Team compositions
Five good heroes is not a team. A composition is a shared win condition — and knowing which one you have drafted tells you how to play the next twenty minutes.
Dive
A dive comp throws multiple mobile threats onto the enemy backline simultaneously rather than fighting through the frontline.
How it wins
The team collapses through chokepoints using flicker and dash combos to bypass the enemy tank, chaining CC onto the enemy marksman or mage before they can react, then cleans up the rest of the fight with the resulting numbers advantage. Timing the dive around enemy defensive battle spells (Flicker, Purify) is critical.
What beats it
Heavy peel and disengage comps with displacement tools (Khufra's Bouncing Ball, Lolita's barrier) and strong vision control that spot the dive coming before it lands.
Poke
A poke comp uses long-range skills to whittle enemy HP from outside retaliation range, avoiding close-quarters fights entirely.
How it wins
The team chips health every time an enemy steps forward, forcing recalls and ceding map control, then converts the HP lead into a forced objective fight (Turtle or Lord) where the enemy cannot afford to commit at low health.
What beats it
Fast dive comps with hard engage and mobility that close the distance before poke damage lands, plus tanks that can simply walk down poke and force a fight anyway.
Protect-the-Carry
This comp builds the entire draft around keeping one hyper-scaling marksman alive and farmed until the late game.
How it wins
Four heroes play defensively through the laning and mid phase, denying picks and securing farm for the carry; once the carry hits full items, every teamfight becomes about body-blocking and CC-denial so the carry's auto-attacks decide the outcome.
What beats it
Split-push and pick comps that force uneven fights before the carry is farmed, and burst assassins with reliable dive tools that punch through the peel.
Split Push
Split push spreads threats across multiple lanes so the enemy team can never safely group for a 5v5 without giving up a tower.
How it wins
One or two strong duelists push a side lane relentlessly while the rest of the team applies pressure or holds vision elsewhere; the enemy must either send bodies to stop the split, giving up map control, or lose towers, and the split-pusher only needs to survive ganks to keep winning the trade.
What beats it
Coordinated dive comps that collapse on the split-pusher with vision denial before they can escape, and comps that leverage their 5v4 teamfight advantage to simply take objectives elsewhere.
Pick/Catch
A pick comp looks to isolate and burst down a single overextended or out-of-position enemy hero rather than commit to a full 5v5.
How it wins
The team uses vision control and mobility to catch an enemy alone near a wave or objective, bursts them down in a single combo before allies can rotate, then converts the numbers advantage into an objective or a follow-up pick, snowballing one kill into a game-winning lead.
What beats it
Disciplined comps that group early and never leave a hero alone to be caught, and teams carrying enough CC-clearing and anti-burst tools (Purify, Diggie's Time Journey, Winter Crown) to survive the catch until allies arrive.
Front-to-Back / Teamfight
A classic 5v5 structure with a clear frontline-to-backline formation, built to win a straightforward grouped teamfight rather than outmaneuver the enemy.
How it wins
The frontline tanks absorb damage and initiate on their terms, buying time for the backline marksman and mage to deal sustained AoE damage from safety; the team groups early, controls the middle of the map, and forces every fight to happen in a formation where their damage output simply wins the exchange.
What beats it
Pick comps and split-push comps that refuse to fight in the enemy's preferred formation, plus dive comps that bypass the frontline to burst the backline directly.
Early-Game Snowball
This comp prioritizes heroes with strong early-game power spikes to secure kills and objectives before the enemy's late-game scaling picks come online.
How it wins
The team plays aggressively from level one, rotating the jungler and roamer to gank lanes and force early kills, converting the resulting gold and level lead into a fast Turtle or tower push; the game is decided in the first 8-10 minutes before slower-scaling enemy picks reach relevance.
What beats it
Comps with strong early defensive tools (shields, cleanse, sustain) that survive the early aggression, and any draft that simply out-scales into a stronger late game if the snowball is contained.