The DAC Wildcard Qualifier preview





The DAC will kick-off tomorrow with style: Natus Vincere and Power Rangers will begin the LAN that teased the entire community during January. Six teams will collide in a championship that tastes like another The International. This spree of five consecutive bo1 will most likely shape the teams involved as no other tournament did in the last 5 months.

The qualifier consists of the following teams:

• Second and third place from the DAC European Qualifier.

• Fifth and sixth place from the DAC Asian Qualifier.

• First and second place from the Dota 2 Secondary Pro League.

HGT - 5th place at DAC Asian Qualifier (20-10).

Hyper Glory Team was always considered a tier 2-3 Chinese team that could occasionally upset a great team from time to time, such was their performance through 2014: HGT usually fell apart against the 'Big 4' Chinese teams but they occasionally pulled amazing games and came up on top. HGT's problem was that those remarkable wins were too far apart and with too many losses inbetween, they were forced into the shadows whilst other uprising teams such as CIS, DT.Club and CDEC took the spotlight.

2015 may offer an entire different story for the the legendary ZSMJ and his crew. They entered i-League S2 as a last-minute replacement for Cloud 9 and they seized the opportunity to rip through their opponents all the way up to the Grand Finals. They even went as far as to defeat Vici Gaming twice during the event, first sending them to the Loser Bracket and then out of the tournament. Only LGD managed to repel their fierce aggression and settled them for a $26,000 second place.

Their surprising display raised several eyebrows and the DAC Asian Qualifier was the prime example of how HGT at it’s best could demolish teams such as EHOME or LAI but it also served as a testament that when HGT wasn’t at full cylinders, they could lose against arguably less powerful teams like Team DK or Mineski. They almost managed to squeeze their way into the top4 of the qualifier but Big God sealed them out with a solid 2-0.

It must be said that despite their inconsistency, HGT is a clear favourite for the Wildcard spot. They had a stable roster since August 2014 and they displayed a much better LAN performance than the other challengers as of late. It’s hard to picture any of the Wildcard teams managing to stop the deathball if Air and Icy manage to get it rolling, with ZSMJ to fall back on.





SPG.NT - 6th place at DAC Asian Qualifier (19-11).

Speed Gaming is not an unfamiliar name for the Chinese scene, but isn’t one associated with top-placements yet. Ever since their first games at WPC-Ace, the squad showed that they aren’t afraid of picking unorthodox heroes and they had relative success that got them into offline tournaments. To their fans disappointment, most of the times that was as far as they could go since they weren't able to beat any of the major teams at those events. After a weak 3-6 record in TI4's Chinese Qualifier the players decided to leave the organization and join Wings Gaming for a bootcamp facility that was closer to the player's home.

SG moved-on and reformed their roster around Chinese pub-star MelodyLovers. The new roster was even more daring than the former one and decided to always stick to their own playstyle. There were moments of brilliance as when they picked Brood+Silencer+Medusa to defeat Big God in the second game of their series at i-League S2, but sadly they couldn’t keep their momentum in the third game.

The team's main strength comes from their unique drafts that usually catches their rivals flat-footed and forces them to re-think their own strategies, but SG usually make questionable decisions through the mid to late game that exposes them to be heavily punished. They made use of their drafts at DAC’s Asian Qualifier to get games out of CDEC, Big God and HGT to secure themselves a place in the wildcard qualifier but they lost many games worryingly hard.

SG showed that they have the potential to become a threat in the Chinese scene with more polished judgement-calls. They may be relying too heavily in their b/p and their solos (piao and Iwy), but their unpredictability will be an issue to address for all the other contenders.





PR - 2nd place at DAC European Qualifier (9-8).

Power Rangers is a strange combination of the two teams mentioned above: a giant slayer, that will never hesitate to pick heroes they are confident with. PR steadily grew through 2014 with Scandal and fng, allowing them to get games from top teams from time to time. But when it mattered the most, in TI4 EU Qualifier, they couldn’t perform to their fullest potential. After their disappointing exit from the qualifier, Scandal left the squad and fng was poached by Na’Vi.

PR however kept it’s head up, reformed and a month later they made their first transcontinental to China for i-League S1 to carry the European torch alongside Virtus Pro. Despite the community’s support, j4’s squad couldn’t live up to the hype and was dominated by Rave in the first round to get knocked-out of the tournament. When they came back, the Rangers restructured again and decided to make yet another roster-change to make space for Ditya-Ra and SoNNeikO.

