Announcement of the DPC regional final 2021/22 in Europe

The DPC season ended several weeks ago. The best teams from each region should have met at the major, but Valve canceled the tournament due to the lockdown majors. Instead, the developers suggested that each region have its four-team finals. Over the three days of the tournament, the teams will fight for a prize fund and many DPC points. In Europe, Team Liquid, Team Tickles, Tundra Esports, and OG qualified for the regional finals. They will compete for the strongest team title. Read the balance of power before the finals and who is the main contender to win in the Cybersport.Metaratings.ru.

The regional finals of the professional 2021/22 season in Europe will be held on February 11-13. Four teams that made it to the top 4 during the season will participate in it. There will be no group stage. As usual, the season will start with the playoff. It will be a Double Elimination competition, which means that each team will make a mistake (to lose) only once. In the first round, the first-place team in the league will play against the fourth-place team, and the second-place team will play against the third-place team. Thus, the teams that distinguished themselves will have a slight advantage during the season.

Over the three days of the tournament, the teams will fight for 100,000 USD and 380 DPC points. With these prizes, Valve decided to compensate for the lack of the major for the teams that took first place at the end of the league's first season. All four participants will win the prize, but only the two strongest teams will get the DPC points. The distribution of prizes is as follows.

• 1st place — 50,000 USD + 250 qualifying points;
• 2nd place — 25,000 USD + 130 qualifying points;
• 3rd place — 15,000 USD;
• 4th place — 10,000 USD.

In Europe, the league's top teams were Team Liquid (6-1), Team Tickles (5-2), Tundra Esports (4-3), and OG (4-3). It's been a very hot season, as many teams took turns beating each other. As a result, six of the eight teams claimed to be in the regional league finals. And Tundra Esports and OG got there only after a tough replay. The finals promise to be as hot as the season, so let's look at its participants.

Team Liquid became the DPC's first season champion. If Valve had held the majors and not the regional finals, we could say that. And now the team has to fight for the right to be called the strongest in Europe. Team Liquid lost only in one match against Nigma Galaxy and won in six, but it doesn't mean it is the strongest team. Team Liquid took every series with a fight and could often stumble for the team's experience and players' skills. The 6-1 statistics could easily turn into 5-2 or even 4-3 if things turned out a bit differently.
Team Liquid can be called the main favorite of the European finals, as the team managed to show good and stable play. But this title won't help Team Liquid. Everything will be decided in a face-to-face confrontation, where drafts and lack of nervousness are decisive.
Team Liquid may have problems with it. The team has gained 300 DPC points for first place in the league, and if it gets 250 points for first place, it will make it to The International 11. This team can definitely score enough points to get a direct invite with two seasons left. So, a lot is decided in these finals, which means the hands can shake. Of course, it's only a theory. In practice, only the performance decides, and Team Liquid is good at it.

Team Tickles can be easily called the discovery of the last DPC season, and not only in Europe but in all six regions. In this roster, the team made it to the first division for the first time and immediately demonstrated decent results though nobody expected that. Team Tickles seemed to be a usual tier-2 team that rose to the top division for one season but would fall back to the bottom division after it ended. Nothing of the kind.
Team Tickles suddenly livened up: dyrachyo started to perform better than in the CIS; Ace turned out to be a good offlaner able to do Rampage even in the third position; and BOOM deals with every map in the mid, outplaying his opponents. The supports are also very cool. They are always in the right place. Besides, the average age of the players on this team is in the golden mean: there are enough youngsters and experienced veterans.
These factors were why Team Tickles took second place during the DPC season. They also suggest that this team could theoretically win the regional finals. At least, they have everything to do with it. The team needs only to perform well and defeat their opponents.
By the way, the Team Tickles roster has recently joined the Canadian Esports organization Gaimin Gladiators. It is a small club that appeared in Dota 2 for the first time. This is quite strange for the current situation when no one wants anything to do with this discipline. However, the fact that the talented guys from Team Tickles will now support a professional organization is great news.

Tundra Esports was considered the main favorite before the beginning of the season. There were two reasons. The first is that Tundra Esports was one of the strongest teams in Europe before and after The International 10. The team has confirmed it many times, but it did not get to the main tournament of the year (the team began to play well only at the end of the DPC cycle). The second reason is that Tundra Esports was one of the two teams that didn't change their roster before the new DPC season. While all the other teams were adjusting to each other, Tundra Esports was supposed to smash the European region. But it did not happen.
In some matches, Tundra Esports played fantastically, and in some, it looked like a lost child. We don't know why. But the fact remains that Tundra Esports was an extremely unstable team last season. We can only guess in what form it will come to the regional finals. If it is at its peak, it will be a champion.

OG is another team that was considered an outsider before the DPC season began. Nevertheless, its new roster beat Team Secret in the debut match and felt its presence. It seemed that the team, being in good shape, could even take the lead in the region, but the opponents were stronger. OG got out of shape during the league. They started well but gradually weakened, though still showing the occasional cool game.
OG, like Tundra Esports, wasn't stable in this season. The team became the last team that made it to the regional finals, though they were close to missing it. When the team plays at its best, it is still a dangerous but too confident opponent. This, of course, is a clear weakness of the OG, which it has gotten in the last month and a half.

We can claim that there is no favorite at the European regional finals given all the above mentioned. All the teams are at the same level and can easily outplay each other. It is impossible to single out a favorite. The winner will be determined during the game, where drafts, teams' preparation, and overall level of their play will be decisive.