Has North America as a region improved? – DPC EUW 2022 Preview

New North America

Last TI was everything but a success for the North American region. No Dark Horse stories and EG stumbling towards a 9-12th finish, North America arguably could have been the weakest region in the tournament. If it wasn’t for their southern brother that failed even harder, that is. Changes had to be made towards the start of this new DPC Season, to assure a better performance for the region in the upcoming year.

EG seemingly felt that to be a championship team, they needed a championship captain. Therefore they have opted to let go of Fly, to instead pick up Jerax. The Finish superstar has two TI wins on his belt, who also stated to be retired from Dota 2 for the past two years. Many question marks were raised by the community, as Jerax used to be the best position 4 player in the world, but can he still be that after 2 years of “retirement”?

Apart from the introduction of Jerax, the squad also welcomed Virtus Pro’s former carry, Nightfall into their squad to take up the offlane position after IceIceIce’s departure to Team Secret. A similar move as what they tried with Ramzes666 in the past, something that didn’t work out great back then. But maybe the dice will fall differently for EG this year.

The other two

Apart from EG, Quincy Crew and Team Undying seemed to be the only two other teams that could compete on an international level. Team Undying felt that, while their time at TI wasn’t as successful as they hoped, the potential for greatness was there. Therefore they decided to stick together to attempt another run for the Aegis this year. Quincy Crew however seemed to be a lot more disappointed with their showing in Bucharest. Resulting in them deciding to make some big changes. Only Yawar and Quinn stayed behind as Khezu, Milan, and Ponlo joined the team to make it whole once again.

With their German offlaner Khezu taking up the captain role, the team suddenly feels a lot more international. Now filled with players that have bounced around the tier 2 scene for a long time, showing promise but never quite making it, it is hard to predict how the squad will perform.

A shallow region

While regions like Western Europe and China are praised for their depth, with very talented players competing even in the lowest trenches of the 2nd division, North America seems to be the opposite. While the big three certainly are very talented, once you go down the rankings from there it quickly becomes bleak. While teams like 4 Zoomers, Simply TOOBASED and Black N Yellow definitely have their value, they strike a pale figure against the likes of names like Tundra Esports and EHOME.

When a, let’s be honest, joke team like Arkosh Gaming can make their way into the 1st division of the region, you know something is up. So let’s hope the dire situation the region finds itself in might motivate them into a new level of competition. Because otherwise we might see casters in demon cosplay walking onto the TI mainstage to represent the region real soon.

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