As you may know, Heroes Lounge uses what is called the 'Swiss tournament seeding', a match making process that pairs up teams with similar results in the past rounds, in order to create a more normalised set of teams in the middle. What this essentially means is that it is harder for teams to remain undefeated, and at the same time, easier for teams to achieve at least one win throughout the season. In fact, in Division 7, every team now has an official match win (though some were free wins through BYE!). Round 6 has come and gone, and with it, the number of undefeated teams here grows shorter and shorter.
An interesting point to take note of is that, despite each team being matches against a team that is theoretically at a similar skill level, Division 7 matches are still yielding a surprising number of 2:0 results. In fact, in Round 6, we have only seen 1 best of 3 match go all the way to Game 3.
But before we go into any particular match in Round 6, here are some statistics that may paint a rough picture of the 'meta' that is forming down here in Division 7. These were collected from the matches played between Rounds 1 and 5 (It takes me a while to download Round 6 replays because I'm a lazy sloth).
The 'Meta'
We will be awarding different heroes with different awards, based on how much of an impact they were able to have on the Division 7 meta. For example, the first award is for 'The Most Picked' hero, which, unsurprisingly goes to the hero with the highest pick rate. So without further ado, welcome to the Division 7 'Meta' awards.
The Most Picked
This award was won jointly by Johanna and Jaina, both having been picked in 50 games, out of the 105 games playing during the first 5 Rounds of Division 7. The runner-up was Raynor, with 46 picks on this hero. Of these heroes, Jaina sports the highest winrate, sitting at 64%, which is a very respectable number.
In terms of healers, the title of 'most picked' is once again won jointly, by Tyrande and Anduin. Each of these Warcraft healers were picked 29 times, though both of them have winrates below 50%. Perhaps Warcraft's popularity may not correspond directly to merit (That was off the record, btw. I actually like Warcraft characters a lot).
In the offlane, we see a heavy focus on the Thrall, who was picked 32 times (though some of those picks were Thrall in the 4 man, I decided against finding every Thrall draft to compare). Blaze and Arthas are the next two contenders, with 27 and 25 picks respectively. Surprisingly, all of these picks have a fairly high winrate, with Thrall sitting at 75%, Blaze at 55.6% and Arthas at 64%.
The most picked tank would definitely surprise you guys. It was Johanna. Lagging behind are ETC with 39 picks and Muradin with 38 picks. A surprising statistic is that Muradin sports an abysmally low winrate of 34.2%. Perhaps the dwarf needs a little bit more exercise or something. (Once again, I am aware many of the ETC picks may have been in the offlane, but I will not be trying to figure out just how much).
Moving unto the assassin picks, we have another surprise. Jaina was the most picked damage dealer in Division 7, followed by Raynor. Notably, Division 7 appears to prefer mage picks, with the next 3 most picked assassins being Li Ming, Kael'thas and Orphea, with 27, 26 and 25 picks respectively. Sadly, winning with Li Ming is not easy, as she sits on a 29.6% winrate. Perhaps she was right when she said, 'if it was easy, everyone would do it'.
The Most Banned
I'm sure no one is surprised that this award goes to Diablo, who was banned 57 times in 105 games. That is a banrate of 54.3%. The Lord of Terror is followed closely by the Lord of Terrifying Bombs of Fire and... Other Stuff, Kael'thas, who was banned 47 times. It would seem as though Division 7 really likes to clump up, making this hero a menace whenever he is picked (except for the 53.8% of the games in which he is picked... since he has a winrate of 46.2%).
The winner of 'The Most Banned As The Third Ban' goes to Ana, who was banned 20 times as the third ban.
The Most Ignored
This award goes out to all the heroes who were neither picked nor banned during the first 5 rounds of Division 7. Kharazim, Xul, Nova, Gazlowe and Valeera have all seen 0 play, having neither been picked nor banned. I am personally disappointed that Division 7 has let these heroes go unnoticed, when some of them are such memes (looking at you Gazlowe and Nova). This does, however, mean we've seen Cho'gall, TLV and Murky in action throughout our games here in Division 7.
Genji gets an honourable mention for having bans, yet never seeing play.
For those of you who have not had a chance to watch many of our wonderful Division 7 matches, here is the usual summary of the notable Round 6 matches. While not all of these matches have been casted, all replays are available on the website.
The Notable Matches
4.EveR vs Shank Squad
This particular match was casted by our favourite caster, Khaldor. As many of you know Khaldor likes to cast Division 7 matches from time to time, and we love it too, when he casts us. This match showcased a few of Division 7's meta talents, such as Falstad's Secret Weapon, Anub'arak's Debilitation and Li Ming's Glass Cannon. While these talents may not see as much play in higher levels of play, we in Division 7 like showing these abandoned talents some love. The 2:1 score, in favour of 4.EveR, reflects the huge struggle in both of our teams to avoid 'winning the game', a common practice in Division 7.
Game 1 on Cursed Hollow was a battle between the globals, as Shank Squad drafted a Dehaka while 4.EveR drafted a Falstad, but it was the Malthael, played by OTPTracer, that ripped through the ranks of Shank Squad in every teamfight, securing the victory for 4.EveR.
