Aftertaste of a Major: Highlights of Singapore Major 2021
Yuriy SheremetSunday, 4 April, put an end to one of the most exciting and significant tournaments in history of the competitive Dota 2. For the first time over a year and half a Major championship has been held: teams from different regions came to find out who is the best.
That kind of event was difficult to outshine in pageantry and epicism. As for gaming, we saw one of genuinely brightest championships in Dota 2 history although there were apparent errors.
The format of the competition is a ‘pure masterpiece’
Only the laziest have not commented on the format of Singapore Major 2021. Even though I'm lazy, I will put my two cents in.
The thing we saw in Singapore should definitely stay in Singapore. The championship format that dismisses efforts of half of contestants does not deserve to exist.
The format where a team played, as a matter of fact, 26 (!) maps (hello Team Liquid), gets only a business class ticket as a prize (you hope) is not normal. The championship format where teams that get to the playoff of a major drop to the lowest positions of the bracket getting behind (!) teams that do not pass to even Wild Card is not normal.
It seemed to me that there could not be a situation worse that in the 17/18 season. However, there was a much worse precedent.
Of course you can easily object to all arguments with a simple ‘It’s the first LAN tournament in the post-covid era, what should we expect from them?’. But unfortunately it does not work like that. Let us remember Worlds 2020 in League of Legends, NBA, or even FMWH Dota2 Championship Season 3 with their local LAN finals, and all questions must disappear.
Outdated paradigm of powers
In my humble opinion, the main discovery, or even shock, was a drastic rebalance of regions’ powers. Sticking to online and watching mainly Europeans and CIS Dots, anyone could lose touch with reality.
And the situation is extremely interesting. The brightest Dota regions like Southeast Asia and South America enter the championship and absolutely unexpectedly destroy the Top-1 team in the CIS and the Top-2 teams in China.
Actually this piece of our writing could turn into an epinicon of OB Esports x Neon and Thunder Predator, however, it is always nice to leave some room for skepsis. In case of the main heroes of ONE Esports Singapore Major 2021 by PGL, this skepsis could be considered as a favourite problem of distancing among all Dota players.
In fact, it can exist as we can check whether it is an outcome of the painstaking work or not only at the next major. However, as it has not happened yet, we have a clear picture: the overall level of Dota has been equalized regardless of the region.
Even though China is, as usual, stably strong. Be the way, let us take a look at the region.
Is the Chinese Dota again the best in the world?
This assumption looks pretty ridiculous contrasted with the previous statement but meanwhile this status is entirely and completely proven by the results. At ONE Esports Singapore Major 2021 by PGL, the Top-8 of the Singapore major was represented by three Chinese teams, and two of them made it to Top-3.
The solid argument of the Chinese Dota holding the status of the strongest team in 2021 was also backed by IG. They did it with the championship belt raised over their heads.
The main ‘bad seeds’ of Singapore Major 2021 and, in parallel, the first champions in the post-covid era.
While continuing to talk about the Chinese Dota, it would be strange not to notice the merits of Invictus Gaming. Even though it was pretty expectable (first teams in China at the tournament), IG’s way was thorny and it was easy to make a mistake.
The shaky start of the tournament, a sloppy game against Vici Gaming and a loss at the upper bracket against EG: I would blame it on the notorious format of the tournament. As they came to the event tired and got slapped, IG quickly came round and started their revenge.
Getting to the grand final, the Chinese were not nervous at all, they were confident about their supremacy. I don’t know what is in charge of morale in IG, but he is an evil genius indeed.
P.S. We would really want to put in ‘?’ which was used by Emo at the grand final but we are serious people and we won’t do like that. Or have we already done it?
Something remains the same, or Arteezy’s 20 attempts
It is time to shift from high topics and reflection on the Chinese Dota and its status to a more down-to-earth topics. Down-to-earth, miserable, and even hilarious in a way.
This refers to EG which showed a real Schrodinger's game at Singapore Major 2021. I don’t know what other analogue I can use here, as it is not often, and lately even rarely, that you can see a team that demonstrated a rather intricate, simple and confident game, but the following map turned out to be disgusting and hideous.
As a result, EG have no title again. Arteezy’s 20 attempts have never made him the champion of a tournament by Valve.
Can we call EG a weak team? Yes and no.
I guess we could all agree on the fact that Evil Geniuses are definitely not weak as the team stably makes it to Top-3 (there are rare exceptions where EG do not become leaders, as for example at TI9 or MDL Chengdu Major) at majors and become leaders in the region. But leading 2-0 on maps and 15 thousand gold on the third map, you should try really hard to lose a series of 3-2.
And what’s the outcome?
As it often happens, a big tournament brought us bright emotions, plenty of questions and problems.
Bright emotions from the storylines of the championship, epic games and exciting series.
Lots of questions about the level of preparation of the teams and organization of the event.
As we can see, there are lots of problems in the format of the tournament and the DPC season as a whole.
Let’s hope that in the next season Valve will read these notes and change everything for the best. And now let’s stay watchful, wash our hands frequently and keep an eye on Dota.
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.