Inside Division 3 NA: Round 6

Round 6 of Heroes Lounge North America has just finished being played, and it's certainly shaken up the standings a bit. I'm joined today by Lothair (who will be doing the Deep Dive section for now on), as we take you through the round's matchups.

Round 6 Recap

Let's start by looking at all the matchups we had for Round 6:

Team Rainbow Strike Go! vs. TriggeredBySalad: This series saw Team Rainbow Strike Go, who sat in 2nd place at the end of round 5, taking on TriggeredBySalad, who was sitting just out of the top 5. This series was intense and saw both sides showing their best, as well as some strange compositions. Check it out in the Deep Dive section written by Lothair.

Can't Counterpick Stupid vs. BEHOLD... ragaros: For this matchup, Can't Counterpick Stupid looked to continue their undefeated streak as they faced off the #4 team in BEHOLD... ragaros. Both teams performed excellently, but in the end Can't Counterpick Stupid managed to continue their streak using crazy map pressure to take a 2-0. This match was casted by Svenla, and can be seen here.

Please Clap vs. Ban Cho: Another match between two strong teams, this match ended in what could be considered a bit of an upset as the #2 team Please Clap received two fast losses against Ban Cho, who had been sitting at #5.

FAT Aquaman vs. Deep Fried Pizzas: This game saw FAT Aquaman, who was coming off a 3-win streak, facing off against the Deep Fried Pizzas. Despite both matches being close, especially the 2nd map, Deep Fried Pizzas came out on top with a 2-0.

Annie Oak League vs. Bazzzzinga: Another intensely close series, with the second map going a full 30 minutes, Annie Oak League and Bazzzzinga faced off, with Bazzzzinga ultimately winning 2-0 thanks to their play around the combination of E.T.C. and Blaze.

Blackheart's Booty vs. Blood Bath & Beyond: Unfortunately, Blackheart's Booty was unable to play this match and, as such, the result was a forfeit in favor of Blood Bath & Beyond, taking it 2-0.

Snow Storm vs. Always E In: To round out round 6, Snow Storm took on Always E In, showing some crazy compositions, starring such heroes as Murky, Abathur, Tracer and Genji. Despite Always E In's best attempts, Snow Storm made the comps work and came out on top with a 2-0.

Deep Dive

Team Rainbow Strike Go! (RSG) vs. TriggeredBySalad (TBS)

This series was a brutal back and forth with plenty of opportunity for comebacks and redemption. Its a perfect showcase of how to keep your cool and to always keep your head in the game. The series started with RSG favored, having 4 wins to TBS's 3.

Game 1 - Volskaya Foundry: 

Blaze, Muradin, Li-Ming, Sylvanas, and Anduin for RSG face off against TBS’s Johanna, Stitches, Alarak, Raynor, and Lucio on Volskaya Foundry.  

Both teams started off the map as you would expect, getting their turret camps early, and then returning to soaking. Eventually TBS managed to get the healing beacon, but both teams used their turrets in the fight over it. The teams grabbed their siege camps before moving to the objective, which seemed at first to go to RSG thanks to their earlier level 7, but ultimately the healing beacon won the first protector for TBS. TBS took the usual strategy of preparing by destroying the fountain top, and immediately rotate to once again get an item advantage with the healing beacon after. With both teams at 10 going into the second objective, RSG held 3 turrets against TBS's 2 healing beacons. Despite kills going both ways, the healing beacons, along with being the first team on the point, allowed TBS to take the second protector of the game, and the top and middle forts with it. 

Slow to retreat from the protector, though, TBS was caught out, losing 3 members while only taking 1 kill of their own, allowing RSG to, for the first time, take the healing camp and the item advantage. Now somewhat behind going into the objective, TBS used Stitches to look for picks, managing to use a hook on Sylvanas to find a favorable fight and kill onto Blaze, allowing a lead on the third objective for TBS, once again. RSG elected to push top as a response, and even managed to find a pick against Raynor as they did so. With the 5v4, RSG managed to get multiple kills and take point on the objective, splitting up to try and get items while leaving 1 on point. This ultimately ended up being a mistake, though, as the remaining Johanna from TBS managed to force Anduin off point long enough to guarantee another fight. Unable to finish any camps, RSG went in on even footings, and with a sound barrier Lucio was able to negate the wombo potential of RSG, taking kills on all but Anduin and Muradin, as well as the third protector and the game. 

Game 2 - Alterac Pass: 

Mal’ganis, Arthas, Alarak, Guldan, and Lucio fight for RSG and the alliance against Johanna, Artanis, Li-Ming, Ragnaros, and Anduin for TBS and the horde. 

