Team Secret relegate to Division II of WEU

Tour 1 of Dota Pro Circuit 2023 was a complete disaster for Team Secret. Clement “Puppey” Ivanov was faced with a huge challenge after the end of The International 11. His team finished second and had a phenomenal year, but Michal “Nisha” Jankowski wanted to leave.

The offer he received from Team Liquid was probably very appealing, so he decided to accept it. Initially, Secret seemed strong enough to survive even without him, and possibly even thrive. But as soon as the new season started, it was obvious that the team was in trouble.

Secret’s disastrous run in Tour 1

Team Secret started the tour with five consecutive defeats and had no hope of going to the Lima Major. But there was still hope for them that they could avoid relegation. However, their opponent was Nigma Galaxy and the match proved to be really difficult for Puppey’s team.

Despite the clever drafts, Nigma did much better in both games. They won the first in just 37 minutes using a mixture of early game heroes such as Keeper of the Light, Rubick, and Nature’s Prophet.

The second match was very similar, but Nigma changed their draft almost completely. The only hero they kept from game 1 was Razor and it’s understandable why. Ammar “ATF” Al-Assaf is one of the best Razor players in the world. His ability to win with the electric monster is exceptional, and that gave Nigma an easy time in their offlane.

Because of this, Kuro “KuroKy” Takhasomi’s team was able to focus a lot more energy on winning the other lanes. In both games, Nigma dominated and gradually increased their advantage from the first few minutes.

The cause of the problem

It’s not yet clear why Secret play so poorly at the moment but one of the reasons is probably related to the roster’s inability to play around Miroslav “BOOM” Bican the same way they used to play around Nisha.

Or perhaps the newest member of Secret is not as strong as Puppey believed. Given BOOM’s success with his former team, Gaimin Gladiators, it’s more likely that the issue is caused by an insufficient level of coordination between the players.

Another possible cause of Secret’s failure is the change of the meta, which has evolved significantly since the end of The International 11. At the moment, Puppey seems to be struggling to understand the new optimal timings and strategies. When you play against the world’s best teams, that’s always a big issue.

Header: Valve Corporation