Radioactive Man-Pony Onslaught

Typically, the dota competitive scene tends to have "trickle down" on pubs. In 6.83, Juggernaut, Sniper and other ricing heroes managed to unseat Pudge as the most (over)picked heroes in pubs. A similar trend has occurred in 6.84, where Bloodseeker, Earthshaker, Bounty Hunter and friends are very popular right now. However, Leshrac has not been anywhere near the top 10 most played heroes, instead he is 26th.

So, what is it about the radioactive man-pony that causes pubbers to favor... all the other meta heroes? Is he not "flashy" or "exciting" enough? Do people prefer no-scope Fissures and Shadow Walk courier snipes over winning the game in 25-30 minutes?

The occurence of Bloodseeker makes most of Leshrac useless. If he doesn't move, he doesn't damage.

Because he wasn't picked at TI5.

Takes too much skill.

If people want to play mid nuker they go Zues because the only thing he needs to do is hit Q/W/R when he has mana, and keep spmamming that until everyone is dead. Literally all he does. Dammit pubs.

In what universe Lesh takes skill to play? Now that he has slow from E he reliably stuns any hero without boots and some heroes with boots. It takes the same amount of "skill" to hit Lesh's stun as it does to hit LSA after Eul's which is all about simple timing you get after 2-3 games.

I agree. You just hit all the buttons when a teamfight or a tower push occurs and you're set ahah

Also, item build. Not that complicated. People probably don't play it because of the reasons mentioned. Also: because he's boring.

So are Sniper, Zeus, Pudge and so forth, but that doesn't stop people from picking them.

thats cause 120% of people are boring...

Fun is a subjective argument. There are people that find any hero interesting, some that find any hero boring. You can't use it as a reason.

Well okay you can, but you shouldn't.

I think Dimoy might actually be on the mark with how he wasn't picked at TI. Yes, he was banned but you'd be amazed how many people over-look that. And most of the times he was picked, he actually lost.

Mind you, 26th is still pretty damn high in terms of pick rate.

The hero's damage doesn't go up with his farm, only how long he survives. I think people find a lot more enjoyment out of a hero that hits harder with more farm he gets (Troll warlord, Sniper, Juggernaut, Bloodseeker, even Pudge with Aghs). Leshrac doesn't radically get more powerful with more farm, at least not in a visible way. Granted, he's still getting more powerful with more farm by dealing lots of sustained damage and crowd control, but it's comparably subtle.

Also, Anti-Mage's huge popularity atm (Because Storms everywhere), which in pubs completely trashes Lesh, since convincing strangers to group up and push early can be difficult, especially if no one has team sense or social skills. Even if on Average, the Leshracs will win over the AMs, those kind of "thrown" defeats can dissuade people.