All eyes will soon be in Shanghai as the top Dota 2 teams from all over the world will be flocking to luxurious Shanghai, China. Who will be the first ever team to raise the Mystic Staff trophy above their heads in crowning glory? As the Group Stages draws ever closer, we take a  closer look at the support duos of Group B.

While the supports are not as flashy as the mid players or as devastating as the carries, they are still at the heart of every team.

Much like the goalkeepers in football and the centers in basketball, though very crucial to the success of any team’s supports are very much under appreciated by fans left and right.

Whether it’s that timely rotation or the constant map control that they provide, the supports bring a whole lot of intangibles to the table that don’t often pop out on the stat sheet. With the 6.86 patch also putting an emphasis on the importance of early game dominance, efficient supports are what differentiates great teams from the rest of the pack.

Vici Gaming

Xu “fy” Linsen and Lu “Fenrir” Chao

Photo from playdota.vn

A well-respected duo in China and the rest of the world, fy and Fenrir are a pair you’d hate to go up against and would love to watch from the stands. The two have played over 800 professional games together so the amount of natural chemistry between the two is impeccable.

fy is a high-impact game changer of a player especially when he plays Rubick while Fenrir is a player who always seems to be at the right place at the right time.

Their combined stats don’t jump out at you but they do a lot of the little things that bit by bit surely give Vici Gaming the advantage. For example, their combined GPM isn’t eye-popping but it doesn’t take away from their efficiency in team contribution from start to finish. fy ends up taking more downtime for VG but makes up for it with excellent KDA. Since fy is also such a respected support, teams normally focus him down as soon as possible whenever they can contributing to his fairly high time in the graveyard. Fenrir in turn takes advantage of this by being VG’s glue, plugging in holes as necessary. VG also excel at efficient team fight trading where fy or Fenrir will take the fall in exchange for the enemy losing a core player or two.

The synergy of fy and Fenrir in fully complementing each other and the rest of Vici Gaming is what really makes them stand out, that and a career win rate of 63.5% playing together.

To top it off with the backing of the crowd and home court advantage, Vici Gaming will be the team to beat in Group B.

Alliance

Jerry “EGM” Lundkvist and Joaquim “Akke” Akterhall

Photos from thescoreesports.com

They are the only duo in the group that has achieved the highest ever honor in professional Dota 2 in The International. Akke and EGM won the prestigious Aegis back in 2013 but Alliance is struggling to regain the form that immortalized them in the Aegis of Champions. Alliance had an impressive string of games in TI3 where they won 88.5% of 26 games. They ran away with the trophy after besting Natus Vincere in one the most enthralling Grand Finals in TI history. Gustav “s4” Magnusson and Henrik “AdmiralBulldog” Ahnberg took charge while EGM and Akke complemented the charge with stellar support play.

With their impressive form in TI3, Alliance looked prime to take the Dota 2 world by storm. Unfortunately, patch changes here and there caused Alliance to go on a downward spiral as their playstyle didn’t gel with the current meta. After three years of mediocre showings and unstable line-ups, Alliance reclaimed some of its lost magic when it swept American powerhouse Evil Geniuses in the Starladder Star Series Season 13 Finals. Whispers from fans and pundits alike are already clamoring ‘Alliance is back!’

6.86 is looking more and more like a patch that the Swedes are loving with dominating performances as of late. Look at how they dismantled TI5 champion Kurtis “Aui_2000” Ling’s new team Digital Chaos in 13 minutes:

s4 is once again playing like the top tier Mid player that he can be  and with the patch once again favoring AdmiralBulldog’s signature hero Lone Druid once more.

EGM and Akke’s stats are looking as reminiscent of their dream TI run nearly three years ago.

TI3 Stats

The Alliance support duo can afford to be fairly conservative and safe with their playstyle because s4 and AdmiralBulldog are making space left and right (or top and bot). Akke holds the lowest time dead because he gets to spend considerable time in the jungle with his Chen or Enchantress.

