Post-TI Reflection

Reflect upon your TI experience.

What was expected?
What was unexpected?

Which heroes rose to popularity (don't say Techies)?
Which heroes were you expected to be picked?

Which team (besides CDEC) went further than expected?
Which team (besides Secret) dropped off earlier than expected?

Expected EG Win
Did not expect CDEC to get all the way to Grand Finals

Techies :P
Gyro and Clock and Lesh

VP honestly I didn't think they were gonna go that far.
Empire… I really wanted them to make it but they got into a bad mindset

I'm happy with this meta, everything is pretty balanced. I wonder if Fear got bored of gyro all 4 games.

BUT WHEN ARE WE GONNA SEE PIT LORD AND ARC WARDEN. WHY NOT BRING THEM OUT IN ALL STARS LIKE LAST YEAR.

Because then it'll be expected and it won't be as fun! And besides, we saw an RTZ techies.

What was expected; EG and LGD going far through the event, a lot of the hero picks, a lot of the bans as well. Whilst it's sad to say, I did expect Empire to drp like they did, because Empire just have the biggest problem with TI it seems. I fully expect them to be dominating tournaments within a couple of months.

What was unexpected? Secret bombing out so early, Vici's turn around into form, the lack of Nahaz.

Which heroes rose to popularity? Dark Seer becoming a top tier offlaner, which I adored since I love the hero. Crystal Madien and Skywrath Mage having time in the spot-light in the final few games. Like seriously, who would've expected Sky? Shadow Shaman even got a decent amount of love

Heroes I was expecting? Not a lot really. We had so many heroes picked, and there really weren't any who got left out that I wasn't expecting. I guess I expected a little more KotL than we got.

Team that went further than expected; Vici Gaming. Going into it I did not think highly of them, I thought they were massively under-performing. It was nice to see Fy and Fenrir pick it up.

Team that didn't; Cloud9, if only because I expected them to bring a little something closer to there a game than they did.

https://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/3g3a3e/pit_lord_was_supposed_to_be_revealed_in_the/

A little far-fetched I know, but hey, possibility!

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On-topic:

What was expected: EG grabbing number 1 and Universe + Sumail taking all the spotlight. Na'vi dropping off from the first game (although it's sad, since I secretly hoped for the good old Na'vi miracle).

What was unexpected: Other than Secret early out and CDEC far-in, I guess the number of Techies pick/ban was amazingly higher that I initially thought. Oh, and also the Broodmother mid strat.

Which heroes rose to popularity? Other than Techies and the obvious ones... Drow Ranger was actually interesting to see, and the pub drow just increased in a few games I played (still far cry from the hype of 6 million dollar echo slam though). Visage was also really high in the last few games.

Heroes I was expecting: To be honest, I thought that Ancient Apparition would have seen more plays, especially with the popularity of squishy carries (despite the con of no reliable disable nor escape). Other than that I guess Axe? I just think he's seen way too rarely, considering his really high pick last patch and his nerf was actually not too strong.

Team that went further than expected: At first I really didn't think MVP and Complexity would have even gotten into the main event, that is until they prove themselves through crazy plays and coordinations though. Oh and also, VP. I really thought they're dead when facing off against Secret.

Team that didn't: C9, I really thought they had much more potential, even possible clutch victory! Guess not...

I thought so myself at first, but I think the Berserker's Call cast point nerf is quite impactful on that level of competition. The average reaction time of a human is betwwen 0.2 and 0.3 (and I'm sure the average among professional gamers isn't higher), so .1 seconds is a relatively long time.

On topic: EG, LGD and Vici were pretty common top 6 contenders and delivered accordingly. I expected iG to do much better, their results in 6.84 before TI5 weren't stellar, but they have so much individual talent that I thought the would get their **** together.

I think Luna getting quite a bit of love (and doing resonably well - she's 5-3 in the Main Event) was quite unexpected. I wouldn't say Lina getting picked a lot was that unexpected, but her being most picked in the Main Event by such a large margin was a bit surprising to me. I expected Gyrocopter or Queen of Pain to be on top.

Also, Valve doing a supremely ****ty job on the tournament's ending was very much expected. :p

This, plus the fact that most the time you can guess relatively accurately where the Axe is going to blink (key hero or heroes clumped up) and be ready to cast a point target silence or stun at that point. The nerf makes this a lot easier.