Results of the expiring year

The International 2019 took place in China

Let us begin with the information that the series of The International tournaments went beyond North America - the first championship of the world took place in Germany in 2011 and all the next ones happened in the USA and Canada. This year Valve have decided to pay their respect to Chinese teams and moved The International to Shanghai. Fans returned the favor to the team and again broke the record of the prize pool that turned over $34,330,068 this time.

By the way, the organizers seem to hold world championships in a new place - thus, The International 2020 may be visited while traveling to Sweden, however, after the end of the reconstruction of Key Arena, the tournament can come back to the habitual place.

Forward Gaming’s collapse

The history of the organization Forward Gaming starts from the middle of September 2018 when the esports club signed the contract with a promising team headed by Resolut1on. Thanks to the players’ media popularity Forward Gaming got several sponsors. As the owner of the organization revealed later, the funds were hardly enough for covering the expenses of the Dota 2 roster:

‘With a heavy heart, I regret to announce that Forward Gaming ceases to exist. As of today, all employees’ contracts are being released and our players become free agents.I also regret to inform that we have to close the company with the debt remaining owed to the players. Due to insufficient financial results, we are unable to cover players’ salaries for July as well as $36,000 of players’ share of prize money (which was used to partly cover June’s salary).’

During the whole season, the team passed the qualifiers for major championships easily, however, the players were not able to show their best side at LAN finals - the 5-6 position MegaFon Winter Clash could be considered their best result. Due to such results, the management decided to close down the organization making all employees and players free agents even though the Dota 2 team overcame the qualifiers for The International 2019.

Racism in esports, or how KuKu was not allowed in China

No season can happen without any scandal. This time the focus of our attention fell to the TNC Predator’s and OG’s representatives, Carlo “Kuku” Palad and Sébastien "Ceb" Debs, correspondingly.

The Philippine player insulted players from China in a pub and set himself at odds with all the Chinese community. The organizers of The Chongqing Major dismissed the player from participation in the rating tournament. By the way, it did not help and the fans booed TNC Predator whenever they could:

«They "boooo" us on every game entrance, they even follow us on our suite room after the lost to liquid and shouting and saying bad words on us. I’m so sad on that. I hope next season chinese community will forgive my friend Kuku and move on. So we can all enjoy the game DOTA», - Timothy “Tims” Randrup reported.

One might wonder, what else could happen after the recent racist scandal? Right, one more racist scandal. This time the world champion from OG, Sébastien "Ceb" Debs took liberties in speaking about the Russian speaking community:

As a result, Sébastien understood that he got worked up and begged pardon making an АМА session where he answered all the question and donated all the prize money from EPICENTER to charity.

Appearance of the competition from South America

As there appeared Valve rating tournaments, South American teams tended to get to the championships as there were separate qualifiers there. South America was considered to be the weakest region on the professional stage and the teams from there acted as whipping boys at each and every championship but everything changed in 2019.

An incredibly promising mix got assembled in Peru. The team visited numerous rating championships and achieved Top 4 at minors StarLadder ImbaTV Dota 2 Minor Season 2 and OGA Dota PIT Minor 2019 and also provided themselves with a slot at The International 2019 thanks to their victory at the qualifiers in their region. The guys approached the final competition as outsiders but their preparation was underestimated as the wins over Keen Gaming and Newbee at the playoff prove the opponents’ ill-preparedness. Therefore, the team gained the 7-8 position and approximately $860,000 as a prize which is an absolute record for the representatives from South America.

OG passed Dota 2. Twice

After the long break after the victory at The International 2019, the incredible OG approached the season in a bit disorganized state and they could not pull themselves together to show good results at rating tournaments. The player of the first position Anathan “Ana” Pham got inactive and constant changes could not make the situation stable in any way. That was the way the season was happening, however, the Australian stepped back into the ranks and at the last major OG managed to provide themselves with a direct invitation to the World Championship.

At The International 2019, it was hard to recognize the roster - all the opponents got kicked off 20 minutes after the start of the game, picks were totally unpredictable while Io and bristleback resulted in destruction for the opponents.

Concerted work, perfect individual preparation and moral advantage over the opponents let Ceb and his teammates reach a novel level - the second championship at the series of The International championship, top it off twice. It has never been possible for any organization, team and even player.

The end of the history of the best CIS team

Everything reaches its end and the champion roster of Virtus.Pro is not an exception. It started in August 2016 when after subsequent failing results, the owner of the organization started to look for new players himself. Then the team was created with Solo and None from Vega Squadron, and after that, it was completed with Lil and 9pasha from Polarity and bought out RAMZES666 from Team Empire.

The team had been trying to achieve good teamwork for a couple of months and in October the players were able to win The Summit 6 and achieve 5-6 position at The Boston Major 2016. Then it was clear that the team was stronger than the other CIS teams and was close to the top of the international stage and the second position at the next major in Kyiv only proved their status. The year ended up with the 5-6 position at The International 2017 for ‘bears’ which is a great result for them even though the team wanted more for sure.

From the new season on, the guys deserved the right to be one of the best teams on the modern professional stage and the first major, ESL One Hamburg 2017, ended up with a win for them and the next minor tournaments the teams also entered Four Best.

A bit later we got to know that the situation inside the team was not so smooth as it could seem and in February 2018 RodjER joined the team instead of Lil. From this very moment, Virtus.Pro started their way to the top - the team won ESL One Katowice 2018, The Bucharest Major, ESL One Birmingham 2018 and took the second position at China Dota2 Supermajor, winning and entering Three Best at less important championships.

This season brought the guys the biggest number of rating points, so the guys reached The International 2018 as the main favorites. Something went wrong, and the main kryptonite Evil Geniuses kicked Solo and the team out of the championship.

Fortunately, there are no reshuffles and the new season started without any replacements for the guys again. The players won the first major, The Kuala Lumpur Major, however, the shape of the guys got worse and then we did not feel the same domination as last year. Till the very end of the season, VP was present in Three Best at The Chongqing Major, DreamLeague Season 11 and EPICENTER Major, and also won minor tournaments.

The International still remains the main exam at the end of the season, however, in 2019, the guys have been showing the worst results for themselves and hold the 9-12 position. This turn of events did not satisfy the players and they decided to cease to play together. These three years brought the guys to show the incredible domination on the professional stage and, perhaps, we are not likely to see a similar team in the CIS soon.

Resounding transfers

• Dendi from Natus Vincere to inactive

The Ukrainian esportsman devoted almost all his career to only one club - Natus Vincere - and if his transfer was expected, we cannot ignore the end of the epoch as the NaVi brand is associated with Dendi.

• 9pasha from Virtus.Pro to Natus Vincere

After the collapse of Virtus.Pro, each of the players started looking for a new team, however, 9pasha did not have to do it as at The International 2019 the coach of “Born to Win” invited him to join his charges.

• RAMZES666 из Virtus.Pro в Evil Geniuses

Roman has almost the same history as 9pasha, however, Kushnarev was one of the most desired players on the professional stage and Evil Geniuses did not shy away from paying some money for Virtus.Pro’s esportsman. The official cost of the transfer was not disclosed, however, the proximate sources claim that Evil Geniuses paid approximately $500,000.

• MATUMBAMAN from Team Liquid to a free agent

Perhaps, the most unexpected event of the season was MATUMBAMAN’s move to free agents. KuroKy’s decision was not something that fans, professional analysts and players liked as the team was playing on Miracle, and the Finnish player had a semi-tank role. It attracted even more negative when W33 joined the team instead of the player.

As a result, everything turned out to be great for both of the sides as Team Liquid took the second position at The International 2019, and MATUMBAMAN appeared in Team Secret.