How Bristleback and Sven perform as teammates in Dota 2 7.41e, from ranked matches.
In Dota 2 7.41e, Bristleback and Sven win 50.99% of ranked matches when playing on the same team, over 6,802 matches.
Running at an enemy lineup, Bristleback can create a lot of chaos and draw focus while slowing key targets with Viscous Nasal Goo. This can open a window for Sven to follow up with Storm Hammer and cleave down the grouped-up enemies. Sven's Warcry also gives Bristleback an extra layer of durability, making him even more of a nuisance as he wades into the fight. The plan relies on the enemy committing to bursting the wrong hero, giving the other a free hand to deal damage. If the initial engagement goes wrong, neither hero has a reliable escape.
The core tension here comes from conflicting fight tempos. Bristleback wants a long, drawn-out brawl to build up damage stacks, whereas Sven wants to end the fight in seconds during God's Strength. The heroes also share a major weakness: physical damage counters. An enemy team that stacks armor or picks up items like Heaven's Halberd can effectively neutralize both cores at the same time. This makes the draft predictable and gives opponents a very clear path to itemize against your two main threats.
How this pairing performs across skill brackets — the duo's team win rate in recent ranked matches, split by average match rank. Ranks with too few recent matches are omitted. These rows use the last 30 days of quality-filtered ranked matches, all patches in that span combined — a wider window than the patch-scoped count above, so the per-rank match totals can exceed it.
| Rank | Team win rate | Matches |
|---|---|---|
| Herald & Guardian | 48.41% | 692 |
| Crusader & Archon | 50.81% | 1,106 |
| Legend & Ancient | 48.20% | 666 |
| Divine & Immortal | 43.03% | 165 |
This duo's team win rate in each recent balance patch — whether the pairing is trending up or down. Patches without enough matches are omitted.
| Patch | Team win rate | Change | Matches |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7.41e | 50.99% | ▲ +0.5pp | 6,802 |
| 7.41d | 50.48% | ▼ -0.6pp | 73,280 |
| 7.41c | 51.12% | ▼ -0.2pp | 27,343 |
| 7.41b | 51.30% | — | 31,030 |
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Data updated Aug 17, 2026.