DotA2 Winter Cup Results

The Mega8 DotA2 Winter Cup

Our Post-event Wrap-up 

The Mega8 Esports Winter Cup Main Event ran from Friday 26 May and culminated in the Grand Final which took place on Sunday 28 May. A plethora of fixtures were also streamed via Ginx TV (as well as on Channel 240 on DSTV Now). If you’re looking to relive all the best moments from the weekend, be sure to head over to the Mega8 Main YouTube Channel or the Mega8 Secondary YouTube Channel where the matches were streamed.

With 8 of the best teams in South African DotA2 competing for R50,000 in prize money, every team put in their best performances in the hopes of coming first at this event. Ultimately it would be another rampant White Rabbit Gaming series of performances that would come to dominate the Winter Cup, with no one else looking capable of stopping WRG from lifting yet another Grand Final victory.

The Winter Cup pretty much went the way many predicted, with the top 3 teams once again matching their placement from the VS Gaming Masters LAN just a week earlier. WRG looked indomitable in first place, and looked like they were experimenting a little bit more in this tournament. xTc Gaming looked exceptional in one series, but then exceptionally average in the next, on their path to a second place finish. Energy eSports looked to be on the warpath, after they were surprisingly dropped to the lower bracket by eXdee Gaming in Round 1, throughout the tournament. Their aggression netted them another third place finish.

The biggest surprise must be Aperture Gaming who finished in joint 7th/8th place alongside Mythic Gaming. Sinister 5 and Bravado Gaming finished joint 5th/6th, a result that only one of these teams are going to be impressed with. We’ll leave it to you to guess who! Our fourth place finisher is none other than eXdee Gaming, who vanquished some mighty opposition over the weekend while playing some pretty exceptional DotA at times. Well played to all the teams who took part in the Mega8 Esports DotA2 Winter Cup. We’re sure looking forward to some great events in the future.

The prize breakdown for the Mega8 Esports Winter Cup was as follows

  • Grand Prize: R25,000
  • Second Place: R12,500
  • Third Place: R7,500
  • Fourth Place: R5,000

Match Analysis & Looking Forward (w/ Adam “Adastam” Moore)

We got together with xTc Gaming’s carry, Adam “Adastam” Moore, to get his insights on the tournament and the local DotA2 scene generally.

@SargonDotA2: Hey Adam, first off congratulations on another second place finish. 

Adastam: Hi there. Thanks man!

I want to talk about some of the fixtures specifically. Let’s start with White Rabbit Gaming (WRG) versus Mythic Gaming (mG). My take on this was that mG did what they could, but WRG too stronk.

I thought it was a violation. At the very least what WRG did to mG constitutes a crime!

Hahaha. Thanks…

Well Game 1 you guys had a bit of promise. Then Game 2 was lots of fun, WRG just kind of ran over mG. What else is there to say? WRG man… 

One of the surprise teams joining mG in the event was Sinister 5 (Sin5). They faced off against Bravado Gaming (bvd) first. I didn’t watch this, so tell me your thoughts.

Bvd came out on top, but these two teams have played a lot against each other recently. Sin5 have actually even come out on top against bvd in the run up to this event. Recent matches have gone both ways, but it’s not surprising this went 2 – 1 to bvd. But this does mean that Sin5 is another new up and coming team, which is exciting. 

Then we have Energy eSports (eN) versus eXdee Gaming (xD). xD actually came out on top here with a huge upset. That Hunter/Fury stack, amiright? Thoughts?

I’m actually quite surprised at this result. I didn’t think that there was any way that xD would win. (Eds: Ridditz please breathe!) xD definitely surprised me with this result. 

Next we have Aperture Gaming (ApG) up against xTc Gaming (xTc). Obviously your team came out on top, once again putting the sword to your old squad. #FeelsGoodMan?

That sounds about right! Haha. I think this was one of our more difficult series in terms of team communication. It was almost as if everyone was on a different page. We won 2 – 1, but it didn’t feel like a clean sweep at all. We made so many misplays and miscommunications throughout the fixture. Added to that we also felt we had some drafting issues. We did expect to beat them, as ApG has been a bit lacklustre recently with their performances. Now I think they kicked Toyota Corolla, but I’m not sure if that is true or not.

Another ApG kick? Interesting. Although I can’t say I’m surprised.

If it’s true I’m curious to see who they would pick up.

That makes two of us! Let’s move on to the lower bracket fixtures, mG versus Sin5. Thoughts?

Ban Lycan and DP versus Sin5 and I think you’ll be fine.

Yes, that pretty much sums that up. eN versus ApG? 

Haha. I felt like you pressured me into saying that. 

Haha. (Eds: He probably did.) I don’t know what you’re talking about. eN versus ApG, what happened there?

Well eN won, obviously. 

