Oct. 27 has been a day for records at Dota 2 The International 2023 as BetBoom Team knocked Virtus Pro out of the competition while making history. During the longest match of the event, TORONTOTOKYO also broke a niche record.
During the second match of the series, TORONTOTOKYO’s Undying displayed incredible resilience, boasting an impressive 12,734 HP. According to analyst Noxville on Twitter, this marked the highest HP ever recorded in a professional Dota 2 match—surpassing the previous record set by BetBoom’s Ivan “Pure” Moskalenko with Centaur Warrunner.
TORONTOTOKYO’s massive Undying played a crucial part as the team eliminated Virtus Pro from the tournament. In the later stages of the match, BetBoom faced relentless damage from VP’s Muerta, who wielded a Divine Rapier. Despite having a massive health pool, the record-breaking Undying still was burst down a couple of times. However, the chunky support drew enough attention for his core heroes to shine.
With the stars aligning, BetBoom overcame their ‘fragile’ Dota 2 narrative and came together to put an end to Virtus Pro’s split push. BetBoom guaranteed a top-six finish after beating their regional rivals, and their road to Aegis of Champions will now be forced through Azure Ray.
Though another HP record may not be on the horizon for BetBoom, tanky heroes have been shining bright at TI 2023. The meta revolves around having at least one hero who can soak damage in the front line. As a result, Heart of Tarrasque and Blade Mail became some of the most popular items at the tournament.
Other tanky supports like Phoenix, Treant Protector, and Tusk are seeing plenty of action at TI 2023 according to stats site Spectral, with the majority all recording above 50 percent win rates. Treant is of particular note—Rooftrellen has an absurd 63 percent win rate over 24 picks at the time of writing.
As a result, a bulk of these tanky supports are copping early draft bans, but with so many to choose from, one to two manage to sneak onto the TI stage more often than not.
