The 46th week of 2012 starts well for Dota 2 fans. Right Before atoD kicks off with its first matches, Na`Vi will take on Empire for GosuLeague's premier division, in the rematch of the most recent joinDOTA masters final. The evening will close with MYM versus FUBAR, our second match of the day.
Season IV: #1
Statistics: 150-32 (82%)
VS
Season IV: -
Statistics: 102-53 (66%)
Na`Vi come into GosuLeague V with a renewed ESWC title, yet only a second place from joinDOTA Masters, where today's opponents Empire proved too strong for Puppey, Light and Dendi plus two. Not having been present in full force on the day of the critical encounter arguably marked the main reason for Na`Vi's loss. Wether XBOCT can be seen today is not entirely certain at this point. In one of his most recent tweets, the 22-year-old announced that he would be back by today, the 12th.
Empire on the other hand recently had an off-day as well on which they dropped matches to aL as well as PULSE, two teams that usually don't cause the Russians problems. Besides that however, everything goes according to plan for the second powerhouse of CIS. Considering Na`Vi's incomplete lineup during Empire's last clash with them, the only solid reference for a prediction is the StarLadder grand finals where those two met as well.
Prediction: It is still Na`Vi's match to lose - 2:0 Empire
Season IV: #5/#6
Statistics: 94-52 (64%)
VS
Season IV: #4
Statistics: 44-28 (61%)
Coming up at 20:00 CET will be MYM versus FUBAR in the battle over what players can later call themselves kings of the north. What makes this match interesting, is the opportunity to observe first-handedly wether the community's rough response towards the MYM management, after their written complaint to StarLadder, will affect the performances of the team.
What the offline finals in Kiev made clear was, that MYM's Dota 2 lineup is not in shape to surpass big challenges yet. Nontheless, the team has been playing in better prized and higher divisions longer, than today's opponent FUBAR (formerly GL), who only recently made it from the SLTV pro series into the star series. The mostly Swedish lineup further participated in the DreamHack and THOR qualifiers, whilst having steadily worked towards becoming a regular in GosuLeague's premier grid, in which they also placed above MYM last season.
Prediction: Neither team will be able to win both games - 1:1
As always, all the action of GosuLeague division 1 will be brought to you by Kevin 'Purge' Godec who is set to cast both matches back-to-back.
Links
18:00 CET - Na`Vi versus Empire
20:00 CET - MYM versus FUBAR
play.gosugamers.net - Division 1 overview
