The first week of Tour 2 in Western Europe’s DPC was more interesting than we thought. Team Secret and Liquid had the chance to play in the first match, and as expected, most people believed that Liquid would succeed. However, Team Secret showed its prowess and played extremely well in both games.
The second series that everyone was eager to watch was between OG and Nigma Galaxy. Ivan Borislavov “MinD_ContRoL” Ivanov played well during the event in Dubai, which is why his team was considered the favorite. However, Bozhidar “bzm” Bogdanov and the rest of OG’s young team had little to no problems. The two-times TI winning team won the series in a little over an hour.
Now that the second week is over, we had the chance to watch several series. So, here is what happened in Division I and Division II in Eastern Europe. You can also check out the DPC SEA recap here.
Division I:
Secret vs Tundra
The first event of the week was between Team Secret and Tundra Esports. Both teams won their first matches, so predicting the final winner here was easier said than done.
Team Secret picked an interesting draft with Invoker and PA and focused on dominating the late game. Sadly, their plans did not succeed because Tundra’s Tiny, Wisp and Gyro ripped through them.
After losing the laning phase, Team Secret was unable to bounce back and provide their two cores with some sort of farm. Tundra was in the driving seat and quickly forced their opponents to tap out just 24 minutes after the start.
After the painful loss, Team Secret decided to change their draft and get IO. They even tried to pair the hero with SF, which worked for a while, but things went downhill.
Team Tundra’s Luna and Abaddon slowly but steadily gained momentum and did not let their opponents take advantage of their roster. In the end, Leon “Nine” Kirilin and the rest successfully defeated their powerful opponents.
Brame vs Entity
These two teams already had the opportunity to go up against each other in Tour 1 because they were in Division II. This made the match between them even more enjoyable.
We expected Brame to win, but the roster changes don’t allow them to utilize their potential yet. They lost both games relatively easily. Game one was a stomp, whereas the second one was more interesting. Despite having better heroes, Brame was unable to overcome Entity and lost their second match in Division I.
Liquid vs OG
Following OG’s impressive victory against NGX, people expected the team to show its prowess again. It was not easy for Bozhidar “bzm” Bogdanov and co., but the young team prevailed after winning the series.
The first game of the series started in favor of Team Liquid because they dominated the laning stage. In fact, the team secured itself a comfortable 6+ kills advantage. With that being said, even this was not enough to tame OG’s Huskar and DK. The two heroes slowly got the items they needed and managed to turn the game around.
After losing game one, Liquid focused on a very mobile draft for the second game of the series. Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned because OG picked TA and DK. The laning stage was even and Liquid even got a substantial kill advantage. However, OG’s fast-farming cores were able to bounce back for the second time and secure the victory.
Secret vs OG
After winning two series in a row, it was time for OG to face its biggest challenge yet. Bzm and the rest had to go up against Team Secret, who previously lost their series against Tundra. Despite that, Clement “Puppey” Ivanov and the rest of his team played an amazing series and defeated their opponents.
Every game was fantastic to watch because both teams gave everything they had. The first two ones were not as intriguing as the first one because the two teams dominated. With that being said, game three had everything we could wish from a top-rated Dota 2 match.
It lasted almost one hour, and everyone thought that OD had this in the back due to SD and TB. However, these two heroes could not overcome the powerful Ember, Void, and Snapfire combo. Although the odds were against them, Secret won a crucial team fight and secured a solid advantage that helped them win the series.
Gladiators vs Entity
The last series of the week in Div1 was between Gladiators and Entity. The latter won a very important match against Brame, which allowed it to bounce back in the division. Fortunately, they managed to do it again and secured themselves another vital victory.
Entity definitely had the better draft in the first game of the series, and they used it to its full potential. Gladiators tried to use Phantom Assassin, but their opponents countered the hero with Razor.
Despite the minor issues, Entity was in control and won several key team fights. In the end, their lead was too big for Gladiators to overcome, which is why they secured the first victory.
After winning game one, Entity decided to get heroes that allowed them to push fast and fight early on. However, their opponents picked Anti-Mage, a hero that countered Pugna and Skywrath. Unsurprisingly, Gladiators took full advantage of AM, and the hero was able to carry his team to victory and equalize the series.
Game three
The final game of the series was a battle between TA and PA, two of the highest physical damage heroes in the game. Although the laning stage went in favor of Entity, Gladiators’ PA played well and bounced back.
The hero dominated in the next couple of fights and gave its team a crucial victory. Following the success, Gladiators is now the leader in Division I.
Division II:
IVY vs goonsquad
The first match in Week of Division II in WEU was between IVY and goonsquad. What made this match interesting was the fact that both teams secured a spot for this division from the Closed Qualifiers.
As expected, GS had no problems in both games because their Swedish roster consists of several top-rated players. Linus “Limmp” Blomdin and his team achieved a quick 2-0 victory, which gave them a good start.
CHILLAX vs Into The Breach
CHILLAX was one of the teams that barely made it into Division I last time, so it definitely wanted to achieve their goal this time. Despite losing their first match during week 1, the team was able to defeat ITB this time around.
Both games were fun to watch and easy for Stoyan “lil pleb” Kostov and the rest. We are yet to see whether the team will be able to show the same prowess next week.
Alliance vs Team Bald
Alliance was one of the big names in Division I, but after the disappointing performance, the team has to survive in Division II. Following Nikolay “Nikobaby” Nikolov and his teammates’ dominant performance in Week 1, the team did the same in Week 2. This time, the players defeated Team Bald in a three-game thriller.
The first map was the most interesting because the game was more than 50 minutes long. After winning it, Bald managed to bounce back in the series, thanks to IO and Storm. They tried to use Storm for the third game in a row, but this time, Alliance had an answer in the face of Aliwi “w33” Omar’s Windranger.
Chicken Fighters vs GS
Goonsquad won their third series in Division II after defeating Chicken Fighters, one of the nig names in Western Europe. People expected a back-and-forth series full of clutch plays, but the reality was different.
Gustav “s4” Magnusson and the rest won both games after just 27 minutes of play. They had the better draft in both of them and utilized their heroes to their full potential. Interestingly, we had the chance to see Techies in game one, but the hero didn’t have the impact that CF expected.
Team Bald vs ITB
The final match of Division II in Week 2 turned out to be a 2+ hour epic battle between two amazing teams. Team Bald and ITB played two games, one of which was 70 minutes, while the other lasted for 50 minutes.
It is pretty much impossible to point out everything that happened because the action was all over the place. Let’s just say that both teams had equal chances of winning in both games. However, Into The Breach got lucky and won both games. This victory was really important for the team because it broke their losing streak.
