Knowing your teams for ESL One Stockholm Major 2022 – Breakdown

Hasta la vista, people!

We are in Stockholm for the first LAN DPC Major of 2022. Fourteen qualified teams from various regions are ready and waiting as we give our final look at the teams before the event kicks off.

Western Europe sees surge of new prodigies

Arguably one of the most anticipated regions in DPC Tour 2, WEU has undergone a massive revamp among its representatives. There are no familiar powerhouses, such as Team Secret, Nigma Galaxy nor Alliance, which were formerly staples in DPC.

Instead, we have OG, Gaimin Gladiators, Team Liquid, and Tundra Esports. OG and Liquid are renowned teams with multiple championships under their belt. Yet, they no longer field the founding players who accomplished those feats.

The new OG is still a formidable candidate to watch at the ESL One Stockholm Major 2022. Despite the early backlash over the new OG’s strength for mimicking its former’s infamous taunts, the new line-up deserves credit for being top seeds in WEU. Following closely behind is Gaimin Gladiators, which is a team that rivals OG since the last Tour. In fact, Gaimin won the DPC WEU Regional Finals versus OG previously, so they are tied in terms of power gap. Gaimin delivers phenomenally much thanks to its seasoned roster of high-profile players, such as Marcus “Ace” Hoelgaard. In contrast, OG’s young wunderkinds make up for their lack of experience with flawless execution while leaving the drafts to the veteran captain, Mikhail “Misha” Agatov.

Tundra Esports and Team Liquid are wild cards here. We don’t know how they scale up against other regions, and their performance can go either way.

@TundraEsports

SEA joins the fray in style

We shine the spotlight on BOOM Esports from Southeast Asia. While Fnatic was the first-place winner of DPC SEA Tour 2, BOOM still defeated Fnatic during their encounters. This puts BOOM as the stronger of the duo if it wasn’t for BOOM forfeiting their match versus Nigma Galaxy SEA. Although T1 deserves a mention as well, they have fallen off since TI10. Adding into account that they only recently picked up Kim “Gabbi” Villafuerte Santos, T1 doesn’t look very formidable.

I see Southeast Asia as a two team showcase, as both Fnatic and BOOM have the potential to make it out of their group.

North America’s two powerhouses

Heading to North America, Evil Geniuses and TeamSoloMid are best-in-class for quite some time now. Notably, TSM’s debut as NA’s alternative powerhouse besides EG surely reflects well for NA as a stronger region then before.

EG has long been hailed as NA’s only real contender. However, it’s great to know that there are teams that can give them a run for their money in their home region. A gruesome 1^st-3^rd place tiebreaker broke out between EG, TSM, and Quincy Crew which fortunately concluded with the former’s victory.

We now finally have two strong teams to cheer for from NA, and both could take Stockholm by storm.

South America is the typical coin-toss

The SA region is easily the most underrated one. They’ve been undermined worse than their NA counterpart. Yet, we have seen teams with decent potential in Thunder Awaken and beastcoast.

Beastcoast is the same old team we keep seeing at international events. They keep playing mediocre, yet always seem to make it into the big events. I don’t have high expectations from them making it out of Groups. Thunder Awaken on the other hand, features young players who seemingly know how to maneuver around and overwhelm their opponents. They can perhaps give some of the favorites a run for their money during their Stockholm Major debut.

Thunder Awaken also has Mind Games in their group, so they have an easier way out.

Keep those bags packed boys.

EEU down but not out

Last moment qualifiers gave us the three teams attending the major from the EEU/CIS region. Team Spirit, BB Team and Mind Games made their late entry into the event.

BetBoom was the big surprise in the EEU regionals after they beat both Spirit and Natus Vincere in a strong skills showcase. Spirit ofcourse had to grind down each opponent through the losers bracket. It was honestly good practice for them considering the lack of EEU competition this Tour.

The biggest surprise and disappointment comes in the form of Mind Games. We already discussed how they don’t even deserve to be there, but even that was not enough to cover their dramatic story. Two days before the Major, Mind Games announced Ukrainian players Semion “CemaTheSlayer” Krivulya and Danil “Bignum” Shekhovtsov wont make the trip to Stockholm. Genadiy “Astral” Motuz and Andrey “Dukalis” Kuropatkin from PuckChamp will play as substitutes instead.

This turns EEU into a two team region, with Mind Games only serving as a filler to field enough teams into groups.

China’s top powerhouses absent

PSG.LGD, Team Aster, Royal Never Give Up and Xtreme Gaming won’t make the trip to Stockholm due to travel restrictions. We dont see Ame, Paparazi or any of the Chinese Dota 2 legends on the big stage this week.

Not having China at a big event is a big loss. Most analysts expect the CIS/EEU region to be absent from this event, but we ended up missing on the most competitive Dota 2 region in 2022 instead.

This concludes the selection of fifteen candidates for the ESL One Stockholm Major 2022. Even without EEU representatives, these teams will surely be worthwhile to watch, so kick back and enjoy the first LAN major for the DPC season. If Dota 2 betting is your cup of tea, then you’re in luck because the variety of matches at the Stockholm Major can make up a decent betting slip.