#1. Xtreme Gaming and Team MagMa will be promoted into Division 1 in the Spring tour, what’s crazy about the promotion will be how well Xtreme Gaming will do in the next tour. They have Zhang “Paparazi” Chengjun, or Eurus when he played on Elephant. They only dropped two series, one to CDEC who’s now relegated, and Ybb Gaming.
They will be the dark horse, especially with paparazzi playing mid, he was once regarded as the “best mid player” to not play the mid lane.
#2. CDEC and Neptune Gaming gets relegated. At a glance, these are the weaker teams, but looking at CDEC’s history, The International 2015 Grand Finalist, so they have a good pedigree of success. However, CDEC has always been a development team for PSG.LGD and it’s looking like they are back there. Would be awesome to see CDEC compete against other top teams. Neptune Gaming is a new team that will have to compete in the open qualifiers again, China is one of the strongest regions, best of luck.
#3. Chinese DPC Division 1 is still two weeks away and the number of games they play in a short time will be a mini-tournament without having to wait for division 2 games. PSG.LGD made no changes and they remain the favourites, let’s revisit China in a weeks’ time to see if anything has changed.
#4. Southeast Asia was one of the most surprising regions, Boom Esports took the region by storm and pretty much secured themselves a spot into the major by going 4-0.
#5. TNC Predator has never looked this bad before. When they release their original roster and went with young, it wasn’t all that bad, but they are now 0-4 and will most likely get demoted into division 2. They need to figure something out fast during this holiday break.
#6. The rest of the Southeast Asia teams are stuck in the traffic, all having played 3-4 games only. If the trend continues the fight for the last two spots will be very exciting and that’s all Dota fans want anyways, a competitive region from top to bottom.
#7. Division 2 in Southeast Asia is almost the same, Nigma Galaxy SEA and Polaris Esports are 4-0. Nobody expected this, everyone, at least though Talon Esports would be one of the strongest teams here and they’re currently 1-2.
#8. In Eastern Europe, it’s a clash of teams pulling strings of wins and others stuck losing. Who would have thought PuckChamp would be on top 4-1 and they also have three slots for the major. If PuckChamp ends up being the top team, it will be a great story from where PuckChamp came from and where they are, can’t wait.
#9. The International 10 Champs are still fearsome, 3-0, and the only series they lost was in OGA Dotapit Season 5 for EU and CIS. No TI hungover, just good Dota all around.
#10. In Eastern Europe’s Division 2, who would have doubted CIS Reject’s rise to the top. Most of the players on the team struggled in the last few years, but they are looking strong. This is what I think everyone was thinking Talon to be in S.E.A., on top of the division.
#11. Western Europe always provides some of the best Dota games, Team Liquid against Team Secret was something you need to go back and watch. Three-game series that could have ended favourably for both teams.
#12. Nigma Galaxy finally get their first win, but they’re still fighting to not get demoted who would have thought. The season is still long enough for them, but to make it into the major it might take a miracle…
#13. Western Europe Division 2 can get very interesting, there are 3-4 teams fighting for the two promotion spots, can’t wait to see Chicken Fighters battle Unity in the coming weeks.
#14. I was wrong in South America, I thought teams would be closer, but it’s a runaway from Thunder Predator and Beastcoast. I was holding out that this would be the more competitive region, too. We can all hope! Division 2 is slightly more competitive, there are three active teams fighting for two spots.
#15. In North America, Evil Geniuses’ window for the major is closing on them. Undying and Quincy Crew are still undefeated, and they need other teams to help them and so far it’s not happening. No one comes into the season saying they’re testing the roster, but they need to win out and hope for another three-way-tie breaker.
#16. NA’s division 2 isn’t too bad, there are three teams fighting for the two spots, and a new team, 5RATFORCESTAFF is giving everyone some exciting Dota!
#17. The battle pass is finally out and we got more arcana, love it or hate it. The battle pass reward gets better and better, but they’re all locked to higher and higher levels. Battle pass used to represent the coming of The International, now it looks like Valve wants to release two or three a year. The wallet hurts!
#18. It’s the holiday season and what a great gift Tundra Esports gave to everyone, a tournament win over The International 10 champions. Sticking together even though they missed out on The International and now they are rewarded when the team signed them to a long-term deal. I hope they make the Winter Tour to play against the best teams in the world.
Hey everyone, thanks for reading through some of these thoughts. Happy Holidays to you and your family.
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