Virtus.pro CEO blog: how VP.Prodigy became the main Dota 2 roster
Sergey Glamazda 11.12.2020, 19:25 Greetings to Cybersport.ru readers on my personal blog. I decided to start it for several reasons. Firstly, I get a lot of requests from fans and I understand how important it is to communicate with those for whom we speak and create content. Secondly, a blog is a good way to communicate thoughts. For the first post, I chose a topic that is very important for our club and fans. I want to tell you about what happened within the team during this year, about VP.P's transition to the first roster and what the future holds for the Prodigy brand. Founding VP.Prodigy After Leipzig, we needed replacements. The usual options in such a situation would be the dissolution of the squad, benching, or sale of players. All of them would be unfair to the guys. I discussed everything with Egor [epileptick1d] and Vitalie [Save-], and they decided to assemble their own roster within our organization. From my point of view, this was the most optimal solution. It was pointless to have them inactive, they would simply lose their form without constant tournament practice. Having the options of a younger team, they could develop professionally without much pressure from both the community and more experienced teammates. I looked at the potential costs, their age, and the fact that we had just signed them, and decided that we could afford to take the risk and give Vitalie and Egor the opportunity to assemble their lineup. At that moment, I had two thoughts in my head. The first – we give the guys the opportunity to prove themselves. They can pop off, and we will get strong players or a fully-fledged squad. If not, then in any case we won’t go broke from this initiative. The second – it is a logical and correct step for an organization to work with young players. I didn't even know what to expect from VP.Prodigy. I had nothing to compare with, apart from OG.Seed. At that time, there weren’t many examples of youth teams in the scene, let alone successful ones. The financial capabilities of the club allowed us to keep this roster. I decided that before the end of the year, we would definitely be able to understand if the guys could reach their full potential. For me, the main indicator of the success of the squad was its progress. We would’ve made some changes if there hadn’t been any. If after three months they hadn’t tuned up, I would have asked them a question: “Why are we not improving in the game? What is missing? How can we play better with this line-up? " They are all individually strong players, they just needed to learn how to play as a team. From the very beginning I believed in the idea of young players and constantly wondered why as large an organization as Virtus.pro did not have second rosters in Dota and other disciplines. The guys began to assemble the team; several possibilities appeared at once. Then they started playing: the first tournament, the second, the third, good results everywhere. And then the story begins with the bans on participation in a tournament by two teams from the same organization, which was forced on European teams. Moreover, there was Valve’s ban on the participation of two rosters at The International. We had to choose who to send to which tournament. We could not bet on VP at all tournaments, because then VP.P would not play anywhere at all, but we couldn’t take a lot of matches from the first squad either, because we had certain sponsorship obligations. About fairness of remuneration This went on for several months. I looked at the results, play and communication within both teams. After ESL One Los Angeles, the first squad had a victory in the Parimatch League and a second place in the Epic Prime League, where VP.P beat them 3-0 in the final, that's all. Clearly they tried, they were tired of the Covid situation and The International was no longer on the horizon, but the results declined. Under such conditions, we approached the OMEGA League, and the result of this tournament became a kind of final yardstick for the first squad. After the defeat to Team Liquid, there was once again the necessity for replacements. The fans talked a lot about the need to combine the two teams, but that would be impossible. The guys had already played together, and they had this chance, so why retry what didn't work? Chemistry between players is very important, especially in Dota, which is one of the most demanding esports disciplines for teamplay. At the beginning of last season, we had a squad with Egor, Vitalie, Vova [Noone] and Lech [Solo]. All of them are great players in their own right, even in pairs they showed themselves to be great. But together they just didn't make a team, because there is a huge gap between them both in terms of play and in terms of personality. They look differently at Dota and at life in general; after all, the age difference between the youngest and the captain is more than ten years. In addition, it is important to correctly assess the ratio of costs and benefits. At the beginning of autumn, we had two teams. One of them cost a lot of money, constantly needed transfers and, in terms of sports results, did not justify our goals. Now I'm talking not only about online tournaments, but also about LANs, which have happened since the beginning of the season. The second, in contrast, only once dropped below third place in a tournament, and for the most part took first and second places. The ratio of resources that we spent on our two Dota squads was simply unfair and illogical. There was a time when we lost to teams whose budget was eight times lower than ours. I just didn't know how I could convince myself of the idea that it was OK. A situation with unsatisfactory results always raises the same questions: what is the reason for our weak performance and why did replacements not work? Over the course of the year we had epileptick1d, Save-, W_Zayac, Cooman, iLTW, Boo1k, ArtStyle... These were quite a few changes, from my point of view. I was also embarrassed by the fact that the substitutions took place in the same positions. I began to lose faith that the new replacements would work and the next transfer would bring long-term results. There was a situation where I was talking to one player and half-jokingly asked if he wanted to join us. His answer surprised me: “What is the chance that I will come and in two months there will be no reason to remove me? I see what is happening, communicate with others, and after VP everyone plays worse than before. I don’t want to risk it". It was necessary to work outside the box. Betting on the youths In the summer and fall, we received many offers for VP.P. We were visited by organizations from the CIS, not just in esports, there was even one hockey club. We started looking at various options because there was a limitation in tournaments and selling the roster would allow the guys to play. But at the same time, we followed the situation in the first roster, and in October it became clear that there was no point in selling VP.P. At that moment we cancelled all negotiations. When I made the final decision, I accounted for many factors and the opinions of numerous people. From the point of view of esports fans, it clearly seemed like bringing Ramses back and building another squad around Solo and Noone would be a cool story, since nostalgia for past victories immediately kicks in, and the weight of player names suggests that it will be a tier 1 team. However, not everything is as simple as it would seem. Honestly, there was an idea to recreate the "Golden" team, but it's like trying to step in the same river twice [Heraclitus] or winning the lottery. Again, I was not sure about the reasons why the roster broke up or didn’t win The International, they somehow just disappeared. Of course, we could have made such a roster, but the point is that you cannot guarantee the result. I came to the conclusion that, contingently, the "Golden" team was a risk and the team of Prodigy was a risk. On the one hand, there are brilliant young players who communicate well with each other and are already showing a good level of results and are passionate about the game; on the other, there are established stars for whom motivation remained at the level of The International, with their own financial needs, no guarantee of a result, and the risk of needing replacements again every quarter. For fairness of argument, I asked myself the question: "If both teams cost the same, which one would I choose?" And the honest answer was that I believed more in Prodigy. I bet on them because of their results, team chemistry, thirst for victory, and their age. Obviously, young players are not that marketable: many say that it is for this reason that we never make replacements, and we are simply afraid to receive a flurry of negativity from our partners. But in reality, we understand that it is easy to catch up on media coverage through results and support from the media team. Of course, it's too early to draw far-reaching conclusions from one tournament, but so far, the results of the new Virtus.pro are pleasing to us. At the same time, I really want the guys from Just Error to succeed, as they are incredible players, but maybe they will be able to achieve different results when they become more autonomous and choose their own individual career paths. Future plans We will continue to work towards youth rosters, but it is important to understand how to do it correctly, taking into account the limitations that we see this year for Dota 2. We launched the VP.P CS:GO roster, but so far we cannot consistently beat the teams from the top 60. This is absolutely normal; this is the essence of youth teams. Probably everyone expects incredible results from Prodigy right from the start, as the guys did in Dota. But our original goal is simply to let the players develop. For me, VP.P is more than just a youth team. I am confident that in 2021 we will make a very strong brand out of this project. Translated from https://www.cybersport.ru/blog/post/303027/blog-ceo-virtus-pro-kak-vp-prodigy-stala-osnovnym-sostavom-po-dota-2
Newbee was crucified for Matchfixing, but no one is talking about VPGame Admins contacting teams to matchfix
PSG.LGD, CDEC, VPGame, and VPEsports are all owned by Ruru VPGame specifically, is a betting website for skins. There have been allegations of VP Admins contacting Tier 2 teams to throw games. Why is no one looking into other teams, specifically LGD who literally has ties to this gambling site. Was it because Newbee just happened to be a convenient scapegoat? It isn't just Newbee who had these fishy games. As a frequent bettor, the list of questionable teams include LGD, Aster, CDEC, IG and pretty much all of them in these one off tier 2 leagues. Is it because of Ruru's position in Chinese dota that LGD and CDEC are immune from being investigated? This very much looks like the Wings gaming situation, and while Newbee DID commit the crime, the spotlight should not stop there. EDIT: https://afkgaming.com/articles/dota2/News/2219-VPGame-admin-caught-fixing-Asian-Dota2-matches Link to the article of a VP Admin trying to setup a fixed match.
