In an interview at Elite League Season 2, Team Liquid player Samuel 'Boxi' Svahn discussed how players cope with the high number of tournaments and shared his thoughts on patch releases during tournaments.
On the large number of tournaments:
Boxi explained that the experience varies for everyone, but regardless of whom you ask, they would agree it demands a lot of time and dedication. Over the past few years, players have travelled extensively. Mental and physical resilience is necessary to endure such several tournaments. If it's not one tournament after another, it's easier, but currently, you find yourself on the road, striving to stay on track.
On patch releases during tournaments:
Boxi mentioned that when a patch is released in the middle of a tournament, teams are usually hesitant to experiment because too many new elements are introduced simultaneously. He has been playing Dota and observing some teams in the lower bracket, noting that they have a day to digest the changes.
He highlighted that sometimes you wake up in the morning only an hour before the match starts and a new patch has been released. This situation resembles the Wild West. Now, you can look at statistics and win rates since about ten thousand matches have been played in Dota, and you can see which heroes are good and which are not. However, sometimes what seems good might be due to a bug and might not work properly. Therefore, choosing such heroes can be risky.
In the early hours of 1st August, Valve released a major patch 7.37, in which developers reworked debuff and ability-blocking mechanics and significantly changed the balance of heroes.