Mudgolems Wins the Group Stage at BTS Pro Series Europe

Only a few weeks have passed since FATA and 33 formed a team of their own and called it mudgolems. In spite of being made up of the two of them and three other players of considerably lower skill, this team is already proving itself in the lower tier 1 division of CIS and European Dota 2.

Results at BTS Pro Series Europe/CIS

Mudgolems entered the tournament as one of the 4 or 5 teams that had real chances of winning. Their roster had only recently been put together and some of the names (Skiter and BoraNija) were less than famous. But because of FATA’s achievements, as well as 33’s, people regarded them highly and rightly so.

Mudgolems currently leads the round-robin with 5 wins, 2 draws and 0 losses. And they have one more match to play on September 22^nd. That match will be against B8 and is almost a guaranteed victory, given B8’s results not just in this tournament (0 W – 1 D – 6 L), but since its inception in early 2020. In spite of being Dendi’s team, so far he’s proved that he cannot succeed on his own. B8’s first season in Dota 2 resembled Shanghai Dragons’ first season in The Overwatch League.

But back to mudgolems. Here’s what they’ve done so far:

Against Khan: draw

Khan is a CIS team with few recognizable names but just enough skill to hold its own at this competitive level. And because it was mudgolems’ first match, the draw should be considered a positive result.

Against HellRaisers: draw

This was mudgolems’ second draw of the Group Stage. They won the first game, but ended up losing the second one. Nevertheless, HR is 3^rd in the standings table, so this was another decent result for the newly created team.

Against 5men: victory

This is where the win streak began. The match wasn’t easy but mudgolems managed to win. In the first game they used an Anti-Mage strategy while in the second one they went for a Void + Bloodseeker combo.

Other victories

Apart from this victory, mudgolems managed to win 4 more matches, against NiP, Empire, Vikin.gg, and Unique. In particular, the fact that they managed to beat Vikin.gg is quite impressive. And that’s because apart from the strong European and CIS teams that make up the tier 1 division, Vikin.gg is the strongest team in these regions. At this point, Vikin.gg has ended its Group Stage with 5 wins – 2 draws – 1 loss.

Future Expectations

Mudgolems is likely to climb the European rankings in the following months. Along the way, I fully expect them to change one or two players, especially if someone like Sumail will offer to join them. It’s not yet clear what the other big players are doing, but I’m sure that some of the ones who don’t have a team at this point will be interested in the chance to compete alongside FATA.

 

Photo credit: Valve