DOTA Summit 10 is about to begin and this is the very last event of the season prior to The International 2019. In this article, I’ll give you a short preview of the event and my analysis of the Dota Summit 10 teams.

Only one of the competitors (Alliance) will be at TI 9 and everyone will have their eyes on them to see what they can do. If they fail to win here, against relatively weak competitors, then they have little to no chance of getting a good placement at TI.

DOTA Summit 10 Basic Information

DOTA Summit 10 is scheduled to take place between July 25th – 28th in Los Angeles. The organizer is Beyond the Summit, so we’ll probably have a very relaxing setting, with everyone staying under the same roof. Or at least, that’s how the previous editions of DOTA Summit went.

DOTA Summit 10 Teams

DOTA Summit 10 has six participants. And even though only one of them is a top 18 team, you will likely recognize the competitors due to the fact that they did have a presence in DPC events or at least qualifies for them throughout the season.

There are six DOTA Summit 10 team competiting:

• Alliance
• Complexity
• J.Storm
• Team Serenity
• beastcoast
• paiN Gaming

DOTA Summit 10 Competitive Format

The Summit takes place in two stages. For the Group Stage, the teams will play one Bo2 match against each of the other five competitors. In the end, the top two teams will meet in the Winners’ Finals (Upper Bracket) while the other four teams will start the Playoffs Stage in the Lower Bracket.

Team Analysis

Here’s a brief analysis of the Dota Summit 10 teams.

Alliance

Alliance is by far the strongest team at the Summit, along with J.Storm. They finished the season in the 11th place, after an impressive performance at EPICENTER Major, where they managed to beat Virtus.pro (in the Group Stage), Infamous, Royal Never Give Up and Gambit Esports, finishing 5th – 6th in the end.

The main strengths of Alliance are the experience of the roster and the skills of their coach. Four of the five members of the team have been playing together for 20 months and the guidance they’ve received from Loda, a former TI champion, has turned out to be extremely valuable over the last few months. Alliance has been playing better and better and I fully expect them to qualify for the Grand Final of DOTA Summit 10. Anything less would be a disappointment.

The most skilled Alliance player is probably qojqva, who took part in two editions of The International, finishing 9th – 10th in 2014 and 13th – 16th in 2016. He plays position 2, midlaner, so he’ll be able to make a big difference for his team with his talent.

J.Storm

J.Storm is filled to the brim with superstar players. Their roster is so impressive that it’s actually quite shocking how they managed to lose against Forward Gaming in the Grand Final of the NA Qualifiers and miss The International this year.

In terms of their DPC results, J.Storm finished 15th overall, after taking part in three of the five Majors. They finished 9th – 12th at The Kuala Lumpur Major, 9th – 12th at The Chongqing Major and 7th – 8th at DreamLeague Season 11.

In terms of their roster, J.Storm have players such as Fear, Resolut1on and Moo, all of whom either played in or won a TI Grand Final.

Going into DOTA Summit 10, I expect J.Storm to either win or finish 2nd.

Complexity

Complexity is a decent North American team with good players but not so good leadership overall. Neither the coach nor the captain has managed to raise their level of skill or teach them a set of winning strategies. So whenever they encounter a strong team, they’re almost guaranteed to lose. Which is why I don’t give them much of a chance, even at this level of competition.

Going into DOTA Summit 10, I expect Complexity to finish 5th – 6th.

Team Serenity

This is one of the weaker Chinese teams. They did finish 9th – 12th at The International 2018, but that was a long time ago and with a different roster. Only two players of that original Serenity roster are still with the team and the results this season were simply abysmal.

At DOTA Summit 10, I expect Serenity to finish 4th or worse.

beastcoast

Prior to the North American Qualifiers for The International 2019, where they finished 3rd, beastcoast had managed to qualify for MDL Disneyland Paris Major, where they didn’t do much, finishing 13th – 16th. But still, the fact that they were capable to qualify for a Dota Pro Circuit Major says a lot about the aptitudes of the team and its leaders.

At DOTA Summit 10, my expectations from beastcoast are fairly high, simply because there’s not much competition for them apart from J.Storm and Alliance. If they can bring their A-game to the tournament, I can see them finishing in 3rd place.

paiN Gaming

And finally, we have paiN Gaming. This team is at a severe disadvantage for this tournament, due to the fact that they lost their midlaner, 4dr. Unfortunately for paiN, he had some visa issues and had to be replaced by Therence, a much weaker player. And even if we assume that he’s on par with 4dr, a stand-in will inevitably damage the team’s cohesion and the other four members will probably not want to give away all of their secrets to an outsider, just for this one event.

In the South American Qualifiers for The International 2019, paiN Gaming reached the Grand Final but lost 0 – 3 against Infamous. Under normal circumstances, the team is fairly good, but given that they’re missing a key player, I think you should expect them to finish 5th – 6th.

Stay tuned for more DOTA coverage as the tournament progresses and we inch ever closer to The International 2019.