How strong is DPC Europe? – Looking ahead to The International 10

Living up to their names

It was only a year ago when Team Secret was the grim reaper of Dota 2’s competitive scene. Pretty much every online tournament during the early COVID-era that they played, was also won by them. Experts say that if TI10 happened when it was supposed to, one year ago, Team Secret would have wiped the competition. A long time has passed however, causing many questions to be raised. At the beginning of the DPC, Team Secret stayed dominant and even secured a fourth place finish at the Singapore Major. Afterwards however, the team started to drift.

Disappointing results domestically fated the team to the wildcards for the Animajor, where they subsequently failed to get to compete at the major for real. Ever since, the team has been living up to its name. As there is no doubt Puppey has been drilling his team into top shape for the major, but has done so, in total secrecy. Not having competed in any tournaments since the Animajor, nobody but their scrim partners know of their current strength. By having the only player to have attended every TI at the helm however, Team Secret is no doubt going to make a big splash in Bucharest. They might even be a contender to take it all.

Snatching the Aegis of Champions

Being the only team to ever win two TI editions, OG is a legendary Dota 2 Team. Nobody saw them coming the first time during TI8. Many people were writing them off and expecting them to get eliminated in the first round, only to clutch game after game into their first TI victory. Their dominance ended quickly however, as the team stumbled through roster change after roster change. Bringing back Ana for TI9 though, seemed to be a stroke of genius. As the team suddenly looked even more dominant than the year before. Coasting to a second TI win, that quite frankly, seemed easy for them.

Now two years later, a similar story seems to be unfolding. The team has performed poorly throughout the entire year. With a last minute roster change bringing in the king, Syed Sumail “SumaiL” Hassan allowing them to narrowly qualify in the blood bowl of a Western European qualifier. They might not have Ana this year, but we have seen them do it twice already, so why can’t they do it a third time? Another Aegis snatch wouldn’t even be too surprising at this point.

The kings of the north

Many people have many opinions about Alliance. The team that has qualified purely through domestic success has not been very popular with the fans. Add to this the whole coaching debacle because of ESL’s last minute rule changes that only Alliance really made use of. Sprinkle some arrogance on top of it and you can see how the team has been losing more fans than a warehouse during a heatwave.

All this drama however, does not have to affect players ability to perform. If they can perform domestically, who’s to say that they can’t suddenly show up internationally too. They have the Swedish skill, Belurasussian leadership and Bulgarian guts needed to beat even the toughest of opponents. And if they can find the same magic in Bucharest that they found during the western european DPC, they might even get themselves an aegis of champions.

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