The second edition of the Dota 2 Asia Championship is here after a year hiatus. It will take place in Shanghai from 27 March to 4 April and will have a prize pool of $500,000, with 40% of that going to the 1st place team.
The format
With a total of 12 participants, this time there will be two groups of six teams rather than one group of 16 as in the previous edition.
The draw has not yet been made, but the top two teams in each group will advance to the upper bracket semifinals, while the four bottom teams will start in the lower bracket. The group matches will be played in a best-of-two round-robin format.
The first round of the lower bracket will be a best-of-one affair, while all other matches will be best-of-three. The Grand Finals, as usual, will be a best-of-five clash.
The invitees
The recent Boston Major winners OG won Elimination Mode 3.0 last month and finished 2nd in the Dota Pit League Season 5 in January, losing to EG. In the most recently played StarLadder, OG did not manage to get to the final and finished 3rd-4th. Consequently, they are looking as strong as ever and will surely be one of the favourites to win DAC.
Defending champions EG have been absent from the international Dota 2 scene since their Dota Pit League Season 5 success in January. Much is expected from them and given their most recent performance, they are seen as one of the teams to beat.
Newbee underperformed in the Boston Major despite being one of the favourites, but redeemed themselves with a 2nd place finish at ESL One Genting in January. Similar to EG, they did not take part in the latest StarLadder, while they were forced to miss the Dota Pit League Season 5 due to visa issues. Expectations are high from this roster.
Wings have been struggling to demonstrate their TI-winning form since the Boston Major, where they finished in the bottom eight. While not bitterly disappointing, the Chinese masters can hardly be pleased with a 3rd-4th spot at ESL One Genting and 5-6th in StarLadder. The team gets invited to every major tournament going, but as each one passes without success, those invitations are being brought into question. Will DAC be the stage for Wings’ re-awakening?
Chinese qualifiers
Four Chinese teams were given the opportunity to qualify for the event.
LGD.Forever Young advanced as the third team from the Chinese qualifier. They were one of the underdogs in the Boston Major as Monet and lpc were unable to play due to visa issues, but the team still finished creditably inside the top eight. LGD.Forever Young qualified rather easily for DAC as apart from against iG.Vitality, they largely sailed through the qualifying bracket. The team did not manage to qualify for the Kiev Major though and will try to make the most of this event.
VG.J are the new stars of Chinese Dota. With their 2nd place finish in StarLadder, the TI4 finalist trio of rOtk, Fenrir and fy are demonstrating great plays once again. fy’s performances at StarLadder were highly regarded, and he will probably be the key man for the team at DAC too. VG.J have also found a promising talent in the form of Freeze, although his lack of experience occasionally causes him to make poor decisions.
iG finished 1st-2nd in the Chinese qualifier alongside VG.J and have recently qualified for the Kiev Major. The team have not made any roster changes since the Fall Shuffle and sticking together has proven to be successful. iG started making their mark again on the international stage with a 4th place finish in the Dota Pit League Season 5, scoring an impressive win against Team Secret in the process.
Alongside the main iG division, iG.Vitality also reached DAC, finishing 4th in the Chinese qualifier. They have secured their place at the Kiev Major as well. However, the team did not impress at StarLadder and finished 7-8th. More evidence of their indifferent recent form is their failure to qualify for the newly announced Manila Masters, losing to Vici Gaming in the early stages of the process.
Rest of the world qualifiers
StarLadder winners Team Liquid are on fire right now and it will be interesting to see if they can maintain their recent good form. GH has proven to be a great signing and his performances with Io were vital in their triumph. It took a while for the team to rebuild their chemistry in the wake of FATA- and JerAx leaving after TI6, but Liquid are now firing on all cylinders once again, with Miracle- in particular back to his best.
Team Empire are probably the biggest surprise at DAC 2017. Empire made the most of the Virtus.Pro fiasco with the DDoS attacks to grab the win in the CIS qualifier. The team have not played on the international stage since October 2016, and it will be interesting to see how they measure up against the other sides.
There was little doubt that Faceless would qualify as, apart from TNC, the competition in the SEA region is not particularly strong. Since they were formed after the Fall Shuffle, they have been dominating the region, but poor performances in The Summit 6 and at the Boston Major showed that the gap between themselves and the top teams is considerable. Their recent performance in the Dota Pit League Season 5 demonstrated that they have improved though as the 3rd place finish came as a result of wins against considerable names.
NP overcame the favourites DC in the Americas qualifier to make this event, which is an achievement in itself. They are one of the most underrated teams in Dota 2 right now as they have previously demonstrated that they can take on teams such as Wings Gaming, EHOME and EG and come out on the winning side.
The DAC 2017 edition is a must-see event with top quality teams and a large number of games. The punishing format means that some teams can go home after just one game in the main event despite bleeding and sweating for a 3rd place finish in the group stage. For some of the teams, the event will be seen as a testing ground before the Kiev Major, but for others it may be a great opportunity to bolster their reputation, not to mention their coffers.
