OGA Dota PIT Season 4: Europe/CIS Preview

Here's a brief analysis of the 8 participants.

OG is a top 5 team in Europe and CIS at the moment and their recent results include victories against Team Secret, Natus Vincere, and mudgolems. At the time of writing, OG is playing in the 4th place tiebreaker for a chance to advance to the Upper Bracket of the Playoffs Stage in one of the biggest events of the year, EPIC League Division 1.

OG's roster, made up of Ceb, Midone, Topson, Saksa, and N0tail, has been playing as a unit since the start of the year. However, because of the ongoing global crisis, OG's roster has gone through several changes. The biggest one was the departure of Sumail, who joined in January and left in July.

In spite of the destabilizing effect of these changes, OG has been a solid team overall and their results in regional tournaments have been decent and include 3 Grand Finals: at ESL One Los Angeles 2020, BLAST Bounty Hunt, and OMEGA League: Europe Immortal Division. The team also got two 3rd place results, at OGA Dota PIT 2020, and OGA Dota PIT S2. Given that this is another OGA event, we might see them perform better than usual and get to the Grand Final again.

KuroKy is finally back and Nigma has already started to improve its results. From finishing 7th – 8th at OGA Dota PIT S3 and ESL One Germany 2020, KuroKy's squad is now going head to head again against the best teams in the region. They probably won't advance to the Upper Bracket at EPIC League Division 1, but they're still a top 5 – 8 competitor. And keep in mind, OGA Dota PIT Season 4: Europe/CIS will not be attended by Team Secret, which leaves them more room to thrive.

mudgolems has reached its peak in my opinion and has clearly proved that they're not capable of beating the best in Europe and CIS. It might be temporary but most likely, it's not. FATA and his squad have recently been eliminated from EPIC League after the finished the Group Stage in 10th place with 2 wins and 7 loses. However, they did manage to win against Nigma, so they might have a chance to get a top 6 result at OGA Dota PIT Season 4: Europe/CIS. What's encouraging is the thought that they're playing first against Alliance. And if they can win that match, they're already in the top 6.

Just Error is SumaiL's newest team and its roster is full of superstars. Three of them are former Virtus.pro players. So in effect, this is VP plus SumaiL plus Zayac, who isn't well-known at this point but still has plenty of time to grow. Unless of course he gets kicked because of the team's failures.

So far, Just Error took part in one event and they managed to avoid elimination. To be fair, they barely managed to do that and had to win a tiebreaker after the Group Stage of EPIC League Division 1 in order to achieve this result. In the Playoffs, they'll almost certainly lose the first match and get eliminated. But many things can change after the tournament or in the break between EPIC League and OGA Dota PIT Season 4: Europe/CIS. If nothing changes, then I expect them to finish 7th – 8th, simply because the level of competition is extremely high. Sure, there's Alliance and mudgolems on the list. But apart from those two competitors, everyone looks unbeatable.

Virtus.pro is absolutely dominating its competitors right now. The team has managed to win the round-robin at EPIC League Division 1 with a score of 7 wins and 2 losses. The only two teams that managed to defeat them were Liquid and Vikin.gg. And only one of them will compete in OGA Dota PIT Season 4: Europe/CIS. Based on how well they've played in recent weeks, I expect them to win the title at this tournament.

Na'Vi is now a big team in Europe and CIS. With their 3rd place in the Group Stage of EPIC League and their 2nd place at ESL One Germany 2020, Na'Vi has consolidated its position as a favorite in any regional tournament. RodjER is clearly in great shape and the rest of his squad is hungry to win. When Na'Vi's management announced their decision to acquire the entire FlyToMoon roster, their reasoning was that this group of players had already proved that they are extremely dedicated to their cause. Even without having a sponsor and salaries, they persevered for many months and then brought in RodjER, one of the best roamers in the world.

Vikin.gg is another big favorite to win this tournament. Normally they wouldn't be, but their recent performance in the Group Stage of EPIC League has won my respect for this squad. The only problem with Vikin.gg is that they lost in that tournament to 3 of their upcoming rivals: Alliance, Natus Vincere and Nigma.

And finally, we have Alliance, which is completely out of shape from what the data indicates. Of course, much can change until the tournament starts, but the fact that Nikobaby and his crew got eliminated in the Group Stage of EPIC League when only 2 out of the 10 participants had this fate, is a huge indicator of weakness. So I don't expect Alliance to climb higher than 5th - 6th. And even 5th – 6th would be a big surprise.