It’s been a few days of pure action at the Arlington Major, and there is one thing we can be sure of. PSG.LGD is an absolute Dota 2 powerhouse, multi-time runner-up in the Internationals Championship, and certainly the most highly rated team in Arlington Major 2022. They also have a lot of top placements in recent tournaments.
Considering the stacked list of accomplishments in their book, every single team in this event should respect LGD as a formidable opponent. Going into the late stages at the Major, let’s find out if they are as unstoppable as they look.
If we are being completely honest, while PSG.LGD look like the strongest team right now, they do have their lowlights, especially if we consider that they barely qualified for Arlington Major as 4th in their domestic DPC season. Several notable opponents they lost to, include Xtreme Gaming, EHOME, and Vici Gaming, which are teams that aren’t playing in Arlington.
Many fans defended this poor performance by justifying that LGD is giving way to other Chinese candidates to secure DPC points. After all, PSG.LGD already secured sufficient points to secure a direct invite to TI11, but those are just rumors.
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This team does have a bit of a curse on them when it comes to big stage performance. Team Spirit at TI10 and OG in the TI8 grand finals created a pattern for the team to always stay at glory’s doorstep. Loyal fans would beg to differ that these opponents that once posed a threat to LGD are just a former husk of their glory. Team Spirit, despite being defending champions, struggled to maintain their composure as a Wildcard candidate that is impossible to counter.
When it comes to their playstyle, LGD’s strategies often scale well into the late game, which contradicts what many opponents at Arlington Major had in mind. We saw both OG, Evil Geniuses, and more, play around mid-game timing and overwhelm their opponents with their snowballing strats. However, such strategies prove to be obsolete against prominent teams, which can outlast the match.
LGD often have tricks up its sleeve, especially their mid laner, who has an elusive hero pool to make space, prolonging the match just long enough for their hard carry player, Wang “Ame” Chunyu. That’s a worst-case scenario we are describing for PSG.LGD, which means in most matches, they are still the ones controlling midgame.
More often than not, we see underdogs discount themselves in the face of overwhelming opponents, which they felt no chance of defeating. Not unless they play along with the generic high-success meta. If we have to give a selection of notable candidates that could potentially snatch a series off PSG.LGD, it’s likely beastcoast, Entity, or their regional rivals, Aster and RNG.
It’s hard to directly counter LGD as they have an ocean of potential picks and comps to create. This means banning out a specific composition simply won’t do it. At best, we can hope to single out heroes that re-define team’s performance. But other than that, it’s definitely going to be a hard challenge for any team to stop the Chinese train that is looking to roll over the competition.The Chinese representatives still have a long way to go if they want to claim the Arlington Major title, but right now, they are on the right track. The ongoing Arlington Major is one of the most exciting Dota 2 events of the year, so make sure to check out our Dota 2 betting site where you can find all the information you need!
