EPICENTER Major is the final Dota Pro Circuit Major of the 2018-2019 competitive season and a great opportunity for audiences around the world to sit back, relax and watch some high-level Dota. In this article, I will take you through the basics of the event and provide an analysis of the best competitors in the race.

EPICENTER Major Basic Information

EPICENTER Major is the fourth edition of EPICENTER, a Russian event that is already famous around the globe for its stellar production value. Every year, the organizers delight us with their showmanship while the teams provide the rest.

The EPICENTER Major offers a prize pool of one million dollars and brings together the best 16 teams in the world. The event is scheduled to take place in Moscow, Russia between June 22-30.

The #EPICENTER Major is coming!
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— EPICENTER (@epicentergg) June 18, 2019

EPICENTER Major Format

EPICENTER Major will be played in two stages, like every other DPC event.

Group Stage

This stage will last from June 22nd until June 23rd. The teams will be divided into four groups. Each of these groups will be played in a double-elimination format. The best two teams from each group advance to the Upper Bracket of the Playoffs. The other two advance to the Lower Bracket. Nobody gets eliminated at the end of this stage. Every match is Bo3.

Playoffs

The Playoffs Stage of EPICENTER Major will be played in a GSL format (double-elimination). Apart from the first round of Lower Bracket matches (Bo1) and the Grand Final (Bo5), every other match is a Bo3 series.

EPICENTER Major Prizes

EPICENTER Major offers one million dollars in prizes and 15,000 qualification points for The International 2019. These prizes will be divided among the 16 teams in the following way:

• 1st: $350,000 – 4950 pts.
• 2nd: $170,000 – 3000 pts.
• 3rd: $100,000 – 2100 pts.
• 4th: $80,000 – 1350 pts.
• 5th – 6th: $60,000 – 900 pts.
• 7th – 8th: $40,000 – 450 pts.
• 9th – 12th: $15,000 – 150 pts.
• 13th – 16th: $10,000 – 75 pts.

EPICENTER Major Groups

EPICENTER Major will start with the following four groups:

Group A

• Team Secret
• Royal Never Give Up
• Fnatic
• paiN Gaming

This should be a very easy group for Team Secret but the battle for second place is much harder to predict. That’s because Fnatic’s been struggling lately while RNG has been on the rise as they demonstrate their potential.

Coached by Super and having superstar players such as ah fu, LaNm and Monet in its roster, this team could potentially upset Fnatic in Group A and force them to struggle for their tournament lives in the Upper Bracket. It wouldn’t be the first time either.

At their previous Major, Fnatic not only had to fight for their lives after the Group Stage but even lost their first Playoffs match and got eliminated immediately. It remains to be seen what Fnatic can do to secure a spot in the Upper Bracket, but I’m rather pessimistic about their chances.

In principle, they should be a really strong competitor, given that they’re sitting at number six in the DPC rankings and are already qualified for The International. Furthermore, they finished 3rd at DreamLeague Season 11, proving that they definitely have the skill to win against almost anyone.

And yet, the way in which they played at the MDL Paris Major just led me to believe that they lost interest after they qualified for TI9.

As for the fourth team of this group, paiN Gaming, I simply don’t see how they could do anything in this group. But who knows? Maybe they can beat Fnatic if the SEA team shows up unprepared. Other than that, I can’t really cheer for them given the statistics they have.

Group B

• Evil Geniuses
• Gambit Esports
• Team Liquid
• Infamous

In principle, this group should be very easy for EG and TL. But given Liquid’s recent roster change, the two weeks they had to prepare with w33 may not have been enough to forge their new way of playing and develop the capacity to execute their strategies fluently.

Nevertheless, w33 is an exceptional midlaner so the chances aren’t that bad for Liquid here. I’d give them a 60% chance to finish 2nd in Group B and advance to the Upper Bracket. Their main and only opponent will be Gambit Esports, as EG will almost certainly take first place without breaking a sweat while Infamous is too weak to compete at this level and beat the Europeans in a Bo3.

To be fair, Infamous only has one player from South America at this point, even though they’re a South American team in theory. Over the last three months, they brought in oliver, Black^, HesteJoe and Biver. Personally, I can’t wait to see Black^ compete again at the highest level, but I don’t think he can do much to prevent his team’s defeat against the mighty EG and TL. Their best chance is against Gambit here, but even the CIS squad has been playing well lately.

Gambit won their ticket to EPICENTER Major by winning the CIS qualifier. So essentially, they were better than Virtus.pro in that tournament. Then, at the recent ESL One Birmingham 2019, Gambit finished 4th after beating Team Liquid and Vici Gaming in the Lower Bracket during the Playoffs. All of these results make me a bit worried about Liquid’s chances of getting to the Upper Bracket of EPICENTER Major and they certainly make me very pessimistic about Infamous’ chances of winning a match in this group.

