Frankfurt Major Group Stage Recap
Top Games of The Group Stage
With simultaneous matches and over twelve hours of Dota per day, watching it all would require some Hermione level time travel, or just looking up the replays afterward. We’ve sifted through matches that we thought were the best to see, whether it was due to a pivotal standing in the main event, or just simply fun to watch. Warning: Spoilers ahead.
Evil Geniuses vs Virtus.Pro, Game 1
After an early overextension by VP, EG was proactive and maintained map control for the first 25 minutes of the game. EG went for a smoke gank that, if successful, would’ve sealed off any hope for a VP comeback. VP popped their BKBS in time and teamwiped EG, with the Aegis. This was a game that saw two 10k net worth swings and ended in a nail biting comeback.
Evil Geniuses vs Fnatic, Game 3
An outstanding performance by Sumail’s 
Timbersaw that threatens to challenge Arteezy’s breakout moment at MLG, where “2EZ for RTZ” was coined. EG came in as a huge favorite, but Fnatic managed to push them to a deciding game 3. Sumail racked up 30 bloodstone charges for EG’s win and if this becomes his new Storm Spirit, it won’t be before long we see a new trend in our pubs.
Vega Squadron vs. OG, Game 3
Even though no teams are eliminated in the group stage, winning a slot for the main event’s upper bracket is a significant advantage. The winner would go to the upper bracket of the main event, evading the dreaded BO1 first round of the lower bracket. This was Vega and OG’s second best of three in the group stages, and this match would be the decider for their bracket seeding. The losing team in this match ended up holding the net worth lead for a majority of the game, even until the end. At 52 minutes, with OG facing mega creeps, they went for the last ditch effort with a Rapier on Miracle’s Gyrocopter.
Virtus.Pro vs Newbee, Game 2
At 82 minutes, this was the longest match of the tournament and by no means was it a farm fest snore. The game averaged over a kill a minute, ended with the highest CS (Hao with 1.1k last hits) and G rose up through the carnage with an impressive performance on his Queen of Pain (13/3/17 in a match where his team had 46 deaths). VP gave fans some mercy later by also serving up the shortest match of the tournament, also against Newbee, with an 18 minute win.
Mineski vs Ehome, Game 1
Mineski was a legitimate dark horse candidate this tournament, coming from the SEA region and lacking international competitive experience. They did have the potential to upset, but perhaps surprised some audiences in the way they came out of the gate against Ehome in game 1. The game was defined by CIS-worth early aggression on Mineski’s part.
Mineski vs Cdec, Game 2
This was one of the rare base races that wasn’t a desperate grasp for a win. Mineski, though down one lane of raxes, was still within reach of winning the game through conventional means. They must have seen an opening while CDEC was occupied with Roshan, and split pushed with 
Anti-Mage and 
Shadow Fiend. Mineski took a measured gamble that their team could hold off CDEC’s 5 man to force a retreat. CDEC entered the game of chicken and pushed onward to Mineski’s throne.
Newbee.Young vs Team Secret, Game 1
Newbee.Y with their last pick 
Huskar, may have thrown a wrench in Secret’s plans, who made a few uncharacteristic missteps throughout the game. Secret took an early lead and pressured Huskar’s lane, netting them the first blood. They didn’t have an answer for Newbee.Y’s mid player, Sccc, who posted the highest KDA of the group stages with his Queen of Pain (16/1/15).
Mineski vs Alliance, Game 2
At this point, you might as well watch all of Mineski’s games. Mineski is 11-0 all time with Huskar. The record has prompted opponents to ban the hero or prepare a draft against it. Alliance’s lineup was well prepared with its pure damage heroes: Bane, Lina, and Timbersaw. The game was quite close in the first 25 minutes, with both teams trading kills, and Alliance managing to dispatch Huskar with their lineup. However, the tension in every fight was suffuse with the question, “Can Alliance Kill This Huskar?" The answer depends: does the Huskar have Heaven’s Halberd, Satanic, Heart of Tarrasque, and three teammates—Dazzle, Tusk, Winter Wyvern—who can save him?
