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DPC Power Ranking 2019
With the twelve teams receiving a direct invite to Shanghai now confirmed, it's time to reflect on their performance over this DPC season and assess their chances at the International this summer. This ranking is of course by no means definitive and tremendous upsets will no doubt be seen again on the main stage. With that said though, let's have a look at where we seem to stand for the time being.
12th - Keen Gaming (China)
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The 12th position seed in the DPC invites and similarly bottom in this power ranking. Keen Gaming failed to qualify for either of the last Major/Minor pair so sat watching from the side-line hoping that they’d avoid the fate of EHOME and manage to retain their spot in the top-12. To the disappointment of Gambit Esports, finishing in a tantalising 13th place, Keen have squeaked through this DPC season and will get a free pass to Shanghai without having to play in the highly competitive Chinese regional qualifier.
Keen is an interesting mix of veteran players and newer talent – with Yi in particular showing several promising performances in the midlane so far. eLeVeN was once discussed as the best offlaner in China, whilst Kaka – the first Chinese player that reached 9k mmr - has before been considered as one of their best roaming supports. Kaka of course went on to reach the TI7 grand finals with Newbee, whilst Old chicken and eLeVeN have both also scored top-6 finishes at previous Internationals.
But although many of their players have experience making deep runs at TI, that looks set to be a tall order for this Keen Gaming squad this summer. Throughout this season Keen have had fairly middling results in Chinese qualifiers, and their only strong result at the Majors was a 5-6th place finish at DreamLeague. The DPC points scored from this achievement proved enough to earn their direct invite to TI9 but subsequent early exits from the MDL Paris Major and ESL One Birmingham, as well as the aforementioned failure to qualify for EPICENTER, all raise some serious question marks.
To their credit Keen was also able to claim 2nd place at WESG and win the championship title at ESL One Mumbai earlier this year, but both tournaments had admittedly much weakened competition. No Chinese team should ever be written off when the International comes around, but for now Keen Gaming will have a lot to prove once the games start in Shanghai.
11th - Fnatic (SEA)
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Just a few short months ago nobody would’ve made a list ranking Fnatic this low down, but the team which was formerly the pride of their region has since fallen far from grace. Fnatic started this DPC season strong, dominating the Southeast Asian regional qualifiers then finishing 7-8th, 5-6th and an impressive 3rd place at the first three Majors – already mathematically securing their TI invite.
Looking at the team on paper it’s clear to see why they were dubbed “the SEA Dream Team”. Veteran offlaner iceiceice is, alongside his ex-teammate Mushi, one of the region’s most decorated players of all-time, boasting top-6 finishes at five of the first six Internationals. Meanwhile their youngest talent, the midlane wunderkind Abed, is one of only four players worldwide to have ever reached 10k mmr.
In DJ and Jabz Fnatic found themselves in possession of two of the three most mechanically skilled supports in all of Southeast Asia – sans Tims of TNC – and their Korean carry MP seemed to be playing at a level not seen since his days with MVP.Phoenix circa TI6. But all of a sudden their early season success stalled abruptly, as the team disappointingly finished dead last in both the final Majors of the circuit.
The team decided that change was needed and benched MP shortly after their early exit from the EPICENTER Major, shifting Jabz to the carry role and subbing in their coach DuBu to complete the roster. As another former member of the fan-favourite MVP squad DuBu is certainly experienced, but such a big shake-up is nonetheless potentially risky going into TI9.
Is this roster supremely talented and one which could become a serious threat to the other teams in August? Undoubtedly. But with such poor results recently and no chance for us to see their new line-up in action before the group stage in Shanghai, Fnatic will need to be seen to be believed.
10th - Alliance (Europe)
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Alliance fans can surely breathe a sigh of relief after their team’s climactic victory over Gambit Esports at EPICENTER secured their well-deserved place in the top-12. This has been a challenging season for the Swedish outfit, with the European qualifiers for the Majors and even Minors being stacked full of powerhouse teams boasting former TI champions amongst their ranks. But Alliance managed to overcome the odds and became the fifth European team to secure an invite to TI9.
This new generation Alliance team has remained remarkably stable since its formation in late 2017, with the only change being the addition of qojqva over a year ago to replace former captain Loda’s move to coach. The organisation’s belief in their young talent to grow together into a formidable force has borne fruit, as Alliance is now unquestionably back.
