22 May Dota 2: DPC Weekly Recap – Western Europe, May 17-May 19 2021
There was plenty of action in Week 6 of EU’s DPC, including an Upper Division tiebreaker.
Our final week of the EU’s DPC saw some results we expected, and a few surprises too. We break down the highlights from both divisions.
Lower Division
Viking.gg remain the undefeated kings of the Lower Division. Keeping their top spot in the region’s standings after taking out Into The Breach in a three-game series that saw a grueling 68-minute final game.
Game 1 was a brutal stomp in ITB’s favor. They held the net worth lead for the entire game, racking up an insane 50-kills across the 44-minutes. Ending with a 27-kill lead over Viking,gg. ITB were playing with Stoyan “lil pleb” Kostov standing in for Dimitris “ThuG” Plivouris and he had a hell of a game on Slark. He went 15/1/16 in this game. Abdimalik “malik” Sailau also had an impressive game on Pango, with a 17/3/17 KDA.
ITB looked to be in control of the lanes in Game 2. But once the clock passed the 20-minute mark, and Indji “Shad” Lub had a BKB for his Sven, things turned sharply in Viking.gg’s favor. Melchior “Seleri” Hillenkamp’s Undying pick provided the team plenty of support too. This time it was Viking.gg who put 50-kills on the board, as they swiftly overran ITB to close out the game just before the clock hit 44-minutes.
On our final map we were treated to some exciting back and forth skirmishes which saw the kills coming fast. While Viking.gg had it in the lanes, they failed to close quickly. ITB managed to swing the advantage back their way, gaining a 20k lead at the 55-minute mark which looked like it might turn the game. It was Adam “Aramis” Moroz on Tiny who picked up Viking.gg’s third aegis at 58-minutes, and although ITB managed to burn him down, it cost them a full team wipe and a die back for malik’s Axe. It was exactly what Viking.gg needed to close out the game. At 68-minutes, they took the series and a chance to test their metal in the Upper Division in the future.
Hippomaniacs on the other hand, leave Season 2 without taking a single series over the six weeks. Ghost frogs sent them packing in two quick stomps on our first day of play. The win brought Gfrogs final score to 4-3 series, with a total of 10 map wins and 7 map losses, landing them the 3rd spot on the ladder.
Chicken Fighters are the other Lower Division team on the bottom rungs. They fell in a three-game series to No Bounty Hunter, despite putting up a defiant fight in Game 2. They ended the middle map with a 30-kill lead over NBH. Angelos “ntakii” Tikai put on a spectacular performance on Razor in the mid lane, going 11/1/7 over the game’s 29-minutes.
But NBH came back commandingly for the final map of the series, offering a repeat performance of their Game 1, controlling the lanes, and rolling to a 32-minute victory over the Chickens. The win lets No Bounty Hunter end Season 2 in 6th place.
Finally, Team Bald Reborn faced Level UP to close out Week 6. While Level Up appeared to have things well in hand in Game 1, including a nice aegis snatch by Leonardo “RdO” Fernandes on Lifestealer at 20-minutes, TBR managed to bring them down. Flipping the script in a team fight to nab themselves the advantage. At 57-minutes, they shut Level UP down to take our first map.
Team Bald Reborn came into Game 2 ready to roll and after a bit of a shaky lanes, that’s exactly what they did. Taking control of the mid-game to take their final victory for Season 2.
The loss doesn’t upset Level UP much, who remain in second place in the standings. Team Bald Reborn end their Season 2 DPC run in 4th place.
Also Read: DPC Weekly Recap – South America, May 17-May 21
Upper Division
Results in our EU Upper Division during the final week pushed the season to a three-way tiebreaker.
Brame and Team Secret opened our week. Despite their dominating performance last season, Secret have had a middling run through Season 2. Still, they came into Game 1 of this series looking more like their old selves, easily bowling through Brame in a 24-min snowball to the win.
But Brame made them work for the win on the second map. Pushing the game out to 56-minutes and managing to keep up with Secret in the kills. They ended the series with only 5-kills separating them. The win leaves Secret at 4th place in the standings, with Brame falling to 5th.
Next up, Nigma clashed with Tundra Esports in a surprising three-game series. Tundra took Game 1 at the 34-minute mark. Their Faceless Void pick for Oliver “skiter” Lepko proved far more effective than Ivan “MinD_ContRoL” Ivanov’s Nightstalker. Skiter outpaced MinD_ContRoL’s farm quickly, roughly earning an extra 200gpm by the time they reached the midgame.
Our second map saw more of a back-and-forth pull in the net worth advantage, with neither team building a strong advantage until the game reached the 30-minute mark. Tundra took a good Rosh, and it looked as if they might push through and take the series in two games. But some valuable kills by Igor “iLTW” Filatov as the clock neared 40-minutes helped Nigma cut through Tundra’s advantage to flip things back in their favor. Nigma took the win at 41-minutes to take the series to three.
Game 3 gave us a close battle, with both the gold advantage and the kills staying fairly even until the final 10-minutes. By then, skiter had farmed enough for a Butterfly on Juggernaut, making him a difficult target for Nigma to bring down. Tundra capitalized on the small lead they snatched to close the win quickly. Ending the game at 46-minutes to take the series.
And start upsetting the standings. Thanks to their win over Nigma, and OG’s loss to Team Liquid in the next series, the EU Upper Division was going to a three-way tiebreaker for the 5th-7th spots on the ladder.
We break down Liquid’s exciting win below in our highlight series.
Also Read: DPC Weekly Recap — China May 17-May 21
Highlight Series: Team Liquid vs OG
It’s a safe bet to say most people expected the two-time TI winners to overcome Team Liquid easily. Especially with Anathan “ana” Pham back on their side. But Dota has always been full of surprises, which is exactly what this series gave us.
Team Liquid easily overtook OG on the first map. Establishing a 2k lead straight out of the lanes. Syed Sumail “SumaiL” Hassan had a breezy time through the early game with his Morphling. Slotting a Mantastyle and Power Treads by 15-minutes. Although OG managed a few pick-offs, it didn’t dampen his lead by much and SumaiL ended this game with an impressive 17/3/16 K/D/A and almost 30k in the net worth. It was a dominant showing from Liquid, who took Game 1 at the 43-minute mark.
But OG didn’t bring things back on our second map. In fact, they took an even harder beating as Liquid snowballed to victory, closing out the win just shy of the 22-minute mark. Max “qojqva” Bröcker was outstanding on his Broodmother, going 12/0/15. But Aydin “iNSaNiA” Sarkoh had some brilliant moments too, including closing two kills on ana’s Sven. One in the game’s opening minutes and a very worthwhile kill at 15-minutes that helped shut down ana’s farm.
It was a well-deserved victory, and Liquid’s win was the final knot needed to form our three-way tiebreaker series.
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