OGA Dota PIT Minor 2019 is the 4th Dota Pro Circuit Minor of the season and the tournament that will decide the final participant in the MDL Disneyland Paris Major. This ticket is extremely significant for everyone involved, as it offers one of the last two chances to score points at a Major and get a direct invite to The International 2019.

Dates and Location

OGA Dota PIT Minor 2019 is scheduled to take place in Split, Croatia between April 22nd – 28th. The main event will be held at the Spaladium Arena in front of a live audience. Each competitive day will probably start at around 10-11 AM CET.

Event Participants and Format

OGA Dota PIT Minor 2019 features eight teams from six regions.

• Europe: Ninjas in Pyjamas, Alliance
• North America: Forward Gaming
• South America: Majestic Esports
• CIS: Gambit Esports
• Southeast Asia: BOOM ID
• China: Royal Never Give Up, EHOME

OGA Dota PIT Minor 2019 takes place in two stages: the Group Stage and the Playoffs Stage. The first of these stages will be played in a Round-Robin format. The eight teams will be divided into two groups of four, and each of these groups will be played like this. The top two teams from each group advance to the Upper Bracket of the Main Event. The other two teams advance to the Lower Bracket. Every match is a Bo3 series until the Grand Final (Bo5). The Playoffs Stage will be played in a Double-Elimination format, as usual.

Points and Prize Distribution

OGA Dota PIT Minor 2019 offers a total of 500 qualification points for The International 2019, as well as $300,000 in prize money. Both the points and the money will be shared among the eight participants in the following way:

• 1st place: $125,000 – 120 points
• 2nd place: $65,000 – 100 points
• 3rd place: $35,000 – 90 points
• 4th place: $25,000 – 70 points
• 5th place: $15,000 – 40 points
• 6th place: $15,000 – 40 points
• 7th place: $10,000 – 20 points
• 8th place: $10,000 – 20 points

Team Analysis

Ninjas in Pyjamas

NiP seems to be going through another rough patch. They failed to qualify for MDL Paris and prior to that, they finished 9th – 12th at DreamLeague Season 11. However, in spite of all these problems, they’re one of the strongest teams at OGA Dota PIT Minor 2019 and I fully expect them to finish in the top 3. Normally, I would expect to see them in the Grand Final, as long as they can beat at least one of their two serious opponents, Gambit and EHOME.

In terms of overall performance throughout the season, NiP is sitting at number 7 in the Dota Pro Circuit rankings, with 1570 points. That’s a very comfortable position, even though it doesn’t guarantee a direct invite to The International 2019.

Even without any further points, NiP should, in principle, stay in the top 12 until the end of the season. So they will probably play very relaxed at OGA Dota PIT Minor 2019, knowing that their spot at TI 9 is likely secured, thanks to that 4th place finish at the first Major of the season.

Gambit Esports

Along with OG, Gambit Esports is the strongest team from the CIS and European regions that hasn’t managed to get an important result this season, in spite of having a lot of potential. In OG’s case, that may change very soon because they qualified for MDL Paris. But Gambit hasn’t quite yet, aims to finally do so after all this time.

Gambit already finished 2nd at two other DPC Minors. First against EHOME at The Bucharest Minor and then against Vici Gaming at StarLadder ImbaTV. Vici then went on to win the DreamLeague Season 11 Major.

In spite of their failures, Gambit Esports still had their best season yet, making it to the Grand Finals of five Minors and smaller tournaments, as well as winning two of them. In the DPC rankings, they’re sitting at number 15 with 208 points, around 280 points behind the 12th placed team, EHOME.

Going into OGA Dota PIT Minor 2019, I expect Gambit to finish in the top 3, as long as they manage to beat the Chinese teams if they encounter them along the way. Gambit already proved that it can easily beat anyone else, so at least on paper, they’re one of the three real contenders for the title.

EHOME

EHOME is another strong competitor but it’s a bit difficult to assess their current level of skill relative to the other teams, simply because they’ve recently changed most of their players, and we haven’t seen them play very much since then.

