Meepo Undefeated?! Most Impressive Stats from the DPC 2021

With the Dota Pro Circuit season in the books and still a massive amount of time to wait until The International 2021, it can be easy to forget just how the season unfolded. Since January 18th of 2021, teams have battled it out for a chance at heading to TI10. Over that time, we've seen the meta shift, heroes come into prominence and fall out of favor.

On the other hand, teams have also had their peaks and troughs. Some made their mark early in the season and others coming in clutch as it wrapped up. Across over 12 weeks of upper-division games and two weeks of Major competition, players put it all on the line. And their accolades have been impressive throughout.

Here's a break down some of the most impressive stats from the entire DPC 2021 season below!

Data includes both seasons of the DPC upper-division and the WePlay AniMajor and One Esports Singapore Major. Data sourced from DatDota, Dota Buff, Liquipedia, and Stratz. 

One of the best questions headed into TI is always going to be, "Who's the favorite to win?" A simple way of finding an answer is to look at tournament results. And if you do this, two big names jump out at you. Evil Geniuses and PSG.LGD.

Evil Geniuses topped the first season of the North America Upper Division, with only a single loss to chief rivals Quincy Crew. With their ticket to the Singapore Major, they clocked in at second place. And even after coming second to QC in season two of the NA DPC, the team made a second final at the AniMajor. Although a Major win eluded them, reaching two finals is an incredible feat. Don't be surprised to see them pushing towards a TI finals as well.

PSG.LGD is the other prominent performer from the regular season. Even after starting with a relatively poor fourth-place in the S1 of the China Upper Division, LGD still headed to the major and placed in the top three. Not content with falling out in a Lower Bracket final, the team shot into second place in S2 and won the AniMajor. It wouldn't stretch the imagination too far to see them on the podium at TI10.

More terrifying than these seemingly dominant teams is their regional rivals that are hot on their heels. PSG.LGD lost out to Vici Gaming, Invictus Gaming, and RNG at various points of their season. And Quincy Crew and Undying are worthy challengers of EG.

Speaking of teams hot on their heels, Quincy Crew averaged an impressive 4.6 KDA in their first season but peaked in S2 by averaging KDA stats over 7.3 across all their players. This number far surpasses EG's 4.56 KDA across all seasons. 

The Chinese region, on the other hand, are the undisputed kings of farming. Vici Gaming and Team Aster averaged 2331 and 2296 gold per minute, respectively. They also topped the charts for XPM, with VG clocking in 2856 in average and Aster 2816. These are not teams you want to get into a slow-paced PvE farming game with.

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Southeast Asia is the king of variety. Boom Esports finished their season having played 76 unique heroes, making them the most diversely drafting team in the world. Team Secret was hot on their heels with 74, but OB.Neon and Omega Esports came firmly in third and fourth place, giving the crown to SEA.

There's a clear winning hero this season, and it's none other than the Faerie Dragon Puck. The hero was the most-picked, most-banned, and averaged an impressive 6.13 KDA in the regular season stats. Mainly played in mid and as a carry, the hero took over games whenever possible. Puck's versatility and utility also made it played in other roles as well.

Void Spirit was the fourth most played hero in terms of other carries, but his viability fell in the second season. He fell below a 50% win rate in S2 for all regions and struggled with a 4.12 KDA. But his vast success early meant he still topped the list for pure carries.

In his place for S2, Wraith King surged to the top of the pure carries list, amassing 386 games across all regions and an impressive 6.63 KDA. The hero was, of course, also the hardest farmer in the top 25 most-picked heroes, averaging 387 last hits a game. However, this average figure is dragged down somewhat by some outliers, as the king of the undead regularly hit 400 CS.

Centaur Warrunner and Timbersaw battle it out for the best consistent offlane picks. Although they saw some play in other positions, they shined when playing the long lane. Both boast a similar 328 and 316 picks, respectively, and eerily close 51.8% and 51.2% win rates, showing that either choice was a safe bet. But it's the assist numbers vs. kills that show the difference in these heroes. Timbersaw is a killer, averaging nearly 7 kills a game, while Centaur sets up for his team, averaging a vast 13.14 assists.

Among supports, there are some clear winners as well. It's unsurprising that with Puck's dominance - a support that brings immense control like Lion will rise as well. In terms of patch 7.29, which most of the DPC was played on - Lion is the most picked and banned support. He appears in over 35% of ALL DPC games. Talk about overworked. Despite this though, his win-rate sits at a rather lackluster 46.61%.

Nyx Assassin, on the other hand, has a tremendous win rate and justifiable bans. The scuttling terror is the most banned hero in Season 2, and for good reason. His incredible impression of a StarCraft Lurker he can pull off with his Agh's makes him impossible to fight into. Nyx is without a doubt the most deadly and successful support of the DPC 2021.

Right behind him though is new entrant Snapfire. Everyone's favorite grandma provides a perfect mix of early game utility and incredible damage with her ultimate later on. Her 366 games have a 51.64% win rate, making her one of the most successful supports of the year.

Some heroes are huge outliers, though. For instance, would you expect that Meepo had a 100% win rate during S2 of the DPC Upper Division across all regions? Well, it's true... Except he was only played in three games. So if you raise the threshold to having been played in at least 30 games (enough games to give a decent sample size), then it's Razor who's the most successful hero of the DPC, with a monumental 59.69% win rate.

The biggest reason for Meepo's success? Meepo players had already adopted something that later became the meta in the TI Qualifiers. Meepo's playstyle facilitates massive amounts of map control and macro play; Meepo players could effectively farm jungle while keeping lanes pushing. Even Meepos who were "behind" could quickly catch up thanks to their unrivaled ability to farm.

This put Meepo in the top 20 of metrics for GPM, XPM, and all other farming statistics. This beat heroes such as Ursa and Spectre, who you'd expect to have high stats in those areas, and put him on par with the likes of Juggernaut and Phantom Lancer.

Ultimately these impressive stats just show how varied the game of Dota 2 can be. Every team, hero, draft, and style of play has its moment to shine. As we wait patiently for TI10, it's exciting to know we'll likely see this mix of styles and hero preferences clash in the ultimate contest in Dota 2.

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