The Road to Manila: From Dota Pit to Starladder

The first big LAN since Dota Pit has taken place and the implications for Manila abound. Some teams rose to the challenge and using this LAN to increase their chances of the coveted direct invite. Unfortunately for others, their poor to mediocre showing means the grind will be a coarse one through the qualifiers. The results from this LAN show that Patch 6.86 continues its reign as one of the most exciting and interesting patches in recent memory. The field of heroes available to pro teams is wide and open as evidence by the meta changing from event to event. But enough talk about the meta, let's discuss what's really important: the teams!

This team is the story of the tournament. They overcame obstacle after obstacle in order to secure themselves a win. Mikasa had to stand-in because of visa issues for Nono. Vici Gaming Rebord (VGR) recently formed from the ashes of Vici Gaming and Vici Gaming Potential. With poor results for the Chinese teams at the Shanghai Major, professional squads from this region tried to quickly build Frankenstein in time for the lock date for the next major and TI. VGR seems to have emerged from the shuffle with a very competitive roster topping regional rival the all-star packed LGD in the loser's bracket finals and then defeating on a resurgent Na'vi in the finals. 

Here's a team that went from being the team to beat 3 years running to obscurity before rumbling their way back to relevance once again. I discussed the CIS teams a little bit (here) during Dota Pit, touching on how the roster shuffles could favor Na'vi, Virtus.Pro or Empire the most. These teams are seasoned and, assuming IceFrog doesn't change the game through a patch too much (likely) and the patch comes out before invites come out (very likely) and Na'vi doesn't implode between those two times (very likely), Na'vi are in a great position to secure an invite to the Manilla Major.

Finally, these is Virtus.Pro. VP are looking for something. They have the experience and the players but are struggling to find consistent success against tier 1 and 1.5 teams. Na'vi beat them in dream league 3-0 and they washed out of the Starladder I-League Invitational, only beating Vega Squadron 2-1. They do take games off of some of the best teams in each tournament and they convincingly beat tier 2 and 3 teams on a regular basis which could mean one of a couple of things: their opponents are quicker to adapt to what they are doing, their drafts are too predictable/not predictable enough or their are very dependent on winning the laning phase to win the game. They aren't playing in ESL One Manila but they will be heading to LAN for Dream league because they beat Team Spirit 2-0. Maybe this team just needs some time to find their grove or maybe they are just doomed to play doomed to play second fiddle to tier 1 teams. Either way, their invite to the next major is will probably not be forth coming. And unless win the Manilla Major, they probably won't be invite to TI either.

As I finish this, another LAN takes place in Manila. Some teams that we didn't get to see at Starladder will be there looking to prove their invite worthiness. Specifically, Ehome, Mineski, Complexity and Empire are in the hunt. For all but complexity, this LAN affords these teams with very fierce regional competition to set themselves apart at an international event. As for Fnatic, Liquid and Secrete, they will all probably get invites because of their consistently strong performances in their region and at other events.

Thanks for reading and let me know who's story your following as we head into the most exciting time in Dota 2!