Road to Bucharest — Team Undying
Yuriy SheremetThe fourth episode of the series of texts «Road to Budapest» will say goodbye to South America and welcome a new region – North America.
The pioneers from North America are Team Undying – the youngest team of The International 10. The team that managed to achieve great results in 2021 even though other clubs tried to reach them for years.
Introducing the main underdog of the year and trying to retrace Team Undying’s road to Bucharest.
Portfolio of Team Undying
Before we take a closer look at Team Undying, let us go through highlights of the career of the American players. The third team in North America doesn’t have many of them.
- Date of foundation: 3 January 2021;
- Roster at The International 10: Timado, Bryle, SabeRLight-, MoonMeander, DuBu, Febby (coach);
- Region: North America;
- How they proceeded to The International: closed qualifiers in North America;
- Main achievements: third place at Dota Por Circuit 2021: S1 – North America Upper Division, third place at Dota Pro Circuit 2021: S2 – North America Upper Division, first place at BTS Pro Series Season 6: Americas, first place at BTS Pro Series Season 7: Americas.
We’ve covered the highlights and now let us move on to a more thorough examination of the third strongest team in North America.
First appearance
We heard of the team called Undying for the first time at the beginning of January 2021. Then the mix was introduced on Twitter, it included Timado, Bryle, SabeRLight-, MoonMeander, and DuBu.
There was a special contribution to their appearance in North America from the updated DPC system. In the season 2021 the teams were divided into regions.
It stimulated competitive environment in particular locations, but in case of North America this system became a kind of a lottery ticket. The region dominated by Evil Geniuses has almost no competition at all.
Players move from one mix to another, legionnaires try to acquire new lands. It is a perfect situation for finding your place under the sun.
This is what Undying did.
First DPC season
After the announcement about their existence in January 2021, Undying easily passed the closed qualifiers for the first DPC season in the same month. MoonMeander and the team became a rightful member of the higher division.
In the group stage of the first DPC season Undying showed themselves perfect. They got points fast and even beat Quincy Crew.
It came to the situation when Undying, EG, and Quincy Crew had to play rematches at the end of the group stage: all the teams ended the group with 6-1 and then the fate of two slots at the major would be determined in tie-breaks.
Arriving at the party right after the sheep, Undying were unable to blunt attack of their opponents and got left behind their first major. But Undying got 200 DPC points and kept their slot at the elite division for the second season.
Second DPC season
In the second DPC season Undying kept their status of elite teams in the region. They became a pretty much only team that was able to oppose the long-standing leaders like EG and QC.
However, in the second season Undying performed worse as the players were unable to defeat any leading team. The second season finished without surprises and rematches, EG and Quincy Crew went to the major again.
Undying again contented themselves with two hundred DPC points, but it was not enough to make it to The International 10. But Undying seems not to care about it at all.
Qualifiers for The International 10 and a trip to the main tournament of the year
The closed qualifiers for The International 10 in America kicked off on 30 June. Undying, 4 Zoomers, simply TOOBASED, and bumble bEE’s were among contenders to have a trip to Bucharest.
Apparently, Undying looked the most worthy of a ticket to Bucharest among the enlisted teams. Eventually, they got the trip.
The closed qualifiers turned out to be an easy walk for Undying. Starting with the upper bracket, the international mix from North America lost no map but beat 4 Zoomers 3-0 in the finals.
After getting a trip to The International 10, Undying announced their rebranding and added the word Team to the tag’s name. The renewed team played at OGA Dota Pit Invitational where they took 7th-8th place.
This is where Team Undying’s story pauses. We are to see its continuation on 7 October at The International 10 in Bucharest.
See you later on EGamersWorld.
Yuriy Sheremet – Expert in mobile gaming and esports among shooters and MOBA games.
At EGamersWorld, Yuriy, as in 2020 when he joined the portal, works with content, albeit with adjustments to his area of responsibility.