Inside Division 3 NA: Round 2

Round 2 of Heroes Lounge North America has been played, and things are starting to get 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 and teams are looking like as the season continues to shape up here in Division 3.

Round 2 Recap

Let's start by looking at all the matchups we had for Round 2:

Blood Bath & Beyond vs. Please Clap: Coming off of a forfeit last week, Blood Bath & Beyond's first played series was against my team, Please Clap. We took this series 2-0, but Blood Bath & Beyond showed some good synergy and strong drafting for both games.

BEHOLD... ragaros vs. Annie Oak League: Both of these teams started off their seasons with wins, so this series was one I expected to be a good one, and it definitely delivered. I'll cover this series in the Deep Dive section of the recap, so go on to that to hear more about the matchup.

Snow Storm vs. Ban Cho: Snow Storm had a bye last round, so their first played match of the season was against Ban Cho in this round. Ban Cho looked strong last round, taking a 2-0 win in their series with ReGen Blue, and they continued that this round with a 2-1 win over Snow Storm.

Always E In vs. Blackheart's Booty: Last time, we saw some spicy drafting from Blackheart's Booty, and this time around they faced up against Always E In. Unfortunately, they drafted some much more standard comps this week, but it seemed to work out for them, as they took the series 2-0.

Deep Fried Pizzas vs. Bazzzzinga: Deep Fried Pizzas came off of a loss last round, but they were looking angry this round against their opponent, Bazzzzinga. DFP took the series 2-0, using some more unusual picks such as Mephisto and Auriel.

UArk Esports vs. Can't Counterpick Stupid: Unfortunately, as discussed last week, University of Arkansas Esports has had some scheduling conflicts due to also participating in the Tespa Collegiate Series, and they did, unfortunately, decide to drop out for the season. We wish them the best of luck, as this round Can't Counterpick Stupid takes the series by forfeit.

TriggeredBySalad vs. FAT Aquaman: This series was a a crazy one, and one of the 3-mappers of round 2. Map 1 and 2 were both dominant wins, the first by Aquaman and second by TBS, while the third map was a constant stalemate, each team afraid of making mistakes. Ultimately, TBS's Ragnaros pick managed to win them the final map, but it took an entire 35 minutes for the final battle on Tomb to conclude the series.

Team Rainbow Strike Go! vs. ReGen Blue: ReGen Blue had a tough round one, losing 2-0 in a matchup against Ban Cho, who they had previously beaten, but they showed up big in their series against Team Rainbow Strike Go! The series was definitely one of the most even that I've seen thus far, with both teams showing aggression and some strong tactics. Continue to the Deep Dive section, where I sum up the highly contested maps.

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

In this section, I'd like to, once again, take a look at the more back-and-forth and fun matches that were played during this round, highlighting specific parts of each map.

BEHOLD... ragaros (BR) vs. Annie Oak League (AOL)

This series showed two great teams who took advantage of every teamfight they won, with very back-and-forth games.

Game 1 - Alterac Pass: For Alterac, BR , the team with first pick, drafted Deckard, Jaina, Blaze, Raynor and Johanna, while AOL drafted Muradin, Chromie, Gul'dan, Leoric and Stukov. Both teams started out the map conservatively, so their wasn't much action leading up to the first objective. BR arrived early, and got first blood, but wasn't quite able to start the capture. BR may have overstayed as a result of Leoric's trait, though, as AOL was able to quickly take a 5v5 fight, and secured 3 kills and the first objective. As is the case with many early objectives, AOL didn't get much more than front walls, so play resumed to normal until the second objective. AOL used the long-range poke given by Chromie and Gul'dan to chip at the bottom fort, but wasn't quite able to secure it before the objective spawned once more. Before the countdown had ended, though, BR had used Deckard's Lorenado to force a fight, and once again got an early kill, this time against Chromie. AOL used the downtime to get their siege pushing mid, and while they were able to fight one more time before the objective was secured, the fight traded 2 kills for 2 and BR walked away with the second objective. BR managed to take one fort, but the objective ended up being mostly an equalizing force, each team at level 14 with 5 kills.
During BR's retreat, Deckard was almost picked off on thanks to an entomb, but Lorenado once again turned the fight and the 2 resulting kills secured a boss for BR. Thanks to their excellent defensive tools, BR managed to win the next 2 teamfights and the third objective. Once again, though, it seems they pushed their advantage a bit too hard, and a great Horrify from Gul'dan led to a 4-1 trade in favor of AOL during the defense. AOL made the play for both bosses, which BR had to pour their resources into defending, especially after they lost 3 members again to AOL's rotation. The fourth objective given to AOL to clear and push out, but BR would still have to win a big fight to defend against the cavalry, all pushing against keeps. With level 20, Deckard's potions kept them full while they poked the cavalry down, and in a repeat of AOL's defense earlier, they managed to secure a full team wipe. With both bosses still down, BR moved top to take a keep, and also steal away AOL's camp. With things looking even once again, it seemed likely that whoever got the fifth objective would win the game, and with a 2-man entomb AOL was able to get a full team wipe and win map 1.

