Dota Pro Circuit 2021 Season 1: NA

Dota Pro Circuit 2021 Season 1 NA is starting today, January 19^th, and will last until February 28^th. In total, 8 teams will take part in the Upper Division and another 8 in the Lower Division. In this article, I’m going to focus on the Upper Division and provide an analysis of the important teams: Evil Geniuses, Quincy Crew, and Sadboys.

Dota Pro Circuit 2021 Season 1 NA Upper Division Details

DPC 2021 Season 1 NA Upper Division features 8 teams. At the end of its 6 competitive weeks, one of these teams (the 1^st) will qualify for the Major’s Playoffs while another one (the 2^nd) will qualify for the Major’s Group Stage. The next 4 teams in line (3^rd – 6^th) will remain in the Upper Division. The bottom two teams relegate to the Lower Division and get replaced.

Prizes

In total, $205,000 and 1,150 Pro Circuit Points will be distributed among the participants. The money distribution will be unusualy even ($30,000 for the winner, $22,000 for the 8^th place). But the points distribution will favor the top 5 teams.

• 1^st place: 500 pts.
• 2^nd place: 300 pts.
• 3^rd place: 200 pts.
• 4^th place: 100 pts.
• 5^th place: 50 pts.

Participants

The 8 teams that will participate in the tournament are the following:

• Evil Geniuses
• Quincy Crew
• Sadboys
• Black N Yellow
• 5ManMidas
• 4 Zoomers
• Undying
• A-Team

Favorites

Here’s a short analysis of the 3 teams that are almost guaranteed to finish in the top 3 positions.

Evil Geniuses

After a long absence from NA tournaments, EG is finally back. Since the last time we saw them, they made a big roster change. RAMZES was released and iceiceice replaced him. Thanks to this move, EG will likely be a much stronger competitor. Because RAMZES used to occupy the offlane role even though he’s a pure carry player, thus being as effective as a striker would be in football, if you placed him in the role of the goalkeeper. By contrast, iceiceice is a native offlaner with more than 10 years of experience in the role.

EG’s biggest rival in the DPC 2021 Season 1 NA Upper Division will be Quincy Crew. If they can overcome Quinn’s team, I fully expect Fly and his crew to win the tournament.

Quincy Crew

Last year, Quincy Crew played in the Grand Final of 12 tournaments and won two thirds of them. This team was practically unrivaled regionally in 2020, but that’s mainly because EG was not around for 6 months. Under these new circumstances, I think it’s safe to say that QC will qualify for the Major but only from the 2^nd position.

The team’s roster is great, with YawaR as the carry and SVG as the captain. And just as important, this group of players have been competing together for more than 6 months. This amount of time is usually enough to forge a great connection, so I think we’ll see Quincy Crew in great shape during the league games.

Sadboys

Sadboys is ppd’s latest attempt to make a big comeback. The former captain of Evil Geniuses and winner of The International 2015 has excellent chances of finishing 3^rd in the region, but he’ll have to come up with something really special in order to steal QC’s 2^nd place.

Sadboys’ roster is full of excellent players. Apart from ppd, who will be the position 5 support and captain of the crew, the team also has Fear (carry) and Moo (offlaner). Both of these players are highly skilled and highly experienced. All they need is a captain who can lead them to victory. And I think there’s a good chance that ppd will succeed in doing that.

 

Photo credit: Valve