Overview of OGA Dota PIT Season 3: China
After the first LAN tournament, China Pro Cup S1, there started the second major tournament for the Chinese region — OGA Dota PIT Season 3: China. Eight best teams of the country participate in it: Vici Gaming, ??Vici Gaming, ??EHOME, ??RNG, ??IG, ??Aster, ??SAG, ??Magma , and, of course, ??PSG.LGD . They fought not only for the title of the tournament's champion but also for a total prize pool of $90,000.
The group stage went in the BO3 format matches with the elimination of two from eight participants. In the playoff, matches were also in BO3 format, except the final - it was in BO5 format.
The event turned out to be quite popular: 18,000 average concurrent viewers, and at its peak — 50,000 viewers. The most watched match was the final between ??PSG.LGD and ??Vici Gaming, where the last one got a hard 3-2 score victory.
Group stage
When analyzing the group stage, several key points can be distinguished.
Firstly, ??Sparking Arrow Gaming couldn't find its game and failed the second tournament in a row without winning a single map. ??Invictus Gaming has a similar fate, but although they left the tournament after 3 defeats in a row, they still took one map from ??Magma.
Secondly, the huge improvements in the game of ??Team Aster, which took the penultimate place in the last tournament, and closed the group stage of OGA Dota PIT Season 3: China with a 6-1 statistics for played maps.
Thirdly, there is an unclear situation with ??RNG, which won only 3 of the last 11 maps. They have a fully working roster, which is comparable to ??Vici Gaming, at least. As we see it, the main problem is hero picks, especially for the team's midlaner, ??Setsu. Outworld Devourer, Puck, and Void Spirit are clearly not meta heroes, which can win the game alone. They are more of a space creator for the former ??SAG carry, ??God-King, who lacks the strength to gain victories.
Playoff stage
Unobvious events also happened in the playoff stage of the tournament. So, ??EHOME, the finalist of the previous tournament, China Pro Cup S1, defeated only unstable ??RNG and weak ??Magma, losing to ??Aster and ??Vici Gaming with the 0-2 and 1-2 scores. And the overclocked ??Aster stumbled in the finals of the upper and lower brackets, losing to ??PSG.LGD on two maps and to the tournament's winner, ??Vici Gaming, in a bitter struggle.
Also, we can't ignore the loud victory of ??Vici Gaming over ??PSG.LGD. Offensive defeat on the first map, where the Net Worth seemed to sway in the wind. Relatively easy victory on the second map. Losing advantage of ten thousand and, as a result, defeat on the third map. One-way street play on the fourth map. All these steps were the eve of a hard victory on the decisive map, where ??PSG.LGD leading in money and had an advantage in the number of broken towers. But ??Vici Gaming got up and unleashed their peak potential, beating Ame's Troll Warlord and NothingToSay's Magnus.
Heroes’ meta
The meta heroes have also changed. So, in comparison with the past China Pro Cup S1, a Clockwerk + Phoenix combo disappeared from the top of the most popular heroes. They've been replaced by a new powerful Snapfire + Faceless Void combo.
Monkey King, which was mainly used by the ??PSG.LGD carry, ??Ame, did not stand aside. At OGA Dota PIT Season 3: China, the hero was picked in almost every third meeting.
The most successful choice was Tiny. The teams with this hero won 76% of the matches, and the players in the fourth position used him most often.
When it comes to bans, they mostly were heroes like Doom, Zeus, and Magnus. Interestingly, as soon as players stopped banning Faceless Void, he immediately took place at the top of popular heroes with almost 50% of victories.
Discovery of the tournament
The tournament's discovery was ??Yang "Erica" Shaohan, who significantly improved his playing skills and established his position in ??Vici Gaming. By modern standards, with not the best rank of 1121, this player performs at an excellent level. He finished China Pro Cup S1 with a KDA of 7.02 and OGA Dota PIT with a KDA of 8.46, which seems to be incredible compared to ??Ame's KDA of 4.05. His most successful heroes, Faceless Void and Morphling, look excellent in the current patch. Expand the pool of heroes, polish macro actions, raise the rank, and, perhaps, here it is. The new Chinese star. The future of the Esports scene in this region. Indeed, at the moment, we can already see tremendous progress - from a terrible play as part of ??KG.Luminous to the victory in the final over ??PSG.LGD as part of ??Vici Gaming.
As a result, the winners of the last tournament, ??PSG.LGD, took only second place and earned $19,494. ??Aster and ??EHOME took the 3rd and 4th places and earned $10,494 and $7,497 each. OGA Dota PIT Season 3: China champion, ??Vici Gaming, earned $37,521 for winning.
Thus, it became clear that ??PSG.LGD is not some kind of invincible analog of ??Team Secret, and that the top-4 will change often. But we are still awaiting the start of ??4AM's play. Perhaps it is they who are the unconditional leader of the Chinese region.