Game 2 - Volskaya Foundry: Starting Volskaya, AOL's map choice, BR drafted Raynor, Blaze, Li Li, Azmodan, and Johanna, facing off against E.T.C., Chromie, Gul'dan, Thrall, and Stukov on AOL's side. Both teams made good 4-man rotations, which especially helped Azmodan to stack, and when the first objective came, AOL elected to give up the first percentage to get the healing beacon and their siege camp. This payed dividends, as the camp forced BR off the point to clear, and the additional healing won AOL the fight when BR came back. The Triglav was used mostly to set up for the next objective, destroying BR's fountain top, then both teams retreated to normal rotations. A pick on Li Li got AOL the healing beacon camp, but otherwise play between objectives remained pretty standard. Once again, AOL decided to give up early points, this time getting a pick on the solo lane, but Blaze was crucially able to also get a counterkill on Thrall, which allowed them to get up to 99% before backing up. The ensuing fight was intense, but once again the item advantage led to a Protector for AOL, trading 3 kills for 2 (AOL's favor).
At this point, things looked dire for BR, down 2 forts and with no items against AOL, who had rotated to take every item after the objective. Going into Triglav 3, they were even down the 20 talent tier by a level. They managed to push for the top fort and soak level 20, but a kill against Blaze meant they had to cede the objective once more. Pushing behind the objective 4v5  at their keep, they managed to secure some kills, but the skirmish at the keep went back and forth until AOL finally retreated, trading 3 kills for 5 over the course of about 3 minutes (BR's favor). Importantly, though, BR had taken their siege camp before the defense, and all the time of skirmishing during the defense allowed it to push with catapults and destroy the top keep of AOL. Another pick on Thrall meant that, for the first time so far in the game, BR went into the objective on equal footing, although they elected to destroy the middle fort of AOL over taking additional items. It seemed it wasn't meant to be, though, as a long massive shove from Stukov turned the 5v5 into a 5v4, and kills on all but Azmodan were enough to finish the series, as AOL headed to core for the 2-0 victory.

Despite this series being a 2-0, I feel both teams showed some great strength, and it could have easily gone either way. I believe the MVP of the series would have to be unicake of Annie Oak League, who played Gul'dan both games. Their Horrifies decimated BR on multiple occasions both games, and the damage output otherwise was also insane.

Team Rainbow Strike Go! (TRS) vs. ReGen Blue (RGB)

For our deep dive this week, I chose to cover this match as it showed some of the strategical play and understanding of map objectives that you only get in competitive play.

Game 1 - Infernal Shrines: To start off the series, RGB elected to take it to Infernal Shrines. They drafted E.T.C., Jaina, Stukov, Xul, and Raynor, while TRS entered the series with Alarak, Anduin, Falstad, Johanna, and Rexxar. RGB started it off with an interesting strategy, using Xul to double soak mid and bot lane so that they could push top with 4 members of the team. TRS managed to force them into a normal rotation by taking some camps, and ultimately forced Xul to stay behind to clear during the first objective, securing it for themselves. RGB mitigated their losses, and bounced back, using some excellent silences and a well-timed mosh to secure the second punisher, netting the first fort of the game. From this point, objectives continued to be back and forth, largely thanks to well-timed picks on either side, until each side had lost all 3 of their forts. Anticipating camp rotations, RGB set up not 1, but 2 separate bush ganks, the first securing a camp steal, while the second secured key kills on Falstad and Johanna, leading to ReGen Blue claiming the first map.

Game 2 - Garden of Terror: TRS, after playing well in the previous map, took the series to Garden of Terror, a map only they have picked so far in Division 3. They picked Greymane, Alexstrasza, Lunara, Johanna, and Chen, and RGB came in with Arthas, Sylvanas, Cassia, Lucio, and Qhira to face them. The story of this map looked very similar to the first game. Each team did a great job of making quick camp rotations, and objectives were traded back and forth based on skirmishes, until the seed count was 2 to 2, and the kills nearly equal (7-6, RGB's favor). With level 13 secured by both teams, TRS took a decisive teamfight over the 5th seed, trading 3 kills for none and securing the first wave of Garden Terrors. With 2 forts down, it was looking bad for RGB, and the next teamfight didn't help that, as TRS managed to secure a 5-man wipe over the next seed, losing only 2 of their own members. Pushed in, RGB had to do something quickly, or risk losing even more structures to the passive flow of minions. Just as minions began pushing against their keeps, the next seed spawned, and with a quick kill against Chen, RGB secured their own wave of Garden Terrors. The map was almost equalized, and RGB looked to equalize the fort count by pushing their camps into the weakened top lane. TRS showed their mastery of the map here, though, as they used the time to get a huge push of camps and minions going towards the weakened bottom keep, and suddenly what seemed like a fairly level playing feeled turned into RGB defending down the level 20 talent. TRS's excellent reading of the map, their level advantage, and their win condition led to this devastating push, which went straight through the keep and core, tying the Best of 3.

