Here’s why you should be following the current season of NA DotA.
The North American scene often ends up being the butt of the community’s jokes, and excluding Evil Geniuses, it’s for good reason. The constant disbanding, infighting and the ironic misspelling are all well documented by this point. But the post-TI6 season for the region is shaping up to be a good one, and here’s five reasons why you should tune into watch NA’s finest battle it out.
1. There’s another big dog in the yard now.
Since the time of S A D B O Y S, the North American scene has been marred by numerous teams shuffling and reforming, while they all attempted to claw away at EG’s position at the top of the ladder. The three-swede Complexity lineup came somewhat close to challenging for the top spot, but it wasn’t until Digital Chaos’s emphatic victory against EG in the lower bracket finals of TI6 that the geniuses were forced to share their throne.
With the addition of OG’s previous offlaner MoonMeander in the fall shuffle, DC has gotten stronger. MoonMeander brings a wider hero pool, traditional playmaking and more mechanical prowess to the position 3 role. Plus, Moon’s meme game is only rivaled by few in the world.
The two giants will clash again at the BEAT Invitational in a month; bragging rights are waiting to be claimed.
2. The Tier 2 scene is blossoming well.
The various LAN qualifiers and online tourneys after TI have made one thing clear — the bottom rung is still really trash and there is a serious lack of depth. EvernovaS already had Mason leave their roster after playing two matches, and Team Freedom hasn’t registered a win against anyone notable. Valve couldn’t even find 8 teams worthy of an invite to the regional qualifiers.
However, EternalEnvy’s Team NP, Swindle’s Complexity Gaming and Stan King’s FDL have settled in quite nicely below the overlords of NA.
After NP was formed with much fanfare, their first outing was in the BEAT Invitational qualifiers where they were expected to cruise through the qualifier. Instead, FDL took the LAN spot over 5 hard fought games after being previously beaten 2–0 by NP in the upper bracket semifinals. Every member of NP’s roster had previously played under the C9 brand and it seemed that the 2nd place curse never left.
FDL & NP met again in the Summit 6 Qualifiers where NP would take the series in a close 2–1 series.
Complexity‘s new pub-star infused squad debuted in a pretty underwhelming 2–0 loss to NP in the Summit 6 Qualifiers. But they made quick work of Team Freedom and FDL with back to back 2–0 victories through the lower bracket to face Team NP in the grand finals.
In classic NA fashion, the BO5 finals went to 5 games again and culminated in an hour long nail-biter of a game. Team NP took the series 3–2 on the back on some impressive decision making by Aui_2000. Their LAN drought was over before it became a cause of concern, while complexity’s struggles with BO5 losses continue.
The three teams seem evenly matched so far, with all besting each other in best-of-three series. Neither of the three are expected to get a direct invite to the Boston Major, so the regional qualifiers are set to be an entertaining showdown to determine which team really is the best out of the three.
While Team NP probably feel relieved that the LAN monkey is off their back early, the more important news is that finally, Beesa will be playing the carry on LAN in god knows how long.
3. Some of the world’s best playmaking supports call NA their home.
With Cr1t joining the ranks of EG, the region now boasts 5 of the top playmakers in the west. Keep your oddshot and livecap buttons warm, there will be plenty of amazing outplays happening this season.
EG.Zai & EG.Cr1t
PPD was infamous for playing the position ‘6’ role on the previous iteration of EG to regularly facilitate three, or even four farming cores at times. Cr1t‘s superstar resume doesn’t quite fit into the humble shoes of PPD and instead the new lineup has two amazing 4’s instead of a clear hard support candidate. With EG’s greed reaching record levels after the re-addition of Arteezy, it will be curious to see how the new support duo adjusts and accounts for the absence of PPD’s selflessness.
Cr1t, in a recent interview with ESPN, coined his & Zai’s new roles as ‘position 4.5’ (think combo forwards in NBA) — blending exceptional playmaking with traditional support duty. It’s a slight gamble since it could result in two heroes ending up with sub-par items instead of just the hard support, but given their performance so far it’d be foolish to bet against them.
DC.Saksa
The Macedonian giant was one of the first support players to grind their way to 8000 MMR — his mechanical skill has never been doubted by many. Still, It remained to see whether the flashes of brilliance he showed under Pajkatt in Mama’s Boys would actually translate into a consistent high level of play when he joined Digital Chaos after the Shanghai Major.
While DC’s initial tourney results were underwhelming given expectations, the team really came together at TI when it mattered the most. Saksa especially delivered in a stellar fashion — his Winter Wyvern performance against LGD represents the peak of the hero’s capabilities.
In no way is Saksa underrated today, but his name often skirts around the ‘best’ discussions because of his defensive minded play. The other four players on this list are primarily offensive juggernauts and while Saksa can keep up just fine in that department, it is his protect-first playstyle that makes him standout from the pack.
Fun fact: The origin of Saksa’s name actually comes from a hacked account that was returned to him on Garena. He never bothered changing its name.