Offlaner Boxi and carry miCKe in particular have both solidified their names as serious competitors on the circuit this season, each frequently forcing out respect bans on signature heroes such as Mars and Morphling. Meanwhile the (relative) veteran qojqva has successfully transitioned to a less farm-intensive mid playstyle on this new team and is currently playing at arguably the highest level of his career.
However, whilst true that the ultra-competitive European region has often gatekept them out of the Majors this season, it is still worth noting Alliance’s underwhelming results at the numerous third-party tournaments they’ve attended throughout the year – for which they can’t simply blame the strength of the other European squads. Alliance still has a way to go before they can be considered a serious contender for the Aegis once more, but they seem to be picking up momentum at exactly the right time to exceed expectations and score a strong finish at the International.
9th - Ninjas in Pyjamas (Europe)
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Next in the ranking comes Alliance’s biggest regional rivals, their fellow Swedish organisation NiP. With a greater wealth of veteran experience, strong niche picks and the diabolical mind of captain ppd, the Ninjas have managed to lead Alliance by an impressive 18-8 head-to-head record this season, contributing to their higher placement in this ranking.
NiP immediately capitalised on OG and Team Liquid’s absence from the first Major of the season and easily secured their spot in Kuala Lumpur. When visa problems necessitated playing with a stand-in for 33, NiP was able to recruit Liquid’s MinD_ContRoL and the TI7 champion helped the Ninjas climb to their highest Major placement of the year, finishing 4th. In the latter half of the season, like Alliance, they’ve similarly suffered in Major qualifiers at the hands of the Secret/Liquid/OG trio, but back-to-back Minor victories have ensured that they’ve nonetheless gathered enough points to lock in their TI9 invite.
Even with ppd’s famed playstyle of an underfarmed position six support NiP still seems to struggle in some games with balancing resources between their three cores, as both Ace and 33 usually tend towards more farm intensive playstyles on their side lane heroes. Fata has made an impressive transition back to playing the midlane role since his stint as an offlaner on Secret, but the burden of creating space for both his other cores can sometimes appear to be too much against teams who get active early to punish their greed.
Every player on NiP has placed top-8 at an International before and it wasn’t luck that allowed TI5 champion ppd to previously lead Evil Geniuses to three consecutive top-3 finishes. Let’s also not forget their recent pick-up for Pajkatt as a coach, who coached Saksa and the rest of Digital Chaos to their shock second place finish at TI6. NiP’s unique drafting style will make them highly unpredictable going into TI9 this summer and with both Ace and 33 providing potential for game-winning surprise picks, they can threaten to upset almost any team under the right conditions.
8th - TNC Predator (SEA)
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The underdog that caused the historic upset of OG has come a long way since TI6, and this time it wouldn’t at all be a shock to see them finish in the top-8 once more. It’s definitely a stretch to credit their recent surge entirely to their acquisition of former Team Liquid coach Heen, but the TI7 winning coach has certainly helped this team of extremely talented youngsters to reach their full potential.
TNC began the season with a solid 5th-6th place finish in Kuala Lumpur, but then a controversial drama over racial remarks made by Kuku in the lead up to the Chongqing Major spiralled out of control – forcing the team to replace him with a stand-in for the tournament and receiving a hefty DPC point penalty from Valve. After an early exit at Chongqing, their then-captain ninjaboogie was released and eyyou brought back in, though the disappointing results continued as TNC failed to qualify for either of the next two Major/Minor pairs.
With the recent arrival of Heen however, TNC’s performances have improved dramatically. At the stacked field of ESL One Birmingham TNC lost series only to the eventual grand finalists of EG and Secret, and their commanding 4th place finish at the EPICENTER Major was more than enough to secure their top-12 spot in the DPC rankings. TNC’s players have always been individually skilled, but with improved drafting strategies and better lategame decision-making they have now stopped making the kinds of mistakes which the top teams used to exploit against them.
Had they been performing with this level of success for a little longer it might feel less risky to rank them higher, but at the moment some important questions remain. How long can TNC sustain this kind of form? And now that they’re on everyone’s radar, how will they respond to their new strategies being studied and figured out? At the level they’re playing at now they’re a solid contender to make a deep run in Shanghai and it would be a definite surprise to see TNC make another early TI exit this summer.
