Introduction

The 20th of March it’s finally time for the Major All Stars Dota 2 Tournament main event. The challengers have been selected as they have shown their worth in their respective qualifiers and soon they will face off against the invited teams in what is the the biggest Dota 2 tournament ever in SEA. Eight teams will fight for two days for the first place finish and the biggest piece of the 100 000+ $ prize pool.

Format

Eight-team double elimination bracket.

Loser’s round 1 is bo1.

The remaining games are series of bo3 except the final that is bo5.

Team Preview

The Invited Teams

Invictus Gaming: BurNIng, Ferrari_430, Luo, ChuaN, Faith

Once one of the most dominant teams in Dota 2 history and winner of The International 2. The team has struggled to reach the same heights ever since, having exited both TI3 and TI4 below the top 4. Despite the failures these past two years their future looks bright with the recruitment of the living legend BurNIng and the return of old friend and support player Faith. With BurNIng and Ferrari_430 Invictus Gaming have two superstars and perhaps the most individually skilled team in the world going into TI5. The roster has already shown good signs after winning their qualification group in Star Ladder season 12 without dropping a single map out of six. The enemies of Invictus Gaming will have to keep mistakes to a minimum as BurNIng will make use of every second of space he is given by his team, but that is easier said than done when you’re up against Ferrari_430 in the middle lane. With heroes like Storm Spirit and Queen of Pain Ferrari_430 might even look to turn the game heavily in his teams favor before BurNIng even makes his appearance making it an absolute slaughter when Invictus Gaming wants to end the game. Two years of disappointment might be coming to an end as Invictus Gaming are looking to make their mark in 2015 when they go into this tournament as favorites and look to make it the first chapter in a new era of dominance.

Na’Vi: XBOCT, Dendi, DkPhobos, Goblak, yol (standin)

The most iconic team in Dota 2 and three time finalist at The International. Behemoths of offline events who were always expected to reach the final through destiny. The team started to slowly degrade in the months leading up to TI4 and have struggled massively ever since the departure of longtime captain and drafter Puppey just after TI4. The team tried out up and coming drafter fng for a little more than two months but ended up replacing him with Dota veteran Goblak with no real change as result and placed 9-12th place in The Dota 2 Asia Championship which they narrowly qualified to after beating Alliance 2-1. In early February Funn1k revealed that he had decided to leave the team after two years of service and was replaced by another longtime veteran in DkPhobos. Na’Vi have never looked as weak but still are not to be underestimated as players like XBOCT have shown he can put the entire team on his back and through his insane farming give the opponents a run for their money on heroes like Troll Warlord, Juggernaut and Phantom Assassin. Opponents have to especially pay attention to the Phantom Assassin, Wisp and Magnus combo which Na’Vi are rarely given but are undefeated on this patch. Unfortunately Na’Vi will not attend with their regular roster as VANSKOR is unable to attend, yol from the disbanded Virtus.Pro team will be his replacement. Na’Vi do not lack individual skill and perhaps yol might be able to turn the tide with fresh ideas and picks.

Rave: Jeyo, RyOyr, Chrissy, Cast, ninjaboogie

The Pinoy team with its roots from the Korean organization EoT Hammer who were most famous as one of the better teams pedaling in the backwaters of Zephyr in early 2014. EoT Hammer recruited NA Dota veteran Jeyo right before the start of the third season of Nexon Sponsorship League and won the winner bracket final against Zephyr only to be completely crushed in the Grand Final by the revenge-seeking Zephyr who ended up taking majority of the 70 148 $ dollar prize pool, one of the biggest non TI prize pools at the time. The team was rebranded as Rave in May and one month later they replaced pYung with ninjaboogie. Rave worked their way steadily to the top of the SEA competition and are currently considered the best team in the SEA region after their surprising performance at the Dota 2 Asia Championship where they placed 5-6th place after beating Hellraisers and Invictus Gaming in the lower bracket. The opponents of Rave will have to look out for the Ember Spirit pick seeing as both Jeyo and Chrissy are formidable players on the hero as well as it being their most successful hero this patch with only one loss out of twelve. The core players of Rave are versatile in their picks and even positions as Chrissy and ryOyr both play middle and offlane but the support duo is more stable and prioritize current meta game heroes like Witch Doctor, Vengeful Spirit and Lion especially.

