The Esports world cup was done. I’m looking forward to The international. I want 1w (due to 33 and Whitemon), Yandex (due to Saksa), Liquid or Spirit to win.
How about you?
I’ve also been enjoying watching Team Vision (as they’ll be called for TI) but since they’ve moved away from the DPC haven’t really been keeping up. There just seems to be too much on all the time. Maybe I am just losing my free time too compared to my student days.
The big change from last year for them is swapping out DM on the offlane for Noticed, the latter of which might be one of the most improved players of the last year. Noticed actually won the MVP award for the Esports World Championship that PV just won.
And also 9class has learned to play like a normal pos 4 now, and doesn’t just rely on MK and Slark and his weird signature playstyle.
I wittingly didn’t follow close the other tourneys. The international is still the key tourney.
Each team should grind thru the tourneys all season to earn much $ and get The international invite. Per some (at least) competitive gamers, this was tiring. They wanted less tourneys and bigger prizes.
I’ve been on the PariVision train since over a year now. Last year I thought 9class was the most interesting player on the scene with what he was doing from the 4 position, and Satanic might be the best young talent in a long time. And veteran No[o]ne getting some success finally.
And Puppey is my favourite player of all time so him joining as coach and drafter only reinforced that. Then of course they started winning and becoming a top team and it feels slightly different to cheer for them after the EWC win. But I still will. I’ve been cheering for Puppey since TI 2, I’m not going to stop now.
9class used Dark willow, Rubick and Keeper of the light in the Esports world cup finals. All ranged. I 👂 (or read about) an analyst say that a position-4 gamer was a melee or ranged specialist. 1 of the 2. 9class was a ranged specialist in the finals.
Which is interesting because he used to be almost a melee-4 exclusively, and also specialised in that weird space creating and free roaming style he pioneered from the 4 position with heroes like Monkey King and Slark. Puppey coming in as coach has been teaching him to play as a more conventional support - which has undoubtedly made him a more complete player - but I do miss the unique 9class playstyle from last year.
It’s probably meta-dependent too, though. I’m sure it will return if it’s viable again.
Liquid all the way, baby! Probs not gonna happen, but here’s to hoping.