7th - OG (Europe)
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It’s hard to decide which group is more obnoxious, as both OG’s fans and their haters can be equally smug depending on the team’s most recent results. Since it’s inception OG has come the closest of anyone to replicating the “Na’Vi Magic” of the legendary Natus Vincere team in the early years of Dota 2. From their first miraculous Major victory to their unbelievable TI championship last summer, OG is able to consistently pull off the seemingly impossible – to the delight of their followers and much frustration from their detractors.
Hopefully neither bandwagon will be too upset to find OG in the middle tier of this ranking, as it’s more or less reflective of the season they’ve had. The TI8 champions took a holiday after their win and so missed out the first Major/Minor cycle entirely. With their star carry player ana opting to take a longer break from play, OG struggled to find success with either Swedish veteran Pajkatt or Russian youngster iLTW. They failed to qualifier for either the Chongqing or DreamLeague Majors and flopped at both Minors they attended – putting themselves at serious risk of missing the TI9 direct invite via the DPC.
It seems that ana has inherited the old mantle of TI4 winning captain Xiao8 – sitting out for much of the early season and then re-joining a team in the lead-up to TI to transform them into a contender once more. For the second year in a row the Australian prodigy has come back to OG in their hour of need and his impact has shown, with a solid 5th-6th place finish at the MDL Paris Major and a surprising 7th-8th place finish at EPICENTER despite playing with their coach as a stand-in for a bedridden N0tail.
The points gained from these results secured OG’s direct invite to defend their title in Shanghai and they’re looking to be back in good enough form to potentially do so. Even missing their captain they were able to take down both the titans of Evil Geniuses and Team Secret in EPICENTER’s lower bracket, which demonstrates their ability to once again contend with the top tier of teams. OG won’t have the element of surprise they exploited so effectively last year but once again they’re heading into the International not being considered a favourite – exactly the conditions they need to make something magical happen.
6th - PSG.LGD (China)
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The TI8 silver medallists have been insanely consistent this season, reaching the top-6 of every LAN tournament they’ve attended and finishing in 4th place at two Majors. But for a team which came only one game away from claiming the Aegis last summer, the fact that they’ve failed to reach a single grand final this year is a cause for much concern.
Across the five Majors this year PSG.LGD has actually only dropped a single playoff series to a team which isn’t ranked above them in this list – that being the disappointing loss to TNC which saw their exit from EPICENTER. The Chinese powerhouse clearly doesn’t lose matches to worse teams, which will definitely help them avoid a premature exit in Shanghai, but unless they can start taking series off the top tier teams again then they’re unlikely to replicate their dominant showing at TI8.
All five members of their roster remain from last season, so the pieces are definitely there for PSG.LGD to become a tournament winning team once more. Ame has recently been described by the retired Chinese legend BurNIng as being one of the two best carry players in the world (alongside Secret’s Nisha), whilst his Experience and Gold Per Minute averages this season are the 1st and 2nd highest of all players on this list.
Somnus has finished in the top-4 at three of the four most recent Internationals, an incredible feat which is matched only by TI5 champion SumaiL. Meanwhile Fy has now reached the grand finals of an International twice, though he is the only one of the seven players to have done so who has not lifted the Aegis on either occasion.
Fy has long been considered one of the greatest position four players to ever grace the game and is undoubtedly one of the most deserving candidates to win the first International hosted in China. To do so however, PSG.LGD will need to figure out how to solve the problems that have been plaguing them all season, particularly in their offlane. But with national pride on the line, the most decorated Chinese organisation in history will certainly be stepping-up to play in August.
5th - Evil Geniuses (NA)
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Humourists may have expected the boys in blue to have been found in 3rd place, or perhaps atop a cliff, but for now 5th place seems like the most accurate ranking of the North American squad. EG have been more or less consistently the best team in their region since the organisation was revived in early 2014, and that’s remained the same throughout this season.
