Almost four months have passed since the conclusion of the tenth StarLadder event when Evil Geniuses edged Secret Team in a five game thriller to claim the $106,000 first prize. The tournament featured some of the biggest names in competitive Dota 2 with Evil Geniuses, Cloud 9, Secret Team, Natus Vincere and Alliance taking part. But for the first StarLadder of the year, only one of the teams that competed in the previous event will attend. There were some big name withdrawals during the qualification stages for StarLadder Season XI as Secret Team, Cloud 9, Team Tinker and even reigning champions Evil Geniuses pulled out of the tournament. This was followed by a late announcement from Invictus Gaming and CDEC Gaming, the two Chinese teams set to attend the event. With the event soon approaching they revealed they were having visa issues, and two days before the event announced they were unable to attend. Following Season X, this is the second event running that will feature no Chinese teams after Vici Gaming and Newbee had to be replaced in the previous event. Replacing the Chinese teams are Power Rangers and Natus Vincere, the highest ranking teams from the European qualifiers.
Team Empire, MVP Phoenix and the recently announced Natus Vincere are the only teams that have appeared at the event before and they all competed together at StarLadder Season 9. The remaining five teams making their StarLadder debuts are Ninjas in Pyjamas, Fire, Hellraisers, Virtus Pro Polar and Power Rangers. So let's take a look at some of the themes that will follow through the tournament.
Veterans Team Empire hoping for lucky number seven
Compared to most of the other teams competing in StarLadder Season XI, Team Empire will feel like seasoned veterans. The organization has had their team in six of the Kiev-based LAN finals, beginning with Season 2 back in July 2012. With long time member Ayrat 'Silent' Gaziev due to arrive only two months after, Team Empire fielded a team that included current member Andrey 'ALWAYSWANNAFLY' Bondarenko and Secret Team's Gustav 's4' Magnusson. Almost two and a half years later the team get ready for their seventh attempt at taking the StarLadder title.
They have come far too close to taking the StarLadder title before, falling short in the grand final during Season 3, Season 4 and Season 9. Currently ranked eighth in the world rankings and after an unbeaten run of fourteen games, Team Empire will be hoping this is finally their time to secure a StarLadder victory. With most of the teams new to the competition and Invictus Gaming and MVP Phoenix finishing far below them during StarLadder Season 9, Team Empire will be hoping they can use their experience to finally pick up a long awaited win inside the Cyberarena.
Trailblazing Hellraisers could set the Cyberarena alight
While some of the top teams have struggled during the aftermath of The International 4 and with what seems like endless roster changes outside of the Commonwealth of Independent States, Hellraisers formed a master plan for their return to the Dota 2 scene with the remains of Relax, you're doing fine and Kompas Gaming. The two teams had never achieved too much within the competitive scene, but bringing Andrey 'Dread' Golubev into four of the members of Kompas Gaming somehow sparked something extraordinary.
Beginning in December of last year, Hellraisers' new team began forcing the rest of the world to take notice. On December 1st the team won the first Esportal Open qualifier and qualified for the main event. Just over a week later the team had secured qualification for the second season of i-League, won the eleventh Gigabyte Challenge and finished second in the Yard Red Festival. Later that month they had won the JoinDota Masters and now as we push halfway into January, Hellraisers have secured the European qualifier spot for the Dota 2 Asia Championships, set to be the biggest tournament outside of Valve's flagship tournament The International.
With such an unexpected journey to stand among the top teams in the world, StarLadder Season XI is another chance for Hellraisers to test themselves. Victory in this tournament will surely place Dread and his team in the top tier and give the CIS team a big confidence boost as the team prepares for the potential fortune awaiting at the Asia Championships scheduled at the end of the month.
Fire need to find their way out of Evil Geniuses' shadow
Since StarLadder opened the event to other regions back in Season 9, Evil Geniuses have won the American qualifier spot both times and come away with a third place finish and October's grand final victory. Their regional dominance has left a constant battle between the remaining American teams for second place. So when Evil Geniuses withdrew from the StarLadder qualifiers, it left a big question - who would replace them. After some of the big names in the region disbanding, notably The International attendees Team Liquid and Natus Vincere.US and with most of the players moving overseas to teams like Team Tinker, the competition has grown quiet. Only Fire, formerly known as Sneaky Nyx Assassins remain as the main rival to Evil Geniuses success.
Featuring a name change that returns to three of the original Fire roster that got picked up by CompLexity Gaming back in 2012, the team picked up Chris 'Ush' Usher and Ioannis 'Fogged' Loucas from the disbanded Natus Vincere.US roster and tore through the StarLadder regional finals without a loss, with their nearest rivals CompLexity Gaming exiting the qualifiers at the first stage.
Despite being Evil Geniuses closest American rival, Fire's previous roster failed to get close to reaching the same level. Towards the end of last year when the team had support player Bryant 'Whitebeard' Lehwald instead of the newly enlisted Fogged, the team failed to deliver at both ESL One New York and the fourth Dota 2 Champions League, finishing last in both events. However, with the name change and new roster Fire showed their progression as a team through the American qualifiers for the Dota 2 Asia Championships, where the team narrowly lost out on a ticket to the Chinese event in a five game thriller against Cloud 9. Coming so close to defeating a team within the top five of the world will fill the team with confidence going into their first LAN event with their new roster. Their appearance at Kiev's Cyberarena gives themselves a chance to see how far they have come. A series of good performances can give the team some experience and potentially some recognition as a growing American team, as Fire prepare for a slow push towards The International 5. However, another first round failure for Fire could really emphasize the skill difference in American Dota and potentially bring more disruption to the region.
