Dota Pro Circuit 2021/2022: Season 3 will start next week in all the regions, including Western Europe. Eight teams will compete against each other for six weeks to determine who will take the last DPC points and go to the US major. There are more DPC points during the summer season, which means the struggle for them will be more violent. Read what the Dota Pro Circuit 2021/2022: Season 3 format will be and who the summer league favorite is in the material of Telecomasia.net.
The league format
The Dota Pro Circuit 2021/22: Season 3 for Western Europe will last for six weeks, from June 7 to July 17. During this time, each team will have seven best-of-3 matches: the teams will have one or two bouts every week. The first match of the league will be held on June 7 at 13:00 UTC. The match between OG and Team Secret will open the championship.
The four strongest teams that score the maximum number of points will go to the summer major. As we know, the ESL One Stockholm Dota Major 2022 organizer has changed the tournament rules: canceled the Wild Card stage, canceled getting to the playoff after the regional league, and made the group stage common to all. However, the summer major organizer hasn't made these adjustments, and now the rules remain the same. After the DPC league, any team can end up in one of the three stages: playoff, group stage, or Wild Card. The distribution in Europe is currently as follows:
- 1st place — playoff
- 2nd place — group stage
- 3rd place — Wild Card
- 4th place — Wild Card
The teams that will take fifth and sixth place will retain the right to play in the first division, but those in seventh and eighth places will lose it and fall to the second division.
The prize fund
The prize fund of the Dota Pro Circuit 2021/22: Season 3 is $205,000. The money is equally distributed among all the eight teams. The main fight will be not for money but for DPC points that let one get a direct invite to The International 11. We should remember that the summer DPC season is the last chance to earn the coveted points, so the fight will be very fierce. The money and points are distributed as follows:
- 1st place — $30,000 + 500 DPC points
- 2nd place — $28,000 + 300 DPC points
- 3rd place — $27,000 + 200 DPC points
- 4th place — $26,000 + 100 DPC points
- 5th place — $25,000 + 50 DPC points
- 6th place — $24,000
- 7th place — $23,000
- 8th place — $22,000
The league participants
Eight teams will participate in the Dota Pro Circuit 2021/2022: Season 3 for Europe. These are Alliance, Entity, Goonsquad, Team Liquid, Team Secret, Tundra Esports, OG, and Gaimin Gladiators. The last three are the main favorites to win, as they demonstrated a good game in the region and performed successfully at the ESL One Stockholm Dota Major 2022. The fight between all the other teams will be more or less equal. Let's discuss each team in detail to assess their chances to win.
OG
Of course, we should start our analysis with the last DPC league winner and the ESL One Stockholm Dota Major 2022 champion, OG. It is definitely the strongest team in Europe and one of the strongest in the world. The OG players demonstrate a furious game: they are aggressive but disciplined. Everything is according to the standards of the OG champion roster.
The team is almost unstoppable because it knows what should be done to win. OG has a strong laning, successful early moves, a good macrogame, and an excellent understanding of its peaks. But its main skill is its ability to fight. No matter how badly the team loses, it can always come back through a good fight. It's a unique ability that few Dota 2 teams possess. All this makes OG a powerful team and a formidable opponent. We remind you that the OG roster is now as follows:
- Artem "Yuragi" Golubiev
- Bozhidar "bzm" Bogdanov
- Ammar "ATF" Al-Assaf
- Tommy "Taiga" Le
- Mikhail "Misha" Agatov
However, the team has a weakness. OG has secured an invite for The International 11. The team doesn't need to participate in the summer league or the major. Because of that, the players may relax and demonstrate a poor game. There is always such a risk. Besides, everyone expects more from the champions. All the teams will prepare for OG, hoping to defeat the strongest European team.
We should understand that OG has very young players who are keen on Dota 2. They love winning, that's why they're unlikely to fail during the summer league. However, they will probably not get first place. After all, victories are much more important to their competitors now.
Tundra Esports
Tundra Esports has been considered one of the strongest teams in Europe for a long time, but it couldn't prove itself. First, the team became the second in the qualifiers for The International 10. And then it took fourth place twice during the winter and spring leagues. At the same time, it took top places at other tournaments and even won.
Its first worthy result was the third place at the ESL One Stockholm Dota Major 2022. It seemed that the team could win during the tournament. The community considered it the main contender to win. Unfortunately, the Tundra Esports players got confused in the final days of the tournament. They suddenly started to play much worse and didn't get to the grand finals. But the third place in the major is still a cool result. The team hasn't changed its roster after that, and now it looks as follows:
- Oliver "skiter" Lepko
- Leon "Nine" Kirilin
- Neta "33" Shapira
- Wu "Sneyking" Jingjun
- Martin "Saksa" Sazdov
Tundra Esports hasn't got a direct invite to The International 11 and has no moral authority to fail at the summer DPC season. It should get first or second place to get an invite. However, in some circumstances, a third place will be enough. We shouldn't forget that Tundra Esports will be able to earn some points at the US Major (if it qualifies for it). So, we will most likely see Tundra Esports at the main tournament of the year.
Gaimin Gladiators
Gaimin Gladiators can be called the main discovery of the year. The team didn't exist last year, and now it is one of the leaders in Europe and has enough points to go to The International 11. That's why Gaimin Gladiators can play carelessly in the upcoming season, just like OG.
