It looks like the early game (around pre-lair level D) got a little easier and the late game (around post-s-runes) got a little harder, compared to last tournament. I saw a thread on reddit where people were speculating about what caused winrate to drop and many people suspected early game changes. At least for the average player it seems the first ~third of the game is easier than it was last version and the last ~third is harder.
In case you’re wondering, that XL 11 spike is due mostly to the D levels around Lair (D9-12)
, not Lair itself. From then on the game gets easier for the average player, presumably because of the “failures die fast” principle and because characters tend to have more resources at their disposal at that point in the game. XL Death Rate graphs have had this mountain shape with the peak near XL 11 since before I started making them!
It seems the “easiest” part of the game has gotten harder over time!
(ignore the large spike at XL 27 - that’s encompassing all of extended into 1 XL. It’s just a lot more content).