It only took a significant rebuild and some time in Division II, but Puppey and Team Secret finally look like they are rounding into competitive form after locking down a spot in the big leagues for the Dota Pro Circuit’s Summer Tour with a near undefeated run.
Despite finishing as runner-ups at The International 11 last October, Secret’s roster lost a major piece when Nisha moved over to Team Liquid during the offseason. That change seemed to throw the entire lineup off-kilter as they went 3-12 during the opening tour of the 2023 DPC season. That performance saw them relegated down to Division II and prompted Puppey and Secret’s management to head back to the drawing board.
In that span, Secret cut ties with Resolution and Zayac, two veterans who helped guide them through TI11. From there they signed two new players and moved BOOM to the offlane—which bolstered immediate results against Western Europe’s lower division.
In seven series, Secret went a combined 13-3 for a final record of 6-1 and a guaranteed top spot in Div II. Five of those series were clean 2-0 sweeps, though only their win over PuckChamp actually looked easy.
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Armel coming in from Southeast Asia fit in near perfectly with Secret’s core and the young gun signing Daniyal “yamich” Lazebnyy looks right at home in the four spot next to Puppey. It also helps that BOOM’s transition to position three seems to have been seamless.
The only team they lost outright to during this tour was D2 Hustlers, one of the other teams that sat atop the region throughout Spring. That squad is now set to face Ancient Tribe to see who claims the two seed and also makes it into Div I.
With this performance, Secret will move back into a position where they can fight for DPC Points and a spot at the Bali Major with the Summer Tour in May.
Unfortunately, they are in a pretty bad spot when it comes to points and will need to perform extremely well over the next two months if they want any chance to qualify for TI12 without needing to play in qualifiers. They will also need to do that in a region that is dominating the global game right now and has a team that won the last two tier one events.
