Clinkz is in an interesting spot right now: despite being one of the most successful heroes in high level pubs, he is still completely ignored in the competitive scene. Recent EPICENTER XL only had seven heroes that were neither picked nor banned and Clinkz was one of them.

PSG.LGD secure the first victory for the Chinese region in a Major tournament, Team Liquid get their TI8 invite with a 2nd place finish and Battle Pass is soon to be released.

EPICENTER XL was by far the most diverse tournament of the season. 105 different hero picks and only seven ignored heroes across 97 matches is a definitive proof that 7.14 was a great patch.

A week has passed since the introduction of 7.14—probably the last balance patch of this magnitude before the International 2018. By reworking several items and fine-tuning the balance of the game, Valve balance team managed to significantly improve the state of both competitive and pub metas.

Slark was once the bane of pubs and a potential menace in competitive play. As the meta has shifted away from his playstyle, along with changes to Hex and the removal of Poor Man’s Shield, Slark has fallen into obscurity. With stats getting a rework in 7.13, Slark may be right on the cusp of reappearing in the meta.

EPICENTER XL kicks off in Moscow, with Team Liquid having a chance to both defend their Champion title and win the first Major of the season. Dota 7.14 releases, introducing major changes to the hero balance and stirring controversy among professional players. The last Majors of the season have their participants finalized.

Dota 7.14 is a massive balance patch introducing a lot of smaller changes to the hero and item balance. It will undeniably have an impact on the metagame and some of the general changes will also probably change how certain roles are perceived. In fact, there is an argument to be made that the whole laning stage might become very different.

One of the biggest problems of leaving ranked play for a prolonged period of time is that returning to it can be problematic. Loss of your muscle memory, games sense, and knowledge of the meta can lead to a devastating losing streak. All your hard work gaining precious MMR can all be wasted in just a few games where you didn’t perform to the best of your ability.

This week ESL One Birmingham wrapped up their regional qualifiers, French football club Paris Saint-Germain partners with LGD, and the Dota community scrutinizes some of the invited teams for the China Supermajor.

Dota 7.13 patch introduced massive changes to the hero attributes, while considerably slowing down the game. Naturally, changes in the meta were to be expected and in fact, in the first couple of days the patch created quite a lot of balance issues. Luckily, they were quickly dealt with in the 7.13b update.