• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EST 19:56
CET 01:56
KST 09:56
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Disasterpiece Theater: Soulkey vs sOs (2013-05-21)11WTL 2022 Winter - Regular Season Awards + Wrap-up24WTL Winter - The 2v2 Tour25WTL 2022 Winter - Regular Season Finale7Reynor wins HomeStory Cup XXII17
Community News
IEM Katowice 2023 - Hosts & Commentators11Serral leaves ENCE, joins Basilisk18SC2 shut down in China, WTL to continue335.0.11 Patch Released - Balance Changes141New Worlds Map Contest III: All Submissions (VOTE HERE)81
StarCraft 2
General
IEM Katowice 2023 - Hosts & Commentators 5.0.11 Patch Released - Balance Changes Very Old Starcraft Tournament Video/Information (2 Serral leaves ENCE, joins Basilisk New Ladder Maps Announced - Used at IEM Katowice
Tourneys
WardiTV 2023 Opens (Monthly) $5000 #PassionCraft Knockout TournyCraft free tourny management web app NorCal StarFest I [EPT 2021-22] ESL Open Cups
Strategy
Custom Maps
[A] (Minigames) Raynor Party [A] [TPS RPG] Transformers: Open World (WIP) Work In Progress Melee Maps
External Content
Mutation # 353 Hostile Territory Mutation # 352 Railroad Switch Mutation # 351 Assembly of Vengeance Mutation # 350 Burning Evacuation
Brood War
General
[ASL15] Afreeca Starleague To Start On Feb 14 [Interview] skb9728_CyGnus – Legendary Mapmaker BW General Discussion BGH auto balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ Practice Partners (Official)
Tourneys
New Worlds Map Contest III: All Submissions (VOTE HERE) Dewalt vs. top Chinese players - 1/28/2023 [Megathread] Daily Proleagues Artosis vs Apes with Clubs
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Valkyrie dmg formula? 2v2 Spell Combos Marine rate of fire
Other Games
General Games
FF7 remake for PS4 announced The PlayStation 5 The XBox Thread Fire Emblem Destiny 2 - PC/Xbox/PS4
Dota 2
Official Dota and Chess General Discussion [DPC 23] Tour 1 Discussion
League of Legends
[Spring 2023] LoL E-sports General Discussion [Patch Notes] Release General Discussion
Heroes of the Storm
HotS: WP and Funny Moments
Hearthstone
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Plays: Diplomacy TL Mafia Community Thread Team Liquid Maria L
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread NASA and the Private Sector Russo-Ukrainian War Thread UK Politics Mega-thread Coronavirus and You
Fan Clubs
The GoOdy Fan Club The TY Fan Club The Scarlett Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
[TV] HBO The Last Of Us series [Manga] One Piece Anime Discussion Thread Korean Music Discussion Movie Discussion!
Sports
2022 - 2023 Football Thread NBA General Discussion 2021 NFL/CFB Season TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2022
World Cup 2022
FIFA World Cup 2022 - Knockout Stage FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Thread
Tech Support
Which Gaming Laptop Should I Buy? Simple Questions Simple Answers Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
Recent Gifted Posts Happy Birthday R1CH!
Blogs
It's that time of year YET A…
Umpteen
I'm still around doodling and…
Glider
Someone Crashed my Plane …
micronesia
A spiritual journey th…
mewithoutDrew
The Kitty Arcade Saga
MrBitter
My Goals for 2023
DeNikSSB
State of StarCraft II
Jealous
Burning it all down - Reti…
BreAKerTV
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1167 users

Meta Recap: Division S

Forum Index > Heroes of the Storm
Post a Reply
[Phantom]
Profile Blog Joined August 2013
Mexico1901 Posts
July 27 2019 19:47 GMT
#1



Meta recap:


anything goes


Written by: Koznarov



The group stage of first Division S edition is now over. It has gone on for about three months, giving us back the feeling of a time-stretched competition, but if we look into the statistics of this tournament we notice that only a single hero has failed to see play in both the EU and NA regions. The unloved one is the Flesh Carver himself, the Butcher.

What brought us here



This huge amount of diversity has its pinnacle in North America, where 83 out of 86 heroes have been picked. Of the remaining three, Nazeebo and Orphea have been played in Europe (although the region has a remarkably smaller hero pool, with 21 unpicked heroes). If we compare these data to the last HGC Phase, North American players contested 71 out of 82 heroes, which is great, but far from their current mark.



There are a few reasons for this diversity. The most obvious one is the league duration: three months for regular stage and almost an extra month until playoffs end. In this time period two of the biggest balance updates have been released: 2.44.1 and 2.45.1. The first one brought many changes for ranged assassins, whereas the second one was more focused on tanks. These two updates affected 44 heroes, more than half of the complete roster, and we should add the Chen rework on 2.46.0 for the last few games.

Besides all these updates, the new talent arriving to the scene was the other main reason for this diversity. Some players brought in their signature picks, such as stalk’s Anub’Arak (which helped raise the hero’s ban rate in Europe) or CoorgiBooty’s Rexxar, which has been drawing a lot of attention in North American drafts.

While in Europe most teams played around a single meta, in North America each team seemed to have its own interpretation, often adding their own unique flavour to the draft. That’s because some teams and players came directly from the amateur scene, where they had tried out uncommon picks and made it work. So, when they arrived at Division S and this diverse meta emerged, they made many of these unusual heroes work, enriching the meta even more.


Heroes showcase



Now you may be intrigued and longing to see how Division S players made these strange picks work. Here we bring you some examples:



Orphea


Granit Gaming vs. Washed Up, Game 1 (Week 5). Map: Dragon Shire. Player:T (aka Kari)

Granit decided to open this series against one of their hardest rivals with an Orphea pick. In Europe Orphea was played only four times (none in North America), three of them by Granit.



