The Dota Pro Circuit 2021/2022 first season finished. The leagues in all six regions have come to an end. Perhaps the most interesting league was in Western Europe, where the "rookies" had suddenly fought against the "old-timers." Moreover, there were many reshuffles in this region during the offseason, so nobody could predict the results of the league. And they turned out to be interesting. Team Liquid took first place, and Team Tickles took the second one. These are the clear favorites of the season. They are followed by four teams with the same number of points. As a result, places from third to sixth were given in the replay. Alliance and COOLGUYS took last place. They fell into the second division. Read what was interesting during DPC first season in Western Europe in the material by Cybersport.Metaratings.ru.
Team Liquid (6-1)
Team Liquid became the strongest team in Western Europe during the Dota Pro Circuit 2021/2022 first season. Last year, the team completely failed and didn't even make it to The International 10. After that, there were serious changes in the team. Tommy "Taiga" Le and Max "qojqva" Bröcker left the team and were replaced by Ludwig "zai" Wåhlberg and Lasse "MATUMBAMAN" Urpalainen.
This roster looked much better on paper because zai and MATUMBAMAN (who got kicked out of Team Secret) are incredibly tough players who can carry the entire team. The "old" Team Liquid players also revealed themselves in a new way. After a long break, Michael "miCKe" Vu returned to mid where he feels at home and consistently shows a cool game. Samuel "Boxi" Svahn became number four — it is his favorite position. All the players stacked nicely and started playing well right away.
Team Liquid lost only one match in the season — against Nigma Galaxy (1-2). That's not to say that Team Liquid crushed everyone in its path. Each series was difficult for it, the score was almost always 2-1. However, Liquid still won in a persistent struggle, which also speaks of the strength of the team and the morale of the players.
As a result, Team Liquid managed to become the strongest team in its region. Unfortunately, it is overshadowed by the fact that Valve canceled the first major of the season, so the merits and efforts of Team Liquid are largely devalued.
First, coronavirus devalued the fact that we were in the top 6 majors twice in the 2019/2020 season before TI was canceled. Now I woke up to know that being the best in the very competitive European region means absolutely nothing. Fantastic. As if I didn't make zai and MATUMBAMAN agree on a shortened vacation after TI10 so that we could have a successful start of the season.
William "Blitz" Lee
The team earned 30 thousand dollars and 300 DPC scores during the season.
Team Tickles (5-2)
Before the start of the league, Team Tickles was considered one of the underdogs, but it took second place. The fact is that last DPC season, the team played in the second division, so nobody expected great results from it. Against all odds, Team Tickles showed a decent result. At the beginning of the season, the team overplayed the weaker teams, and then managed to deal with the tops.
The players of Team Tickles were very cool. Miroslav "BOOM" Bičan can be even called the best mider in Europe. He won plenty of games alone with his signature Puck and Queen of Pain. The player from the CIS, Anton "dyrachyo" Shkredov kept his end up, too. He didn't play a super game but was stable. Marcus "Ace" Hoelgaard who moved to the third position should be also noted. He has been playing with Tidehunter, Night Stalker, and Sand King for the whole season, but it is enough to go on a rampage. The supports Erik "tOfu" Engel and Melchior "Seleri" Hillenkamp are also very good, as always. All in all, the team did well and showed a cool performance during the DPC league.
The team earned 28 thousand dollars and 180 DPC scores during the season.
Tundra Esports (4:3)
Tundra Esports was considered the main favorite of the DPC first season. At the end of the last season, it got into great shape and took second place at the qualifiers for TI10, having lost to OG. After that, Tundra Esports became the ESL One Fall 2021 champion and won several tournaments. Perhaps it was the strongest team that missed The International 10. Therefore, many had high expectations for it in the new season.
Unfortunately, at first, Tundra esport didn't meet them. We cannot say that the team failed the season, but it obviously performed worse than it expected. For the entire league, the team had three losses and four victories — a stable situation for this season. And then the replay began. Tundra Esports prepared for them. Both the drafts and the execution were top-notch. As a result, the team defeated all the opponents and took third place in the regular championship.
The team earned 27 thousand dollars and 120 DPC scores during the season.
OG (4-3)
OG has changed its lineup completely before the DPC. The legendary roster of the two-time TI champions retired, and the coach of the former roster Mikhail "Misha" Agatov began to be in charge. He became a captain and recruited four relatively unknown players to his team. Nobody believed in them, and it was justified. The roster is new and unpracticed, the players are young and inexperienced, the opponents are fierce and energetic. That was terrible for OG. It seemed that this team would fall to the second division.
Nevertheless, OG started the season very cool, taking points from Team Secret and Nigma Galaxy. The team played not too badly, but there wasn't enough discipline. Because of that, OG lost to more experienced teams several times. As a result, by the end of the season, OG has four wins and three losses — as well as four other teams. This was followed by the biggest replay in DPC league history. There OG played very well (to the surprise of many). The team proved that its roster is not just a stack for one season. This is an excellent team that can play extremely well. At the end of the replay, the OG became fourth in the DPC league.
The team earned 26 thousand dollars and 60 DPC scores during the season.
