Introduction
From 19-26 November, a share of a $300,000 prize pool will be up for grabs at the next Minor tournament on the Dota 2 competitive scene. Taking place in Shanghai, PWM will see the teams that finish inside the top four awarded entry points for next year’s International, with the team finishing 1st securing a particularly favourable advantage. This should add a stronger element of competition to this event.
The Format
PWM has adopted a fairly standard set-up and will proceed as follows; ten teams will enter, three having been invited directly. The other seven competed in regional qualifiers for their place, with two coming from China and one from each of the other major regions.
The competition will begin with a Group Stage, with the challengers split into two groups of five. The teams will face each other in a round-robin format, with each facing off against the other four in best-of-two encounters. The team with the fewest wins in each group will be eliminated.
The remaining eight will then move on to a double elimination playoff bracket, with the first round of the lower bracket being a single match. The Grand Finals, meanwhile, will be best-of-five and all other matches best-of-three. This set-up certainly means that a lot of matches will be played over the course of the tournament, no doubt to the delight of the fans.
The Teams
The timing of the tournament presents a fortuitous opportunity to the participants as some of the top-tier teams will be competing at the debut of Midas Mode instead. This means some usual outsiders may be able to pick up DPC points.
Of course, this is not to say that all the teams present are of inferior quality. Newbee will be in attendance, with the TI7 runners-up considered one of the favourites for the tournament. Always a strong contender – and one of the three direct invitees – it’s fair to say that Newbee are favoured to take home the $150,000 prize for 1st place, particularly following their 3rd-4th finish at ESL One Hamburg 2017 in October.
However, they’re not without competition as Team Secret, the European outfit that finished 2nd in that very same tournament, have been invited as well. After a disappointing 9-12th performance at TI7, Secret seem intent on recovering from this setback, and even surpassed world champions Team Liquid in Hamburg last month. They certainly seem to be on the rise, thanks in no small part to Marcus ‘Ace’ Hoelgaard, whose dominating performances – particularly with Phantom Assassin – proved too much for most opponents.
Both LGD sister teams will be appearing too – LGD Gaming and LGD.Forever Young. These Chinese outfits put on an impressive show at the International, placing 4th and 3rd respectively, with LGD.FY in particularly good form lately. As well as finishing higher than their sibling team at TI7, with 1st place at the Dota 2 Professional League S4 earlier this month, they received a direct invite for this event. LGD Gaming, meanwhile, earned their spot at PWM through the qualifiers.
Vici Gaming are the next most prestigious outfit to feature in Shanghai. Placing 2nd in the China qualifier behind LGD Gaming, the team seem to have fallen into something of a lull lately. They have some impressive historical results – 2nd at TI4, 1st at both The Summit 2 and StarSeries S12 – but nothing significant recently. Fourth place at the Dota2 Professional League Season 4 last week is encouraging though.
From North America, South America, the CIS, Southeast Asia and Europe respectively, Perfect World Masters will see compLexity Gaming, SG e-sports, Vega Squadron, Mineski and Team Kinguin making an appearance. These less well-known teams are likely to struggle against the titans in this competition, but they should not be neglected altogether. A strong performance here could rocket them towards future and more sustained success.
Conclusion
This tournament will certainly have some heated rivalries – some friendly such as between the two LGD sides and some more aggressive as, for example, Newbee will no doubt be eager to show dominance over Team Secret after placing behind them at ESL One Hamburg. This tournament will be a fantastic chance for these TI8 hopefuls to show their stuff and, with any luck, help cement their position at next year’s championships.