Hi /Dota! I've created this thread in order to advise you guys to never give any money to gg.bet and stay away from them as they are pure scammers. I've added 20 euros to my account two days ago and bet like 5 on TNC to win their second game against VP, basically tripled my money over the next hour only to lose a bit and go back to 40. I go ahead, attempt to withdraw and wait for my request to be processed only to find out right now that my user is blocked. I go ahead and call them at the number shown on their website and they say they blocked my account because there are multiple ones created by me while their rules allow for only one. Obvious lie, I tell them and insist that I've never had another account created and demand that they provide the email adresses under which those other accounts were created. The girl on the phone, Tina, basically stonewalled me from the get-go and kept going with "you have multiple accounts and we have all the proof we need to block your user". They've done something similar to my friend Ionvas2a while ago. Stay away from gg.bet guys edit: format Update: So those numbskulls over at gg.bet claim I have something like 6 accounts and I tried to scam them of bonus money??? Also they threatened to sue someone for linking my thread over Twitter. I have never used another account except my own nor have I ever even attempted to use their bonuses. Shady claims from a shady company. Holy hell I wish I donated those 20 euros instead of giving it to them. Update2: I am back from work and can now focus on this, nearly got a warning today for having my phone out at work to reply to this thread. I've had multiple requests for proof here on reddit, although my account was banned and I cannot access it I'll provide everything I can. ss 1 first 10 euro deposit https://imgur.com/a/JRnl98P ss 2 second 10 euro deposit https://imgur.com/a/11qMYCp ss 3 request to withdraw money https://imgur.com/a/uGSlSqT ss 4 reply I got via mail signed by a Michael although I talked to a girl Tina https://imgur.com/a/6a0ClBU ss 5 what happens when I login to ggbet https://imgur.com/a/rgzVcXv ss 6 my two calls to gg bet customer support, both times Tina picked up https://imgur.com/a/cdMwvkR all screenshots include date and time edit after update 2: formatting update 3: https://www.reddit.com/DotA2/comments/98kxdp/my_response_to_ggbets_doxxing_response/
Overview of the teams attending The International 2019
Hi everyone, The International is around the corner which means I'm back. Here's an overview of all teams fighting for the grand prize of the Aegis at the 9th International in Shanghai. Team Secret One of the most consistent teams in the newly formatted DPC season and finishing on a whopping 14,400 points, Secret are one of the biggest contenders heading into TI9. With one of the best Captain's at the helm through Puppey and managing to recruit new blood through Nisha as well as the respectable Zai, Secret started their season off hot and carried that momentum throughout the entire season. Their team has immense skill and a very deep hero pool allowing for countless strategies and plenty of unorthodox picks. The player to look out for: Nisha. One of last year's best up-and-coming players who played on Kinguin/LDI alongside other young Polish talent, he was given a bigger spotlight after being picked up as Secret's new Carry Player. A force to be reckoned with, very consistent and very talented. Season Achievements:
1st at ESL One Birmingham 2019
1st at MDL Disneyland® Paris Major
1st at ESL One Katowice 2019
1st at Chongqing Major
2nd at Kuala Lumpur Major
1st at ESL One Hamburg 2018
1st at PVP Esports Championship
Roster
Nisha
MidOne
zai
YapzOr
Puppey (Captain)
Sunbhie (Coach)
Virtus.pro One of the few teams who didn't go through any roster changes post-TI8 and proved that it was the right decision. The powerhouse team finished their season in second place with 13,500 points. Housing one of the best support duos out of any team as well as arguably the best top 5 Carry, Mid and Offlaner, you can never count Virtus.pro out. The player to look out for: RAMZES666. In my opinion, still the best Carry player in the world. Always manages to put VP on his back when the team needs it the most. Season Achievements:
3rd at Epicenter Major
1st at Adrenaline Cyber League 2019
2nd at DreamLeague Major 11
3rd at MDL Macau 2019
2nd at Chongqing Major
1st at Kuala Lumpur Major
3rd at ESL One Hamburg 2018
1st at Maincast Autumn Brawl
Roster
RAMZES666
No[o]ne
9pasha
RodjER
Solo (Captain)
ArsZeeqq (Coach)
Vici Gaming After TI8, Vici Gaming made a gamble to keep their talented core-duo of Paparazi and Ori and decided to pick up established players through Yang, Fade and Dy. This proved to be a fantastic move as they managed to dominate the season and finish 3rd on 11,250 points. Under rOtk's guidance, the Chinese powerhouse managed to steal the title of 'Best Chinese Team' from their brothers, PSG.LGD. The player to look out for: Fade. After making a name for himself on his old team, VGJ.Thunder, Fade is now given the title of Captain as well as position 4. He's proven time and time again to be insanely clutch for his team and always setting up and providing the much needed support. Season Achievements:
1st at Epicenter Major
1st at Dreamleague Season 11
1st at StarLadder Minor
1st at DPL Season 6
1st at Sanya Dota 2 New-Stars Play 2018
2nd at ESL One Hamburg 2018
Roster
Paparazi灬
Ori
Yang
Fade (Captain)
Dy
rOtk (Coach)
Evil Geniuses Another team who had no changes after placing a respectable 3rd place at last year's International. Proven to still be a strong powerhouse and easily NA's best and most consistent team. Evil Geniuses are known to level up during International season. The player to look out for: Cr1t. A household name in position 4s and one of EG's most consistent performers. Season Achievements:
2nd at ESL One Birmingham 2019
3rd at MDL Disneyland® Paris Major
2nd at MDL Macau 2019
3rd at Chongqing Major
3rd at Kuala Lumpur Major
Roster
Arteezy
SumaiL
s4
Cr1t-
Fly (Captain)
Bulba (Coach)
Team Liquid Liquid decided to take a small break after TI8 which proved to do a bit of damage to their performance. After missing out on making it to Kuala Lumpur Major they started to run it back through the season until ultimately replacing Mutambaman with renowned Core player, W33, which rewarded them with some decent results before the season closed. The player to look out for: w33. Already a very established player with a diverse hero pool and an insane amount of talent. A late addition to the Liquid Roster, many people are very curious to see how a lineup with both Miracle- and w33 will work together. Season Achievements:
2nd at Epicenter Major
2nd at MDL Disneyland® Paris Major
1st at MDL Macau 2019
1st at MegaFon Winter Clash
Roster
Miracle-
w33
MinD_ContRoL
GH
KuroKy (Captain)
rmN- (Coach)
PSG.LGD Gaming Some mixed results from the team who nearly won TI8 this season. Housing the same roster, PSG.LGD performed below most people's expectations but fear not as they were still able to secure an invite to this year's International. Hopefully the home-ground advantage will be enough to power this team up as they try and take back what was stolen from them last year. The player to look out for: fy. Arguably the hardest working and most talented player to never hold an Aegis. fy's talent and determination is unmatched and he usually performs extremely well during the International season. Season Achievements:
3rd at ESL One Birmingham 2019
4th at MDL Disneyland® Paris Major
4th at Chongqing Major
3rd at MegaFon Winter Clash
Roster
Ame
Somnus丶M
Chalice
fy (Captain)
xNova
QQQ (Coach)
Yao (Coach)
Fnatic After TI8 ended, Fnatic decided to keep their best two players as a foundation and build around them. Bringing along Jabz, iceiceice and MP. The team did pretty decently throughout the season managing to steal some points from the other DPC titans. A late roster change saw MP leaving, Jabz moving to position 1 and adding DuBu to the mix. The player to look out for: DJ. Easily one of the best position 4 players in the world and can do work on any hero. Very exciting to watch and always brings something to the table. Season Achievements:
2nd at PVP Esports Championship
4th at ESL One Katowice 2019
3rd at DreamLeague Season 11
Roster
Jabz
Abed
iceiceice
DJ
DuBu (Captain)
March (Coach)
Ninjas in Pajamas Ninjas in Pajamas rose from the ashes of ppd's 2018 dream-team. Holding onto his prized recruit of 33, ppd recruited the likes of Saksa, Ace and Fata. With the new roster, NiP was now a decent contender in the EU region and they've proved to have a decent season securing an invitation to TI9. The player to look out for: 33. Always manages to find some way to carry NiP in their games and does some serious damage on heroes such as Night Stalker. A player with good mechanical skill and understanding of the game. Season Achievements:
4th at Kuala Lumpur Major
4th at Bucharest Minor
2nd at WePlay! Dota2 Valentine Madness
1st at WePlay! Dota 2 Tug of War: Radiant
1st at OGA Dota PIT Minor 2019
1st at StarLadder Minor
Roster
Ace
Fata
33
Saksa
ppd (Captain)
Pajkatt (Ninjas in Pajamas)
TNC Predator A new looking team that started out with ninjaboogie at the helm and with Gabbi as their brand new carry player. The team had to field a sub due to there being a cloud of drama surrounding Kuku. Once Kuku returned, the team fielded some decent results and maintained consistency throughout the season. Definitely one of the stronger underdogs at TI9 with most of the players having played together for a long time. The player to look out for: Kuku. TNC are known for some wacky and weird offlane picks for Kuku and in most cases prove to be successful. Kuku is a very talented player and with their new Coach, Heen, at the helm can be a serious weapon. Season Achievements:
2nd at Asia Pro League S1
1st at WESG SEA 2018
1st at APPL 2019
1st at WESG 2018
4th at ESL One Mumbai 2019
4th at Epicenter Major
Roster
Gabbi
Armel
Kuku
Tims
Eyyou (Captain)
Heen (Coach)
OG The defending champions OG are back this year with the same roster. After having Ana leave temporarily for a break, OG fielded Pajkatt to decent success and then iLTW after that before ana returned from his break to resume regular business. Their results throughout the season have been spotty however the only results that matter to them is winning another Aegis. The player to look out for: ana. No one has a higher clutch factor, no one carries as hard as ana. With an immense hero pool, mechanical skill and amazing decision making he's definitely the most feared player. Season Achievements:
3rd at AMD Dota 2 Pro Series 2018
2nd at WePlay! Dota 2 Winter Madness
3rd at ESL one Katowice 2019
Roster
ana
Topson
Ceb
JerAx
N0tail (Captain)
Sockshka (Coach)
Alliance Alliance housed the same roster they had during 2018 but this time they were able to secure a spot at this year's International. After being unable to make last year's TI, they tightened up their game and slugged it out through the DPC season. The player to look out for: miCKe. A very talented carry player which amazing potential who has shown time and time again what the fuss is about. Season Achievements:
1st at MegaFon Champions League S2
2nd at LOOT.BET Winter Masters
1st at GG.Bet Birmingham Invitational
2nd at StarLadder Minor
5th-6th at Epicenter Major
Roster
miCKe
qojqva
Boxi
Taiga
iNSaNiA (Captain)
Loda (Coach)
Keen Gaming Keen Gaming had a small spotlight on them during 2018 but failed to make it to TI8. This time its different with the team securing the final invitation to the International. Some familiar faces and new ones; dark will be joined by old chicken, eleven, kaka and yi/zhai. The player to look out for: dark. A fantastic captain as well as a solid drafter. Definitely a player worth watching at the upcoming International. Season Achievements:
Infamous Arguably the household name when it comes to Peruvian Dota; this roster of talent has had decent success throughout the season having a few shots at Major titles. Unfortunately they were unable to secure enough points for an invitation but fought hard for a qualifying spot. A player to look out for: Scofield. A very strong player with great fundamentals. In my opinion, a very fun player to watch. Season Achievements:
2nd at Liga Pro Gaming S3
4th at DreamLeague Season 10
1st at Liga Pro Gaming S4
2nd at Liga Pro Gaming S5
2nd at Liga Pro Gaming Summer Madness
3rd at WSOE 6
1st at WePlay! Dota 2 Tug of War: Dire America
Roster
K1
Chris Brown
Wisper
Scofield
Stinger
Chaos Esports Club This team faced a whirlwind of ups and downs as well as roster changes as they're fielding a completely difference roster for TI. Little can be said about this team as the only games they've properly played together publicly have been TI qualifiers. The player to look out for: MiLAN. After having a fantastic run on his previous team, J.Storm, MiLAN was unfortunately removed to make room for the veteran, Fear. His playstyle and aggression was spectacular to watch and was easily one of their best players. Season Achievements: N/A - The roster has been too dramatically changed. Roster
vtFaded
MATUMBAMAN
KheZu
MiLAN
MISERY (Captain)
j4 (Coach)
Natus Vincere Natus Vincere ran a very stable roster during 2019's DPC season and while it didn't pay off in the long run, they were able to clutch an invitation through qualifers right at the end. A promising result to extend Na'Vi's relevance in the Dota books. A player to look out for: Crystallize. Sometimes inconsistent but when he performs, he really performs. Season Achievements:
2nd at DreamLeague Season 10
2nd at MegaFon Winter Clash
3rd at WePlay! Dota 2 Valentine Madness
3rd at ESL One Mumbai 2019
Roster
Crystallize
MagicaL
Blizzy
Zayac
SoNNeikO (Captain)
Mag~ (Coach)
Royal Never Give Up A brand new organisation for the 2019 DPC season fielded a mixed roster of vets and new-bloods but quickly changed after a short while only keeping one player. They brought on board Money, Setsu, LaNm and ah fu to play the rest of the season. A player to watch out for: Monet. A crazy carry player known to put his team on his back when it mattered the most. Season Achievements:
3rd at DreamLeague Season 10
1st at WePlay! Dota 2 Tug of War: Dire Asia
Roster
Monet
Setsu
Flyby
LaNm
ah fu
Super (Coach)
Mineski A strange roster mixup that barely anyone could have predicted following their lackluster performance at TI8. They failed to score enough points for a direct invitation but managed to battle it out in the SEA qualifiers. A decent lineup to put up a good fight at TI9 in Shanghai. The player to look out for: Moon. A super talented individual who has a diverse hero pool. His Tinker is definitely a spectacle to watch. Season Achievements:
1st at Red Bull Guardians
1st at AMD Dota 2 Pro Series 2018
1st at DreamHack Mumbai Invitational 2018
2nd at ESL One Mumbai 2019
Roster
Nikobaby
Moon
kpii
Bimbo
ninjaboogie (Captain)
Personal Notes: I'm extremely excited for TI9! However I will add that its unfortunate that Resolution couldn't make it; he's easily one of my favourite TI players to watch. Adding to this, I will hopefully be doing daily summaries once TI9 commences.
