Historic Secrets
The first edition of Team Secret featured the 5 players considered amongst the best in the world at the time. They were the ultimate superteam. Watching them play was almost like watching a TI all-star match, except the team were entering competitions, and winning at that. They got themselves off to a powerful start, however issues within the roster became apparent after just a short amount of time.
Formed in the final quarter of 2014, the roster failed to make it to the new year without their shuffle beginning. Tal 'Fly' Aizik and Johan 'BigDaddyN0tail' Sundstein departed for their own stories, and would be replaced with Ludwig 'zai' Wåhlberg and Artour 'Arteezy' Babaev for their respective first chapters under Clement 'Puppey' Ivanov’s wing. The roster was again, successful to begin with, but after a disappointing TI placing 7th-8th, the team began a trend that would continue through the years.
Puppey being interviewed at ESL One New York 2014. Source: ESLSecret has shuffled roster every year, and always after The International. Surprisingly, Secret’s best performance at an International happened only at TI8, where they placed just 5th-6th, a surprising statistic for a team that could, at any point, be considered the favourite to win almost any competition.
Why is this roster different?
Well, once again Secret’s new roster got off to an incredible start. They won the first two competitions they competed in as a complete roster (excluding the Maincast Autumn Brawl where Danil 'Dendi' Ishutin stood in for Yeik Nai 'MidOne' Zheng), and showed the world quite what they could do. Coming second at their first Major together was a feat, but doing it in such an enjoyable fashion gave Secret fans hope for the upcoming season.
As we all know, the team would then spend the rest of the season so far being one of the only who can repeatedly stand toe-to-toe with Virtus.pro’s onslaught. Zai’s statement saying that the roster were 5 players who complimented each other remained true – and of course, Michał 'Nisha' Jankowski, being one of the youngest professional Dota 2 players at the moment, had a big hand in playing his role.
Nisha is an incredible player. Many followers of the Dota 2 scene weren’t entirely sure who he was before he joined the roster, unless those were familiar with the Polish team, Let’s Do It. He impressed early, clips of outplays and rampages circulated Reddit quickly. He’s brought the same energy to Team Secret this year, and has played a part in their continued success.
Nisha's ridiculous rampage brought him a lot of attention
The best kept Secret
So, in previous years things have been different. Secret this year have almost exclusively played Valve Majors with a select few extra tournaments here and there, and have had time to prepare and rest when needed. In the past, they had certainly a busier schedule with non-DPC tournaments, something that could easily tire a team out.
This year they have certainly been consistently hitting the top spots, and meeting expectations. Is it down to the fact that this is simply the strongest roster? Or rather, that the team have been taking care of themselves more-so than in previous years. Nobody but the team themselves could say one way or another.
Photo credit: Mars MediaLastly, the most pressing issue on the mind of all the Team Secret fans out there is; how does this affect their chances at TI? Well, TI is a wildcard of a tournament, when we have the performances of the likes of OG and DC, anything can happen – but Secret always seem to falter just before the championship.
In 2016, they came last at the Manila Major before TI. In 2017, they looked promising but never quite clinched any first place finishes in the run up to TI7. In 2018, their season was rough and they went in to the tournament with fans holding low expectations. The coming weeks will be telling for Puppey and co, and only time will tell. What is certain though, is that they haven’t seen such consistently good form since their conception.
Which Team Secret iteration was your favourite? Why?
Header image credit: Mars Media
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