DreamLeague Major Meta Recap
The second Major of the season has concluded and Team Secret emerged victorious. The European team swept TI7 champions Team Liquid 3-0 in the finals of the DreamLeague Major and by picking 14 different heroes across three games, Secret proved that they are not only one of the more flexible teams out there, but that the meta right now allows for such a diverse set of heroes to be played at the highest level.
Comparing to Perfect World Masters
The meta at this event was a continuation of what had started to develop at the Perfect World Masters Minor, with many popular and contested heroes overlapping at both events. 
Omniknight remains the most banned and most contested hero and 
Ogre Magi and 
Winter Wyvern continue to be among the most favored supports. Unlike at the PWM though, Ogre Magi was not as successful, dropping to a 40% win rate. Similarly, Death Prophet and Tidehunter, both of which were top picks previously, were only picked 15 times at DreamLeague and both have dropped significantly in win rate (29% & 38%).
The biggest difference between both events, however, is the popularity of 
Bane. Going from a situational pick (10) to the most contested hero (12 picks, 21 bans) within a week is quite the feat. The answer behind this mystery is quite simple: With Natus Vincere present (and making top 4), there was one more team that favored the hero. The Perfect World Masters Minor and its meta were heavily influenced by the Chinese meta, with not only more Chinese teams present, but also because those teams claimed top spots. 
Night Stalker, Death Prophet and Tidehunter are all popular heroes in the Chinese meta and are often contested in the first phase, whereas in the West they’re considered situational picks at the moment.
Razor and 
Medusa are two core heroes that have retained or even increased their popularity at DreamLeague, and they are the perfect example to illustrate where the pro meta is currently at.
Tanky Cores Popular, but not effective
At DreamLeague, pro teams very much favored tanky cores that are difficult to bring down and that have a generally solid laning stage, so that they don’t need heavy support to survive. Medusa and Razor both fit the bill, as do Tiny, Morphling and Viper.
As for offlaners, heroes that rely on an ultimate with a long cooldown are slowly getting phased out, Tidehunter being an exception as he provides utility beyond his ultimate and generally does well in 1v1 match-ups, to an extent where he can change the laning stage significantly. While Brewmaster generally does well in his match-ups as well, he is definitely ultimate dependant and offers little utility outside of it. Even when he was picked, Brewmaster had a rather underwhelming impact, which is why he was largely ignored in the later stages of the tournament.
Abaddon is another excellent example of the tanky meta. Picked 5 times, the hero excelled at protecting his cores, winning 4 of those games. The most picked hero Bane is also among the more tanky supports.
Not only are these cores tanky, but many of them are Agility cores as well (Morphling, Razor, Viper), building naturally high amounts of armor. As a result, Elder Titan was picked 3 times, a natural counter to Agility heroes and their armor.
As much as pros may have favored these tanky cores though, a lot of them had low win rates (Tiny 29%, Terrorblade 33%, Death Prophet 29%). Flash farmers like Gyrocopter, Luna and Medusa (all 57% win rate) led the charge.
No midgame dominators
Playmaking heroes that set the tempo of the midgame have been very ineffective at this event. 
Queen of Pain (20%), 
Puck (25%) and 
Storm Spirit (0%) had abysmal win rates and rather lackluster game impact as well. Neither hero could really find crucial pick-offs, stifling their growth and eventually falling off. Pro teams also grouped up much more, making it difficult to initiate without being punished for it.
Games also generally didn’t last long enough for these heroes to shine. Only two out of the combined 18 games among these three heroes lasted longer than 40 minutes, 5 ended before the 30 minute mark. With a lot of teamfights happening early on and with grouped pushes, these heroes can’t do much aside from split pushing, a job that can be done by more impactful hardcarries as well.
Weaver suffered a similar fate, winning only 1 out of 7 games. The winning game was a position 1 Weaver, whereas many other games saw Weaver take a non-primary carry position behind the likes of Medusa or Tiny. As a non-primary carry, Weaver offers little utility in the midgame and doesn’t do well in skirmishes without items, dying quite easily. In general, most teams made sure to draft line-ups with 2 carries, one of which would definitely be able to fight early on through their abilities. Teams with greedy dual- and tri-core lineups generally fell short. If line-ups did feature multiple carries, they’d usually have a lot of combined pushing power, like Lycan + Death Prophet or Luna + Dragon Knight.
