As eyes turn to the regional online tournaments in lieu of the major, we look at the results of the recent WEU DPC tour.
The first tour of the new DPC has come to a close. It's not been without its drama with a major cancellation, teams underperforming, and even file exploits. Despite the controversy, WEU has been a hotbed of competition. The post-TI roster shuffle left some teams with entirely new rosters, and some teams pledging to stick it out for at least another season.
The new Team Liquid looks strong
Team Liquid came out arguably the best after TI. After being eliminated in the closed qualifiers to TI last year, the teams rebuilding has been stellar. The team picked up two former Secret players, offlaner Ludwig "zai" Wåhlberg, and Lasse Aukusti "MATUMBAMAN" Urpalainen. Their results speak for themselves. Liquid finished with a 6-1 record to place first in the WEU DPC division 1 and qualified for the upcoming online regional tournament. The team appears to be functioning well, shifting Samuel "Boxi" Svahn over to pos 4, and Michael "miCKe" Vu over to the mid lane. This has allowed the talents of the new players to shine in the roles that they are known for. Not to mention that both Boxi and miCKe have transitioned beautifully into their new roles.
A surprise player in the region has also been Team Tickles. Made up of the remnants of Hellbear Smashers and Vikin.gg, plus pos 1 player Anton "dyrachyo" Shkredov, the team made waves in the WEU DPC. The team took out some of the big dogs in WEU, annihilating Tundra in a 2-0 victory and managing to clinch out a 2-1 victory over the new OG roster. The talents of star players Marcus "Ace" Hoelgaard on the offlane, and midlaner Miroslav "BOOM" Bičan, have been crucial in their victories, turning them into a forced to be reckoned with.
Other WEU standouts
Although in the top two slot this season, Tundra have still had a strong showing in this WEU DPC tour. The entire team signed up to play together until 2024, which would be the longest time a roster has spent together in Dota history. The team had moments of domination, and also some struggles getting results against the top teams in the division, Liquid and Tickles. Despite this, Tundra hammered back in the tiebreakers for 3rd in 4th. The team didn't lose a game, and in fact, didn't even make the games look close, blasting Secret, OG, and Nigma Galaxy.
The new OG roster also came out to fight this season. Their entire roster was changed with the retiring of Sébastien "Ceb" Debs, and Johan "N0tail" Sundstein and Topias Miikka "Topson" Taavitsainen both taking breaks from competitive Dota. OG is being captained by former coach Mikhail "Misha" Agatov and so far the team has performed exceptional. It's made up of almost entirely rookies and younger players, with perhaps the exception being pos 4 player Tommy "Taiga" Le. The team started off incredibly strong, demolishing Secret in a quick 2-0 series. Still, the team found themselves in a 4-way tiebreaker for 3rd and 4th. With their performance in the tiebreakers on Friday, they were able to sneak by and take the 4th place spot.
Div 1 Struggles
Just as there were the winners, there were also teams who fell short. Coming up from the lower division, the roster formerly signed under Level Up Gaming, Coolguys, did not manage to win a single series. In the highly competitive region, this was probably an expected result for an otherwise strong div 2 team. They will be relegated back to div 2 for the next tour
Alliance also had their share of troubles this season. They had an almost completely new roster, moving Simon "Handsken" Rasmus Haag to pos 5, and bringing in Rodrigo "Leslão" Santos, Ondřej "Supream^" Štarha, and Adam "Aramis" Moroz. The team was unable to get results this tour, only being able to take a series off of Coolguys. With the relegation to div 2, the team is now going through some restructuring. With their organizational clout, they might be able to figure things out to make a run back to div 1.
As the season now comes to a close, the eyes of the Dota world now turn to the regional tournaments going on in place of the major. All of the teams there are very strong so it's likely the competition will be very stiff.
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