The Nanyang Season 2 tournament starts today in Shanghai. The event has been the focus of many critiques because of the number of teams withdrawing from it: Fnatic and Evil Geniuses could not participate after having visa issues, while Team Secret dropped from the event because of “ongoing issues” with the tournament.
The teams participating to the event are now very unevenly split, with five Chinese teams, one European, one American and one from the SEA region. The prize pool for the tournament amounts to $200.000 and it will run from the 6th to the 10th of July, four days in which the eight teams are going to battle it out in a classic double elimination bracket:
Digital Chaos vs CDEC Youth
Digital Chaos have a much more experienced roster compared to CDEC Youth and the series should go to the American team without much of a contest. Inflame is the only stand out player in the Chinese squad, while DC can boast an international and talented all around roster: W33, Resolution and Misery have all been at the top of the scene for the last few years and we can definitely expect great things out of them. DC also come from a successful run in the TI6 Americas Qualifiers and the team morale is surely very high.
Team Empire vs Wings Gaming
Wings Gaming have been the up and coming team in the Chinese region for a while now, deluding at the Manila Major but recovering quickly in the TI6 Chinese Qualifiers. Their strategy is one of calculated aggression that heavily disrupts the early game of their opponents to the point of no return. The match against Team Empire is one of the most anticipated of the event: Team Empire, in line with the most fearsome Russian teams, also play very aggressively and we can expect a bloodbath from the very start of each match. It is hard to make a prediction, but I would say that the new Empire talent, RAMZES666 in particular, are going to bring the series home. But I am sure that Wings is not going to go down without a fight.
LGD Gaming vs Warrior.Gaming Unity
Direct invite to TI6, veterans of the caliber of MMY and Xiao8, all-star players like Maybe and Agressif: the LGD Gaming roster is probably the scariest team in the tournament. WG Unity on the other hand qualified through the SEA qualifiers, and they cannot be counted out of the event just yet, but they surely are the least experienced team, with none of their players having achieved anything significant internationally. I personally believe that LGD are going to win the series pretty hard and pretty fast, but Dota2 is a strange game and upsets are always possible. A bit less likely so in this series though!
VG. Reborn vs Newbee
This is the first China vs China match of the tournament, and it is going to be very interesting: on one side you have Newbee, who have shown an incredible form this year, with the captain Chuan putting together a reformed team that has done wonders both in China and internationally; on the other side you have VG.R, who had a reasonable amount of success in China but did quite poorly outside the national borders. On paper Newbee should be considered the favourites, but VG.R are lead by the legendary player fy, also called fy God because of his incredible skills, and I think that an upset is more than likely going to happen.
Teams who lose in the upper bracket are going to have a second chance in the lower bracket, while losing in the lower bracket means going out of the tournament. The event is going to be broadcast on Twitch in Chinese, Russian and English. Stay tuned for daily updates on the tournament.
RSS