Following a rework which drastically boosted his viability, Murky quickly slimed his way to the top of the Heroes of the Storm ladder but strangely turned up missing during the Western Clash at IEM Katowice. Naturally, I began to look more closely into the disappearance of the baby murloc; what follows is my investigation.

During the Lúcio patch, Murky received significant changes which catapulted him to the top of Hero League standings for two weeks before receiving some balance changes to bring him back down to a fairer level. Nonetheless, he remained a strong (and annoying) pick, and many were expecting him to show up at the Western Clash, but he never made an appearance. Where did he go?

Murky’s rework gave him approximately 16% more health and 20% more HP regeneration on top of some incredibly powerful “tanky” talents like Fish Tank, Rejuvenating Bubble, Egg Shell, and Big Tuna Kahuna. The combination of these factors made him an absolute terror to deal with, especially for auto-attacking melee assassins like Illidan and Zeratul. As such, many suspected that Murky would become a tank stand-in, or at the very least a bruiser in “double tank” compositions.

On paper, Murky’s damage, tankiness, and zoning potential was stronger than most other heroes in the game. And yet, much to our surprise, the little Murloc showed up only once in a ban against Tempo Storm. Why?

The most obvious explanation might lie in his popularity. Out of 458 matches played in HGC this year, Murky has been played zero times. Therefore, it might follow that no one knows how to play him because no one has played him in a long time. When teams go into a big tournament like the Western Clash, it’s important to have a few aces up your sleeves, but switching to a completely unfamiliar hero is difficult for both the individual and the team.

Teams naturally avoid risky picks on the basis that being OP “on paper” doesn’t necessarily translate to success in practice. The teams at the Western Clash weren’t ready to try out new compositions. Instead, they chose to stick with familiarity.

The second explanation has to do the metagame. The Western Clash was played on the patch before the recent nerfs to Varian’s Warbringer talent, so the stunlock meta was still in full effect. Heroes like Varian, ETC, and Tyrande were highly prized due to their stuns, high damage, and combo abilities.

Unfortunately, Murky does not do well against stun trains; he also doesn’t add anything to them either. Murky’s sustained damage kit and zoning ability just doesn’t mesh well with the current meta, and his damage doesn’t stick in teamfights, especially against healers like Malfurion, Rehgar, and Lúcio who all have outstanding sustained healing. In 95% of the drafts at the Western Clash, replacing a tank with Murky would have been suicide.

Will we see Murky played more in the coming weeks? It’s possible, but after his recent nerfs, it’s hard to imagine he’ll have a solid place in the metagame anytime soon. The Western Clash was the one time that Murky had the potential to live the dream.