Hellraisers -1.5 (-165)B8 vs Hellraisers(Game) Point SpreadEsports - Dota 2 - Weplay Dota2 - Pushka League Division 1 May 01, 2020 07:00 AM EDT Hellraisers (ranked 22) just beat Navi 2-0, Fly to Moon 2-0, and even JUST BEAT VP 2-1. They're playing B8 (ranked 269) tomorrow 5/1. I took Hellraisers to sweep 2-0 at -165. Seems like a solid bet IMO. Thoughts?
\Edited with tiebreaker info and up to date stats* \Edited with personal lineup. Take this one with a grain of salt folks. Today is the wild west of fantasy.* \Just finished redoing the table thanks to misspelling the title and then added another word. I think I might be a little tired O.O* We are on to the home stretch for the group stage. The early guide seemed to work out well yesterday so we're going to try it again. That just means that I'll be updating this tomorrow with the most current numbers so people can get a head start. It also means we are going to have a couple day break before the main event. A nice breather for all of our number riddled heads.
As per usual I primarily use my own app for data https://fantasydota.shinyapps.io/fantasytools/ and you can contact me on twitter @fantasydotos. The app is still having some stability issues due to load on the api I'm using. If you have a problem try refreshing it every couple minutes. Sorry for any inconvenience. For today we are back to Group B, but they only play 4 games so we are expecting fewer points. I'm going to leave out the bottom 6 cores and supports to make my life a little easier for now. The teams to draft from are EG, Fnatic, Infamous, NiP, RNG, VG, and VP
Cores
Mids
Supports
VG-Paparazi: 16.93
EG-Sumail: 17.30
VG-Dy: 20.16
EG-rtz: 16.02
VG-Ori: 16.44
EG-Fly: 17.68
RNG-Monet: 14.77
Fnatic-Abed: 15.33
RNG-Ah Fu: 16.70
VP-Ramzes: 14.33
Infamous-Chris Luck: 14.99
NiP-Saksa: 16.16
Fnatic-Jabz: 13.69
RNG-Setsu: 13.28
Infamous-Stinger: 15.91
VG-Yang: 13.35
VP-NoOne: 13.27
NiP-Peterpandam: 15.72
Infamous-K1 Hector: 13.23
NiP-Fata: 12.77
Fnatic-Dubu: 15.48
NiP-Ace: 12.58
VP-Solo: 15.38
Given Paparazi and Dy's showing so far I think it would be crazy to not draft them. They do have two harder matchups today, but I think they can flourish under the pressure regardless. So that leaves us with choosing a second core, our mid, and our second support. This is probably the hardest day to pick thus far. EG players have some good numbers, but they've had very spikey scoring (especially rtz) This could be good if they spike tomorrow or bad if they fall flat. The other options are all mid tier teams that could surprise us. Chris Luck and Stinger had great scores on day 2, but they may be pretty unreliable. RNG and Fnatic have had very middling showings and similar matchups. I'm definitely shying away from anything NiP. And I completely forgot about the tiebreakers. The epitome of gambling for more points. We don't know if tiebreakers will occur until after our rosters are locked so it's just crossing our fingers and hoping for more games played. We are still only going to focus on group B. It's theoretically possible there is some big tie in the A group and they play a boat load of games, but that's some crazy risk. VG, our so called "shoo-ins" are not very likely going to play any tiebreaker games. For there to be tiebreaker games along the divide to elimination NiP would have to win 3 out of 4 games minimum. It's certainly possible, but I wouldn't bet on it given their current performance and given EG is one of their matchups. So that leaves us with potential tiebreakers along the uppelower bracket divide. The tiebreakers would likely include EG or Navi on the upper side with any of Fnatic, Infamous, RNG, and VP able to get in a tie with them. If I had to guess, EG will 2-0 NiP and 1-1 VP. This would put them at 9 wins which would make it pretty unlikely that they are the ones in the tiebreaker. So we are looking for teams that might play against Navi (assuming they go 1-1 or 0-2 against VG). I think VP might struggle to get there because of their harder matchup against EG. But Infamous, Fnatic, and RNG might just be able to make it. If you are trying to hedge the tiebreaker route then playing VG cards and EG cards seems less good, but they could stumble and end up in tiebreakers too. The middle of the pack would all have a tiny chance of playing against NiP and a moderate chance of being in the upper bracket tie breaker. What you choose is totally dependent on how risk averse you are feeling. Are you looking to close the gap on the top 100 and can only do it with a crazy gamble? This may be your day. Chances are I'm changing this last second. I'm sure this isn't as helpful of a guide as usual, but good luck. Let me know what you think for this head scratcher of a day.
First of all, congratulations to MSKI, especially Mushi and Iceiceice! Since MSKI's surprising performance at DAC, 71 becomes a hot topic on both Chinese forums and here. He is a very interesting character. The opinions on him are still quite polarizing among Chinese fans. So I try my best to tell the most famous stories about him. I wrote this all based on my memory and some quick google search. If someone notice errors/inaccuracy in the stories, feel free to correct me. More stories are also welcomed!
This one probably everyone knows. 71 was the coach for the legendary EHOME team in the Free to play movie and TI4 DK team.
After EHOME disbanded after TI1, 71 has been trying to revive EHOME for years. Rumor has that he always asked potential investors: "Friend, have you heard about EHOME before?" Because the approach is similar to Pyramid scheme sales, Chinese fans call him "Pyramid scheme master". After TI4, he finally revived EHOME with LaNm and Rotk. At TI5, they knocked Team Secret, which was unquestionable the strongest team before TI5, down to lower bracket. After the match, Chinese fans chanted "EHOME! EHOME! EHOME!" like the old days. In the following interview, he cried and said that he waited this moment for three years. (Interview is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQDO0fRLpLg). He also has a Ehome tattoo on his arm (not sure).
71's betting on games. There are multiple sources suggesting that 71 does bet on Dota games. When Sylar left Ehome two years ago, he complained on social media that 71 asked them to learn from VP. However, when EG played VP, 71 placed bets on EG winning. After 71 was fired from EHOME, there are rumors that it was related to his betting behavior as well.
Old DK members all seem to like him. Mushi and Iceiceice got him to coach again. LaNm followed 71 to EHOME. During this DAC, Burning was casting games together with Xiao8 and 430. One time they talked about 71 being coach again. Xiao8 asked burning whether 71 even plays Dota and seriously questioned what he can offer as someone who doesn't play the game. Burning said that 71 doesn't play, but watched a lot of games; 71 is very patient and spends lots of time with players; 71 often encourages them to try novel strategies. From Burning's tone, I feel that he was defending 71.
71 had several appearances on Chinese panels. His performance was laughed at by most fans, because what he said did not make much sense (don't remember the details though). This, combining with him not playing the game, are main reasons some Chinese fans still think 71 is a fraud, or at least not very good.
71 gave an interview to a Chinese website yesterday. A few interesting points: 1) Vega and a few other teams also asked me about coaching possibility. RTZ even asked me today and said Bulba can be my assistant. 2) It was funny that Jack said the reason we picked VS is that I wanted to revenge ACE. That is not true at all. 3) Mushi and Iceiceice almost quit the team before DAC because the team's performance was poor (http://www.dadianjing.cn/info/36727.html, text is in Chinese though).