But whilst this star-studded roster has had no problems qualifying for the Majors, they’ve failed to solidify their status as a championship level team. In fact, this is the first season since EG’s 2014 revival where they’ve been unable to win a single tournament, their last title coming from The Summit 9, just before TI8. A meme-inspiring trio of 3rd place finishes at the Majors this year is, on a serious note, a highly impressive feat, but with such a wealth of extraordinary talent they no doubt have loftier aspirations going into the International this summer.
The four-time Major winner Fly and TI3 champion s4 have now been on EG for over a year since their dramatic addition to the squad from OG. Cr1t and Arteezy have both played some of the best Dota of their careers at points this season and the youngest-ever TI winner, SumaiL, is proving that he is still in contention of being one of the greatest players of all time.
This roster does however seem to suffer from the age old EG problem of starting off tournaments cold, losing a key series which puts them down in the lower bracket earlier than necessary. This contributed to both their early exits at the DreamLeague and EPICENTER Majors, but fans will be hoping that the longer group stage at the International will give EG enough time to warm up before the main event.
EG has already come close to victory this year, with a second place to Team Liquid at MDL Macau and second again at ESL One Birmingham, in a tense five-game final vs Team Secret. There can be no doubt that a team who’s managed to place top-3 in more than half of the Majors this season is one to be taken fully seriously when the games start this summer.
4th - Virtus Pro (CIS)
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Regardless of whether they ever win an International, this generation of Virtus Pro will go down in history as one of the very greatest Dota 2 teams of all time. Since the team formed (minus RodjER) after TI6 they’ve only finished outside of the top-6 at a LAN tournament on two occasions, over the span of nearly THREE YEARS. With the pick-up of RodjER mid-season last year VP went on to sweep back-to-back Major championships and dominated the DPC rankings in a commanding first place.
At TI8 VP went in as most commentators’ tournament favourite but would again disappoint with another 5th-6th place finish. In interviews this year they’ve said that they’ve been taking this DPC season less seriously to avoid another first-place curse and, with Team Secret narrowly edging them down into the second spot on the leaderboard, perhaps this is finally their year.
Even taking the circuit less seriously VP have still looked absolutely world-class at the Majors this year; claiming victory in Kuala Lumpur, making two further grand final appearances and finishing off the season with a convincing 3rd place at EPICENTER. There are few teams where a sole 7th-8th place finish at the MDL Paris Major would be considered a failure, but when all your other results are top-3 or better that starts to become the expectation.
Ramzes and No[o]one have each established themselves as one of the very best players in the world at their respective positions but “just tilt No[o]one” appears to remain a viable strategy for tackling VP. When ‘Virtus Plough’ gets ahead they tend to utterly crush their opponents, but this only makes the difference even more noticeable when VP struggles to recover from a bad laning-phase. Or they just call good game early and throw in the towel within 20 minutes.
This is still the same team which dominated last year’s circuit, but they’re going to have to adapt their play to keep up with the new and improved rosters of the teams ranked above them here. The circumstances of their elimination from EPICENTER at the hands of Team Liquid highlights their tendency to occasionally make crucial misplays in the late game – an issue which will need to be addressed if VP want to convert yet another successful season into their long-awaited Aegis.
3rd - Team Liquid (Europe)
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With the explosion of the game-winning supernova in the fourth game of the EPICENTER final, Team Liquid came back from a 43k gold deficit and announced to the world that the ‘China Slayers’ of TI7 are back. Although they ultimately lost game five to an unstoppable Vici Gaming, a 2nd place finish at the final Major of the season is unquestionably a good indicator for their chances in August.
Liquid has had a fairly rough season by their standards and so despite finishing 2nd place at MDL Paris the team decided to replace their long-serving carry Matumbaman with w33.The potential of this new Liquid was hard to gauge going into EPICENTER but their road to the grand final was nothing short of convincing, beating all three of the top teams ranked below them on this list.
Kuroky is one of the most successful captains in the history of the game, MinD_ContRoL and GH have each previously been regarded as the best in the world at their positions and ever since his competitive debut Miracle- has blessed viewers with some of the most transcendent individual player performances in any esports discipline.
At EPICENTER w33’s flashes of brilliance reminded everyone why he was being discussed alongside Miracle- as the potential best player in the world back during his stint on Team Secret and during the legendary Digital Chaos run at TI6. But in both their series against Vici Gaming cracks began to show in his shallow hero pool, with Liquid’s arsenal now also missing several of the strong niche picks which Matumbaman used to offer to the draft.