A second chance for MVP Phoenix
South East Asian qualifiers MVP Phoenix made the trip from South Korea to Ukraine for StarLadder Season 9 back in April last year in what was their first real test outside of their homeland. The results left them humbled, losing every game in their group - including one against Team Empire and exiting the tournament at the first hurdle. The team have vastly improved since then, just falling short of the wildcard spot at The International 4 and had some spirited performances during the DreamLeague Season 2 group stages and the recent conclusion of i-League 2 where they ended any hope of Ninjas in Pyjamas getting any joy in their debut LAN event.
MVP Phoenix's qualification for their second StarLadder event gives them a second chance to show the world that they can compete on the world stage and a chance to get revenge for their poor showing in Season 9. With rumours spreading that the team are not content with their lack of good opposition in the region and their desire to practice against more skilled opposition, StarLadder Season XI gives the team an opportunity to further test their progression against teams from other regions. Currently ranked as one of the top South East Asian teams and receiving a direct invite to the Dota 2 Asia Championships alongside growing rivals Rave, confidence will be high for the Korean team to make their presence known amongst the competitive scene.
Struggling six-time champions need to make 2015 their year
Natus Vincere have found their way into the competition following the exit of Invictus Gaming, who were the second Chinese team to withdraw from the tournament two days before the finals after both teams failed to acquire visas in time for the event. This means Natus Vincere attend their ninth StarLadder finals, a tournament they have won six times in the past.
Almost exactly a year ago Natus Vincere won the grand prize of $135,000 at Season VIII of the tournament, but the Ukrainian team has gone through massive changes since their landslide victory. A massive drop in form saw the team go through two big roster changes, dropping Clement 'Puppey' Ivanov and Kuro 'KuroKy' Salehi Takhasomi for Artem 'fng' Barshak and Ivan 'VANSKOR' Skorokhod while only three months later bringing in former-Natus Vincere member Artur 'Goblak' Kostenko for the struggling fng. Realistically the roster changes might have failed to solve their issues, but their recent progression from the first round of the Dota 2 Asia Championships lower bracket to reach the top three to secure their trip to China could inspire the team to believe that this could be the beginning of their year and a seventh StarLadder victory could fire a warning message to other teams that Natus Vincere could be returning to the form they have struggled to find all year long.
Virtus Pro Polar await a fresh start with a new identity
The former-NVMI lineup are currently going through some changes with a new name, logo and new sponsorship deals as the Polar team look like they are finally going to step away from the Virtus Pro name. Virtus Pro first picked up the team in September last year after impressive performances in the second Excellent Moscow Cup qualifiers and defeating Natus Vincere in the Game Show finals. The players themselves would like to return to the NVMI brand, abbreviated from Nam vezet - mi igraem (We are lucky, we are playing), but the option for other names are still up to debate.
The Commonwealth of Independent States team have been going through a patch of inconsistent form. They were able to win the $21,000 grand prize at the recent Battle of Central Europe, pick up second place in the fifth season of the Dota 2 League even with the help of Jimmy 'DeMoN' Ho and performed well to claim second place in the second season of the Dota Pit League. But they struggled through their campaigns to qualify for The Summit 2 and more recently the qualifiers for the Dota 2 Asia Championships. Virtus Pro Polar were narrowly beaten at the Esportal Invitational, a tournament that they were seen as favourites following widespread withdrawals from the top teams. This has brought Ilya 'Illidan' Pevcaev to become very vocal on his personal Twitter account by often damning his teams performances and talking about his teams exhaustion. Could the teams amount of games be a reason for their mixed form. Regardless, good performances through their Cyberarena matches could give the team the boost they need going into 2015, especially after their missed opportunity to travel to China at the end of the month.
Power Rangers must build on their recent DAC performances
Following problems with Chinese qualifiers in the previous StarLadder event, CDEC Gaming have announced they are unable attend due to New Year visa issues. Quick to announce their replacement and their debut at a StarLadder LAN final was Belarusian team Power Rangers, the highest ranked team from the qualifiers after they finished fifth. Power Rangers were recently in action at the European qualifiers for the Dota 2 Asia Championships, where they surprised many with their dominant rise through the winner bracket and took their place in the winner bracket final after victory over Alliance. But it was here that Power Rangers fell short once again, a theme that has plagued the team all year. The Belarusians has only achieved two tournament victories since their formation, in 2014's Yard White Festival and the four-team tournament Techlabs May. Power Rangers have struggled in the bigger tournaments, finishing joint-last in the first season of i-League and faced the same fate in the first Esportal Invitational Qualifier. As they wait for their wildcard competition in China, will the team be able to build on their recent adventure in Asia Championships qualifiers, or will this be another tournament they drop out of at the first hurdle?
Can ex-LAJONS cope with the Ninjas in Pyjamas tag?
LAJONS have impressed as one of the teams to watch within the European scene and confirmed this after they secured qualification for this event being the only European team to qualify from outside of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Following the now infamous i-League withdrawal from Cloud 9, LAJONS were invited to attend as a replacement and in turn got picked up by the legendary Counter Strike eSports organization Ninjas in Pyjamas. Even in the statement from Per Lillefelth the CEO of the organization, he branded the acquisition as a 'path to build an eSport powerhouse'. Their recent trip to China will have hurt the players the most, debuting under such a massive eSports name and losing their two games of the tournament and finishing joint last. Their failure in China and not receiving a place in the Dota 2 Asia Championships qualifiers means success in Kiev will be vital for the players and their new organization, and could surprise many if they come out fighting against Invictus Gaming in their opening game.
Headline image, banners of Silent and March from the SLTV Facebook page. ixmike88's banner by Chris Romano and ESL One (flickr), Dendi's banner by Helena Kristiansson and ESL One (flickr), Dread's banner is from Hellraisers YouTube account and Ninjas in Pyjamas banner from aftonbladet.se.
More content on GosuGamers
