The road to Bucharest — SG e-sports
Yuriy SheremetIt is September 17 on a calendar and it means that 20 days are left until the beginning of The International 10. During the period of agonizing wait, we offer to meet the participants of the main event in the competitive Dota 2 in the column «The road to Bucharest».
We will follow the participants of The International in the series «The road to Bucharest» and take a look at the path the teams have walked on to get to Bucharest. The first ones in the line are the Brazilians from SG e-sports.
The first appearance of SG e-sports
SG e-sports are the representatives of South America and the third team to qualify to The International 10 from their region. Very few people could imagine 5 years ago that the number of clubs from Latin America and Europe, which has brought 3 champions, will be equal at The International 10. Now, the SA Dota scene is reckoned and everything started in Kyiv in 2017.
The Kiev Major took place in Kyiv in 2017. One of the most memorable tournaments in the history of professional Dota and the «last» true Major.
The Kiev Major launched the modern system of the regional distribution of the scene, without which we would not hear about the heroes of today’s issue of «The road to Bucharest». The heroes who have shown the power of South America to the whole world.
10 teams took part in the qualifiers from the little-known region at that moment. SG e-sports became the winners of the first South American qualification to the international tournament.
hFn, 4dr, Tavo, KINGRD, and c4t have become the pioneers — the Brazilians led South America to big Dota and returned as the winners.
The Brazilians were doing badly at The Kiev Major 2017. They hardly hopped on the last car going to the playoffs, having placed 14th out of 16 in the group stage.
The Brazilians were lucky to advance to the playoffs but what they should do, they faced Team Secret in the first round of the main stage — one of the best teams in the world, the undisputed leader of the group stage headed by the Dota mastodon Puppey. They had to fight.
The Brazilians fought, accepted their fate, and, as it usually happens in the good old fairy tales, beat «the horrible dragon». Kyiv was screaming, the public was chanting, and the South American Dota scene showed itself for the first time.
In the next round, SG e-sports lost to the older brother in the face of Evil Geniuses, in whose shadows the South American Dota scene was staying for a long time but it did not matter. SG e-sports brought to Dota in South America its face, lit a fire, which is still shining bright.
The failure of the year and the further reincarnation
The Kiev Major has become the prelude to the main event of the year for SG e-sports — the South American qualifiers to The International 7.
At the beginning of the qualifiers, it seemed that SG e-sports was going to TI for a reason, leading the country and the region. But there was Infamous who smashed all hopes of the Brazilians in the grand final of the qualifiers.
The team did not withstand such a punch and the disbandment was announced after the end of the qualifiers in August. But as we know, this story has its sequel.
The new roster arrived soon enough. The new roster was revealed in September 2017.
However, SG was not able to repeat the success of the Kiev Major. The Brazilians faced a row of roster changes ahead and the practice of mixing players, which was not new for the region.
The years passed, rosters changed, and SG e-sports was not able to achieve the result, which was in Kyiv, until 2021.
The second attempt to get to The International
In 2018, SG e-sports visited three Minors and they were unlucky everywhere: the 13th-16th place at ESL One Genting 2018, the 7th-8th place at StarLadder ImbaTV Invitational Season 5, and the 7th place at GESC: Thailand Dota 2 Minor.
They were not able to proceed to The International by DPC points, so they just had to rely on the South American qualifiers, with which SG e-sports had problems.
In 2018, it went, according to plan: the confident leadership in the group, the clear victory in the first playoff round. Two matches were behind and the desired slot at The International was almost in the pocket but there was paiN Gaming.
SG e-sports was one map away from the dream but they fell into the abyss in 2019.
The beginning of the end and the COVID-19 pandemic
PaiN Gaming, which used to play under the tag Butterfly Effect, ruled in South America in 2019. SG e-sports went underground.
After being the first team in the region, they stepped down to the very bottom: the team did not receive invites to the closed qualifiers, constant roster rotation stopped from progressing and it seemed that there was no solution to the situation.
SG somehow passed to the closed qualifiers to The International 9 but they faced the devastative loss in the closed qualification. For the first time in the history of the club, which had been the face of the region for long years, SG e-sports finished 8th.
It was a real collapse. SG e-sports announced the end of its existence in November of the same year.
The obscurity of the former best team of South America lasted more than a year. Only in December 2020, SG e-sports had another attempt to return the crown of the South American Dota, which was not easy during the era of the Peruvians who became known as beastcoast later.
In 2020, ex-team Brasil, which is now known as SG e-sports, played in Movistar Liga Pro Gaming Final Series where they held the 2nd place. The fire of the Brazilian Dota did not burn out but it needed a spark.
It appeared in 2021.
The 2021 DPC season
Valve introduced another iteration of the DPC league in 2021: now, the competitive year was divided into 2 seasons and teams competed in the regional leagues. The winner of the league in every region advanced to the Major and earned 500 DPC points, which was equal to the victory at the Major.
Such a format should have become ideal for the teams from the regions like South America but not for SG e-sports.
Despite being in the upper division, they were not able to succeed. They held the 3rd place in the first season and the 6th one in the second season.
They could only dream about a direct slot at The International with such results. SG e-sports had to face a sticking point: the qualifiers to The International 10.
The South American qualifiers to The International 10 and the long-awaited triumph
SG e-sports came to the closed qualifiers to The International 10 as the second team, in the best case. The favorites in the face of beastcoast and Thunder Predator made it directly but there was NoPing, which had demonstrated a confident play in the second season.
The start of the qualifiers was nervous for SG e-sports. Making efforts, they beat BINOMISTAS, which proceeded to the qualification from the lower division.
But SG e-sports «flourished» in the second round: they defeated EgoBoys without problems. They overcame Infinity easily in the final of the upper bracket.
NoPing’s unpreparedness benefited SG e-sports. They stepped down to the lower bracket in the first round and they left the qualifiers after 3 series.
It was SG e-sports’ opportunity. And they used it.
SG e-sports beat Team Unknown with a score of 3-1 in the final of the qualifiers to The International 10. Tavo and 4dr, finally, made it to TI under the colors of SG, Costabile, Thiolicor, and KJ will play with them in Bucharest.
We put the ellipsis in the history of SG e-sports at the moment. Next time, we will see the Brazilians in October this year and who knows, the first appearance of the tag at TI might be equal to the one we saw at the Kiev Major in 2017.
See you on EGamersWorld.
Yuriy Sheremet – Expert in mobile gaming and esports among shooters and MOBA games.
At EGamersWorld, Yuriy, as in 2020 when he joined the portal, works with content, albeit with adjustments to his area of responsibility.