Review of Dota Pro Circuit 2021 Season 1
Ihor MatusOn 14 March the matches of the first Dota Pro Circuit 2021 season, and it mean that it is high time to sum it up. It is remarkable that the events in five regions excluding China were over at the end of February whereas Chinese teams were playing till 14 March.
Europe
In the European region Team Secret showed the best results, and it did not surprise anyone. Puppey and his teammates have been dominating on the Dota stage since last year, and at the moment Secret must be the strongest team in the world taking into account the fact that the European cannot play with representatives of other regions very often, we feel even more confident about the statement.
Alliance, Nigma and Team Liquid also showed a great performance as they got 2nd-4th place in the tournament bracket and got invited to a Major tournament. If Team Secret made it to the playoff of ONE Esports Singapore Major 2021 directly and Alliance joined the group stage, Nigma and Team Liquid had to work hard as they entered Wild Card where the gamers had to fight for participation in the group stage.
Vikin.gg could not surprise us, OG together with Tundra Esports took 5th and 6th place correspondingly, but they did not lose their slots in the league of the upper division which could not be said about Vikin.gg and High Coast Esports.
Instead of Vikin.gg and High Coast Esports with their 7th-8th places in the tournament bracket, there will be Hellbear Smashers and Brame with their upper division as they took 1st-2nd place in the bracket of the lower division. Meta4Pro and burjui got in a difficult situation. The first team got to know that one of the players had participated in rigged matches, so they moved out. Meanwhile, Burjui wanted to continue their participation in the championship, but the organizers decided to show the players the way out on account of the rules of the regulations. According to them, burjui already had a couple of players who were substitutes in the team, and the team did not have a chance to have a stand-in instead of an esportsman who was unable to go on playing. Therefore, the teams did not participate in the fight for their share of grabs and left the event. Creepwave, No Bounty Hunter, Spider Pigzs, and Hippomaniacs managed to keep their slots in the lower division, so they will continue their way in the second season going past the elimination stage. Creepwave, by the way, got disbanded, but two players who left in the roster kept their slot. If they do not find clubs where they will resume their career, they will try to assemble new Creepwave and continue participation in the second season DPC 2021.
Elephant is the main disappointment and other histories from the Chinese region
Everyone who is keeping an eye on the Dota stage remembers a big scandal with the team Elephant. Initially the team planned to perform as 4AM.Elephant, after that the team left 4AM and continued to play as Elephant. Besides, the management of the team initially planned to assemble a roster with Sylar and even made an announcement, however, after they reported about cancelation of the transfer and Eurus did not join the team. Later the team was about to welcome rOtK from Vici Gaming who was ready to get to his new slot. Unfortunately for the Chinese coach, the plans were changed, and the coach could not hide his emotions and said that he regretted the lost opportunity. According to him, the team consists of real talents and has a great potential. All these words were talking about extraordinary abilities of the esportsmen and that is why we had great expectations about Elephant. As a result, the team was unable to show anything unusual and the players outdid only EHOME, Team MagMa and LBZS. The team was placed on the fifth position and was unable to get invited to the Wild Card stage of the upcoming Major championship.
Meanwhile, Vici Gaming and PSG.LGD took 3rd-4th place and got invited to Wild Card ONE Esports Singapore Major 2021. Team Aster started at the group stage as a team that had taken second place at the DPC tournament but Invictus Gaming is going to skip the group stage and start their way in the playoff of the Major competition. They have deserved it: the players took first place in the tournament bracket and beat Team Aster at the rematches.
We need to take a closer look at LBZS which was unable to win a single match as well as a single map. 14 played maps out of 14 possible ones were lost. Therefore, the team with the tag LBZS together with Team MagMa gave their slot to Sparking Arrow Gaming and Royal Never Give Up. The latter, as you could guess, took first place in the lower division. CDEC Gaming, Phoenix Gaming, Xtreme Gaming, and Dragon kept their slots in the lower division of the next season, but Dynasty and Dalajing Gaming left the league. The latter were disqualified from the championships due to the fact that they had numerous reschedules which is prohibited due to the regulations of the championship. Now if those who left the league want to take part in the DPC tournament, they will have to pass through the elimination stage.
Southeast Asia
Fnatic showed a workshop of how to get one of the easiest invites to the playoff to the Major tournament. To achieve the desired results, they needed 6 wins and 1 loss as the closest opponent Neon Esports was unable to reach 6 triumphs and they got only 5. The team lost twice but one of the losses happened with Fnatic, and the second with T1 that became the third team that made it to ONE Esports Singapore Major 2021. Unlike Fnatic and Neon Esports, T1 will join Wild Card where they will have to compete for joining the group stage again.
TNC Predator, who have recently raised a cup at a Major tournament, disappointed their fans and took fourth place in the tournament bracket and was unable to make it to ONE Singapore Major 2021, but managed to keep their position in the upper division of Dota Pro Circuit 2021 Season 2. BOOM Esports and Execration gained the same success.
496 Gaming and Vice Esports showed the worst results with 1-6 and turned out to be in the bottom of the bracket. It means that the teams Lilgun and Omega Esports will lose their slots in the upper division. Together with 496 Gaming and Vice Esports, the lower division will welcome Cignal Ultra, Galaxy Racer, Army Geniuses and ZeroTwo. HOYO and Yangon Galacticos took 7th-8th places.
What about CIS?
