The carry meta is something to look forward to in The International.
The safe lane carry role will see some interesting new heroes. As the tournament draws closer, the carry heroes prevalent in the higher tier games seem to differ greatly from the ones we are used to seeing. This is due to patches and meta changes. With most of typical farming carry heroes out of the way, let’s look at the heroes which can dominate TI.
Medusa
Medusa offers a strong lane with most support heroes. If the lane is tough, she can just farm creep waves fast using her Mystic Snake and Split Shot, and move to the side camps. In easier lanes, she can look to coordinate with her support in order to dominate the offlaner. Medusa has an absurdly high win rate in 7k+ brackets, suggesting that she is one of the best picks in the meta.
Medusa is tough to gank in the safe lane and farms her items quickly. Once she has her basic set of items, her team can look to take objectives around the map. Without a proper counter, enemy teams can lose the game. However, most of her counters are not very good in the meta.
Tiny
Tiny is another interesting addition to the safe lane meta. He is a bit more balanced after being nerfed recently, but qualifies to be a great carry. Tiny is especially good in the higher MMR bracket, bagging a healthy win rate of over 52.5% currently. Tiny can become a great laner if he has good support with him. He has a reliable way of securing last hits and nuking enemies with Tree Grab.
Tiny falls behind in attack speed compared to other safe lane agility carry heroes. However, with the right items and buffs from the team, he can be effective even in the late game. The hero needs very few items before he can jump in team fights. However, Tiny does require a suitable hero lineup to be effective in games.
Weaver
Weaver is still a strong pick even after getting nerfs in the previous few patches. He sits at a decent win rate and is one of the favorites in the safe lane role. Weaver is great in most 1v1 situations in the early phases of the lane. He struggles against coordinated teams who can stun or silence him for multiple seconds, stopping him from casting Time Lapse.
Lacking sustain, Weaver is great with a Falcon Blade in the early game. He is extremely mobile and dishes out tons of damage, which makes him a viable option for late game.
Honourable Mentions
Apart from the top picks mentioned above, we have compiled a list of heroes who can also become favorites in The International 10 tournament. Morphling with over a 51% win rate, Naga Siren with low number of games but over 55% win rate, Monkey King who also a has a decent win rate in high MMR games and Faceless Void who was great in the previous meta, but can be a decent pick in few situations.
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