Dota 2’s Leipzig Major kicked off this weekend and the group stage is already behind us. Tomorrow marks the start of the DreamLeague Season 13 playoffs when teams start to go home.
Europe looking solid
By the end of the DreamLeague Season 13 group stage, the teams from Europe proved they’re at the top of their game. Three out of the four representatives for the region landed in the upper bracket, with the only exception being Team Liquid, who lost a decider to the North American powerhouse Evil Geniuses. Nigma and Team Secret remained undefeated in their respective groups, while Alliance suffered a loss to Invictus Gaming. After winning in Bukovel, Nigmaseem to be in good shape, and DreamLeague Season 13 is the team’s first Major event. The team even managed to meme their old ways as they’re usually known for going through the lower bracket.
Sorry to disappoint our fansbut we're in the upper bracket of The DreamLeague Major.#StarsAligned pic.twitter.com/xGSCy6ZJEW
— Team Nigma (@TeamNigma) January 19, 2020
China against China
Both Invictus Gaming and Vici Gaming had an excellent run in the group stage, and both ended up in the upper bracket. Ironically they’ll have to face each other in round one tomorrow, and one of them will drop to the lower where Team Aster might be waiting. If that’s the case, it’ll be a bit unfortunate as we’ll watch only Chinese teams fighting each other, but at least one of them will surely make it further and face an opponent from another region.
Na’Vi have what it takes
It has been some time since Natus Vincere had a confident line up but the group stage in Leipzig showed us we might have been wrong. The latest iteration of Na’Vimanaged to take down both Evil Geniuses and Team Liquid. Their next opponent in the upper bracket will be no other than Alliance. The two organizations have a long history starting from the early years of Dota 2 where they’d often meet at the top. Their most memorable clash was back in 2013 at the grand finals of The International where Alliance took the title after some very contested matches. Despite both orgs losing some of their reputation over the years and none of the old players actually being on the active rosters it’d still be a nice match-up that would bring some memories to veteran fans.
SEA and South America fighting for survival
Both regions were knocked down to the lower bracket with the only exception being Fnatic from SEA who managed to win the decider and secure a spot in the upper bracket. Reality Rift, TNC Predator, paiN Gaming and beastcoast all dwell in the deeps and to make things worse, they’ve been matched against each other. Out of the four teams only two will remain before tomorrow's set and done. The most interesting case here are TNC Predator, the ex-Major champions who came out triumphant at the Chengdu Major.
Team Liquid versus the bears
If a year ago you saw Liquid or Virtus.pro both at the lower bracket fighting to make it through further you’d probably think it’s a dream. That’s not the case now. It’s been a rough season so far for the organizations as they made a lot of changes to their rosters. Team Liquid essentially lost their squad as they decided to make their own and thus, Nigma was created. Liquid signed the ex-roster of Alliance, while Virtus.pro changed 3 of their players. VP and Liquid are still struggling to find their place and make it back to the top and maybe the Leipzig Major will be just the place for one of them.
The matches are set to resume tomorrow January 21 10:00 CET. Nigma versus Evil Geniuses will be the first series for the day. You can follow the official DreamLeague stream or simply watch the event in-game.
