Shanghai Major Preview – Group D

Group D in Shanghai features compLexity Gaming (USA), Team Liquid (Europe), Virtus.Pro (Russia) and EG (USA).

compLexity Gaming

Virtus.Pro are prone to inconsistency and while Team Liquid are in great form, they are still making errors. compLexity could take advantage.

compLexity Gaming qualified from the North America region in second spot and have added some new players to their roster since their 9-12th finish at TI 5.

Apart from EG, compLexity are one of the few teams from the region that have significant international relevance in the Dota 2 scene. They didn’t manage to qualify for the last Major, but they have achieved some decent rankings in some of the subsequent Premium tournaments. These include:

MarsTV Dota 2 League Winter 2015 – 7-8th
Star Ladder Star Series Season 13 & i-League Season 4 – 7-12th

They are doing well in February with a 63% win rate (5 wins, 0 draws and 3 losses), but these have been mostly against NA teams. In January, they were less successful, with a 45% win rate consisting of 11 wins, 4 draws and 9 losses.

Compared to other teams in the tournament, compLexity have played many more official games on this patch. Some of their most popular picks are Invoker (12 picks, 7 bans, 31.7% pick-ban rate), Gyrocopter (18 picks, 5 bans, 36.5% pick-ban rate) and Tusk (14 picks, 4 bans, 28.7% pick-ban rate). Batrider is the most disliked hero with 23 bans.

A very versatile team who can change roles easily, they have the unusual composition of two pairs of brothers who sometimes switch roles to make their draft more difficult to analyze for enemy teams. However, their hero choices are consistent with some of the current popular meta picks. Chessie (547GPM, 509XPM) has a very good command of the Invoker, for example, and a 64.7% win rate.

They played competitively in the Star Ladder series and performed strongly against some of the top teams, so although the path to the top eight will be tough, it is certainly not impossible for them.

Team Liquid

Matched against counterpicking teams such as EHOME, their lack of hero pool diversity will be put to the test. Apart from that, Liquid have both the quality and the form to contend for a top four spot in the tournament.

Not receiving a direct invite was quite controversial for Team Liquid as the team have had considerable success, are in great form and are improving with each game they play. As proof of this, they emerged from the qualifiers more than convincingly, dropping just two games in six matches.

Their progress since their failure to qualify for the Frankfurt Major has been evident and they are yet another team that is becoming successful due to having a good balance of experience (KuroKy and FATA) and fresh talent (MATUMBAMAN, MinD_ContRoL and JerAx).

The European team put in stellar performances in January with a 70% win rate (14 wins, 4 draws and only 2 losses), while in February they have been less successful, displaying a win rate of 55% (6 wins, 1 draw, 4 losses).

The team’s recent performances have been quite strong though. They have won some major tournaments and have ranked in the top four in some Premium events. Their successes include:

World Cyber Arena 2015 – 3rd
Star Ladder Star Series Season 13 & i-League Season 4 – 3rd-4th
The Defense Season 5 – 1st
Dota 2 Champions League Season 6 – 1st

Liquid have three favourite heroes at present – Tusk (largely played through JerAx with 20 picks, 2 bans and a pick-ban rate of 43.1%), Dark Seer (16 picks, 10 bans, 51.0% pick-ban rate) and Earth Spirit (14 picks, 2 bans, 31.4% pick-ban rate). The team hates to play against Chen (24 bans), Io (17 bans) and Broodmother (17 bans).

Their drafting hovers around FATA (547GPM, 508XPM). Known to be one of the best Razors around and more than capable with Invoker, the experienced carry plays a major role in the roster. A Death Prophet pick for him can decide the game early if he dominates the mid lane and the team starts going to high ground early based on that.

The team is quite balanced in terms of skill level, although sometimes MinD_ContRoL can be inconsistent with his performances. Also, Liquid could benefit from having a larger hero pool – JerAx and MinD_ContRoL have some signature heroes, but their play with out-of-comfort heroes is yet to be seen.

Virtus.Pro

When playing at their best, the team can cause major upsets, but given the tough draw, they will probably have to show their character in the lower bracket, where anything can happen. Top eight is an achievable goal though.

The Russian team had ups and downs throughout 2015 – they have always had potential, but consistency has often been their main problem.

Despite this, the team has made only a single roster change since April 2015, with Silent replacing Illidan as main carry. This resulted in them securing 2nd place at the Summit 4. Furthermore, they managed to reach 7-8th spot at the Frankfurt Major, which cannot be considered a failure.

Their most recent achievements include:

Star Ladder Star Series Season 13 & i-League Season 4 – 7-12th
Captains Draft 3.0 – 7-8th
The Summit 4 – 2nd

Virtus.Pro have played only four official matches in February (1 win, 0 draws, 3 losses – 25% win rate) and recorded 2 wins, 0 draws and 3 losses, a 40% win rate, in January.

Vengeful Spirit is their most popular hero choice, which they sometimes play untraditionally as carry instead of support. Typically for the teams in the CIS region, Virtus.Pro like to play aggressively and apply early pressure, trying to build an early advantage in the laning phase upon which to build. Apart from this, a main strength of theirs is their roster chemistry, which they have been working on since April.

G (580GPM, 515XPM) is a formidable mid and probably one of the best from the CIS region. Familiar with the support role, he gives the team a bit more tactical diversity. In alignment with team strategy, G likes to gank but often has trouble later in the game if he is denied the chance to snowball from the early stages.

Virtus.Pro’s aggression is also a double-edged sword. While it helps them get an early advantage and enables them to snowball to victory, it is also conducive for occasional throws.

EG

The team is in the middle of a 6-0 winning streak and are playing fantastically well. EG shouldn’t have trouble reaching the top four in Shanghai, but the real challenge facing them is winning the tournament.

EG enter the tournament as one of the favourites. They had an amazing year in 2015 and dominated the Dota 2 scene.

Many were upset when the team disposed of their support Aui_2000 right after the pinnacle of their achievements – winning the International. The return of Arteezy indeed caused some role rotations and it took them some time to adapt. However, with the return of the prodigal son, EG is mighty once again, although there is still some doubt over whether the post-TI 5 change was necessary. They will want to repeat their past Major ranking (third) at the barest minimum.

Their recent Premium tournament performances match their standard of play:

DC Captains Draft 3.0 – 1st
MarsTV Dota 2 League Winter 2015 – 2nd
Star Ladder Star Series Season 13 & i-League Season 4 – 2nd
The Summit 4 – 1st

EG will arrive in China with the taste of victory still lingering in their mouths – their February win rate is 100% (6 wins, 0 losses, 0 draws) with a flawless performance at the DC Captains Draft 3.0.

Every player on their roster plays a key role. SumaiL (491GPM, 480XPM) stormed the scene when, at only his second LAN tournament, the wonder kid won the most coveted prize in Dota 2 – The International. An aggressive player, he is getting more mature with every game spent with EG.

ppd currently likes to have good gankers and initiators for his team, such as Vengeful Spirit (12 picks, 8 bans and a pick-ban rate of 57.1%) and Batrider (10 picks, 5 bans, 42.9% pick-ban rate). Despite being Universe’s trademark hero, Dark Seer is the most banned hero from EG in this patch (13 bans).