The Dota Pit Season 4
The Dota Pit Season 4 is set to take place between 19-20 March at the Spaladium Arena in Split, Croatia. Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the event.
The tournament consists of eight teams, four of whom were recipients of direct invites (Virtus.pro, OG, Team Secret, Evil Geniuses), while the other four entered through regional qualifiers (Team Empire, Natus Vincere, compLexity Gaming, MVP Phoenix). The tournament has an initial prize pool of $100,000 USD, but is supplemented by in-game sales of tickets and sets. Currently the total prize pool sits at a cool $189,000, although we can expect that to grow as the tournament finals approach and the hype starts to kick in.
The tournament format uses a single elimination bracket, with every match a best-of-three. Teams will need to win just two matches to reach the Finals.
Instead of looking at the individual teams, we’re going to look at the bracket as it stands and analyse each team’s chance of progressing.
Virtus.pro vs compLexity Gaming
The Russian side Virtus.pro were once a major player in the Dota 2 landscape, but their recent form suggests they are a team that will struggle when coming face-to-face with some of the best in the world.
Perhaps fortunately for them, the bracket has been relatively kind as while compLexity are no pushovers, the North American side can’t yet count themselves as one of the best in the world.
Both sides struggled to have much of an impact at the recent Shanghai Major. CompLexity managed to reach the lower bracket fourth round before being roundly beaten by Evil Geniuses, while Virtus.pro could only make the lower bracket second round before being dumped out of the competition after a disappointing defeat to OG.
While that form might suggest a compLexity win is on the cards here, when it comes to past form in the Pit League, Virtus.pro’s record is superior, having finished in 3rd place in 2015. Meanwhile, compLexity’s last entry in 2014 saw them swiftly exit the competition at the hands of Cloud9.
OG vs MVP Phoenix
OG are a relative newcomer to the Dota scene. Previously known as (monkey) Business, they became OG in late 2015, with a surprise win at the Frankfurt Major seeing them announce themselves on the world stage. While their 7-8th place finish at the Shanghai Major in early March is nothing to get excited about, a 2-1 loss to Fnatic is nothing to be ashamed over either.
The worry here though is that their Pit League opponents, MVP Phoenix, are the side that disposed of Fnatic in Shanghai without too many problems. MVP are a Korean squad who have a string of mid-tier finishes behind them in international competition, but they have the potential to make it to the final here if they can get off to a winning start.
Team Secret vs Natus Vincere (Na’Vi)
Team Secret are something of a super-team in Dota. Despite a bitterly disappointing performance in The International in 2015, they otherwise have an extremely solid tournament record. Their victory at the Shanghai Major earlier this month could kick-start an otherwise mediocre beginning to 2016, and they will be desperate to keep that momentum going in the Pit League.
Their opponents in the quarter-finals – Na’Vi – were for years one of Dota’s most dominant teams, but the glory days are long gone for the Ukrainian organisation, who scraped through the European qualifiers to reach the main event.
Consequently, we would expect a resounding victory for Team Secret in this quarter-final match-up.
Team Empire vs Evil Geniuses
Team Empire are a Russian team that have yet to appear on the international stage in 2016. Their last appearance saw them claim victory of The Game Show Global eSports Cup Season 1 back in December and so they are something of a wild card here.
Their opponents are last year’s winners of The International, Evil Geniuses. The North American side are one of the top Dota teams in the world right now and although they have finished 3rd in the last two Majors, they will be one of the contenders in Croatia and will hope to go the distance.
The peculiarities of the bracket mean that should both they and Team Secret be victorious in their opening matches, a mouth-watering semi-final tie will be set up.
Conclusion
The stacked bottom half of this bracket gives a real opportunity to teams in the top half to show they mean business and earn themselves a portion of the winnings. Evil Geniuses and Team Secret go into Season 4 of the Pit League with manageable quarter-final match-ups, but will likely not relish the idea of meeting each other in the semi-finals. One of those two favourites will be going home disappointed.
