March 5 starts StarLadder ImbaTV Dota 2 Minor Season 3 – The third major of the Dota Pro Circuit 2019/2020 season. Our region will be represented by two teams – Gambit esports and forZe, and it seems that this time the team of Artem Fng Barshak really has a chance to reach the finals and compete for the quota for the major. However, there are more obvious favorites at the tournament. Our expectations from the upcoming Minor are in the material.
It looks like not the last gpk gpK ~
“It is not clear what to expect from the team” is a common cliche in all sports previews. Usually they say this if the team under discussion showed an unstable game in the qualifying stage or, for example, had not participated in professional matches for a long time and received an invite in advance. But with regards to Gambit, I want to say just that – and it is justified.
In February, the team lost its main striking force – midliner Danil gpK ~ Skutin, who so wanted to leave for Virtus.pro, that as a result, he sat down on the bench and risked being left without a professional Dota until the end of the year. Took his place Rostislav fn Lozova – The most mysterious player in the Dota 2 scene in the CIS. For two years now, Lozovoy has been looking for a worthy team, but so far he has only found positions of stand Virtus.pro and gambit. So it happened this time too – fn came to the rescue of Fng again and helped him get to the major, but he wasn’t needed any further, since gpK ~ came to the following conclusions:
“I thought a lot when I was at home. I thought all the qualifications and came to the conclusion that it is better to stay. <…> I thought that I don’t really want to leave. I decided to apologize to the guys and return. I think we have a good chance of joining The International this season. ”
Even bookmakers do not seem to understand what this means for Gambit: according to analysts at Parimatch, the team is the fourth in the list of applicants for the title, but still the coefficient for it (9.00) is half as low as forZe (17.00) or Fighting PandaS (19.00 ) The situation is twofold: on the one hand, a conflict occurred in the composition, which clearly does not contribute to unity and teamwork. On the other hand, Fng had enough time before the tournament to revise the Gambit game model and possibly find a way to fit gpK ~ and dream` on the map without sacrificing the farm of the latter.
On the WePlay! Bukovel Minor 2023 the team clearly relied on the star midliner: so much so that even kerry sometimes flew to save him from the ganks (often only to immediately go to the tavern). And if against weaker teams gpK ~ really could drag matches alone, then with Geek fam and Royal Never Give Up such a model did not work – they just started hunting for dream ‘ and easily turned it out of the game.
One star player, no matter how mechanically gifted he is, is not enough to win in rating tournaments – Arthur Arteezy Babaev and Amer Miracle- Al-Barkawi easy to confirm. However, their examples also confirm that even the most greedy carry can act in the interests of the team. In case of defeat, Gambit fans will have a convenient set of excuses – they didn’t have time to play, gpK ~ was not motivated, the players are in tilt … But if the team overcomes these difficulties and finally comes out in full force, this can return to us the Gambit that we saw in the final ESL One Hamburg 2019.
Unsinkable VANSKOR back in the game
ForZe is already the fourth team not from the “Big Three” of the CIS, which this season got to the ranking tournament, but this can hardly be added to the plus of the region. For all previous teams (jfshfh178, Hellraisers and Team spirit) the fact of speaking on minors and majors has remained their main achievement. I want to believe that Ivan VANSKOR Skorohod and his team will be able to break this vicious circle and grow to the mythical status of “Tier-1.5,” but the prerequisites for this are still difficult to find.
When forZe went on StarLadder Minor S3, opinions were divided. The best position of the audience is described in the picture below.
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VANSKOR in an interview with Cybersport.ru said that in our region there is very high competition. His words generally confirm the results of the qualifiers: forZe won the slot on the minor, making a comeback from the score 0: 2. But this is the problem: the competitive level in the CIS, apparently, is somewhat lower than in other regions. And no matter how dense the struggle in our qualifiers, the survivors of it are not able to oppose something to the other participants of the minors.
Immediately after qualifying, forZe lost to HellRaisers, Agressive mode and Winstrike team (true, then Virtus.pro defeated). According to VANSKOR, this was connected with a number of problems: e-sportsmen restored their sleep patterns, played insufficiently focused, didn’t do the best drafting … Agree, we heard the same words from other teams when they suddenly started to lose. Perhaps this is all a coincidence and forZe can really prove itself in the international arena – I will be sincerely happy for the team. But while I hardly understand why the quotes of bookmakers put forZe above the last place.
