Dota is finally back!
After over six weeks of offseason after the International 2016, teams are at last back on the main stage battling it out for our viewing pleasure. Every team here has been through a recent, and often major roster change. MDL will set a baseline performance standard for future events, but the results also have to be taken with a grain of sand since most of the new rosters will be playing their first official matches.
Group A had a massive amount of potential to be the most deadly group, but this rested on how well both Zhang "xiao8" Ning and Clement "Puppey" Ivanov could pilot their new rosters. So far, both rosters have been a disappointment.
Let's start with Team Secret, who dropped to Newbee 1-2. They looked impressive in Game 1 of the series, snatching a victory away from Newbee with the massive gold swing power of Bounty Hunter's Track. After that Secret seemed to have the rug pulled out from under them and Newbee ran away with the series. For what it's worth, Newbee also looked impressive during its second match of the day, sweeping MVP Phoneix 2-0, and advancing to the upper bracket.
LGD Forever Young also had a disappointing debut, dropping their first series 1-2 to MVP Phoenix. Game 3 was a massive letdown for fans of the new LGD lineup, after they threw away a gold lead of over 10,000 and let MVP Phoenix take the game.
They will play Team Secret Wednesday, with the winner then squaring off against MVP Phoenix for the remaining upper bracket spot.
Group B holds the most intrigue for fans of the North American and European regions. Both the new OG and Evil Geniuses rosters were seen for the first time in action, along with Vici Gaming and iG Vitality. EG opened up with a pretty embarrassing loss, but managed to snap back into action and sweep the series 2-1. They kept up their momentum, taking a 2-1 win over the new OG lineup, securing a spot in the upper bracket.
OG got what looked like a free pass in their first match against iG Vitality. Although there was almost a crazy Bounty Hunter comeback from iG in Game 1, OG were able to shut the door on them. iG Vitality is definitely the odd team out here, and the only roster at MDL that was not at The International 6 in some form. Expect them to drop to the bottom of the group unless they can pull off a very impressive upset versus Vici Gaming.
Thursday's competition will determine whether Vici Gaming or iG will face OG to earn the final upper bracket spot.
