TI 2020 may be postponed, and Dota 2 fans may be suffering, but the WePlay! Pushka League is here to provide ample entertainment in this trying times. Some of the best matches we’ve seen in a long while, and some of the most unexpected Dota 2 betting outcomes happened over the past week.
TI-winning team, Alliance, and a new competitor from the CIS scene, HellRaisers, secured top seed in their respective regional group at the Pushka League. While Alliance impressed fans with overwhelming performance, HellRaisers shocked the CIS region by stomping favorites despite being the new kids in town.
© WePlay!
On April 1st 2020, Alliance announced the return of Gustav “s4” Magnusson as mid. Fans may never watch the original Alliance roster that won the International 2013, but at least s4 is back. There was hype among fans as it was the biggest leap in roster ever since the former TI-winning roster disbanded. Initially, many doubted Alliance’s strength even with the return of s4. After all, s4 went silent after leaving Evil Geniuses during post-TI9 roster shuffle. But Alliance lived up to the expectations this time around. They won 4 series at the EU groups, losing only to Team Secret. This placed them at the top seed, securing their spot in playoffs.
Meanwhile at CIS region, instead of Virtus.pro or Navi hogging the spotlight, it’s the freshy teams that placed top seeds. HellRaisers, an organization that has only recently ventured back into the DOTA2 scene, led a new squad of veterans. Yet, they are already making big moves in making their name known.
HellRaisers defeated both Navi and Virtus.pro. While these teams are decent in actual gameplay performance, Navi dug their graves with poor drafting. On the other hand, Virtus.pro did gave HellRaisers a rough time. After all, they recently won against team OG at ESL One, giving them a reputation as OG Killers. However, HellRaisers managed to clutch the final game. HellRaisers had a strong draft, capable of running down Virtus.pro’s heroes with massive nukes of damage.
Unfortunately, there’s no glory for the former two-time champions, Team OG and their sister team, OG.Seed. Despite having 4 players from the active roster, the absence of Topson seems to cripple the team’s playstyle. Oftentimes, Topson is responsible for single-handedly overwhelming the entire enemy team with his next-level plays. Indirectly, he made space for the rest of his team to play casually.
Without the playmaker, team OG must make do with their ex-player, Ceb. Like siblings, OG.Seed suffered similar losing streak. However, they managed to defeat team OG themselves. While the EU group is still ongoing, both OGs are already eliminated. Their remaining games have no effect on their seeding anymore.
The good old 322, is a term used to describe a winning team intentionally throwing the match. Even after a decade of DOTA2 Esports, it still lingers among amateur teams. At the Pushka League – 2nd Division, team Cyber TRAKTOR was proven guilty of placing esports bets against themselves to earn a quick buck.
In the series versus Cyber Legacy, both games ended in favor of the latter. However, the in-game decisions made by Cyber TRAKTOR player, Retsu, were questionable at best. The team managed to play against team NOVA before getting suspended indefinitely by WePlay organizers. Team Unique replaced them for the upcoming series.
With both group stages coming to an end soon, we look forward to the playoffs. Each top seed team from a region will face the other from a different region. It’s the clash between Europe’s finest and CIS’ rising stars.
It may not be an El Clásico between team OG and Virtus.pro. However, it would certainly be exciting with prominent teams like Team Secret and Alliance in the picture. Stay tuned.
Read next: The Twitch Esports directory is finally here
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