All eyes on the BEYOND EPIC tournament and Europe’s celebrated teams

Once again, the eternal clash among celebrated teams does not stop as BEYOND EPIC delivers the Europe/CIS regionals. Boasting a hefty prize pool of 200,000 USD, twelve teams were invited into the online arena. Whether it’s the generous winnings or championship title, one thing’s certain, a tournament of such caliber is likely beyond epic. *cough*

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BEYOND EPIC Tournament Overview

Ten teams from Europe & CIS regions have been invited, and two more slots are open through closed qualifiers. As expected, fans were pleased with the excellent selection of teams that played well in recent tournaments such as the BLAST Bounty Hunt and ESL One Birmingham 2020.

Teams compete in the single round-robin group stage in Bo3 format for a gruesome 10 days from June 15-24. Then, among the twelve teams, only the top 4 from each group shall proceed to the Playoffs. Speaking of the Playoffs, it will feature a double-elimination best-of-three bracket, while the grand finals are best-of-five.

As we write, the group stage is already long on its way, familiar contenders in group A includes Team Secret, Nigma, OG, Team Unique, Vikin.gg and B8. Oddly enough, the much-celebrated Team Secret is toward the bottom of group A as they have played only a single match against Unique so far.

Meanwhile, at group B, Team Liquid and FlyToMoon currently hold top seed followed by Alliance, Team Empire, Ninjas in Pyjamas and Virtus.pro. Empire, NiP or VP still have a chance to go through as they all have few more matches to complete.

Welcome to the “0-3 by Team Secret” club

Team Secret still holds the proclaimed title as the most reliable team in Europe for Dota 2 betting, after winning 4 consecutive tournaments. As icing on the cake, Team Secret swept every grand final in a clean 3-0 victory.

At this point, both fans and teams expect Team Secret’s unchallenged streak to continue at BEYOND EPIC. Alliance even teased Team OG with a savage tweet, welcoming them to the “0-3 by Team Secret” club.

Nigma in the Jungle

What happens when both teams do not want to be bested by the latter? Well, the game of Dota 2 became an arms race of perseverance. In the game between Nigma and Vikin.gg, both teams want their respective carries to have a one-sided lane advantage over the other.

Vikin.gg was naive to think that they can wait out Nigma to eventually send their heroes to the lane. However, Nigma was not letting the fact that they are missing out on last hits get the better of them. Instead, they had rather lose out on the lane and opt for the jungle.

What made the situation hilarious though, was that both teams had two of their core players jungle together. On the side note, I highly doubt that this is a viable example for viewers to follow in casual games.

A Blessing in Disguise

Danil “Dendi” Ishutin’s team B8 was invited to the tournament after Navi withdrew from the tournament. It has certainly been a rough season for Dendi and his self-found team, B8. After enduring 26 consecutive losses, the former B8 roster disbanded for the better and B8 returned with a revamped roster.

Yet, just when B8 is beginning to win games at the closed qualifiers, Dendi was targeted by wretched haters. The anonymous party was able to launch DDoS attacks on Dendi’s IP address on two different occasions. The attacks were effective, and B8 was eliminated in the qualifiers after Dendi had to play in an unideal computer setup (at his neighbors’ home).

Thankfully, BEYOND EPIC allowed B8 to showcase their new roster by inviting them as Navi’s replacement. They did not have an amazing run but they still bested Team Unique at the very least.

What’s up with Virtus.pro?

Once hailed as Major Kings and CIS’s strongest, Virtus.pro has definitely seen better days. Virtus.pro has only played 2 series, but both ended with such underwhelming results. However, perhaps it’s still too early to conclude that Virtus.pro is out of the tournament. With 2 series to go, Virtus.pro must be looking forward to turning the tides around.

Just two months they were The Major Kings at ESL Los Angeles 2020, and are still the team you can bet on right now to storm through the competition starting today. It’s probably wise to keep an eye on Virtus.pro through these Esports odds and Esports bookmarkers.

The action at Beyond Epic continues today at 14:00 CEST at twitch.tv/beyondthesummit

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