It began with twenty nations from around the world—ranging from Australia to Romania. Only one, however, would emerge victorious with the first prize of a thousand euros. The first MYM Nations tournament (essentially DotA’s version of the Olympics) recently concluded.

And—despite the best efforts of the dashing Danish, the splendid Swedes, the capable Canadians, and the underdog Ukraines—the relentless Russians won yet another MYM Tournament (coming soon after Virtus.Pro’s victory in MYM Pride 6). After losing games to Canada and Sweden and being knocked to the loser bracket after an upset by Ukraine, the Russians bounced back to go undefeated for the rest of the tournament.

But MYM Nations #1 was notable for more than just another Russian triumph. Certainly the Russians are talented, but the reason they won goes beyond just vodka. The metagame of competitive DotA has been perpetually changing since the introduction of –xl as the standard league mode, and this trend continued during MYM Nations. As the tournament progressed, innovation in the metagame—even more than the nations concept—became the key difference between MYM Nations and past DotA tournaments.

Pudge as a common pick. A Morphling almost singlehandedly upsetting Russia. Void and Obsidian Destroyer as dominant carry heroes. Bounty Hunter dominating a game. Jungle Centaur. A Witch Doctor/Stealth Assassin lane. Shadow Priest as the solo middle hero. A Nerubian Assassin with Dagon 5. Lord of Avernus playing a critical role in an upset and then being a common ban.

All of these occurrences were completely unheard of just a month ago. Yet, all of them—as incredible as it may seem—happened during this tournament. But what effect did they have on the metagame? To answer this question, it is first necessary to understand the current metagame.

What is the current metagame?

The current metagame, using extended league mode, strongly emphasizes certain aspects of DotA that previous versions did not. I see the metagame in four parts:

Farm/Gank: A DotA game is traditionally divided into laning, farm/gank, team fight, and lategame phases. The introduction of –xl has placed exaggerated emphasis on the laning and farm/gank phases, especially the latter: whoever farms and ganks better through midgame will almost always win the game, as VP showed in MYM pride 6.

Some would conclude, logically, that strong ganking heroes (Sand King, Vengeful Spirit, Sven, Tinker, etc.) would dominate the metagame. The problem with this view, however, lies in the perception of the term “gank.” The traditional gank consists of an enemy hero farming in one lane while an allied hero or two leaves a different lane to kill that enemy hero.

Escapes: The metagame, however, has evolved to counter this. Nearly every hero picked in league matches either has some form of Blink (Queen of Pain, Priestess of the Moon) or buys a Blink Dagger in order to escape from these ganks. Those that don’t are usually ones that have amazing tanking ability—Lord of Avernus or Bristleback for example. Any hero that does not have some sort of escape mechanism leaves himself very vulnerable.

With wards, escape mechanisms, map awareness, and teleport scrolls, relatively few of these conventional ganks happen each game. Instead of these ganks—where one side has an obvious advantage—games are usually decided by what I call “skirmishes.”

Skirmishes: A far more typical fight (as compared to the “conventional gank”) occurs like this: a hero is attacked by enemies and—rather than dying without a fight—the scene escalates into a skirmish. Other heroes teleport to a nearby tower or otherwise reach the site of conflict, and a fight involving two to three heroes on each side occurs. These skirmishes, really, are where the majority of action in the typical high level DotA game takes place.

Key factors to winning a skirmish are team coordination, focusing heroes, and—most of all—hero positioning. The side with more heroes at a point of conflict will almost always win the skirmish. For this reason, skirmishes rarely last long: the winner of a skirmish usually becomes clear after a hero or two dies because each hero makes such a significant difference. And after a skirmish occurs, what follows is...

Chase/Flee: After a short period in every skirmish, it becomes apparent which side has the advantage. This results in a short chase/flee phase, where the side at an advantage chases the fleeing opposing heroes. The winning side attempts to gain a few extra kills; the losing tries to limit its losses by successfully escaping.

In a way, this phase is more important than the skirmish itself because skirmishes rarely result in the death of all heroes on the losing side. Heroes who chase effectively—those with slows or disables—gain extra kills that can accumulate and become the deciding factor in a match. Even if a team loses a skirmish, its loss may be minimal if most of its heroes successfully escape. The best heroes are often the ones with both a chasing move and a fleeing move (see Queen of Pain, Sand King, etc.)

These four factors, essentially, decide practically every highly skilled game in DotA today. For now, remember this description of the DotA metagame as the “four factors model.” But where does innovation fit?