Shanghai Major Qualifiers – Americas
The next big Dota 2 event is at hand and following the success of the first major competition in Frankfurt, the expectations for the Shanghai showpiece will be even higher.
The American qualifying competition offered up some interesting games and surprises. The main qualifiers event included 10 teams, eight of which were invited (Team Leviathan, Digital Chaos, Power of Friendship, Team Archon, Void Boys, compLexity Gaming, Not Today, Shazam) and two who had to battle their way out of the open qualifiers (Team Freedom, Elite Wolves).
The successful qualifiers that emerged out are Team Archon and compLexity Gaming, who alongside DC were considered among the top contenders for the two Shanghai spots.
Team Archon
Team Archon finished their group in second, having lost a tie-break against the eventual group A winners – DC.
Unlike the previous major where they were eliminated in the open qualifiers, Team Archons has been much more convincing of late. The team has totally renovated the roster since October last year when 5 new players were added. A few days later they replaced their carry Eric ‘747’ Dong with Jaron ‘Monkeys-Forever’ Clinton, which has proved to be a stroke of genius. The team is currently ranked 6th in the America’s zone.
Game 1 was a real delight for the fans as the teams offered up a near one hour epic battle with plenty of twists and turns. In the end, the classic and fearsome Tiny-Wisp combo prevailed.
The second game saw DC start aggressively, with 1437’s Disruptor helping his team to secure quite a few early kills on Monkeys-Forever’s Invoker, leaving him hardly any space to farm.
The Disruptor pick proved crucial and the game ended before the 20 minute mark with victory for DC.
Game three began in a more sedate fashion, with DC going for the Disruptor pick again, countered by Archons’ hero composition. As the game reached the 45th minute both teams had lost a lane of raxes (Team Archon having lost 2) and it seemed that it could go either way.
Eventually, the game ended in a spectacular fashion – a trade of ancients which saw Team Archon destroy the enemy ancient first as they secured their spot in Shanghai in style.
This performance was much better than the qualifications for the last Major, when they were eliminated by the unknown Peruan Team DileCom in the open qualifier. The team has improved greatly since then and this was evident for all to see against DC. They are currently 33rd in the world and their January record is eight wins, four draws and seven losses, with a win rate of 49%.
Complexity Gaming
compLexity Gaming made quite a few changes from the International 5 roster which reached 9-12th place – swindlemelonzz one of the major casualties of the reshuffle. The newly built team have produced some impressive performances of late and are currently ranked 2nd in the Americas and 15th in the world. In the past month they have managed to win 11 games, draw four and lose nine, with a win rate of 49%.
They were drawn in a group with Shazam, Power of Friendship, Not Today and Team Freedom which they topped. Following a loss in the winners’ bracket vs Team Archon, they ended up in the losers’ bracket where they beat Shazam, before facing DC for the second spot in the Shanghai main event.
Things didn’t start as planned, compLexity Gaming struggling to handle the ganking potential of their counterparts in the face of Mirana, Beast Master and Tusk in the first game.
While they had a stronger push lineup, it didn’t amount to much, as their arsenal lacked disabling and stun spells which their counterparts had plenty of –an advantage which told in the team fights.
DC’s lack of ideas as to how to stop the strategy cost them the first game. The second game was much more in favour of DC, Aui_2000’s roaming Bounty Hunter initiating and helping his team take the early advantage with some excellent well-time ganks.
DC never lost their early momentum and won most of the team fights in the latter stages of the game to secure the win.
compLexity Gaming started game 3 very aggressively, picking a lineup with lots of ganking potential. DC went for late game hero roster, which didn’t pay off as they found themselves decimated by their opponents and losing a mid melee rax as early as 23rd minute.
From this point on, DC’s fate appeared sealed and eventually DC gg-ed after losing yet another team fight to Roshan 10 minutes later.
This will be the first major for compLexity Gaming , since they missed the Frankfurt major through elimination in the group stage qualifiers.
Dafabet will be providing odds on The Shanghai Major.
