The same reason Tassadar had a very small presence in Masters/GM games but was fairly popular in pro games: the hyper coordination of Pro Games means that some things are better than in normal ranked play and some things are worse. It also helps that pro players tend to know their teammates VERY well and can rely on them wayyyyyyyyyyy more than people in ranked would.
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PB gets memed because half of Kael players use it as an ordeal finisher instead of extra burst on a target.
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I can’t see that Pyroblast requires more coordination than Phoenix.
It doesn’t make sense to me that a player would consistently pick phoenix, then switch to pyro specifically because it’s a tournament game. The fact that’s it’s a tournament game or a high level game would make no difference.
But then playing something because “you know your team mates”, is a different reason than playing something “Because it’s a tournament”
Pyroblast is just too situational for beeing recommended. In certain Maps and Team compositions and against certain Enemies, yes it can get his value.
But, I want to state another thing, NA Div S is not the same as Div S in Europe (don’t take it personally).
Cho’Gall is never considered a quality pick here. And in NA Cho’Gall is quite often to see in Stormleague.
Same goes with Kael’thas himself. He doesn’t get many drafts here in Div S.
Every region is different. Asian picks and bans were very different in the HGC days.
(Though in OW Asian teams won and other teams lost lol)
I’m not saying it about pyroblast and phoenix specifically, just that the environment of Pro games is different than those of ranked play and can lead to some things being more viable and some things being less viable. We’ve seen this ever since Pro Play in HOTS was a thing, with certain builds and heroes being great picks in Pro Play but very questionable in ranked.
Yet we know this is untrue for basically every competitive game ever: Pro Players are typically on teams which means they practice with other people on their extremely high skill level, leading to plays,drafts, builds and strategies that statistically cannot work in most Ranked games, even in GM.
Being partnered up with a few friends in storm league and playing at a pro level with other pro players who you practice with all week, talk to constantly, play against other pro teams constantly and stuff, etc, are two entirely different levels. I know plenty of people here who play in Diamond and even Masters with some friends and I’m sure they’d be the first to tell you that the difference in coordination between them and Pro Players can be quite astronomical.