In retrospect, it changed into obvious from the primary day of the Mars Dota 2 League that this changed into LGD Gaming’s tournament to lose. But it was harder to expect that MDL changed into a tournament that the organization could help each win and lose in opposition to itself ( the team form of).
LGD defeated its junior crew LGD Forever Young earlier these days in a grueling five-game collection that lasted nearly four hours to win MDL. Although teams could have gained the very last, LGD, in the long run, proved to have more stamina, subsequently breaking LGD Forever Young open in a breezy game 5, the shortest of the series. This victory is the first championship for LGD because it received G-League 2015 and confirmed their recognition as one of China’s top groups.
Despite intermittent claims approximately the decline of Dota 2 in China, MDL turned into a reminder that the region has continuously produced and keeps producing a number of the world’s strongest groups and players. Even if Evil Geniuses failed to seem to be attempting their absolute hardest, testing out some zany techniques and bombarding each other with a mock flame on Twitter, OG honestly had been. For now, at least, China has the upper hand, and Western groups have to be reading what transpired at MDL to get an experience of the local metagame earlier than it. The International 7 kicks off in Seattle, Washington, in a few weeks.
LGD Forever Young need to be happy with their overall performance, demonstrating another time that their victory in the notoriously fickle Chinese qualifiers for The International 7 was now not a fluke. Du “Monet” Peng is fast rising as one of the region’s rising stars, and the crew’s deep hero pool ought to lead them to proof against any closing-minute changes Icefrog makes to the Dota 2 metagame.
With 37 distinctive heroes picked over five games and a perfect blend of prolonged brawls and short stomps, the Dota 2 metagame appears to be in good shape as we input the 2016-2017 season’s final month.
Teamfighting compositions are in vogue, and the metagame emerged from MDL centers at the timings produced by using the lengthy cooldowns of large ultimates. Teams have shown a willingness to discover non-conventional mid-layers, picking Ancient Apparition and Earthshaker instead of greater familiar alternatives—a go back, of sorts, to pre-2014 days wherein the 2 roles changed into as a whole lot approximately utility as it turned into the farm. Whether that holds until The International, of a route, is every person’s bet. Day four of Mars Dota 2 League is winding down, and the most effective 3 teams—Newbee, LGD. Forever Young and LGD—continue to contention for the biggest prize in Dota 2 till The International 7 subsequent month. With simplest sooner or later of games closing, we’ve got a miles better concept approximately where teams region relative to every other, in addition to the slowly rising metagame of 7.06e.
China was resplendent
With the elimination of Evil Geniuses and OG, the pinnacle-three teams at MDL will all be Chinese. Until about 2013, the competition among Western and Chinese Dota 2 groups become notably one-sided as Western groups absolutely could not compete with the infrastructure Chinese groups had. But seeing that 2013, the stability of strength among Chinese groups and the rest of the world has been loads more fluid. No aspect manages to keep dominance for several months, but for most of the 2016-2017 season, the West has held a slight facet.
MDL, but challenges that narrative. This, no question is a domestic turf advantage and Western teams’ relative unfamiliarity with the modern-day country of Dota 2 in China. But such explanations most effective go to this point. Excluding Vici Gaming, who appeared only a few steps behind in maximum of its intra-regional games, Chinese Dota 2 is in tremendous form, and competition among pinnacle teams is as fierce as ever. That spells a problem for unprepared teams in Seattle, Washington next month for The International 7.
Evil Geniuses
After a near loss to OG, Evil Geniuses have been eliminated from MDL, giving the crew its worst match finish in months. Still, you could argue that Evil Geniuses were not taking MDL as seriously as they have to have. The crew has really not anything to show, and as prestigious as MDL is, it is not tons compared to The International.
