Dota 2 at WESG 2018-2019: Preview

WESG 2018-2019 or World Electronic Sports Games is a huge event that takes place once a year. This year, WESG is scheduled to take place in Chongqing, China between March 7th – 10th. If you watch Dota Pro Circuit tournaments with regularity, you will probably remember that this is the same location that hosted the last Major.

Big teams, bigger show

WESG 2018-2019 announces itself to be more spectacular than ever this year, simply because a large number of superstars have decided to form a team of their own and participate. In previous years, we used to have Team Russia (aka Virtus.pro with a stand-in) at the top with no real competitor.

This time, the likes of QO and ana will surely challenge their supremacy. Of course, they’re still a longshot but at least there is some real competition to trouble the Russian bear’s sleep.

Controversial rules

As you may know, WESG 2018-2019 has some weird rules, just like all of its previous editions. More specifically, the tournament organizer, Alisports, is offering a huge prize of $890.000 but for some mysterious reason it only welcomes national teams. Which means, teams with players of just one nationality.

In Dota 2, very few teams operate on that principle and as a result, most of the teams you will see at WESG 2018-2019 will be newly created rosters or famous ones with one or more stand-ins. In particular, teams like Team Russia, Keen Gaming, EHOME and TNC Predator have a huge advantage over the others, simply because they’re operating with a complete or close to complete roster.

When some teams play with a standard formation while others have to quickly put in some hours of practice just to blend as a unit, the result is guaranteed to reflect that.

Teams to watch

Going into WESG 2018-2019, some of the most important teams you’ll want to watch are the following: