World Dota Cup: Group Stage summary

One of the most anticipated Dota tournament, World Dota Cup [WDC] officially started last Wednesday which took place at Huazhong University in Wuhan, China. A total of 16 teams participated in the tournament, some after enduring rigorous qualifiers while others were invited. It's a shame that several qualified/invited team were not able to attend due to sponsorship issues [eg xtu.prd, NWO, Starsboba, LOST.eu etc], but in the end the final 16 teams were successfully registered: 10 Chinese teams [LGD, EHOME, Nirvana.cn, Deity, Dream, DK and 4 amateur university teams], 2 Malaysian teams [Nirvana.my and AEON.MUFC], 1 Thailand team [Roccat.trust], and 3 invited international teams [MeetYourMakers, DTS and TheRetry].

Group stage begin on first playday, Wednesday the 10th and concluded on the 2nd day, Thursday the 11th. The final standing of the four allocated groups:

Many of the games were streamed through PPlive's NEOTV Channel. I managed to watched most of the streamed games, sadly except a few important one [Nirvana.my vs LGD and Trust vs Nirvana.cn] due to uni commitment. My thoughts on the grouping, played games as well as final standings:

• Group C and D = totally GROUP OF DEATH. EHOME, DTS and AEON all in the same group in C, while LGD, MYM and Nirvana.my all in the same another group. These 2 groups were definitely the major focus in the group stage.

• DTS pulled a totally awesome strategy to beat EHOME in their first group game. After three consecutive loss against EHOME in ESWC 2010, DTS is now pitted against their old nemesis and had a chance to avenge their defeat. And they do so, convincingly by picking quite unorthodox lineup of Enchantress, Dazzle, Panda, Bear and VS, and execute it to perfection. EHOME meanwhile failed to foresee DTS's plan and never really made any attempt to counter the strat [eg Burst nuke/mass stun vs Enchant+Dazzle].

• Thailand's team Roccat.trust surprised everyone by beating everyone in their group, including the recently crowned Razer Global Challenge champion Nirvana.cn. Roccat.trust is not a stranger in Asian competitive scene, especially after the demolition of Yamateh's SF with effective use of Batrider in ADC 2010. However their performance leading to WDC wasn't that convincing and hence their straight victories in WDC Group A come as a surprise for most. Definitely looking forward to what they had to offer in the knockout round.

• And the biggest surprise- EHOME eliminated from the group stage. Following their victory in ESWC 2010, G-League and recently RoTK, EHOME was regarded as arguably the best team in the world and come into WDC as favorite to win the tournament. However they fell short in their first game against DTS, but do win their remaining 2 games against AEON and XFA University. While AEON beat DTS, and with all 3 teams tied at 2 wins and 1 loss, EHOME went out due to Time-rating rule in tie-breaker. Kinda sad for the favorite to be eliminated this way, but deep down I was kinda happy to see EHOME out.

• Another European favorite, MYM also bowed out of the tournament following two defeats against Nirvana.my and LGD. MYM come to the tournament without their influential captain Maelk and had to content with a Chinese stand-ins, Mamamiya [former XFY captain]. Nevertheless as a whole I thought MYM did so well in the tournament despite going home early. It's just a bad luck for them to be grouped together with strong powerhouses like LGD and Nv.my. In both games against these 2 teams, MYM almost pulled out a win if not because of some crucial mistake and Nirvana.my/LGD's perfect team coordination which denies MYM victories. These 2 games are totally RECOMMENDED!!!

Nevertheless, the bracket for playoff has been released and were set to be played on Friday,Saturday and Sunday.

Those were definitely interesting pairings. AEON and Nirvana.my have to content meeting so early in the quarter-finals, while on the other bracker, arguably the 2 best remaining team in the tournament, LGD and DTS met each other. Looking forward to these games!!

Extra infos: Gosugamers WDC Coverage

Recommended games:
1. DTS vs EHOME, Group C - awesome unorthodox strategy by DTS
2. MYM vs Nirvana.my, Group D - replay not yet released. Epic 81 minutes games
3. MYM vs LGD, Group D - replay not yet released. Epic comeback by the winning team