CIS is going to the major. The region's top three teams have been chosen to represent Eastern Europe at the ESL One Stockholm Dota Major 2022. Valve didn't have too many opportunities to hold the second season of in the CIS. As a result, the developers decided to limit the tournament to a one-week event, rather than the standard six-week league, like the one that is held in the other regions. This format allowed the selection of the best teams for the international tournament in the shortest time possible. These teams are BetBoom Team, Team Spirit and Mind Games. Also, in the course of the tournament two teams fell to Division II - HellRaisers and PuckChamp. See what the Dota Pro Circuit 2021/22 spring season was like in the Cybersport.Metaratings.ru article.
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BetBoom Team
BetBoom Team approached the tournament in great shape. Before that the team won the Winline Dota 2 Champions League Season 9. It raised the morale of players and they suddenly started to play well. So before the start of the DPC season in the CIS, BetBoom Team clearly had a claim for a slot in the ESL One Stockholm Dota Major 2022.
In their first match, BetBoom Team had no luck with their opponent. The team had to play against Team Spirit, the champions of The International 10. The odds for Team Spirit's victory were 1.20. Despite this, BetBoom Team managed to literally snatch a win and beat Team Spirit 2-1. After that, the team shut down Natus Vincere (2-1) and easily beat Mind Games (2-0), thus getting the first quota for the majors. No one could expect that. BetBoom Team turned out to be the strongest in the CIS, although last season it played in Division II and barely managed to make it out of there after re-matches.
Absolutely every player of BetBoom Team is looking strong. The trio of larl, Noticed and forcemajor show good synergy and great progress in individual play, and their captain SoNNeikO and coach Mag always draft well, unleashing the players. However, the best player on the team is of course Daxak. During the last two weeks he managed to become a new superstar in the CIS. His biggest advantage is a huge pool of heroes, as well as very strong and unconventional signature heroes that he plays insanely well - Visage and Nature's Prophet.
The majority of our drafts are built around our carry Daxak. He's a very unusual player who has an inconvenient pool of heroes. It's nice to have him playing for my team and not against it. He is really good. If you compare him to the other carries in our region, he's the only one with that style of play. That's why most of our meta is built around him. We don't really like to play with greedy carries. Right now we are trying to play aggressively with three semi-carries. The way I see it, there're always tier-1 teams that build their meta. That's what we're trying to do. Besides, when you have players like Daxak, it's easy. From the very beginning, when we started playing together and practicing, Daxak asked for extraordinary heroes. As we played together more and more, we started to trust in his ideas.
Team Spirit
Before the start of the tournament, Team Spirit was considered the main contender for the championship and for a slot in the majors. And considering the fact that the CIS had three invitations, the Dragons had to win for sure. Team Spirit lost their first game to BetBoom Team 1-2 and was one step away from relegation to Division II. However, this prospect did not satisfy TS, and the players mustered their strength to advance to the majors after all. The team defeated HellRaisers (2-0), Natus Vincere (2-0), and Mind Games (2-0), earning the second quota. In fact, this result did not surprise anyone.
Invitations to the majors are cool and all, but it's a shame there won't be any Chinese teams there. I really wanted to play against PSG.LGD, Team Aster and Xtreme Gaming's carry lou. That would have been interesting. I hope we can meet in the third major, that tournament should be more interesting. There are no interesting teams for me in Sweden's major unless it's PSG.LGD, Team Aster or Xtreme Gaming. To be honest, I feel like we're playing at 10% of our ultimate form right now. We can play ten times better than now. I hope we will show our best game in the majors.
Mind Games
Right before the tournament Mind Games made two substitutions. The team lost mid laner Rostislav fn Lozovoi and carry Maxim 7Jesu Senchinevich. Their places were taken by Alexey Ainkrad Diveevsky, who had previously left Nemiga Gaming, and Timur Dinozavrik Mavrin respectively. The new Mind Games roster did not inspire confidence at all, so it seemed that this team would take the last place in the tournament and fall into Division II. However, to everyone's surprise, Mind Games not only didn't fall to Division II, but also got an invitation to the majors. Perhaps the debut of this team can be called the main sensation of the CIS DPC season.
It's absurd, though, that Mind Games won only two series of the tournament, but because of the strange decisions of the tournament operator it was enough to get the invitations for the major. In the first match Mind Games beat PuckChamp (2-1) and then lost to Virtus.pro (0-2). But because of Pure's artistic talent, the "bears" were disqualified, while Mind Games got a technical win and advanced to the finals for the first slot. That sounds like the strangest thing ever: how can you give a team a technical win after they actually lost?
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But that's not all. After losing in the finals of the first qualifier, Mind Games immediately fell to the finals of the second qualifier. It lost there and fell to the final of the third qualifier. In other words, Mind Games had three attempts to qualify for the majors because of a technical victory. She failed the first two, but she took advantage of the third, and now the players are getting ready to fly to Stockholm. That said, it's obvious that Mind Games is unlikely to gain much success there.
Virtus.pro
Everyone's heard about the Virtus.pro incident already. In a nutshell, Pure caused the team to be disqualified in the middle of the tournament. The same day the guilty player was kicked out of VP and let him float freely. You can read more about it here.
