Who will win Virtus Pro

February 1 starts Parimatch Dota 2 League Season 2where players Virtus.pro to defend the title of reigning champions. In the second season, the league prize pool grew to $ 100 thousand, and the competition became even tougher. Cybersport.ru talks about eight participants in the tournament and evaluates their chances of winning the Moscow LAN finals.

Virtus.pro comes for a second victory

Rearrangements in the compositions after The international 2019 led to the fact that competition on stage in the CIS has increased significantly. For the first time in a long time, Virtus.pro had serious opponents in the region, and now its hegemony in the qualifications for Dota Pro Circuit tournaments is a big question.

There have been no official announcements yet, but judging by numerous insiders, the composition of the VP may change. Evidence of this, albeit indirect, is the latest games of Vladimir No[o]ne Minenko in matchmaking – he spends almost all fights on Kerry. Despite the fact that the final composition of Virtus.pro is still unknown, it is unlikely that the team will be replaced by more than two players – the main backbone will remain the same. How everything will turn out in practice remains to be seen. But the scenario in which Virtus.pro suddenly begins to lose to many teams from the CIS is very difficult to imagine.

Even taking into account possible replacements, VP still remains the unconditional favorite of the second season of the Parimatch League. In the first Virtus.pro actually had no competitors – not even in the best conditions, she managed to win the champion title. Moreover, for the entire tournament (and this is seven series of the best-of-3 format in the group stage and three matches in the playoffs) she lost only two cards. None of her opponents can boast the same almost flawless result.

The result of the last major showed that the team had enough problems, it did not pass an international check. If a team expects to achieve its ultimate goal, it should not have any difficulties in this tournament. Even if in the group stage the team will make mistakes and lose points, he simply must pass on the LAN. Due to the vast experience of speaking at LAN tournaments, VP will have the most chances to win the second trophy from Parimatch.

Who else to expect at the LAN finals?

Four teams will come to the Parimatch Dota 2 League Season 2 LAN finals. And the main intrigue of the group stage will be the struggle for the three remaining trips to Moscow. Considering how much competition there is in the CIS, almost all the participants will qualify for them, but nevertheless some teams from the distance showed themselves better, and it is them that we will most likely see in the playoffs.

First of all, we are talking about Team spirit. Unlike other members of the Parimatch League, this team was able to break into the minor and win one meeting there against Ninjas in pajamas. It was the only tournament where the team performed in a new lineup with Alexei Nongrata Vasiliev, but, as in the case of VP, Spirit had the same backbone, which in the first season beat everyone in the group stage, except Virtus.pro, and before that passed the qualification for MDL Chengdu Major.

On-line, especially against opponents from the CIS, Spirit performs quite stably, which, among other things, proved the results of qualifiers for DreamLeague Leipzig Major and WePlay! Bukovel Minor 2023. To get to the Parimatch League Season 2 LAN finals, Michael’s team Misha Agatov does not need any extra effort – just show your current level. But in Moscow it will already be much more complicated. And this applies not only to the struggle for the title, but also for a place above the fourth.

The second main applicant for a trip to Moscow is FlyToMoon. Despite a poor performance in the first season of the Parimatch League, the team got in good shape and won the last online tournaments – qualifications for WESG 2019 for the CIS and Maincast Winter Brawl. The backbone of the team has been playing together for a long time, and a change of Kerry is unlikely to significantly weaken the team. FlyToMoon only has to catch the right attitude to outperform other opponents who are mired in regular rehasls or who are part of newcomer-pabers who need time to master at the pro-level.

The most difficult thing is to predict who will get the fourth quota for the Parimatch League Season 2 LAN finals. The fact is that other participants have recently shown extremely unstable results. Among them it is worth highlighting Winstrike team – a composition that is under the wing of a large organization, but which has not yet had the opportunity to prove itself. Recently, he spoke only on qualifications for the last major, and after 7-8 places in the team, replacements followed. By name, the team looks preferable to other competitors, we will see Winstrike in action on February 1 – it is she who will open the tournament with a match against Team Spirit.

The task is to save the slot in the Parimatch League

Among the participants there are teams that will be very difficult in the group stage. As we have already said, many of them are quite capable of getting into the top 4 following the results of the group stage if one of the rosters listed above makes a mistake. But taking into account the latest results and reshuffles, in the end they will fight not for the quota for the LAN finals, but for maintaining a place in the league for the third season.

First season playoffs jfshfh178 and Hellraisers strongly surrendered in the last couple of months. At first, HR put together a promising lineup on paper, but in the end drowned in endless rehafles – there were too many of them for a team that claims to be successful. Gleb’s invitation Funn1k Lipatnikov looks more like an extreme measure than an informed choice, because he, having a solid store of experience, has not shown any meaningful results for a long time. The same goes for jfshfh178. The team gradually took shape and even won prizes in small tournaments … until it changed the offline player. Instead Vladislav Petushara Kozlovsky came to the team Vladimir Chappie Kuzmenkowho in October 2019 announced his departure from the competitive scene. And now he’s back again, and took not Kerry’s profile position, but offline, which requires special skills and great experience from the player. This led to the fact that jfshfh178 lost its form and began to yield not only to the teams played, but also to the usual mixes.

Concerning Modus unity and forZe, then they may simply not have enough experience. The backbone of Modus was formed in March 2019 and step by step rose from semi-professional competitions to small online tournaments. Over a long distance, the composition definitely has progress, but not so fast that the team can now compete with VP, Spirit or FlyToMoon. Modus Unity is the same “dark horse” from which no one knows what to expect. At any time, his players can catch the courage and deprive the favorites of the points, because the burden of responsibility for the result does not press on them. But even if this does not happen, Modus Unity will be enough to get into the top 6 and save the slot on the Parimatch League to record the tournament as an asset.

Nothing concrete can be said about the composition of forZe. It lists players with already known potential (Stanislav 633 Glushan and Ivan VANSKOR Skorohod), Eugene Chuvash Makarov, which can also be called promising, and two newcomers to the scene – Alexander Gibkiy Tkachenko and Egor 19teen Lexyutin. ForZe resorted to the very formula of a fusion of youth and experience, which sometimes gives results, but does not guarantee success. Despite the fact that the team won the last online tournament (OMG Cup), the rivals there were significantly weaker than at the Parimatch League. If suddenly forZe manages to break into the LAN finals, for her it will be a great result. But in practice it will be much more difficult than it seems at first glance, because for this you will have to beat several teams at once with much more experienced, titled and trained performers.