This article offers a brief look on each of the participating teams in Na'Vi, Alliance, Fnatic and Cloud9. With teams having a lot to prove after the recently concluded StarSeries, the weekend mania is sure to keep us glued to our monitor screens as every team has an equal chance to shine out, given their potential LAN prowess.
English - BeyondTheSummit
Russian - StarLadderTV
Serbian - M3LON, Oroku
Romanian - Ppasarel, DarkMickey
Prize distribution
1st - $13,000 + 40% ticket sales
2nd - $7,000 + 30% ticket sales
3rd - $5,000 + 20% ticket sales
4th - 10% ticket sales
The Teams
W-L-D: 299-105-11GGnet rank: #7
Common heroes:
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?Natus Vincere needs no introduction as its Dota 2 has already established themselves as one of the premier teams in the competitive circuit. Na'Vi has countless number of achievements under their belt with The International Dota 2 Championships 2011 being the most coveted trophy they have ever won. They are praised for their unorthodox strategy and gameplan, and are very well known to perform better under immense pressure.
Their lose now - win later strategy has been a subject of discussion amongst the community, to which they have also received critical acclaim. However, the dominant Na'Vi we once knew has not been performing well according to their calibre recently. Known for over-whelming the Chinese teams at one point of time when no other team could, the current Na'Vi line-up is all but a mere shadow of its former glory.
As witnessed from the recent StarLadderTV StarSeries IX debacle, Na'Vi didn't perform upto their usual standards and faltered throughout the tournament. They appeared to be struggling not only against the Chinese but also against their European counter-parts like RoX.KIS and Team Empire. They performed poorly during the entire duration of the event and thus were unable to defend their StarLadder crown.
Arguably, the favourites going into the tournament, Na'Vi will have to step up and bring their "A" game to the table. Puppey will need to revise his strategic plans and draft heroes that suit the current game version besides being able to make Na'Vi work as a cohesive unit. A unified Na'Vi is more destructive than a group of five talented individuals.
Recent achievements:
1st: StarLadder Season 8 ($61,000)
1st: Dota 2 Champions League Season 2 ($62,500)
2nd: XMG Captains Draft Invitational ($10,000)
5th/6th: StarLadder Season 9 ($7,500)
W-L-D: 275-91-6
GGnet rank: #9
Common heroes:
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Alliance has been a force to be reckoned with in the western hemisphere alongside Natus Vincere. They stormed into the Dota 2 scene under the name of NoTideHunter and won DreamHack. After being sponsored by Alliance, they managed to win G1-Champions League, DreamHack Summer, StarLadder Season 6 and The International Dota 2 Championship 2013 - amongst other online tournaments.
Alliance dominated and conquered every possible tournament without any contention from teams across the globe in 2013. However, Alliance started to deteriorate post TI3 period as they were unable to adjust to the various patch changes that were implemented in Dota 2. Their solid team execution plays turned into sloppy ones as evident from back-to-back changes in the drafters position.
The Swedes too failed to post any impressive results in the recently concluded StarLadder StarSeries IX, despite starting out from the Winners bracket. The only 1st place finish Alliance have been able to secure is in the first season of Dota 2 Champions League and have been tossed out early in LAN events this year.
Similar to Na'Vi, the Swedes have to revise their strategic approach and become more versatile in the drafting phase, with a possible increase in their limited hero pool. Banning out their signature heroes and shutting down s4, Akke and EGM makes the game a lot easier for other teams. More importantly, Alliance needs to re-define their teamwork which has been on a down hill this year.
Recent achievements:
1st: Dota 2 Champions League Season 1 ($25,000)
2nd: StarLadder Season 8 ($30,000)
3rd: XMG Captains Draft Invitational ($5,000)
4th: Dota 2 League Season 4 ($2,500)
4th: Dota 2 Champions League Season 2 ($12,500)
5th/6th: StarLadder Season 9 ($7,500)
W-L-D: 42-18-14
GGnet rank: #4
Common heroes:
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One of the most beloved teams in the community, Cloud9 are definitely going into the tournament as second favourites. This team has a diverse history with different organisations, some of which are not memorable such as the RattleSnake fiasco during MLG Columbus. The team consists of lucrative players such as EternalEnvy and SingSing at the helm that generate enough hype for the team.
