Earth Spirit's EWC 2026 renaissance: A comeback six patches in the making

After three days in the group stage which nets a total of 72 matches played, Earth Spirit is the most picked hero in the competition with 36 picks, and a 55.56% winrate. He is also the second most contested hero with 49 picks and bans, which brings him to a 68,06 % contest rate. Shadow Fiend is the most contested, for those wondering, but that’s not a big surprise. Earth Spirit’s resurgence as a hot meta pick is though.

The last time the hero truly dominated the competitive meta was around 2018, early 2019, after the 7.20 gameplay update, which, besides a map rework, brought massive economy changes through modifying the experience and gold formula for denies, bounty for neutral camp stacks and changed the day and night cycle among many other things.

Right after the 7.20 patch, Earth Spirit rose as one of the most contested and most impactful roaming position 4 supports. It’s the time when every support player wished they could play like Jesse "JerAx" Vainikka, the back-to-back TI champion with OG, who redefined how position 4 support should be played, and dare we say, he did that mostly through his unmatched Earth Spirit.

Since then, Earth Spirit has become more of a hero-specialist pick and has rarely been seen enough to call it a meta hot choice. He was briefly somewhat coming back as a mid lane hero at DreamLeague Season 27 in 2025, but he has never reached the popularity he had in 2018-2019.

So, what changed?

Earth Spirit received considerable buffs through SIX different patches, starting in late 2025 with 7.39d, 7.39e, and continuing through the 7.40, 7.41, 7.41c, and 7.41d gameplay updates.

Constant buffs led to today's Earth Spirit looking heavily overtuned in utility, scaling, and early-game pressure.

For the longest time, pro teams prioritized heroes that offer role flexibility, saves, and early lane dominance, and the recent patches (7.40 through 7.41d) have given Earth Spirit all of these traits and then some.

Early game and skirmishes

Earth Spirit has always been an early-game roamer, but patch 7.41 increased the level 1 slow duration of Boulder Smash and the silence duration at level 1 for Geomagnetic Grip. Combined with the base Strength increase (from 22 to 23) in patch 7.41c, Earth Spirit is incredibly tanky in the early laning stage. He can dominate trades, and his early ganks are almost guaranteed to secure kills with the extended lockdown durations.

Physical damage scaling

Usually, utility supports fall off in physical damage, but the recent reworks have turned Earth Spirit into a true right-click threat. Following the 7.40 rework, Stone Remnant now passively grants an attack damage bonus per charge. Patch 7.41d specifically buffed this from 2.5% to 3% attack damage bonus per charge.

Because he also receives a non-stackable 7.5% attack damage bonus for 10 seconds whenever he uses a remnant, his physical damage output in teamfights is incredibly high for a utility / support hero. This allows teams to flex him into a mid lane hero as he seamlessly scales into the late game.

Geomagnetic Grip: The ultimate "save" mechanic

The most defining factor for his competitive viability is arguably the rework to Geomagnetic Grip in patch 7.40, which allows it to be cast on allied units. This essentially gave Earth Spirit a repositioning "save" mechanic on par with Vengeful Spirit's Nether Swap or Pudge's Meat Hook. Pro teams value highly heroes that can initiate and save out-of-position carries. With an ally cast range that scales up to 700 (and an Aghanim's Shard that boosts ally pull speed and range by 1.5x), Earth Spirit provides unmatched utility.

Massive AoE teamfight damage

While his utility and right-click were getting buffed, IceFrog also buffed his magical output in patch 7.41. Magnetize saw a damage increase at levels 2 and 3 (up to 135 damage per second). When diving the backline, Earth Spirit can easily apply tremendous amounts of AoE damage to the entire enemy team while simultaneously silencing them with his buffed Grip.

Conclusion

At Esports World Cup 2026, teams are prioritising Earth Spirit because he is a true "jack of all trades" hero. He is a flex pick that can be played either as core or support, he wins the early laning phase with his buffed stats and CC durations, he saves allied heroes with his reworked Geomagnetic Grip, and he scales exponentially into the late game with percentage-based attack damage from his Remnants. Until his early game numbers or his ally-save mechanics are tuned back down, he is likely to remain the hottest hero of the 7.41 meta.