I think I will stop here. My personal opinion on 71's coaching ability is positive. Being the coach for three successful teams (EHOME, DK, MSKI) is unlikely due to pure luck. However, betting on games as a coach is big no-no for me, regardless whether it involves his own team. For this reason, I can understand why he can not find jobs in China after fired by Ehome.
gg.bet, the major sponsor of Team NP, Empire, and Ad Finem has terms and conditions which allow them to blatantly scam unwitting users, and the community deserves to know
So a few days I go I made this post asking if it was normal for betting sites to have heavy preventions on when you can withdraw your funds. It seemed strange to me, but I blamed my naivety for assuming these websites were legit. Honestly, I was swayed by the site being a major sponsor of a few teams, as I figured it was more likely that a legitimate business would have the money to spare for marketing like that. All I wanted to do was play around with $50 watching the Boston Major. I figured I enjoy watching Dota games anyway, I would pay to have a little extra thrill in each game with something personal at stake. So I go onto the most common site I see advertised, gg.bet, and see that there are multiple promo codes being shown to encourage new users to make a deposit. I don't know if I'm alone on this, but I never assumed that I would have to read the T&Cs to understand that by accepting any bonus money, I practically eliminate my chances of ever getting any money back. Unfortunately, that is the reality. When I made similar posts as earlier on /Dota2Betting, I got talking to some other members and found out that this is NOT normal for betting sites to do. Patnor explained it best in this comment on /Dota2Betting:
ok i wrote a long answer and i just deleted it after reading their bonus rules. GG.bet is a scam, there is nothing else to say about the matter. And judging by how they have obviously just googled big words to sound more serious, while infact they are just making an ass of themselves shows that its most likely some shady person behind the site. However. You have accepted their Bonus, which gives you 100% bonus deposit. This is the main rule thats keeping you from Withdrawing the money from your account. You have to earn 25 times the amount of your deposit bonus. Which means if you deposited 100$ you get 200$ and you have to earn a grand wopping 5000$ before you complete the bonus. And no im not done yet. You have to do this within 30 days of you activating the bonus. This is a rookie mistake everyone has made to be honest, if you are new and you see a bonus its easy to think "free money if i win" But very few actually goes through their Requirements to actually pass the bonus as a whole. Also if you were to be lucky to win over 150$ with a freebet or anything you would lose every cent over 150$ which is kinda hilarious and extremely shady to have for any bookie that wants to be taken as a serious company. TLDR; You accepted bonus, you now have to earn 5000$ in 30 days to complete bonus and being able to Withdraw the money. Cut your losses, delete the account and simply keep away from shady sites like that. https://gyazo.com/77eb050ebbbf6a7a3e7a8d90513de23e
On top of this, you can't even win it on ez bets with low-risk odds. It doesn't even count unless the odds are at least 1.75! Initially, I put $50 in to the account. The bonus code allowed me to double that, then another code gave me another $12. So I had $112. I have made various bets, winning all of them except for 1. Logically speaking, if the site first uses my bonus money, it should return bonus money and leave my 'real money' untouched. If it uses real money, it should return real money. Instead, gg.bet gives you bonus money and then effectively turns all your money into 'bonus money' that you will never get back. Unfortunately, this was all in the terms and conditions, but I neglected to read it. Yes, this is my fault, but that does not change the case that the website completely misleads its users. At best, this practice is shady. At worst, this practice is a total scam. I spoke to support reps on their website's 24/7 live support. Once I tried my best to comprehend the broken english, they confirmed that I could not withdraw any money, basically ever. I then escalated this to a higher level of support and am still waiting for an email back almost a week later. It also asked if I wanted to save the chat logs, but I never got an email with them in there? To make things even more confusing, the bars shown in this image of my account count to 1250 and the other one used to count 300 but has since disappeared from the site entirely. The default is 1250, and I've earnt 40 of that. I suspect this means the amount of money I have bet on something with odds over 1.75 is $40, meaning I have to bet (NOT WIN) $1250 ONLY ON ODDS OF 1.75 OR MORE in order to get a cent back from the website. On the third of January, all of that money will just expire. I have emailed the site twice now asking for my initial deposit back. My initial deposit was $50, then my total balance from bonuses was $112. My current balance is $159.50. Though I am rightfully owed my winnings from my bet on EG vs VP, I will settle purely for getting my initial deposit back since I am yet to lose it. Here is an imgur album showing the screenshots of my account for verification of all of this. Has anyone else had any experiences with this? Since their support won't talk to me, all I can do is dissuade anyone else from using their awful service and getting scammed like I have been. After looking into it a bit more, it seems that Pinnacle is the best place for betting on e-sports, though honestly I think this whole thing has turned me off the idea entirely. Edit 1: damn, the reading comprehension of some people is poor. This is more of a PSA than a whine. I understand that this is my own fault for not being careful with my money, however I think my mistake is one that a lot of people would make and this post is meant to serve as a warning and deterrent from these sites. People keep saying "this is normal". Having to bet and win 25x your initial deposit on odds of 1.75+ all within 30 days is absolutely not normal, and is extremely scummy. Another point that people seem to be missing is my main complaint, that by accepting the bonus money my real money is effectively rendered completely void. All I'm doing is raising awareness for suckers like myself that might be exploited, and for teams to hopefully stop advertising this service. Teams absolutely have a responsibility to advertise decent companies, consider the uproar when Navi sponsored an MMR booster on twitch. This is far worse, this company effectively steals from its users. NP, Empire and AF are helping this shitty company exploit their fans. The site also advertises Fnatic a lot too so it seems that there are a huge number of esports teams that advertise for this company. Edit 2: I forgot to highlight another incredibly shady aspect of their T&Cs. IF you manage to meet their crazy requirements for a withdrawal, in my case $1250, I can only actually have $150 of that. How can anyone defend this? Edit 3: everyone saying issue a chargeback. I guess this must be more common in USA with your weirdly lenient refund policies but how would I go about doing this in Australia? I chose to spend this money, I don't think my bank will just let me turn around and decide I want the money back now. Edit 4: I just called my bank and told them and they said they'd get back to me, so here's hoping. In the mean time, herro9n has done some awesome investigatory work and found that gg.bet is just one of many fronts for a huge network of similarly shady gambling websites. Basically, this isn't just one dude sitting behind his computer getting free cash, this is a massive operation with many different websites, all of which have similarly shady issues with customers wanting to withdraw money. I also just tweeted the teams mentioned to see what they think of this. tl;dr using promotional codes on gg.bet allows them to turn your real money into "bonus money" which is designed in such a way that you will never get it back.
I made a similar post last year about the probabilities of seeing bonus Dota to resolve upper bracket and elimination tiebreakers so here's the same thing for this year's group stage. Match outcomes are calculated using a snapshot of the betting odds on gg.bet converted to percentages.
Group A
With only four matches remaining, there aren't too many outcomes for Group A, especially with Chaos unable to climb back into the lower bracket.
Match outcomes
Game
2:0
0:2
1:1
Liquid:TNC
32.15%
25.13%
42.72%
Secret:Chaos
69.94%
7.16%
22.90%
LGD:Alliance
52.83%
12.35%
34.82%
Newbee:Mineski
34.49%
23.17%
42.35%
Team placements
Team
Upper Bracket
Upper Bracket Tiebreaker
Lower Bracket
Elimination Tiebreaker
Eliminated
LGD
100.00%
0.00%
0.00%
0.00%
0.00%
Secret
100.00%
0.00%
0.00%
0.00%
0.00%
Newbee
75.52%
16.52%
7.96%
0.00%
0.00%
TNC
29.81%
32.76%
37.42%
0.00%
0.00%
Mineski
22.45%
28.51%
49.04%
0.00%
0.00%
Alliance
9.24%
29.17%
61.59%
0.00%
0.00%
Liquid
5.86%
22.32%
71.82%
0.00%
0.00%
Keen
0.00%
0.00%
100.00%
0.00%
0.00%
Chaos
0.00%
0.00%
0.00%
0.00%
100.00%
Tiebreaker probabilities
Upper Bracket Tiebreakers
2-way tie for 4th - 35.97%
3-way tie for 3rd - 2.03%
3-way tie for 4th - 17.07%
Group B
With eight matches remaining, there are still some interesting tiebreaker scenarios in group B.
Match outcomes
Game
2:0
0:2
1:1
VP:EG
28.98%
27.49%
43.53%
NIP:Infamous
25.59%
31.55%
42.86%
RNG:Fnatic
25.55%
30.52%
43.93%
VG:Na'vi
47.55%
14.77%
37.68%
VG:OG
22.97%
34.72%
42.31%
VP:Fnatic
45.85%
15.68%
38.47%
EG:NIP
47.55%
14.77%
37.68%
RNG:Infamous
32.15%
25.13%
42.72%
Team placements
Team
Upper Bracket
Upper Bracket Tiebreaker
Lower Bracket
Elimination Tiebreaker
Eliminated
OG
100.00%
0.00%
0.00%
0.00%
0.00%
VG
95.07%
4.34%
0.59%
0.00%
0.00%
EG
53.07%
26.88%
19.48%
0.57%
0.00%
Na'vi
20.52%
36.28%
43.20%
0.00%
0.00%
VP
21.47%
25.68%
51.60%
1.15%
0.10%
RNG
14.77%
23.01%
59.84%
2.11%
0.28%
Fnatic
9.96%
17.70%
69.26%
2.78%
0.30%
Infamous
12.56%
23.24%
58.52%
4.65%
1.02%
NIP
0.00%
0.00%
1.90%
8.21%
89.88%
Tiebreaker probabilities
Upper Bracket Tiebreakers
2-way tie for 4th - 21.07%
3-way tie for 3rd - 11.85%
3-way tie for 4th - 9.43%
4-way tie for 2nd - 0.56%
4-way tie for 3rd - 4.38%
4-way tie for 4th - 5.18%
5-way tie for 2nd - 0.007%
5-way tie for 3rd - 0.47%
5-way tie for 4th - 1.49%
6-way tie for 3rd - 0.10%
Elimination Tiebreakers
2-way tie for 8th - 6.25%
3-way tie for 7th - 1.70%
4-way tie for 6th - 0.46%
There are two ways the 6-way tiebreaker can happen. In both scenarios, VG must beat Na'vi 2:0. Then either
VP beats EG 2:0
NIP beats Infamous 2:0
RNG beats Fnatic 2:0
Fnatic beats VP 2:0
EG and NIP draw
Infamous beats RNG 2:0
or
VP and EG draw
NIP and Infamous draw
RNG and Fnatic draw
VP and Fnatic draw
NIP beats EG 2:0
RNG and Infamous draw
which would put Na'vi, EG, Fnatic, RNG, Infamous, and VP all at 7 wins.
