Team Zero
Season IV placing: #3
Statistics: 120-98 (55%)
VS
NEXT.kz
Season IV placing: #5/#6
Statistics: 82-90 (48%)
1
Ilya 'Stalcat' DormanA veteran when it comes to DotA and the most popular player of his country: Stalcat already celebrated victories in early 2009 when Kazakh local heroes oS|One used to take Central European powerhouses by surprise in LAN tournaments. After having competed against NEXT for a long time with his previous team Tenax, Stalcat eventually ended up joining them to reestablish a Kazakh representative that includes the best players of the country and can successfully compete in CIS tournaments.
2
Ernar 'Mantis' UrazbaevMantis and eQual are NEXT employees of the first hour and have seen the golden era of the team, when money was brought home from ASUS tournaments or the Electronic Sports Worldcup was attended last year. The 20-year-old who was first seen skirmishing in inhouse league games back in 2009, evolved to a solo mid specialist basically from the get-go. However with the aggressively playing Stalcat joining the team, adaptions had to be made and Mantis now tends to switch to hard carries on occasion.
3
Andrew 'eQual' RailyaneQual will be Bamboe's counterpart in the indirect duel of off-laners. Together with Mantis he lived through the early days of the team and used to play gankers and semi-carries before specializing on the third position. Having played heroes like Windrunner and Broodmother competitively back in DotA times, this transition does not deserve its name though. When ping issues don't hold him back, eQual's individual skill can easily match other Western hard lane solos.
4
Balazs 'Balazs' HegedusHungarian talent Balazs used to ring consistently for NEXT whenever the team was short on players. After having repeatedly proven his worth, it was mutually decided to let him add his abilities to NEXT permanently. Besides lots of competitive experience in DotA, his previous team caught public attention in late 2011 after qualifying and competing at the first ever Star Series LAN finals. As the departed Roman 'StOrm' Khaziakhmetov and Daniyar 'LuCky' Kasenbaev left holes in the support department, Balazs's main occupation in NEXT was quickly found.
5
Alexey '9' BelikovBeing one of GosuLeague's new faces this season, 9 has a lot to show us yet. Hailing from Almaty, Kazakhstan like the majority of his team mates, fitting in and developing team chemistry was an easy task to troubleshoot. That aside, only time will tell if the former HoN player can support as well as NEXT's previous captain Daniyar 'LuCky' Kasenbaev used to.
To date NEXT has been tough to predict. While their performances in online tournaments used to vary in DotA due to the players' bad pings, their enthusiastic appearances at the offline-held ASUS Cups took the entire community by surprise and let them become an insiders tip for basically every LAN event. The golden times passed by however and the constantly changing lineup, as well as the cancelled travel-support by the organization did certainly not help to resparkle motivation for incredible comebacks, let alone lasting winning streaks. Whoever takes them lightly or makes mistakes against them still gets punished however. For the sake of preserving Dota 2's internationality alone, it would be desirable to have a strong Kazakh team in as many events as possible. Only time will tell if the current lineup can achieve that, however GosuLeague V delivers an ideal opportunity to work on it.
Team Zero recently had to fill gaps as well, but seemed to have chosen their new members well and easily. Alex is a fitting supporter to replace 1437 and strongly recommended himself at the recent Star Series finals, while FATA- became an obvious choice after he had shown potential and ambition by ringing so frequently. Since the option with KuroKy and Black on one carry each did not work out at The International, KuroKy - without further ado - decided to take ComeWithMe's previous role as jungling ganker, which ultimately solved most problems. As opposed to NEXT, who after RONIN's departure lack a set player on first position, Zero's roles by now are clearly assigned. On the negative side it can be argued that the team needs more playtime with FATA-, who at the same time needs more experience of competitive matches against solo mids of other top level teams.
I would still consider the German-Dutch mix a slight favourite, based on the fact that, they are currently present in more highly prized events and played more competitive matches together, despite having lost most of their recent encounters.
Team Zero recently had to fill gaps as well, but seemed to have chosen their new members well and easily. Alex is a fitting supporter to replace 1437 and strongly recommended himself at the recent Star Series finals, while FATA- became an obvious choice after he had shown potential and ambition by ringing so frequently. Since the option with KuroKy and Black on one carry each did not work out at The International, KuroKy - without further ado - decided to take ComeWithMe's previous role as jungling ganker, which ultimately solved most problems. As opposed to NEXT, who after RONIN's departure lack a set player on first position, Zero's roles by now are clearly assigned. On the negative side it can be argued that the team needs more playtime with FATA-, who at the same time needs more experience of competitive matches against solo mids of other top level teams.
I would still consider the German-Dutch mix a slight favourite, based on the fact that, they are currently present in more highly prized events and played more competitive matches together, despite having lost most of their recent encounters.
NEXT.kz versus Team Zero will played today at 16:00 CET, You can find the GosuBet of the match here
