Supports are an important part of the team. In fact, with so much emphasis on the laning stage in the current meta, the importance of supports is at an all-time high. They ensure farm for your core, make the life of the enemy core a lot harder, and combined, these things have an immense impact on how the game will play out.

Right after the conclusion of qualifiers, Valve released a new patch, addressing some issues present during the qualification process. The patch mostly focused on hero balance changes. Given there is only one tournament left until TI and it is unlikely to have all the top teams, it might be safe to assume that this version of Dota is either final or very close to what we will actually see at The International.

While being favored to win is no guarantee, as we've seen our share of upsets at past TI's, it's clear that there are a few teams that are a tier above the rest.

Every tournament has its favorites, its underdogs and its dark horses. The International 2018 is especially rich in the latter category—several teams in the tournament’s final lineup might succeed despite all expectations. It is hard to imagine them winning the International, but imagining them win against top teams doesn’t induce the same amount of disbelief.

The International 2018 main qualifiers are over and we know the teams participating in the biggest tournament of the year. Regional qualifiers were extremely intense this year, with teams in CIS, EU and SA fighting for a single qualifier spot. More importantly, however, was the diversity of the qualifiers, with many regions having their own understanding of meta.

This week Optic and OG round out the qualifying teams for TI8, Open AI announces 5v5 AI, and Valve released Patch 7.18

Underhollow, a game mode available to Battle Pass owners, is an interesting take on Battle Royale genre. It combines elements of Dota and games like PUBG and Fortnite to create intense 15-minute matches and was received well by the community, bar constant technical issues.

In today’s meta, Hand of Midas affords little benefit for its cost. Cores have better farming alternatives. Supports, now buffeted with XP tomes, as well as XP and Gold talents, have a bevy of old and new items for the early and mid game. Hand of Midas has since fallen out of favor and has become one of the least useful items in the game.

Treant Protector currently sits at almost 56% win rate in the highest skill bracket, making him the most successful support after Io. The hero has been absent from competitive scene and high level pubs for a while now, but the return of dual lanes and some direct buffs made the hero a lot more viable.

Recent patches were considerably smaller, compared to the patches we got throughout the year, primarily focused on smoothing out the kinks in the fragile Dota balance. We can’t know for sure how it will impact the professional scene at the highest level, but the statistics from the pub games already tells a story of its own.