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Dota 2The EPIC League started one month ago with its group stage among ten Dota 2 esports teams. Over that period, several teams stood out to secure top seeds, while others seemed lost in their journey to become Europe’s strongest. Nevertheless, the group stage concluded with uncertainty as multiple teams saw similar ratings on the scoreboard.
Image credit to Epicenter.
EPIC League Group Stage
It’s usually a tell-tale sign of a blooming region when several prominent teams struggle to gain leverage over their opponents. Hence, the lack of power gap among the participants led to a nail-biting four-way tiebreaker to determine who gets the remaining upper bracket spot. Initially, OG Esports held onto the upper bracket spot as they had the highest total score. However, in terms of overall win-loss ratings, four teams had a similar account of five wins and four losses.
OG, whose scores were supposedly better, flopped their best-of-one matches versus Nigma and Team Liquid. With the double losses, OG lost their privilege as an upper bracket team. Whereas, Team Secret, who didn’t stand out very much during the group stage, managed to secure quick victories in the volatile best-of-one matches.
With the tides turned, Team Secret somehow concluded the EPIC League group stage with a respectable finish and a ticket to the upper bracket, thanks to the tiebreaker.
FINAL GROUP STAGE STANDINGS! ?#EPICLeague pic.twitter.com/M9kB7Xa8uB
— EPICENTER (@epicentergg) December 6, 2020
CIS Teams Uprising
It’s been a while since the Commonwealth of Independent States community last had a decent team to be proud of. Ever since Virtus.pro had their post-International 2019 roster shuffle, performance has gone downhill. It wasn’t even an exaggeration to state that Virtus.pro’s era as Dota 2 kings ended.
Regardless, Virtus.pro still invested in a sister team, VP.Prodigy. As the name suggests, VP.Prodigy turned out to be a bigger success than its parent squad. Earlier last month, Virtus.pro finally decided to debut the line-up of prodigies as their main official roster at the EPIC League, and they certainly live up to the organization’s legacy.
Dota 2 Esports
New Dota 2 esports team Just Error, featuring ex-Evil Geniuses player Roman “Ramzes” Kushnarev, found a spot for the EPIC League run. Unfortunately, despite having renowned players like Syed Sumail “SumaiL” Hassan on their side, they still performed terribly. Although they came out on top during the three-way tiebreaker versus Alliance and Mudgolems, they eventually lost to Yellow Submarines from Division 2 of EPIC League. Among the four lower bracket teams, only Just Error lost their spot to Yellow Submarines in the play-in games.
Yellow Submarines must be rather pleased with their victory. This is sweet revenge for the team after losing the second-place match versus Just Error earlier last month. Just Error was shadily registered and announced as the finalist of the second-place finals despite their absence during the entire qualifiers.
As the Dota 2 Pro Circuit 2021 creeps closer, esports teams from various regions are already shaping up a vibrant local scene. Europe and CIS are definitely not the only regions raking up a storm. Chinese teams have been phenomenal recently, especially after recent roster changes. The conclusion of Epicenter’s Dota 2 EPIC League group stage and playoffs will help determine the best teams around.
Written by Marcus Wong
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