The addition of w33 does however provide Liquid with a second player to play win-condition heroes, instead of simply relying on the old strategy of Miracle- carrying the team by himself. Liquid is a known quantity now and w33 in particular is at risk of being figured out, but their historic comeback in the final showed that this team is still able to pull off unbelievably clutch teamfights under pressure. No matter what form Liquid shows up to TI9 in, they are sure to remain a fan favourite.
2nd - Vici Gaming (China)
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Conventional wisdom holds that the team who wins the last tournament before the International is doomed to fail, but let’s not forget Team Liquid’s DreamLeague S7 win just before TI7 – nor how damn good VG are looking right now. They’ve been two-time Major champions this season and finished top-8 minimum at all five. Coach rOtk is himself a TI silver medallist and has shaped this team into what looks like China’s best hope for victory in the first International on their home soil.
Paparazi is possibly the closest a human player will ever get to matching the mechanical precision of the Open-AI bots, playing with mind-boggling efficiency and superb decision making in teamfights. Ori has stepped up his midlane play significantly since last season and is especially impressive in his early game rotations around action runes, meanwhile offlaner Yang is playing some of the cleanest Dota of his entire career.
Linking up with Ori to provide Paparazi’s hard carries with farming space is the incredible duo of Fade and Dy. In a field where most top teams feature a support combo that have been playing together for a year or more already, Fade and Dy have exploded onto the scene as unquestionably the best breakout support pairing this season and scored the two highest assist averages of all players on LAN since TI8.
It is worth mentioning however that VG hasn’t been quite as dominant against other Chinese teams, even having to play their way through a Minor to get into DreamLeague after they flopped in the regional qualifier. Fortunately for them this TI will feature the fewest Chinese teams of any thus far, so avoiding their regional rivals in the bracket should be easier than ever before.
Also noteworthy is that, thanks to some favourable group stage results, Liquid is actually the only team in this top-6 which VG had to play on their way to winning EPICENTER. And their historic throw in game four of the final will certainly bring back traumatic memories from last season’s failures to close important games. Nowhere is the pressure of playing quite the same as at the International so VG will need to keep their composure to ensure that they can maintain their current impressive form in Shanghai.
1st - Team Secret (Europe)
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There is only one team which could fail to place top-8 at the last Major before TI and still be considered the front runners. There are no two ways around it, this iteration of Secret is statistically the strongest 5-man squad in Dota 2’s history; with an unbelievable win-loss record of 150-45 across this season and a winrate on LAN only exceeded (barely) by their own legendary TI5 roster.
Many will remember the tragic fate of that iconic Secret line-up, similarly touted as the clear favourites to win the Aegis, but this new Secret team nonetheless inspires the same level of confidence. Once again Puppey has surrounded himself with some of the most individually skilled players in the world at each position, and this time they’re not just picking Shadow Fiend and Chen every game.
There seems to be no limit to Secret’s pool of heroes or strategies, whilst every player has the potential to win the game for their team. Their dynamic resource distribution provides them almost with a fourth core player in YapzOr, meanwhile both MidOne and zai sacrifice their own farm to enable their supports and create space for Nisha. The young Polish carry has been possibly THE breakout star of this DPC season, boasting the highest KDA of any DPC player since TI8 and offering a solid late-game insurance option for Secret to fall back on if needed.
Under the guidance of Puppey, potentially the greatest Dota 2 captain of all time, Secret plays with what seems like a hivemind. Their seamless movements around the map, their unified decision-making and their unparalleled teamfighting ability all combine to give them an edge even when playing at a heavy disadvantage. Admittedly, Puppey's 4D-Chess approach to hero picks does still sometimes result in him out-drafting himself, but with such a supremely talented team these occasions tend to rarely convert into actual losses.
This season Secret has finished top-4 at every LAN they’ve attended, bar EPICENTER. They’ve won six tournaments in the last year, including two Majors, and so despite their recent upset in Moscow they nonetheless still have to be considered a championship calibre team. If ever there was a year when Puppey could become the first to etch his name onto the Aegis for a second time, it’s this one.
