We’re back again for another wall-of-text prediction article. This week we’ve got some incredible match-ups in RGC, games that nobody in their right mind would miss, and GosuGamers is here to give you the scoop on the teams, their chances, and which match-ups you can win big tangos on.
Last week’s results:
Nv.my > cG|DPP (2-0)
MYM > Druidz (2-0)
DTS > Mski.Infinity (2-0)
Nv.cn > LOST.eu (2-1)
youBoat > Sky (2-1)
Xctn > EDTN (2-1)
NWO > EARTH (2-0)
LGD.sGty > ex-Tribal.fr (2-0)
Our prediction score: 6/8
Things we learned: Last week's matches didn’t provide for many surprises. The games proceeded mostly as expected, and, in fact, the favoured teams showed even more dominating performances than GosuGamers had anticipated.
Despite our 75% record, we got the most important match-ups all wrong, as Nv.cn decimated LOST.eu in back-to-back games after their initial clash, and XctN overcame EDTN with some very strong performances (as we’ve seen lately, DotA from the Philippines should never be underestimated).
Special mention should go to Sky, as they proved to be a much stronger team than expected. They gave youBoat a great run for their money after handily defeating Nordic – a very impressive performance for the mostly unknown team. GosuGamers won’t again make the mistake of underestimating this team, as we’re sure the rest of Europe won’t either.
We were also very pleasantly surprised by the RGC admins’ efforts to provide as level a playing field as possible for all teams involved. RGC have done a fantastic job on this front so far, and it bodes extremely well for future online tournaments that we can see teams like LGD and Nv.my play on essentially even pings with European opponents. Something we’ll be sure to consider this week is the minimized role of lag in this tournament. We expect that all teams will be able to show most of what they’re capable of, and as such we will no longer bog down our predictions with considerations of latency. We will establish our predictions on what we expect to be each team's current form and potential.
This week: This week we’ll be joined by our resident GosuBet guru Tjernobylbarnet, a perennial top 10 Gosubettor -- though he tragically lost all his tangos betting on ZSMJ and co. against EHOME and has yet to recover. The Swedish wonder might lack for tangos right now, but take his gambling advice to heart and you might just succeed where he failed.
Now, onto the predictions!
DTS vs 
Nirvana.cn -- Tuesday (2010-10-19) 19:00CETDTS showed once again why they deserve their status as a world-class team, after a disciplined and assured display against Mski.Infinity. They showed great ability and execution in team fights, and also the capacity to win comfortably even when initially behind. The team performed confidently at every point in last week’s games, which is something we’ve come to expect from a team of their caliber. The truly frightening thing about DTS is that they seem to improve and grow more confident every week. We expect they will be coming into this week stronger than ever.
Nv.cn are no doubt one of the top teams in the world, yet they’ve been plagued by a nagging inconsistency lately – we’re not really sure how to rate them at the moment. An incredibly frustrating team to follow, we’ve seen them assuredly defeat the likes of LGD.sGty, only to drop games against weaker opponents due either to sloppy play, or worse yet, baffling arrogance. They won last week against LOST.eu but not without dropping a game in horrible fashion before pulling themselves back together. Their strength is undeniable, but going into this week we worry about their stability and mentality.
Players to look for: Last week’s stand-out players for DTS were Dendi and LightofHeaven. Both took care of DTS’s solo lanes and generally played close to flawlessly. Light has been making the carry Priestess of the Moon his trademark, always farming fast enough to provide the DPS for DTS’s late midgame pushes. Dendi’s recent displays with SF have definitely put him, in our estimation, among the very best Shadowfiend players in Europe. We’ve seen Dendi pay tribute to YaphetS before, and so we also look forward to seeing what happens when he squares off against PIS in the solo lane this week. We should note that DTS is also a team where every player tends to have his moments, and so we expect to see some great eye-catching performances from Dread and Artstyle next week, should they handle their favoured heroes, and NS always deserves credit for his incredibly stable and smart play.
Nirvana.cn’s stand-out players last week were Zhou and YaphetS. The former played a fantastic Pugna, a hero he’s already shown to be exceptionally good with, and the latter played an equally great Puck – anyone who thinks the DotA prodigy can only play one of three heroes needs only watch game 2 of Nv.cn vs LOST.eu to see his potential with any “action” hero. These two players made the difference for Nirvana in game 2 of the series, and shined again in game 3 with two of their best heroes. YaphetS’s Shadowfiend gave Fear’s Storm Spirit no chance middle lane, and Zhou provided another textbook display of Alchemist’s carry and pushing potential. Special mention should also go to Banana for playing a great Visage and Pirate.
GosuBet Guru: "My favourite russian doctor Dread will secure your tangos if you invest them in his hands. Bet DTS - I know YaphetS will."
Our Prediction: DTS by now have a great deal of experience dispatching Chinese teams online. In our estimation, their ever-improving play and the confidence they must possess going into this game gives them an edge over the sometimes godlike, sometimes woeful Nirvana.cn. Nirvana.cn have shown over and over again to be one of the very finest teams in world DotA, probably the best team at using mobile, aggressive line-ups; however, we’ve just lost too many tangos on Zhou and co. to trust them like we used to. We give DTS a slight edge, though we feel it really just boils down to which Nirvana.cn shows up this week.
