It seems like a long time when the last Major was played, the Kuala Lumpur Major. That is because it was a long time ago. The KL Major ended on the 18th of November 2018 and the Dota 2 7.20 patch was released on the 19th of November. The patch brought in a lot of changes and changed the game as we know it. Even though there were a few tournaments (online and offline) on the new patch, there hasn’t been one that has been able to do justice to the new patch. The Bucharest Minor did bring us some really entertaining games, but having the best teams in the world unveil the secrets of 7.20 at the Chongqing Major is what everyone will be looking for! With the Major about to begin soon, let’s take a quick ride as to what to expect from the Chongqing Major, the second major of the 2018-1019 DPC season.

Dates and Format

Group Stages: 19th and 20th of January

Main Event: 21st to 27th of January (break on the 24th of January)

Organizers

StarLadder and ImbaTV

The Chongqing Major starts on the 19th of January 2019 and will end on the 27th of January. Group stages will see the 16 teams divided into four groups. The format will be double elimination with the top two teams making it to the upper bracket while the bottom two fighting it out in the lower bracket. A quick glance at the groups tells us that Group B and Group D are the more dauting of the four groups.



The Chongqing Major groups (image taken from Liquipedia)

Group A

Virtus Pro shouldn’t find it too hard to make it out of Group A as the top team. TNC are missing their talismanic Kuku and Chaos Esports Club, who were Pain Gaming till recently, haven’t had the best of seasons till now. EHOME could be a surprise package, but probably not enough to knock VP off their perch.

Group B

Team Secret, PSG. LGD and Forward Gaming are all teams that made the top 8 at TI8. Team Secret have shown some amazing form at the start of the season. The other two haven’t been as good as what they are capable of, but the turn of the year is when teams really begin to crank up the heat in the race to The International. In the MegaFon Winter Clash that took place in December, Team Secret beat Forward Gaming 2-1 and went on to lose to PSG.LGD 1-2. The teams know each other well which should make for an exciting group. Thunder Predator will be the team having a hard time to make the upper bracket.

Group C

Group C is the one group that I think does not have any potential winners in it. Vici Gaming along with Liquid should get the top two spots in the group. J.Storm have a bit of a different team than the one that got the top seed in the qualifiers (Milan out, Fear in). The Pango, who were earlier No Pangolier (jeez, decide if you like the hero or not) did defeat Virtus Pro in the qualifiers, but that does not give them too much credibility at a LAN event, much less a Major.

Group D

Evil Geniuses are probably half a step ahead of Fnatic and Alliance, but both these teams are quite capable of sending EG to the cleaners. Team Aster are no pushovers either. Although most will be expecting EG to top the group, it could swing anyways.

The main event will be a double elimination bracket which will play out over 7 days. The first lower bracket round will be a Bo1 while the rest of the games will be Bo3s. The grand final will be a Bo5, as it is in all Valve events.



The Chongqing Major main event dates

Teams to Look Out for

Team Liquid was definitely the team to look out for till a few days ago, till they announced their talismanic player Amer ‘Miracle’ Barqawi would not be able to make it due to personal reasons. They had won the MegaFon Winter Clash in Moscow and would have been the team to beat in China, had they been at full strength. TI6 winner Shadow will replace Miracle, but I doubt it will be the same. Liquid should make top 8 with the sheer quality in the team, but not a lot beyond that. Of course, Kuro and Shadow might prove me completely wrong.

The main contenders for the title are Virtus Pro, Team Secret, PSG.LGD and Evil Geniuses. VP will be looking to mathematically seal their position at TI9 while the others will look to place a firm grip on one of the direct invite spots. As a matter of fact, Virtus Pro only need a 3rd place finish to guarantee a direct invite. For Secret and Evil Geniuses, they will have to win the whole thing to relax for the rest of the season.

EHOME dominated the Bucharest Major last week, winning 11 of the 12 games they played. The Chinese outfit may not win the Chongqing Major, but they certainly have the potential to do better than what Tigers (winners of the Stockholm Minor) did at the Kuala Lumpur Major.

Heroes to Look Out for

This is where there is a lot of ambiguity in the event, and in a good way at that. There haven’t been too many tournaments on the new patch and teams are still trying to figure out 7.20. The Bucharest Minor is the only DPC event that has taken place on the Dota 2 7.20 patch and it threw in a few surprises in terms of hero picks.

Top 10 heroes of the Bucharest Minor (taken from www.datdota.com)

These are the top 10 hero picks at the Bucharest Minor. Tusk was either picked or banned literally every game! All 47 games saw Tusk contested, but his win rate is still below 50%. It’s a question whether or not he will continue to remain popular. Earth Spirit is back after a break in the 2-1-2 lane dominated meta. The new Lich seems to be a hit with over 70% win rate and will surely be a popular hero in China. Tidehunter and Sven seemed to have made comebacks in the position 3 role, but with abysmal win rates (especially Tidehunter), might be shunned this tournament. Troll Warlord is definitely one of the big benefactors of 7.20 and teams have started warming up to him. Along with Phantom Assassin, who has fallen from grace a bit, and Anti-Mage, Troll could be one of the prominent carries of the tournament. This tournament will give us a much more concrete idea on what to expect in the tournaments to come. It will also serve as a good measure for IceFrog for the next set of nerfs and buffs.

The Missing

Two players who will be missed by their teams and fans alike will be Kuku and Miracle. Kuku and TNC got embroiled in a controversial saga which ended with Kuku getting banned by Valve for the Major over racist remarks he made in a pub game. Miracle’s absence will be due to personal reasons. Both players are vital for their respective teams and hopefully, we will get to see them back in action soon.

On the whole, the Chongqing Major promises to be a dynamite of a tournament. First big tournament on the new patch, a million dollars and 15000 DPC points to play for, new strategies, qualifications for The International 2019 on the line. If this doesn’t guarantee some good Dota, I don’t know what will!