The Nanyang Championships kick off today and everyone is hyped. Competition is set to be bloody, aggressive and enthralling but which two teams are likely to be dropped from the competition in the first rounds? Who’s got the best roster? Who’s got the best form? Let’s take a look at how the teams of Group A fare against each other:
Virtus.pro
They performed well at TI 5 and continued their solid run of success by finishing just behind Team Secret at the World Cyber Arena 2015 European Qualifier. They also achieved a credible top eight spot at ESL One New York 2015 and did the same at the MLG World Finals.
With strong players Sergey “G” Bragin and Artem “fng” Barshak on the team they’ll be in a good place if they can pull together and demonstrate team work.
Pitted together against the rest of the teams in this group, their road to the playoffs will be bloody and destructive but that will be the best way to catch the Chinese off-guard and get an upper bracket slot.
Virtus.pro is a strong contender with a good chance of success.
CDEC Gaming
Runners up at The International (August 3-8) as well as two podium placings during ESL One New York 2015 and MLG World Finals 2015, these young and energetic guys know how to keep themselves at the top of their game.
Getting into the top bracket shouldn’t be a problem for CDEC.
Vici Gaming
This is their first major event after taking a respectable fourth place in The International earlier this year. With talents such as Daryl Koh Pei “iceiceice” Xiang as well as Xu “fy” Linsen on the team, no one can count them out of the game.
Whether their performance is likely to give them a slot in the upper bracket is debatable.
Team Liquid
This will be Team Liquid’s first major LAN event with their new roster so it’s going to be interesting to see what the European side can bring to the table. The legendary Kuro “KuroKy” Salehi Takhasomi is at the helm with stars such as Adrian “FATA-” Trinks and Jesse “JerAx” Vainikka in their respective roles.
If they’ve brought their A game to Singapore they could beat the big boys – Vici Gaming, CDEC and Virtus Pro – despite these teams having much better track records in LAN settings.
Every chance these guys will reach the upper bracket.
Mineski
Fresh from winning the local Mineski Pro Gaming League (MPGL) Season 3 championship against TnC Pro Team, this Filipino team is looking forward to showing the power of Pinoy Dota. Recent form includes a win against Fnatic on the way to Frankfurt. Plus they beat Signature Trust in order to qualify for Nanyang.
They’re going to have to dig deep to do well here though. However, with a lot of luck on their side they could scrape through, they did this in 2011 during TI1 after all.
Whatever happens they’ll have the passionate Pinoy fans supporting them all the way.
The underdogs: likely to drop into the lower bracket.
We all know that only one team gets eliminated from the tournament at this point in time. Teams will always prefer to get an upper bracket spot, as it guarantees a hand in the money.
Depending on the performance of the teams drawn into this group, at least one Chinese team should make it into the upper bracket. It is pretty much obvious that Mineski and Team Liquid will be fighting for the final spot to the playoffs…and that each match in this group will go down to the wire.
Personally, I’ll go for CDEC as the one who will have a sure spot in the upper bracket…and let everyone else fight their way in! The matches will be more exciting then!
The Nanyang Championships start today and run until Nov 1. The first two days of competition focus on the group stages where five teams from each group (A and B) will be playing in a two game format. The first two teams from each group will progress to the winner bracket, third and fourth placements will be seeded into the loser bracket while the last teams will be eliminated from competition.
The Championships are being held at the Suntec City Convention Centre in Singapore.
