In Europe, Asia and the CIS, qualifiers for ESL One Los Angeles 2023 according to Dota 2.

In Europe, Asia and the CIS, qualifiers for ESL One Los Angeles 2023 according to Dota 2. This qualification has become perhaps the most interesting and significant among all that happened this season: the next major will become the equator of the competition year, and therefore its results will be decisive in the distribution of slots on The international 2023. About all the surprises and, conversely, the natural results, read our material.

Natus Vincere – playwright’s dream

Pass Natus vincere on major – the most melodramatic story of the month. The team lost its captain a week before the start of the qualification, at the last moment signed the forgotten by all CeMaTheSlayeR, but managed to overcome all difficulties, won the qualifiers and beat the principal opponent. To Cinderella with The international 2018 this picture is still far away, but who knows – perhaps the plot of Natus Vincere is just beginning!

The team sluggishly began the qualifiers, tied with Hellraisers and EXTREMUM – compositions that seemed to be outsiders of the group. However, on the second day, NAVI became noticeably more confident, although they did not depart from their comfortable peaks. Natus Vincere often takes Puck, which in their game model can take both third and second positions, and use Snapfire and Nyx Assassin as support “two imba heroes” of the patch, which, however, are also highly appreciated by other teams. Another team tried to play with Underlord on the center line, but we all better forget about this experiment as soon as possible.

The most interesting thing in NAVI is how quickly the team began to progress along the course of qualification. On the first day, the roster could not cope with HellRaisers, but in the playoffs it literally smeared the same opponent on the map. If you close your eyes to the strange first map of the match against Cyber ​​legacy, wherein MagicaL Since Divine Rapier chose to hunt for the useless Batrider instead of the real core heroes of the opponent, the NAVI in the end of the qualifiers really seemed a good team.

With leaving Zayac the team lost not only the leader, but also the bright “four”, which could knock the opponent out of the comfort zone. I was skeptical about the prospects of the roster with CeMaTheSlayeR, but the player managed to close the gap in the position of captain, and also steadily performed on metal support. Yes, NAVI can no longer play with Techies and Doom, but maybe this loss is not so great? However, it is hardly worth raising expectations now – the overall level of qualifiers in the CIS this time turned out to be so low that the success of NAVI can be very short-term.

Virtus.pro on the road to success

results Virtus.pro Based on the results of the qualifiers, it is very difficult to evaluate. On the one hand, the roster without defeats went through the group stage, and then still managed to earn a slot on ESL One Los Angeles. On the other hand, in the final matches, the team did not look that strong that it was able to compete for any results in the major. Yes, VP defeated Cyber ​​Legacy and HellRaisers, but did it rather in a bitter struggle, demonstrating all the same problems with the drafts and the third position that we discussed earlier.

Bright spots in Virtus.pro a new sample were Zayac and Cooman – In terms of selection for the club, there can be no questions. Freed from the duties of captain, Emilzhanov showed himself perfectly in the new club. He was consistently useful and completely did not fall out of the game, as he had previously done. Save- in important matches. But still, Cooman, as in copy paste, was out of competition.

The player did not make incredible highlights, but he performed his direct duties well – first farm, and then kill opponents. When Shakhmurzaev was ready for the fight, his teammates created all the conditions for him, and he methodically cut them all – according to this formula, Cooman did two raps for the qualifiers. In general, there is not even anyone close at present – except that one guy from the stock Gambit esports.

VP is still an obvious problem. Resolut1onwho can’t enter the role of an offline player. According to the pool of heroes, Fominok is already behind Midonewho two days ago held his first official match on a difficult line, and according to the model of the game reminds s4but no sample Alliance and Ograther later Evil geniuses. what Solo will do with it – is unclear. The club has more than a month before the major, and Resolut1on still has a credit of trust. However, he first moved to the “troika” six months ago – and even if he cannot find himself in the new role by the third major, the club will have to think carefully about whether to continue this experiment.

Daxak and Lil in the Eurotour

Transition Daxak in Ninjas in pajamas caused a mixed reaction in the community. On the one hand, Kuzmina really wanted to praise for courage, on the other – sorry, because the roster ppd This season he played absolutely disgusting. The team performed at WePlay! Bukovel Minor 2023where I could not win a single card from Team spirit, but before that I didn’t leave the group at DOTA Summit 11where lost jfshfh178 with a total score of 0: 4.

After such failures, Daguerre decided on a radical change in the composition, replanting UNiVeRsE to the Quartet and signing Daxak and Lelis. Perhaps the Russian looked like a good upgrade to the first position compared to Gunnar, but all the other ppd solutions raised big questions. However, at the distance of the European qualifiers, it suddenly worked: the team was able to get into the playoffs, where they lost without a chance Team secretbut in the decisive match hit Agressive mode and very confidently broke the stack of Leela.