Started as a reply to a dude interested in China's reaction to the game, ended up being a long Chinese exercise for me. Obviously, the reactions are not all representative of China, there are much more positive reactions to the game than what I'm exhibiting here, but it's not as entertaining of course. All from baidu, sgamer isn't loading for me. Also, for other Chinese speakers that are probably much better than I am, do point out the mistakes! I left the original Chinese text for a reason! Here's the format I'm using
Quote: Original Chinese text, first quote is always the thread title
"Quotations: English translation" Line break like the one below this text: Seperate thread. Example:
不好意思,我就想说ame不配。
"Sorry guys, just wanna say that ame isn't worthy of the "best chinese carry" title." (This is an actual reaction to the game btw) Before I go on I should state that even in China, there are lots of LGD haterz, so some Chinese fans are glad they lost. When I watched the match on Panda.tv I think theres 15% of VP flairs making up the viewership of the Chinese streams (not too familiar with Chinese streaming gimmicks). xiao8 Weibo fan section, presented in screenshots and I'm lazy to type in Chinese so the format is broken for now.
LGD is still the best team right now, they only lost to themselves!
xiao8: disbelief emoji face
Hey xiao8, as a coach can't you see that they're losing to poor EQ?
xiao8: Nah, I think they lost on pure skill.
还有舔粉认为lgd只是输给了自己
"There's still fangays that thinks that LGD lost to themselves" To this, theres lots of "3154" replies, basically Chinese 322, implying LGD lost to throws (I agree).
所以说lgd呼吸权有没有了?
"So....is LGD's right to breath stripped?"
没了,禁止呼吸到TI
"Nope, no breathing till TI."
喜闻乐见 之前拿了两个major吧里全是粉的 现在输了 全是喷的 真实ri死你们的
"When LGD won 2 majors this forum are all praises for them, now that they lost the forum is flaming them. Seriously fuck you all" (Hey that applies to reddit too.)
"Shut it, are there any other placements other than Champions for CN dotes? Since when did CN dotes learn from CN LoL to be proud of a top 4 result? Lets wear the Chinese flag after another 3rd place finish and call it winning national pride again yeah?"
中国超级major,决赛没有一个中国人,这和鸟巢10个韩国人有啥区别呢?嗯?
"Not a single Chinese player in the China Supermajor final, whats the difference with 10 Koreans in the Bird Nest Stadium (Reference to LoL final) and this?"
美国钥匙球馆决赛还十个中国人呢你怎么不说呀
"What about 10 Chinese players in the American Key Arena? Why not talk about that?"
钥匙球馆动不动就没有美国人
"Yeah but Key Arena doesn't get Americans in the finals anyway"
哈哈major=S赛?那TI=什么?
"Haha, if Major=S tier tourney, what's TI then?"
别问了,rng洲际赛夺冠=ti夺冠,老干爹美酒输了=s赛输了
"Let's not continue, if RNG winning MSI (Chinese LoL team won the 2nd biggest tournament(?) for LoL this year)= winning a TI for LoL fans, then LGD losing major=losing S tier tournament. laughing emoji"
区别是人家全是韩国人
我们这里哪国的都有 "Difference is that LoL are all Koreans, we have everyone here."
lgd彻底失去呼吸权,霉皇,atme 查理斯,全部被狂喷。
"LGD lost all their rights to breath, ame, Chalice, maybe, all of them getting flamed hard."
这卡尔,我服
"This Kael'Thas (Invoker)......I'm impressed"
该喷,这群货就是膨胀了而已。
"As they should be, these guys are just overconfident."
这帮逼是为你打比赛了还是你给钱赞助他们打比赛了?凭什么就该被你喷?
"Are they playing for you or did you sponsor them to participate in tournaments? What gives you the right to flame them?"
不喷你等着ti一轮游
"You wait for TI to flame along with us then."
不不不lgd独一档,承包所有冠军
"No no no LGD is the lone wolf in Chinese Dota to claim all the championships." (Think it's a reference to ____,___!)
Overwatch community's Twitter tributes to InternetHulk in the wake of his passing
Will be updating as I find more, and some have already shared some of these. Working on making this a collection of tributes. Edit – Thanks a lot for the gold – but I feel like that's a bit undeserved on my part since I'm simply compiling this and a lot have contributed and helped. I'm going to need time to help get everything up, but I'll keep at it.
Hey guys, About 4 months ago I made an AMA about Player Representation (good read :P) - has it been a sufficient amount of time since then, or does this fall into brokenshard7 territory? In any case.. a tonne has happened for me in the past 4 months. Not only have I been on many interesting journeys, but I finally made quite a considerable shift career-wise. Before I get to what I've decided to do, I want to briefly highlight some of the other options I considered... I've looked at how to create a player support organization through the form of a 501(c)(3) (charity), which was actually pretty complicated although that wasn't the most deterring thing... it was more that it would need the community to support it as most players don't make enough to run an organisation and part with significant enough $ to make an organisation of that calibre run. I also looked into creating a Players Agency, which in my opinion is the next step towards leveling up the power dynamic for players (coupled with a few other things). I met with some of the largest agencies in the world, as well as several investors and had capital to go ahead with it, however these agencies are so numbers and spreadsheet focused that they don't buy into the long-term potential of representing players. They were willing to invest, but you know they don't care for the talent necessarily - they care more about $'s on the spreadsheet which would mean representing Broadcasters, Developers, Publishers, Tournaments and Teams (where most of the money is in the scene right now). As I'm still passionate about representing players and doing consulting on their behalf, I do actively represent some LCS and Amateur players in a part time capacity - but it is not a full time occupation for me at the moment due to it not being self-sustaining. I considered working for many of the large gaming orgs out there such as Twitch, Riot, EA, Microsoft, Hitbox, Blizzard, AZUBU, and Razer. These are fantastic companies in their own right and would be enriching, fascinating and great environments to work in, but I found myself always coming back to the desire to be a part of build something from the ground up. Whether it be my own start up or one I simply joined, I needed to be working somewhere fast-paced with limited bureaucracy (that all large companies face) - I needed to be put in uncomfortable environments to be given the opportunity to fail, as well as thrive. I was introduced to a passionate team of gamers by esportslaw in Seattle. This is where I met the founder of Microsoft Ventures Rahul Sood, who left MS and set out with the ambition of creating a safe, legal and responsible platform for eSports and non-eSports enthusiasts alike to wager on eSports. I loved the team, I loved the vision and accepted the position as Global VP of Business Development at Unikrn, which will have me moving to Seattle next month providing Visa goes through (fingers crossed). I'll leave the inevitable queries regarding Unikrn to the comments! EDIT: Wanted to address some of the concerns regarding ethics, match fixing and competitive integrity as they are recurring throughout which I completely understand!
I do apologise for some that have moral conflicts with gambling, you are very entitled to that - I'm not a betting man myself.. perhaps the odd blackjack game or a few bucks on a game with friends. This role is about me growing in the business environment personally for my career and bringing more overall money to the eSports ecosystem. We will do our best to prevent in match fixing working closely with tournament organisers, primarily offline tournaments, capped maximum bets (would be ludicrous for a player to throw away their career for a capped bet), working with TabCorp to measure any irregularities and crack down hard on those who abuse the system in conjunction with other partners. If you've paid any attention to CS:GO or DOTA, wagering has created a huge additional audience of engaged spectators which is driving more sponsorships and investment in those scenes which in turn should provide better infrastructure for players. Right now that isn't being done in the most legitimate way and we hope to do that, we want to re-invest in eSports. You may thing this was a cheap money grab because I see the upside; it played a factor.. but far was it from the only thing that made me take this step. If you are not comfortable with it, I'm not asking you to endorse, or use the platform - I done this AMA to let you air any grievances or questions you may have. I knew this would be controversial, I'd rather take it head on than hide from it. I've had long conversations with very close friends over my decision, which some were morally opposed to also and in the end.. I managed to reason with them, even if they didn't like what I was doing.. they understood it.
On a side note: I learned some tough personal lessons throughout this time and the reason I bring it up is to perhaps help those who face a similar situation. Relationships are amazing, wonderful and magical but sometimes it isn't the right time - regardless of how much you love each other and see a future with that person. It'll take some time to move on, but try find strength in it and re-invest in yourself. Happy to provide moral support for others if they need it in comment section (or DM privately)! Twitter:Snoopeh LinkedIn:Snoopeh Unikrn Twitter:Unikrn UPDATE: Gotta close out the AMA now guys, heading to Soho, London (haven't packed yet!) tomorrow for the HyperX, OverclockersUK and Intel Pop Up shop where we will be doing a fan meet as well as lunch with pros (and ex pros haha)! I knew this AMA would be very controversial, but I wanted to have it - I wanted you guys to have the opportunity to throw rocks at me (if you felt the need) and me attempt to provide satisfactory responses. Wagering will happen in eSports, by us or someone else - it WILL bring more money into the scene and it WILL further the ecosystem. Yes there is controversy that will happen along the way, despite ours and others best efforts to prevent it - but I assure you I will do my best. PS: My long term dream is to create a Players Agency, that purely represents players and no one else; after carefully looking at the model.. it's not financially sustainable without a secondary income. Therefore I'm going to continue doing it but on a part time basis! Have a good weekend folks, thanks for participating. Message me on twitteemail if you have further questions!
[OC] Through 7 editions of TI, there hasn't been a single two-time winner. How do the previous champions stack up this year?