Coronavirus postponed restructuring Team Aster
Team aster – the only team from China in the tournament, and this alone, it seems, should inspire fear in the opponents, because in the finals of the two previous minors there were also rosters from this region. We have to admit the obvious: while the Chinese shooting gallery-1 scene is recovering after The international 2019The Tier 2 scene feels great.
The third qualifying season of the DPC came out for Team Aster the most unsuccessful. For the first time, the team had to be content with a major – she was knocked out of qualification for ESL One Los Angeles Ehome. But then Aster ran into Newbee and destroyed the opponent with a score of 3: 0, probably pleased Song Sccc Chunya.
By the end of the season, Aster is seriously determined to take a qualitative step forward – the club managed to sign a coach PSG.LGD Yao QQQ And with which composition Xu fy linsen spent two shock seasons. However, perestroika had to be postponed due to the coronavirus – QQQ will join the team only after the completion of the minor, and in the tournament itself it will take its place Zhang LaNm Zhicheng.
Why the club needs half measures with LaNm, I do not quite understand – apparently, the Chinese are terribly afraid to draft without trainers. Bookmakers put Alliance in second place in the list of applicants for the title (the coefficient for this is 5.00 versus 2.35 for Alliance), but this assessment seems erroneous to me. Yes, Aster played in the first majors of the season, but by winter it began to lose shape: at first the roster did not hit WESG, then it failed ONE Esports Dota 2 World Pro Invitational Singapore and finally failed to qualify for ESL One LA. The change of coach is evidence of the problems that have arisen in the team, and Aster has not had time to solve them yet.
I repeat again: the Alliance in the current composition …
Alliance is one of the main revelations of the scene at the beginning of the season. When neta 33 Shapira and Adrian Fata Trinks gathered this stack, it seemed that its maximum was the struggle for a place in the top 12 of the DPC rating. However, the team immediately won the qualifiers for the first major, where they then took 7-8 lines, won the trophy DreamLeague Season 12, received bronze at ESL One Hamburg 2019, and by January, it seems, got the best shape and was able to enter the top 4 on DreamLeague Leipzig Major.
Even before the start of the StarLadder Minor S3, the roster scored 1,840 rating points – twice as much as it was necessary to get to The International in the previous season. Most likely, the team can already relax and live on autopilot right up to the tournament in Stockholm – of course, provided that there are no reshuffles in it. In the end, playing at full strength all season is bad, as examples of past years have shown.
Perhaps it was the desire to relax that set Alliance in the third qualifying round. Having completed the major in Leipzig, the team might not have time to recover for the first qualification games. Roster lost Og (explainable) Team liquid and Ninjas in pajamas (what?) and in these matches he was weakly similar to that team that everyone saw during the season: even the squad that barely managed to get together Peter ppd Daguerre Alliance spread on the first map, and on the second he made the main highlight of the qualifiers, dragging him twice for a fight Nikolay Nikobaby Nikolov to the rock.
In subsequent matches, Alliance gathered: roster beat Og seed and Aggressive Mode, and then knocked out Liquid and Nigmamaking an incredible comeback with two Divine Rapier. And that was a completely different team – Nikobaby stopped dying, and 33 stopped suffering at Night Stalker and remembered how to farm.
Forgive Alliance a slight decline – it came out of it pretty quickly. Fending off attacks by Nigma with a backlog of 24 thousand gold, the roster really reborn and looked like a sample of the January major. Alliance this season is a team from Tier 1, and its departure from qualification for ESL One LA is an unfortunate mistake. Fortunately for the roster, the system allows you to fix it. I am sure that the club should win a major in the class. Bookmakers do not argue with this: Alliance is an unconditional favorite.
Championship odds:
- Alliance – 2.35;
- Team aster – 5.00;
- business associates – 7.00;
- Gambit esports – 9.00;
- BOOM Esports – 9.00;
- forZe – 17.00;
- NoPing e-sports – 17.00;
- Fighting pandaS – 19.00.
Odds are taken from the website of the betting company Parimatch and are relevant at the time of publication of the material. After registration, first-rate insurance for up to 2 thousand rubles will be available.
StarLadder ImbaTV Dota 2 Minor Season 3 will be held in Kiev from March 5 to 8. The prize fund of the tournament will be $ 300 thousand, the champion will also receive a slot on ESL One Los Angeles 2023. The competition schedule can be seen here.