Group Stage Statistics
With the group stages which ensure comfortable position in the main event it is unlikely that teams weren't trying their best. The stakes were not at an all-time high, yet we have already seen some of the most beautiful and interesting Dota. The group stage also came with several surprises and we feel it might be time to re-evaluate some of the teams based on the stats we currently have - it is obvious some "Dark Horse" teams came very prepared for the event while some of the favorites did not live up to the expectations.
Teams
Except for very impressive Mineski performance and very poor Alliance and EHOME ones, the group stages went relatively close to what was predicted.
Both Vega and VP have managed to overcome some of the problems which were clear leading up to this tournament and performed maybe even better than what was expected from their A game.
Team Secret, after having a rather bumpy start have managed to get themselves together and win all other games in a very convincing manner, while OG seems to have lost some of their magic and need to step it up a little to show what they are truly capable of.
Unknown and Alliance have played the least matches in the group stage. Each of them have lost 4/4 matches in their group. If in case of Unknown this result is very unsurprising, [A] might have once again broken the hopes and dreams of their fans. To their credit, however, they were placed in a group packed with talent old and new and this result, while disheartening, does not indicate the weakness of the team as much as it indicates how surprisingly strong some of their opponents are.
Close second in terms of least matches played were Team Secret, Vici Gaming, CDEC and Fnatic, all of which have played a total of 5 games. The first three have shown incredible performance and have managed to win most of their games, while the latter has been underwhelming to say the least, especially for a team packed with talent and experience.
Vega Squadron has played the most games possible in the group stages - 9. However, I would refrain from calling out their performance as shaky. All of their opponents have shown great desire to win and incredible skill - OG is not the team you can 2:0 easily and taking game off VG while playing on equal grounds in the other two is quite an achievement on its own.
In terms of GPM Evil Geniuses lead the pack with an impressive 2113 average, closely followed by CDEC at 2066, Mineski at 2054 and VG at 2045. Interestingly, out of top 8 teams in terms of GPM, the only one not getting into the upper bracket in the main event is OG with 2011 average, once again showing that it is too early to discredit this team. On the other hand, we have Virtus.Pro in the upper bracket with measly 1786, possibly indicating lack of proper resource control - it is 15% less gold than EG gets in their games and a valid reason for worry for the fans.
In terms of KDA it is unsurprising to see CDEC in a very confident first position. 6.91 KDA is almost 30% higher than of the next contender - EG with 4.99. CDEC is also the leader in terms of assists - maybe "Death Ball" strategy is not dead after all.
This time around, all of top 8 KDA positions are taken by teams from the upper bracket, with VG once again showing their incline towards objective based Dota with 3.06 - the lowest value of all upper bracket teams. Alternatively it could be explained by iceiceice and his "space creation".
Players
Dota is a team game and will never get tired of stating that obvious fact. This however does not mean there is no place for individual talent and the new teams are packed with mechanically gifted players some of which have started their career as pub stars.
In terms of kills, Sumail leads the pack with whopping 10.17 per game. He is closely followed by Shiki, w33, Maybe and Aggressif, all of which net ~9.5 kills per game. Note that out of Top 5 fraggers in this group stage two come from CDEC.
Top 5 farmers of the tournament so far are surprisingly quite different from the top fraggers. The only overlaps are Agressif and Maybe. This list is lead by Miracle- and Super with an average GPM of 632. Arteezy has taken the 4th spot on the list, indicating that his CIS roots are slowly turning him into XBOCT he is still one of the best players in the world and is adjusting well in his old team even given similar playstyle to SumaiL.
Q is leading the pack of players who died the least. A very surprising spot for a support, in my opinion. Equally as surprising is EG.Universe in the fifth position - offlane players generally tend to die more and Universe certainly deserves all the praise community is giving him. NewbeeY.Sccc is in the 4th spot and I recommend watching the player closely - he is a very young world-class player who, I feel, is on the same level with most Top mid players and is one good roster change away from becoming widely recognized.
