9Class named three heroes that their opponents cannot prepare to counter

Edgar “9Class” Naltakian, PARIVISION support, stated that thanks to matchmaking changes, the team's opponents cannot prepare for their Ringmaster, Slark, and Night Stalker picks.

He revealed this during an interview at ESL One Raleigh 2025.

“It's a very good change, now we can peak Slark - no one will know about this hero, we can send him to different roles; we can show Ringmaster. There's no way to prepare for them anymore, it's become fun to play. I usually play some sort of Night Stalker. I have a big pool of heroes, opponents can't prepare for it”

He said that thanks to the fact that high-MMR publicks are now unavailable to the public, it is now possible to surprise opponents with unusual picks and builds. 9Class particularly noted that heroes such as Ringmaster, Slark and Night Stalker especially surprise opponents. Moreover, according to him, Slark can now play in different roles, which further disorients opponents.

Recall that earlier Vladimir “No[o]ne” Minenko said that patch 7.38c literally destroyed one of the positions in Dota 2.