Objectively speaking, Virtus.pro would have had no problem earning the third quota for the major, as their play looked much stronger than that of Mind Games, CIS Rejects or Natus Vincere. But in the end, the team will miss out on the major. In addition, there is a high probability that now the Bears will not get to The International 10, because they don't have enough DPC-points. And qualifying for TI is always random. Also, due to the poor results from Virtus.pro they kicked their coach, and it will obviously weaken the team.
Last August, when boolk joined Virtus.pro, he had high hopes for the team. Certainly, 5-6th place at The International 2021 cannot be considered a failure, but the team's subsequent Dota 2 results have been a disappointment. The Virtus.pro coach has a large area of responsibility, including integrating new players into the squad, building the training process, and drafts. This is a significant part of the overall contribution to tournament wins. Even if we take the difficult circumstances after TI into consideration, we can't see much success in those areas. The lack of visible prospects for improvement resulted in the decision to part with boolk.
CIS Rejects
Before the start of the DPC season, CIS Rejects had some roster changes. Pavel 9pasha Khvastunov left the team, and Matvey MieRo Vasyunin took his place. History has no subjunctive mood, but maybe this very decision prevented the team from getting the invitations to the major. After all, MieRo actually played poorly and was a burden for the team. Of course, he is still young and inexperienced, but it was his fault that several maps at the tournament were lost. However, you can't say that only MieRo was wrong. The whole team occasionally botched and put themselves in uncomfortable positions.
In the first match, CIS Rejects played with Virtus.pro and was even close to winning, but eventually lost 1:2, falling to the lower tier. After that, CIS Rejects had a crucial match against PuckChamp, as the loser fell to Division II. CIS Rejects was able to close the series 2-1 but then lost to Natus Vincere (1-2). However, later the two teams met again, and this time CIS Rejects won (2-1). After that, the team only had to beat Mind Games to get to the major, but then CIS Rejects relaxed and lost 1:2, missing a great opportunity to go to the LAN tournament. Most likely, there will be changes in the CIS Rejects lineup in the nearest future. This team can play well, but it needs a more stable lineup.
Natus Vincere
Natus Vincere entered the tournament with a new lineup. The offlane position was taken by Vladislav laise Lais, and Georgy swedenstrong Zainalabidov took position 4 . Surprisingly, it was this duo that played best in NAVI. The other players didn't please us at all. Alik V-Tune Vorobei stood out most of all (in a bad way) - he played completely non-meta heroes. Because of this, it was extremely difficult for Natus Vincere to win.
In the first match Natus Vincere beat HellRaisers (2:0), thus already making a small sensation. However, after that they immediately lost to BetBoom Team (1:2), but not without a fight. After that NAVI beat CIS Rejects (2-1), but that didn't help the team succeed. It lost its next two matches and could not win the invitation to the majors. Objectively, Natus Vincere does not perform at its best. In addition, the team is extremely unstable. So before the next season the lineup of Born to Win may change.
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Surprisingly, Valve made a good decision to select three teams for the majors in a short time frame. However, this format is completely inappropriate to determine the teams that should fall to Division II. After all, it turned out that teams lost only two series each and went straight to Division II. The seven-game-per-season format was much more objective in this regard, but rules are rules.
HellRaisers
During theRoster Reshuffle season last fall, HellRaisers put together a good roster and finished fourth in the regular championship and third in the regional finals, which can be called a very good result. The HellRaisers' players could show a good performance, but they were not ready for the DPC season in the CIS.
In the first round HellRaisers faced Natus Vincere. HellRaisers had all chances to win and, moreover, were considered as favorites, but in the end they lost (0:2). After that, the HellRaisers were only one step away from falling to Division II. The team had to win the next game, but they had absolutely no luck with their opponent. It was Team Spirit. Quite predictably HellRaisers lost (0:2) and fell to Division II. So, the team that fought for the leading positions in the winter, now showed some poor preparation and fell to Division II.
The Division II tournament will be held, but a little later. It simply wasn't as urgent, because there's no need to get it done before the major. Perhaps Valve will realize the imperfection of this format and introduce, for example, play-off matches between "candidates" for Divisions I and II. But I wouldn't like to complain about the format. It is what it is for a reason. And it's better for the region to have the tournament at least in this crumpled up form than not to have it at all. We are victims of those circumstances, but that's entirely our fault.
PuckChamp
As well as HellRaisers, PuckChamp played well in the first DPC season. The team finished second in the league, but then somewhat slipped and finished only fourth in the regional finals. Nevertheless, it seemed that PuckChamp could put up a good fight in the second DPC season, but right before the season started, there was confusion with its midlaner. Originally it was young G, but he left the team and fn was supposed to take his place. But then young G came back. At this point it became clear that something was wrong with PuckChamp itself. The team's play confirmed it.
In the first match PuckChamp lost to Mind Games (1:2). It became an absolute sensation, because before the tournament this team was considered the weakest. And after that PuckChamp lost to CIS Rejects (1:2), which had just risen from Division II. PuckChamp frankly did poorly in this tournament and naturally fell to Division II. Now there is a massive likelihood that there will be significant changes in the team's lineup.
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