Notable Picks
Notable picks in the tournament included 
Elder Titan, 
Shadow Demon and 
Kunkka. While Elder Titan will always have a place in the meta as long as Agility cores dominate the game, Shadow Demon and Kunkka jump in and out of the meta a bit more frequently, but also inconsistently. Shadow Demon’s recently buffed Soul Catcher proved to be quite a strong spell early on, as it allows a team to transition from a kill to a tower push, and MidOne has shown that a mid core Kunkka has its place in the meta as well. Tidebringer ignores armor. and that is a perfect way of playing around the popular tanky cores.
Whether these three heroes will continue to leave an imprint on the meta remains to be seen, for now they look like promising, albeit situational, going into MDL Macau.
that new secret works like magic, also new na'vi is doing good so far
Balela!
Agreed
You know, it seems like every patch or meta analysis talks about how hard it is for certain heroes to shine because teams are grouping up more often than they did before. At what point do we recognize that the game has almost entirely phased out the laning stage, killed farming wave strategies, and thus ruined a large portion of heroes and players?
I'm more than fine with early game strategies, teamfight oriented drafts, and split push gameplans. But I keep saying this over and over: when will we get a true late game viabile scenario? When will we get bored of 80 kill games and remember that 'the play' was memorable for its gravity within the game, not just because of the surprise ravage steal (which happens more often than you would think)? The million dollar dream coil was less amazing, but still really cool. The six million dollar slam? It was almost boring. Kills aren't exciting anymore. Smart, patient, impenetrable lineups are all but forgotten unless they are aggressive like Liquid kotl strat.
People say it's boring. Who cares. A team that understands how to control the flow of a game in any way they can is deserving of admiration.
More to the point:
Secret cannot keep up this style of drafting. Surprise picks throw off the opponent, but more often than not it's a style that only works for one tournament. Wings died quickly, VP abandoned the 'only pick it once' strat. I expect to see a more conservative draft from Secret in the coming tournaments.
Na'Vi finally got some points, and for the amount of work they put in to get those points, I'm sure it's a bit frustrating. Nevertheless, Sonneiko is proving himself to be a very valuable player, both as a support and as a captain. Crystallize probably is still the weak link, and I'd love to see Resolution move over to Na'Vi, as OG just isn't working out for him.
VP losing Solo due to stress is kind of proof that VP can't keep up their power for much longer. They broke under pressure and I would be surprised to see them do well in the coming tournaments. They are playing with Artstyle, who has failed Na'Vi more than once in the past couple years despite winning the first TI.
Liquid are showing chinks, but they really do seem like the first team that won't crumble after TI since Na'Vi. That being said, there's a lot of time before the next TI.
Newbee needs to make a trade, but I'm not educated enough on their team to know who.
EG is showing signs of life, but I'd still say they may not have the right lineup to get much further. Fear is in the wrong position.
Side note: Not every tournament needs a big trophy. It feels a little overdone.
Newbee needs to make a trade but doesnt know who...you invalidated your entire essay with that
if youre a scrub dont act smart, stay simple
Nothing to say about Lone Druid?
@Sleight of My Fist In You...
They are clearly still doing well enough, third points total. However they have only placed above liquid once and VP once, and Secret has surged past them. Their minor win did not feature VP or Liquid. They seem to be in the right place at the right time, and have shown signs of weakness, losing to teams like Na'Vi and VG. In fact, their win over VP was a BO1.
This makes me question their future, as most teams experience peaks and valleys. Almost every team that placed top 8 at TI7 has crumbled, and with VP likely to fall, the only two strong teams remaining are Newbee and Liquid. It's stressful to maintain that high level play for that amount of time, and their slightly erratic performance is a little more worrying than Liquid, who have reaped points from every tournament they have attended.
With all of that in mind, it would make sense to try to stem the tide by introducing new blood. I haven't devoted time to watching their matches so I don't have a guess as to who should be replaced, therefore I decided to not place blame on any one person.
Perhaps I am wrong about that point, and I welcome a differing point of view on their current strength if you have one. These discussions can be very beneficial to those who are wiling to add to the conversation and listen to others. So step up or step aside.
Crystallize is doing a good job. Have you seen the last Na'Vi games?
@Brock Hall you must be a dondo fan then.. He barely those thing these days,it's all about crystallize and Rodger whose putting the team back on track
I actually think Dendi is still a good player. Not the player he was 6 years ago but still very solid. Problem is whilst I rarely think he is the reason Navi lose a game, he's also increasingly less why they win it.
Still a very solid player though
It frustrates me how much Valve/Icefrog/Whoever runs the home page of Dota are not promoting any of the majors as much as they were when it was just Valve events. Like when the Manila Major was going on there was nothing on my Dota page besides THE MANILA MAJOR IS HAPPENING TUNE IN NOW JACKASS! Now all they do is highlight the game that is going on currently in the Watch window and they don't even say what the tournament is unless you click on it. Valve said they were going to work with smaller organizations and all they're doing is sponsoring them basically.
