The first season China Dota 2 Professional League finally drew to a conclusion this week, having started all the way back in October. Following these months of contention and competition, we finally have an event to recap for all of you; summarizing all of the highlights below in the China Dota 2 Professional League Recap.
Organizes by ImbaTV, the online event was luckily unfazed by the pandemic due to this and could continue as planned. The event involved two stages of competition: a Group Stage and Playoffs. The ten teams, eight of which were invited while two earned their spot through the Development League Season 1 tournament. With $211,383 (converted) on the line, the event involved some of the best Chinese Dota 2 rosters in the world, eager to become the best, starting with the group stage.
Group Stage
The entire list of teams was thrown into a single group in order to play out a round-robin. With all match Bo3, each team would need to place at least sixth in order to progress further into the competition, with the bottom 4 leaving early. Working harder to enter the Top allowed teams to advance straight to the Upper Bracket while 5th and 6th would proceed to the Lower Bracket. Below are the results for the Group Stage:
- 1. PSG.LGD (7-2)
- 2. Vici Gaming (7-2)
- 3. Royal Never Give Up (6-3)
- 4. Invictus Gaming (5-4)
- 5. iG Vitality (4-5)
- 6. Team Aster (4-5)
- 7. Keen Gaming (4-5)
- 8. EHOME (4-5)
- 9. Newbee (3-6)
- 10. Typhoon E-Sports Club (1-8)
Every single map counts; that’s what’s to learn here. the range of 5th-8th all stacked up equally in terms of wins with a 4-5 record, having to pick the difference through map count to give iG Vitality and Team Aster the edge. On the other side of the table, PSG.LGD and Vici Gaming also drew the same straw, placing first and second with a 7-2, 15-4 record: do note though, that one of Paris’ losses was to Vici Gaming and not the other way around. This was definitely a surprise considering PSG.LGD’s international reputation.
Some losses were certainly unexpected, such as third-place finishers in Royal Never Give Up losing 0-2 to Typhoon E-Sports Club: this only goes to show how each series can go either way in Dota 2.
With the Group Stage sorted after 8 weeks of gameplay, the Play-Offs remained and PSG.LGD needed to step up to the plate as the favourites heading into the event.
Playoffs
Upper Bracket R1
- Vici Gaming vs Invictus Gaming (1-2)
- PSG.LGD vs Royal Never Give Up (2-0)
The first round of the upper bracket would endure another surprising outcome, as Invictus Gaming would come out of the gates prepared for Vici Gaming, sending them to the Lower Bracket after a 50-minute Game 3 which went in their favour. While Vici Gaming fell, PSG. LGD triumphed over Royal Never Give Up with relative ease. Despite a 2-1 loss for PSG.LGD when the teams encountered one another in the Group Stage, it seems that they stepped up to the plate when it mattered to seize the series.
At this point in the tournament, many assumed that Vici Gaming would know fight through the entire Lower Bracket and meet PSG/LGD on the other side in the Grand Finals – let’s see what happens.
Upper Bracket Finals
- Invictus Gaming vs PSG.LGD (0-2)
Invictus Gaming, although showing great promise against lesser teams, couldn’t hold off PSG.LGD from their grand final. Following a resistant first map, IG seemed to crumble and the second map flew by quickly.
Lower Bracket R1
- Vici Gaming vs iG Vitality (2-0)
- Royal Never Give Up vs Team Sirius (2-0)
Lower Bracket R2
- Vici Gaming vs Royal Never Give Up (2-0)
Lower Bracket Finals
- Invictus Gaming vs Vici Gaming (1-2)
Up to this point, Vici Gaming had swept aside all forms of competition down here, in the Lower Bracket, as shown above. They were only one series away from Grand Finals, and that would involve taking down Invictus Gaming – after just losing to them in the Upper Bracket. As spoiled with the scoreline, Vici Gaming would take it: after IG secured the first map, VG mounted a comeback to allow for one of the best series of the event.
Grand Finals – PSG.LGD vs VG (3-2)
Yep, everybody was right as there are no surprises here: VG may have had to fight to get here, but the grand final would nonetheless be between themselves and PSG.LGD. Although a Minor event, PSG.LGD were still slowly fighting there way back since their last promising performance at The International 2019 where they placed third and The International 2019 where they placed second. Meanwhile, Vici Gaming also had a strong resume, with first-place finishes at both the EPICENTER Major 2019 and DreamLeague Season 11 last year.
While many favoured PSG.LGD in this situation based on past performances, nobody forgot that Vici Gaming just 2-0’ed them in the Group Stage.
The best-of-5 grand final was certainly a showdown as the first map was the longest enduring of the entire event, lasting 53 minutes and going in the favour of Vici Gaming. PSG.LGD would retaliate with a string of two maps of their own, replied to by one more from Vici. PSG.LGD would finish off the series with a final win, taking home the event, $211,383 and more than that, some renewed pride.
Although it wasn’t the cleanest victory, it allowed PSG.LGD to hopefully start getting back on track and gearing up for this year’s TI, which could maybe be theirs, especially after missing the first event of the new season and having a player recovering from eye surgery.
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