posted by NanaKrustofski,
TNC have trouble repeating their Major success
The new season started out great for TNC Predator. First, they won ESL One Hamburg 2019 and then they even exceeded their first success by claiming the trophy at the MDL Chengdu Major. As they entered DreamLeague as previous Major champions, expectations were high.
However, the team struggled to continue with their fast pace. During the group stage, they could only win a single map while losing four, thereby finishing last in group A. They managed to come back in the Lower Bracket and advanced to Round Three where they got eliminated by Team Liquid 2-1.
With an eighth place finish, they surely proved to be a strong team, but their performance was not sufficient to play in the top league. The competition at Chengdu was slightly less hard and the meta seemed to be in TNC's favour at that time.
Matu is not the problem
For Team Secret, the Leipzig Major was their first DPC 2019/20 event and also the first Major they played with their new carry Lasse 'Matumbaman' Urpalainen.
Overall, the team won maps and only lost four throughout the entire tournament. The addition of Matu quickly led to another victory for Secret and the Finn declared he was happy as he is obviously not the problem. While neither Kuro S. 'KuroKy' Takhasomi nor any other member from the former Team Liquid blamed him for bad performances and stated they simply needed a change in team, the "problem" is a common meme in the Dota community.
Matu had already several moments to shine at the Major. The final match of the Grand Finals ended in a complete stomp from Secret, accompanied by Matu's Phantom Lancer who reached level 20 in only 25 minutes, ending with 22k networth and a 6/1/8 kill score.
Arteezy can't win a major
So close and yet so far: Despite counting as one of the best players for several years, Artour 'Arteezy' Babaev could not win a Major so far. While the third-place-curse has been lifted, he is still not granted a victory. But this time, only a single map separated him from his first DPC trophy.
With the second place at DreamLeague and fourth place at Chengdu, their participation at The International 2020 is almost secured. The team has insane potential with their current roster constellation and Roman 'RAMZEs' Kushnarev going back to his roots on the offlane turned out to be the right decision.
Perhaps the team still deals with some communication issues since neither Ramzes nor Abed 'Abed' Yusop played on an international team before, but it seems like the language barrier could cease to be an issue in the future.
Alliance are not only a one-hit wonder
Alliance took the Dota community by storm and quickly established themselves as fan favourites. Most eyes were on frontman Nikolay 'Nikobaby' Nikolov. By winning DreamLeague Season 12, they entered the tournament as defending champions.
They could not quite repeat their success, but getting to top four proved they were capable of playing against the best teams. Niko still lacks some experience playing on the main stage and the team could improve their coordination, but the side definitely has potential to remain among the top teams.
Vici are not invincible
Vici Gaming came into the Major as one of the tournament's favourites and were feared by many teams. The Chinese stack definitely turned out to be a strong force, but Team Secret and Evil Geniuses both showed how to defeat them.
Han 'pyw' Xiong got added to the roster last September, while the rest of the team already played together for a year. He seems to be the right fit for the line-up. As a result, the squad might come back even stronger to the next Major.
What did you learn from this Major?
Photo credit: DreamHack Adela Sznajder
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