The map proceeds as normal for the first couple minutes as each team takes their gnoll camps. With first objective active, TBS pushes in and captures the prison camp. Unfortunately, Johanna stays in the fight too long and falls to Guldan for first blood. RSG is barely unable to cap their camp off of this, so both teams go back to soaking lanes. By 7 minutes, however, RSG moves as 5 and is able to claim the first objective. Despite the alliance cavalry crashing upon the forts, none fall, so it’s on to objective 2. 

The first minute of objective consists entirely of a fight on the south side of the map, the opposite side of the currently north objective, Li-ming and Alarak are traded for kills on each side before each team takes resets. Once both teams move up to the camps, RSG gets a series of strong picks with Telekinesis and damage from Guldan, taking down 3 people in their wake. They have no resistance taking objective 2, which brings down all 3 forts. As soon as the cavalry dies, RSG takes bot boss, and a bit later TBS starts top boss. However, RSG is a bit faster and gets to top boss just as it is finished, gets 4 kills and the boss before pushing with double boss to the core.

Game 3 - Infernal Shrines: 

Finally, for the fate of the series, Infernal shrines sees RSG with Arthas, Leoric, Alarak, Guldan, and Lucio to fight off Anub’arak, Stiches, Butcher, Raynor And Brightwing from TBS for a truly unusual draft.

The game starts to get interesting as RSG begins their siege camp. After TBS attempts an unsuccessful gank top, they invade the siege camp and manage to force RSG off, killing Lucio for 20 meat and capturing the Impalers for themselves. TBS continues to keep up camp pressure by moving down to the southernmost siege camp, capturing that one, and managing to get lockdown on alarak for another kill. This leaves TBS with almost a full level lead and 70 stacks for butcher at 2:20 before taking the last remaining siege camp.

The first shrine sees a brief skirmish before a ruthless onslaught locks down Alarak long enough for raynor to finish the kill. This secures TBS the shrine and the arcane punisher, which in turn secures bot fort. A quick gank mid sees another kill onto RSG, stacking butcher even further. A few more 4 man rotations get butcher to 200 just as Shrine 2 reaches its halfway point. A charge onto Lucio starts the fight well for TBS, but some solid play lets RSG pick up 2 kills in response, as well as a mortar punisher. A strong dive under mid fort lets RSG pick up another 3 kills and the previously significant level lead is completely neutralized. 

Unfortunately, Alarak overextends and gets killed on his own, allowing TBS to invade siege camp again. After a couple more camps and a couple more Ganks its time for shrine 3. Artanis gets a solid root onto stitches which RSG tries to burst, but being grouped up allows Anubarak to land a 3 man Burrow Charge. This separates RSG enough for multiple kills and the frozen punisher to go to TBS, who opt to take camps rather than escort the punisher. A fishing hook onto Guldan during a TBS invade of bruiser camp is a great start to a fight that leaves all of RSG dead and defenseless against the final push from TBS.

In the post game interview, I talked to both captains, ComLemon and Robear, about the back and forth nature of the series and what they did to combat it ---

ComLemon ~
"At the start of game 2 we were nervous because we were playing on an unfamiliar map, but we thought we had a good enough game plan going in. We thought our teamfight would be unstoppable with Johanna + Anduin, with good macro control with Ragnaros."

-On Recovering Game 3. 

Robear ~
"Game 2 was a momentum builder for us, just like any win would be to even a series. My hopes [was] that it would carry us through the series. For game 3, we ended up banning the heroes we considered the most threat worthy which forced them to play outside of their traditional pattern. Brightwing and Butcher filled out slots for them that helped them control the match... Brightwing and Butcher both have CC capabilities, and Butcher fulfills the burst role they were needing."
-On Unconventional Game 3.

"It comes down to map knowledge, team tendencies on both ends, drafting, synergies, counters, etc. So smaller margins of error that can win a game. Ultimately it came down to who executes and plays that map the best 'in the moment'. Infernal Shrines was a favored map for them in my head and I knew they would pick it if there was a game 3."
-On Map Pick Being Favored.

The MVP of the series ----

Despite being a very close choice for MVP, this week the honor goes Juan/TheSaltlord Who played Alarak, Ragnaros, and Butcher. They showed great discipline in waiting for the right times to strike, setting up multiple fight winning telekinesis in game 1, helping slow the loss bleeding in game 2, and stacking exceptionally well in game 3. Their synergy and coordination with the team, and in particular with CiarlA, proved to be deadly as they maintained 100% kill participation through the entire series.

Statistics

We're past the halfway point in the season, so let's check in again with some of the statistics so far. This week will be going back to a bit more of a lighter overview, as opposed to the extremely thorough overview from last round.