2016 edition 2017 edition Another year has gone and the most improbable streak in all of esports still continues. We've seen the Aegis of Champions lifted up 7 times, and so far, no one - not an individual player, not an organization - has had that honor more than once. 7 titles, 35 champions. Last year the tradition was the closest it's been to ending in 5 years - TI2 champion Faith and his team Newbee reached the grand finals from the upper bracket, but fell victim to Team Liquid in the first-ever 3-0 sweep in the history of Valve event finals. And this year, with Liquid still going strong and widely considered among the favorites for TI8, the chances of a repeat are higher than ever. Still, with all the qualifiers done and the International Eighteen determined, how do all the previous champions fare in terms of pursuing that elusive second title? TI1 champions: Natus Vincere XBOCT: coaching Na'Vi. The team had an up-and-down year, but crumbled where it mattered most, crashing out of both CIS open qualifiers for TI. With the team at the lowest point in its existence, no one's place in the organization is safe. And his most notable contribution to the Dota folklore, the 4 meme, was taken over by RodjER. Yeah, this wasn't a good year for the man. Dendi: still not losing, occasionally winning mid on Na'Vi. Same as above. LighTofHeaveN: working as a caster for RuHub. Doing well enough, but after 2 years of dominance over the CIS casting scene the competition has finally arrived - v1lat's Maincast has proved to be more than competitive during the qualifiers. The biggest winner is the viewer, of course. Puppey: in his 4th season in Team Secret, a team he founded and has rebuilt countless times. The current iteration has won a Major this season, but seemed to have tapered off towards the end of the year, falling out of the "S-tier", sort of speak. Still, with his mad drafting genius and an occasional jungle WK, you can never count Puppey out. ArtStyle: finishing his 2nd season coaching Virtus.pro, a team that has dominated the CIS region like no one else before them - not even Na'Vi in their prime. Unfortunately, coaches don't get their name engraved on the Aegis (yet), so he's not really eligible for the 2nd title, but I think no one would deny Ivan Balanar's veteran influence on one of the best teams in the world and presumptive TI favorites. TI2 champions: Invictus Gaming Zhou: the Patient One himself is, according to Liquipedia, a "semi-active professional player" at this point in his career, though his last appearance in any kind of pro team was in the fall of 2014 with the old-timer stack Old Boys. Safe to say he's retired. Ferrari_430: until very recently, I considered him done and dusted as far as the pro scene is concerned (not showing up on any pro roster since 2015), but he made a suprising comeback in the TI8 Chinese open qualifiers with the stack Young Dumb, featuring, among others, Newbee's CEO (and thus promtly renamed to Newbee.Boss). He put up an honorable performance, reaching the closed stage and going 3-4, just one win away from the playoffs. YYF: quietly retired since 2014 and, as far as I know, occasionally joins the Chinese caster desk at tournaments. ChuaN: the OG monitor smasher, this Malaysian superstar last made TI in 2016 with Newbee. Since then, he had no notable achievements, but, according to Liquipedia, he's the only active member of Echo International - a team famous to have finished dead last in DPC standings, scoring just 30 points off of FoReV's performance as a sub for Team Secret. Faith: one of the only Chinese all-timers who "still has it", last year Faith came this close to becoming the first ever two-time TI champion, but he'll have another shot as his team, Newbee, qualified for TI once again through DPC points. The team hasn't been so hot recently, with the bulk of their points coming before the New Year, but once you make it to the big show, anything can happen. TI3 champions: Alliance Loda: after languishing on the zombie-like Alliance roster for 2 years, he finally made the move... and became coach of that team instead. Not that it helped: the "new er[A]" roster, made up of young Swedish players, failed to advance from the European open qualifier and the future of the legendary tag is once again in jeopardy. s4: the only member of the TI-winning roster who's still active. The "professional Magnus player" (as said in his Twitter bio) moved to offlane two years when he joined the revamped OG, which proved to be a successful, career-saving decision. Yet, after 1.5 disappointing years (OG went out in 8th-12th at TI7 and never got their feet set in the DPC climate), he, along with OG's captain Fly, were bought out by another struggling powerhouse - Evil Geniuses. The team took the roster lock penalty in stride and qualified for TI8 easily, earning the 1st out of three North American slots. It will be his job in August to satisfy the punks once and for all. AdmiralBulldog: still under contract with Alliance as a streamer, but recently broke out of his shell and started going to tournaments as an analyst, starting with Epicenter XL and also appearing at the China Supermajor. It took him time to get comfortable in front of a camera, but at this point I fully expect a TI talent invite for him, seeing how Valve loves having former pros on the broadcast. Hopefully his visa situation isn't too messed up from last year. Akke: I honestly have no idea of his whereabouts. Since his TI6 appearance as part of the OG Alliance reunion tour, the only other time I saw him do anything Dota-related was as an analyst at TI7. Otherwise, he's laid pretty low. EGM: same as Akke, except he seems to have completely gone off the radar since 2016. TI4 champions: Newbee Hao: no notable appearances to speak of since 2017, when he failed to qualify for TI7 with Vici Gaming, and, presumably, has retired for good (though "for good" is a relative term for Chinese pros) Mu: perhaps the least notable post-TI4 career out of all of them. He played on Newbee for a bit, crashed out in last place at TI5, was part of Newbee's brief return to form in the lead-up to TI6, but once again disappointed there, finishing 8th-12th. Since then, he last played on the old-timer stack Old Boys and, according to Liquipedia, considered a casting career. Xiao8: The Director, as he's called in the English-speaking community, has once again come out of retirement in May, this time to become the coach of EHOME. The team participated in the TI8 open qualifiers, but went out in the quarterfinals and the Round of 16 respectively, failing to secure any of the 6 slots. His future is once again unknown, but bet on a talent appearance in Vancouver. Banana: surprisingly, still coaching LGD.FY, but unable to repeat the success of TI7, as the team lost in the lower bracket finals of the Chinese qualifier to IG. SanSheng: reminded everyone he existed in April, when he went on a legendary tirade at a Chinese Dota forum, blaming the players for being unable to defeat the dominant and arrogant VP and claimed to have figured out their warding patterns. It sent the rest of the world to their floor as The One Whose Name is Engraved on the Aegis actually landed a coaching position with Newbee as a result of his work. That said, he didn't actually reveal anything other teams couldn't figure out just from watching the publicly-available replays, and he promptly lost to VP once again in the upper bracket at the Supermajor. TI5 champions: Evil Geniuses Fear: spent most of the 2017/18 season as the Death Prophet/Lycan specialist in EG after returning to the active roster post-TI7, but after a disappointing end to the year with EG being unable to secure a slot at TI through DPC points, was kicked to make room for s4 and Fly. This is the first time he's not been part of the EG organization since 2011, and with his playing career very clearly on its last legs, it's probably time for him to move to the analyst desk. SumaiL: still on EG. After TI7 he moved to the offlane to accomodate Fear playing mid, but with that experiment not working out, in the most recent iteration he switched back to his original position and continued pwning people with Lina and Storm Spirit - just like the old times. UNiVeRsE: transferred to Fnatic in January 2018 as Jacky Mao's last-ditch effort of building a competitive TI-level team. That proved to be quite a beneficial decision for him, as Fnatic stayed together through the roster lock and easily qualified for TI8 out of the weak SEA region. Chances to win it all look bleak, however, as all it would take is just a single EE moment for everything to unravel. ppd: The Salt Lord himself unexpectedly continued his playing career as founding member of the OpTic Gaming Dota 2 roster and proved his EG doubters wrong, staying in the DPC race until the very last event. Two times in a row he was just one series away from securing the direct invite, but over those two series against Virtus.pro, he failed to win a game, going 0-5. Still, OpTic regrouped and advanced through the easiest qualifier of them all. He's at TI once again, and that's all he needs to make a run. Aui_2000: currently reunited with his old buddy Saahil as Fnatic's coach. His career has gone downhill very quickly after winning TI5, first founding Digital Chaos (but being ousted before their remarkable TI6 run), spending a couple of months on Cloud9 Reborn - Team NP - and crashing out in last place at TI7 at the hands of Resolut1on, RodjER and Team Empire, and after that going from stack to stack until he finally settled down in Malaysia in May. TI6 champions: Wings Gaming shadow, bLink, iceice: just like the Wings organization themselves, their careers faded very quickly. The owner of the team used the prize money from their TI6 victory to (unsuccessfully) fund his LoL team, the players tried to leave the org, were denied by ACE until Valve stepped in, and now they languish in various stacks around China, not anywhere near the professional scene. Faith_bian, Innocence: unlike the other three, they actually found a home - an EHOME, if you'd like. The DPC system proved to be a saving grace for the org's unending conflict with ACE, as all the big tournaments, as well as qualifiers, were now outside ACE's jurisdiction. Unfortunately, they couldn't make anything out of it, only qualifying for one event - the MDL Minor (and only after Valve forced MDL to invite them) and, as mentioned before, failing in the open qualifiers for TI8. TI7 champions: Team Liquid MATUMBAMAN, Miracle-, Mind_Control, gh, KuroKy: in their 2nd year as a team, still going strong. Despite their TI8 invite never being in question, until very recently they lacked just one thing on their resume - a Major victory, which they finally earned at the China Supermajor, beating Virtus.pro 3-2. They head into TI8 as one of the 3 favorites, along with VP and LGD, and represent the biggest chance at a repeat victory (both for players and the org) since Na'Vi's streak of three straight grand finals.
The sequel to this Very sorry this guide is going up as late as it is, I had to work very late tonight and didn't even get to watch any of TI today. I'll blaze through Day 4 and go straight to the good stuff. Ideal Day 4 Lineup: LIQUID. For the sake of finishing this guide faster, I'll just leave it at that. Anywho... My not-quite-fully-comprehensive-but-good-enough guide to Main Event Day 5 fantasy selections. OPTIONAL PRE-STEP ONE: Rape and pillage. If you want to dust some cards to try and get yourself a new pack or two, the teams that are out of the tournament include Fnatic, Hellraisers, Execration, IG-Vitality, Infamous, Cloud 9, Secret, EG, TNC, Digital Chaos, Empire, OG and VP. You won't be able to dust any cards you've used in fantasy before, but other than that go nuts. STEP ONE: Identify who's playing. You KNOW the drill already from Day 4, so I don't think I need to explain myself again. Yet again, there's only two teams you should be considering today. (If you would like my reasoning explained in detail, click the link at the top for yesterday's guide, and all the points I made in this step about Liquid and Empire apply today, just with different teams). DAY FIVE TEAMS: IG, LGD, THE END, NOBODY ELSE STEP TWO: Peep the player averages. CORES: LGD.Maybe (16.36) - IG.BurNIng (15.29) - LGD.Ame (15.04) - IG.Op (14.81) SUPPORTS: IG.BoBoKa (17.30) - IG.Q (12.72) - LGD.Victoria (12.54) - LGD.Yao (12.51) OFFLANE: IG.Xxs (11.80) - LGD.eLeVeN (10.95) Fact of Great Importance: This is normally where I'd talk about game length, but who even cares in this scenario? What, you still want to see it? But it doesn't matter. Oh fine. LGD plays the fastest games in the entire tournament (34 MPG), while IG averages 39 minutes per game. Extra Info - Rematches: Sorry, first time meeting this tournament. So What Do You Do?: I feel like I need to give a strong preface here. Your decision on how to proceed ultimately comes down into who you think is going to win between IG and LGD. I cannot stress this enough that THIS IS NOT MY SPECIALTY. I can break down numbers with the best of them, but breaking down who has the advantage stylistically between two teams is something you should definitely consult other sources for. With that said, you have three options with how to proceed. OPTION ONE: All in on LGD: Maybe you're swayed by LGD winning their group. Maybe LGD's last two series of relative dominance have you convinced they're the superior Chinese Dota team. If you're pretty damn sure LGD is going to win, you should start every single LGD player. OPTION TWO: All in on IG: Maybe you think BoBoKa is support Jesus and will carry his team to the promised land. Maybe you heard 1437 talk about how Group B's meta was superior and that's convincing you to steer clear of LGD. Maybe you just think IG is a better team. If you're pretty damn sure IG is going to win, you should start every single IG player. OPTION THREE: Hedge Your Bets: Aka the coward's way out. Maybe you've come to the perfectly reasonable conclusion that this series could go either way, and you don't want to get burned by going all-in on the wrong team. What you do to ensure you get at least SOME 4-game guys involved is to split the difference. Pick your favorite core and support from IG (I recommend BurNIng and BoBoKa) and then pick your favorite core and support from LGD (I recommend Maybe and either LGD support is fine). For your offlaner, go with the one for whichever team you're slightly leaning toward. If you think you're at an exact 50/50 emotional split between the teams, go with Xxs because his individual numbers are better. By going with this approach, you're guaranteed to get somewhere between 2 and 3 players getting FP from 4 games from you. By doing this, you limit your ceiling, but you also limit your floor. C's get degrees after all. My personal Day 3 lineup: I thought Day 4 was a relatively easy call, but today is significantly more challenging. And you know what? I'm a lock for Top 10%. The Top 100 is for the rich anyway, and I aint gonna make it there. I have nothing to prove to anybody. I can just take a knee, run out the clock, and be in a good position going into the final day to preserve Top 10% status. As Marcellus Wallace once said in Pulp Fiction, "The night of the fight, you might feel a slight sting. That's pride, fucking with you. FUCK pride. Pride only hurts. It never helps. You fight through that shit. Because a year from now, what you kickin' it in the Caribbean, you gonna say to yourself 'Marcellus Wallace was right.'" Fuck pride. The coward's way out I go. BurNIng-Maybe-eLeVeN-BoBoKa-Yao EDIT - I originally had Xxs in at offlane. But through dusting old cards, I stumbled into a rather decent gold eLeVeN. That inspired me to go look up some betting book (oddsportal) to check on the odds, and they list LGD as the -141 favorite. Not much, but that's enough to sway me to starting eLeVeN instead. That's pretty much it. Remember, I'm not giving you a firm stance on what to do, I'm just giving you the information that will let you make a sound decision. Happy Gambling. FULL DISCLOSURE: My eight-day fantasy total is 2634.23.
