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May 31, 2021
DOTA 2
What to expect from the Wild Card Stage at the WePlay AniMajor
Every match counts on the road to The International. Especially for the six teams that will start off the major in the Wildcardstage.
Who will prevail and have a shot at those last few DPC points, and who will fall to see their hopes of direct TI qualification disappear?
Western European Hope
Looking towards the two western european teams in the wildcard some might be surprised. Tes, it’s legendary captains Puppey and Kuroky whose teams have to start at the bottom. After bombing out hard last major in Singapore, Nigma’s reinforcement in the form of Igor “iLTW” Filatov should have brought them new energy. However, their performances seem to be anything but stable. While they definitely have the potential to be one of the best, so far it has been a difficult journey trying to show this on a consistent basis.
Similarly Team Secret is looking quite unstable too. With them already being qualified for TI it seems pressure is off for the team and they are taking it slow. Switching from not showing off any new strats to doing experimental things that would be way too risky normally. Puppey is making sure they don’t show their cards now, so that he still has all of them ready for The International Stockholm later this summer.
The Chinese Danger
The Chinese region looks incredibly strong and crazy deep right now. Invictus Gaming come hot off their Major win in Singapore, got forced into the wildcards together with the always formidable Vici Gaming. But while these two teams might look like an easy choice to come out as winners in this wildcard stage, you might need to take a second look. As pandemic related travel restriction forced IG’s hard support Chan “Oli~” Chon Kien to stay home, while Su “super” Peng has to play as standin.
3/3 We will continue to follow on Oli’s health and make sure necessary measures are in place for the rest of the team in Kyiv.
Thank you everyone for concerning Oli and #iGDota. We will try our best and fight our #WePlayAniMajor journey from wildcard.
A coach that does not have a history of performing at the highest level as a player. Combine this with IG already being qualified for TI and you see how they might chill out together with Puppey and Team Secret in contrast to Vici Gaming, who still need to secure some DPC points if they want to prevent themselves from playing in the Chinese Closed Qualifiers for TI. Where dangerous teams like Elephant and EHOME would be awaiting them, ready to steal away the TI dream from the Vici Gaming squad.
Who will prevail?
Looking towards the other two teams of Execration and AS Monaco Gambit, their expectations tend to be a bit lower. Having scraped by barely in regions that are considered pretty weak, most people don’t expect a lot from these teams. Therefore most experts predict them to be left behind in the dust of the Chinese and Western European bigshots. Will motivation prevail with Team Nigma and Vici Gaming, or will legacy in the form of Team Secret and Invictus Gaming. We can only wait and see what happens, for in the game off Dota 2, nothing is ever certain.