Group C

• Virtus.pro
• Vici Gaming
• Forward Gaming
• Alliance

If Virtus.pro and Vici Gaming can’t win this group over Forward Gaming and Alliance, then something’s gone terribly wrong with these Major winners. Both VP and VG played incredibly well during the first half of the season and are already qualified for TI 9. However, we’ve seen them lose a fair amount lately, against opponents they should be crushing with ease.

Whether it’s fatigue, the changing meta or simply not taking things seriously enough, one of the best teams in China and the best team in the CIS region have not been in great shape over the last few months. Now they need to prove themselves one more time ahead of The International 2019 and at least one of their opponents in Group C is strong enough to upset them if they start making mistakes.

Alliance qualified for EPICENTER Major by playing in the Grand Final of SLi Minor S2, which was the last DPC Minor of the season. They played very well throughout the tournament and stayed in the Upper Bracket the whole time. They even defeated NiP once along the way, but couldn’t repeat this performance once they reached the Grand Final. Still, they fought hard and forced the match to go all the way. It was only in the fifth game that NiP, which is supposedly much stronger, managed to claim the title.

Group D

• PSG.LGD
• OG
• NiP
• TNC Predator

Group D is perhaps the tightest of the four, with all of the four teams being perfectly capable of getting to the Upper Bracket. The favorites are PSG.LGD and TNC Predator in my opinion, but OG and NiP could easily prove me wrong. NiP just came back after a victory at SLi Minor S2 while OG, in spite of Seb’s scandal, is now at their second Major participation of the season.

And with so much time in which they’ve trained with ana as their new carry, the team is now ready to take over the world. Of course, they’re not very likely to start playing again like they did at The International 2018, but you should expect gradual improvements from them.

PSG.LGD is currently sitting at number five in the DPC rankings and they’ve been one of the more consistent teams throughout the season. It’s true, their consistency was not on the same level as VP’s or Secret’s, but at least they got four top six results at their first four Majors. And at the recent ESL One Birmingham 2019, they finished 3rd after losing against Evil Geniuses and Team Secret. No doubt, PSG.LGD is in great shape right now and should easily win this group.

TNC Predator is ranked 11th right now but the fact that they managed to bring in Heen as their new coach is absolutely massive. As you probably know, Heen is Liquid’s former coach and won The International with the Europeans in 2017. He’s also from South Korea, and you know what that means. At least in esports, that country reigns supreme in Overwatch, League of Legends and StarCraft 2. They may not be the best in all of them at all times, but they’re definitely up there with the greatest.

TNC won the title at WESG this year, placed 4th at ESL One Mumbai 2019, 5th – 6th at ESL One Birmingham 2019, 9th – 12th at The Chongqing Major and 5th – 6th at The Kuala Lumpur Major. In terms of their DPC events, they missed the 3rd and 4th Majors and are now returning for the 5th. Their goal at EPICENTER Major will certainly be to defend their top 12 position in the DPC rankings and secure a direct invite to TI 9. And their odds of doing that are excellent, given their performance in recent months.

EPICENTER Major Favorites

Here’s a short analysis of the three competitors that have the highest chance of winning the title at EPICENTER Major.

Team Secret

Team Secret has claimed the spotlight as the team of the season so far. The chance of them losing their number one spot in the DPC rankings after this event are almost zero. They have an almost 3000 points advantage over Virtus.pro at this point and I can’t see them placing below the top six while VP claims the title. And that’s the only scenario in which Secret can get outranked by the winner of the regular season in 2017-2018.

Team Secret played in three Major Grand Finals this season and won two of them. They also placed 4th at the one remaining Major of the four that took place so far. So overall, their consistency has been second to none.

At the upcoming EPICENTER Major, I expect Team Secret to get at least a top three result, simply because there’s almost nobody there that can beat them in a Bo3 at this point. Their only real opponents are the other two teams analyzed below.

Evil Geniuses

Apart from one Major, EG finished 3rd at all the others this season. In a way, they seem cursed to never reach the Grand Final. But at the same time, being consistently on the podium is a pretty spectacular achievement in a game like Dota. There are so many other great teams that could beat them and yet, when it’s time to prove themselves, Evil Geniuses almost always manage to find their way to that bittersweet 3rd place. Needless to say, they’re sitting at number three in the DPC rankings as well.

EG’s biggest opponents at EPICENTER Major will be Team Secret, Virtus.pro and possibly PSG.LGD. I don’t see them losing to anyone unless they have a really bad event.

Virtus.pro

At EPICENTER Major, VP will be playing home, in Moscow, in front of a mostly Russian crowd. With almost any other team, you’d think this is a big advantage. However, Solo doesn’t seem to perform very well in those conditions. Instead of being motivated by the crowd, he appears pressured. Or at least, that’s how things went at past editions of EPICENTER. In 2018, VP finished 4th. In 2017, 5th – 6th.

Nevertheless, VP is one of the strongest teams in the world. So I do expect them to play well this time and get at least a top three result. If they manage to do that at EPICENTER Major, then I can see them doing something similar at The International 2019. Otherwise, it’s likely they’ll crumble under pressure like they did in 2017 and 2018.