I just figured out the conspiracy of PSG.LGD losing intentionally to Liquid for gambling money.
OK so game 1 PSG.LGD vs liquid, PSG.LGD VERY CLEARLY and VERY convincingly showed they are a much more talented and skilled team. Like I haven't seen such a clear demonstration of "we are better than you" than that game 1. They literally outplayed liquid so hard that it was like comical the differential of skill. NOW HERE COMES THE REAL TALK: Although PSG.LGD were far superior to Liquid they also knew that they couldn't realistically or reliably defeat OG. So they made a business decision. They lost to Liquid on purpose and bet against themselves when they were the favorites, and they earned millions of dollars. Lets think about this from PSG.LGD point of view: Option 1: we try to beat OG and we lose and gain $4,000,000. Option 2: we bet everything against ourselves vs Liquid and we win millions of dollars + our 3 million 3rd place bonus... They had 2 options assuming my assumption is correct and they correctly determined they can't beat OG this year. Option 1 they get 4 million dollars. Option 2 they get insane dollars from betting their life savings against themselves and + 3 million dollars for 3rd place? I could probably list dozens of things they did to throw if I actually tried to review this game but, really it's pretty simple to see how blatantly they threw this series vs Liquid. Proof they threw #1) They picked Huskar... I literally don't even need to say anything else. Picking huskar in 2019 TI is 100% throw, there's no reason why a top 3 team in the world would ever do that unless they were trying to lose but wanted to cover it with an exciting game like they had a chance (story of huskar's life). Proof they threw #2) They picked Shadow Fiend into Liquid's 2nd pick TA. What hero do you pick vs Shadowfiend when u want to both win ur lane, and destroy Shadow Fiend mid to late game? Oh... It's TA... so PSG.LGD literally counter picked themselves... not just a light counter pick... they hard countered themselves... they 100% threw and guaranteed that throughout all stages of the game SF would be weak vs the enemy mid... why would you ever do that unless you were intentionally throwing? I'm a white NA player, and my 3 favorite Dota teams are: 1) Liquid 2) OG 3)PSG.LGD I just like good Dota... and I don't think it takes a genius to recognize that PSG.LGD did not play good dota they lost on purpose for some gambling scheme earning them millions of dollars. Even look at PSG.LGD interviews the whole time they are just meming about how VG gaming and VP and like any team etc is better than them? They were literally just trolling the whole tournament. PSG.LGD is literally 5x better than VG gaming its not even comparable the fact that they would say this stuff just showed their mindset of this TI they weren't planning to win if they could accurately determine they werent the favorites, the math of doing so doesnt add up compared to betting against yourself and winning so many millions.
Previous Thread Added and removed some stuff, but most importantly, added links. Once again I will read through all of your comments for suggestions and edit this thread accordingly if I'm not too lazy, but this time please provide links whenever possible. See you guys again in like half a year. Until then, keep memeing.
2011
DOOM IS BACK! DOOM IS BACK! RUN! [video] Holy son of a monkey's uncle [video]
Just ward his jungle.; Jungle his wards. S A D B O Y S [wiki][song] n0tail u r fuckin perfect m8. [post][image] He's a good player, a bit overated in my opinion. But defenitely okay to be in a top team! [post] When game is going full retard, you can only go with it. [video][image] For selling mayonnaise! [video] Sheever's "URN REEL MONI" [video] FURION CAN YOU TP TOP? [video] C R U M B L I N G [video][song] Brooklyn Kurtz [post][art] 10 years since sing strim. [pasta] Gaben likes to play Sand King [image][post] When the frist hit strikes wtih desolator, the hit stirkes as if the - armor debuff had already been placed? [post] enough for do my power [post] Stay in the trees! [video] A Quick Morphling Painting [post][post][post][post][post][post] ( ^◡^)っ✂╰⋃╯SNIP SNIP [image][post] Literally nothing. Arteezy sat in a dark room. The words "Dire Victory" filled up the screen. [pasta] DIGITAL SPORTS [post][wiki][sound][sound][sound] TI4 EU Hub [Highlights][album][CAT TRAPPED UNDER COUCH][Pieliedie & Mario Party][Sheever legs][More Sheever & Jess legs][NOTHING HAPPENED][Pajkatt's Maelk Impression] Pajkatt's Voice Impressions [video][video][video][video] If I buy the compendium now will I still get all the previous rewards? Thank you Sheevar for making my every single day worth living. [post] So smart. [video] Everything can work. [video][video] 22-0 [video] The Art of Rat Dota; Alliance is back [video] ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ AMENO ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ; Moonmeander playing same song on repeat on stream [song] I'm Gigi, come from China.; TI4 QoP cosplayer [video][video][gfy] This will be explosive.; TI4 Techies Reveal [video] Chinese Death Ball [video] Sheever's Whore Moment; Sheever, we need to have a talk. [post] ppd salt [pasta] Hey Arteezy, I'm trying to learn to play Riki. [pasta] From the Ghastly Eyrie I can see to the ends of the world, and from this vantage point I declare with utter certainty that this one is in the bag! [wiki][sound] ( ͡°╭͜ʖ╮͡° ) DAY TUCKER NIGHT FUCKER ( ͡°╭͜ʖ╮͡° ) [sound] Ebola Spirit [wiki][wiki] EE pours Monster over H4nni's head [video] Hey ( ° ͜ʖ͡°)╭∩╮ [tweet][tweet][tweet][video] LMFAO wHo cAREAS HAHA Xd [post] Hi, 4k player here who reported slasher.; "SLASHER'S WAY" [post] It looks like you're interested in learning to play Dota 2 or new to the game. Here are some useful resources which might help you get up to speed quickly with the game. [user]
2015
Hello I'm Snith, playing my 202143th game on Chen. [pasta][dotabuff] measure ur words cuz i might smash ur head when i meet u [post] Just a boy trying to play dota. KA LE [post] Scientists baffled by man's ability to fuck up every time [image][image][image] Cloud9 no TP scrolls vs Secret [video] Old man Fear in a wheelchair: "Where am I?" [video] One less ego one more championship [tweet][post] Source 2 will fix it. Spin 2 Win; Juggernaut, Axe and Troll Warlord being the meta heroes tfw valve memes u [post] hey its me ur brother [kym] DROP YOUR STICK [video] Hello I'm Synderen. I sexually identify as a pig molester. [pasta][original pasta] HO HO, HA HA; Sniper being the meta hero [sound] ez bugatti Wolves Need no Armor [video] 6.84 is coming after Starladder [post] Expert Analyzers [video][webm] 17%; Spirit Breaker's Bash Chance Icefrog likes Mangos [post] 6.84 Necrophos Jungle Guide: Ancients, by Leafeator [video] You are playing against Alliance. [post][video] Polishing [blog][image] Futa's Way: Warlock.; Mangolems, Mangolian Scepter [video] Bruno = Icefrog, now with proof! [post] I look at the moon and I tell myself... I fucked up... I FUCKED UP! [video][image] When game is going this bad I just want to create chaos. Create so much chaos that no one understands Dota anymore. [post][image] I'm a simple man. I see boobs, I upvote. Good Jokes mate real funny see u at FUCK YOUJ [post] eh, average play. [post] Matumbawoman [tweet][video] 👌👀 good shit [kym] PogChamp WTF 3 Merlinis PogChamp [tweet] Topless Gamer Grill Stream [video] Experts and Synderen [video] OSfrog Imbalance Demands it OSfrog [sound] Artstyle graves himself [video] Swindlemelonzz drops his Eul's; Delete your Eul's and apologize [video][video] It looks like you're interested in learning to fuck everyone else game. Here are some useful resources which might help you get in low priority fast. [user] 420 Booty Wizard; Dendi surprise appearance at TI5 all-stars match [video] IT'S A DISASTAH! v2.0; 6 million dollar echo slam [video] One of my favorites! ThusIinvokeMasturbation[user] RTC? TI5? [video] Introducing Team SUNSfan Digital Chaos [video] Hello. I am noobfromua. I wanted to ask if you give me permission to sometimes use your stream content in my youtube videos. [post] Nope ._. [tweet] Pit Lord picked in Moon Duck Elimination Tournament [video] Aghanim's Scepter: Riki (Pocket Riki) [post] pls mr lizard [image] 8 0 0 0 M A T C H M A K I N G P O I N T S [post][post] Kuroky was right, Arteezy was left.; Arteezy was right, Kuroky was left. offlaner and his Alliance tattoo [post][post][post] SeemsGood Thanks Purge SeemsGood [post] Brutal, Savage, Rekt. [video] Orangutang Ganja, Overrated Gamers, Olympic Gays [video][image] QUALITY MEMES. I love the memes there, Jack. [video] 6.86: Literally nothing. [post] Happy little trees. [post] Whatever kid. Oh I'm sorry did I fucking trigger you? [post] 400mmr dude looking to enter the shanghai qualifiers; Kappa Crusaders [post][post]
PSG.LGD had a fun series against Alliance which saw a series draw. With Team Secret tying their series against Chaos, this meant PSG.LGD claimed top seed of their group going into the Main Event.
