To celebrate the tenth year of the ZOTAC Cup, a special event has been organised – the ZOTAC Cup Masters, which will feature a bigger prize pool and higher ranking teams. The event will last five days, opening on 30 May and concluding on 3 June, in Taipei.
Format
The tournament will see a total of eight teams battling it out for a share of a $100,000 prize pool, with half of this going to the winners.
All teams will start in an upper bracket quarterfinal stage. The format will be double elimination, with each game being a best-of-three affair.
The four losers from the quarterfinals will drop into a lower bracket, where they will still have the chance to advance to the Final Playoffs. Meanwhile, the winners from the quarterfinals will advance to the semis, with the two victors here qualifying directly for the Final Playoffs.
Those defeated in the upper bracket semifinals will drop into the lower bracket semifinals, where they will face the two winners from the quarterfinal stage of the lower bracket. The semifinals of the lower bracket will determine the two other participants in the Final Playoffs.
Final Playoffs
The four remaining sides will then be seeded into two further semifinals inside the Final Playoffs. The two victors from these clashes will fight for the grand prize in a best-of-five Finals.
The opening fixtures of the upper bracket quarterfinals are as follows:
Fnatic vs WarriorsGaming.Unity
The new-look Fnatic outfit still have two players – DJ and Ohaiyo – from last season when they achieved 4th place at The International 2016. The departure of Mushi in February after nearly two years with the team has ushered in a new era, but with the addition of QO, Febby and Meracle, Fnatic have plenty of quality in their ranks. This will also be the first time that Ahjit, who joined last month, will face his former side. Newly assembled, Fnatic will need time to develop their chemistry but big things are expected of them.
WarriorsGaming.Unity are one of the teams that occasionally challenge the status quo in the SEA scene. The quarterfinalists from the Boston Major have never quite been able to repeat that success since though. Adding to their woes is that the team have just lost Ahjit and Ahfu to key rivals and thus they aren’t in the best position going into the ZOTAC Cup Masters.
Danish Bears vs Team Singularity
Not much is known about the Polish side Team Singularity as this will be their first Major. The winners of the second European Qualifier created a huge shock by overcoming Ninjas in Pyjamas, Team Empire and Prodota Gaming all by 2-0 scorelines, and thus are potentially one of the dark horses in this tournament.
Unfortunately Cloud 9 disbanded earlier this month after they decided that recent performances were not up to their usual high standards. Despite this, they are expected to compete at the event under the name of Danish Bears, with 13abyKnight being replaced by 747. Cloud9 emerged as winners of the European Qualifier #1 before they disbanded, overcoming the more renowned Alliance 2-1 in the Finals, so they could still pose a threat here.
Invictus Gaming vs Team Freedom
Invictus Gaming are rightly considered the favourites to win the title. The semifinalists from the Kiev Major underwent a revival last month after they won the Dota 2 Asia Championships 2017 and are one of the top teams in Chinese Dota right now. There is some concern, however, that the team will forfeit the tournament final on 3 June should they reach it as it is likely to clash with their schedule for EPICENTER, which starts the following day.
Team Freedom, formerly known as “is GG”, are another new roster on the American scene featuring a number of experienced US players. SumaiL’s brother YawaR and his team did not have much trouble winning the American Qualifier, which included an impressive 2-0 win over compLexity Gaming. Having had a number of different rosters, a good performance in the ZOTAC Cup Masters is likely to prolong the team’s current formation, which was set up in March.
NP vs ?
The team lead by EternaLEnVy underwent some major changes after their failure to qualify for the Kiev Major, which was followed up by a poor 9-12th performance in the Dota 2 Asia Championships 2017. FATA-, who was most recently part of B)ears and a key member of Team Liquid last year, as well as former Team Secret’s position 5 support pieliedie, certainly seem an upgrade on the previous roster. NP did not manage to qualify for EPICENTER so all of their focus will be on this tournament. This, alongside the quality of their roster, makes them a strong contender for first place.
With only one invitee remaining, the tournament is now nearly set. Although iG are the huge favourites at present, there are plenty of young guns willing to take their chance and make their mark on the international scene. NP and Fnatic’s new rosters look impressive, while Singularity are always capable of springing surprises. This makes for an exciting blend of new names and the old guard for fans of the Taiwanese Dota 2 scene.
