Tier 1 - the kings of Dota 2

Tier 1 - the kings of Dota 2
posted by joinDOTA Staff,
18 teams are heading to Vancouver to launch into two weeks of non-stop Dota 2 action. We have ranked them all in four different tiers. Will we be right in the end, or can the teams prove us wrong? Here is the ultimate joinDOTA The International 2018 power rankings.

Team Secret



Team Secret had a perfect start to the season: they reached the Grand Finals of the first Major and won the second - could it be any better? At the beginning it was a run for first between them and Virtus.pro, but Secret fell off in the second half of the season.

Clement 'Puppey' Ivanov and his teammates won two Minors - their last success was at DreamLeague Season 9. After some disappointing results in three Majors, Secret reached the top four of the China Dota 2 Supermajor. It was the second time this season that they lost against Virtus.pro.

Although Secret had a strong season, criticism is still everywhere - they have huge problems winning against teams at their level. Their last win against a top contender for TI8 was at DreamLeague Season 8, where they finished off Team Liquid 3-0. Can they find their form?

Lineup Team Secret
dk Marcus 'Ace' Hoelgaard
my Yeik Nai 'MidOne' Zheng
de Adrian 'Fata' Trinks
jo Yazied 'YapzOr' Jaradat
ee Clement 'Puppey' Ivanov

DPC points: 5,137.58

PSG.LGD



PSG.LGD is the biggest hope for China to win the even-numbered TI. The Chinese squad won two Majors back-to-back. Since that win LGD have been considered one of the favourites for The International 2018.

However, this was not the first success of the Chinese squad: they had already reached the Grand Finals of DAC 2018, where they fell short to Mineski. The Malaysian player Yap Jian 'xNova' Wei is the newest addition the squad — he joined at the beginning of the year. With top players like Wang Chun 'Ame' Yu and Yao 'Somnus' Lu, LGD is the biggest threat to the top two.

Lineup PSG.LGD
cn Wang Chun 'Ame' Yu
cn Yao 'Somnus' Lu
cn Yang 'Chalice' Shenyi
cn Xu 'Fy' Linsen
my Yap Jian 'xNova' Wei

DPC points: 7,335

Team Liquid



Team Liquid are the reigning TI champions! Against all odds, they showed up this season as well. Liquid finished second in the DPC - only VP were better than the Europeans.

Kuro S. 'KuroKy' Takhasomi and his squad had a decent season, but were missing some peaks. Before the Supermajor started, Team Liquid finished in the top four at almost every event they attended. However, they were not able to win a single Major. The Supermajor made Liquid fans happy again — in the most important tournament of the DPC, Liquid were back on top and even beat VP in the Grand Finals.

Liquid could be the first team ever to win The International twice - only one team is rated higher than KuroKy and his teammates.

Lineup Team Liquid
fi Lasse 'Matumbaman' Urpalainen
jo Amer 'Miracle-' Al-Barkawi
bg Ivan 'MinD_ContRoL' Borislavov
lb Maroun 'Gh' Merhej
de Kuro S. 'KuroKy' Takhasomi

DPC points: 9,461.25

Virtus.pro



The best team of the season is clearly Virtus.pro. The Eastern Europeans dominated the first Dota 2 Pro Circuit. They won every ESL Major, and three VP players went home with a Mercedes-Benz for winning the MVP awards. VP were the first team to qualify for The International through the DPC, and they did it comfortably.

Switching Ilya 'Lil' Ilyuk with Vladimir 'RodjER' Nikogosyan seemed to be the perfect move for VP - they won two Majors in six weeks after he joined.

Aleksey 'Solo' Berezin and his teammates could be the second CIS squad to ever win the Aegis - victory is closer than ever. The only flaw in their season was the Supermajor at the end, where they lost against Team Liquid.

Lineup Virtus.pro
ru Roman 'RAMZEs' Kushnarev
ua Vladimir 'No[o]ne' Minenko
ru Pavel '9pasha' Khvastunov
ru Vladimir 'RodjER' Nikogosyan
ru Aleksey 'Solo' Berezin

DPC points: 12,375

Who do you think will win The International 2018?



Photo credit: Valve

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