Map Statistics - We're only 8 maps away from hitting 100 so far in the season, so let's check back in on map preference and other map-related numbers:

• To no one's surprise, Infernal Shrines remains the top dog of the maps (26 picks), still followed by Volskaya Foundry (20) and Battlefield of Eternity (16)
  • The least played maps are Sky Temple, Cursed Hollow, and Dragon Shire (0, 1, and 3 picks) as of the end of round 6.
• On the flipside, Towers of Doom, Alterac Pass, and Dragon Shire are the most banned out maps (23, 22, and 20 bans)
• The question of Map Pick vs First Pick continues to be mostly even, with Map Pick being ahead by only 4 wins (48 to 44)

Hero Statistics - The meta of heroes has been pretty consistent so far, but here's an update anyway:

• To start off, let's look at the top 3 heroes of each role:
  • Tank: To no surprise, Johanna is still the most popular hero for the division, she's followed by Diablo and E.T.C. in the tank category (98.9%, 64.1%, and 44.6% popularity).
  • Offlane: Thrall holds the top spot for offlaners, with Blaze and Malthael close behind (38%, 33.7%, 29.3%). This role remains one of the more diverse, though, as seen through the lower popularity.
  • Sustained DPS: Sylvanas reigns when it comes to popular sustained DPS, the runner-ups being Greymane and Raynor (50%, 44.6%, 44.6%).
  • Mage: Kael'thas is the second most popular hero in the division, though mostly due to bans, as the next two mages in popularity have been played in more games (70.7%, 58.7%, 43.5%).
  • Healer: To round it out, the healers are, again, one of the more diverse roles, with Anduin holding the top spot, and Stukov and Ana coming in behind him (52.2%, 41.3%, 41.3%).
• Of heroes who have seen 10 or more maps of play, Stukov holds the highest winrate at 75%.
  • Some other heroes of note who have seen more play are Johanna with 62.7% winrate out of 67 games and Thrall with 60.7% winrate out of 28 games.
• We hit 80 heroes for the division's hero pool this week, as Murky and the Butcher (to my surprise) join the roster.

Team Stats and Rankings

We're 6 rounds in, and the standings have shaken up a bit, so let's take a look at them once again. Remember, you can always view the current standings here.

The Top 5 - To start, let's update the top 5 (ignoring any round 7 or 8 matches which have already been played):

1. Can't Counterpick Stupid (6-0, 12 Map Wins) - Can't Counterpick Stupid continues to look unstoppable, taking a 2-0 win over previous #4 team BEHOLD... ragaros!
2. Team Rainbow Strike Go! (4-2, 10 Map Wins) - Team Rainbow Strike Go! took their second loss this round as they faced TriggeredBySalad, but they continue to hold out in the #2 spot, although they are tied in map wins with Ban Cho, and all of the top 7 teams but Can't Counterpick Stupid are sitting at a 4-2 record.
3. Ban Cho (4-2, 10 Map Wins) - Defeating Please Clap this round, Ban Cho has moved up to be tied for 2nd place, and definitely is looking strong as they head into round 7.
4. Please Clap (4-2, 9 Map Wins) - Despite their loss, Please Clap still sits in 4th place, and looks like they still are very likely to be a force to be reckoned with in the playoffs, although they'll have to face Can't Counterpick Stupid and Team Rainbow Strike Go! before that.
5. TriggeredBySalad (4-2, 9 Map Wins) - Pulling off an upset against Team Rainbow Strike Go! with none other than the Butcher, TriggeredBySalad is the only new top 5 member this week, although with good reason.

Teams to Look Out For - Last article I shouted out 2 teams who I expected to have great potential for upsets during the remainder of the season, but I may have cursed them a bit as they both unfortunately lost both their round 6 matches! Regardless, here are 2 teams not in the top 5 which definitely have some huge potential going forwards:

• Deep Fried Pizzas - the Pizzas have been one of the most consistent teams so far, and they're one of the teams currently sitting at a 4-2 record, currently tied for 6th place in the division. They'll face TriggeredBySalad and Can't Counterpick Stupid in future weeks, look forward to seeing how they do.
• BEHOLD... ragaros - Despite their loss against the #1 team Can't Counterpick Stupid this round, Ragaros is still looking powerful, so look for them to continue pressuring the top 5 in the upcoming 2 weeks.

Thanks again to everyone who read! Hopefully you enjoyed the Deep Dive section written this time by Lothair. He'll continue to bring you Deep Dives for rounds 7 and 8 (and maybe the Epic Cup?), so stick around!