Heroes
Tusk remains the only hero this tournament with a 100% Pick+Ban rate. More often than not he is allowed to slip through and can also boast a solid Win Rate of 53.85% across 26 games. Shadow Fiend is a close second with 96% P+B and is currently valued higher than 
Doom at 91%.
The two heroes are followed by 
Queen of Pain and 
Dark Seer. Their P+B is identical at 87%, however the latter can boast a much higher Win Rate of 58.82%, compared to the former with exactly 50%. This statistics is based solely on games where either hero was actually picked.
For the heroes which were picked in more than 5 games, 
Visage and 
Bounty Hunter are at the top of Win Rate at 80%. They are very closely followed by a lot more popular 
Undying and 
Ancient Apparition at ~75%. 
Ember Spirit, 
Templar Assassin and Anti-Mage are the top core heroes with ~70% Win Rate across 10, 9 and 6 games respectively.
One of the more contested heroes - 
Slardar is also very high in terms of Win Rate - 65% in 20 games looks even more impressive than some other less reliable stats. 
Winter Wyvern is also at the top with 61.90% in 21 games.
Highest KDA heroes in the group stages were Visage, QoP, TA, Anti-Mage and Gyrocopter. The first four all have an average KDA of over 5, while the latter is very close with 4.6. It is necessary to note that Gyrocopter was the second most picked hero hence his statistic is a lot more reliable.
Trivia
Longest Match: Virtus.Pro vs Newbee GSL Game 2 - 82 minutes
Shortest Match: Virtus.Pro vs Newbee Lower Bracket Game 1 - 18 minutes
Bloodiest Match: Vega Squadron vs Vici Gaming Upper Bracket Finals Game 3 - 75 kills
Most Peaceful Game: Vega Squadron vs OG Lower Bracket Finals Game 1 - 23 kills
Most Kills: CDEC.Shiki on Queen of Pain - 19 kills
Most Deaths: Newbee.Banana on Earthshaker - 15 deaths
Highest GPM: EHOME.Cty on Anti-Mage - 918
Highest Hero Damage: OG.Miracle- on Gyrocopter - 31.5k
Highest KDA: NewbeeY.Sccc on Queen of Pain - 31
Most Last Hits: Newbee.Hao on Ember Spirit - 1118
Longest Level 1 Hero: Newbee.Banana on Earthshaker - Level 1 until 9:02, GPM at the time: 21
Huuuge
Tusk needs to be thrown in the nerf pit that fucking snowball is out of control
Epiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick
Currently the Enchanted Mango only has a 36.43% win rate. Together, we as a community, have the ability to fix this problem and end this horrific tragedy. Please help. It is our duty as gamers to give this item the respect it is due.
Tusk OP please nerf.
Longest Level 1 Hero: Newbee.Banana on Earthshaker - Level 1 until 9:02, GPM at the time: 2
what?? feeding for 9 mins
THAT LONGEST LEVEL 1 WAS SICK. WEREN'T HE BORED OF HIS SKILL, THE ONLY SKILL HE USED THROUGHOUT 9 MINUTES LMAO
He did well with timbersaw? They were having complications with the game and the game didn't even get played all the way through. haha.
how is that earthshaker lvl 1 at 9 miuntes?? that was some extreme patience lol
I think a lot of people underestimate the effectiveness of lvl 1 Fissure. Even without damage it is one of the best, if not the best lvl 1 spell in the game, since positioning can be crucial. By allocating resources elsewhere they made sure to have a comfortable XP lead on other heroes and Earthshaker than got his levels in teamfights he actually managed to have an impact in with lvl 1. And he farmed a pushed lane quite aggressively at one point, since even if he dies, he feeds less than a creep)
Highest KDA: NewbeeY.Sccc on Queen of Pain - 31
http://www.dotabuff.com/matches/1940406408
cty have best kda too 34
Most Deaths: Newbee.Banana on Earthshaker - 15 deaths
Longest Level 1 Hero: Newbee.Banana on Earthshaker - Level 1 until 9:02, GPM at the time: 21
Space created, Kreygasm