Inside Division 3 NA: Round 7

Round 7 of Heroes Lounge North America has just finished being played, and we've seen some intense matchups, as well as, unfortunately, a couple of forfeits. Regardless, Lothair and I are here to bring you the breakdown of everything Division 3 NA for this round.

Round 7 Recap

Let's start by looking at all the matchups we had for Round 7:

Can't Counterpick Stupid vs. Please Clap: Can't Counterpick Stupid comes into the series undefeated, and with Please Clap coming off a 2-0 loss, it looked like it might be another easy series. In the end, both teams showed up, though, and executed in 3 crazy games, which will be covered in the Deep Dive. It was also casted by Svenla, and can be seen here.

BEHOLD... ragaros vs. Team Rainbow Strike Go!: This series saw two 4-2 teams facing off, and the end result was not at all representative of how close this match was. Both teams played exceptionally, but in the end Team Rainbow Strike Go! took a 2-0, winning both maps, despite how back-and-forth they were. This series was casted by Svenla, and can be seen here.

TriggeredBySalad vs. Deep Fried Pizzas: Unfortunately, as the team has decided to disband, TriggeredBySalad forfeited their round 7 and 8 matches. Deep Fried Pizzas are still a strong team in the standings, though, as they will take the 2-0.

FAT Aquaman vs. Annie Oak League: FAT Aquaman vs Annie Oak League saw 2 relatively evenly matched teams facing off, and was an intense series. Both teams had some crazy comebacks, but in the end it was Annie Oak League who came out on top with a 2-1 victory.

Ban Cho vs. Always E In: Unfortunately, seemingly as a result of timing issues, this match was not able to be played, and as such is currently left as a draw.

Snow Storm vs. Blackheart's Booty: Another evenly matched series, Snow Storm started off strong, but seemed to always lose their lead when the lategame came. Their play managed to win them the first map, but in the end Blackheart's Booty was able to survive their strong early game and win the series 2-1.

Blood Bath & Beyond vs. Bazzzzinga: Unfortunately, Blood Bath & Beyond was unable to find a suitable sub for their match against Bazzzzinga, and had to forfeit this week, leaving their opponents to take a 2-0 win.

Deep Dive

Can't Counterpick Stupid (CCS) vs. Please Clap (PC)

Hey there, its Lothair again as I break down this weeks Deep Dive. This series sees the the top and only undefeated team CCS show off against a middle of the pack team in an intense and engaging series with plenty to decisions to talk about. 

Game 1 sees Muradin, Tyrael, Sylvanas, Kel’thas and Rehgar for CCS fight off against Garosh, Dehaka, Zarya, Jaina and Ana for PC on the turbulent Infernal Shrines.  

After a brief tussle mid, both teams move into 4 man rotations with Tyrael and Dehaka in the offlanes. LazyHydra on Zarya gets a bit caught out in one of the rotations and gives up first blood to CCS which also allowed them to invade the siege camp on PC’s side of the map. 

Over the fight for first objective, CCS loses Muradin, Rehgar, and most of their top wall but manages to secure the punisher with a few well-placed flamestrikes. This gets the entirety of mid wall and grants CCS even more opportunities to capture mercenary camps around the map.

A skirmish around bot camp allows PC to use their slight level advantage to grab to more kills, bringing the kill count to 1-5. This quickly changes as a judgement onto Dehaka secures a kill during the second objective. After a long 2 minutes and a 5 man wipe later, CCS pushes to keep wall, gets 3 more kills, and drops all of the outer forts from PC.

With Pressure in every lane, CCS takes all of PC’s camps and end through top during objective 3, but a great Expulsion Zone isolates Rehgar while Dehaka finishes the shrine.

A few minutes later and an amazing wailing arrow later leaves Please Clap defenseless to Cant Counterpick Stupid’s final push botlane as they take down the core.

Game 2 has Blaze, Arthas, Guldan, Sylvanas, and Rehgar for CCS fighting to win the series against PC's Johanna, Tyrael, Raynor, Zeratul, and Malfurion on Tomb of the Spider Queen. 

Both teams initialize with a fairly standard 4 man rotation with Zeratul and Blaze in the offlanes. PC almost gets firstblood onto Arthas but LazyHydra on Tyrael once again gives up first blood by over zealously taking a tower shot. After that, both teams stay relatively even on XP until CCS gets a pick onto Raynor and is able to turn in during the downtime. This Webweaver wave gets most of the front walls of top and mid, while bot is relatively untouched.

