Review of MDL Chengdu Major 2019

Recently the first major of season 2019/2020 happening in China has got over. Sixteen teams from six main Dota 2 regions took part in the competition. TNC Predator representatives became the winners having beaten Vici Gaming 3:1 at the final. We will remind you how the championship was taking place and which teams made either pleasant or disappointing surprises.

Teams that managed to surprise:

Invictus Gaming, J.Storm, Fighting PandaS, TNC Predator, Team Liquid

We can see five participants among those teams that managed to surprise. There are also the champions of the event TNC Predator on the list. The Philippine roster approached MDL Chengdu Major 2019 as one of the favorites according to the sportsbooks and the players themselves, but TIMS and his teammates showed us a great series and lost only one match at the event. As a result, the guys deserved to raise the cup over their heads and they must have provided themselves with a trip to The International 2020.

Team Liquid and J.Storm also belong to the list as they could not show anything good at the beginning of the season at the rating events. This pushed us to think that their shape is bad. The rosters had prepared for the Major and played on a different level which resulted in their presence in Eight Best.

We should especially mark Fighting PandaS, as, despite the fact that they took 9-12 position, in the end of the event they made it to the upper part of the bracket and the worthy fight at the playoff stage is not something you have been expecting from EterNalEnvy lately.

Another surprising team is Invictus Gaming that made it to MDL Chengdu Major 2019 thanks to their win at the minor DOTA Summit 11. Kaka and the team were playing by the strategies they had already used, however they performed it so fantastically that the other roster had nothing to oppose to them. As a result, IG made it to Three Best and beat Evil Geniuses at the fight for the third position.

Teams that managed to disappoint:

Aster, Fnatic, Spirit, Gambit, Evil Geniuses

Representatives of Team Aster and Fnatic have pretty good rosters and they showed themselves well during the previous season. The teams managed to earn themselves a place at the LAN finals thanks to their unstable game at the qualifiers, however, we should not take it into account as the substitutes had their role in it. Both rosters came to the event being poorly prepared and managed to win only one Bo1 game at the playoff each.

Evil Geniuses could not be related to the category as the fourth position at the major after their reshuffle is not so bad, however, the guys had been expected to show more. The new roster with ramzes666 looked pretty ordinary at the tournament and the players themselves admitted that they hadn't had any bootcamp before the event and had played together only for two weeks. Therefore they climbed up to the fourth place only thanks to their individual performance. Despite all these facts, the majority of sportsbooks and fans thought that Evil Geniuses were the main contender for victory and the loss from Invictus Gaming and the final fourth place is not a good result from such a team. Additionally, all the top teams skipped the first major.

We should also pay special attention to the CIS representatives that were not able to win any match at the tournament. Both Team Spirit and Gambit Esports failed and while it was possible to expect something like that from “dragons” as they hadn't played at major events together, Gambit's loss was painful for all fans. And it appears to be even more unpleasant when we see the recent second position for Fng and his team at ESL One Hamburg 2019.

Teams that performed on their level:

Vici Gaming, Alliance, Beastcoast, EHOME, Team Unknown, Adroit

All the other participants performed as it had been expected - Vici Gaming made it to the grand final after only one change, Alliance and Beastcoast got placed on the 7-8 position, while Team Unknown and Adroit were not able to win any meeting and became the first to leave the event. We should mark that Team Unknown and Adroit got a huge experience in performing at LAN tournaments and they can show themselves. The global patch can only contribute to the change of powers on the professional stage.