DreamLeague Season 14 DPC EU Upper Division Preview

Dota Pro Circuit 2021 is starting next Monday and Europe will be one of the most exciting regions to follow. All of the 8 teams have excellent rosters and interesting playstyles, and the latest Dota 2 patch is still fresh. Who knows what will happen and what we’re going to see in the DreamLeague Season 14 DPC EU Upper Division?

DreamLeague Season 14 DPC EU Upper Division Details

The first competitive season (keep in mind, there are two of them until the Summer) is scheduled to take place between January 18^th – February 28^th. During this time, there will be weekly matches. The format of these matches is Bo3. The format of the league itself is round-robin.

Rewards and Punishments

At the end of the season, the bottom 2 teams will be relegated to the Lower Division of season 2. The 5^th – 6^th place teams will maintain their status but not go anywhere. The top 4 teams will go to the Major. But unlike before, there will now be levels of qualification. The winner of the division advances directly to the Major Playoffs. The 2^nd place team advances to its Group Stage. The 3^rd and 4^th place teams advance to the Wild Card stage.

Commentators

Apart from the rules, which are quite revolutionary for Dota 2 and resemble LoL’s a little bit, we will get to enjoy the analysis and casting of a lot of nice people, many of whom I’m sure you’re already familiar with: Purge, Sheever, ODPixel, Fogged, BSJ, Moxxi, Capitalist, and Kyle. Of course, that’s the English broadcast team. The Russian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Chinese ones are different.

Team Analysis

DreamLeague Season 14 DPC EU Upper Division features many of the world’s greatest teams. Among them are the players who won the last 3 Internationals, the first, and the 3^rd. In other words, this region is filled to the brim with talent and legendary names. Here’s a brief analysis of the teams and what they achieved in 2020, so that you can get a better understanding of what could happen.

Team Secret

Team Secret was the best Dota 2 team of 2020. And not just in Europe but overall, even though it’s hard to justify that claim given the lack of International tournaments. Puppey’s squad won the Esports Team of the Year award and the reason is simple. Apart from winning the DreamLeague Season 13 Major, Secret won 7 big tournaments in a row without losing a single game in any of their Grand Finals. In fact, they hardly lost any games at all.

Near the end of October, Secret started to show signs of weakness. Or to put it differently, their opponents started to succeed in finding ways to defeat their seemingly unbeatable strategies. The team finished 4^th at ESL One Germany 2020 and 5^th – 6^th at EPIC League Division 1.

Going into DreamLeague Season 14 DPC EU Upper Division, I expect Secret to finish 1^st, 2^nd or 3^rd. The most likely result is 2^nd place.

OG

OG, the team that won the last two editions of The International, had a very good but very depressing year in 2020. In total, they took part in 5 Grand Finals of important events and lost all of them. In particular, they finished 2^nd at EPIC League Division 1 and OGA Dota PIT S4: Europe/CIS, two tournaments that took place in December. Because of this, I think they’re in great shape right now.

OG’s main rivals will be Team Secret, Team Nigma, and Team Liquid. I fully expect this team to finish in the top 4 and there’s a good chance that they will actually win the competition. Of all the European teams, OG had the best results in December. When they lost, they lost against CIS opponents. First against Virtus.pro and then Natus Vincere.

Team Nigma

Nigma is now back to full strength. It’s been several months since KuroKy has rejoined the active roster and the team’s latest tournament result speaks for itself: 3^rd place at OGA Dota PIT S4: Europe/CIS.

Back in the old days, Nigma’s roster used to be one of the best in the world. Apart from w33, who joined later and replaced MATUMBAMAN, this exact roster won The International in 2017. And after w33 joined, they once again played in the Grand Final in 2019.

In 2020, Nigma won 3 important tournaments and placed 2^nd at BEYOND EPIC: Europe/CIS. They also had 3 3^rd place results.

Going into DreamLeague Season 14 DPC EU Upper Division, I expect Nigma to be one of the stronger competitors and finish in the top 4.

Team Liquid

This is a very strange team with a lot of potential. Its strength comes not only from the formidable skill of its individual players, but also from their experience in playing as a unit. Prior to playing for Team Liquid, this stack played for Alliance. So these 5 players have several years of competing together.

In 2020, Liquid’s greatest achievement was the trophy they won at ESL One Germany 2020, a tournament that featured the best teams in Europe and CIS. Apart from that, they also got top 3 results at several other tournaments. At EPIC League Division 1, their latest event, Liquid finished 4^th.

It’s hard to say how well or how poorly this team will play in the Upper Division of Europe’s Dota Pro Circuit. But in principle, Liquid should be a serious contestant for one of the top 4 positions.

Alliance

Alliance has a great roster full of amazing players like s4, fng, and Nikobaby. But they can’t seem to find a formula that works against Europe’s giants. Usually, we see Alliance finishing somewhere around 4^th – 8^thplace, which makes me think that they’ll have a hard time qualifying for the Major. Nevertheless, I do expect them to maintain their status as an Upper Division competitor. Going into DreamLeague Season 14 DPC EU Upper Division, Alliance is likely to finish 6^th.

Vikin.gg

Vikin.gg was one of the most impressive underdogs of 2020. Led by Seleri and not having any world-class players in its roster, this team managed to pose serious challenges to Europe’s greatest competitors. Apart from winning smaller events like BTS Pro Series Season 3 and DOTA Summit 13 Online, Vikin.gg finished 3^rd at EPIC League Division 1. This latest result was registered in December, so the team’s morale is probably still high.

Vikin.gg has modest chances of finishing in the top 4 in this league. But they have good chances of avoiding relegation.

mudgolems

Like Vikin.gg, mudgolems was an outsider that quickly made a name for itself in 2020. The team was created in September and by October it was already playing top-level Dota. Their 3^rd place result at ESL One Germany 2020 gained them a lot of fans and proved that FATA and 33 are excellent players. Because after all, this is their stack.

In December, things looked a bit rough for mudgolems and the roster started to show its limitations. It is not yet clear how severe those limitations are, but I would say that their odds of finishing in the top 4 at DreamLeague Season 14 DPC EU Upper Division are almost null. Their best hope is to avoid relegation.

Chicken Fighters

And finally, we have Chicken Fighters. This is a team made up of 4 Swedes and Supream^ (who’s from Czech Republic). All of the players are experienced and some of them even played for big teams like Alliance at one point in their career. But the roster has severe limitations at this competitive level. Compared to the rest, they have absolutely no chance. Not only of doing well, but also of avoiding relegation.

Photo credit: Valve