TI Preview: NA, SA and SEA
The International 2017 is just around the corner and now is the time to have a better look at participating teams. This International feels different to the previous ones, with so many teams capable of claiming the Aegis. There seem to be no clear favorites and no clear outsiders at the tournament.
The six-region division for the qualifiers also allowed for greater diversity during the tournament and for the first time we have a competitor from South America at TI. While many might disregard 
NoPing Esports, they are indeed in the dark horse position and we all remember what happened at Frankfurt Major, where a South American team was underestimated.
NoPing Esports
The dominant force of the South American region is relatively unknown internationally. They can’t boast great LAN performance at premier events, with a last place at Galaxy Battles and mid-pack placements at smaller events: TI qualification can be considered their biggest achievement. They lack experience, that is certain, but they don’t lack talent.
Previously, it was really hard for SA teams to qualify for an international event. They were always a part of the Americas region and as such had to play on NA servers, suffering from higher pings and unstable connection. Not only does it result in an objective disadvantage, where all your actions happen at a delay, but it also affects the players psychologically: having a solid plan fail because of external factors and not personal mistakes gets irritating really fast. Moreover, knowing about these issues restricts the available roster of heroes — playing Ember Spirit effectively with a 100+ ping is close to impossible.
Despite that, a team led by uNi- once qualified for a Valve event. Not only that, but they managed to eliminate Newbee and place higher than both Cloud9 and Fnatic. No longer being the captain doesn’t stop him from sharing experience with his teammates and it certainly shows, given the growth of the team in the recent past.
Benjaz is another Dota veteran, though his experience has been restricted to the SA scene only. He’s been an active professional Dota player for at least 3 years and it shows in his calm and calculated approach to the game. He is not the star of the team, but rather its backbone.
Speaking of stars, TSM.Timado definitely fills this position for Team Infamous. A young, talented player made a lot of progress playing professionally and can be safely considered a top tier mid. Much like Sumail in his early days, Timado focuses on winning the lane from the opponent, rather than playing it safe, and sometimes it costs him dearly. Fully coming back into the game after a bad start is still hard for this young player, but he will always have an impact, regardless of conditions.
Infamous won SG e-sports 3:0 to qualify for the International. The latter confidently eliminated Team Secret in a full bo3 at the recent Kiev Major. The rules of transitivity are rarely straightforward in Dota, but one thing is certain: underestimating this team will be a big mistake.
Digital Chaos
At first glance Digital Chaos looks like a mix of strong players, rather than a team. Further investigation only supports this theory: Digital Chaos has great raw talent, but they lack cohesion. Consisting of two former MVP players, NA veteran Bulba, young prodigy Abed and Mason this team was definitely struggling in terms of communication and it showed during their qualifier run, with moments of brilliance followed up by complete blunders.
Teams centered around single star player rarely lived up to expectations and it could be the case with Digital Chaos as well. Abed might be the strongest player MMR-wise, but it doesn’t guarantee that he will consistently win the lane or that he will always have an impact. It took
Miracle- some time to adjust to the professional scene and Abed is currently going through a similar process. He is amazing as an individual player, but often not on the same page as the rest of the team.
Long history between TSM FTX.DuBu and
Forev make them the most solid part of the team. They serve as a team’s foundation, as most of the successful teamfights start from the initiation from the latter. And when the stars align and the follow up is there the team can do amazing things:
Unfortunately, not every team will allow Digital Chaos to have a good initiation angle and in the more chaotic fights, where the tactics is not so clear-cut and team decisions have to be made on the fly, they might struggle.
Tým 1333179
Cloud 9 is the dark horse of the tournament. It is by all means a team and they definitely showed it during the qualifier run. However, there is always the EE-factor.
EternaLEnVy is an interesting player. At his best there are very few people who can match his skill. At his worst, he makes spectacular miscalculations and fails so hard it is actually amazing. Luckily for the team, at least during the qualifier run, the ratio of EE-1 to EE-2 definitely shifted in favor of the former.
On top of it a support duo of Aui_2000 and
pieliedie works like a clock, enhancing the stability brought by
Fata. This stability seems like a key to unlocking the full potential of EternalEnvy. Not only do they allow him to almost always have a good, uninterrupted early game, but they also cover up for his mistakes when needed.
And then there is QCY.MSS. At this point he is pretty much the second star player of the team, almost always capable of finding farm on his offlane and having a massive impact on the game regardless of circumstances. While PieLieDie, Aui_2000 and Fata lay the foundation, MSS brings the extra oomph, when Envy doesn’t feel particularly oomphy.
Cloud 9 is going to be one of the more interesting teams to watch. An extremely volatile team who is capable of both winning TI and being eliminated in the first round of playoffs. The ultimate dark horse filled with experienced and driven players will surely amaze us in one way or another.
Execration.安博电竞
Of all teams, Execration has the least big LAN experience. They are also quite inexperienced as a team — their roster was fully formed 4 days before the qualifiers for TI7, forcing them to go through open qualifiers.
The last bit of info can be seen as both a good thing and a bad thing, however. On one hand, you have a roster of players who didn’t have much chance to play together as a team and develop team strategy and perhaps more importantly, team rapport. On the other — they managed to place third in a highly competitive qualifier despite their issues, overcoming both Team Faceless and Mushi’s Mineski.
Led by team veteran Leumik (former Kim0), who has been on the roster for over over 3 years, the SEA squad will have a lot to prove. Fortunately, they have means to do so: ... is a young, but promising player who is extremely flexible and can easily switch roles with
Aiden when needed, to potentially catch the opponent off-guard.
