First Glimpse of The International Meta
The Summit 9 was the last tournament before the International 2018 and while it might have lacked international representation, there are still some very interesting developments. More than a month after the China Supermajor, the meta is changing once again.
The American Meta
More than half of teams at the tournament were the American representatives, so it isn’t surprising we saw the return of Enchantress and Drow Ranger. The first was an offlane specialty for Complexity almost two years ago, while the latter started out with Resolut1on and his Digital Chaos days.
Enchantress proved to be an amazing offlaner in the current meta. Her ability to survive most early engagements, sustain herself in lane while applying pressure is what made the hero so popular.
Dota 7.19 significantly nerfed the current playstyle with level 1 
Nature's Attendants, increasing the manacost of the ability by more than 50%. Time will tell whether this will deter players from picking and banning her in 93% of the games, but the nerfs were well deserved. With her lane sustain and pressure, as well as late-game damage output, the hero won almost 55% of the games she was played in.
Drow Ranger was even more successful, however she was only played in 7 games total, winning four of them for a 57.14% winrate. Interestingly, she was one of the most unsuccessful bans—teams that banned Drow Ranger only won 38% of the time.
Three extra damage at the start of the game can go a long way in this laning-focused meta and it can even turn some matchups around. At the highest level of play, small things can have an immense impact on how the game will play out and in this environment three+ damage is a big deal. Moreover, the hero offers some of the best objective taking in the game and can constantly push out waves, providing her team with information and openings.
Pro-scene worthy
Pudge became a staple pick in the professional scene. 19 games, almost 58% winrate—the hero was definitely on the OP side of things. Luckily he was nerfed in 7.19.
Cooldown increase on 
Meat Hook made it an even riskier ability and not as threatening in lane. Most heroes will still die if hooked into opponents, but the current downtime at least allows for some calm periods, where Pudge is easy to deal with as long as you don’t get too close to him.
For a hero to have 48% pick rate and almost 54% win rate in the highest pub bracket, something must have gone terribly wrong during the balancing stage. And there is a chance that the cooldown increase won’t really matter too much, since Pudge was mostly manapool limited. It still a little bit unfair that all he has to do is hit one hook, while you have to avoid all of them.
Surprising development
Winter Wyvern took many players by surprise, becoming the 8th most contested pick and boasting a 70%+ winrate. We’ve recently talked about the hero and how she might be a good fit for the current 2v2 meta and it seems she is finally starting to get recognized.
Interestingly, she was played slightly differently from what we expected. Most professional players fully concentrated on her offensive capabilities until later in the game, prioritizing 
Splinter Blast first. They still frequently got two levels of 
Arctic Burn in lane, but then opted for outpush and teamfight tool in Splinter Blast, rather than fully maxing out Arctic Burn. Most of them also skipped 
Cold Embrace until at least level 8.
Given the prevalence of magic damage cores in the meta, it is unsurprising to see Cold Embrace having a lower priority. At the same time, access to two slows with an above average damage makes WW a very strong offensive hero against tankier targets with lower burst damage. She can also push waves very quickly, something that is highly valued on the professional scene.
Green is good
Both 
Necrophos and 
Pugna decided to make a comeback into professional meta right before The International. While Pugna is definitely a far cry from what he used to be last year, Necrophos is actually rather successful as an offlane core.
Once again it comes down to lane presence and pressure and Necrophos is good at both these things. In a 2v2 matchup he can potentially deal 200 damage for 100 mana. Coupled with his ability to regain mana for last hits and denies and the constant damaging aura, it is easy to see how he can be a very tough lane opponent, that doesn’t necessarily kill you, but rather deters you from ever coming too close to the creep wave.
53% winrate across 19 games is not an amazing result, but statistics show that the hero is definitely viable at the highest levels of play and we will probably see more of Necrophos at TI, despite him receiving some nerfs in 7.19.
Pugna, on the other hand, was one of the most overrated heroes of the tournament with a 35.71% winrate across 14 games. The hero didn’t necessarily receive major nerfs throughout the year and was simply forgotten. Maybe dual lanes don’t fit him too well, maybe he is not as survivable in a meta where he can’t simply 
Decrepify the enemy core and reduce their damage to zero or maybe players are simply better at dealing with him, but right now it doesn’t look like Pugna is here to stay.
Closing thoughts
The Summit 9 gave us a glimpse of things to come at TI8 and for the most part the core principles behind drafting stayed the same: get strong lanes, acquire early advantage and choke the enemy. It is no reason to be disenchanted, however, as there are many ways to do these three simple steps and it provides a good hero variety.
There are also teams that are experimenting with a completely different approach and they weren’t completely unsuccessful. Fnatic took second place in the tournament by being greedy and playing for late game. Medusa, Terrorblade and Spectre are hardly lane dominators, but Fnatic made them work for most of the tournament and it is something worth paying attention to.
