Berlin Major stand-ins

ESL One Berlin Major will be a very interesting Dota 2 tournament. The competitors are world-class teams but they will play on an unpredictable new patch and many of them will use stand-ins. This means that it’s harder than ever to predict what is going to happen.

Initially, it was believed that only one team will use stand-ins. But as it turns out, at least several of them will employ this method to get through the tournament. What impact will this have on their performance? Probably a negative one. Although, at least in some cases, the player who will stand-in is so good that it might actually lead to better results.

Team Aster will use Sumail

This was the first stand-in announcement and we’ve known about it for several weeks. Zhai “Xwy” Jingkai was moved to the inactive roster on April 14 and the community was told that Sumail “Sumail” Hassan would take his place.

Given Sumail’s past and the fact that he won The International at the age of just 16, he should be more than capable of replacing the Chinese player. But there’s a problem here. Chinese teams usually speak very little English. And he certainly doesn’t speak their language either. So how will they communicate during matches?

We’ll have to see how Aster play and what they manage to do. But given the level of competition they’ll face, it’s highly unlikely that they can survive the group stage.

9 Pandas will use RodjER

Unfortunately for 9 Pandas, Alexey “Solo” Berezin has some visa issues and will miss the group stage of the tournament. In fact, there’s a high chance that he will miss the entire event. However, he will be replaced by Vladimir “RodjER” Nikogosian, who is one of the best position 4 players in Dota 2.

The only problem is that Solo’s knowledge of drafts is irreplaceable, and his leadership style is also hard to replicate. This leaves 9 Pandas in a bad position.

BetBoom Team will use Resolut1on

Unfortunately for BetBoom, their carry and arguably strongest player, Ivan “Pure” Moskalenko, cannot attend the tournament and had to be replaced by Roman “Resolut1on” Fomynok.

On paper, this shouldn’t be a huge loss because Resolut1on played in two TI Grand Finals and is a very experienced player. But the fact that the team lost its carry will absolutely ruin the synergy and all the preparation that was done for the tournament.

Header: ESL