The American Dota 2 scene hasn’t been this exciting since Evil Geniuses won the International 2015, particularly it’s the South American counterparts that are hoarding the spotlight.
As Evil Geniuses debut their SA line-up at BTS Pro Series Season 13 Americas, we also got a glimpse into the other SA rivals. Here’s a recap of the BTS Pro Series S13 Americas thus far.
Recap of BTS Pro Series Season 13 Americas Group Stage and Playoffs
The Phase 2 Group Stage concluded with Infinity, 5RATFORCESTAFF, Thunder Awaken and Wildcard Gaming advancing to the Playoffs. The two North American candidates, 5RATFORCESTAFF and Wildcard, proved that they aren’t easy pickings despite the SA teams’ recent popularity.
On the contrary, we were rather disappointed by Hokori’s performance despite their seniority as a staple amongst the SA Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) staples. They even participated at TI11 alongside its SA brethren, albeit flopping at last place.
Playoffs Round 1
Moving onto the Playoffs, the powerhouses make their first move at BTS Pro Series Season 13 Americas, namely TeamSoloMid, beastcoast, EG, and nouns. Except for nouns, the others are established teams that have played in TI Championships long enough to consider them veterans at the block.
While TSM and EG defeated 5RATFORCESTAFF and Wildcard respectively, beastcoast did not live up to the hype of their newly-assembled SA roster. For the uninitiated, remnants of Thunder Awaken players left their former team to play for beastcoast and EG. In short, the players of beastcoast and TA that played in TI11 are essentially shuffled across beastcoast and EG.
Yet, beastcoast took a massive loss from TA to kick off the BTS Pro Series Season 13 Americas Playoffs. TA, which currently only features several former Infamous players and two other miscellaneous, is certainly not an opponent that we expect to topple beastcoast’s all-star roster, at least not at two-weeks-old.
TeamSoloMid vs Thunder Awaken
As TA advances into the Upper Bracket Semifinals, their next opponent is TSM. TSM keeps their Dota 2 division running despite the rumors of potential disband after the crypto-trading platform, FTX went bankrupt.
While that’s great news NA fans, TSM flopped their TI11 run and had massive flaws in their performance. As such, they also had a roster shuffle, replacing their support duo with Matthew “Ari” Walker and Matthew “Whitemon” Filemon. The former position-4 support, Dubu, left the team while David “MoonMeander” Tan retained in TSM, but as head coach. However, MoonMeander will be the stand-in for Whitemon at BTS Pro Series Season 13 Americas.
Their early match vs 5RATFORCESTAFF showcased an overwhelming strength over its opponent, especially the draft choices. Offlane Nature’s Prophet is not very popular in recent meta, but Jonáš “SabeRLight-” Volek showcases its capabilities beautifully. Regardless, a mere victory over an average team won’t be enough to classify TSM as a strong team yet.
Even so, TA is facing an opponent of high calibre just because TSM is more seasoned in this match-up. That said, TA’s match against beastcoast revealed that they have unorthodox drafting choices, and almost seem impractical on paper. It was a draft that has reliable initiation and catch potential but at the expense of a relatively squishy line-up.
Compare to TSM’s choice of durable heroes, such as Marci, Sven, and Primal Beast, we can’t help but envision that these aren’t heroes that get picked off easily. Nevertheless, hopefully TA’s drafts leave TSM baffled by what they are up to.
Evil Geniuses vs nouns
Once a local rival, now just another region’s representative. EG’s switch to SA talents is a dreadful blow on the North American scene for many fans.
Regardless, Nouns is still in big trouble against EG after witnessing how uncanny EG played like the SA teams at TI11. Well, of course, they are the same players, but the Enigma pick and overall durable builds are essence of SA playstyle. These go very well with the threatening initiations that SA talents love in their drafts.
Unfortunately for nouns, their recent drafts were defensive, and provide minimal counter to what EG’s explosive playstyle has to deliver. Hence, we can anticipate EG to showcase their flawless executions once more as they send nouns down to the lower bracket.
While the Upper Bracket Semifinals are the talk of the town, the Lower Bracket rounds happened earlier and were just as exciting. Especially with beastcoast fighting for tournament life and barely making it through over 5RAT.
