OG Will Miss the Singapore Major

Well, the good news is that it’s not something new for OG. The two times TI champions have become accustomed to having a disastrous season and then winning the World Championship with the odds stacked against them. But it’s still uncomfortable to see them miss the chance to play in one of the two Majors of 2021. Here’s what happened in the Dota Pro Circuit 2021 Season 1 Europe Upper Division and what caused this unfortunate incident.

DPC 2021 Season 1 Europe Results

The results in the European region are exactly the ones I expected, with one exception: Alliance, Team Liquid, and Team Nigma surpassed OG, and only two of them were supposed to be strong enough to do it.

Alliance

Alliance had an excellent run, ending in 2^nd place with 5 wins and 2 losses. Things went much better than they had probably hoped, and the only competitors that managed to beat them were Team Secret and Team Nigma. This was a far better run than the ones they had prior to this tournament.

Nigma

Other teams, like Nigma, did slightly worse but still managed to qualify. KuroKy and his crew lost some easy matches (against Vikin.gg for example) but managed to win enough times to secure a ticket to the Singapore Major. In particular, their victories against Liquid and Alliance were quite impressive.

Liquid

Team Liquid came very close to disaster and managed to avoid it just in their 6^th match of the tournament thanks to a rather surprising victory against OG. Apart from that result, Liquid only succeeded against the two competitors that were ultimately relegated, Vikin.gg and High Coast Esports.

Tundra Esports

FATA’s team won against the two weakest competitors and also against Liquid. This allowed them to participate in the Tiebreaker that could have sent them to the Singapore Major. But it wasn’t to be.

OG

OG should have qualified rather easily, but they made two huge mistakes during the tournament. The one that ruined their chances was against Vikin.gg. How did OG lose this match? I have no idea. But they certainly did and this threw them into an unpleasant Tiebreaker against Liquid and Tundra.

The Tiebreaker

The Tiebreaker decided the last team that went to the Major and took place on February 28^th. The matches were Bo1 and the rules were simple: round-robin rounds until a competitor wins both of their matches. This didn’t happen in Round 1. In this round, Liquid beat OG, OG beat Tundra, and Tundra beat Liquid. It was a perfect circle. But in Round 2, Liquid beat OG, OG beat Tundra and then Tundra lost for the second time against Liquid. This made qojqva’s team the winner of the Tiebreaker.

Team Secret

One team I didn’t mention until now is Team Secret. And the reason why I didn’t mention them is simple. Puppey’s squad demolished all opposition and finished 1^st with 7 consecutive wins. No doubt, along with Virtus.pro and perhaps one or two Chinese teams, Secret is a big favorite to win the Singapore Major.

 

Photo credit: Valve