Review of StarLadder ImbaTV Dota 2 Minor Season 2

On 12-16 June eight teams got to Kiev CyberSport Arena in Ukraine to fight for the champion title, prize pool of $300,000, 500 DPC points and two slots at EPICENTER Major 2019, and NiP became the winners there. We will sum it up and tell you about the rosters which made a good surprise and disappointed the viewers.

Disappointing teams:

Winstrike, EHOME, Mineski

Photographer - Igor Bezborodov

The team Winstrike was going to the tournament being an outsider according to the sportsbook, however the fans from the CIS hoped for the best and the teams showed themselves pretty well, however, they made a huge number of mistakes. These were the mistake which obstructed Lil and the team in passing to the playoff, losing against Alliance and Team Anvorgesa in their quartette.

Meanwhile, Mineski and EHOME could be seen among the strongest rosters according to the sportsbooks and the players were complimentary about the current shape of the teams after pracs, however both of the teams failed. Neither EHOME nor Mineski managed to overcome the group stage and while the roster from China went down swinging and was able to make it to the next stage, Mineski could not do anything. As a result, they took the 5-6 positions which wasn’t sufficient for the roster of this level.

Surprising teams:

Team Sirius, Team Anvorgesa

Photographer - Igor Bezborodov

To our mind, the list of the surprising teams is represented by Team Sirius and Team Anvorgesa, as both of them managed to get to four best. The team Sirius contains very experienced and pretty famous players, however, it is not enough for good results and if we take into account that the team hasn’t participated in other major competitions, it was difficult to expect anything good from them. During the competition it became clear that Sirius came to the event for the victory and showed themselves well at the whole competition and the guys lost against only finalists.

The Peruvian team performing under the tag Team Anvorgesa wasn’t considered to be an outsider of the event, but we supposed that this team could be a dark horse and surprise everybody, which came true. The team without a coach, sponsor support and organization managed to climb to the fourth position kicking EHOME and Winstrike out at the tournament. By the way, it is not the first time the Peruvians have got to Four Best at a rating tournament  - three representatives of Team Anvorgesa took the fourth position at OGA Dota PIT Minor 2019 playing for Majestic Esports.

Teams that performed corresponding to their level:

compLexity Gaming, NiP, Alliance

Photographer - Igor Bezborodov

Nobody believed in compLexity Gaming initially as the roster had a replacement several weeks before the start of the minor and didn’t show any results online. As a result, the team took the last position at the event, being able to win only one map at the group stage.

The guys from Alliance and NiP were one of the strongest representatives at the tournament, as both of them perform at the European region and they have visited rating championships many times. Their performances at the group stage showed us that these teams came there to win - both NiP and Alliance took the first positions in the group. By the results of the whole tournament, NiP took the first position and Alliance had to settle for the second place, but the final meeting happened lopsided and we saw all five maps. By the way, both of the teams got a slot at EPICENTER Major 2019 for each.