Wow. That insight.

Haha. It was quite a convincing result, if I’m not mistaken. ApG are underperforming a bit. They have the potential with the players they have in the team, though. Also, Muzzy on the carry position didn’t have that much of an impact. This might have been a pretty big factor.

Back to the upper bracket, WRG vs bvd. WRG comes out on top, but I don’t think this surprised anyone. Bvd, though, not looking super strong at the moment.

No, not really. They’ve done a lot of roster shuffles, but they look like they’ve decided to stick with the roles they were at the beginning of the year. They aren’t actually doing too well at the moment. On paper their players are so good, though. That’s what is most surprising, that they should be doing so well but they’re not. I obviously can’t tell you why as I’m not in their team. I’m sure they will know why and are working hard to reverse their recent run of form.

Even immediately slotting back into your old roles, it’s still going to take time after all this role switching.

The only thing is when you have your original role and swap, it’s because you identified there is a problem with those players on those certain roles with the team synergy. Going back to it means you haven’t been able to fix the problem that was at hand. They just honestly need to find their footing together and then they’ll be really strong again.

Some good insight there. I think we’ve all been thinking the same thing for the past few months. I hear Toyota Corolla is looking for a team?

What? Is RDK going to kick himself? Haha.

It would be the quintessential definition of the RDKick. Haha.

Haha. Not going to happen.

So xTc vs xD, thoughts?

Honestly, it was fine. We weren’t really worried about this fixture. I expected us to win this. After the ApG game we realigned ourselves, so this fixture was never in doubt. They played well, despite the outcome going the way we expected.

Lower bracket once more, xD versus Sin5. Notice xD did ban Lycan and DP first phase. 

Well that speaks for itself, right? Sin5 has huge potential, but they’ve been practicing one draft over and over and over. They’ve got it down pat if they’re able to take bvd with that draft. It’s not to be underestimated. Obviously xD just banned the two main heroes required for that draft. 

Then bvd up against eN in the lower bracket. I don’t think either of us watched this one. 

Yes, I didn’t either. There were so many concurrent fixtures we were bound to miss some. 

eN came out on top against bvd. This doesn’t really surprise me. On paper right now I put eN above bvd most days, if not all days. 

I agree with that.

eN versus xD in the lower bracket. eN dealt with xD fairly easily.

Definitely. eN have come third twice in a row now, even with the involvement of bvd in the Mega8 Winter Cup.

xTc versus WRG. You guys got a bit of a hiding here. 

In both games our net worth was even until around the 25 minute mark. The one game we were actually even slightly ahead. After that the graph ties a noose and takes a bungee jump swan dive in favour of WRG. We made some ridiculously poor calls and took some extremely stupid engagements which we shouldn’t have. We even dived towers, which ultimately threw any chance we had. WRG is a tough opponent and I think we just feel pressured that we have to try to do something out of the box to beat them. 

xTc  versus eN. A Mega8 Winter Cup Masters rematch?

I think eN are a top tier team. I think they’ll be upset they lost to us because I feel they think they are better than us. They also had a sub for Chelsea in Game 3. To be honest, Toyota Corolla’s performance on Dark Seer is probably on par with Chelsea’s. So I don’t think it was the sub that let them down here. It was still close, we narrowly took the series 2 – 1.

He might be as good on the hero, but I think they were missing Chelsea himself in the team.

Yes, but also it’s a Dark Seer. It’s not really a classic Chelsea hero that hunts you all game long. You can only do so much with that hero. Obviously there was some miscommunication in the team, but they didn’t really have much wombo to follow up perfectly with the vacuum wall. 

Fair enough. Moving on to the Grand Final. WRG versus xTc. 

I’ve already forgotten about that nightmare.

Haha. Well let’s try and relive those moments.

Let it scab, Chris! Let it scab!

I think you’ve spoken enough recently about losing to WRG, you’re probably sick of it. 

No, I love losing! I wake up in the morning and I’m amped!

Haha. Okay, a different question. How far away is WRG from xTc and eN right now?

I think eN are a lot closer to WRG than we are, when they play against WRG they do a lot better than we do. Then we always seem to be able to beat eN every match while WRG just gives us the treatment. It’s a weird trifecta. We just haven’t found a way to play against WRG yet, which is strange. We need to do that in the upcoming weeks and months. 

Alright. That’s a fair description of the gap at the moment. Well thanks for your time, Adam. As always, it’s been a pleasure. 

Thanks man! I’d like to give a special shoutout to my sponsors, Syntech, Redragon, Crucial, and Ballistix too. And also to my Sargon Witch Doctor. Maybe one game it won’t get banned!

Now I get a shoutout! Naught but lip service, ser!

Haha, you have to save the best for last!

CHRIS “@SARGONDOTA2” HOUSE