Game 2 took place on Infernal Shrines, where 4.EveR picked their Secret Weapon again, in the form of Falstad. However, this was not enough to stem the recklessly aggressive plays coming from the Zul'jin and Artanis drafted by Shank Squad, who ultimately over ran 4.EveR, taking map 2.
Game 3 on Battlefield of Eternity was the moment Vossenn became OTPFalstad, as he picked up the bird again. The Blaze solo frontline of Shank Squad could not deal with the amount of stuns Leap Sonya and ETC were able to field, and 4.EveR took the third map, claiming the victory.
FAT Doctor Who vs HotS Musical
Both of these teams have very realistic chances to qualifying for the playoffs, which means that this was an important match for both teams. This could be a reason why FAT Doctor Who failed to show us the Lost Vikings or Murky in this match, as they played very standard compositions, with an admirable level of execution. HotS Musical responded in kind, sticking to the standard formula of a mage and an auto attacker. However, FAT Doctor Who emerged victorious, bringing themselves one step closer to playoffs qualification.
In Game 1, we saw the rare sight of a BOOMerang Falstad who took Gust. Led by maintank Arthas, FAT Doctor Who played a very damage heavy composition featuring Falstad, Thrall, Raynor and Tyrande. In response, HotS Musical opted for many defensive tools, with a Johanna, ETC frontline, with Lucio's Sound Barrier to save anyone locked down by the enemy team. Despite a close kill count, FAT Doctor Who were able to execute their plan and take game 1.
FAT Doctor Who drafted a similarly dangerous kill composition in Game 2, relying on Stitches hooks, with Tyrande follow up, to kill a target. Though Goodcop played Alextrazsa for HotS Musical, and healed a phenomenal amount of nearly 100K, FAT Doctor Who were able to get enough kills on the Arthas, Leoric frontline of HotS Musical to take the second win, and the match.
Keep an eye out for both of these teams as they race for the playoffs.
Battleground Statistics
Here are a list of our most favourite Battlegrounds to play in Division 7, and some interesting facts about a few of them.
Let's start with Fact #1: the Blue Side wins 58.1% of the time, and First pick wins 56.2% of the time. So to maximise your chances of winning, try to be on the left side and get first pick. (Unfortunately, both of these are randomly decided for the teams)
Cursed Hollow
Cursed Hollow was the most played map in Division 7, with 23 picks over the 105 games played in the first 5 rounds of Division 7. In every single one of those 23 games, the first team to take down a keep ending up winning the game, showing that this map allows for snowballing to happen quite easily. In fact, taking the first objective on this map led to a 82.6% chance of winning the game.
On Cursed Hollow, heroes with Global movement abilities were prioritised, with ETC overtaking Johanna on the number of picks. This map was also one of the few maps where Dehaka was prioritised by Division 7 teams. But the scariest of heroes on Cursed Hollow is Brightwing, who sports a 100% winrate on this map across 5 games.
Tomb of the Spider Queen
Unlike Cursed Hollow, Tomb of the Spider Queen is a small map, where global abilities are less in demand. This map was picked 17 times, though the map featured a bit more comeback potential than Cursed Hollow. While taking the first keep is great, there were some teams that managed to turn the game around from that dire situation. And first objective on this map only led to 64.7% chance of winning the game.
As this is a map that requires lots of waveclear, Johanna was the most picked hero on this map. Ragnaros was also a much more prioritised hero on this map, due to his Molten Core trait as well as his Lava Wave heroic ability. Tomb of the Spider Queen also saw some spicy picks, such as Kerrigan, Alarak and Dva.
Battlefield of Eternity
Battlefield of Eternity is the only two lane map in the Heroes Lounge map pool, but remains popular in Division 7, also with 17 picks in the first 5 rounds. In fact, it is the battleground on which the shortest Division 7 game so far has been played, at 9 minutes and 19 seconds. This is another map where comeback opportunities are there, where the first objective grants a 64.7% chance to win the game as well.
Battlefield of Eternity is a map where teams are inclined to draft for the objective, prioritising high sustainable damage. As such, Greymane and Tyrande are two of the most picked heroes on this map, and Valla is the joint most banned hero, alongside Diablo. This map also traps people into picking Artanis, whose 20% winrate here should warn other teams to not make the same mistake......
Infernal Shrines
Infernal Shrines is another map where wave clear can be valuable, since the objective requires the team to kill 40 small shrine guardians. With 15 picks, this map is the 4th most popular map in Division 7. This map, like Cursed Hollow, is a bit easier to snowball on, with nearly 90% of the teams that won the first objective being able to close out the game.
Jaina is the most picked hero on Infernal Shrines, partially due to her shrine clear. She is followed by Blaze, Diablo and Johanna, all valued on this map for the control they provide for their team on shrine fights. Johanna and Blaze also come with a large amount of waveclear. A recurring pick on this map is Alextrasza, who was picked 5 times with a 80% winrate.
Well, that's it for the popular maps of Division 7. Next week, we will explore the less popular maps in this Division, starring Towers of Doom.
Thank you all for reading. See you next week.
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