Awaken no more: Arkosh fail to qualify for 2023 DPC despite fielding talented roster

Despite starting the qualifiers with an explosive squad that injected hope into Dota 2 fans’ hearts, Arkosh Gaming are out of the 2023 DPC season’s first tour after a loss to Monopoly today.

Faithful legionnaires of Arkosh struggled to adjust in the Closed Qualifiers when they started the bracket against one of the toughest opponents they could face, Fart Studios (FS).

Losing to BSJ’s FS knocked Arkosh Gaming to the lower bracket, where they made it through the first round. The second round had them matched against Monopoly, an up-and-coming stack featuring two NA and three EU pubstars.

After two close games, the score was tied, and Arkosh needed to bring their A-game to the final match. As fans hoped for a close game three, the opposite happened. Monopoly wiped the floor with Arkosh on the back of their Legion Commander, Death Prophet, and Ursa core-line that took over the game.

Arkosh were clearly caught off guard. Any attempts at turning the tide of the game were shut down by Monopoly and the flames of Arkosh’s awakened soldiers, who were meant to be NA’s last hope, were put out.

As Monopoly chipped down Arkosh’s ancient, team members started bidding farewell to each other while a tone of disappointment could be heard in their voices.

“Let’s never see each other again,” Febby said before leaving the voice comms with a “bye-bye.”

Soon after the series ended, Arkosh members went their separate ways and continued sharing their thoughts with viewers.

While Febby said he wasn’t quite sure about Qojqva’s approach to the game, Xcalibur believed that Team Bald was a better fit for him since he had an easier time expressing opinions on Gorgc’s squad.

Considering Arkosh assembled a stacked roster featuring former TI attendees, not many expected them to go out this early against a team featuring unranked Immortal players.

Tied to the statements made by Arkosh players, it looks like there was a chemistry problem with the team that could only get worse, especially since almost half of the squad wasn’t located in NA. This meant that the two cores of Arkosh had to play with high ping, which can make a difference while playing high-level Dota 2.