Lima Major hero highlights: Best hero for every role

Day three of Lima Major has kicked off and there have been many exciting, nail-biting Dota games played and more to come. Certain teams are looking solid and likely to secure top seed (Team Liquid and Gaimin Gladiators), but that said, it is still too early to tell which teams will dominate the competition.

What is certain, however, is that hero patterns are starting to form. And we are here to show you which heroes are trending power houses so you can abuse them and own (or grief) your pub games.

In collaboration with statistics expert Benj! @benjdota, we have prepared a list of heroes that currently possess strong win rates on Lima Major. The following list is based on day two of the Major and is subject to change. We also utilized reports from Spectral.gg.

No real surprises here. Time and time again this hero shows up in games as the pos 1 carry. Lina has a 100 percent first-phase contest rate thus far. Meaning that she has been instantly picked or banned during first phase of the draft in every game. Boasting a 62 percent win rate over 21 games, Lina is one of the strongest, if not the strongest, pickup any team could have.

Tundra Esports carry player Oliver "skiter" Lepko currently holds the highest record on gold per minute of 959 and has won three out of four Lina games. Typical builds for Lina carry include Gleipnir, Boots of Travel and Silver Edge. Linken is a good addition if you are up against a draft with many targeted spells. Templar Assassin may potentially be a decent counter to Lina, having being picked five times of which four were against Lina.

Now this one is a doozy. Batrider boasts a whopping 69 percent win rate (higher than Lina!). Teams have banned him on the second-phase 30 times, which is almost half of the total matches of Lima Major thus far. However, he was only picked 10 times on the midlane (three on offlane) by 10 unique players. In other words, no one has gone back to pick him up again, suggesting that he serves more as a situational or counter pick.

Early rotations on Batrider appear to be crucial as he currently holds top three highest number of kills within the 10 to 15-minute mark of a game across six games in the tournament. For this hero, we want to highlight Shopify Rebellion's Abed "Abed" Yusop for achieving the highest KDA of 24 (7-1-14) in game one against HellRaisers. As for item builds, you cannot go wrong with Boots of Travel, Blink Dagger and Force Staff. This item combination is the recipe for lethal rotations.

Don't we all just hate spiders? After all this time, the dreaded mother arachnid still poses incredible threat — at least until the patch drops at the end of Lima Major. Like Lina, Broodmother has a 100 percent contest rate. Teams have opted to ban her 50 times, making her the most banned hero so far. Team Spirit takes their fear of spiders to the next level, having banned Brood in all of their eight games.

Like most offlaners, Broodmother does well picking up utility items. Greaves, Pipe of Insight and Wraith Pact help sustain her spiderlings and teammates. Meanwhile, Scythe of Vyse and Aghanim's Scepter are great late gate items that boost her offensive. HellRaiser's Gleb "kiyotaka" Zyryanov (formerly depressed kid) accumulated one of the highest hero damage of 62,670 during his game against beastcoast.

Now we come to the support heroes of Lima Major. There isn't just one hero that stands out for either pos 4 (soft support) or pos 5 (hard support). Heroes can be flexed for both roles. The first support hero that is on trend is Treant Protector. He is currently top three most picked hero with a total of 24 games. He is played 16 times as pos 5 and eight as pos 4, and he has a respectable 58 percent win rate. Treant has the highest healing per minute throughout all heroes drafted in this Major.

Typical builds for Treant include a Blink Dagger and a Shard. Blink Dagger allows him to be more effective in initiating team fights whereas the Shard provides extra disable on top of his Overgrowth. Force Staff is also essential to reposition himself and his teammates out of a sticky situation. Right now, Steven "StingeR" Mamani from beastcoast currently holds the record of highest hero healing on Treant. Although it is also worth noting that Team Liquid has gone 5-0 with Treant.

Undying was one of the most common hero picks at TI11. Then he was off the radar for the better part of 2023 Dota Pro Circuit (DPC). But now he is back for Lima Major. So far, Undying has been picked 33 times. Just two games under Rubick. Unlike Rubick, however, Undying currently holds a 55 percent win rate (versus Rubick's 40 percent). Undying played as a position five within 20 out of 33 games. Despite Rubick's abysmal win rate, Undying pairs really well with him and has gone 5-3 together.

True to the meta, you want to get Greaves on this hero. On top of his excellent team-buffing kit, Drums and Glimmer are great additions to further increase your team's survivability. You can also opt for Force Staff to gain on enemies while in ultimate form. Melchior "Seleri" Hillenkamp from Gaimin Gladiators is our notable Undying player who has won all of his Undying games.

Although there are still three days left into Lima Major's group stage, we are sure that the heroes above will continue to thrive in this tournament and maybe even in your pubs. Just remember. Always practice before heading into ranked games!

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