Invasion: dabeliuteef, NaNa, Ghost, ADTR, XtiNcT, FzFz

The home town favorites with former Orange and Titan support player XtiNcT as captain who recently joined the team after a very short stay in Can’t Say Wips. The Malaysian squad had good results at the end of 2014 but got into a pretty deep slump in January and February winning only about a third of their games. The team recruited three new members in the beginning of March but has not yet been able to win a series. They are currently looking like one of the weakest team in the tournament and need to quickly turn things around if they want to have a decent run.

The Qualified Teams

Ninjas in Pyjamas: Era, Limmp, Jonassomfan, Sealkid, Handsken

The roster formerly known as LAJONS were acquired by NiP in the beginning of the year after showing promise in online tournaments. The roster has steadily improved and managed to establish themselves as one of the stronger European teams going into TI5. Despite the good performances NiP wanted to further increase their chances of becoming the best team in the world and chose to replace Apemother with Limmp. Limmp quickly found his place in the team and has become a star of his own in only a few weeks. NiP were eliminated from the European qualifier of Major All Stars by Empire but managed to receive a spot as replacements for eHug who won the American qualifier. NiP have managed to be successful with a variety of different heroes and Era especially has shown a lot of versatility while still having monstrous performances, still there are picks to look out for if you’re facing NiP and those are Clockwerk which Jonassomfan currently is the most successful player on this patch and Lina which Limmp is the best player on as well as undefeated on this patch. NiP will go into this event as one of the teams who will be battling for the spot in the Grand Finals against Invictus Gaming and will be looking to finally make a mark outside of online leagues and show what they are made of in a LAN setting.

Empire: Silent, Resolut1on, yoky, ALOHADANCE, ALWAYSWANNAFLY

Jokingly called the “farm team of Na’Vi”,a team that suddenly has a month of brutal domination only to fall off before big tournaments. Have only had one appearance in The International with TI4 but ended up on 13th place. This year they have not been targeted by Na’Vi recruiters and have looked solid and in good form for several months. Longtime members Silent, Resolut1on and ALWAYSWANNAFLY were joined by ALOHADANCE and yoky in the later parts of 2014 and both have been excellent additions so far, especially yoky who has been killing it on Axe, Tidehunter and Sand King. Despite not being one of the most popular support picks ALWAYSWANNAFLY really knows how to utilize Dazzle and is clearly the best player on the hero this patch with a whopping 17 wins out of 18. This time around there are no excuses, their roster has been stable for months and it’s time for Empire to show that their streak is not a one off thing and that they can consistently perform at this high level in the future and in offline events.

Can’t Say Wips: Chains, xMusiCa, Tudi, Godot, 343

Australian organization that was created in late September 2014, has since then had some roster changes most notably XtiNcT who played for the team during 9 days in January, the same month the team only had a single victory in over 20 games. Their results have improved somewhat from the atrocious start of the year but this team together with Invasion are the absolute weakest teams in the tournament having win rates far below 50% in recent months. In terms of picks the only outlier hero is Tinker which they seem to be performing quite well on.

Redemption: Lance, ddz, xiangzai, MoZuN, MtR

The second home town team but considering their history they can’t expect any support from the crowd as it’s the exact same roster that was Arrow Gaming, the team that in October 2014 disbanded after admitting they had conducted match fixing. After they were kicked out of the organization they later created Redemption in early 2015 seeking to redeem themselves and again compete on the top level in SEA. Their first appearance on this patch has been in the qualifier of Major All Stars which they won with two straight bo3 wins without dropping a game. There is not enough games of them to get a good grip on them but during this patch but in previous patches the star of the team ddz played Invoker more than any other hero by far and was quite successful on him. Redemption are possibly the ones with the most to win this event, not only money and glory but also a chance to change the public opinion that surely has haunted them in recent months.

Written by David Gustafsson