CoL.Zfreek
Complexity briefly flirted with elite status last season. They finished 5-6th at Shanghai and while the swedish imports had a major role in their rise (and eventual fall), Zfreek was the saving grace of their serviceable early game. His stellar play on his signature Enigma, Chen and Earth Spirit often made up for their lackluster rotations.
In their new lineup, Swindle (complexity’s shot-caller) is now playing the hard support instead of the offlane role — and their early game seems to have benefited from the switch. They’re more active and more co-ordinated during the first 10 mins. Aided by improved movements and brotherly chemistry with his support partner, expect Zfreek to build on his impressive individual play this fall.
Here’s an early glimpse into what Zfreek has in store for us this season.
NP.SVG
SVG, probably the least-known name on this list, came into relevance as part of the Cloud 9 squad featuring the infamous Ritsu. The team had some promising results at the beginning — they won a BTS Americas Cup and qualified for the Frankfurt Major, before losing their captain and ultimately their Cloud 9 sponsorship over Ritsu’s shenanigans. For rest of the year SVG was part of a mediocre Shazam lineup which did well domestically, but was never able to take the next step into international significance.
For TI6, he was recruited to be EG’s coach, where he helped secure a top 3 placing. SVG is one of the few players who can claim to have PPD’s stamp of approval.
SVG’s role within Team NP isn’t that different from his two previous teams — he continues to be a aggressive support/roamer and be really good at it. The intriguing part will be seeing how he further develops his game, now that he is surrounded by some really smart people who know how to succeed in the highest tier of DotA. While his ceiling is probably the lowest out of the players listed, he also has a unique opportunity to shine in the strangest of ways; Team NP have inherited the old C9’s tendency to throw won games and win back seemingly impossible ones.
Special Mention: FDL’s support player & captain Stan King. Here’s his god tier play as an Oracle.
4. The Redemption Arc is domestic again.
TI5 had the infamous Aui_2000 kick. Shanghai had the unceremonious departure of Misery & W33ha four days before the roster lock. This fall we saw Moo being removed from the DC roster after the team’s second place finish. There seems to be a trend of DotA 2 captains parting ways with fan favorites after succeeding at Valve’s events.
The redemption gods have always smiled upon the dota scene. Arteezy’s two expeditions to Team Secret both resulted in underwhelming TI results (7–8th as overwhelming favorites, last place the second time) while EG claimed the aegis at TI5 and finished 3rd this time around. w33ha and Misery ended last season $750,000 richer than their former teammates. Fly & n0tail went on to be two time Major Champions. It seems as if getting kicked or getting your player poached by Puppey is a ticket to success.
What remains to be seen is that if MiSeRy carries his old captain’s curse with him. Moo, now part of Swindle’s brash Complexity squad, will be looking to get a few punches in and make his former shot-caller feel the pain. He’ll have plenty of chances to do so too — both squads will be playing in the same region unlike the last revenge arc.
DC & CoL will soon square off at the BEAT Invitational in Montreal next month.
5. GrandGrant is back (and for real this time).
There is no other caster in the entire world that knows the NA scene better than Grant ‘GrandGrant’ Harris. He’s like a beat cop who knows his corners well, except in this case his corners are an ever-changing and unorganized mess of tier 1, 2 & 3 NA players. Sometimes, he oversteps his boundaries and in the past they have cost him dearly. Grant has been casting since the beginning of DotA 2, but he has no significant LANs under his belt. That piece of trivia is set to change this season.
He (Grant) went too ham being the Grant the personality which was too far out there for professional broadcasts. Now he’s just doing him without the edge and it’s great, but it’s burned a lot of bridges he’ll have to rebuild over time. (…) He’s the best personality that isn’t mainstream yet and it’s a fucking shame he isn’t a much larger part of the community.
- Austin “Capitalist” Walsh, on why Grant isn’t a popular caster yet.
Grant’s strength lies in his ability to make even the most boring, inconsequential matches seem entertaining. He has a bit of Clyde (NY Knicks’ color commentator) in him — people will tune into his stream regardless of who’s playing, just to hear him call the game. His semi-regular NEL and high level pub casts are bonafide testimonials. He’s also a huge NA Dota homer, which makes him stand out in a sea of commentators who try their level best to come across as unbiased.
In addition to his personality being a draw, Grant is also one of the smartest casters out there today. His knowledge of the game’s mechanics combined with his intimate awareness of NA players’ tendencies / thought processes make for an engaging blend of shout-casting. While he currently falls a bit short in the traditional caster qualities (cadence, word choice, transitions etc) compared to today’s premier commentators, he makes up for that in spades with his ability to switch between play-by-play and color roles. Only Capitalist and Godz can execute on both roles well today.
GrandGrant’s unique skillset will take him very far if he manages to keep this winning streak going and his personality in check. The renewed approach is already paying dividends — he’ll be at the BEAT Invitational in an analyst role. His LAN appearance has been a long time coming.
The American Qualifiers begin in a few days to decide which two teams will represent the region at the Boston Major. NA’s top dogs, DC and EG are already invited, but it remains to see if EternalEnvy’s NP will rise to the occasion. You can catch all of the action alongside the BTS’s Boston Major Hub team starting on the 27th.