Performance wise, the team hasn't been doing well ever since winning MLG Columbus, atleast no other first place finish. The biggest disappointment for the team this year has been their inability to qualify for StarLadder StarSeries IX LAN finals. They dropped out of the event prematurely due to their poor performance wherein the team appeared to be out of sync.
One reason for C9's failure can be their conservative approach towards the game, with the team inclined more towards EternalEnvy's passive farming for late game or too much dependancy on bOne7 and SingSing to make plays. C9 needs to take a more aggressive approach in-game and in turn create additional space for their supports to gank.
DreamHack Bucharest will be a stepping stone for Cloud9 to come out of their slumber and perform to their extreme potential. It will also help them with prepartions for future tournaments such as ESL and DreamLeague, which would be one of the very few competitions prior to The International Dota 2 Championship 2014.
Recent achievements:
1st: MLG Columbus ($68,000)
2nd: Dota 2 Champions League season 2 ($30,750)
2nd: Monster Energy Invitational ($3,000)
3rd: MLG TKO America ($4,500)
W-D-L: 275-177-13
GGnet rank: #8
Common heroes:
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A team revolved around friendship, Fnatic has been through all ups and downs in their competitive Dota 2 career. They were not very well received at the time of making switch from Heroes of Newerth to Dota 2 and were referred as "hontrash". They struggled at start but steadily climbed the ladder and established themselves as a top contender in the European scene.
Despite the team being revolved around friendship and deep understanding, Fnatic has been very inconsistent team ever since they switched to Dota 2. Arguably, one of the most creative teams, Fnatic has run many weird strategies that have not yielded in their favour most of the times.
Due to their weird tactics and inconsistency, Fnatic has lost out on many oppurtunities to shine through in various events; online and offline. They are able to take off games against top tier teams, yet are prone to losing out to teams below their tier level. The high risk-high reward strategy adopted by Fnatic has worked against them in many situations including StarLadder StarSeries IX, wherein they failed to qualify for the LAN finals.
Fnatic needs to show consistency in their gameplay and need to focus on drafting suitable heroes for the players. Consistency alongwith friendship can work wonders in an eSport like Dota 2. Fnatic has the potential to become a dominant force provided they work on their shortcomings and with their recent wins in XMG Captains Draft and MLG TKO Europe, they seem to be on the right path.
Recent achievements:
1st: XMG Captains Draft Invitational ($20,000)
1st: MLG TKO Europe ($14,000)
1st: SteelSeries Euro Cup ($800)
2nd: Dota 2 League Season 4 ($15,000)
4th: StarLadder Season 8 ($12,000)
Predictions
Predicting a clear winner for DreamHack Bucharest 2014 is tough as all of the participating teams have been performing rather poorly in recent weeks. Leaving aside their online accomplishments, every team has been encountering certain issues at LAN events due to lack of preparations or struggling to adapt to the patch changes.
In no particular order I would rate Na'Vi and Fnatic grabbing the top two spots due to their unpredictable playstyle and creativity in drafting. A little surprise might just make it or break it for them and take them an inch closer to the crown. Although, we cannot rule out Alliance and Cloud9 out, we might see them ending at bottom of the table unless Alliance comes up with a new strategy and not rely on weak drafts or Cloud9 not having enough practise because of EternalEnvy experiencing fatigue due to his extensive travel from Canada - Kiev - Canada - Romania.
To conclude, a clear winner is very difficult to predict since all of the above teams are faring poorly overall and have not reached their peak yet. DreamHack Bucharest will be an interesting tournament to spectate given the unpredictable nature of the final outcome which might just amaze us even more.
Write your predictions in the comment section below.
Rotator picture taken from HDwallpapers
In-news photo from Dreamhack.ro
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