The third Dota 2 Minor of 2018 is about to begin, with eight teams heading to Shanghai to compete for a share of $300,000 and, arguably more importantly, 300 Pro Circuit points. With 150 going to the winning team, all eight sides will be looking at this tournament as a way of helping to secure a direct invite to The International 8 later in the year.
The structure of the StarLadder i-League Invitational is pretty standard. The teams have been drawn into two groups of four and will play best-of-three games in a double elimination format. The top two will advance to the single elimination playoffs, which will feature best-of-three semi-finals and a best-of-five Finals.
Team Liquid, compLexity Gaming, LGD Gaming and Infamous are in Group A, while Group B consists of Newbee, Mineski, Team Kinguin and Team Empire.
The Top Contenders
Coming in as the two obvious favourites for the tournament are Team Liquid and Newbee, with the teams sitting in 2nd and 4th place respectively in the Pro Circuit rankings. The two sides faced each other in the Finals of ESL One Genting 2018 earlier this week, with Newbee narrowly defeating Team Liquid to claim the crown. It is therefore expected that these two sides will top their respective groups.
For Team Liquid, the focus will be on their supports, GH and KuroKy, as they provide a strong backbone that allows their carries to take more risks and reduce the chance of their opponents turning the game around. Sccc is the star player for Newbee, meanwhile, and making sure he gets off to a strong start can snowball the side into a comfortable and secure mid- and late-game.
Mineski are another top team at StarLadder and they are currently sitting joint 6th in the standings. A win here would push them up to 5th and place them more securely inside the top eight. Apart from their 9-12th place finish at Genting, their recent results have been decent, although their loss to compLexity at the Perfect World Masters in November could prove troublesome if they meet outside of the Group Stage here. Iceiceice is someone to look out for, as his unorthodox strategies can easily knock any opposing team off-balance. However, Mineski do need to ensure that his niche picks do not backfire as some in the past have been quite gimmicky and easy to defeat.
Dark Horses
For the final team likely to get through the Group Stage, it seems to be a close call between LGD Gaming and compLexity Gaming. Both are in similar positions in the Pro Circuit standings, with fewer than 70 points separating them, and both have had limited recent success outside of qualifiers.
However, LGD are also coming off two recent roster changes, with Sea mew and Victoria being replaced by Chalice and xNova. Neither player has had much success in Major LAN tournaments, so it is yet to be seen whether these new additions will help or hinder the struggling Chinese squad.
Underdogs
This leaves Team Kinguin, Infamous and Team Empire, all of whom are unlikely to make it past the Group Stage yet all still have the potential to shock. Of these three, Team Kinguin seem to be the most likely to cause an upset as they are the only ones to have any Circuit Points. This is largely due to their top four finish at DOTA Summit 8 which was borne from an excellent Group Stage where they claimed victory over both Evil Geniuses and compLexity.
Team Empire, while being very successful amongst lower tier teams, have been unable to find much success against the more skilled outfits, meaning it is unlikely that they will be able to make it past the other three teams in their group.
Meanwhile, Infamous have fared even worse and didn’t even win the South American qualifier, instead taking 3rd-4th place. They replaced SG e-sports, who opted to focus on other tournaments instead, with the 2nd place team paiN gaming also declining the trip to Shanghai.
Conclusion
Overall, the i-League Invitational should shape up to be a very exciting tournament, especially with the possibility of a rematch between Team Liquid and Newbee so soon after ESL One Genting. We will have to see whether the giants are able to stay seated upon their thrones, or if one of the challengers can be successful in removing them and taking it for themselves.
