posted by Brasozial,
6. Let's Do It
The biggest wildcard of the tournament is obviously the Polish squad Let's Do It, after beating Wind and Rain to qualify through the Summer Cup. They're the only team that won't be battling for the Aegis in Vancouver a month later, but this is their biggest ace as well. While the other teams are stuck in TI preparation mode, or enjoying their last days before bootcamp starts, this is the last chance for Let's Do It to end the season in a positive way.
Credits: ESL - Adela SznajderThe Polish squad were released by Team Kinguin*, so they now need some postive results to help them find a new organization for the upcoming season. What would be a better time to record victories over these TI participants than the last tournament before TI?
Of course their chances of beating any of the top 16 are pretty low at the moment. The last time they attended a DPC tournament was at ESL One Katowice 2018, where they faced Evil Geniuses and lost 0:2.
5. Evil Geniuses
We've ranked the North American squad Evil Geniuses fifth — just because we don't have many results to consider yet. They recently brought the ex-OG player Tal 'Fly' Aizik and Gustav 's4' Magnusson into the roster help end their slide to the bottom.
Credits: ESl - Adela SznajderSo far they have only attended China Dota 2 Supermajor, literally a week after the roster update. The result in Shanghai was unsurprising — they finished last in the group and then lost to OpTic Gaming by a 0:2 scoreline.
At the TI Qualifier (and after some practice), they fared way better to even reach second place, right behind Forward Gaming. They faced Roman 'Resolut1on' Fominok and his teammates in the group stage of the qualifier, as well as OpTic Gaming, and weren't able to beat either in a BO1.
With the new line-up it's not easy to rate them just yet, but EG could need a positive result before TI to build self-confidence going into the tournament.
4. Fnatic
The best team in the SEA qualifier was Fnatic. Jacky 'EternaLEnVy' Mao and his teammates were able to beat Tigers and TNC Predator in Southeast Asia.
Credits: ESL - Helena KristianssonWhile EG have had a recent roster shuffle, Fnatic is pretty much stable right now. The last team member added to the roster was Saahil 'Universe' Arora at the beginning of 2018, which makes it easier for us to rank them. Their best result of the season was second place at DreamLeague Season 9, where they lost to Team Secret.
The reason we didn't rank them higher is their recent results against the teams they will face at Dota Summit 9. They lost against OpTic Gaming and paiN Gaming* at ESL One Birmingham 2018 and also couldn't beat Forward Gaming at GESC E-Series: Bangkok.
However, you can never count them out with players like Abed 'Abed' Yusop and Jacky 'EternaLEnVy' Mao in the line-up, who have the ability to carry the whole team on a good day.
3. paiN Gaming
The boys of paiN are in celebration mode right now — for the first time in TI history, a team from Brazil will attend the Valve mega event. paiN-Gaming did a great job in the first DPC season, attending four Major tournaments in total over the course of the season.
Credits: ESL - Adela SznajderAfter already attending two events as a stand-in for the Brazilians, Omar 'w33haa' Aliwi joined permanently in April this year — this is where paiN-Gaming completly took off and finally beat some of the best teams on the circuit.
The best result for the Brazilians so far was at Birmingham, where they not only won against Team Liquid in the group stage, but did it twice! They also were able to defeat Mineski and Fnatic to earn third place.
2. OpTic Gaming
OpTic Gaming was so close! They only needed 136 more points to surpass VGJ.Thunder and reach the top eight of the DPC to get an invite for TI, but they weren't able to beat Virtus.pro in the Lower Bracket to reach top 4.
Credits: ESL - Adela SznajderIn general OpTic is one of the biggest surprises of the first DPC. They reached a lot of the top tournaments, and even managed to win the Starladder | ImbaTV Invitational #5 Minor against VGJ.Thunder. They were the only NA team to deliver good results consistently.
Around draft legend Peter 'ppd' Dager, OpTic Gaming got a wonderful result in Birmingham. They topped a group containing LGD.Forever Young, Newbee and Mineski, and then beat Fnatic to reach the Grand Final of a Major. They're clearly one of the two favourites to win DOTA Summit 9.
However, VGJ.Storm is in the lead right now.
1. VGJ.Storm
Like paiN, Forward Gaming were able to secure one of the best free agents from another region — and this free agent helped them top the NA qualifier.
After leaving OG Roman 'Resolut1on' Fominok needed a team who would work around him, since he needs a lot of space. With VGJ he found the perfect line-up, and you can see it in the results.
Credits: Mars MediaThey won GESC E-Series: Bangkok, came second at the Mars Media Dota 2 League: Changsha Major with an insane Upper Bracket run and then topped the TI qualifier in NA, where they lost only one game against compLexity Gaming.
The only disappointing result in their most recent tournaments was at the China Dota 2 Supermajor, where they were unable to beat TNC Predator. But when directly compared with our second place OpTic, VGJ has the advantage. Reso and his teammates won both TI Qualifier matches, and won in the Supermajor qualifier.
Look at the season as a whole OpTic has the better results, but if you just compare current performances VGJ is favoured.
The tournament starts on 25th of July and will end on Sunday the 29th of July in Los Angeles. Will the Power rankings be on point for the tournament?
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