The weeks leading into the sixth annual International have been a shifting sea of new picks and revised drafts. The current patch, 6.88, might be one of the most evenly balanced in Dota 2 history, with few singular heroes shaping the draft like in the past years.
Avoiding another tournament dominated by deathball-strats is a boon for spectators, and no one wants to relive 2012, the year of Naga Siren. That lack of direction can be tumultuous though, with teams and picks moving rapidly in and out of favor, leaving very few constants for spectators to grasp onto. There are still many variables in the draft, but we've corroborated some of our best thoughts on the landscape of play going into the biggest event in Dota 2.
The changing faces of supports
Every support player's pool has likely widened in the last few months, with new heroes rotating into the mix and a wide variety becoming the norm. Standard picks like Vengeful Spirit, Earth Spirit and Lion still see play, but supports have become much more adaptable to the situation at hand.
Riki offers a four-role option that has all but replaced Bounty Hunter's role in the game. An aggressive four-player can wreak havoc on the mid lane with the cloaked Rikimaru, or turn to something like Elder Titan, whose passive and multi-faceted spirit ability add a flexible force to any draft. Shadow Demon has seen a re-entry into the meta, thanks to the usefulness of its purge ultimate and the illusion-spawning Disruption skill. Disruptor will likely be around, since teams tend to like his ability to control teamfights and his overall skill set remains relatively useful throughout the entire match.
With the four-role playing a more tempo-dependent role in the early to mid-game, the picks for these roles have been of utmost importance. Expect to see some experimentation and variety in the support picks, not just from Wings Gaming, but across the board.
Drow 101
Even a year ago, a Drow composition was a pocket strategy, set aside as "cheeses" reserved for teams that managed to sneak the right heroes through the draft. By nature, Drow Ranger is a specialized carry; her strength is in her ability to push at specific times, and in bolstering her team's ranged heroes and creeps.
Many balance shifts have opened up that strategy, though; Beastmaster's buffs mean Visage isn't the only one who can spawn creeps for Drow to empower, and timed pushes have become much more standard. Every team has its own take on the Drow strategy, able to employ it with only a few picks instead of the prerequisite three or four picks of the past.
To Talon or not to Talon
Since the item's inception, Iron Talon fundamentally changed the way three-role players approached the offlane. Matchups could be offset by simply resorting to jungling with Iron Talon, clearing the nearby camp or even retreating into the team's own woods to find farm. It freed up many overlooked picks that could otherwise struggle in the offlane, while highlighting the power of several heroes that made exceptional use of the item.
As more changes have rolled out, though, offlaners haven't been as reliant on Talon. It's still an option for the three-role who can't find the space to get their first key item, but many picks like Tidehunter, Faceless Void, Doom and Dark Seer have been getting by without resorting to it. The item offers some security in offlane farm, with a significant trade-off: opening up a lot of room for the opponent's safe-lane carry to farm up the items they need.
New freedoms for cores
The carry role has also been substantially opened up, due to many different factors. Supports roaming more, trilanes and early pushes becoming more frequent, and a number of early items freeing up risky core picks. Terrorblade has seen a revitalization, and though he won't be as prevalent as he was during qualifiers, he's still a much stronger pick early on.
Teams have been looking to new carries, like Huskar. Oracle being a more reliable pick early in the draft means fourth or fifth-pick Huskar has become easier to draft, and captains have a much easier time avoiding counterpicks to the berzerker. Timbersaw has seen a few nerfs, but his Reactive Armor buffs still make him a formidable force in the mid lane. Tinker will likely see a resurgence as well, with several explosive mid laners finding huge playmaking opportunities in Tinker's global presence and burst potential.
Other cores are also bucking trends. The prevalence of Timbersaw brought about several Sand King core pick-ups because of the scorpion's ability to pressure Timbersaw with his venomous passive ability. Evil Geniuses recently drafted both a mid Oracle and a mid Ancient Apparition. While the overall viability of either is still questionable, the mid lane has been frequently offering an outlet for mid laners to show how deep their pool is.
The International meta
Of course, the amount of games at The International tends to breed its own meta every year. Strategies rise and fall in a matter of days, and with teams allowed so many matches to test each other and tear down pre-established strategies, it can be an impossible task at times to predict the ways the meta will form.
Naturally, teams will lean towards safe, reliable picks. But that might change between the group days and the main stage; one hero might be extremely popular in the groups, but by the time teams head to KeyArena, everyone has worked out a solution and moved on.