It’s time for the champion: OG will enter the stage of the Shanghai Major tonight in group C – and it should be a fairly easy one for them considering how the tournament went so far.
When [og] played the Frankfurt Major last November, no one was betting much on them. This time it’s different. As the defending champion all eyes are on [bigdaddy] and his team. They have to deliver when they enter the group stage tonight. But it could be easier than you would guess.
Team Archon supposedly the weakest in the Shanghai Major
Considering how the tournament went so far, OG has an very easy group. First off, they face [team archon]. The Americans play their first final at one of the Majors. It’s just the second time since ESL One New York in October that Archon has qualified for an offline final. And back then they lost in the first round. To no surprise our community put Team Archon in the last spot when we asked for the most probable winner of the Shanghai Major – only 19 percent believe in them.
Chinese struggle will favor OG
It’s fair to assume that Archon won’t be MVP Phoenix surprising us all – but what about the other two teams in the group? Well, presumably [lgd gaming] and [newbee] will fight for the second spot in the group. They share two common burdens: First off, they carry the package of former glories: Newbee won The International 2014, LGD Gaming the i-league twice.
But furthermore they are Chinese – and no chinese team has made it to the upper bracket of the playoffs in Shanghai so far. So all chinese Dota fans will cheer for LGD and Newbee today. It’s the last chance for the home-teams to get into the upper bracket. Group D tomorrow will feature no chinese teams.
69 percent believe that OG will win the Shanghai Major
The reason why the home-teams are so weak so far is unknown. You could blame the Chinese New Year which was celebrated some weeks ago and might have disturbed the preparations and training. And each team had its own reasons: [vici gaming] seemed divided in their games today, [ehome] is traditionally weak in group stages and [cdec gaming] has lost a lot of steam after their mind-blowing performance at The International in August anyways.
But right now, no chinese team seems to be able to really challenge the strong Europeans and Americans. We will see if that changes today. But for now, we argue that OG will easily secure the first place in the Shanghai Major Group C today. Oh and by the way: 69 percent of you believe that they will even defend their title. Newbee and LGD have way less supporters in this question.