@🎈🎈IT's PennyWise🎈🎈
Dendi can still turn up, but I think he is beginning to be a much calmer player. I certainly am a fan of his, but he has had a difficult time walking away from his powerhouse mid style and I don't think anybody in their right mind would say he is the mvp of the team.
Ever since Sonneiko came on board I've seen him as the mvp of the team, as it's rare that he plays a sloppy game. He made a name for himself with WW and continues to impress with complicated heroes like Oracle and Earth Spirit. I so far have not been very impressed with Crystallize, but Rodjer is seeming to fit well in the lineup. I do feel like General is ignored a lot, but he is also one of those players that always puts up solid numbers, even if he isn't hitting Universe levels of amazing.
I'm also a huge fan of Resolution, ever since his days in ICCup, when he dragged his team past VP at, like Starladder 5? It was a while ago, but even back then Tobi was yelling RESOLUTION like he do. So maybe I have a bias towards him.
Although I am myself a Dendi fan but i think Dendi is the weak link in Navi, Crystallize is doing well. General and Rodjer are the play makers for them, Sonnieko has always been good but drafting is a problem for Navi , I feel their hero pool is not good. Currently all the successful teams are the ones with good hero pool and their players flexibility in playing different heroes like liquid and secret .
@Bwahahahah
Keep in mind that Sonneiko is very new to being the captain. Compared to their results before TI7, there is a marked improvement. I personally have seen Crystallize make a number of questionable positioning choices, but I am in no way saying he needs to be traded away. Resolution was my choice for replacement should they decide to make a trade, but considering the slow but steady rise Na'Vi has made this season, finally cracking top 4 and taking down both VP (a couple times now I think) and Newbee shows that new blood isn't required. You're right that they need to expand thier pool, but I expect that as each player continues to fall into a groove with this new lineup and new position for Sonneiko, that will happen naturally.
Yea, I think problem with navi is they have too thin hero pool, especially for carry and mid. Dendi often picks QoP or Storm, and recently Zeus, which imo not really good with current fast-paced meta as tempo mid. crystallize either sven or PL. By all mean they are not bad, but variation is welcomed for broader strategy. Once I think rodjer is the weak link, but he showed a great performance these days
Another problem is, there are too many games that happen in short time. This holds true especially for them who must do qualifier. Seriously, maintaining high level play with such hectic schedule is not easy, and we see VP becomes the victim even though they often become direct invite from CIS. This hectic schedule also makes every competition feel less hype, which is sad
I think VP's poor performance was because of a meta/patch not suited to them. Early aggression doesn't provide has much early game advantage like before (exp gain nerfed for early kills), many heroes they like don't exist in this meta (like Ursa), good heroes in this meta don't suit their early aggression playstyle (like Medusa, Lone Druid....)....their early elemeination doesn't look much surprising when you watch the current meta.
@Killerspintt
VP themselves however, along with an additional post from Solo, have talked about their poor handling of losses and the high stress environment that their team was in. I'm not saying you're wrong, but it does sound like they might have cracked even in a meta that favored them more.
@Brock Hall I disagree, Crystalize has been playing well for someone who just entered the scene, but think their draft style has been a bit too predictable at times, also they seem to have some decision making problems imo, I think sonneiko is showing the same inexperience as when Cr!t was captain of EG but it's all party of the learning curve. However they have been playing really well, conservative when the need to be at times, sometimes they overstay their welcome or underestimate/overestimate how strong they are at certain times and throw the game but so far I've been impressed by them and it's good progress moving forward!
@8-1-8
I've noticed a lot of people pushing back at my comments on Crystallize, and that's fine, but I think you nail it on the head: he's good for being new. I fear he will hit a ceiling, but it's hard to argue that they are worse off with him and Rodjer and a new captain. They hit a new high score for their team in this last tournament, and so long as they at least hold that position on the ranks I would be surprised to see them rock the boat. For now, he is still my pick for trading if things begin to go south, with, sadly, Dendi being a close second.
Sonneiko probably does have some growing pains, but I think he deserves a lot of the credit for their performances.
On the Crit comment, I think he was doing very well, and I think a lot of people forget how well they did coming up to TI. Their early exit was part of the yearly surprise team, similar to DC and CDEC (though not as far). Crit lost his nerve after that loss and has gone on record saying he is glad to step aside.