Following TI 10, Magnus' pick rate almost triples in the Dota 2 offlane

Few would have guessed the winner of the Dota 2's ultimate honor would be Team Spirit this year. Much of the credit for their TI 10 win goes to team chemistry. To get to tier-1 Dota 2 in the first place, every team needs a high level of co-ordination. It is still a measurable metric of performance, and Team Spirit's roster has performed better by far. If they had any close competitors there, it was their worthy finalists, PSG.LGD.

When two of the most well-coordinated teams with near-spotless execution lock horns, the last word will be up to drafting. The Dota 2 community by and large thinks that PSG.LGD's questionable drafting in the decisive fifth game became their undoing.

The fact that PSG.LGD let Magnus, Magomed "Collapse" Khalilov's biggest comfort hero through the first-ban phase has become a post-TI 10 meme. With people crediting Magnus as the reason for Team Spirit's victory, Magnus' pick rate has also gone up significantly since TI 10.

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Will Magnus be nerfed in the upcoming Dota 2 patch?

According to Dotabuff, Magnus was picked in 6.57% of games on 6th October, the day before TI 10 started. By the day of TI 10 grand finals, the pick rate had skyrocketed to 23.12%. For reference, Pudge, the most popular Dota 2 hero, has a stable pick-rate at over 27%.

Magnus' Dota 2 win rate and pick rate (image via Dotabuff)

The boost in pick rate reflects the hero's presence in the TI 10 main stage as well. In the group stage, Magnus was the 20th most-picked hero, with a 59.09% winrate across 22 games. In the main event, however, Magnus was the second most picked hero with over 22 matches, with a much more impressive 72.73% winrate.

At the peak of the hero's popularity, cosmetic prices also went up almost fourfold.

Average price graph for "Shock of The Anvil" in Steam Community Market (image via Valve)

Ultimately, Magnus' winrate in pubs has not changed much, fluctuating between 46% and 50%. Collapse's aptitude with Magnus cannot be replicated by most, as it is acquired from grinding over 500 pubs with the hero. The nerf we can expect will be solely about Horn Toss, Magnus' Shard upgrade. It can be either a cooldown increment, the addition of cast time, or a combination of both.