Esports World Cup: The unconventional picks of Dota 2

Over 10 days, the Esports World Cup for Dota 2 saw some extremely unconventional picks. From the top teams in the playoffs down to the group and elimination stages, all teams showed their depth. With that said, a few made some interesting hero choices and came out on top. With Lycan, Meepo, and even Techies being some of the unconventional Dota 2 picks of the Esports World Cup, we take a look at who picked them and if we are likely to see more of these in the future.

In the Dota 2 professional scene, we often see some interesting hero choices and roles. One that springs to mind in recent times has been the support Pudge from PARIVSION. However, the Esports World Cup produced even more unconventional Dota 2 picks, right from the group stage.

Natus Vincere was expected to make waves at the EWC, but their early exit was unfortunate. Early in the group stage, when facing Xtreme Gaming, the team picked up Undying. Although not necessarily an odd hero choice, deciding to play the hero in the mid-lane was an interesting move. Artem “Niku” Bachkur roleplayed to near perfection, becoming an almost entirely unkillable monster.

The unconventional pick of Undying mid lane in the Dota 2 event at the Esports World Cup became the first win for the hero in that lane in the pro-scene.

With a win rate of only around 46%, Hoodwink is not a hero that we expected to see much of in the EWC. However, BetBoom Team decided to change that. Ivan “Pure” Moskalenko’s position 1 Hoodwink created waves through the community. Most expected to see a massive increase in the heroes' pick rate in the carry role. Thankfully, that never happened.

But what we did see was Pure’s insane skills come into play, creating a huge problem that Team Falcons had no answer to. The hero was never picked again at the event, making it one of the craziest unconventional picks from the Esports World Cup.

If there is one thing we can be sure of as Dota 2 players, it is that everyone loves Techies. But only when it is not in our games. Gaimin Gladiators, defending their EWC title, decided to bring us one dose of Techies craziness at the event. While it was not the outright star of the show, Erik “tOfu” Engel proved that the explosive Goblin group was still a viable choice.

But we are still hoping that we never have Techies in our games.

PARIVISION is already known for their unconventional picks, and the Esports World Cup showed more. Of course, we saw the Pudge come out, albeit for Volodymyr “No[o]ne-“ Minenko. We even saw the team playing Ringmaster on 4 different occasions. However, PARIVISION was also the only team to utilize Meepo. It was Alan “Satanic” Gallyamov who was at the helm on both occasions, and both saw a big win.

While very few teams were experimenting with out-of-pocket picks, PARIVISION continues to push the limits of what could work. Unfortunately for the team, they had to settle for third place, but we are expecting to see many more strange picks at the upcoming Clavision Masters Snow-Ruyi and The International 2025.

There were far more interesting and unique picks from the Dota 2 teams in the EWC. This includes the once extremely powerful Dragon Knight, and even a Nyx Assassin. With many of the teams involved now preparing for their journey to glory at TI 2025, we are very likely to see many more strange picks in the future.

For more Dota 2 news and information, stay tuned to esports.gg.