Overview of the WePlay AniMajor Group Stage participants

WePlay AniMajor has started, and tomorrow the 6 teams that got into the Group Stage due to the DPC leagues' results will join the battle. Let's take a look at these teams and their chances to get into the playoffs.

China: PSG.LGD

PSG.LGD benefited from a two-week rest after the One Esports Singapore Major 2021. The Chinese team has lost a few games since returning to action but then got back on track and started winning. The team's statistics for the last month are 14 wins and 1 loss. Playing in its region, the team rarely surprised the opponent with new strategies and used only meta heroes and proven combos.

We expect PSG.LGD to have an easy pass to the next stage and probably right to the Upper bracket. The team has to win since it still doesn't have an invite to The International 10.

North America: Evil Geniuses

One Esports Singapore Major 2021 silver medalist, Evil Geniuses, begins its second Major with the Group Stage. In DPC: NA Season 2, they were literally one win short of beating Quincy Crew to get right into the playoffs. Since last December, there have been no changes to the team's roster, and their well-coordinated play at the One Esports Singapore Major 2021 surprised everyone, as they had had very little game practice before that.

Even though Evil Geniuses has already secured a place in The International 10, we don't expect a lazy game from them. According to analysts, they should easily get into the playoffs of the Major.

Europe: Team Liquid

After failing at the One Esports Singapore Major 2021, where Team Liquid took only 10th place, they changed the roster: ??Samuel "Boxi" Svahn became inactive indefinitely. His place in the team was taken by ??Syed Sumail "SumaiL" Hassan. In addition, ??Max "qojqva" Bröcker had to move from mid to hard line. With the new roster, Team Liquid played 5 matches and won 4 of them.

Team Liquid has 400 DPC points, and to get the coveted invite, they need to take at least 2nd place at WePlay AniMajor, earning 450 points for it.

The CIS: Team Spirit

Team Spirit was one of the significant discoveries of the DPC: CIS Season 2. The team had a great result and finished the league with a 6-1 statistics, losing only to Virtus Pro. The other day Team Spirit was finishing to play in the Pinnacle Dota Cup from Kyiv and became the champion. Of course, there were no Tier-1 teams at the tournament, but there were many Tier-2 teams. In fact, WePlay AniMajor would be the team's first large-scale tournament.

In theory, Team Spirit could get a direct invite to The International, but they need to finish at least 2nd in the majors for that. According to analysts, this will be a challenging task for the CIS team.

South Asia: TNC Predator

Failure in the first DPC season forced TNC Predator to make serious roster changes. After a long work together, the team said goodbye to ??Kim "Febby" Yong-min and ??Damien "kpii" Chok and replaced them with ??Jun "Bok" Kanehara and ??Marvin "Boombacs" Rushton. Apparently, it paid off. TNC Predator finished second at DPC: SEA Season 2 and advanced to the Major's Group Stage.

Analysts don't rate the team's chances highly, but the chance that this particular team will leave the Major after the Group Stage is not very high. Don't forget that TNC Predator has three members from the team that won the penultimate Major, MDL Chengdu Major.

South America: beastcoast

It's hard to explain the situation on the Dota 2 scene when it comes to teams from South America. On paper, it is the weakest region of all, but in practice, its 3 teams are one step away from a direct invite to The International 10.

beastcoast comes to WePlay AniMajor as a dark horse: no one knows what to expect from them. The team couldn't get to the first Major due to the coronavirus, but they regularly beat the tournament's winner, Thunder Predator, in their region.

Format

The group stage runs for 4 days, from June 4 to 7. In it, 8 participants, 6 teams from the second DPC season and 2 from the Wild Card, face each other in one Round Robin group with BO2 matches. After this stage, 6 teams qualify for the Playoffs, with 1-2 places going to the Upper bracket and 3-6 places going to the Lower bracket. Full match schedule: WePlay AniMajor.