Tundra Esports get invited to DreamLeague S20

DreamLeague S20 will feature 16 formidable teams and 15 of them had been announced until a few days ago. Now we know who the last participant will be: Tundra Esports.

This team totally deserves the invitation because they’re currently dominating the strongest Dota 2 region in the world, Western Europe.

In Tour 3 of Dota Pro Circuit 2023, Tundra obtained six victories in the first six matches, a performance that is hard to comprehend given the strength of the region and the fact that two of its competitors, Gaimin Gladiators and Team Liquid, played in the Grand Final of the last two Majors.

Tundra defeated both of them and only has one last match to play in this Tour, against Team Secret. This will almost certainly be an easy match because Secret’s current record is 1 W – 5 L. Unfortunately for Clement “Puppey” Ivanov, after the departure of Michal “Nisha” Jankowski, the entire team collapsed.

Secret went from finishing second at The International 2022 to being a Division II competitor in Western Europe, which is quite shocking.

Tundra’s renewed strength

Tundra seem to be getting closer to their former strength, which allowed them to win The International 11 last year. This is a team that has mastered the art of deception and thrives in complex situations where it isn’t clear what needs to be done to win.

The captain of the team, Wu “Sneyking” Jingjun, has a deep understanding of what each Dota 2 hero can do and how the rules can be bent to get the best result. He often picks one hero that’s well suited for a role and plays him in a completely different role. Or he changes his item build to reach a power spike much sooner than usual.

In Dota 2, teams have a rough understanding of what the pace of the game needs to be in order to win with one type of lineup against another. But when one team changes the pace and the timings completely, you no longer have the ability to calculate the odds of success of each battle.

You are fighting blind, not knowing whether you will win the next fight or not, and a small number of mistakes can cost you the game. Tundra are experts in causing the enemy to miscalculate. The closer we get to The International 12, the stronger they seem to get.

Header: Tundra Esports