Team Secret (4-3)
Team Secret played cool last year and even took third place at The International 10. However, it was not enough for the roster that claimed victory. So, in the reshuffle period, two new players came to the team. Legendary Suma1L took the mid position, displacing Nisha to the carry. And iceiceice took the third position. It was a strange decision, as he hasn't had a good game in a long time. Going forward, we can say that he became the reason for most of Team Secret's losses.
Even with iceiceice on hard, Team Secret looked very dangerous. Theoretically, it looked like the team could win the regional league again, but Clement and co have not been in great shape for most of the season. We are talking not only about iceiceice but about other players who began to make mistakes too often. One could see that they were a little tired or just did not have time to play.
Anyway, Team Secret had 3 losses this season — OG, Nigma Galaxy, and Team Liquid. Because of that, the team's final score was 4-3. Team Secret had to take part in the replay for four teams to fight for third place in the season. Unfortunately, Clement and co lost this replay. Team Secret defeated only Nigma Galaxy but lost to other competitors, so it took only fifth place. Is it a failure? We think, yes.
The team earned 25 thousand dollars and 30 DPC scores during the season.
Nigma Galaxy (4-3)
Before the start of the Dota Pro Circuit 2021/2022 first season, Nigma Galaxy was considered one of the main favorites of the league. The reasoning was simple and very logical: Nigma Galaxy was one of the two teams in the first division that did not change its lineup during the offseason. Consequently, while the other teams were just getting used to each other, Nigma Galaxy was to take the coveted DPC points. This roster has been in place for quite some time and it showed itself quite well in the International 10 qualifiers, so the dominance at the beginning of the league is a fair prediction.
As usual, Nigma Galaxy surprised us. The team lost three opening matches against Team Tickles (0-2), Tundra Esports (0-2), and OG (0-2). As we see, the team won no map. There weren't any fights. A complete failure for the potential favorite of the season. However, Nigma Galaxy is used to such a turn of events. The team always starts with losses and then gradually recovers. That was the scenario under which Kuro's team won The International in 2017.
Surprisingly, this time Nigma Galaxy was also able to come back. After three losses, the team changed its strategy and started to play on Amer "Miracle-" Al-Barkawi and take him "heavy" cores. Igor "ILTW" Filatov, meanwhile, was spacing with the rest of the team. Igor himself denied that the team began to play according to the new strategy, focusing not on him, but on Amer.
You can't pick core heroes in mid and beat the best teams. The trick is that a good player should be good at all roles. I have it sometimes, I don't know how it works. Sometimes, I play as a carry really well, and sometimes badly. I don't understand it.
Igor "ILTW" Filatov
Team Secret (2-0), Alliance (2-0), Team Liquid (2-1), and COOLGUYS (2-0). It's funny that the only hard match was against Team Liquid. It was a struggle to the last second. In the rest of the games, the Nigma Galaxy dominated. As a result, the team ended its performance with a score of 4-3. It was enough to take part in the replay. However, the team lost to everyone there and took last place.
Nigma Galaxy is a mysterious team. At any moment it can play either very cool or just terribly. Of course, this instability makes itself felt. Because of it, Nigma Galaxy missed TI10 and took only sixth place in the DPC season this year.
The team earned 23 thousand dollars and 0 DPC scores during the season.
Alliance (1-6)
Alliance failed last year, so in the new DPC season, the organization decided to change the roster. Gustav "s4" Magnusson, Artiom "Fng" Barshak, and Linus "Limmp" Blomdin were kicked out of the team. They were replaced by prominent Ondřej "Supream^" Štarha, Rodrigo "Lelis" Santos, and Adam "Aramis" Moroz.
The new roster of the Alliance looked controversial (it's an understatement). There was no captain and "dragger" in the team, as it often is. On the whole, all the players looked quite strange together. Few would have thought that this mix would play because there was no one there to play. That's how it happened.
Alliance has lost six of its seven matches in the first European division. The team managed to defeat only COOLGUYS (2-0), and take one map from Team Liquid. But Alliance won nothing else. The organization didn't give up till the end, and after New Year, the players even gathered at the bootcamp in Serbia to improve their game. But it didn't influence the general result.
Our Dota 2 roster shows terrible results in the DPC 2021/2022 season. I apologize to the fans for the poor play. We have no excuses. Now we will focus on ending our performance in the league and then start evaluating our next steps.
Jonathan "Loda" Berg
Alliance took seventh place in the regular championship, and in the next season, it will continue its performance in the second division. It's a shame for such an established club as Alliance. To achieve success, the organization has to abandon its current roster and put the team together anew.
The team earned 23 thousand dollars and 0 DPC scores during the season.
COOLGUYS (0-7)
For those who forgot: COOLGUYS is a former Spider Pigzs roster with Gleb "Funn1k" Lipatnikov on the third position. Last DPC season, this team played in the second European division and took second place, which allowed it to go into the first division. Then the team changed its name to COOLGUYS and announced the search for a professional organization.
Unfortunately, the guys didn't become part of a team. However, given the results of the team, this was only a dream. COOLGUYS lost all seven matches in the first DPC division. At the same time, for the entire season, the team took only one map — in the match against OG. It is logical that with this game, COOLGUYS went back to the second division. Frankly speaking, it is too early for this team to play against the European Dota 2 giants. It needs to get a bit stronger.
The team earned 22 thousand dollars and 0 DPC scores during the season.