but we're also starting to see how the meta might be shifting a bit within the division.

Map Statistics - This week I went back and added a few statistics for maps, as the preference for picks and bans has become pretty clear.

• Infernal Shrines and Volskaya remain the most picked maps overall, though Battlefield of Eternity was the most played map this round.
  • Cursed Hollow was played for the first time this round! Now Sky Temple and Dragon Shire are the only maps which have yet to see play.
• Towers of Doom and Dragon Shire remain the most banned maps, though Tomb of the Spider Queen is close, having been banned only 1 less time, and being the most banned map this round.
• Despite first pick often being favored, map pick has actually been the winning team more so far (MP has won 24 times, while FP has won 20).
• Even though it is huge, Garden of Terror has the fastest games, averaging around 17:40.

Hero Statistics - 46 games have been played in the season so far, almost halfway to 100! With that, there's still some hero statistics which might be surprising.

• Crazily enough, Johanna still holds a popularity of 100%! She's been banned 10 times, and picked the other 36, with a strong winrate of 61.1%.
  • In tanks, Diablo remains next most popular, with E.T.C. next (67.4% and 45.7% popularity for those two).
• The fire mage, Kael'thas, has finally overtaken Diablo as the 2nd most popular hero overall - with a 73.9% popularity (largely thanks to his 24 bans).
  • In mages, Jaina and Gul'dan follow Kael'thas (60.9% and 45.7% popularity, respectively).
• In other roles, the most popular heroes are as follows:
  • Healer: Anduin remains the most popular healer (50%), followed by Ana and Stukov (45.7% each).
  • Offlane: Thrall has also stayed popular (39.1%), with Blaze and Leoric close behind (32.6% and 30.4%).
  • Sustained DPS: Sylvanas (50%) has overtaken Jimmy Raynor (45.7%), though this is mostly due to bans, as Raynor has been played in 5 more games. Greymane is next closest in popularity (41.3%).
• Continuing from last week, here are some updated winrate statistics:
  • The title of highest winrate of a hero with 10+ games has shifted from Thrall to Muradin, who has won 7 of his 10 maps. Thrall is still standing strong, though, with a 69.2% winrate!
  • Greymane continues to lead the popular assassins, with a winrate of 66.7%.
  • Stukov also continues to look good from last week, with a 7-1 record (87.5% winrate).
• The number of heroes played in the division increased by 6, with Cho'gall, D.Va, Kel'Thuzad, Lt. Morales, Medivh, and the newly reworked Whitemane having been played for the first time in this round, leaving us at a total of 73 of 86 heroes played.

Team Stats - Here's some more fun facts about the team's and their stats in matches. Once again, remember that these are just simple statistics, and are probably not super representative of the teams themselves.

• The highest KDA of a team now belongs to Team Rainbow Strike Go! at 5.0.
• Ban Cho has the highest average takedowns, with 18.4.
• Please Clap continues to have the widest hero pool, at 25 heroes, but BEHOLD... ragaros is only 1 behind, and Deep Fried Pizzas and Ban Cho are each only 1 behind that.
• Please Clap has overtaken Ban Cho as the team with the highest percent of time spent with a level advantage, at 51.8% currently.
• While Ban Cho may not spend as much time with more XP than their opponents, they spend the most time with more heroes on the field, at 23%.
• TriggeredBySalad spends a lot of time in their matches, having the highest average match length at 23:56.
• Team Rainbow Strike Go! continue their trend of loving mercenaries, grabbing an average of 12 per game.
• Snow Storm like to get structures down early, getting the first fort down in 8:11, on average.

Thanks again to everyone who read, hopefully these posts continue to be entertaining. Starting about halfway through the season, I may split the Team Stats into a separate section where I talk about the teams & do some kind of rankings. Hopefully you'll look forward to the coming weeks, things are really starting to get good!