Esports News: Late November promises to be a real treat for fans of competitive Dota 2, with a veritable feast of tournaments to enjoy.
In addition to the Perfect World Masters and the very first Midas Mode event, the European qualifiers for the World Electronic Sports Games Dota 2 Championship will take place in Barcelona from the 23rd to the 26th.
The teams in WESG are based on nationality and so the line-ups will be quite different to the usual ones as professional gamers have banded together to form temporary outfits just for this competition.
The Event
Twenty teams will participate from 15 different regional qualifiers. These teams will be split into four groups of five, who will then face one another in a best-of-one round robin format.
The two teams from each group with the fewest wins will be eliminated. Meanwhile, the team from each group with the most victories will advance straight to the quarter-finals of the Playoffs. The remaining eight teams – those who finish 2nd and 3rd in the groups – will advance to the first stage of the Playoffs, which is a single elimination bracket involving best-of-three matches.
Last year, the top eight teams of these 12 advanced to the WESG Championship in China. This year, however, it seems 32 teams rather than 24 will compete at WESG. This means that the top 12 teams from the European qualifiers will be guaranteed a spot, so making it through the Group Stage alone will be enough to secure a trip to China. Despite this, there will still be plenty to play for in the Playoffs as there is a $92,500 prize pool, with the winners taking home $40,000.
The Teams
Many teams have a parochial flavour with players who have little competitive history. However, some of the sides do contain Dota 2 megastars and it is upon these that most of the focus will be.
Two teams have qualified from Russia – Ultima_Thule, which includes Team Empire players VANSKOR and Miposhka, and AntiHype, who feature 9pasha, Solo and RAMZES66 of Virtus.pro along with Natus Vincere’s RodjER. Both sides are considered amongst the favourites.
Ukraine will also have two representatives – Team Ukraine and UAshki. The former are certainly one of the more impressive sides and have previous WESG experience having played in the main event last year (albeit with a slightly different line-up). Under the command of OG’s Resolut1on once again, Team Ukraine have three Virtus.pro players – ArtStyle, Lil and No[o]ne – along with Team Empire’s Ghostik. Although these players have little experience playing with one another, the fact three hail from the same side will be a huge advantage, as will Resolut1on being at the helm once more.
The South CIS & Turkey, Sweden and South-East Europe regions will also be represented by two teams each. There was some controversy in Turkey as the winning team from this region was Royal Bandits, but they were disqualified and Insane Gangster Disciples and ANT E-Sports will now be participating instead.
Sweden will be represented by Team_team and No Biggie, with the former headed by Alliance player Loda. He is an extremely experienced veteran and one of the few Western players to be considered a legend in China. With a track record dating back to DotA in 2006, this seasoned star is sure to know his way around the role of team leader. He has also created several successful teams in the past and may well do the same again here.
Another outright favourite, mousesports will represent South-East Europe. Entering alongside Team Serbia from this region, mousesports have a more impressive competitive history than any other side in the tournament, even placing within the top 12 at TI4, albeit with a completely different line-up. Their performances have waned in recent years, but lead by Keyser of Team Hellraisers, they look to be in pretty good shape for this event, particularly considering the remaining four team members have had years of experience playing together. Finishing 4th in Galaxy Battles in June does show some improvement, as does their participation at April’s Kiev Major, which took place shortly after they had signed their current roster from Ad Finem.
Team Danish Dynamite are quite an interesting side too. Led by N0tail of OG, this group features a number of pro players including The Final Tribe’s LezzQQ, Team Spirit’s Biver, the team-less 13abyKnight and Team Singularity’s Solen. Although this experience may give them the edge over most teams, the line-up does pose a problem – with five players from completely different backgrounds, teamwork and co-ordination may be a weakness.
Rounding out the list of competitors are Team Albatross (Poland), Team Romania (Eastern Europe), Team Merkel (Germany), Excellent! (France), DREAMMEMETEAM (Britain and Iceland), BeanBoys (Benelux), Game-Life Balance (Central Europe), Baskonia eSports (Iberia) and FINSTACK (Baltics & Scandinavia).