But it will hardly happen. Gaimin Gladiators took fourth place at the ESL One Stockholm Dota Major 2022. It made stupid mistakes in the final days of the tournament, that's why it lost. The team saw the problems it needs to fix. Most likely, that's what it'll do in the summer league to get to the major in the best possible shape. Now the Gaimin Gladiators team has the following players:
- Anton "dyrachyo" Shkredov
- Miroslav "BOOM" Bičan
- Marcus "Ace" Hoelgaard
- Erik "tOfu" Engel
- Melchior "Seleri" Hillenkamp
Dyrachyo is a very diligent player. He’s one of those who is always positive, communicating with teammates, telling his supports what he needs from them, and all that. He’s a pretty good player. BOOM doesn’t care much about his matchmaking game, but I think he’s really good, too. You can call him the best player in Gladiators. BOOM has tremendous talent and great skills. This man understands very well what he has to do to win the match. This distinguishes the average player from the public from the professional.
Team Liquid
Team Liquid played quite well during the winter and spring leagues. The team always took top places and qualified for the ESL One Stockholm Dota Major 2022. However, the team's performance at this tournament was surprisingly terrific. Team Liquid made it only to the lower bracket and went home after losing the first match. Why they failed is yet unclear, as the team has a good roster that has long demonstrated stable results. The guys just drafted and played poorly. If they corrected their mistakes during a small break, everything will be alright.
Now Team Liquid has 590 DPC points. If it takes first place at the summer league, it will secure an invite to TI11. Second place will provide such an opportunity only in some scenarios. For Team Liquid, this is an achievable goal, which the team will pursue as the season progresses. The team roster is currently as follows:
- Michael "miCKe" Vu
- Lasse "MATUMBAMAN" Urpalainen
- Samuel "Boxi" Svahn
- Ludwig "zai" Wåhlberg
- Aydin "iNSaNiA" Sarkohi
Team Secret
Team Secret currently has 59.5 DPC points. The team will get a direct invite to The International 11 only if it takes first place in the league and then wins the US major. The chances are low, which means Team Secret needs to set its sights on regional qualifiers. Without OG, Tundra Esports, and Gaimin Gladiators (which will get direct invites), it can win them. That's why for Team Secret, the summer season is only a warm-up to get to the qualifiers at its peak. However, given that Puppey is the captain of Team Secret, he will likely try to win right here and now.
To do it, he made a replacement before the start of the summer season. Syed Sumail "SumaiL" Hassan left the team, as we expected. Michał "Nisha" Jankowskil became a middle player again, and Remco "Crystallis" Arets who had played for Entity joined the team as a carry. Crystallis is quite a decent player, but he didn't achieve much success. It's a usual workhorse that Puppey will be controlling. We are not sure this approach will work. Daryl Koh "iceiceice" Pei Xiang, whose play is terrible, frankly speaking, also stayed in the team. We doubt Puppey values him a lot. We believe that he just couldn't find a good alternative in the middle of the season. And this means Team Secret is in a sticky situation. This year is likely to become the sunset of Puppey’s career. Now the following players represent the team:
- Remco "Crystallis" Arets
- Michał "Nisha" Jankowskil
- Daryl Koh "iceiceice" Pei Xiang
- Yazied "YapzOr" Jaradat
- Clement "Puppey" Ivanov
Entity
Entity lost its carry before the summer league and took Ivan "Pure" Moskalenko, who had been recently kicked out of Virtus.pro. Even if you ignore the team's reputational risks, this replacement still does not seem justified. Crystallis was better than Pure. But Entity had no choice, as it had to quickly find some carry. The team was lucky to find at least someone. Despite this, it was a miracle Entity didn't fall to the second division last season, and now the chances of that have increased a lot. So, we can only wish Entity good luck. The team is represented by the following players:
- Ivan "Pure" Moskalenko
- Daniel "Stormstormer" Schoetzau
- Tobias "Tobi" Buchne
- Vladislav "Suzuya" Semenov
- Dzmitry "Fishman" Palishchuk
Alliance
During the DPC winter season, Alliance played in the first division but showed bad results and fell to the second one. After that, only Nikolay "Nikobaby" Nikolov stayed on the team, which decided to build a new roster around him. Several decent players joined Alliance, and the team managed to earn a place in the first division during the DPC spring season. It is unclear how it will play there, but we shouldn't wait for a dramatic rise. Now Alliance is represented by the following players:
- Nikolay "Nikobaby" Nikolov
- Aliwi "w33" Omar
- Moiez "symetricaL" Lin
- Adam "Aramis" Moroz
- Nikolay "CTOMAHEH1" Kalchev
Nikobaby has an aggressive playing style. And Nikobaby will play with w33 who is an aggressive middle player himself. I think their pools of heroes complement each other. It's good because if Nikobaby plays on an aggressive carry, they will be able to use fast-tempo strategies, and w33 will act as a playmaker. And it will be the same if Nikobaby plays on a hard carry. Then w33 is a middle player who will create a space for him. He is ready to make sacrifices so that the carry gets a farm and will create activity all over the map. That's why I believe w33 is an excellent choice for the roster. I hope Alliance will succeed.
Goonsquad
When Alliance disbanded, three players were kicked out of the team: Linus "Limmp" Blomdin, Gustav "s4" Magnusson, and Simon "Handsken" Rasmus Haag. They decided to assemble their own team and called it Goonsquad. The guys took Charlie "CharlieDota" Arat and Petu "Peksu" Vaatainen to their team and smashed the second division in Europe, ending it with no loss. Thus, Goonsquad is nominally stronger than Alliance. Now it is represented by the following players:
- Charlie "CharlieDota" Arat
- Linus "Limmp" Blomdin
- Gustav "s4" Magnusson
- Simon "Handsken" Rasmus Haag
- Petu "Peksu" Vaatainen
