Mineski’s time to shine
Of the three winners from the four events so far this competitive season,
Mineski is the only one competing in this event. Both 
Team Liquid and 
Virtus.pro sat this one out, meaning the SEA dominators are the only team with a chance to become repeat winners.
Jabz at StarLadderSo far, we’ve seen Mineski take 2nd at Starladder | i-League Invitational #3 and 1st at PGL Open: Bucharest. The team had also qualified for the AMD Sapphire Dota Pit Minor but dropped out of the event citing “an important family matter”. Perfect World will be their third event this season and we’re expecting to see more of the same dominant Mineski we’ve grown used to.
Comparisons may have been drawn to
Daryl Koh 'iceiceice' Pei Xiang and 
Anucha 'Jabz' Jirawong’s Team Faceless last season, but the squad never achieved the same results offline as they had online, earlier in the season. Mineski, on the other hand, are the same game-winning beasts in both situations. If they continue on this path, they could start earning direct invites to events as the season progresses.Secret looks to rack up more points
In addition to Liquid and VP,
Team Secret are the other team with a good number of Qualifying Points so far this season, but they haven’t won an event yet. Even without a first place finish they’re third on the team ranking with 1350 points thanks to the Major. With so many big names out of the way this could be their chance to finally win an event. Something which could prove to be a stumbling block for Secret is their lack of exposure to Chinese squads. In the three LAN events they’ve played so far, the only Chinese team they’ve had to face is
Newbee. They’ve faced them twice and beat them both times, but they’ll need to be well prepared for the likes of PSG.LGD, LGD.Forever Young and Vici Gaming, who have been grinding out plenty of qualifier matches and developing their own styles.Winning this event won’t give Secret’s point total that much of a boost, but according to a tweet from their manager Cyborgmatt, organizers announced during the pre-event team meeting that the winner of this Minor will receive a direct invite to the upcoming Perfect World Major. That makes a win here incredibly valuable for the team that can claim the title.
The winner of the Perfect World Masters will also receive a direct invite to the upcoming Perfect World Major (DAC 3).— Matthew Bailey (@Cyborgmatt) November 17, 2017
Are Vici Gaming not-so-secretly the next best Chinese team?
When it comes to Chinese squads, most of the focus has unsurprisingly been on Newbee. They’ve been directly invited to several events, so they’re a common sight in this packed season. Meanwhile in the background, Vici Gaming have steadily been climbing the ranks.
Traveling to Split, Croatia for DotaPit which takes place Nov2-Nov5 pic.twitter.com/03Y7iiU9Fw— ViCi Gaming (@ViCi_Gaming) October 29, 2017
They had to start the season in open qualifiers, but at this point they’ve booked tickets to three LANs and even taken 2nd place at Dota Pit after holding their own in a full five game series against Team Liquid in the Grand Final. In DPL, they finished Season 4’s Top division in 4th place with a solid 3-3-2 record.
They’re in arguably the less predictable of the two groups to start the event, but given their results so far they should have no trouble making it to the main event, where a double elimination bracket gives some room for error. Both the hometown advantage and the promise of that coveted Major invite should give them plenty of motivation to play their best this week.
Header photo source: StarLadder
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