EGM doesn’t have to put himself in danger unless he has to bail out s4 or AdmiralBulldog. The safe playstyle is further affirmed by how rarely the two supports have to rotate for rune control and the very positive KDA.. Alliance is one of the most organized teams in all of professional Dota 2 and if you play their game, they can be an unstoppable force.

Alliance could definitely be on a warpath to win it all in Shanghai. Will their good fortune follow them into the Land of the Dragon?

Team Spirit

Artur “Goblak” Kostenko and Andrey “ALWAYSWANNAFLY” Bondarenko

Photos from dotablast.com

The oldest support duo in the group leads the youngest core in Team Spirit. It will take veteran smarts from Goblak and ALWAYSWANNAFLY as they lead promising players Roman “RAMZES666” Kushnarev (16), Bogdan “Iceberg” Basilenko (18) and Vasily “AfterLife” Shishkin (18) to even greater heights.

Goblak is one of the most influential figures in the whole Dota 2 scene having been around for quite some time. Before Goblak lies the daunting task in mentoring and captaining this rising team of fairly new players.

A true leader, Goblak is responsible for drafting and on-the-spot playcalling for this CIS side. The Team Spirit captain also boasts one of the higher GPMs (293) as a support in the group so this wily veteran cannot be underestimated. Goblak’s partner-in-crime is one of the most aggressive supports in the scene in ALWAYSWANNAFLY. The roaming support playmaker isn’t afraid to die in the name of his team and ALWAYSWANNAFLY wears that title well and proud. These risky plays are what leads to RAMZES666 and the rest of Team Spirit to play clean up crew and take the spoils of war in huge gold swings.

As a pair, their stats might not stand out but Team Spirit boasts a respectable win rate 58.9% in a sizeable 56 games played competitively in this patch. This side also bested Team Empire and Vega Squadron in the European Qualifiers of the Shanghai Majors to claim their rightful spot in China.

Team Spirit may look like underdogs but they won’t be going down without a fight.

Fnatic

Photos from fnatic.com

Djardel “DJ” Mampusti and Wai Pern “Net” Lim

Fnatic is an interesting entity in the mind games department, opting to keep their enemies guessing with a constant shuffling of roles in the team. Star Mid player Chai Yee “Mushi” Fung may drop down to the Support position while Filipino player DJ will move up to the offlane or even take mid. DJ and Net took up the support mantle in the Frankfurt Majors as well as the Starladder i-League Season 4 so we have enough reason to believe that they will reprise the role once again.

DJ (353 GPM) currently holds the highest GPM among all the supports in this group but this is also because he takes the occasional core role for Fnatic once in  awhile. Pairing up with him is one of the best supports in the SEA scene in Net who also averages superior GPM (294) to the supports in the group.

Fat supports are big game changers in this meta. An early Blink Dagger or Mekansm on a support, for example, could completely change the flow of any team fight.These early team fights wins could secure advantage for any side and taking control from the early game is a huge factor in taking the overall victory.

While not the most prolific supports in the group, the supports of Fnatic are extremely versatile. DJ was known primarily as a Mid player stretching back to his time with Rave-Dota but his recent games have been showing his proficiency with the micro intensive hero Chen. DJ’s offlane Clockwerk and Batrider are just as formidable. Chong Xin “Ohaiyo” Khoo is regarded as one of the best Offlaners in the game but he doesn’t mind playing the occasional Support. Mushi is a deadly player when he plays Carry or Mid but his Dazzle can be just as clutch with Shallow Grave as the best of them. Fnatic has a sense of trust and camaraderie that they are extremely comfortable spicing things up with role switching as necessary.

Will Fnatic’s unorthodox style just be the edge they need to take Group B or will it backfire badly?

Which support do you think will dominate Group B and the other groups? Let us know in the comments below!

Stats taken from Datdota.com

Feature image taken from the Official Dota 2 website

Don't miss out on the latest news and information.

For feedback, complaints, or inquiries, contact us.