Perhaps you don’t have to answer the enemy’s early game all-in with an early game lineup of your own. If you can keep on surviving until later and later stages of the game, where you have a natural advantage, maybe there is a reason to play Dota differently and hopefully it is not something only understood by Fnatic. With some luck and creativity from the professional players, we might actually see even more diverse Dota at the biggest event of the year.
Hi add me and call me
Whether you like it or not, Fnatic matches are fun to watch. *cough* EmbEr *cough*
ohh I hope Phoenix make another blast!
earn $$$$
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27 сек хук да ну нафиг я сваливаю
They never left,they just got cycle out... The only one missing is Venomancer from the last Ti....
Where are the mods? Posts that just say "first" are meant to be deleted by them.
lmfao where is ursa?? that hero is going to be p/b 100% of games at ti
shitson
will you stop bitching about pudge jesus
Ursa is very easy to deal with by a professional team so imo it will be just a situational pick.
Lloran los perucas
Still Naga Siren /IO will be top baned.
CM is still strong, didn`t expect so many TA pcks.
they didn't talk about teddy bear ursa
"Interestingly, she [Winter Wyvern] was played slightly differently from what we expected"
Can't help but to giggle about article author being persistent thinking that build with maxing Arctic Burn is the most relevant one.
I suggest to check Winter Wyvern Dotabuff top100 wyvern players games, most EXPERIENCED ww players choose to max out Splinter Blast... Perhaps you won't be directing people to go versatile skill build instead of winning one.
Talking with 3000 ww games experience, being among top10 ww players.
(~2000 games recorded on DB, 3000 recorded in-game)
@Wise1ce
*Sees WW mentioned*
Wise1ce: *gasps, whispers* "I've waited for this moment"
@MM.Ugh Brock Hall
Well, the previous article was quite off the trends and his skill build meta. Never seen pro games played with maxing Arctic burn. They either max splinter blast or both arctic burn and blast skipping embrace, but never maxing exclusively her Q.
Read comments to the last wyvern article they made, people are ranting about article's guide being weird.
Ah no, wait, seems like article was edited, and comment about "people who max Arctic burn know their hero better" was replaced by "Regardless of what path you choose..."
Hm, intresting... ;)
P.S. Don't take my message as some kind of angry intention though, I respect @kawaiisocks articles, I really do,
perhaps it was just suspicious choice of words in the original arcticle text. I'm just saying they shouldn't really say that Arctic Burn maxed out build is a dominant and preffered option, while they obviously play different builds at pro-scene and in high-level pubs.
@Wise1ce
It's cool, i'm always happy with constructive criticism. Though I still believe in Maxing Arctic burn in your pub games, at least if you are like me at 5.3k or lower.
The reason is quite simple—pub games, especially in lower brackets are slower-paced and the laning stage goes on for 10-12 minutes, instead of 7-9 in the pro scene and higher level pubs. Arctic Burn 3 makes it so that you have it up in every single creep wave. It makes the lane unfair for the opponent, since if the enemy dual want to get to any creeps, they eat percentage-based damage and are easier to kill afterwards. It is more than worth it, especially considering how manacost on splinter blast increases rapidly with levels and the ability gets harder to harass with and sustain. I generally use it as a one-time slow to secure a kill, after the enemy is worn down from Arctic Burn every 30 seconds/every creep wave.
And then it just feels weird not maxing it out, leaving at 3 until much later in the game)
Keep in mind that i don't write for pros or for Divine 3+ players, they know Dota at least as well as I do. We work for the other 99% of the community and they should probably max Arctic Burn. (or not play WW, since there are easier to execute supports that are equally as effective)
@Wise1ce
Was just yanking your chain bruh
@moonlightshineaswaveofnight
I don't think CM would be a go-to pick now that her Crystal Nova manacost got increased by 30. 2k players like me would just opt to Frostbite level 1 or even pick different, but more straight heroes like VS, Lion or Lich (since he's on a good spot atm) in a usual 2v2 lane match-up.
@NIKI didn`t say will be most picked, can be Mirana cause she can be mid, offlain, support, give you versability.
Even si LIch or Lion can out play cm, cm is more useful for team now, and gives oru carry more farm.
Lion si more for ganks and counter ganks, than 2vs2,
Lich, I don` t know i don` t liek that hero much, but he is good, maybe better for long games ccause 25 +30hp reg is good, but can`t say mcuh about him.
More less i search for opinion for most picked hero. for most kill, most gpm, most last hits, it`s really bet, just don`t troll.
Fnatic games aren't fun, they just wait 50 mins to make something interesting, thats no fun
of corse i imput the necro mid on meta many time ago! but now he got a little nerf but keep so strong!
all profissionals can pick, play, win and just come to my twitch to see how to play with this great hero! https://www.twitch.tv/mionsauro