TI11 Compendium Predictions: The Best Choices

We return this year to give you our recommendations for your Compendium predictions. And with so many choices to pick from, making heads or tails of what the best options are for each category can easily make one’s head spin. But that’s why we’re here. Welcome to the 2022 edition of our International Compendium predictions guide!

Hero Predictions

Most Picked Hero: Undying

Undying is one of the most broken heroes of Patch 7.32c, the game version that will see action at TI11. At the last chance qualifier, Undying made it into 44 games and came out of the tournament with a 52.27 percent win rate.

The buffs to Decay (Q) in this patch, particularly the one that makes it so that it no longer modifies health upon the expiration of the debuff, make him extremely oppressive in lane. For those not in the know, this change means that afflicted heroes will no longer gain health when the debuff falls off.

Prior to 7.32, savvy players could simply buy a Magic Stick in anticipation of facing Undying in the laning phase, and recover any health lost to Decay in an instant. This isn’t a thing anymore, which makes Undying that much more irritating. Melee carries in particular will find it difficult to stand toe-to-toe with him in the first 10 minutes of each game. Not even Faceless Void, whose Time Walk (Q) gives him unparalleled sustain as a carry, can save him from Decay spam.

And what better hero to bring in the Halloween season with Undying, right? Expect this hulking, decrepit zombie to terrorize everyone at TI11.

Most Banned Hero: Marci

This one is a no-brainer. Marci is still ridiculously powerful, even after the nerf that removed the stun from Dispose (Q). She still destroys practically everything in her path in the laning phase, and is versatile enough to transition into a secondary or tertiary carry in the late game thanks to Sidekick (E) and Unleash (R).

Let’s put it another way: she posted a staggering 76.47 percent win rate at the last chance qualifier over 17 games. On the flipside, she saw herself banned out 86 times. Eighty-six. If that isn’t enough to inspire confidence that she’ll see the highest number of bans at TI11, we don’t know what will.

Hero With the Highest Win Rate: Tinker

The best bets in this category tend to be cheesy, “gotcha”-type heroes — a category to which Tinker definitely belongs. The other heroes under this umbrella, namely Broodmother, Meepo, Huskar, and Arc Warden, aren’t nearly good enough in this patch to attract attention to fulfill the minimum requirement of five games played.

Tinker, meanwhile, is reliable enough to the point where we can see specialists like Cheng “NothingToSay” Jin Xiang making magic happen with him. Tinker also went completely ignored at the last chance qualifier, which only makes things better for him in this fixture; going under the radar should allow him to get at least five games in without losing too many of them.

Hero With the Highest Kill Average: Ember Spirit

Ember Spirit is quite well balanced right now, seeing that the hero posted an even 50 percent win rate in the last chance qualifiers. There’s enough Ember Spirit players in the mix at TI11 to give this hero chances to take this category: you’ve got NothingToSay, Azel “Abed” Yusop, Alexander “TORONTOTOKYO” Khertek, and Quinn “Quinn” Callahan all handling Xin quite well.

Any one of these players can easily explode and drop an average of 12 kills per game with Ember Spirit, so this hero is our pick for this category.

Hero With the Highest Assist Average: Zeus

A hero with a global, team-wide nuke like Zeus is an easy pick for a category that takes average assists into account. It also helps that Zeus is still very much a viable pick in the support role this patch, even after counting the nerfs to Heavenly Jump (E). While he didn’t get picked much in the last chance qualifier, there will likely be enough room for Zeus to show what he can do with 20 teams in the field at TI11.

Hero With the Lowest Death Average: Morphling

Make no mistake about it: Morphling is the carry to pick right now. A near 60 percent win rate over 32 games in the last chance qualifiers certainly proves this. The buffs to his ultimate Morph (R) make some of his previously unwinnable matchups against certain heroes now much more manageable, so it’s likely that teams will pick him as an anti-carry of sorts when presented with specific heroes to counter.

His Aghanim’s Shard upgrade is also incredibly strong. Being able to cast Attribute Shift (D/F) while stunned is a big deal, and is the exact reason why we have him pegged as the hero that will post the lowest death average in the tournament. Morphling is one of the hardest heroes to bring down without access to hard counters like Ancient Apparition; his survivability in the late game is legendary, and teams will find ways to enable him to stand and deliver.

Hero With the Highest Last Hit Average: Naga Siren

What can we say? It’s been Naga Siren all the way in this category for the last several years. It helps greatly that she’s in a good place right now as a hero, too, so there’s plenty of reason for teams to pick her in the carry slot. And when it comes to sheer last hitting prowess, very few heroes in the game can even come close to what Slithice can do.

There’s really no need to flip a coin in this category. Naga Siren has you covered.

