The preview of StarLadder ImbaTV Dota 2 Minor Season 2

The last championship in the Minor series of the rating season will be hosted on July 12-16. Eight teams will be fighting for the prize pool in the sum of $300,000 and 500 Dota Pro Circuit points. The top two teams will also earn a slot in EPICENTER 2019 Major.

The format

Eight teams from all over the planet will take part in the competition. Each of them had to pass regional qualifiers. You can find out the distribution below:

• Europe - 2 slots
• China - 2 slots
• Southeast Asia - 1 slot
• North America - 1 slot
• South America - 1 slot
• CIS - 1 slot

All participants were divided into two groups where they will see a Round Robin system with bo3 matches.

The distribution of teams by groups:

Group В

The participants will see a double-elimination bracket with bo3 matches in the final stage. We will be able to see five maps in the grand final.

The importance of the championship

The tournament is extremely important for the teams because the rosters like Alliance, NiP, EHOME, Mineski probably want to receive a slot in the Major and the championship is a good opportunity for the guys from Team Anvorgesa and Team Sirius to earn experience in the battle against strong enough teams and earn well.

The prize pool

The prize pool of the event will amount traditional $300,000, 500 DPC points and two slots in EPICENTER 2019 Major and you can find out the distribution of the prizes below:

• 1st place: $125,000 + 120 DPC points + a slot in EPICENTER 2019 Major
• 2nd place: $70,000 + 100 DPC points + a slot in EPICENTER 2019 Major
• 3rd place: $35,000 + 90 DPC points
• 4th place: $25,000 + 70 DPC points
• 5th-6th place: $15,000 + 40 DPC points
• 7th-8th place: $7,500 + 20 DPC points

The teams’ chances

The favorites, according to Parimatch:

NiP - odds on the victory are equal to 3.5
EHOME - odds on the victory are equal to 4.5
Mineski - odds on the victory are equal to 5.5

The teams NiP, EHOME, and Mineski are considered to be the favorites of the competition, according to bookmakers, because they are one step away from getting to the Major, having placed 3rd-4th in the qualifiers, and grabbed trips to the LAN finals in the qualifiers to the Minor without special issues. What is more, NiP and EHOME were playing in the grand final of the previous Minor tournament, after which Saksa and the company entered the top six of MDL Disneyland® Paris Major. By the way, all above-mentioned teams have been playing pretty mediocre recently and are not in an optimal shape now, however, they might show themselves from a better side at the Minor.

The outsiders, according to Parimatch:

Winstrike Team - odds on the victory are equal to 13
Team Sirius - odds on the victory are equal to 13
Team Anvorgesa - odds on the victory are equal to 26

The teams Winstrike, Sirius, and Anvorgesa were related to the list of the outsiders. These teams were not able to show themselves from a better side in the qualifiers to the Major and two rosters were assembled not that long time ago. We don’t fully agree with such bookmakers’ decision, because Winstrike performed well at the Minor and beat Natus Vincere, which was considered to the obvious favorite, and Anvorgesa entered the top four at the previous Minor. Only the roster of Sirius creates questions, it was assembled right before the qualifiers to the Major and the Minor, however, each of the participants has experience of performing on the international arena.

The rest participants of the competition

Alliance - odds on the victory are equal to 6
CompLexity Gaming  - odds on the victory are equal to 9

Alliance has been pretty unstable recently and the guys show mediocre enough results. It is possible that it is connected with the fact that a few players left the main roster due to personal reasons. As a result, the roster was not able to guarantee itself getting to EPICENTER Major 2019 and made it to the Minor only from the second place. By the way, the team was not able to hold the place higher than the last one at the recently finished ESL One Birmingham 2019.

In its turn, compLexity was performing very unstable and they placed 9th-12th at MDL Disneyland® Paris Major over the last month. Despite the trip to the LAN finals, the things are not that smooth on the main roster, because they made a replacement in the face of Tavo on the outcome of the Major. The team placed third in the qualifiers to EPICENTER Major 2019 and didn’t receive a slot, however, found no equals in the qualifiers to the Minor.