CCS almost gets a second turn in after a large lull in the action, but Zeratul manages to sneak a breakpoint turn in bot lane to send the weavers down for PC. After a brief tussle midlane and having barely lost the race to 10, PC moves top and pushes into the fort for the first teamfight of the match. A would be 4 man Sindragosa gets denied by a well timed sanctification, forcing CCS away and granting PC the first fort of the match. 

A kill on Zeratul during a rotation to mid gives CCS the opportunity to turn in again, this time with 9 minute Webweavers, which manage to grant enough pressure midlane for them to secure another kill, as well as the forts for mid and top. 

At 12 minutes with both teams level 14 and Webweavers being summoned by PC, a fight breaks out. Another case of Sindragosa being negated by Sanctification. This time though, Zeratul drops a huge 4 man Void Prison, setting up a kill and scattering the survivors to other lanes, ceding mid and bot fort to PC.

With pressure in every lane, PC tries for a third turn in but CCS pays 3 kills to turn in instead. PC then clears the waves without contest gets their third turn in. Again, an amazing Void Prison grabs another couple kills for PC, securing them mid and bot keep, and setting them up for a boss top, which they take with only blaze attempting to disrupt. A 1 for 1 trade keeps top keep alive at 4000 health. 

The game ending choice happened when CCS all went to take bot siege, while PC turned in for Webweavers, pushing them in to end the core. 

Finally, Volskaya Foundry sees, Johanna, Zul, Sylvanas, Junkrat, and Anduin summoned by CCS in the match point against PC's Malganis, Blaze, Raynor, Falstad, and Malfurion. 

PC starts their turret camp very early, and CCS attempts to invade and would have succeeded if they had gotten there a second earlier. With Anduin and Junkrat on CCS's turret, PC takes the healing beacon before managing to get a pick on Zul midlane. There's a brief tussle over point A, but by using one of their turrets and the Biotic Emitter, they secure the first objective.

With the protector they take down the top fountain and wall before using their brief level 10 advantage to take a second healing beacon as both teams make a round of clearing camps. Sylvanas and Anduin step a little bit too far forward toplane during the depush, so a Gust and Twilight Dream take them both down, giving PC an opening which they use to take down top fort. 

A great invade from CCS takes down Malfurion and lets them steal the turret camp, granting them 3 turrets for the upcoming fights. PC responds by forcing another healing camp, which goes uncontested just before the teamfight on point B. Some over aggressive push forward from PC results in a dis-favorable 2-1 kill and lets CCS secure Protector B, which they use to bring down the top and mid forts. 

Minute 14 sees CCS push onto PC's siege camp, which is thwarted in a reversal where PC picks up 2 kills and another healing camp. The fighting continues over the turrets, as PC manages to get 3 retribution kills in response to Malfurion's untimely demise. 

Objective C is handed over to PC without contest and top keep follows suit. If you guessed that PC would follow it up by taking the healing camp, you would be right. A few ults were used in the coming minutes, but little action. PC cedes the start of Point A2 in favor of, again, a healing camp. CCS responds by taking down bot keep, which PC has no options to defend. 

By the time the fight breaks out, Please Clap drops 3 healing beacons, and with 12% max health healing per second for the entire team, Can't Counterpick Stupid can't find any kills and lose the protector that ends the game. 

Post-Game Interviews

Lazy Hydra - Please Clap:

"We goofed the draft a bit, Dehaka's global didn't quite get the value we had hoped for, and we executed on the Zarya-Garrosh quite poorly. If we cleaned up rotations and drafting we had a good chance."
~On adjusting for game 2.

"We drafted another comp we felt we could just play really safe with. Mal'Ganis and Blaze give lots of safety, especially bunker, and Falstad gives some nice disengage and engage options."
~On following through for game 3.

"We've been practicing a lot of different compositions and heroes in scrimmages, and I'm really excited to show some off. I think we are ready going into the cup."
~On the future.

Valkamer - Can't Counterpick Stupid:

"We decided to veer off our standard maps a bit, owing to the idea that they would pick Volskaya if given the choice. We seemed to be doing okay, but then missed chances to turn in and after dropping too many gems, they steamrolled to victory."  
~On keeping up pressure in game 2.

"We had the chance to win, we had mercenary queen and four turrets. We went to the control point instead and we were wishy washy about it. Unfortunately, I feel like I handed it back to them with the chance to just flat end it before they could have done enough to kill us."
~On game 3 strategy.

"Should fate brings us together again, GLORY AWAITS."
~On a rematch in the future.

MVP

This match had an absolutely stunning performance from Golden, in particular in game 2, where his Void Prisons from Zeratul absolutely saved Please Clap from multiple bad fights and helped turn the bad engages into great ones. A close series that could have gone either way, well played to both teams.  

