There may not be a LAN event to top off the DPC Winter season, but the Regional Finals are looking to deliver in terms of gameplay quality and hype. With the first day of the competition in the books for the Western European region, fans were treated with four rather quick matches.
The roster shuffles within the European region before the start of the season made the fans wonder who’d come out on top this season, and the first day showed that there were clear winners.
Team Liquid vs. OG
Team Liquid had a disappointing end to their 2020/2021 performance. Most Dota 2 fans were caught off guard when the organization signed MATUMBAMAN and zai from Team Secret, which had a decent run at the International.
OG’s legendary members, on the other hand, decided to take a step back from the game and use their knowledge to raise a new generation of Dota 2 players. The matchup itself could be described as “experience vs. youth” since fans could quickly tell that TL knew what to do at every stage of both matches.
The first game of the series was a total stomp. Though the game started off slowly with both teams waiting for the other one to make a mistake, TL quickly picked up the pace with Boxi’s roaming. With its position four creating space on the map, Team Liquid started controlling more resources around the map, giving OG close to zero chance to come back into the game. TL sealed the first game at the 29-minute mark with 38 kills for its name, while OG could only take down TL players six times.
The second game kicked off in a way that made the fans wonder whether OG were able to crack TL’s code. As the minutes passed, it was clear that TL was the better team today since they steadily achieved control of the map, reducing OG’s playfield in the process. OG’s Medusa pick was the only glimmer of hope for the squad, and the team could potentially turn the tides if the game were to last over an hour, but Team Liquid were able to take down OG’s ancient at the 35-minute mark after decisive gameplay to move on to the upper bracket finals.
Gladiators vs. Tundra Esports
The second match of the day featured Gladiators and Tundra Esports, two teams not many fans expected to see in the finals at the very beginning of the season. Though both teams showed great promise throughout the season, it was clear that Gladiators were the more prepared team.
The first game featured a Gladiators lineup that looked to end the match quickly with Broodmother and Templar Assassin while Tundra Esports responded with Wraith King, Lina, and Timbersaw, who just couldn’t find the time to go online. Gladiators were able to score a total of 32 kills in the one-sided match, while Tundra responded with nine.
The second game was when fans could tell that Gladiators was ready to advance to the second leg of the upper bracket. Gladiators picked a completely different lineup while Tundra didn’t change its playstyle at all and picked Wraith King once again. Considering the team’s recent performances, Skiter has been either playing Wraith King or Luna most of the time, which could have opened the way for Gladiators to prepare for the match better since they knew what to expect. Despite picking a similar lineup, Tundra was able to put up a slightly better fight throughout the match but could only resist for 32 minutes against Gladiator’s pressure.
With the above results, TL and Gladiators will battle in the upper bracket finals, while OG and Tundra will play in the lower bracket’s first round. Liquid and Gladiators will play at 7am CT on Feb. 12, while OG and Tundra are set to battle at 10am CT on the same day.
