The Omega League Europe Immortal Division concluded with yet another sweep by Team Secret. They have now won seven consecutive events they participated in. Furthermore, Secret dominated most of the season without any real challengers to speak of.
With no TI happening in 2020, can we crown Team Secret the champions of the season?
© Team Secret
It all began with Secret’s victory at DreamLeague Season 13 way before the entire season went sideways. Back then, we were mostly wondering if Secret can beat OG, or if they would win the event if OG participated? A week later, OG announced they would be dismantling their championship roster, leaving the entire season up for grabs by anyone.
With the pandemic throwing a wrench in the season, it was Team Secret ahead of all other competitors for the better part of the year. The trophy at Pushka League Season 1 was their first in a seven event winning spree. They followed it up with a final at GWB 2020, amid record viewership, cementing themselves as the top contender for the season.
In the following four weeks, Secret managed to play four finals and sweep each of their opponents with a 3-0 scoreline. First up, Liquid fell at the Dota Pit Season S1 final. Just little over a week later, it was Alliance’s turn at ESL One Birmingham 2020. At this stage, we turned to Team Nigma and OG as the last remaining contenders that can stop a seemingly unstoppable Team Secret. In the following weeks, both OG and Nigma were put down at Blast Bounty Hunt and Beyond Epic respectively. At this stage, having won against every serious opponent, Secret went on their mid-season vacation.
The Omega League was the final chapter of the season, and here we are a month later, seven trophies to boot, asking: Is Team Secret the current Dota 2 champion?
We think they are.
When asked about how did Team Secret prep for their latest grand finals, Ludwig “Zai” Wåhlberg said that a lot came down to what they enjoy playing the most. We can all spend hours debating and analyzing on how Team Secret won. Yet, just maybe, there’s no secret to their success all along.
It’s clear that Team Secret plays whatever they feel like playing and just enjoy the game as it goes. Of course, consistency and objectives are essential, but let’s not forget about the playmakers such as Zai and Yapzor, who never fail to amaze the crowd.
During the game versus Evil Geniuses, Zai managed to kill EG’s elusive Ember Spirit, by deducing when he would grab the rune. Gpk was immediately silenced and killed, all thanks to Zai’s preemptive thoughts.
This was the case over this entire season, as Secret consistently played comfort and showed dominating performances in draft and on the field.
While Team Secret’s victory was impressive, we ought to look at the competitors and how they performed over the season.
After former team OG player, ana announced his retirement, Yeik “MidOne” Nai Zheng was the one to take the reigns and bring OG back to glory. He performed exceptionally well during the Omega League and the previous two events enabling team OG to taste a few grand finals series. Paired with Martin “Saksa” Sazdov, the two new additions to the roster are definitely pulling their weight for the squad.
While we cant draw comparisons between the back-2-back roster and this iteration of OG, we are fairly certain their level of competition has not faltered too much for them to be considered a weak competitor.
The same can be stated for Nigma and Alliance. Over at the quarterfinals Amer “Miracle–” Al-Barkawi did a thing again. The play was so ridiculous that it had Alliance’s coach, Loda yelling “How is this balanced?” back in the International 2013, all over again.
Nigma was on the brim of losing the first game to Alliance, who had an 18,000 gold lead. As Alliance players proceed to destroy Nigma’s Ancient, Miracle who’s playing Arc Warden repeatedly placed Magnetic Fields over their Ancient. With 100% evasion, the Dire Ancient was literally immortal as Alliance was short on magical building damage..
Evil Geniuses is the final opponent we need to wonder about. And here we might agree that EG has faltered this season. Its not only Secret that is dominating over them, it is also B-tier and C-tier squads that manage to beat EG this season. After losing SumaiL and s4 this season, EG has not been the same all year long. In their case, they have really faltered as a competitor when compared to the competition.
Overall none of the main competitors are really playing weak Dota 2. It just Team Secret being on a completely different level this year.
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