Team Undying made it to TI10 fighting without an organization behind them the whole year and even when they basically achieved their goal, they still had to rely on their fans in order to be able to set up a bootcamp via crowdfunding.
Their story perfectly mirrors what the North American region has been for the past couple of years. Even the fact that they will represent NA at the pinnacle Dota 2 tournament while they technically have just two players from Canada, and made it this far without meeting in person until now, reflects the state of NA's professional scene.
Eyes on the prize
Team Undying formed at the beginning of the year and despite not qualifying to either Singapore Major or AniMajor while having no contractual ties with any organization, they stuck together and in the end, they’ve managed to achieve their objective: a spot at the $40,018,195 The International 10.
Team Undying roster
Enzo “Timado” Gianoli
Jonathan Bryle “Bryle” Santos De Guia
Jonáš “SabeRLighT-” Volek
David “MoonMeander” Tan
Dooyoung “DuBu” Kim
coach: Yongmin “febby-dieu” Kim
Team Undying started the 2021 Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) with a great 6-1 series overall score in the league play and forced a three-way tiebreaker with Evil Geniuses and Quincy Crew for the first place. Up to that point, their only loss was registered against EG, but unfortunately for them, they lost both tiebreaker games and had to watch the Singapore Major from home. In the second season, they lost to both EG and QC and therefore they were once again left on the outside and with just 400 points gathered through both seasons, they had to gear up for TI10 regional qualifiers.
When both EG and Quincy Crew were out of the picture, Team Undying had absolutely no issues securing their tickets to the biggest tournament of the year. They went undefeated through the upper bracket and swept 4 Zoomers 3-0 in the grand finals to become NA’s third and final team to battle in Bucharest, Romania for the Aegis of Champions.
“Quincy Crew is a slightly better team than us and EG is just a lot better. If we played ten games against Quincy Crew, they would probably win six of them,” Saberlight told GosuGamers in an interview done right after the TI10 qualifiers.
Across the year, Team Undying proved not only to be the third-best team from NA, but they also crushed the better South American teams when they were given the opportunity. They claimed two BTS Pro Series trophies, but once they arrived in Bucharest and were able to compete with teams from other regions, they couldn’t really keep the pace. At the recently concluded OGA Dota PIT Invitational, they took a game from PSG.LGD and one from Team Spirit, however, both series closed with a defeat, which meant an early elimination in the 7th-8th place.
On paper, Undying has five rather interesting and strong players. Seen mostly as a group of rejects, each of them with twisted career trajectories, the five members and their coach could also be regarded as a group of misfits who found a common ground at Undying.
Timado is an SA prodigy and was the first carry from SA to qualify for TI, back in 2017 with Infamous. Despite his young age has already tried a couple of times to switch regions and he has a fair share of dramas attached to his name, but one thing nobody can deny is his talent and mechanical gift when it comes down to playing the game. In that sense, he is much like MoonMeander, who through his 10 years competitive career has been the centerpiece of a few controversial topics, but whose lower bracket run with OG at the Frankfurt Major is impossible to forget. It was his Earthshaker plays that kept OG alive in the elimination rounds in Frankfurt and allowed them to make a full comeback and claim the Major title.
After OG, MoonMeander tried his luck with plenty of other teams, but in most of the cases, the painful reality in the NA scene prevented him and the teams he was on to thrive. Most ceased to exist, the recent example being CR4ZY, from where MoonMeander and Bryle continued to play together and co-opted DuBu to make the foundation of what would become a TI10 qualified team.
While Bryle hasn’t been to a TI before and neither has Saberlight, the core of the team does know what it takes to survive in a tournament of this magnitude. From all of them, DuBu has the most TI games in his hands and he is also the one always looking to innovate and find the least explored options.
Coming from the South Korean scene and with his drafting mind formed under the MVP Phoenix banner, DuBu can easily be the factor that will allow Undying to deliver some upsets.
Team Undying’s claim at the Aegis
Without a doubt, Team Undying is one of the underdogs heading in TI10 and the question that should be asked is for how long they will be able to live up to their name. Along with Quincy Crew, they are the only two teams to come to the biggest event of the year without an organization to support them, which can be a blessing in disguise. Having the freedom to approach this event as they please, can lift a lot of pressure from their shoulders. In all aspects, this edition will be a new learning experience for the Undying players and perhaps that’s the most important part.
