Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s talk about Shanghai.



Through the fire and the flames of The Shanghai Major’s technical issues, we got to witness some spectacular Dota 2 last weekend. Europe rose, China fell and North America found themselves somewhere in the middle. Oh, and Korea had their best showing at an international tournament in a long, long time.

Where was China?

Coming into the Major, many were expecting the Chinese squads to do well on their home turf. That was, well, not the case. No Chinese team made it past the second round of the loser’s bracket, where LGD and Newbee dropped out.

So what happened? This was supposed to be China’s major.

It seems that they simply weren’t prepared. For one, their drafts were often questionable, seeming a patch or two behind across the board. It didn’t help that many of the star players from the region struggled to make a significant impact in their matches. Hell, legendary carry BurNIng couldn’t even find a leg to stand on in many of Vici Gaming’s matches. EHOME had similar issues, with Cty getting largely shut down and rising star off laner eLeVeN having one of the worst tournaments in his young career.

The Chinese teams are going to have to figure out how to recover if they hope to make a run at the upcoming big Dota 2 events.

MVP Phoenix shows that Korea can play

MVP Phoenix has been rumbling near the middle of the Dota 2 pack for quite some time. They had a strong performance at The International 5, where they were knocked out after taking down two strong Chinese squads in a row. Since then, they’ve been slowly climbing through the ranks, winning a slew of domestic tournaments and placing well when they head out internationally.

The Shanghai Major, however, was to be their big test. If they wanted to prove that a Korean squad can keep up internationally, they were going to have to do well in China. This is a team that doesn’t even have a server in their country, after all.

They pulled it off. They ended their run with an impressive fourth-place finish and a win over LGD in their back pocket. Not so bad for a team that practices well below optimal ping environments.

Team Secret is a force to be reckoned with

Team Secret entered the scene with immense swagger and bravado. They were a team put together by the best players in the world with the intention of proving that a player-run organization could compete on the highest levels of play.

They were right. And now, they’re proving that they have staying power.

Led by captain Puppey, the squad of veterans systematically took down everyone in their path. Their unique and adaptable play style allowed them to find weaknesses in every team they faced, whether it was through unconventional picks or simply out-positioning on the map. They’re a team with an immense amount of experience, and it showed in their upper bracket run, where they only dropped three games on their way to the finals victory. Team Secret have established themselves as the team to beat.