Hero With the Highest XPM Average: Templar Assassin

With Night Stalker being out of the metagame spotlight this patch, the highest XPM average crown is likely to go back to Templar Assassin. Her gameplan is tailor-made for this category: farm creep stacks for huge experience gains, then proceed to farm enemy support heroes for even bigger experience gains.

Played right under the right conditions, she hits level 20 at a breakneck pace, making her the best pick in this category.

Hero With the Most Kills in a Game: Tinker

Tinker is the magic damage assassin extraordinaire. His kit is designed around blasting heroes left and right in lengthy teamfights, as well as when catching them off guard via his usual Boots of Travel shenanigans. If he is allowed to snowball, he can rack up an immense body count quickly and effortlessly.

Hero With the Most Last Hits in a Game: Naga Siren

The same reasoning for Naga Siren’s placement in the highest last hit average category applies here. Slithice is the queen of gobbling up creeps like there’s no tomorrow, so she’s the obvious choice for this one.

Team Predictions

TI11 Winner: Team Spirit

Now onto the most difficult prediction category outside of general tournament stats, which we’ll get to later. Predicting the winner of The International is never an easy task, especially after considering just how many times the unexpected has happened over the history of the event.

But what we can say with some certainty is that mental fortitude and good coaching seems to trump everything else at TI. Team Spirit had that in spades last year when they made their miracle run to the Grand Finals, as well as when they defeated PSG.LGD to win the world title. Their victory at the Arlington Major over the very same team only makes this prediction a stronger bet.

Of course, you can never really count out PSG.LGD either. They’re still the strongest team coming out of China, which beats every other region in the scene in terms of overall skill. The thing is, PSG.LGD have had so many chances to finally win it all. Their mental collapse from last year was probably the worst of it all, up until they repeated it at Arlington.

We think they’ll do just that again in Singapore: go all the way to the Grand Finals by crushing everyone in their path, only to choke when it matters most as they always do. So given the strong momentum Team Spirit possesses right now, combined with their nerves of steel, we’ve got them defending the title this year.

Team With the Most Kills in a Game: BOOM Esports

What’s Southeast Asian Dota most known for? Brawling, of course. The SEA server is notorious for having frantic, bloody games, and BOOM Esports happens to be the one holding the banner for the region right now. They came out of the DPC season in seventh place overall, far above anyone else from SEA.

If they’re allowed to go full Southeast Asian on everyone, in their home region, you can expect heads to roll.

Team With the Highest Kill Average: OG

BOOM also leads the category for the number of kills on average in the field at TI11, at least according to the stats from datdota. The issue in this category is that it values longevity in the tournament, which means that teams who get far in the bracket become more and more likely to be in contention here.

So, we think OG is a better choice for this one. The pace they play at is frenetic enough for them to rack up lots of kills on a game to game basis. They’re also consistent enough that we can easily see them placing at least fourth in Singapore, which should be enough to get them the highest kill average when you combine it with their preferred playstyle.

And, well, it’s OG. Though this roster isn’t the same one that won back to back titles, something about their coaching staff allows them to perform beyond their limits on paper at The International.

Team With the Fewest Deaths in a Game: PSG.LGD

A fairly straightforward option for this one. PSG.LGD is the epitome of clinical precision, with a playstyle that’s just flexible enough to enable their deep hero pool to shine. Expect them to keep it clean in terms of execution in any given game.

Team With the Most Assists in a Game: Royal Never Give Up

With two of the most experienced supports in Dota 2 on their roster, RNG is a strong pick to have the most assists in a single game at TI11. In fact, they even sit just behind OG and BOOM Esports in terms of average assists in Patch 7.32. Both OG and BOOM also have great support players to work with, of course, but when the pressure is on at The International, it’s the veterans that step up.

Team that Wins the Longest Game: Team Aster

Slow-playing, methodical teams rule the roost in this category, as they tend to prefer dragging games out in order to make sure they have victory well in hand before risking a high ground push. Team Aster fits this description to a T, as one of the last remaining squads that adhere to the “old”, conservative Chinese playstyle.

They won’t mind playing games past the 60 minute mark, that we’re sure of. And since they’re one of the teams most favored to make at least sixth place, they’re going to win a lot of games, long or short.

Team that Wins the Shortest Game: PSG.LGD

Since PSG.LGD is the epitome of clinical precision as we mentioned before, it stands to reason that they’re more than capable of closing games out at a moment’s notice. These guys don’t mess around when they don’t need to, so we’ve got them winning the shortest game of the tournament.

Team With the Highest Game Length Average: Team Aster

As said, Aster is one of the strongest teams in the field on paper, and likely to make top six if not higher. Combine that with their playstyle, and you’ve got the perfect recipe for a high average game length across multiple matches.

Team that Picks the Most Different Heroes: PSG.LGD

PSG.LGD has a large portion of the old Wings Gaming DNA in their roster, thanks to the presence of former International champions Zhang “Faith_bian” Ruida and Zhang “y`” Yiping. These two are no stranger to thinking outside the box at TI, and we think it’ll be no different this time around. Look towards LGD to dig deep into their hero pool in Singapore.

