Staying together pays off: 3 anec-Dotes

Dota 2 is not that much different, I believe. The Holy Trinity of AC Milan? Dota has a Trinity of its own: No[o]ne, 9pasha and Solo had been transferred together from Vega Squadron to Virtus.pro and have ever since made waves in the esports community. The tiki-taka of Barcelona’s loyal, home-grown talent? Dota has Team Liquid, a collection of rising stars with a unique and intoxicating gameplay, shooting up together under masterful coaching and genius drafting. Leicester didn’t scramble after mistakes and made the least adjustments in their starting lineup? Dota has Newbee, a squad that has stuck together through over 450 matches spanning two years and has risen to great success despite early doubts and criticism. In order to understand the value of synergy, coordination and team play in Dota 2, one must simply sample and appreciate some of the amazing performances these three squads have displayed over the past two years.

Virtus.pro excels at early game domination and fast paced, aggressive Dota. Once they secure any sort of advantage in a team fight, they steamroll relentlessly through their opponents, finding pickoff after pickoff. They are also masters of kitting an opponent and corralling entire enemy teams into a false sense of security, only to snap back with swift vacuum-crush-static storm combos and completely annihilate their dumbfounded opponents. It takes a great degree of confidence and comfort in playing together to pull this off — to hold steady and exert patience in using individual abilities until the team feels it can strike back at its full potential.

VP’s nucleus trio of Solo, Pasha and No[o]ne have been together since their Vega Squadron days. Noone and Pasha joined the sharks in late 2014 with Solo supporting them from the position 4 since April 2015. Solo, Pasha and No[o]ne teamed up with Lil and RAMZES666 in August 2016 to form a brand new Virtus.pro roster. While Lil recently transferred to Na’Vi, the roster remained almost unchanged for 1.5 years and will likely remain locked at the very least until this year’s International.

VP’s major breakthrough came in April 2017, when they came close to clinching the Kiev Major title, dropping the finals 3–2 to reigning champs OG after a nail biter game 5. Going into TI7, their stated goal was to win the whole thing, so in coming 5–6th after dropping their lower bracket elimination series against the future winners Liquid, they fell short of that. This wasn’t cause for a disband, but rather an opportunity to refine and perfect a playstyle that was already distinctive and overwhelming. Perseverance paid off, as VP went on to win 3 out of 4 Majors in the Dota Pro Circuit of 2017–2018, and they now stand at the top of the table, being the only team mathematically qualified for this year’s International.

Liquid are masters of divide and conquer, diversionist Dota, but they are also a very versatile and multi-faceted team. The affinity between and skill cap of their players are so high that they can interchange lanes and heroes to a large degree, putting their adversaries on the back foot even from the drafting phase. Picking independent, self-relying cores and purposely sacrificing one or two effectively divides the attention of enemy forces, who often end up chasing two rabbits but forgetting about the tiger in the background. When they are unable to crush laning stages and dominate the early game, Liquid would often employ late game split push strategies whereby a part of the team engages in skirmishes while the other part “sneaks” building objectives with strong solo pushers such as Morphling, Nature’s Prophet, Lycan, Terrorblade or Beastmaster. In other cases, their reliance on healing, saving or combo-breaking heroes such as Io, Kotl, Oracle or Earthshaker enables them to function as a five-man, single unit pushing machine which few teams have been able to resist over recent years.

Liquid’s story started with 5Jungz in August 2015, a ragtag collaboration of rising stars and experienced players, which seemed unambitious at first. Three out of the original 5 “Jungz” are still team mates to this date, making them the longest still-standing triumvirate in Dota history: MATUMBAMAN, MinD_ContRoL and KuroKy.

Everyone acknowledges them today as one of the best Dota 2 teams of all time, but 5Jungz weren’t born into success, as their early period was a continuous struggle to qualify for top tier events. On October 9th, 2015, Team Liquid announced their re-entry into the Dota 2 scene with their signing of 5Jungz. Team Liquid saw their first real test in the European qualifier for The Frankfurt Major 2015, but failed to qualify after being knocked out by The Alliance 1–2 in the lower bracket.

