"What really owns?" by Virtus.NS

While I agree with NS that Kelens Dagger of Escape needs a severe nerf, I don't think it neccesarily hurts the... wait for it... metagames(!) developement.

It is all about someone figuring out that a hero works especially well against the current... wait for it... metagame(!) thus slowly changing it by being a new pick to take into consideration. Within the past months Magnataur, Centaur Warchief, Nerubian Assassin, Stone Giant and Moon Rider has seen alot of play, basically taking over from where Faceless Void, Rogue Knight, Shadow Fiend and Sand King left off. While the latter is still being picked, one has to agree that their effectiveness has decreased a lot and aren't valued as dearly as earlier.

I predict that heroes such as Treant Protector will start to see a lot of use (Notice the Asian scene) as he somewhat eliminates the usage of blink if you have enough damage to put into the Overgrowth. He has, by far, the best multiple disable and does in my opinion exceed Magnataur in 5v5 combat. His weaknesses are obvious, though. Also, Faceless Void will be on a fast comeback and teams will wonder why they ever stopped using him. He still has a build in blink, works exceptionally well lategame, is a direct counter to Moon Rider and his ultimate also nullifies the usage of blink unless the opponent has really fast reactiontime.

Another thing that I see happening is teams playing the smart-card and starts pushing more than earlier. Despite the ton of heroes able to counter creep-pushing (Chen, Furion, Sylla), there are other variants and also a lot of ways to disguise a pushing-strategy. You don't even need any actually tankability and damage in form of creeps if your opponent is severely crippled in the 5v5/AoE-department. Mekanasm counters what little AoE they may have and while the enemy might pick one off using their single target spells, their entire team will fall going up against massive AoE-usage.

Although it is hard to think outside the box, because it is, with the obvious strengths of the currently usable heroes, I think it is time for mediocre teams (as well as certain topteams) to make up strategies and playstyles of their own to really succeed. Victory surpasses anything, even being creative, and it is hard for teams to imagine that you can let the opponent away with having a wide array of the popular stun heroes or leave both Warlock, Magnataur, Beastmaster and PotM in the pool. It takes practice and almost always more coordination than the opponents, going for the standard picks, but in the end I think it pays off.

A thing to keep in mind when letting a lot of the most popular heroes in the pool go to the opponent, is that these popular heroes often depends on being solo-lane. When is the last time you saw a Queen of Pain having a lane-buddy? Priestess of the Moon can work, yes, but it isn't neccesarily strong as her manapool is very limited and she relies heavily on hitting her arrow. Warlock is a pain when babysitting their lategame, but also means he won't get any items himself and certainly never the feared Book o Necromicon (3). Magnataur doesn't oppose a threat on any lane before hitting level 6, he, too, needs fast levelling and the option to farm a fast blink dagger as he is easily avoidable without one.

Teams could build up strategies revolving certain heroes like Magnataur or Treant Protector, with massive 5v5 input while the opponent is stuck without being able to use blink, using Crystal Maiden, Enigma, Juggernaut, Moon Rider, Lich - The list goes on - And could beat just about anything as long as they make sure not to fall behind in lategame.

The banning process is often more important than anything, if done right, but most teams simply removes heroes they find imbalanced and hard to play against instead of looking at what suits their playstyle and opposes the biggest threat to their winning chances. Bristleback is rarely the reason teams lose. 3 games have I seen Bristleback win, all played by my own team, and every single game Shadow Priest was the reason to his success, not the Bristleback itself. At the same time, Shadow Priest is an obvious counter-pick to Bristleback, should a team ever option to actually pick him. They go as a pair.

The reason we, in MYM, are always removing heroes such as Bristleback, Spectre, Terrorblade, Syllabear, Moon Rider and so forth, is because we play on a level where we feel we can only lose if the opponents gets to farm up one of these major lategame threats. Had there been more competition at our level, and we felt pressured to make up new and unforseen strategies, our bans would be completely different. Notice how we never ban any of these heroes against Virtus Pro - We simply have more important things to worry about.

To sum it up: I encourage teams to be themselves - Find out what suits them best and try your way with different things that works for you. Watching a replay from one of the topteams, then copying their picks, won't neccesarily mean you are better off than by using your own style. A lot, if not all, strategies can work if practiced enough. An example of this is tN from Russia who used a Strength Morpling to lane with Lina and a Sylla/Viper lane using the bear exceptionally well through scouting. I will go as far as saying they gave us the most resistance throughout the groupstage despite the other teams using the cookie-cutter strategies of today including such teams as sBack and OKHO if I am not mistaken.