April 2 Virtus.pro unexpectedly for the majority of fans from the CIS, she left ONE Esports Singapore Major 2023 in Dota 2, taking 7th-8th place. Team Vitaly Save-Melnik won only two maps in three matches – Virtus.pro was able to win only Quincy Crew, and even then with great difficulty. Why the main hope of the CIS failed at the Major and what to look for the reason for the unsatisfactory performance – in the material Cybersport.ru.
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Is the CIS a weak region?
The CIS became the only region whose representatives were not included in the top 6. Ahead of us were South America and Southeast Asia, teams from which many fans and experts did not even consider seriously. A year’s absence of international tournaments has mothballed the regions and gave Europe and the CIS a false sense of superiority.
Save-
The characters and strategies that Europe and the CIS used against each other turned out to be ineffective against the compositions from China and other regions. Virtus.pro hardly faced any competition during the first season. Absolutely everything worked for the collective – the Bounty Hunter troika, the mid Kunkka, and even Enchantress. Perhaps Virtus.pro players simply believed that they were capable of winning with any hero. However, the level PSG.LGD or Quincy Qrew (oh surprise) was higher than NoTechies and Team Unique…
Virtus.pro’s problem is that it started the Major from the playoffs. Perhaps, if the team had started from the group stage, they would have received a click on the nose a little earlier and had time to rebuild and adapt. In addition, the team would have gained the necessary playing tone and self-confidence.
Lost Drafts
During the tournament, analysts and commentators have repeatedly noted that in most cases, cards are won already at the draft stage. It’s not easy to “drag on the skill” in the current patch. Virtus.pro obviously did not go well with drafts in the championship. This problem partly stems from the previous point – VP tried to win against opponents in the same way that she won tier-2 stacks in her region.
Virtus.pro not only took on openly non-metered characters, but also ignored heroes that were effectively used by other members of the major. For example, the main imboy of the championship was carry Io, who lost only once. Virtus.pro obviously did not train the character, as it blocked him in all matches, giving up only once to Quincy Crew and paying for it. Consequently, Virtus.pro was not going to take Io as the first pick.
DM
The situation is similar with meta supports. Elder Titan, Tusk, Pangolier are very popular at the Major – active heroes who provide the team with a good teamfight and effectively control the enemy core characters in battles. Virtus.pro never took any of these heroes. The CIS team often had a bunch of rather passive and non-farming supports, which quickly turned into two “fives”.
What will happen to Virtus.pro if it loses lanes?
This question was asked by many analysts and fans during the season. In the CIS, Virtus.pro began to control the situation on the map from the very first minutes. Even without a kill advantage, the team always took more out of the lane and quickly realized this advantage. This is probably why Enchantress or Oracle appeared in VP drafts for this very purpose. The team wanted to provide themselves with a comfortable lane, but every time they lost on the lanes. After that, we clearly saw the answer to the question of what will happen to the team in this case – it will simply be lost on the map. Virtus.pro was worse in farming, gave up the map, got into unsuccessful ganks, and lost Roshanov.
The second game with Thunder Predator – having defended the line more or less equally, the team did not know what to do next. There was no clear plan in Virtus.pro’s game. The team tried to attack the enemy Troll Warlord over and over again, wasting resources and time on it, and every minute they were lagging behind the rival more and more. In the CIS, Virtus.pro has perfectly demonstrated that it can act from a position of strength, while the Major has shown that it simply has no understanding of the game as the second number. If the best team of the CIS is inferior in the macro composition from Peru, it means that in our region there is clearly a failure in understanding the game somewhere.
What about mid and offlane?
Virtus.pro’s failure cannot be blamed on just one person. As we have already noted, matches in a tournament were often lost at the draft stage. The failure was caused by system failures, not personal errors. However, one cannot but pay attention to the fact that not once for seven cards gpK ~ did not smash his opponent in the mid lane. Rather, on the contrary – he was often inferior to his counterpart in overall value and finished creeps. Moreover, this happened even in those cases when Virtus.pro took the mid lane, already knowing who would be in the center of the enemy.
gpK ~
The pool of characters also raises questions DM… In the first season, he played excellently on Timbersaw, which could single-handedly destroy the enemy double, steal the attention of enemies and thereby win space and time for teammates. In cases where the character was in the bath, the DM was given any other hero. It turned out a little less efficiently, but this was enough for the CIS. At the Major, the situation changed – on all seven maps, VP’s rivals sent Timbersaw to the ban in the first stage, and it turned out that on other characters DM looks less confident. He never managed to cause serious problems to the enemy carry: after laning, DM sank heavily in total value and turned into a third support, which uses an ultimate on a conditional Mars and dies a second later without causing damage.
Virtus.pro is still a great team with very skillful players. The Major in Singapore became a cold shower for e-sportsmen, which probably washed away the crowns erected by the fan community from their heads. It is unlikely that the roster’s problems are related to nerves or inexperience – after all, the current Major can hardly be called a full-fledged LAN championship. It’s more about preparation, inability to adapt to the meta and, probably, underestimation of opponents, because Virtus.pro has exuded self-confidence over the past months. Perhaps the failure in Singapore will make the players think about the need to find a coach who, at the right time, can hit the head and bring it down from heaven to earth before any Peruvians do it in the playoffs of a major.