DTS > Nv.cn (2-1)
Nirvana.my vs 
MYM -- Wednesday (2010-10-20) 18:00CETNirvana.my soundly defeated cG|DPP last week in a clean 2-0. In neither game did we really get a chance to glimpse anything meaningful from the winning side; their comfortable victories against the valiant Germans were telling of a gulf in class between the two teams. Nv.my have really impressed recently with their win over the seemingly invincible EHOME at the ESTC tournament in Thailand – definitely the team’s most famous result to date. In light of their very convincing performance against EHOME, it is almost impossible for us to deny their status as favourites going into this series.
MYM gave a dominating performance in their 2-0 victory against Druidz last week on the back of some great performances by Lacoste and Playmate and team leader Maelk. We didn’t find much in last week’s games that we felt would inform us on the upcoming series, though the momentum gained from winning must certainly count for something. MYM have yet to face any teams near their own skill level in RGC thus far, and so this upcoming week will be a real test for the team. We expect a stable and competitive display from the Danish veterans, but they will certainly be up against the wall facing a team of Nirvana.my's strength and momentum.
Players to look for: Mushi is the man to look for on Nirvana.my, as anyone who’s seen the ESTC grand finals will agree. Mushi is a breath-taking player to see in action, one of the most creative and brilliant solo players we’ve ever seen, and almost guaranteed to play whatever hero he uses to its fullest potential. His recent performances with Puck have been very impressive, and he’s been the dominating force for his team the entire month of October thus far. Also expect a stable performance from DotA legend and Nv.my carry Yamateh, as well as the rest of the all-star cast.
Playmate and Lacoste will once again be at the center of all the action for MYM. The two hyper-agressive players will handle MYM’s solo lane heroes and the team’s important mid-to-late carries. The pair of players are undoubtedly top-class, but it will be interesting to see how much their aggressive play pays off against the likes of Nirvana.my. We will also keep an eye on how team leader Maelk handles MYM's roaming heroes.
GosuBet Guru: "MYM will be too jetlagged from their recent trip all over Denmark. Bet Nirvana.my."
Our Prediction: Nirvana.my have too much going for them at the moment for MYM to overcome. Their confidence and team spirit must be through the roof at the moment, having defeated EHOME at ESTC. Nirvana.my have been consistently performing against the top teams in Asia, while the strongest team we’ve seen MYM face recently was MCity in the MYM Pride tournament. MYM were knocked out from the tournament in that series, and it’s hard for us to see this team overcoming Nirvana.my if they couldn't previously defeat MCity.
Nv.my > MYM (2-0)
NWO vs LGD.sGty -- Wednesday (2010-10-20) 17:00CETLGD dominated ex-Tribal.fr last week, though the skill level of the French team was nothing near what LGD are used to dealing with week in and week out. Like Nirvana.cn, LGD have had uneven results lately, winning against a strong team only to lose to a supposedly weaker team afterward. While they put up a very impressive display against EHOME in that epic WDC qualifying game, they have given extremely lacklustre performances against the likes of CHN, Nv.cn, and most recently CH.
NWO gave a very assured performance against EARTH last week, which bodes well for this promising team. However, in comparison to the teams NWO have faced thus far, LGD.sGty occupy an entirely different class. NWO are still very much an unproven team, and performances against teams like LGD will be where they begin to build their reputation.
Players to look for: Once against look for YYF and Sharingan to be at the center of the action for LGD. ZSMJ gets a lot of attention for his carry talent, but recent LGD strategies have leaned heavily on the mid-game performances of their most in-form players, YYF and Sharingan. YYF has spent the last couple of months making a case for himself as perhaps the most talented all-round player in the modern DotA scene, while Sharingan has been putting in consistently impressive displays with his brand of precision stunners and team-fight heroes (he may have already set the modern standard for Lina players). As LGD have been t transitioning to a more midgame-centric playstyle, the roles of these two players have become more at the focal point of the team.
NWO is an all-star team so almost any player is capable of eye-catching performances. Again, always look for Kuroky to do something special, but attention should also be paid to the always-stable and high-level play of Azen and Puppey; however, make no mistake, exceptionally strong play from across the board will be required of NWO if the team wants to win this series.
GosuBet Guru: "There's a New World Order? Well, not yet. Bet LGD."
Our Prediction: NWO still have a great deal to prove, and this might be their first truly challenging official match. We assume they’ve been training non-stop to meet the challenge of the Chinese powerhouse, but surely nerves come into play as the players approach their first real test as a team. LGD, on the other hand, can almost comfortably rest on their laurels at this point: based on their consistently high level of play and impressive past results, they can enter almost any match-up as favourites. We do not expect NWO will take this series as they are very inexperienced, as a team, compared to LGD. This game will be LGD’s to lose if they don’t perform at the level everyone knows they’re capable of.
LGD > NWO (2-1)
Wrapping up:
We need to mention that this round's match between
youBoat and 
XctN has already been played, with yB taking the series 2-1. The Swedish dark horses will face the winner of NWO vs LGD.sGty.Let us know what you think of this week's matches and tune in to GosuGamers again next week for another round of predictions!
Links
DotA-League - Your source for news and match times for RGC
GosuBet - Our own match-ticker and betting system
