Welcome to the Samurai Gamers’ Weekly Takeaways! Here we will look back at the trending things we have observed during the first week of Kaisaya’s AOV Valiant Online Community Tournament:
A Glimpse of SEA’s Meta
Given that AOV’s Valiant server is still in the process of getting all of the heroes available in other regions, SEA has its own meta picks. SEA’s meta revolves around a more tank/warrior heavy lineup backed by burst Assassins or Supports.
Week 1’s games have shown that while 8/12 games involved a team picking a marksman, only one of those games resulted in a win. This indicates that SEA players tend to choose heroes who can end matches early. Generally when a team chooses a marksman, a large portion of their strategy relies on how well their marksman can farm his or her core items.
The Picked and the Banned (Week 1)
As pointed out by Kaisaya, Week 1 of the AOV Valiant Online Community Tournament’s most picked heroes are:
| HERO | PICK RATE (12 Games) | WIN RATE (12 Games) | NOTES |
|---|---|---|---|
 Alice |
83.33% | 70.00% | Alice is one of the premier Supports in SEA’s meta at the moment. Thanks to her shields and excellent crowd control, she is often picked to roam and lock down unwary enemies during the early game.
During team fights, her Hissy Fit is a true tide turner that can often spell victory for her team. |
| Xeniel |
75.00% | 55.56% | Xeniel is a solid double threat and a nightmare to deal with when in the hands of capable players. His abilities allow him to pressure his lane and respond to team fights to provide heals, crowd control, and burst damage at any time. |
| Zephys |
66.67% | 75.00% | Zephys is one of the most popular jungle assassins in SEA. Apart from his insane burst damage, his overall kit grants him the ability to provide some crowd control to help take down enemy carries.
Not to mention, he has excellent mobility and can weave in and out of team fights. |
Conversely, here are the three most banned heroes of Week 1:
| HERO | WIN% WHEN PICKED (12 Games) | BAN% (12 Games) | NOTES |
|---|---|---|---|
| Superman |
40.00% | 50.00% | The Man of Steel is by and large one of the best initiating tanks in the game today. He is an SS-tier hero for a reason – his engages, when made properly, often leave the enemy team with 2/3 of their HP, knocked out of position, and open for more damage.
As such, teams either ban him right away or pick him whenever he is available. That said, the jury is still out on whether the teams in the tournament can fully utilize The Last Son of Krypton’s might properly, as his win rate so far is 40% after 12 games. |
| Kil’Groth |
66.67% | 41.67% | Kil’Groth has been in the spotlight since even before the recent patch thanks in large part to his INSANE synergy with Scorching Wind. He is a ticking time bomb whose power ramps up significantly once he gets both Scorching Wind and Fafnir’s Talon. Teams who do not want to deal with this mammoth threat make sure that he always has a seat amongst the banned heroes. |
| Zephys |
75.00% | 25.00% | On the other side of the picks and bans, Zephys’ excellent burst damage coupled with his mobility makes him a nightmare to handle.
Given that his combos are relatively easier to execute than other assassins, he also falls under the “ban or pick” heroes. |
Best Team Score (Week 1)
The honors of Week 1’s best team score goes to Yggdrasil Imperious who gave an extremely dominating performance against Tribu Nemesis. After being on the losing end of the First Blood, Yggdrasil Imperious rallied and stormed Tribu Nemesis which ended in an 18-1 thrashing.
Yggdrasil’s team composition consisted of Lu Bu and Zephys taking care of melee range damage, Preyta for long-range magic damage, and Alice and Xeniel acting as Support for their damage dealers.
ʏɢɢ• 2 3 got the MVP honors that game, with an impressive 5-0-11 KDA, which translated to 16.7 MVP stat.
International Shoutcasters, Assemble!
Keeping in line with the community aspect of the tournament, Kaisaya opened the floor to volunteer shoutcasters for all of the matches. In response, international shoutcasters such as Mal3ficarum and Arena of Valor Caster School Top 8 contestants Nibiria and JBeeZee manned the commentary duties alongside local Filipino casters such as Arctik and Rockhart. This mix of local and international flavor to the matches served as a great opportunity for casters to further perfect their craft at calling Esports matches while having some fun at the same time.
Day 2 saw Nibiria team up with Arctik to call all the matches. Here is a sample of them in tandem action:
For Week 3, JBeeZee and Mal3ficarum will man the shoutcasting duties to complete the placement matches for the Winners and Losers’ Brackets.
Catch more of the AOV Valiant Online Community Tournament here:
Kaisaya’s Twitch Channel: Twitch.tv/KaisayaPH
Kaisaya’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/KaisayaPH
Kaisaya’s Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/kaisaya
Kaisaya’s Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/kaisayaph
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