Ragnaros


Order of the Sleeping Dragon vs. Revive Esports, Games 4 and 5 (Week 12). Maps: Volskaya Foundry and Battlefield of Eternity. Player: Bizmarkie

Revive brought Ragnaros to this series not one, but twice, so they could melt some cores and wave some lava. Bizmarkie picked different definitive abilities in the two games - guess which one he won…



Mephisto


Wind and Rain vs. Divine Vendetta, Game 3 (Week 9). Map: Infernal Shrines. Player: Makke

The HGC veteran Makke chose to go for a questing Lord of Hatred picking Unyielding Power as level 1 talent, and that seemed to work better than Furious Spark, the most popular choice for that talent tier.



Nova


Looking for Work vs. Celeb Gaming, Game 3 (Week 6). Map: Garden of Terror. Player: Droplets

Looking for Work has been one of the most creative teams. Here we can see an infamous combo: Murky and Nova, a nightmare nobody would like to witness in their Storm League games. The worst thing is they used this combo again in Week 8 against Order of the Sleeping Dragon, and both times they won. Grab and shoot!





In this first Division S we’ve seen new heroes, old heroes and reworked ones, which may count as both categories. It has been amazing to have such a diverse meta, where every game teams can bring in a surprise. It doesn’t always work, but teams are willing to try some new things, and that’s really good. We hope this trend goes on in the upcoming tournaments, and we hope it even gets better. How? Easy, a little bit of fresh meat should do the trick.



Let us know your thoughts about this first Division S!



If you enjoyed this piece, check out our latest articles:

Mal'Ganis: The Secret Chinese Weapons
Why I'll Keep Playing HotS
Top 5 GOAT: Team Edition
A Look Into the Nexus Contest
Life Outside the HGC: Taiwan and SEA



Writer(s): Koznarov
Editor(s): Buckingham
Formatting: Phantom
Design: shiroiusagi
Art Credit: EU Nexus Contest


WriterTeamLiquid Staff writer since 2014 @Mortal_Phantom
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
PSISTORM Gaming Misc
00:00
season 6, day 29
Freeedom13
Liquipedia
The PiG Daily
21:50
Best Games of SC
herO vs Dark
Scarlett vs Cure
herO vs ByuN
Reynor vs ByuN
PiGStarcraft975
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
PiGStarcraft975
Nathanias 226
ViBE175
Forgg! 116
JuggernautJason 111
trigger 94
Golden 82
aXVindicta 47
PiLiPiLi 22
StarCraft: Brood War
Terrorterran 59
Dota 2
Grubby4168
Cr1tdota2965
EternaLEnVy603
BananaSlamJamma540
NeuroSwarm104
monkeys_forever62
febbydoto15
Super Smash Bros
hungrybox1040
AZ_Axe352
C9.Mang0314
Mew2King208
Other Games
summit1g14933
fl0m2095
Sick1815
Day[9].tv1722
crisheroes971
JimRising 510
Liquid`Hasu188
Maynarde151
byalli151
Trikslyr142
ToD92
rubinoeu10
HugS863
Organizations
Dota 2
PGL Dota 2 - Secondary Stream6571
Other Games
gamesdonequick2249
StarCraft: Brood War
CasterMuse 912
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
ESL CS:GO462
Dota 2
BeyondTheSummit137
StarCraft 2
Esl_sc2132
ESL.tv132
StarCraft: Brood War
StarcraftVOD2
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
[ Show 20 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• davetesta124
• Vindicta 47
• musti20045 39
• Kozan
• Poblha
• Migwel
• Laughngamez YouTube
• LaughNgamez Trovo
• IndyKCrew
• Gussbus
• intothetv
• aXEnki
• Alpha X_
StarCraft: Brood War
• HerbMon 22
• BSLYoutube
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• STPLYoutube
League of Legends
• Lourlo652
Other Games
• Day9tv1722
• imaqtpie975
Upcoming Events
Afreeca Starleague Qual…
4h 4m
Showmatch
10h 34m
Dewalt vs Mihu
Dewalt vs XiaoShuai
Dewalt vs Zhanhun
Wardi Open
11h 4m
BSL: ProLeague
16h 4m
Fengzi vs ZeTy
Xin vs Hejek
ESL Pro Tour
1d 2h
Afreeca Starleague Qual…
1d 4h
BSL: ProLeague
1d 16h
Zhanhun vs ZZZoom
SquaLL vs TerrOr
ESL Pro Tour
2 days
ESL Pro Tour
2 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

KOR-CHN Invitational League 1: Paralyze vs XiaoShuai
OSC Championship Season 10
NGS Storm Division S6 Qual. 5
ESL Challenger League S43 EU

Ongoing

BSL Season 16
Strength Challenge 30K
Tournament of Honor
FS Mania
RISS Season 1
Spring Cup Season 4: Korea
Spring Cup 4: Chinese Qualifier
Spring Cup 4: Chinese Qualifier 1
ASL Season 15: Online Qualifier Day 1
WTL 2022 Winter
NGS Storm Division S6
ESL Challenger League S44 NA
ESL Challenger League S44 EU
ESL Challenger League S44 AP
BLAST Premier Spring Groups

Upcoming

Hongtu Solo League S5: KOR
ASL Season 15
Spring Cup Season 4
Spring Cup Season 4: China
Spring Cup 4: Chinese Qualifier 2
CHN vs KOR Week30
ASL Season 15: Online Qualifier Day 2
#PassionCraft Knockout
IEM Katowice 2023
BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023
ESL Challenger Melbourne 2023
ESL Pro League Season 17
CCT Central Europe Finals #1
IEM Katowice 2023
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2023 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.