This new roster showed great promise in Star Ladder Season 11 Qualifiers, beating Virtus Pro, Na’Vi and Alliance among others. However, their biggest break-out came during the DAC European Qualifiers when they repeated history: they bested Alliance, dominated Na’Vi two times in a row and they got into a plane to China for the second time while other top-teams such as Virtus Pro Polar or Team Empire dropped along the way.

PR’s biggest weakness is their lack of LAN practice with this roster. Their only LAN experience was their travel to CyberSport Arena as a replacement team for SL11, but their captain j4 wasn’t able to attend and they had to play with NS as a standin. For those reasons, their dull gameplay in Kiev can’t be analyzed deeply but they must come up big in Shangai to get into the main event. They still have a lot to prove and this is their biggest chance, for first time under the global spotlight with huge expectations from the CIS scene.





Na'Vi - 3rd place at DAC European Qualifier (7-7).

Once the greatest team in Dota 2’s history, today Natus Vincere still suffers from the unrelenting downward spiral that they got caught since march of 2014. Both of their reinforcements (Vanskor and Goblak) struggled greatly during the last months and Na'Vi closed the year failing to qualify to neither The Summit 2 and StarLadder 11. The legendary Ukrainian team now faces the rough reality of being forced to blow this first semester wide open if they want to get a chance of an invite to TI5.

Their road to redemption started in the form of the DAC European Qualifier. Invigorated and with a fresh new playstyle, Na’Vi seemed to be be up for the task by defeating both Empire and Alliance in two very close series. Their losses against PR were a letdown for the ones that got encouraged by their recent gameplay but looking at the big picture, Na’Vi actually getting a presence in their clashes is a massive improvement from the last quarter of 2014.

Their recent travel to Kiev as a last-minute replacement for SL11 wasn’t successful at all but they didn’t seem prepared to fight in the CyberSport Arena. They used exactly the same strategies they explored at DAC, which gave both Empire and MVP all the resources they needed to nullify their gameplan almost effortlessly. It was a bitter swallow for the CIS fans that expected Na’Vi going berserk at their once home turf to get in shape for the biggest tournament outside The International 4.

All this being said, Na’Vi still has an enormous advantage over the other Wildcard participants: all of it's players have been in the biggest LAN events and they’ve all delivered at some point. The suffocating pressure and the high stakes may have a big impact on most of the teams but Na’Vi is no stranger to neither of them. It’s up to them to unleash their potential and show the world that Natus Vincere is not a shadow of it's former self.

WG (1st place at DSPL) and EP (2nd place at DSPL)

Wings Gaming (formerly Speed Gaming CN) dominated the Dota 2 Secondary Pro League with a solid 17-1 record. WG loves to go for a borderline riddiculous aggressive playstyle feauturing mostly roaming support duos and at least 2 explosive mid-game cores. Their gameplan develops by giving their mid laner and captain Zy the highest priority during the first 10 minutes of the game to allow him to contorl the tempo of the game. If they get the start they want the game swiftly goes out of control for the opponent team and in those games WG usually secures victories before the 30' mark.

WG's players have opted to maintain their roster for an extensive period despite their ups and downs. Zy, Zrd and Jdh have been playing together for most of 2014 and they even stood-in for no other than Team DK in the epic 2:0 victory against Titan on WPC-ACE 2014. WG is a team started as a team of newcomers that didn't play in any professional team before and after almost a year they now have their second chance to play against the world's best.

Energy Pacemaker is interestingly similar to the first Speed Gaming CN: a team of pub players that without any professional experience forms a team to try to break-through the CN scene. Their road to DAC was a steep one, finishing 13-5 in DSPL and going the 3 games distance against Butterfly and 99 to finally make it to the Wildcard Qualifier. The team's star is their hardcarry and ex-Orenda player Luffy, who favours tanky cores capable of fight early in the game.

EP is probably the darkest horse in the qualifier that could possibly be underrated and give them an edge over the others. However, whatever the result, this experience should benefit them as any high-level game will be a very welcomed (and needed) experience.

Photos taken from StarLadder's twitch channel and PPTV.