Preview of ONE Esports Dota 2 World Pro Invitational Singapore
Anton PashencevGeneral information
The ONE Esports Dota 2 World Pro Invitational Singapore tournament will be held on 17-22 December in Singapore. Twelve participants will share the prize pool of $500,000, however, the championship is not included in the DPC rating system.
Importance of the championship
This event is not the most important on the professional Dota 2 stage, as it is not included in the Dota Pro Circuit system. Also at ONE Esports Dota 2 World Pro Invitational Singapore, many top teams will be playing for the first time after vacation and they are not to show their best shape but they are likely to test their strategies before the upcoming DreamLeague Season 13: The Leipzig Major 2020.
Participants
In total, twelve teams will be performing in the competition and each of them got a direct invitation from the organizers. Regional qualifiers were not provided.
Holding format
All the participants were divided into two groups where they will be playing by the Round Robin system with matches in the bo2 format. Four best teams from each group will make it to the playoff - two strongest teams will start their way from the upper bracket and the teams placed on the 3-4 position will set off from the lower bracket.
Tems’ division into groups:
Group А Alliance | Group В Evil Geniuses |
In the playoff, we are to see the double-elimination bracket with matches up to two teams. Only the grand final will be played by the bo5 format.
Teams’ chances
Favorites of the tournament
TNC Predator, Vici Gaming, Evil Genisues
The teams TNC Predator and Vici Gaming are approaching the championship as the main favorites as recently they have played in the final of MDL Chengdu Major. Both teams also provided themselves with slots at the upcoming majors and they were unlikely to lose their shape. In comparison with the other grands who have not played at any LAN this year, the guys have an advantage.
The Evil Geniuses team consists of very strong individual players and must be one of the best in the world, however, after RAMZES666 was signed, the players have not reached their best shape yet. At the last major they guys got placed on the fourth position and their level was far from optimal. Probably, the team made a definite conclusion and at ONE Esports Dota 2 World Pro Invitational Singapore, we will see a stronger version of Evil Genisues.
Outsiders of the tournament
Natus Vincere, Gambit Esports, J.Storm, Team Aster
The CIS teams Natus Vincere and Gambit Esports look not very confident now. Natus VIncere representatives passed the qualifiers for the first major and right after that, they said goodbye to their captain and in-game leader, SonneikO, who was replaced by ilias. This player has very little experience in performing on the professional stage.
As for Gambit Esports, we can say that the players have just lost their shape and failed to adapt to the patch. At ESL One Hamburg, the team made it to the grand final and at the next major, the team got placed on the last position having lost all the matches. The qualifiers for DreamLeague Season 13 also were lost by Fng and the team. So, we can see Gambit only at the minor.
Team Aster has already made it to the major tournaments twice, however, at the first one, the players were not able to show their best side - Sccc and the team took the 9-12 place being defeated by Alliance in the lower bracket.
J.Storm, after the release of the global patch, got weaker and it could be easily noticed. They even were not able to make it to the minor. The team will miss the second rating tournament while they managed to reach the 5-6 positions at the first one. Due to the absence of the championships in January, the team will work hard and try to show only it's best side but the recent results are not a coincidence and they are not worth getting to Six Best.
Other participants
Virtus.Pro, Team Liquid, Alliance, PSG.LGD
Represented of Team Liquid and Alliance have mixed results and they can cause many troubles to the favorites, especially if we take into account the shape of the latter. However, we should not expect the win from them as during the last few months of the 2019/2020 season the players were not able to raise any cup at the tournaments with the prize pool of more than $300,000.
Team Secret performed very well last season and had only one replacement, however, the guys haven't played at LAN tournaments this year and they are unlikely to shower their real level of the game. By the way, Secret have come to the tournament with one substitute - MidOne is going to perform instead of YapZor and it is unknown how the guys will be able to get their roles in the team.
Meanwhile, PSG.LGD was the most stable team during the 2019/2020 season, however, in this gaming season they failed the qualifiers for the second Major in a raw and did not get even to the closed qualifiers. The last result of Fy and the team is the win of the Chinese elimination rounds for WESG 2019, where they beat Invictus Gaming at the grand final which proves their forthcoming return to the good shape but now it is too early to be discussed.
The last participant of the event is Virtus.Pro, who, in our opinion, are going to take the role of a dark horse. The team showed good results at ESL One Hamburg 2019, and there they demonstrated that they hadn't achieved good teamwork yet. At the qualifier for the upcoming major, the team won the first place in the CIS easily.