Issue 15: Comebacks and quitting again
EG pick weird heroes for RTZ, what timeline is this?
Here’s your 30-second summary for this issue of Ancient Tidings:
Dragon’s Blood S3 is happening
Fly’s impact on drafting is clearly being felt, as RTZ was drafted unconventional heroes not once, not twice, but thrice. Wow!
Veterans make a comeback and remember why they quit in the first place
Personal picks
Game of the week: Secret vs Entity, game 2.
Play of the week: Seldom do you see cores willingly jump into enemy ultimates to pop their aegis… leading to a rampage shortly after.
Player of the week: Pure. (Yes, quite possibly controversial, but his performance in no way means that what he did the previous Tour wasn’t incredibly screwed up)
Dragon’s Blood S3
We’ll be seeing what adventures Davion and Mirana get up to this November. While the response to the show has been tepid so far (Arcane’s stellar first season isn’t doing it any favours either) it’s certainly intriguing to see where the story takes us, since the first 2 seasons have revealed a lot of plot points, begging to be explored.
Brame lets go of Focus
Brame announced that they’re letting go of their safelaner, Focus, more recently known as Noobito. If you’ve been following Brame for some time this might not come as a surprise; a former Div 1 team that isn’t one of the favourites to be promoted is bound to make some changes, after all.
While they haven’t officially announced his replacement yet, W1sh-, a former pos 2 for Brame, stood in for their series against Nigma Galaxy.
Dreamocel makes a comeback (sort of)
NGX.Sea has been one of the hot and cold teams of Div 1 in the SEA region, falling just short of beating the big boys in their league while clearly being a lot better than those below them. They (much like their sister (parent?) team) announced that inYourDreaM, their safelaner will be taking a break… with their standin being long-time SEA mainstay Dreamocel.
Only time will tell whether Dreamocel’s still got his competitive Dota muscles warmed up and ready to go, once again.
Illidan comes back… and retires again
Long-time followers of the Dota 2 pro scene might remember Illidan, part of the infamous VP stack that eliminated the 2015 iteration of Team Secret (with Zai, S4, Kuroky, Puppey and RTZ) from TI5.
A while back Illidan was in the news due to a spat with none other than Ramzes, wherein he accused the latter of matchfixing and… other stuff. More recently, he made the surprising announcement that he was joining Team Empire, wherein he’d be playing in Div 2 of the EEU DPC with other veterans of CIS Dota such as BZZ and Shachlo.
As luck would have it, a loss to HellRaisers made Illidan have second thoughts regarding his current skill level, convincing him to step back from the scene, yet again.
Western Europe
Division 2
Team Bald vs DGG
One of the favourites for promotion to the upper division versus the favourites to win The International some day, DGG vs Team Bald promised to be an entertaining match at the very least… as is tradition with Team Bald.
Arc Wardens, Rapier Snapfires, farmed Juggernaughts. A series that nobody expected to go the distance… but did.
Division 1
Secret vs Tundra
A sizable portion of the discourse around this match revolved around how quickly Secret would be slammed by the second-runners up at the Stockholm Major, especially since they recently changed their roster while also playing with a stand-in for Yapzor yet again.
This series wasn’t a slamming at all. Far from it, in fact. Some might even say they saw glimpses of Secret’s old suffocating gameplay in this series…
Liquid vs Alliance
w33 Hoodwink vs Matumbaman Lone Druid. That is all.
Secret vs Entity
Whoa whoa whoa, another Secret series being talked about?
Of course.
From fast-paced push strats to some wonky carries, to a rampage caused by willingly sacrificing an aegis… this series had it all. In the previous Tour Entity were called the gods of game 1, but this Tour… they’ve been rather on fire.
Crystallis playing off against his former team, such matches are always a treat to watch.
Note: Zayac has been standing in for Yapzor ever since their series against the Alliance.
Liquid vs Tundra
You thought Tundra’s Nine was the only one with wonky picks? Micke has something else to say to you.
A Mid Faceless Void vs a Mid Marci, a fountain rampage, and potentially a crucial match for Team Liquid, who’ve been looking a bit off ever since the Stockholm Major. A win here could do wonders for their morale…
A great series, all around.
Southeast Asia
Division 1
RSG vs Polaris
Any team that drafts wombo combos deserves to be talked about.
A key matchup between these 2 teams; RSG to prove that their win against T1 wasn’t a fluke and that they’ve got what it takes to stick in Div 1, and for Polaris to finally grab a win, especially after they brought back their former offlaner, Force.
RSG vs SMG
Heading into the match, the draft panel at BTS predicted that this match will be a slaughterfest, with both teams bringing their signature aggressive Dota to the fore.
This is why they’re paid the big bucks; they proved to be right on the money. Action everywhere, teamwipes, diebacks, man fights galore… this was one exhilarating series.
The Dota wasn’t perfect but then again… the best games rarely have perfect Dota, after all.
NGX.Sea vs BOOM Esports
The moment Dreamocel fans have been waiting for. His comeback against a team touted to be amongst the best in the world prior to the previous Major.
Taking a series against a team like BOOM to 3 games in your first showing in so long… that is a great sign for a team like NGX.Sea. NGX.Sea’s playstyle has traditionally revolved around turtling and clutch late game teamfights; BOOM’s, around quick map movements and skirmishes. A lovely clash indeed.
North America
Division 1
EG vs TSM
Death, taxes, and predictable drafts for EG…
Is what I’d say prior to this series, but alas, the draft gurus on NA’s favourite squad decided to finally, finally switch things up a bit, drafting fresh, out of the box heroes for RTZ like a Sniper, a Lone Druid and even a Troll Warlord. Yes, this was a 3-game series as expected from some of the top teams in the region.
TSM didn’t let EG’s drafting deter them however, as they opted for (low-MMR) pub classics like the LC safelane as well.
Sniper featured in 2 of these 3 games, is this the same region?
Another hype series scheduled way before its usual time, akin to QC vs TSM last week.
That’s it for this issue of Ancient Tidings! The DPC Tour is heating up, and for what it’s worth it seems to be more unpredictable than the previous Tours with unexpected teams showing up, big-time. An exciting period to watch pro Dota 2, isn’t it?
I didn't see that Illidan made a comeback. Shame it didn't work out but I tend to favor seeing new blood enter the seen rather than having vets try to make their comeback over and over again.