We are beginning to see the rise of several top teams in Division 7, including some familiar names and others that are less familiar. The famous Bacon Landlords are returning from previous seasons with renewed vigour, alongside 4 Guys 1 Nurse and 500ms. All of them are teams that failed to make it into the top 8 last season, but have gone undefeated so far in Division 7. Two news teams have joined their ranks, Red Dragon Gambling and Kubota Yellow Sox, who have defeated all their enemies in clean 2:0 sweeps.
In terms of maps, we are seeing a strong preference for Cursed Hollow in Division 7, see play 13 times. Cursed Hollow is followed closely by Tomb of the Spider Queen, Infernal Shrines and Battlefield of Eternity, each having been picked 10 times in the past 3 rounds. Yet by Round 3, every single map has seen at least some play, which comes to show the variety of, not just hero picks, but map picks in this remarkable Division. It will be more interesting to see if Cursed Hollow remains as the favourite battleground as time goes on and a meta begins to form.
Despite the reputation, Division 7 has remained very conservative on the topic of hero compositions. The most common composition by far included one healer, two ranged assassins, one tank and one bruiser with 69 occurences. The next most popular variation involved team opting for a double tank frontline instead of a tank and a bruiser at 27. In fact, no other composition was run more than 5 times, showing that Division 7 still very much prefers orthodox drafts. But rest assured, Division 7 is still spiced up by the occasional crazy draft, like solo damage Kerrigan or an Abathur composition with no tank.
Notable Matches
Kubota Yellow Sox vs FrUk Unleashed
These two teams have both performed well during the first two rounds, coming out of Round 2 undefeated. Kubota Yellow Sox showed us a masterfully played Medivh, forcing out respect bans from their opponents, while FrUk Unleashed utilised a Kerrigan hyper carry drafted on Tomb of the Spider Queen to close out their series in both Round 1 and Round 2. Both teams, however, did their research, as during this match, their comfort strategies were either banned or countered by the other team. Using a lot of heat and flames with their Kael'thas and Blaze picks, Kubota Yellow Sox were able to defeat FrUk Unleashed slowly climbing the ranks of Division 7.
Game 1 on Infernal Shrines began with a Medivh ban from FrUk Unleashed. Undeterred, the Yellow Sox drafted a composition based around Kael'thas, Blaze and Rehgar, incorporating a lot of waveclear for a map where wave clear is a priority consideration. FrUk Unleashed, on the other hand, pulled out a Mal'ganis pick backed up by their consistent healer of choice, Tyrande. Unfortunately, the demon lord Mal'ganis was not enough to tame the flames of the Yellow Sox and the blue team took Game 1 convincingly, with 16 kills to 1.
Game 2 was played on Tomb of the Spider Queen, where FrUk Unleashed managed to pick their signature Kerrigan composition, supported by Arreku on Tassadar and Chipsette on Tyrande, while keeping the ban on the Sox's Medivh. Kubota Yellow Sox drafted very similar to their game 1 picks, following the principle of 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it', and it worked out for them. Though FrUk Unleashed fought hard, and forced a much closer game, Kubota Yellow Sox were able to claim a win despite the ban on their signature pick.
My personal MVP of the match was Zagi, who managed to dish out a lot of damage to the enemy team, out damaging the Kael'thas on his team as Hanzo and Cassia respectively.
4.EveR vs 500ms
500ms is a returning Division 7 team from last season trying to redeem their abysmal record from Season 9, and so far, they have managed to win both of their earlier matches, although one was a forfeit. Against this team is 4.EveR, a new team in Division 7 trying to make a name for themselves. This match saw 500ms running a Double Heal Valla comp, a composition that Division 7 does not seem to favour at the moment. In fact, these were the first games that featured any sort of double healer in the entire Division. Interestingly, this particular composition saw a lot of success in this match.
Game 1 took place on Dragonshire, where 500ms drafted Valla with two healers not usually seen with Double Healer comps, Rehgar and Lucio. 4.Ever drafted a more conventional using Kael'thas and Fenix as damage dealers, protected by Anub'arak, Artanis and Ana. 4.Ever were unable to deal with the pressure of both lanes and lost Game 1.
Game 2 was almost a repetition of Game 1, though it played out on Cursed Hollow. 500ms managed to draft Valla with Rehgar and Anduin, with a Rexxar and ETC frontline against 4.Ever's double mage composition of Gul'dan and Orphea. Once again, 4.Ever were unable to break through the healing output of two healers, and 500ms managed to take the match with a 2-0.
The MVP of the match was Erniemist, who played Rexxar both matches and had a great impact on both the solo lane and the team fights.
Closing Remarks
Division 7 of Heroes Lounge this season is shaping out to be one of the most hype Divisions, with interesting matches popping up every week. But more interesting than these matches are, of course, the statistics, which we all know are entirely accurate for making objective conclusions.
So here they are, facts of the week:
Fact #1: Rexxar has a 100% winrate across 8 games in Division 7 (at least during the first 3 Rounds).
Fact #2: Red Dragon Gambling is the team with the highest average KDA of 7.9. Be careful of them, if you're in Division 7.
Fact #3: Muradin was picked 22 times with an abysmal 26% winrate. What is going on with the dwarf?
Thank you once again for reading. See you for Round 4.
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