What do Virtus.pro, Natus Vincere and AS Monaco Gambit have in common? — the players again and again prove to the owners of the clubs that the decision to sign them was a great idea. The sports director of NAVI, Aleksei ‘xaoc’ Kucherov said it once: “Signing FlyToMoon is one of the best decisions made by the club”. All three teams managed to pass to the upcoming ONE Esports Singapore Major 2021. Virtus.pro joined the playoff, Natus Vincere started their way with the group stage and AS Monaco Gambit will have to fight for participation in the group stage in the Wild Card stage.
The best performance was shown by VP who outplayed everyone who was standing in their way. It is remarkable that Nightfall and his teammates lost only one map in the whole time. Team Spirit became the team that broke their perfect statistics. As for NAVI, the players had serious problems with playing Spirit, so they could not beat the opponents.
It will be a great idea to remind you that this championship became a debut for the players from AS Monaco Gambit. SoNNeikO and his teammates used to represent Live to Win. Now the players have moved to Gambit Esports but not all of them. As tradition has it, Rostislav ‘fn’ Lozovoi was overboard and his position in the mid lane was taken by his countryman Vladimir ‘No[o]ne’ Minenko who, by the way, joined the team as a substitute. The management claimed it at the moment when their collaboration with Vladimir began.
EXTREMUM, Team Unique and Team Spirit did not make it to the Major tournament but they managed to get not bad results and keep their slots in the upper division of Dota Pro Circuit 2021, which cannot be said about Team Empire and NoTechies. The latter left the upper division and gave their slots in the league to the players from PuckChamp and Winstrike. Both teams were fighting well in the lower division and ended their way with the score 6-1. Meanwhile, HellRaisers, Gambit-2, Imperial Pro Gaming and XactJIepbl played well enough to keep their position in the lower division.
Speaking about other teams of the second echelon, we cannot ignore VP.Prodigy and B8 Esports who took last places and left the Dota Pro Circuit league. If NAVI say that signing their new roster was one of the best decisions, the manager of Virtus.pro Sergei Glamazda was initially proud of their new charges from the second roster but later announced that the results were unsatisfactory and the situation with VP.Prodigy was to be solved somehow. The decisions about B8 Esports were made during the championship, so the team lost 5up and both coaches MeTTpuM and Astini. As likely as not, departure of those individuals was not the last. Recently there has been news that Sexyfat and Duster, who currently represent B8, were registered in another Brazilian roster, so it will be great help for the team at Copa Dota 2 Brazil.
North America
Old school fans and Fear had to see not the most pleasant moments when they were watching their favourites from Sadboys. At first, Peter ‘ppd’ Dager and dnm left the roster due to their unsatisfactory results, and later the other players welcomed Ryoya and ZFreeK, and set out to play as PentAce. Sadboys indeed. The attempt to revive the previous tag was counted but it was unsuccessful.
As for Evil Geniuses, the tag where Fear and ppd raised the cup at The International 2015, the roster is living great. The esportsmen from EG took first place in the tournament bracket and at the rematches defeated Quincy Crew and Undying who shared the first place with them with the score 6-1. It helped Evil Geniuses to get an invitation to the playoff of ONE Esports Singapore Major 2021, and Quincy Crew started their way with the group stage. Undying did not show great performance at the extra meetings as well as 4 Zoomers, Sadboys and Black N Yellow, so they kept their slot in the upper division. A-Team and 5ManMidas got to the lower division.
Their slots in the upper bracket will be taken by The Cut and Simply TOOBASED who showed themselves as a killing machine that knows no mercy. Zakari ‘ZfreeK’ Freedman and his teammates showed an incredible game and ended their participation in the tournament with the statistics of 7-0. As we have mentioned before, Kyle Freedman’s brother terminated collaboration with Simply TOOBASED and moved to PentAce where he was going to play with Fear and the others. Now it will be difficult for TOOBASED to perform with the same results without their player from the fourth position. Ryoya also left the guys from Black N Yellow to join PentAce.
South America
In South America everything was pretty predictable. The first place was taken by beastcoast who showed their best at the times of their gaming as Team Anvorgesa in 2019, and the second place was given to the other former players from the legendary South AMerican tag Infamous, Thunder Predator. It is remarkable that each of the gamers from any of the teams joins Infamous during their career at least once.
And what about scandals? A player from Latam Defenders nicknamed Aretes was deprived from participation due to his racist statements in matchmaking. The team of the banned esportsman went to the lower division as well as EgoBoys. The captain of NoPing e-sports, aka Pandaboo was also accused of similar utterances, however, it did not concern Dota Pro Circuit, as it happened after the end of the Dota 2 league. Nevertheless, the player will be banned at BTS Pro Series Season 5, which is also an interesting situation. As for substituting the teams in the division, Infinity Esports and Hokori will make it to the upper division instead of EgoBoys and Latam Defenders.
What is next?
We are going to see ONE Esports Singapore Major 2021 happening from 27 March till 4 April. The overall prize pool of the championship will consist of $500,000 and 2,700 Dota Pro Circuit rating points. Eighteen participants will be fighting for the prizes. The list of contestants has already been completed.
Playoff
- Team Secret
- Invictus Gaming
- Fnatic
- Virtus.pro
- Evil Geniuses
- beastcoast
Group Stage
- Alliance
- Team Aster
- Neon Esports
- Natus Vincere
- Quincy Crew
- Thunder Predator
Wild Card
- Team Nigma
- Team Liquid
- Vici Gaming
- PSG.LGD
- T1
- AS Monaco Gambit