I would prefer to attribute this phenomenon to the magic of ppd, which for a couple of years has been helping me explain the results of Daguerre on the professional stage. In 2018, he almost defeated Virtus.pro on TI8, playing with Pajkatt, and the next season managed to reach TI9, having put together a roster with Fata and Ace. In the first half of the 2019/2020 season, the performance of his new squad finally began to meet my expectations, but now ppd again began to climb to the top – let alone tier-2 scenes. No matter how illogical this may be, I can only rejoice that Daxak was able to forget about the failure with Gambit and again return to the big “Dota”.

It is also necessary to note here Leela, who really stopped broadcasting on Twitter and allowed his game to speak for him. A week earlier, everyone was discussing that the Europeans didn’t get enough tournament slots: for the three trips to the major, six strongest teams had to fight at once: Team Secret, OG, Nigma, Alliance, Team liquid and (well, let’s say) Og seed. As a result, only the first two rosters from the list got places at the championship in Los Angeles, and bypassed the rest Lil – with a stack that gathered literally the day before the qualifiers. Suppose that in the final match Aggressive Mode could not surprise ppd with her style approach Ad finem, I find it hard not to be glad about the results of Ilyuk – he really can be proud of his game.

All the same OG, but the brand new SumaiL

Two-time TI champions promised to rest and start the season with the third major, but they concealed from everyone that only two players from the previous roster would return to the scene – n0tail and Topson. All past attempts to replace at least one screw in the OG system ended in failure: at first Pajkatt did not cope with responsibility, then iLTW “Was not ready” for such pressure. However, this time the team seems to have found an old diary Puppy and tried to put together a truly stellar roster – with one of the best supports in the MMR table Saksa, four-time finalist of MidOne majors and the self-proclaimed king of Dota 2 Sumail.

I did not dare to expect the same results from the roster in which three players changed at once. And that was my big mistake. The updated OG continued to play in the style of the previous roster – without looking at the nicknames it was even hard to believe that Ceb was no longer on the complex line. MidOne surprisingly quickly mastered the new role. He himself is still very critical watching to his performances, however, reddit has already filled the highlights of his debut on Dark Seer, and that says something!

The former Team Secret mid-leader was famous for his adaptation skills before OG: when he needed to, he farm, and when not, he fought with only a boot in his inventory. It seemed to me to the end that if MidOne changed its role, it would play in the Quartet, but it turned out that in the third position it could be frighteningly effective. Resolut1on can already envy a comfortable pool of heroes Yek Naya: in five matches, the Malaysian managed to play on Slardar, Dark Seer, Bounty Hunter, Omniknight, Enchantress, Sand King, Beastmaster and Kunkka, showing each a very different playlist.

However, much more amazing metamorphoses occurred with SumaiL on the light line. The best player in the history of Dota 2 (as he himself tweeted), who by the age of twenty managed to become a veteran of the professional scene, from a selfish and greedy mid-player in OG suddenly turned into a caring teammate, always ready for sacrifices for the team. The most significant moment for me happened on the first map of the match against Alliance, where SumaiL played on Specter – a hero who really needs artifacts more expensive. At the 20th minute, he died in a fight, but then, seeing that he had n0tail and MidOne trapped, he bought himself and returned to battle, putting himself and his farm under attack. So I was always ready to do ana, but it was hard to expect such victims from SumaiL. It looks like chatting with n0tail and Ceb really influenced the player.

It’s very difficult to talk about Saksa, because he was also very good, but he had to replace JerAx – perhaps the best “four” in Dota 2. The Macedonian did not throw opponents into creeps for the sake of a joke and certainly was not such a threat to the enemy midliners as his predecessor, but he was useful – and this was more than enough for a confident passage to the major. The team has yet to face the main threat – Team Secret – however, all other clubs after such a performance will be with great fears to wait for a meeting with the new OG.

Team Secret – with a slot and no surprises

“Team Secret is the best team in the world at the moment, and all she does is just left level,” said Lil after meeting with the Puppey team. And to argue with him is very difficult. All OG matches were spectacular and vivid, but it is hardly worth taking as a measure of success – Team Secret looked much worse than it, which only allowed one out of ten on opponents to keep the throne safe for more than 35 minutes.

The strongest roster of the previous season (outside The International) did not slow down in the new one either. After winning at DreamLeague Leipzig Major the team almost guaranteed itself a slot on the TI10, but this did not stop her from playing at full strength in these qualifiers.

Puppey showed a wide range of strategies: MATUMBAMAN and Nisha for ten cards they played on nine and eight different heroes, respectively, and at the same time reminded all rivals that they could perform closing kings on the kings – Broodmother and Meepo. Like OG, Team Secret has yet to meet with really serious opponents, but … the previous major showed that there are hardly any such people on the professional stage today.

ESL One Los Angeles 2023 will be held in America March 15-22. From other regions passed on it Fnatic, Geek fam and Team adroit. The last qualifiers will be held in China – they can be watched on February 14-17. Qualification grids are available here.