Team Secret their first game against Chaos ended in 21 minutes so people assumed it would be the same fashion heading into game 2 but Chaos hit back hard to tie the series up. Secret had already secured an Upper Bracket spot anyway.
Newbee had a close series against Mineski which saw them each take a game each. This result locked them a spot in Upper Bracket for the Main Event.
TNC Predator were able to clutch out the final day with a strong series win over Liquid which helped them secure a spot in the Upper Bracket for the Main Event.
Alliance wounded the Chinese titans by claiming the first game of the series against PSG.LGD but were hit back hard in a decisive game 2 to draw the series. With TNC beating Liquid, this meant Alliance were just shy of Upper Bracket glory.
Mineski tried hard to grab a series win from Newbee but their playstyle was too unpredictable for them but they managed to draw first blood in the series. Mineski will start the Main Event in the Lower Bracket.
Team Liquid did not look up to scratch against a strong TNC lineup in game 1. While they put up a fight, TNC were able to close game 1 in a long 70 minute battle and then close the series with another 35 minute performance. Liquid finish group stages in 7th place starting Main Event in the Lower Bracket.
Keen Gaming had played all their games but day 3 results had them locked into Lower Bracket already.
Chaos Esports Club were able to take a game off Secret in their series but their great performance was much too late as their fate had already been sealed the day prior.
Group B Final Standings for Day 4:
Standing
Team
Score
Points
Games
1
OG
6-2-0
14
16
2
Vici Gaming
4-3-1
11
16
3
Evil Geniuses
3-3-2
9
16
4
Virtus.pro
3-2-3
8
16
5
Infamous
1-5-2
7
16
6
Fnatic
3-1-4
7
16
7
Natus Vincere
2-3-3
7
16
8
Royal Never Give Up
2-2-4
6
16
9
Ninjas in Pyjamas
0-3-5
3
16
OG decided to have a bit of fun and draft a Techies into VG but were punished too hard. They decided to play a regular solid draft to tie the series.
Vici Gaming played a patient early game in the first match against Na'Vi and slowly but confidently extended their lead to close it out. VG punished OG's decision to draft Techies and took the first game of the series. Vici were unable to get the win against OG but still secured an Upper Bracket slot.
Natus Vincere were unable to get their draft off the ground in their first match and were quickly run over by VG. The second game looked more or less like the first with Na'Vi unable to get anything started against VG's strong lineup. Na'Vi will be playing the Main Event starting from the Lower Bracket.
Evil Geniuses start their day off with a convincing game against VP who weren't able to lock down Sumail's Storm Spirit despite a decent start on Noone's QoP. In similar fashion, EG were unable to tame Ramzes' Lifestealer which ended up tying up the series. Their next series was against old NA blood, ppd, which saw EG completely run over NiP. This first game result sealed the deal for NiP, eliminating them from TI. EG added salt in the wound by leaving NiP winless against them.
Infamous continue to prove that they belong at The International as they managed to decimate NiP in just over 23 minutes in their first game. Infamous were unable to put the nail in the coffin against NiP as Ace's Meepo run rampant against their lineup. Unable to recollect themselves before the next series, Infamous were ran over by RNG in 15 minutes. This heavy loss woke them up and Infamous drafted a comfortable lineup and executed well to tie the series. Infamous fall just short of Upper Bracket and will play the Main Event starting from Lower Bracket.
Fnatic looked in a rough patch in their first game against RNG but a crucial teamfight saw them steal the game. Fnatic put up a good fight in game 1 but VP's excellent decision making allowed them to take the game. Fnatic looked better in game 2 and even had a 20,000 gold lead at one point but their mistakes were punished hard and VP were able to claim the series. With this result alongside other results, Fnatic fall short of the Upper Bracket. They will have to keep their dream alive from the Lower Bracket.
Virtus.pro drafted a risky lineup with very little control against EG's Storm Spirit - This proved deadly as EG ran over VP in under 30 minutes. VP fought hard to claim game 1 from Fnatic and somehow stole game 2 from Fnatic despite being very far behind. VP's results and other results locked them into Upper Bracket for the Main Event.
Royal Never Give Up looked to have the first game against Fnatic in the bag but a disastrous late game fight gave Fnatic enough leverage to close out the first game. RNG were looking clean with a 15 minute domination against Infamous but they clapped back against RNG in game 2 to tie the series. RNG's up and down Group Stage performance was mostly saved by NiP's even more lackluster performance.
Ninjas in Pyjamas had to pull something together on the last day of Group Stages as their tournament life was on the line but nothing came together in their first game against Infamous. NiP decided to bet it all on an Ace Meepo pick to keep their TI journey alive tying the series against Infamous. They tried hard to keep their hopes alive but EG were simply too powerful knocking NiP out of The International.
Best Teams of the Day: VP, EG and VG Group Stage Summary & Main Event Prospects The two top seed winners are OG and PSG.LGD who performed extremely well over the four days. They're joined by Secret, Newbee, TNC, VG, VP and EG. The teams were put up a good fight but didn't make the Upper Bracket side are Alliance, Mineski, Liquid, Keen, Infamous, Fnatic, Na'Vi and RNG. They'll have to play a terrifying Best of One in the first round of Main Event. Looking at the placements of Upper and Lower Bracket at a glance some teams were expected and some definitely surprised. Newbee definitely turned some heads and performed better than people expected as they gave some top teams a lot of trouble. Liquid definitely underperformed and didn't meet most people's expectations. NiP and Chaos were unfortunately eliminated at the end of Group Stages. Both teams looked like they couldn't find their footing whether it was down to drafts, execution or closing out games. Hope you enjoyed these summaries. I'll be back once Main Event rolls around. Thanks!
Ever since the downfall of Dota2Lounge there has been a drought for places to bet skins and items that are legitimate and easy to use. Fortunately, the site VPGame has sprung up and allows the betting of CS:GO and Dota 2 items alike on matches. If you want more information on this service then stick with us! Sertakan data lengkap Anda saat bergabung, meliputi; 1. nama bank, 2. nama rekening, 3. nomor rekening, 4. nomor hp aktif, 5. email aktif. Harap mengikuti prosedur yang ada demi mendapatkan HAK Anda secara penuh, terima kasih. Dota 2. All Discussions (probably because their biggest profits come from chinese users and if they shut their betting site the game will be officially dead) because vpgame was the only betting site (or that's what I think) tht continued operating normally after the gambling scandal (caused by some CSGO scammers and their fake gambling site Dota 2. All Discussions Screenshots Artwork Broadcasts Videos Workshop News Guides Reviews where can i bet items vp game is dead where can i bet items vp game is dead The majority of your items are non-tradable or of the 3 cent variety. You do have 3 arcanas though and I'm sure if you want to throw them away, that some third-party website They are Dota 2 item betting and betting on matches with real money. Item betting is unique as it is only available on Valve platform games like Dota 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. It was a massive boost to reinvigorate CS: GO and the player base as well as a great source of income for the game. Dota 2 betting sites for real money like Dota 2 is an online multiplayer game in the MOBA genre and it was developed by Valve Corporation. It is free to download on the Steam platform. Most popular Steam game. In a standard game of Dota the player’s objective is to destroy the main enemy construction called the Ancient, which is located inside their base. Valve employee shows the “before and after” pictures of Lina before the game was released. VPGAME; Yesterday; 3; 7389; Valve's production designer, Dabi Yong, showed what Lina from Dota 2 was supposed to look like before the game was released in 2013. Dota 2 Bets – General Information. Dota 2 is a popular online game of the MOBA genre with fascinating gameplay. This is a team game, which means that 2 teams with 5 participants on each side are fighting. The main goal of the game is to destroy the core enemy building – the Fortress, also called the Throne. View full stats, matches and teams for VPGAME LEAGUE CSGOBestYolo - CS:GO Dota 2 items bet website. Predicts in world's best eSports tournament
EG vs EHOME - BEST DOTA 2 GAME EVER - TOP 3 TI6 - YouTube
Commentary by TobiWan SyndereNhttps://www.twitch.tv/dota2tiLIQUID vs VP - TI7 DOTA 2 - WHAT A SERIES!!!Subscribe http://bit.ly/noobfromua Official Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/dota2tiTwitter: https://twitter.com/DOTA2DOTA 2 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/dota2ti/Organised by https://www.v... Apuestas de items de dota 2 Predicciones dota 2 partidasPredicciones vp game -----... Virtus.Pro vs LFY - TI7 TOP 3 MATCH - INSANE GAME! Commentary by TobiWan SyndereN https://www.twitch.tv/dota2ti Subscribe http://bit.ly/noobfromua Ganando items en vp gameAPostando items internacional 2017 dota 2Predicciones de apuestas dota 2 internacional dota 2 2017-----... Commentary by @Bowie https://www.twitch.tv/d2bowi3EG vs Virtus Pro - BEST INSANE GAME! - STOCKHOLM MAJOR DreamLeague DOTA 2 SUBSCRIBE http://bit.ly/noobfrom... Dota 2 EG vs EHOME - BEST DOTA 2 GAME EVER - TOP 3 TI6 Commentary by Capitalist and BlitzSubscribe http://bit.ly/noobfromua Papakita ko sa inyo kung pano gumagana ang roll sa VP at pano din makakakuha ng libreng item mula dito.Like and Subscribe sa channel ko for more videos about...