Game 3 - Towers of Doom: With map pick having won every game so far, RGB elected for map pick, drafting Falstad, Thrall, E.T.C., Anduin, and Raynor to face TRS's Li-Ming, Ana, Lunara, Arthas, and Malthael on Towers of Doom. TRS opened aggressively, using Malthael's early double soak to shove the bottom lane with 4 members. Even with the global of Falstad, RGB struggled to match the macro pressure while still soaking all lanes. Early pressure led not only to a 12 point lead, but to capturing the bottom fort for TRS. As we know, though, Towers of Doom is the map where it's never over until the core hits 0, and RGB answered aggression with aggression. Despite having no bottom lane fort, they invaded the enemy's sapper camp, getting some kills and reclaiming their fort, so for the first time in the game the xp lead was in their hands. Taking advantage of the global they had at their disposal, RGB forced a fight before an objective spawned, and then stole the enemy team's altar, leading to a score of 12 points on each team's core and each team controlling all their forts. It seemed likely that whoever won the next fight might win the game, and that turned out to be exactly the case. Despite a good engage and a great death mosh from E.T.C., the revive available to Malthael as well as the resets from Li-Ming led to RGB being wiped while killing only 2 on the side of TRS. The boss and bottom capture left RGB at 3 core points, and the desperate attempt to stop TRS from capping was not enough, leaving Team Rainbow Strike Go the winners of the map and the series.

The MVP of this series goes to Kingleberry of Team Rainbow Strike Go, whose excellent offlane / bruiser play enabled their team both inside and outside of fights. The Malthael play in game 3 especially showed why the hero was consistently banned against them in the first two maps of the series. An honorable mention goes to SuperStyxx of TRS, who played excellently on Alarak, Greymane, and Li-Ming throughout the series.

Statistics

Stats are starting to pile up with 2 rounds of play, now, so let's take a look at some updated info on the meta here in Div 3.

Map Statistics - This week in map stats, things are seeming to have stayed pretty consistent.

• Infernal Shrines and Volskaya remain the 2 most popular maps to go to
• Towers of Doom and Dragon Shire are still the most hated, banned out 5 and 4 times, respectively
• Our games are averaging around 20 minutes - stomps are few and far between.

Hero Statistics - We've seen 17 more maps get played this week, which means we have a lot more data going into hero stats this round.

• Johanna and Diablo remain the top 2 in popularity, Diablo most frequently being banned (11 games this round), while Jo is the most played (14 games this round)
• The mages Kael'thas, Jaina and Gul'dan take the next few spots in popularity - what may surprise you is that they all have winrates of 50% or lower, though. Maybe some priorities need to shift.
• The most popular heroes of other roles are currently:
  • Healer: Anduin (5 picks, 2 bans this week)
  • Offlane: Thrall (8 picks, 3 bans this week)
  • Sustained DPS: Raynor (9 picks, 3 bans this week)
• Now that we've gotten 2 weeks of data, I have some winrate stats to share as well!
  • The highest winrate of a hero that has been played 10 or more maps belongs to Thrall, who has been on the winning side of 70% of his 10 matches.
  • Johanna and Diablo are both showing why they're high priority. Johanna has a 63% winrate of 24 games, and Diablo has overpowered his enemies in 4 of the 5 games he got through the bans!
  • Greymane leads the popular assassins in winrate, having won 6 of his 8 games so far.
  • Stukov currently leads the healers, with only 1 loss in the 6 games he's been played.
• So far in the season, 67 heroes have been played by the teams of Division 3.

Team Stats - After 2 weeks of play, I think I can start talking about the teams now. Remember, this isn't 100% representative, but it's fun to take a look into the individual stats of the teams anyway

• Annie Oak League is the only team that hasn't dropped a map so far. Look out for them in the upcoming weeks.
• The highest KDA of a team belongs to Bazzzzinga, with 5.5.
• The largest hero pool of a team belongs to Please Clap, with 21 heroes at this point in the season. ReGen Blue is close behind at 20 heroes.
• Ban Cho seems to like to get ahead early - they've spent 53% of the time in their games at a level advantage. They also have averaged 1 5-man wipe against their opponents each game.
• Team Rainbow Strike Go! are the merc lords of Div 3 so far, they've taken 13.4 camps per game (on average).

Thanks again to everyone who read, this has been a fun week and it looks like it's only gonna get better. Thanks for your support, see you next round!