Statistics

We are past the 100 map point in this season, as 103 maps have been played in Division 3. Stats are looking similar to the past few weeks, but here's a few brief updates on the numbers.

Map Statistics:

• The top maps remain the same, Infernal Shrines leading with 29 picks, followed by Volskaya Foundry at 22, and Battlefield of Eternity at 17.
  • Sky Temple was finally picked once this week, meaning all maps have been played. Cursed and Dragon Shire are the next lowest played, each picked 3 times.
• Dragon Shire took the #1 spot in map bans this week, with 26, but Alterac Pass and Towers of Doom are only 1 behind, with 25 bans each.
• First Pick and Map Pick remain very close in winrate, with the First Pick team winning 49 matches and Map Pick winning 54.

Hero Statistics - Following the format of last week, here's a quick update on hero statistics in the Division 3 meta:

• First, here are the top 3 heroes of each role, by popularity:
  • Tank: Johanna is, of course, on top at 98.1% popularity. Diablo and E.T.C. still follow, holding 65% and 43.7% popularity.
  • Offlane: Thrall, Blaze, and Malthael stay as the top 3 offlaners (37.9%, 34%, 29.1%), though the role remains one of the more diverse, with Artanis, Leoric, and others coming close.
  • Sustained DPS: The top 3 for sustained DPS also look very similar, with Sylvanas, Greymane, and Raynor holding the top spots (48.5%, 44.7% x 2).
  • Mage: Kael'thas still holds out the #2 spot overall, and highest popularity among mages with 72.8%, though mostly through bans as Jaina and Gul'dan have seen more play (61.2%, 43.7%).
  • Healer: Healers also show a bit more diversity, with Anduin, Ana, and Stukov holding the highest popularities (50.5%, 42.7%,39.8%), though heroes like Rehgar and Lucio have also seen lots of play.
• Of heroes who have seen 10 or more maps of play, Stukov still holds the highest winrate with 72.2%.

Team Stats and Rankings

We're 7 rounds in, with only 1 left, and that means the standings are looking pretty close coming into the Epic Cup. Here's a look at the top 5 one more time, as well as teams who will be racing to get into the top 8 for the cup.

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 (6-1, 13 Map Wins) - Despite their loss this week, CCS is still a force to be reckoned with and holding strong in the 1st place spot in the division. They face the Deep Fried Pizzas next week, and then will look to impress in the Epic Cup.
2. Team Rainbow Strike Go! (5-2, 12 Map Wins) - Team Rainbow Strike Go is looking strong, taking another win this week. They face Please Clap in round 8, which will be an intense matchup for sure
3. Please Clap (5-2, 11 Map Wins) - Taking a win over the undefeated CCS this time around, Please Clap is looking to climb back up the standings after their loss last round. They've shown they have what it takes to beat anyone, but will they be able to find the consistency they need?
4. Deep Fried Pizzas (5-2, 10 Map Wins) - Deep Fried Pizzas won by forfeit this week, and they'll be facing Can't Counterpick Stupid in the next round. They're by no means a slouch of a team, but they have their work cut out for them.
5. Ban Cho (4-2, 10 Map Wins) - Unfortunately, Ban Cho was forced into a draw on their match this round, despite being highly favored, but they are still looking strong and will certainly be a force to be reckoned with in the Epic Cup

Teams to Look Out For - Last article I went over 2 teams still looking strong, but this time I want to focus on the teams still in contention for the Epic Cup who will fight for their position in their match during round 8.

• Snow Storm - Snow Storm is a team that has consistently looked strong, no matter the opponent, but struggles to use their advantages to close out matches. We'll see if they can pull out a win in the next round to comfortably set their place in the cup.
• BEHOLD... ragaros - BEHOLD... ragaros is a team that started the season off extremely well, but has struggled in the past weeks against strong opponents such as Can't Counterpick Stupid and Team Rainbow Strike Go. Their match against Always E In is likely to go their way next week, but it will be interesting to see what kind of seeding they end up with based on other results.
• Blackheart's Booty - Taking a win over Snow Storm this week, Blackheart's Booty has an opportunity to reach the Epic Cup, but they will have to face Bazzzzinga next week. They are a solid team, but often seem to find their compositions shut down, so we'll have to see how it goes for them.

Thanks again to everyone who read! Next round is the last one, after that we'll still keep giving articles for the Epic Cup group stage and bracket stage, starring the top 8 teams from Divisions 3 & 4 (who are able to participate).