Io wins 10.6 million Dota 2 player's votes

Io, a Dota 2 that looks like and is a ball of light, won last week’s Arcana Vote with 10.6 million user votes versus Queen of Pain’s 2.4 million votes. Io has had a surprising amount of support considering it is the third least picked hero in the game with 1.74 percent pick rate compared to Queen of Pain’s 7.67 percent.

Io’s entire winning streak has been more surprising considering the heroes it was against during the previous voting stages, according to the data on Dotabuff.com. Io was against the hero Phantom Lancer, a hero with 7.75 percent pick rate, winning 53.9 percent of the votes with 6.2 million votes. A close win for Io.

The succeeding week was won by Io overwhelmingly with 80.6 percent of the votes against Nature’s Prophet. Nature’s Prophet is another very popular hero with a 10.75 percent pick rate.

The biggest win for Io would be its matchup against Invoker. It was a close win with 55.3 percent of the votes going the way of the ball of light. Invoker is the third most popular hero with 26.29 percent pick rate. The only hero with 14 spells in his arsenal compared to the standard four spells. A new arcana guarantees that all those spells will have new effects and animation. Invoker was a sure winner, or so did everyone think.

Arcana Vote is an ongoing competition wherein Dota 2 players who own a compendium can vote for their favourite hero. Every week, heroes are pitched against each other in a tournament style to get the most votes. Of Dota 2’s 111 heroes, Io is in the remaining six. The winning hero of the entire Arcana Vote will have a new Arcana item that players can purchase for US$35 (AUD$46)

The Arcana item will drastically change the look, animation and spell effects of the hero when equipped. Currently, there are only eight available Arcanas. The Arcana Vote has three more voting weeks to go before the winner is revealed.