The International 7 was one to remember…

The International 7 has come and gone. Congrats to Team Liquid on the first ever sweep in TI Grand Finals history! There were some amazing moments, as always, during the entire tournament. Along with the highest stakes of any Esports event.

Kuroky finally secured the Aegis in his seventh TI. The whole team received a shoutout from an investor who knows about hardware:

Bringing an end to this Dota 2 season does come with some perks. The downtime after TI usually brings a different kind of excitement to the community. One of hope and speculation. Players begin to experiment more with heroes. Trying to find the next pub stomper to raise their MMR.

What’s next for Dota fans?

Everyone has heard the saying: “there ain’t no rest for the wicked”. This could be altered to “there ain’t no rest for the Aegis” when it comes to Dota 2 teams. Not even a few weeks after the tournament and teams were already making big changes.

OG’s Ana takes a year off

The community was already buzzing with rumors that Newbee’s Sccc was thinking of leaving the TI7 runners-up for a new squad. Pictures of him at the The International 7 after party with OG’s n0.tail and Fly raised an eyebrow. This followed Ana’s announcement via the team’s Facebook page that he would be both leaving the team and taking a year off from competitive Dota 2. Setting a very interesting stage for Newbee and OG fans alike. Will Sccc stay with the team that gave him his start?

Newbee has been very successful during Sccc’s tenure with the team. A departure to OG would leave a big hole in the Newbee roster. Sccc would also be leaving two players (Moogy and Faith) whom he played with on Newbee Young prior to being called up to Newbee.

OG’s mid lane is one of the top spots available during this roster shuffle. Filling it with a superstar is going to be key for OG after another disappointing TI result.

Misery to Evil Geniuses?

One of the best parts of the Dota scene is how active some of the players are in the community. Many will have conversations via twitter, interact with fans or randomly post about the game. The overall level of engagement between players through social media can provide for some interesting theories. Such as this one which was hatched when Misery tweeted out about his casting experience post-TI:

Admittedly, this is a little more convincing than the previous theory on Sccc and OG. Though it is also very possible that Sumail and Misery are just having a laugh at the expense of the fans. Initially this sounded like Sumail moving to Team Secret with Misery. Which was debunked once Khezu and MP left Team Secret while they retained their mid player (MidOne) and both supports (Puppey and Yapzor).

Taking this into account that leaves a return to EG as a possibility for Misery. So far, Evil Geniuses hasn’t announced any roster moves. This roster has been pretty stable since Fear and ppd left it. Adding Arteezy, Zai and Cr1t was the last big move this NA juggernaut made. Maybe this year EG will be the ones shaking the roster shuffle period.

Roster shuffles always provide a lot of hype for the community. Rumors circulate of team activity and fans craft their dream teams. Overall it is wildly unpredictable and always interesting to see where players land. Although, this offseason there is even more going on in-game!

The Dueling Fates update

Towards the end of TI7 Valve announced some huge news. They will be adding two heroes to Dota 2 via the “Dueling Fates” update. Most TIs have been followed-up with a gameplay patch that also adds a new hero (most recently Underlord and Monkey King). Valve has been consistently adding heroes to the game, but the “Dueling Fates” update is unique. It will add two shiny new heroes to the game that were not present in the original Dota or Dota All-Stars.

The video shows the first hero, we’ll call him “Pangolin”, moving over terrain with ease. At one point, even curling into a ball and rolling through a creep-wave. Showcasing some interesting mobility and even disarming a creep. The hero then fights BristleBack and cuts off the bristles. Could this be foreshadowing a new “Break” ability? As of today, there are only two sources of “Break” in the game with Doom and Silver Edge. Breaking an enemy hero’s passive has become an extremely useful mechanic in the current meta. Heroes like Earthshaker, Bloodseeker, Anti-Mage, Drow Ranger and Spirit Breaker were all popular at TI7. All of these heroes benefit from very powerful Passive abilities that can currently only be countered in two ways. Creating a new hero with a Break ability makes a lot of sense.

After Pangolin finishes off his intro with a flourish, fans everywhere were jbaited into thinking that was all Valve had in store for us this year. Until the video cuts back to an interaction between Pangolin and a new fairy hero, referred to as “Sylph”. This new hero ends the release video by propelling a ball of light from their lantern towards Pangolin. Not much more about this hero was revealed in the trailer as it was mainly focused on Pangolin’s first scene.

Regardless, this offseason of Dota 2 has a lot in store. The competitive games might be over, but the community is going to have a lot to think about and experiment with. A big roster shuffle always has fans mesmerized post-TI out-of-game. Adding two brand new heroes on one patch will keep us busy in-game.

—

You can ‘Like’ The Game Haus on Facebook and ‘Follow’ us on Twitter for more sports and Esports articles from other great TGH writers along with Eli!



You can follow Eli here – https://twitter.com/E_Sherman58

To continue enjoying great content from your favorite writers, please contribute to our Patreon account! Every little bit counts. We greatly appreciate all of your amazing support! #TGHPatreon