Preview of WePlay! Bukovel Minor 2020

About tournament

WePlay! Bukovel Minor 2020 will start on 9 January and end up on 12 January. The venus is Bukovel, the Ukrainian ski resort. Eight participants will gather there to share the common prize pool of $300,000 and 660 Dota Pro Circuit points. The winner will get the main prize that includes $72,000, 140 Dota Pro Circuit points and an invitation to DreamLeague Season 13: The Leipzig Major.

The competition will start with the group stage where the participants are going to be divided into two groups with four teams in each. The group stage will be held by the GSL system, and two best representatives of each of the quartets will enjoy a trip to the playoff with the double-elimination bracket. All the matches of the tournament apart from the grand final are going to be held in the Bo3 format. The final meeting will be going on in the series up to three wins.

WePlay! Bukovel Minor 2020 is the first major tournament after the winter holiday season, so the results may be not as predictable as it might seem at first glimpse.

Group A

Royal Never Give Up (position in the DPC 2019/2020 rating — 27)
Tournament win odds: 7.00

RNG representatives, who have recently changed the tag into Kappa.RNG DOTA 2 due to the partnership with Kappa, are ones of the favourites of winning the upcoming tournament according to the experts from sportsbook companies. We think that these guys should not be underestimated as they can show a beautiful performance. They made it to the championship through the Chinese qualifier where they destroyed all their opponents. The final of the elimination round ended up with a 3-0 victory for Setsu and his teammates. On 15 December, they finished participating in a pretty small tournament called Yabo Supreme Cup, where they took second place and got a monetary reward of ~$14,344. Despite the fact that the tournament was minor, the players treated it responsibly and became silver finalists. That is why we think that the Chinese are to show their best at such an important championship as WePlay! Bukovel Minor 2020. In Group A, they are the main favorites and we think that they will enter Top Three, perhaps Top Two.

Ninjas in Pyjamas (position in the DPC 2019/2020 rating — 21)
Tournament win odds: 10.0

Ninjas in Pyjamas along with RNG are considered to be one of the favorites in their group and there is a good reason for this. Despite the fact that NiP’s results are not so great, the team was assembled with great well-experienced players and, in contrast to, for example, Team Spirit, this roster looks more considerable than the CIS team. To avoid stagnation, the team decided to have a change in the roster. Now, instead of oliver who left the team, we can see Jason ‘TANNER’ Connor Weedon. The replacement took place after the team had got qualified for the minor. Due to this reason, we are not absolutely sure that the Europeans are able to make it to the playoff and get to Best Four at WePlay! Bukovel Minor 2020.

Geek Fam (position in the DPC 2019/2020 rating — 21
Tournament win odds: 21.0

In spite of the fact that the Geek Fam roster is represented by famous players like Kuku, Dubu, and Raven, they cannot find the necessary singularity with each other to play as they are supposed to. The last tournament they participated in was DOTA Summit 11 that got over at the beginning of November last year. There the team took 5-6 place and achieved the same result at the qualifier for DreamLeague Season 13: The Leipzig Major. At the elimination round of the second minor of the current Dota Pro Circuit season, Geek Fam managed to show a great game and defeated all their opponents losing no map. Taking into account the mentioned facts, we think that Geek Fam can surprise spectators and make it out of the group and win 3-4 place at the tournament bracket of WePlay! Bukovel Minor 2020.

Team Spirit (position in the DPC 2019/2020 rating — 13)
Tournament win odds: 25.0

Team Spirit is not the strongest team so the players can be considered to be outsiders in Group A. The team was one step away from passing to the second major, losing against the players from NAVI at the decisive battle but succeeded at the elimination round of WePlay! Bukovel Minor 2020. At the recently completed Chinese LAN tournament, Yabo Supreme Cup 2019, the team lost and took 7-8 place. Taking into account the fact that eight not famous rosters took place in the competition, this result must be considered as disappointing. Ten days after the end of the championship, Spirit made a replacement in their roster. As a result, Andrey ‘Ghostik’ Kadyk left the team and his place was taken by Aleksey ‘nongrata’ Vasiliev temporarily. The situation in Team Spirit is rather unstable and that is why we think that Spirit is going to be the first to end up their participation in WePlay! Bukovel Minor 2020. According to sportsbook companies, they are outsiders of the tournament as well as FURIA Esports, and they are the main underdogs in their group.

Group B

Nigma (position in the DPC 2019/2020 rating — 30)
Tournament win odds: 1.72

Kuro Takhasomi’s team is the main favorite both in Group B and the championship itself. Until recently, KuroKy was considered to be the richest esportsman, and after the end of The International 9, which resulted in second place for the player, the player decided to leave Team Liquid and to found his own brand. Nigma failed the qualifiers for the Major tournament and now they have to play at the minor. The Europeans are considered to be the most titled and experienced contenders to win the tournament. These considerations set the odds of the victory at WePlay! Bukovel Minor 2020 as 1.72 and we totally agree with it. Nigma players are to make it to the playoff and to the final as well to fight for an invitation to DreamLeague Season 13: The Leipzig Major.

Gambit Esports (position in the DPC 2019/2020 rating — 13)
Tournament win odds: 5.00

In 2019, Gambit Esports made drastic changes in the roster and now the players’ results are much better. At ONE Esports Dota 2 World Pro Invitational Singapore, which ended up on 22 December, the team took third place. Taking into account the mix of famous participants of this tournament, this result is quite acceptable. Gambit took fourth place at the elimination round of the Major tournament, but as for the qualifiers for the minor, they took first place. According to the sportsbook companies, Gambit is the second team after Nigma that is likely to win the championship and the odds of their triumph equals 5. We agree with this idea and think that Gambit is pretty able to pass to the playoff and grand final and to fight for the invitation to DreamLeague Season 13.

Fighting PandaS (position in the DPC 2019/2020 rating — 12)
Tournament win odds: 10.0

The last event Fighting PandaS was participating in was WESG 2019 North America Finals that ended up on 8 December. Since then, EternaLEnVy and his teammates have not been seen anywhere. After such a long break, the esporstmen can face some difficulties with the game at WePlay! Bukovel Minor 2020. We should add that Jacky Mao’s got a hot temper that can lead the team to a loss even at the group stage. We suppose that Fighting PandaS will take 5-6 place in the tournament bracket in the best of the cases.

FURIA Esports (position in the DPC 2019/2020 rating — 27)
Tournament win odds: 44.0

FURIA Esports is the main outsider of the competition. The Brazilians apart from Duster do not have sufficient experience in participation in the championships of the scale. Four of the players have earned less than $1,000 of prize money. After the end of the tournament, the esportsmen will be able to multiply the sum of the earned money but the likelihood is rather small. If we add the jetlag factor after their flight from Brazil to the lack of experience, you can stop being sure that the team can make it to the playoff.