Lounge Meta Snapshot - Division 3

Over the last few weeks, we’ve slowly analyzed our way higher and higher up the MMR spectrum of Heroes Lounge and have now arrived in the middle. Now what is mid known for best? Exactly, running it down. Let’s see how much our Division 3 teams have been keeping that tradition alive in their games halfway through the season, as we dive into the meta and stats up to their week 5 matchups. If you’ve missed the figures and numbers for Division 5 and Division 4, you can cross-check them while reading this post to get an impression of how much these teams are running it down. So let’s get right down to the spreadsheets and pie charts, here’s your Lounge Meta Snapshot, Division 3 edition!

Battlegrounds

As is tradition for this blog, we’ll first take a look at battlegrounds to find out where exactly our Div 3 teams like to run it down most. And the answer is, as you might have already expected by now, Infernal Shrines. 45 out of 195 games involved virtual John Cena in some capacity, 33 were played on our newest Lounge battleground of Volskaya Foundry and 32 took place in the royally spider-infested catacombs of the Tomb. That may not sound incredibly new anymore, however it shows an interesting trend, which is that each division seems to have their 3 favourite maps where more than 50% of games are played overall. So far there’s some variation on what those 3 maps are, but let’s leave the deeper analysis until after the season is concluded and focus on what’s actually happening on those battlegrounds.

It seems that Div 3 is setting the bar for both one team running it down and both teams running it down equally. In that first category, the first sub-ten minute game we’ve seen in this segment occured between RIP Convection and INAEqualis and ended after 9:55 mins of Spider-assisted running it down. The second category goes to a game played on the same map, although I’m not sure what or how it was actually run down, as Hordlinge and Thunder Clap managed a combined 15 takedowns in a record-setting 35:56 mins of game time. And no, it wasn’t a triple or even double support game either.

In terms of other notable numbers, this week I can give you Div 3 captains a clear recommendation for your next map draft. In the 23 games on Towers of Doom, the first-pick team has only won 26.1% of games, which is ridiculously low compared to all other maps in Div 3, so you know, if you get the chance…

On another note, ever thought Braxis was a no-comeback map? Think again. Thanks to the most recent changes to the map, winning the first objective has only led to map wins in 41.7% of cases for our Div 3 teams. And there’s not even a mid lane to run it down on. On all other maps, including Infernal Shrines, the team getting the first objective has a win rate of significantly more than 50%. For all maps collectively, that number is even 69.7%.

Hero bans

Now, on to heroes, where our favourite KKona has to finally give up the top spot he earned in Div 5 and 4 to the hero we all want to see up there, Banji. Well played Div 3, well played. I expect this guy to stay up there until we’re revisiting Div 5 later in the season.

To give you the actual numbers, Genji was banned 103 out of the 195 games, and has an overall popularity of 82.6% in Div 3. Following behind the most annoying Overwatch hero HotS doesn’t need, we have Yrel with 101 bans, only slightly less popular with an overall draft involvement rate of 79.5%. And you know what that means, right? Goat facts? Goat facts.

Goats are naturally curious. They are also agile and well known for their ability to climb and balance in precarious places. This makes them the only ruminant to regularly climb trees.

Sounds like goats might actually be inclinded to run it down as well. At least you won’t have to be surprised next time you see a goat climbing a tree, I sure would have been without this amazing segment. Special thanks to Khaldor, Trickslyr and Josh for this.

Third on the list is finally Raynor, probably still surfing on the rework-wave of the early season. After his most recent nerfs, I’d expect him to slowly disappear over time, so let’s enjoy some pepper while we can have it. Raynor has been banned 85 times, and his overall popularity is even higher than Yrel’s, coming in at 81% draft involvement rate. Maybe he's here to stay after all, only time will tell.

Hero picks

In terms of hero picks, we’re once again looking at a dwarf topping the charts. Muradin’s 107 picks make him the most popular pick in Div 3 as well. Johanna is not quite as popular in Div 3, but she still manages to come in at second place at 89 selections. Diablo sitting in third place with 75 picks shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone given the extremely stale main tank meta. In terms of win rate, we’re looking at a minimum of 20 games played for this edition, and note that only Johanna and Diablo even have a slightly positive one with 53.9% and 52%, respectively. An honourable mention goes to Cho of team...I mean hero Cho'Gall, who has cheesed his way to a 5-0 record so far. Teams that want to run it down should rely on Tyrael, who is 1-6 for the season.

Moving on to the solo lane, you’ll unfortunately not get any more goat facts out of me today, as Blaze (71) and Dehaka (57) beat Yrel (54) in games played. Getting licked beats getting hammered in terms of win rate as well, where Dehaka sits at the top with 61.4%. Can’t keep a space goat down (off of the tree, that is) for too long though, as Yrel (57.4%) probably blames the few missing percentage points on her ban rate. People who run it down like a bunker to hide in, which is probably why Blaze comes in last among solo laners with only 39.1% win rate. And not a single combustion game. If you run it down, you could at least do it in style.