However, given the fact that one of the new players is the legendary Ferrari_430, this version of EHOME will likely turn out to be quite strong. Everyone on the team has a lot of experience and numerous past achievements. The only quality that’s mandatory but still uncertain at this point is cohesion. If these players get along with each other and communicate well during games, EHOME is easily one of the best teams at OGA Dota PIT Minor 2019.

Going into the tournament, I expect EHOME to either play at a very high level or fail miserably. In all likelihood, we’ll probably see them secure a top 3 spot.

Royal Never Give Up

This is the second Chinese team that will compete at OGA Dota PIT Minor 2019. And just like in EHOME’s case, they’re difficult to predict, simply because of the roster changes they’ve gone through recently. In between ah fu, Monet and LaNm it’s safe to say RNG has some solid players with respectable results. The other two are fairly weak or average at best. And one of those two is playing as the team’s midlaner.

RNG may turn out to be a great team, but it’s unlikely that they’ll be able to beat any of the other competitors we’ve covered thus far. So, going into OGA Dota PIT Minor 2019, I expect them to finish somewhere around 4th – 6th.

BOOM ID

This is one of the underdogs of the tournament. The only reason why BOOM ID is here is that TNC Predator had a rough couple of weeks during the qualifiers for MDL Disneyland Paris and OGA. They failed at both events which served to make room for teams such as BOOM ID to grab a spot at a high-level event such as this one.

Compared to the other teams, BOOM ID is fairly weak and their only real chance is against Majestic Esports and Alliance. Everyone else is going to crush them with ease. So the most likely result for them at this tournament is 7th – 8th. Anything above that would be a great accomplishment for this SEA team.

Alliance

How did things go so wrong for Alliance? They started this season by competing at The Kuala Lumpur Major, where they finished 9th – 12th. Then they also took part in The Chongqing Major, where they finished 13th – 16th. And that was the end of their run.

Looking at the events that took place during the first half of this season, we can clearly see that Alliance thrived simply because Team Liquid and OG had a very rough start, being crippled by health problems and departures. As soon as these two teams regained their normal strength, Alliance became an afterthought in Europe. And they’re likely to stay that way until the end of this season.

Going into OGA Dota PIT Minor 2019, I expect Alliance to finish 5th – 6th. They aren’t likely to fall below that level simply because BOOM ID and Majestic Esports are also playing at the event. But an unlucky draw may certainly change things.

Forward Gaming

Forward Gaming is no longer Forward Gaming, in the sense that all of the team’s star players left at the end of March, after several failed attempts to get things going. Initially this team had a lot of potential, simply because of the weight the names behind it carried: SVG as captain, UNiVeRsE and Resolut1on. Even YawaR and MSS, the other two players, are known to be extremely talented. And yet, after six months of playing together, it became apparent that something wasn’t working.

Right now, Forward Gaming is a watered down version of what it used to be. It’s still impressive that they managed to beat J.Storm and qualify for this tournament, but I think that North America is in a fairly poor state right now as a region. Aside from Evil Geniuses, everyone’s just trying to find a rhythm and a winning formula. On the big stage, that usually leads to disaster.

Going into OGA Dota PIT Minor 2019, I expect Forward Gaming to finish 5th – 6th. The best case scenario would probably be the 4th place, but in order for that to happen, they’ll have to beat RNG, EHOME or Gambit, and that’s not likely to say the least.

Majestic Esports

Nobody knows how this team got so far while having absolutely nothing to declare in terms of results, and past experience. It looks like five players just got together, and somehow, thanks in part to the missteps of their regional rivals, managed to secure a ticket for what will likely be the most prestigious Dota 2 tournament of their entire career.

Needless to say, I do not expect Majestic Esports to do anything surprising at OGA Dota PIT Minor 2019. In fact, I’d be amazed if they manage to win even a single game. Not match mind you, game. That’s how big the skill difference is between them and the other teams.