posted by Smyke,
Eight Majors, seven Minors and one edition of The International — teams had many tournaments to compete in. Here are three teams that had a wonderful year despite not winning The International 2018. Which team deserves first place? Yes, I know it's a tough decision: a TI winner not even in the top three of the year? But let's be honest, OG didn't win a single tournament throughout the entire year except for TI8. They didn't do well in the Dota 2 Pro Circuit before Tal 'Fly' Aizik and Gustav 's4' Magnusson left, either.

Also, apart from some die-hard fans of OG, nobody expected that they would even survive the Group Stage in Vancouver. They had an incredible run — nobody will deny that — but over the whole of 2018 three other teams were way better:


Virtus.pro — the Major domination



The first Dota 2 Pro Circuit was completely in favour of the Russian squad of Virtus.pro. They won most of the Majors, and were first seeds for almost the entire duration of the Dota 2 Pro Circuit.





The International 2018 was a disappointment for Aleksey 'Solo' Berezin and his squad. They started as favourites in Vancouver, but finished 5-6th.

The era of Virtus.pro seemed to be done. However, The Kuala Lumpur Major proved that VP are still incredibly strong and at a top-notch level. The CIS squad kept these performances up over the whole year. They're a tough contender for best team of the year. I mean, surpassing OG in Major victories is a good point.


Team Liquid — the end of the TI curse



We're used to teams who win The International not keeping up with other teams the following year. However, Team Liquid demonstrated that, despite winning The International 2017, they were still one of the best teams throughout 2018.

It took Liquid quite a while to win their first Major, but it was the most important one. Shortly before The International 2018 they won the China Dota 2 Supermajor by beating Virtus.pro in the Grand Finals.





Afterwards, Team Liquid had the chance to become the first team to win TI twice. In the Group Stage it still looked like Liquid were the best team in the world. They dominated Group A with 13 wins and only three losses. They had some good games in the playoffs, too. However, Evil Geniuses finished Liquid off in the Lower Bracket, meaning Liquid placed fourth.

In 2018, whenever Liquid started a series, they were always a threat to any team. There was never a moment when Liquid seemed to be falling to the curse. This could be a good reason to give them your vote for the best team of the year.


PSG.LGD - the only world-class Chinese team



It was a TI with an even number. So, tradition said that this must be the year of a Chinese team to win The International 2018. However, most Chinese teams had a rough season, and didn't really win any tournaments. The hopes of the Far East were all on PSG.LGD.

The young squad won back to back Majors at EPICENTER XL and Mars Media Dota 2 League: Changsha before they had to travel to Vancouver. They even reached third place at the Supermajor... A third place they finally wanted to avoid at TI.





As an organization, LGD finished third at TI2 and TI5. That's why Xu 'Fy' Linsen and his teammates gave everything to break that curse — and it worked! PSG.LGD made it to the Grand Finals of TI after beating every single world-class team. Nobody expected OG to beat them, but it happened.

However, LGD didn't split up, and are aiming for a home TI victory in Shanghai for 2019. They were the best team in China in 2018, but were they the best team of 2018 in general? They had the best TI performance of those three teams.





Photo credit: Valve

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