There are a number of storylines to follow but the first one that jumps of that bracket is yet another EG vs Team Secret showdown, barring a major upset. These two teams have been the best western teams over the past two years and shared a great rivalry.
Secret is fresh off a victory at the Shanghai Major. Their roster has come together in these last few tournaments after struggling during the first few weeks. Pieliedie performance was amazing at Shanghai, some even touted him as the MVP. Team Secret comes in as the favorite to win this event, the only real challenge they might face will be Evil Geniuses.
The North American team finished third at the major, which is a good but everyone expects more from this roster. They are easily the second best team at the event and will be looking forward to the matchup versus Secret in the second round. These two have met each other in three matches after the new rosters, Secret have won all of these matches (2 BO3s and 1 BO5) with an overall record of 7-3.
The next teams that come to mind are compLexity and MVP Phoenix. They surprised everyone with their spectacular finishes at the Shanghai Major; MVP finishing 4th and coL finishing 5th-6th.
The Korean team looked dominant at the major during the group stages. Their early game team fight style shaped the tournament meta. In a post game interview, QO even mentioned that they had “figured out” the 6.86 meta. MVP were knocked down to the lower bracket after a loss to EG and were eliminated by Team Liquid, both of these teams finished top three at the event which shows that MVP are a competent dark horse for this tournament.
Complexity on the other hand, fought their way through the loser’s bracket where they beat the likes of Team Spirit, LGD and Alliance. They too lost to EG and were consequently eliminated. DotaPit will be the perfect opportunity for these teams to show that their runs at the major were not flukes and they can perform at a high level regularly.
These teams will be playing OG and Virtus Pro who were big disappointments at the major; OG finished 7th-8th and VP finished 9th-12th. Both of these teams are definitely capable of doing more. They’ve had a couple of weeks to figure things out after the Shanghai Major, it’ll be interesting to see if they can return to their previous selves here.
Lastly there are the two teams that did not attend the major - Natus Vincere and Team Empire. They came through in the qualifiers which featured teams like Team Liquid, Spirit and Vega Squadron in the European qualifiers which is a good sign for them. However, it will be extremely difficult for them to advance to the next round since they’ll be facing the two favorites - Team Secret and Evil Geniuses in the first round.
