The Weekly CourierTeam Secret Claims ESL Hamburg Title, Dendi To Standin At Dreamleague Minor, PGL Announces Bucharest Minor
Team Secret Claims ESL Hamburg Title
Down 1-2 in a best of 5 series, Team Secret came back and rolled off two straight games against Vici Gaming to claim the ESL Hamburg championship. Team Secret will cash in $125,000 from the largest prize pool since TI8.
Team Secret came out leading the group stages, but were quickly knocked down to the lower bracket in the first round against Virtus.Pro. They rampaged through the lower bracket with consecutive sweeps over EG, Pain, and again, Virtus.Pro. We'll dedicate a full post soon on the meta of the tournament, but the tournament did showcase a few unconventional picks, in spite of a hero pool that was dominated by Terrorblade, Phoenix, and Ogre. Puppey occasionally drafted Brewmaster in the 5 position for himself. Vici Gaming prioritized a support Weaver, where a timely Aghanim Scepter wrecked havoc on any initiation. Monkey King made a brief return, slightly expanding an already narrow carry pool in this meta.
The MVP award, and a new Mercedes E400 along with it, went to MidOne, who created so much space for his team, regardless of whether he won or lost his lane. As the largest prize pool tournament since TI8, ESL felt like the kickstart to Dota's next season, especially with the Dreamleague Minor around the corner.
Dendi Returns At Dreamleague Minor
The Dreamleague Minor starts Monday, and last week Dendi announced he would standin for Team Lithium due to visa issues with their midlaner, Mage. Then, just recently, Vega Squadron's CEO, Alexey Kondakov, announced that they would be signing Team Lithium with their organization. The organization had been seeking a foothold in Europe for sometime, and that negotiations had initially "fell through" with Team Lithium in August.
The opening matches start October 29 in a group, best of 3 format, followed by a double elimination bracket. The winner will take $125,000, 120 DPC points, and a spot at the Kuala Lumpur Major.
PGL Announces Second Minor In Bucharest
PGL announced the second Minor of the Dota Pro Circuit in Bucharest. The event is set for January 9-13, where teams will compete entirely behind closed doors, with no live audience. At stake is a $300,000 prize pool and a ticket to the second Major, which has yet to be announced. The open qualifiers will take place Dec 1-5 across six regions. NA, SA, SEA, and CIS all have one qualifying slot each, with China and EU get two slots each.
The Artifact open beta just went live and our sister site Artibuff has been updated with card statistics to help you make the right choices in the draft.
first
Everyone's taking Dendi as a standin. Ofc.
2nd
Dendi the Mercenary
The hottest free agent in town @DendiBoss
I wonder what Phoenix's win rate was. In finals Phoenix was picked 2 times by Secret and 2 times by Vici. All 4 games were lost and it felt like the team with Phoenix on it played with only 4 heroes.
snoopy I'm sorry but you're archon 2. I just have to make fun of you.
Dendi is free publicity for the org, and free win for the other team 😁
So the Bucharest minor will not be held in a hall with live audience ? That's sad, in this case it doesn't matter the location.
5 Days without a post I was getting worried.
rule 101: <divine opinion does not matter.
(jk)
Dendi gonna become the new MindControl, the new mercenary
thats my dondi.
team secret wp!
wp w wp wp
Puppey raising the bar