We always look to the football, baseball and basketball off seasons speculating what changes will be taking place in the teams. In the last few years, it’s become just as exciting for DotA 2!
DotA 2 is Multiplayer Online Battle Arena game where teams of five players face off, each playing their own choice of over 100 playable heroes. The objective of the game is to destroy the opposition’s main structure before they do the same to yours.
After any major tournament, Valve, the company that created DotA 2, has a small window of time where teams are allowed to make changes to their roster and it always makes it more interesting to see how the rest of the season will unfold.
However, what has unfolded after The International 6 [TI 6] is no less than pandemonium! Usually, a few teams make changes and that’s nothing unusual. However, the announcements these last few weeks have left the jaws of the DotA community wide open.
Let’s venture a few weeks into the past. Wings Gaming came out of nowhere and won TI 6, the biggest DotA 2 and E-Sports event with a prize pool of over $20 million. That’s right; 20 million USD were up for grabs for playing a computer game.
Change was imminent when OG, Liquid and Newbee, the three teams who were the favorites to win the title, failed to make a mark. And change is exactly what happened.
For starters, OG, who have always believed in stability and friendship finally went their separate ways after a very successful year together. Moon, Cr1t and Miracle will all be moving on from the Green Dream. n0tail and captain Fly will be keeping the green flag flying along with S4, Jerax and Ana, a lineup that has fans drooling.
While there’s some concern that Ana, the new Position 2 player, hasn’t proven himself on the big stage yet, it was much the same when Miracle joined OG, and everyone knows how that turned out!
For those who don’t know, it went really well for everyone involved. Miracle is for all practical purposes the best competitive DotA 2 player in the world right now.
While OG seems to be doing well, Team Liquid seems to be the winner of the latest shuffle. They may have lost their playmaker Jerax and dependable mid Fata, but they’ve filled the void with Miracle, aforementioned miracle-maker.
It remains to be seen if he will thrive as well under Kuro’s captaincy as he did under Fly’s, but fans are optimistic The decision to take Bulba might a bit questionable, but there must’ve been a reason to back it up.
You don’t see a lot of Southeast Asia players in European teams, but it seems Puppey and Team Secret do a very good job at convincing players. Having performed very poorly in the months after their win at the Shanghai Major, Secret got rid of Arteezy, EternalEnvy and BuLba to make way for MVP Phoenix [MP], MidOne and Forev. All three players have proved their mettle and if Puppey can’t find success with this roster, he should really just go home.
This will be Arteezy’s third coming-beating out even Jesus- as he returns to Evil Geniuses [EG] after leaving twice before. This time, it will be a completely different EG, though. With captain PPD taking up an administrative role, it will be up to the veteran Universe to take charge and make them the formidable team that once were. Looking at the players they have in their lineup, the glory days shouldn’t be too far away!
All told, Na’Vi and Wings Gaming are the only two top teams to lock their rosters without making a single change. There hasn’t been such a major shuffle in the history of the game and all bets are off. Look out for an exciting new season in E-sports!
