Team Secret Versus OG Preview: Who Are You Betting For?
The Main Event of Dota 2 Shanghai Majors is about to kick-off tomorrow at the Mercedes-Benz Arena. All gloves will be off as teams are gonna be giving it their all as the time for slip-ups is past. The top two teams from each group advanced to the Upper Brackets while the bottom two are relegated to the Lower Brackets. The best-of-the-best will duke it out for a chance at the coveted Mystic Staff where a winner will be crowned on March 6.
One of the more intriguing match-ups in the Upper Brackets has to be OG against Secret. Both teams were expected to top their respective Groups but only OG managed the feat. Secret was surprisingly dominated by Korean side MVP.Phoenix and only managed to place second in Group A.
The Supports
Image taken from teamsecret.gg
| Team Secret | Games Played (W-L) | KDA | GPM |
| Puppey | 7 (4-3) | 2.1 | 357 |
| pieliedie | 7 (4-3) | 3.1 | 258 |
| OG | Games Played (W-L) | KDA | GPM |
| Fly | 5 (4-1) | 3.3 | 288 |
| Cr1t- | 5 (4-1) | 3.8 | 342 |
Statistics wise it looks like OG has the advantage. But support intangibles are so vast you can never really see what they bring to the table in the post-game stat sheet. Puppey is still one of the most talented drafters in the Dota 2 scene today. And a good draft is half a battle won. Unfortunately for Secret their recent form has been against them and they barely made it into the Upper Bracket. But if Secret go on a hot streak like when they won the Nanyang Dota 2 Championships late last year, nobody will stand in their way.
OG, on the other hand, have won 80% of their games at Shanghai so form is not an issue. Cr1t1 can be a double edged sword for OG. If he plays well with the rest of them they can steamroll the competition. But when he plays poorly like in the 75 minute marathon (currently the longest game at the Shanghai Majors) that was the Game 2 lost against LGD, it goes against them. Cr1t- played a greedy Position 4 Doom in that game. Yes, he was a fat support but he gave LGD’s Lei “MMY” Zengrong’s Rubick so many timely Doom Spell Steals it turned around so many team fights for the Chinese side.
Supports are about the intangibles. And whichever duo takes the driving seat in the series will be a crucial factor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EghAFOAOnuc
The Offlaner
Image taken from teamliquid.net
| Team Secret | Games Played (W-L) | KDA | GPM |
| Misery | 7 (4-3) | 2.6 | 375 |
| OG | Games Played (W-L) | KDA | GPM |
| MoonMeander | 5 (4-1) | 2.8 | 469 |
Secret’s Misery is a very inconsistent player. The Danish Offlaner ranks among the lowest in KDA among all offlaners in the tournament. Misery is a player who isn’t afraid to risk a lot of things for the bigger plays. Unfortunately his risky demeanor didn’t pay off that much dividends with poor Hero Damage (4809) and Tower Damage (789) in the Group Stages. Puppey needs to rein him in if Team Secret hopes to advance from their series against OG.
Former Heroes of Newerth star MoonMeander finally made the transition to Dota 2 and his fans couldn’t be happier. With a solid team in tow, MoonMeander holds very good GPM for an Offlaner and he likes to make space all over the map with respectable Hero Damage (7805) and Tower Damage (2346) across the board.
The Mids
Image taken from playdota.vn
| Team Secret | Games Played (W-L) | KDA | GPM |
| w33haa | 7 (4-3) | 3.0 | 520 |
| OG | Games Played (W-L) | KDA | GPM |
| n0tail | 5 (4-1) | 3..6 | 442 |
w33haa’s GPM and KDA are pretty lackluster compared to the other Mid players in the tournament. And to top it off with the fact that Secret aren’t playing up to their potential, w33haa’s shortcomings are even more amplified. He interestingly had Invoker picked a total of five times (he went 3-2) and in only seven games across the Group Stages, that’s a whole lot of Invoker. Could w33haa’s preference of Invoker be doing more harm than good to Puppey’s drafting?
n0tail’s stats may not scream at you but if you combine his stats with Carry teammate’s Miracle’s 685 then you might want to reconsider. OG’s Position 1 and 2 players combine for a whopping GPM of over 1,100. This duo surely packs a punch. While w33haa’s preference of Invoker isn’t working so well for Secret, n0tail’s three Batrider picks in five games catapulted them to the top of their group.
The Carries
Image taken from teamliquid.net
| Team Secret | Games Played (W-L) | KDA | GPM |
| EternalEnvy | 7 (4-3) | 2.9 | 498 |
| OG | Games Played (W-L) | KDA | GPM |
| Miracle- | 5 (4-1) | 7.8 | 685 |
Miracle’s red hot form makes EternalEnvy look like a 1k MMR scrub player. EternalEnvy continues to affirm why fans make fun of him so much. The unorthodox Carry player has been playing erratically (as he is infamous for) in the Group Stages. Posting a very poor KDA and Hero Damage (6976) for the crucial Position 1 role.
Against him is Miracle who is currently a god amongst men. Miracle possesses the highest GPM among all players in the Major and the 4th highest KDA only behind the Korean core trio of MVP.Phoenix ( Pyo “MP” No-a, Kim “QO” Seon-yeob, and Lee “Forev” Sang-don). Will Miracle’s dominance continue in the Main Event? A lot of people, including myself like to think so.
Instant Classic
Perennial fan favorites Team Secret will definitely have their hand full against in-form Frankfurt Champions OG. Make sure you don’t miss this exciting Best-of-3 series which starts on Thursday, March 3 at 10:00 am Manila Time.
Team Secret
Jacky “EternalEnvy” Mao
Aliwi “W33” Omar
Rasmus “Misery” Filipsen
Clement “Puppey” Ivanov
Johan “pieliedie” Astrom
OG
Johan “n0tail” Sundstein
Amer “Miracle-” Barqawi
David “MoonMeander” Tan
Andreas “Cr1t” Nielsen
Tal “Fly” Aizik
All statistic taken from datdota.com
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