posted by Brasozial,
When Team Secret signed Ludwig 'zai' Wåhlberg in 2015, they were one of the best teams in the world — maybe even the best. He rejoined the organization in 2018 after spending a long time at Evil Geniuses, and now Secret are back on top. Fans were surprised when Secret released Marcus 'Ace' Hoelgaard and Adrian 'Fata' Trinks — both were top-tier players, but that just wasn't enough for Secret.

To reach the very top, Secret let Fata and Ace leave to join Ninjas in Pyjamas, and signed Ludwig 'zai' Wåhlberg and Michał 'Nisha' Jankowski.





The new Polish carry especially surprised from the start, because he perfectly suits the fast-paced playstyle of Team Secret. He's one of the few players who can actually compete with Roman 'RAMZEs' Kushnarev in farming speed.

On top of that, zai proved yet again that he's one of the best offlaners in the world. This came following some rough months in North America where he didn't have the chance to completely showcase his playstyle. His best performance was at The Chongqing Major, where he extinguished all doubts about his world-class Dota.


Two important trophies in this season



A Reddit thread discussed whether this was the typical fluke Secret has every season. They won the DreamLeague Season 8 Major, but weren't really convincing throughout the rest of the season. The same goes for previous years — Secret always had a period where they dominated the Dota 2 scene, but it didn't last long.






It's a bit different this time, because Secret actually won more than "just" one Major in this season. They had the best start to the season of every Dota 2 team after TI8. By winning PVP Esports Championship and ESL One Hamburg 2018, they won the first two LAN events of the season.

They've only participated in one tournament this season which they didn't win, and that was at The Kuala Lumpur Major where they reached the Grand Finals. This is not just a fluke — Secret are dominating the new season so far.


Will Puppey win his second Aegis?



They are the first team to actually find a way to beat Virtus.pro — the Europeans used such a fast play style that even Solo's VP couldn't adapt to it in time. However, this is not the only patch on which Secret have been good. For the whole season they have demonstrated flexibilty and a diverse hero pool that will help them with each upcoming patch.

On top of that, Secret has a world-class captain. Puppey is one of the best drafters in the scene, one who knows how to utilize his team-mates perfectly.


What do you think? Can Secret win their first TI as an organization?




Photo credit: StarLadder

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