Second place (tied with Johanna at 89 picks) on the overall pick charts for Div 3 is Deckard Cain, who, as we saw last week, already lorenado’ed through Div 4 almost unobstructed. Unlike in Div 4, he hasn’t seen as much success though, currently sitting at a 48.3% win rate. Malfurion and Rehgar follow him in terms of pick popularity with 66 and 61 selections, respectively. In terms of win rate, Ana and full time doggo-shaman Rehgar lead the pack with 70% and 60.7%, respectively. A honorable mention goes to Kharazim (12W-6L) as well, whom we haven’t seen pop up much, but unfortunately his 18 overall games disqualify him from the win rate standings. Again, if you prefer running it down yourself, Li Li (0W-4L) may be the pick for you.

Last but not least (sorry about that thing from last week, assassin mains), let’s take a look at damage dealers, where once again, third week in a row, third division in a row, Jaina sits atop the popularity charts, partaking in 84 games so far. Seeing that Jimmy and Genji follow her with 73 and 58 picks, I can only assume that Jaina’s popularity is due to her relatively low number of bans (20). Seems she’s by far the most popular draft alternative once those top picks are banned out.

On the other hand, her 60.7% win rate suggests that she may be under-banned instead of over-picked, especially seeing that Genji’s win rate sits at a traditionally low value of 44.8%. The only damage dealers topping Jaina’s win rate are Falstad (65%), who we haven’t seen show up in a prominent position at all yet, and Kael’thas (62% win rate, 3W-0L Convection), who refuses to give up his stereotypical low-MMR dominator crown as of yet. We’ll be watching you, Kael’thas.

We haven't actually heard her name once this time around, but if you are inclined to run it down on an assassin, the way to go might be Chromie (6W-13L) apparently. How the formerly oppressively mighty have fallen. Tracer (2W-6L) is also a good alternative for prime fiesta plays.

Unpicked heroes

Overall, Division 3 has seen 71 out of the 80 allowed heroes used so far. The heroes that had to sit out the season so far in Div 3 are Fat Illidan, Gazlowe, Slim Chen, Murky, Nova, Probius, Samuro, the Butcher, and the Vikings, so there’s nothing extremely surprising here except maybe Samuro, who has seen some success in pro matches.

Compositions

In terms of compositions it’s at this point expected to see the traditional double warrior, double assassin and support comp to be the most popular, picked for 276 out of 390 team comps and achieving a perfectly balanced 138-138 win-loss record. The most popular alternative for Div 3 is swapping one of the assassins with a specialist, most likely Azmodan (9W-14L), Medivh (2W-10L), Nazeebo (5W-4L), and Abathur (7W-1L), which reached exactly 50% win rate in 36 comps as well. After that, it’s the W-3xA-S comp we’ve seen in every division as well who has actually been the most successful in win rate (56.5%), probably thanks to heroes like Alarak (7W-3L) and Malthael (7W-4L) as the replacement for the off-tank/bruiser solo laner.

Player awards

In order to keep things in line with our motto for the week, running it down, let’s look at some player stats.

The Div 3 “running it down” award goes to Jedrak of Double Trouble, who tops the charts of total death time with 28:32 mins over 12 games in what seems like a rough season so far. Carvisjocker of CoB Last Action Hero deserves an honourable mention in this category as well, managing 26:38 mins of downtime over 12 games but still winning 58% of them.

In terms of preventing your teammates from running it down, Arthas Did Nothing Wrong’s support Aley was the most successful both in terms of overall healing and clutch heals.

The player that’s always around when somebody is running it down is LE GAG’s moth with an astounding 99.2% kill participation over 7 games.

The shut-up and run it down award goes to VitaminC of Raynor Container, who silenced opposing players for a total of 3:19 mins over 12 games.

Another important aspect of running it down is, obviously, b-stepping. Unfortunately, our Div 3 players have not shown an increased inclination to b-stepping, so MurlocQueen, the aptly named support player of team For the Murlocs, takes that category with a measly 16 b-steps over 10 games, although it should be positively added that 10 of those b-steps were indeed after takedowns and not just accidental b button presses.

As a closing note, here are 3 more serious stat award winners:

• Iridium of Murder Inc. is the most efficient teamfight tank with 76k team fight damage taken on average.
• Highest KDA goes to julez of Div 3 standouts BrownHorseGang with exactly 22 kills or assists per death.
• The most efficient damage dealer is Freyia of Crème Fraîche with 3.4k damage done per minute of game time.

And that’s all I have for you today for the Division 3 meta up to the halfway point of the Lounge season. If your division hasn’t been covered yet, don’t despair, we’ll get there eventually. Just keep an eye on this space. If you're interested in the raw data, you can always contact me or check some of it in the spreadsheet version for this week.

As always, credits go to ebshimizu and his amazing HotS replay analysis and database software Stats of the Storm, without which this analysis would not have been possible. Credits to wikipedia for easily accessible goat facts, as well. If you have any questions, comments or criticism, you can reach me on Discord as Llarion#0127!