General Event Information
The DotaPit Season 5 LAN finals will be held in Croatia, with a prize pool of more than $136,000. The bracket is double elimination, with the Winner’s Bracket being best-of-three, and the Loser’s Bracket being best-of-one. The Grand Final will be best-of-five.
As the current gameplay version is 7.01, the following heroes are not available in Captain’s Mode, and consequently will not see competitive play: Lycan, Treant Protector, Techies and Monkey King.
There are eight teams attending, but here are the teams to really look out for:
OG: Major Champions Searching for More
OG is a classic example of a team getting everything together just in time for the climax of the season and taking the last major tournament of 2016 and the 6.XX era. OG, once again, are on top of the Dota world. While Invictus Gaming isn’t the worst possible starting opponent, the road to the Grand Finals will be brutal. If they indeed defeat the sole Chinese team at the event, they’ll then have to face a championship-hungry Virtus.Pro. If they manage to defeat the CIS powerhouse, the winner’s final will be between the winner of Digital Chaos and Evil Geniuses. It’s a rough path to the title, but if they win it all, then OG are far and away the best team in the world.
Evil Geniuses: Time to Deliver Once Again
Much like VP, Evil Geniuses is another squad that is hungry for a undisputable win against the scene’s best. This iteration of EG has proven since September; the individual skill is still there, the teamplay is as tight as ever and composure in the face of brutal opposition is fully present. The only thing that’s missing is a trophy from a tournament with significant talent in attendance. EG thrives in the Double Elimination. However, now we will see if they can take DotaPit.
Virtus.Pro: Always the Bridesmaid, Never the Bride.
VP are 0-2 in tournaments since their win at The Summit 6 — coming close every time, but falling short each time. At the Boston Major, it was EG that was their undoing in a single elimination quarterfinal bracket. At ESL One Genting, it was Digital Chaos that stormed past VP to take the trophy in Malaysia. We’ll see if VP can fend off their demons and take this tournament.
Digital Chaos: Staying on Top
DC are coming into Serbia hot off of a huge win at ESL One Genting. Being a favorite coming into any event must be difficult, as many teams benefit from playing the role of the underdog. However, that’s a luxury that Digital Chaos haven’t had since TI6. With the win at Genting, they have proved that they belong in the small circle of teams that can be consitently relied upon to go deep and even win large tournaments.
One thing to note from ESL Genting, too: the Grand Final between Newbee and DC was the first best-of-five to go the full five games since EPICENTRE in May 2016.
Team Secret: The Long Road Ahead
The most interesting story was the meteoric rise and fall of what was the most popular team in Dota 2: Team Secret. The beginning of March marked the high point of this team, securing the Major title denied to them by OG in Frankfurt, Clement “Puppey” Ivanov was on top of the wide world of Dota. Two weeks later, however, that would dramatically change. On March 22, 2016, Team Secret would drop players Aliwi “w33” Omar and Rasmus “MiSeRy” Filipsen for EG’s Artour “Arteezy” Babaev and Saahil “UNiVeRsE” Arora. This roster move would determine the course the western scene would take until the end of The International 6. After some dire revelations of what happened behind the scenes within Team Secret, the reputation of both Puppey and the organization he had help develop were ruined. After four months of no LAN appearances, Team Secret has finally returned to the professional scene. However, the seeding for this tournament has not been merciful, with Secret having to play DC, the new home of Secret expats W33 and MiSeRy.
Can Puppey take his team back to the top? Or is he cursed to the shadows of the Dota 2 scene for the rest of his career? We’ll find out this weekend.
Art Credit: Valve Software
You can find Carno on Twitter at @Carno_.
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