Preview of EPICENTER Major 2019

On 22 June, the last Major in the rating season 2018/2019, EPICENTER Major 2019 starts. Sixteen best teams on the professional stage will be fighting for the title of the champion, money reward of $1,000,000 and 15,000 DPC points and we will tell you about their chances to win.

General information

The championship of the series EPICENTER Major 2019 will be held on 22-30 June at CSKA Arena in Moscow. In total, 16 teams from different places of the planet will be participating in the tournament to fight for the prize pool of $1,000,000 and 15,000 Dota Pro Circuit points. The company Epic Esports Events will become the organizer. It is known for its events of the series of EPICENTER and Adrenaline Cyber League.

Championship importance

The competition is extremely important for the teams that haven’t provided themselves with slots at The International 2019, as EPICENTER Major 2019 is the last rating tournament this season. 15,000 DPC points are played for at the championship and the first position will bring players 4,950, which is enough for an invitation to the World Championship even if a the team haven’t gained any point before that.

Holding format

Sixteen contestants qualified in Europe, the CIS, China, Southeast Asia, North America or South America, and further got divided into four quartettes where they are going to fight by the GSL system with matches up to two wins. By the results of the group stage none of the  rosters will leave the event and the placement in the group will affect only seeding into the playoff.

At the playoff the contestants will be playing in the double-elimination bracket with matches up to two wins. Only the first round of losers will be held in the bo1 format, and at the grand final we are going to see a bo5 battle.

Division of the teams into groups:

Teams’ chances

Team Secret, Virtus.Pro, Evil Geniuses and PSG.LGD

All the mentioned teams are obvious favorites of the competition and the sportsbooks set the odds of their win of not more than 7. Team Secret stands out among all of them as they have been demonstrating the best results for the whole season and have won five out of six recent major tournaments they participated in.

Virtus.Pro have also showed very good results for the whole season and in the season 2019 they haven’t got to Four Best only once which happened at MDL Disneyland® Paris Major. The roster is likely to do their best at the native audience especially as they will be performing in the full roster.

PSG.LGD and Evil Geniuses are not inferior to Secrets and Bears in the individual performances, however their performances with substitutes affected their shape negatively. The teams often can be seen among the best teams at major competitions and this event is unlikely to be an exception, especially due to the fact that EG have already spent several weeks in the bootcamp in Moscow.

Let’s mark that all the four mentioned teams have already provided themselves with slots at The International 2019, so they can let themselves play not in full force and effects.

Team Liquid, OG, NiP and Vici Gaming

The guys from Liquid and OG have performed with mixed results for the whole season and they have also had some changes in their roster which affected sportsbooks’ faith in them. For instance, Team Liquid haven’t played any official game with W33, so it’s difficult to make any conclusion about their shape.

Meanwhile, Vici Gaming have held the 5-8 positions at the rating tournaments for the whole season, however one of the patches suited the style of the team and they managed to win the minor and DreamLeague Season 11. After the championship the team got back to their previous shape and keeps on causing problems to the best teams of the modern professional stage, but their powers are not enough for winning.

As for PPD and the team, we can say that they show worthy results at the Minor and the last two were won by them - the team obtained titles at OGA Dota PIT Minor 2019 and StarLadder ImbaTV Dota 2 Minor Season 2. At the moment the roster have enough problems in game and the players are unlikely to win, especially if we pay attention to the fact that they were not lucky enough to get in their group and the chance to move to the lower bracket after the group stage is rather high.

TNC Predator, Gambit Esports, Royal Never Give Up and Fnatic

The roster TNC Predator show a good level of game but only at the championships which are not included in the rating system. At Majors and Minors the guys perform not in the best way or even can’t overcome qualifiers for them. Now the players have an improvement and at the knockouts they didn’t find anyone equal to them. Taking into account that TNC got to death group, they can start their way to the playoff with the lower bracket and not even passing to Ten Best.

Fnatic started to play worse as soon as they have provided themselves with getting to The International 2019. At the last major the team got placed on the last position being unable to win any map at the event.

Meanwhile, it is the first time Royal Never Give Up have got to the major tournament and faith in them is tiny as at the Minors StarLadder ImbaTV Dota 2 Minor Season 1 and OGA Dota PIT Minor 2019 they stopped at the last positions.

The second team of this group which could show their best side is Gambit Esports. Fng and the team have been showing a great game level recently and they got to the event thanks to victory at the qualifiers for the CIS where they outdid Virtus.Pro, and at the ESL One Birmingham 2019 they guys managed to pass to Four Best. By the way, this roster have to take the 7-8 position at EPICENTER Major 2019 to get a direct invitation to The International 2019 which is quite possible to do, especially being supported by their native tribunes.

Alliance, Forward Gaming, paiN Gaming and Infamous

Alliance, Forward Gaming, paiN Gaming and Infamous came to the competition being outsiders and it is not an accident as their recent results could be much better. Only Alliance win online tournament regularly and recently they have made it to the final of the Minor.

Infamous is considered to be a weak team according to the sportsbooks, the odds of their win equal 125. Biver and the team didn’t show absolutely any good results like Team Spirit or Infamous. After the series of failures, HesteJoe-Rotten and Black^ joined the team and after that the players started to look competitive but only for the South American region where they perform.