Liquid put in increasing amounts of work to break top tier levels: at first they claimed 3rd place in World Cyber Arena 2015 and 5–6th place at The Summit 4. They managed to secure their first LAN win at The Defense Season 5 in Berlin, where they defeated none others but the Frankfurt Major Champions OG in a best of 5 grand final. They continued their ascent that year by placing second at the Shanghai and Manila Majors, and winning EPICENTER 2016, thus securing a direct invite to TI6, where they placed a disappointing 7–8th.

Roster changed ensued after TI6, but the core of MATUMBAMAN, MinD_ContRoL and KuroKy stayed together. They added shining fresh talent Miracle- in September 2016 and GH in January 2017 and went on to claim the Aegis of Champions in August 2017, where they completed an unlikely and spectacular full lower bracket run, winning the hearts of millions of fans worldwide. They are still competing under the full roster registered as of January last year and hope to become the first ever team to claim two International titles.

Sticking together pays off: MATUMBAMAN, MinD_ContRoL and KuroKy lift the Aegis of Champions two years after they assembled as 5Jungz

To get a flavour of how incredibly good team Newbee is at grouping up and challenging enemies near the Roshan pit, I’d invite you to watch game 1 of the ESL Genting 2018 finals. At minute 24, Team Liquid wins a team fight, is outnumbering Newbee 4 to 2 and is about to secure Roshan for themselves. Kpii and Sccc are both at half hitpoints, but they know both their ultimates are off cooldown in 10 seconds and they know they can challenge Liquid on their own — and sure enough Kpii unleashes the Kraken tentacles, leaving every opponent stunned, vulnerable to Sccc’s “hammer drop”. Newbee go on to win the map and the entire series 3–2, finally besting their archnemesis. Thrilled and grateful to each other, Kpii and Sccc share a bromantic hug at the award ceremony.

Newbee have maintained their current full roster since September 2016, while Kaka and kpii had already been playing together under the team’s banner since March that year. Result were mixed at first for the blue squad: while they managed to consistently dominate domestic Chinese tournaments or qualifiers and although the team placed well at ESL Genting and at DAC in early 2017 (2nd and 3rd, respectively), they came in only 9–16th at the Boston and Kiev Majors in December 2016 and April 2017, widely considered the most prestigious tournaments in the Dota 2 circuit, bar only The International. But their confidence wasn’t shaken and they kept improving together.

After failing to qualify for either Epicenter or the Summit 7, tournament wins soon followed with the Zotac cup masters and Galaxy Battles in June 2017. But the team’s most remarkable result came in August that year, when they steamrolled through the International upper bracket, making their way to the Grand Finals, where their run was finally stopped by Team Liquid.

Finishing second at TI didn’t mean the end of their story, but, as the camera shot panned over Sccc’s ominous, revenge yearning expression in the excellent documentary that celebrated this clash of titans, Newbee carried on, roster unchanged and even more motivated to better themselves. Liquid kept being a thorn in their side and this matchup became something of a second El clasico in Dota 2 history (after the famous Na’Vi — Alliance rivalry). When Newbee finally bested their rivals at the Genting 2018 grand finals, they celebrated as if a curse had been lifted.

A great rivalry is born: Team Liquid faces off against Team Newbee in August 2017 for the greatest prize pool in esport history

It’s not surprising that these teams have garnered so much success in recent years and that, in staying together, they emerged this season as 3 out of the top 4 of Dota 2’s pro circuit. VP, Liquid and Newbee are the teams that have striven together for longer than any other squads in this race and the results confirm the value of their hard work. Team Secret is the only odd ball on the podium, showing that sometimes you can swiftly create world class teams by bringing in raw talent and polishing them into diamonds through exceptional captaining and coaching.

These three teams provide valuable, piecemeal insight into achieving success while playing the long game, prioritizing coordination and synergy above all other qualities. They also showcase the importance of failing together as long as experimentation and learning prevail. None of these teams had a smooth take off. They experienced loss and disappointment, but, while making some adjustments, did not renounce their core players or playstyles. Newbee and VP were both bested by Liquid at TI7, but they managed to exact their revenge in the coming season, and the enduring rivalries between these stable rosters have truly brought out the best in everyone.