Meepo is the only unpicked hero in the entire Tour 3 DPC

The regional leagues of Tour 3 Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) just concluded. Across all regions and divisions, one hero was non-existent. In a total of 827 matches played, Meepo wasn't picked even a single time.

Patch 7.31d went live on June 8th, one day after the third season kick-started. After more than a month, the meta evolved and the pro scene steered towards stronger and more stable heroes. We saw the rise of Dawnbreaker and Marci, as well as the top favorites Puck and Tiny. But on the other end of the meta, is Meepo; who had 0 picks and only 1 ban throughout the whole season. Of course, there were also other heroes that barely had any picks such as Tinker and Riki. But this is the lowest Meepo has been in the 21/22 DPC. During Tour 1, Meepo had 2 picks and 9 bans, meanwhile, in Tour 2, Meepo had 4 picks and 5 bans. Tour 3 sees Meepo with only 1 ban by RSG in the SEA DPC.

You can see the top 10 most unpicked heroes in the entire season below.

This agility hero is a crowd favorite, but not many can play it and not many probably will. Meepo is highly complex and unique which also means that it is situational. The hero wasn't even contested at The International 10, alongside 6 other heroes. With how the meta is evolving, it is also hard to fit Meepo in because it is such a greedy midlaner. If the hero is present in your team, the offlane and carry might have to share or sacrifice a portion of their farm.

We have dearly missed the presence of the Geomancer in tournaments. Although the hero will likely stick true to its complex and situational nature, there could be ways that the hero can return from the dead. We reached out to several pros and talents to dissect this hero.

Filipino caster, John "johnxfire" Nathan Fernandez states that Meepo has always been situational and 'in the current state of Dota there aren't very many of those situations left.'

"It also feels like everyone else has grown stronger while Meepo was left at the wayside - Dragonlance nerfs at some point also made it harder to have that hero pop off," said johnxfire.

The Talon Esports' streamer feels like a meta change can boost the hero to stand on par with other viable mids. "It feels like Meepo would benefit more from a meta change than anything else - that, and maybe some slight buffs to its output and snowball potential. Perhaps more damage on Poof, or having more viable stat build-up items for it to hit its midgame spike."

Former offlaner for Alliance, Moiez "symetricaL" Lin , thinks the hero is viable but only if the player is a Meepo spammer and they are comfortable playing it in a competitive match - and that would be rare since Meepo is such a niche hero.

"In this current meta, you usually don't see these kind of greedy mid heroes anymore. The pos 3 and the pos 1 have more priority in farm so u need to be a Meepo spammer or something to even think of drafting it."

Despite all the nerfs in past patches, symmetrical still believes the hero can be played if you draft around it. "You just need the right lineup to compliment Meepo. Give buffs and auras for him since he's going to be the one farming."

We managed to get the opinion of Dota 2 veteran and currently BOOM Esports' coach, Chai "Mushi" Yee Fung. According to him, a majority of the pro scene don't love Meepo as a hero. It is also easily countered and therefore, the hero has very little value.

"I think not many pro players love this Meepo hero. Besides, many pro teams kind of know how to deal with this hero, so there’s not much value if you pick that hero unless the usage is extremely good," said Mushi.

He further clarified that he has no interest in the hero and he, in fact, despises it. "I don’t play that hero and I kind of hate this hero if both my opponent or my teammates pick it in pubs."

Will Meepo remain in the shadows, or will it get a heavy rework in the future? Only time will tell.

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