BTS Pro Series: Americas promises to be a fun event to watch. And it’s a great chance for Cloud9 to prove its worth in this new and improved formula. Much of the old guard is back. After years of separation, EternaLEnVy, MISERY, and pieliedie are playing together again. If they can resist organizing pizza parties after their victories, they should be fine. Otherwise, everything I’m about to say will be void and null.

BTS Pro Series Americas Participants

The tournament brings together eight teams. Five of them (the first five on the list) are from the NA region, the other three are from South America.

Evil Geniuses

Quincy Crew

CR4ZY

Cloud9

business associates

beastcoast

FURIA Esports

Thunder Predator

Team Evaluation

The North American teams are all good for this competitive level, apart from business associates. I think that team has failed too many times to be taken seriously at this point. And it’s not that it doesn’t have talented players. It’s because those players are simply not hungry to win. Take Fear for example. He’s 32 years old and in his official Liquipedia photo, he looks like a banker.

Almost reminds me of that 8 Mile verse: “This guy’s a gangster? His real name’s Clarence!” Same with Fear. It’s been a while since Fear was putting the fear of God (or Gaben) into the hearts of his opponents. Now he’s just Clinton Loomis: good father, good husband, poor Dota 2 player. He should either take the game seriously or switch to a coaching position. With his experience, he’s a treasure to have around. Just not pressing buttons.

That aside, here’s the thing: Evil Geniuses are missing two important players, Abed and RAMZES. Even so, they’re still great, because Fly is the sort of Jewish guy that would have won the Nobel prize by now in science. He’s playing Dota though, which is great for the game. And he plays his captain role to perfection. I mean, think about it: he managed to win the ESL One Los Angeles 2020 Online event for the NA region with two substitutes. That’s ridiculous.

It’s a way of saying: “Who cares who the players are and what their level of experience is in playing as a roster, if you have a captain that can tell them exactly what to do to win the match?”

Even so, EG is probably going to finish 2nd at this tournament. And that’s because we have Cloud9. You may think I’m joking but I’m not. Just look at their roster: excellent captain (two of them actually, cause both pieliedie and MISERY can play this role), excellent supports (same two as before), great midlaner (Ace, former Secret player), reliable offlaner (Sneyking) and a carry who really knows how to kick teammates after important victories and flame them if they don’t do exactly what he says: EternaLEnVy. This team is out for blood. Not just First Blood. They’re out for blood, like wolves in a pack, trying to prove everyone that Cloud9 still got it. The team is still relevant. The dream is alive. C9 is back.

Watch out for beastcoast, they’re a beast in South America and this is practically the same roster that finished 7th – 8th at The International 2019. Only Stinger is missing. Now you may think that since they’ve gotten rich, they’re no longer motivated. Wrong. They just won the SA region at ESL One Los Angeles. These guys are the real deal. But they’re no Cloud9.

The last team to look at is Quincy Crew. This is another team with a lot of potential and exceptional players. But again, they’re not Cloud9. And that’s all that matters here.

Cloud9 will win the title at BTS Pro Series: Americas. Change my mind.

Read next: A look at EternaLEnVy, DOTA2’s most infamous player