Team that Picks the Fewest Different Heroes: Evil Geniuses

We’re sticking with our guns from last year in this category, especially considering how Evil Geniuses has been a really inconsistent team this season. They still rely on their comfort picks just as before, and are now more likely to bomb out of the tournament early — giving them less time overall to pick more heroes outside of their comfort zone.

Player Predictions

Player With the Highest Kill Average: Somnus

For this category, you’ll need a highly aggressive player that knows his way around The International in particular. Lu “Somnus” Yao is the perfect example of such a player, whose virtuosic playstyle lends well to stacking tons of kills over a long period of time. And while his signature Storm Spirit might not be a metagame favorite right now, we’re certain that he’ll still want to get his hands on the hero and cause havoc wherever he goes.

Player With the Most Kills in a Game: Quinn

Quinn “Quinn” Callahan is the traditional midlaner distilled to its purest form — the archetypical tempo controller that wins his lane and roams the map in search of prey as soon as possible. He’s more than capable of carrying the early to mid game for Soniqs against almost any team, so we think he’s a good bet for this category.

Player With the Lowest Death Average: Ame

Wang “Ame” Chunyu is as solid as they come from the carry slot. As the quintessential Chinese carry, he knows how and when to pick his spots, and to make the most out of the map control that the rest of his teammates give him. He is quite possibly the biggest choke artist on PSG.LGD in Grand Final situations, but that really won’t matter in a category that considers the average number in a specific stat.

Player With the Highest Assist Average: Miposhka

Yaroslav “Miposhka” Naidenov’s many, many years of experience as a pro Dota 2 player make him one of the most consistent supports out there in Singapore, which is of course the one thing he needs to be in order to be a shoo-in for this category. The man is a wizard from the hard support role, capable of becoming the star on his team without having to suck up all the farm on the map.

He is the glue that keeps the defending champions together, so he’s an easy top three pick here.

Player With the Most Assists in a Game: DJ

Superstar supports are the most obvious choices in this category, and there are few out there in the field that can shine brighter on the biggest stage than Djardel Jicko “DJ” Mampusti. With the old king of the soft support role Xu “fy” Linsen absent from The International this year, DJ is far and away the most dynamic support player in any roster participating in the tournament.

His signature hero Enigma is also one of the most sought after picks in the current metagame, which brings him up higher in terms of how many assists he can put up in a single game.

Player With the Highest Last Hit Average: Yatoro

Aside from already leading this statistic among players in contention for the Aegis of Champions, Illya “Yatoro” Mulyarchuk’s status as the one leading the new era of carry play warrants his placement as our choice for this category. This young gun understands how to play from the safe lane almost more than any other player right now, including Ame.

He is a straight up farming machine and is likely to kill creeps at a faster pace than anyone else in Singapore. Put your trust in YATOROGOD and he’ll take you to the promised land.

Player With the Most Last Hits in a Game: K1

Now, as for single-game farming performance, look no further than Héctor “K1” Rodríguez, especially if he has himself another one of his famous Wraith King games. Beastcoast plays for and around him whenever K1 is on Wraith King, allowing him to get plenty of space to hit creeps to his heart’s content.

Player With the Most GPM in a Game/Player With the Highest GPM Average: Ame

This category belongs to really good Alchemist players, which Ame definitely is. The hero is already notorious for reaching GPM marks that other carry heroes could only dream of, but it gets even crazier when Ame gets his hands on Razzil Darkbrew.

If he does play the hero in Singapore, you can safely bet that his gold per minute statistics will skyrocket as a result.

Player that Plays the Most Different Heroes: Yatoro

Yatoro’s versatility from the carry position is now the stuff of legend, even only one year after he played 14 different picks over the 20 games he and Team Spirit participated in during the TI10 playoffs. His hero pool as an individual is unmatched right now, and we don’t think he’s going to stop reaching into his bag of tricks any time soon.

Tournament Predictions

As always, the tab for tournament predictions is the most difficult to forecast. There are simply too many variables at play, and anything can happen at The International. Still, our choices here do have some rationale to them, based on trends over the last few TIs.

The categories related to the hero pool are fairly straightforward. The International has long been a haven for unorthodox strategies, and this year probably be won’t any different. We expect that more than 101 heroes will see action this time as well. The same goes for the number of heroes banned, given what has happened in this regard over the course of TI history.

Likewise, the category for the highest GPM by a single hero is an easy one. Alchemist will always have the potential to break the game in this aspect, and it only takes one explosive game by an Alchemist player to secure this prediction. Meta pick or not, Alchemist will always be a threat teams will consider picking, so this choice is by and large the safest for this fixture.

The rest is really up to you. Things are just too unpredictable at The International to put much rhyme or reason to the rest of the statistics.