Both RR and Leumik are experienced players who know Dota very well and can play very selflessly. RR is often worthy of highlights in his support position for his bold initiations. Sometimes it puts the team in a bad position, however more frequently it allows them to pull off amazing stunts:
To be perfectly honest, Execration looks like one of the weaker teams at the tournament. Despite being strong on paper, they are still a relatively new squad during TI individual talent means a lot less than the ability to play as a team. Potential stress and nervousness from performing on a big stage will only exacerbate the issues the team has. Though it might be the case that the crowd and high levels of stress is exactly what the team needs to perform better.
Ascent Esports
Second place of the SEA qualifier is a team filled with both talent and experience. Four of them competed in TI6, with Fnatic.Dj and
Ohy` placing 4th last year, eliminating their future teammates:
dddd and
Febby. The latter don’t seem to hold a grudge, however, as the team’s been working like a clock recently.
Current Fnatic looks like a team which just started gaining momentum. They’ve oiled their gears, sorted out internal issues and now move forward with focus and dedication. After fully committing to QO playstyle, they finally started performing they way they should perform on paper.
With this level of experience, the question of stress gets blown out of the window: the team might lose, but not because they choked. This immediately puts them in a favorable position, compared to many other teams. Moreover, by acquiring QO they’ve pretty much made a statement: we are going to play aggressively no matter what. As such, the question of strategy got blown out of the window as well.
It might seem like a purely bad thing for the team — flexible teams often perform better and get better results. However, this dedication to a playstyle, driven by an insatiable Korean beast, can be a good thing — no one will be able to dictate how Fnatic plays, they will not yield to counter-picks and won’t ever second guess themselves. And because of that, they might come out on top even in situations where they really shouldn’t:
Star level supports DJ and Febby, coupled with explosive QO and extremely stable Ohaiyo and Ahjit — the team is very similar to recently discussed Cloud9, with Mid and Carry players switched around. We will soon know which approach works better.
TNC Predator
Three out of five player on TNC are the same players who placed 7-8th at the previous TI. The team still has Fnatic.Raven — an extremely efficient farm-oriented carry, backed up by an aggressive star-player
Kuku^ and
DARK MAGICIAN. All three cores of the team are still there and it is only the support roster that got changed.
Their time with DeMoN certainly helped the team, since they were the dominant force in the region for the whole year, constantly battling it out against Team Faceless. During this period they’ve grown into a well known and highly respected organisation, which, given the chance to qualify for a LAN, would almost always perform very well, even winning WECG and placing third in Galaxy Battles.
Once again picking up a NA legionnaire as their captain, they have managed to tame the natural explosiveness of their roster and allow for some strategy and tactics to come into play. 1437 is regarded as one of the strongest leaders for a reason — while DeMoN fully committed to the chaotic playstyle of his team last year, Theeban looks to grow it into a more flexible and calculated unit. And to a large extent he is already succeeding at it.
With their kryptonite, Team Faceless, eliminated from the tournament, TNC now has great chance to prove themselves as not only the strongest SEA team, but also a real contender for the Aegis.
tnc ti7 winner fuck miracle fuck og
fiftEE/fiftEE chance for C9 to win TI 7. :D
munem bre
I <3 Aomine Daiki!
go TNC
lets go tnc indiaaaa pride ti7 winner! ♥
Peru=shit
All these teams will be at the bottom besides cloud 9 and maybe DC.
KawaiiSocks ok, BUT CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW YOUR WRITING IS AMAZING!!! seriously your explanations are so non-bias and thrilling. good article
hahaha.. bottom teams= Infamous and hell raisers
3rd to 5th place for Fnatic!
" EternaLEnVy is an interesting player. At his best there are very few people who can match his skill. At his worst, he makes spectacular miscalculations and fails so hard it is actually amazing. Luckily for the team, at least during the qualifier run, the ratio of EE-1 to EE-2 definitely shifted in favor of the former. "
XD
While i do think that VP would take the title, i think that TNC and C9 would be the most intersting teams to watch
i just want my boy rtz to win a ti
og first
eg second
rtz reage quit
I like OG. But I don't think they're gonna claim the title. This is not their patch and their favorite heroes are nerfed.
I am a EG fan but I think LGD is going to win.
I don't think SEA will be able to claim the Aegis at this moment,but they are certainly growing better in international screen.
Btw I certain want to watch some MidOne action even tho Secret are not the favour team that likely to win TI this year.
Isn't c9 supposed to be team NP? Or they have changed the team?
TNC gogogo
You didn't talk about 'Planet Dog' aka 'Hell Raisers' now called, anyways all the best to all the Teams out there, hope to witness History in the Making.
Fav. Team Liquid XD
Lol great article man, fully agree with you! But would love to see a c9 vs liquid matchup in the finals! Only for envy to throw a 30 k networth lead and lose to a Miracle invoker. :p
Good write up. Try not to repeat expressions if possible, for example "works like a clock" (like clockwork if you want the correct expression).
This TI is basically the battle of the supports, which is good for pubs cos WE NEED GREAT SUPPS HEH.
tbh ez win for planet odd here
Wow this article send chills down my spine, man...
Good job.
Also, i like the c9 part. Cracks me up everytime xD
GO GO GO FNATIC!
🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻
Kinda sad for ODD and Faceless
how dare you mocking our weebs leader EE-sama
not expecting much but still hoping that they can perform well, all the best Fnatic