All eight Dota 2 teams are raring to go for the WePlay! Bukovel Minor 2020, which begins this Thursday, January 9. Of the teams in the competition, two are from the CIS and North America regions, with one each from Europe, China, Southeast Asia, and South America. A prize pool of $300,000 is up for grabs along with a total of 660 DPC points. However, a more important prize is a spot at the DreamLeague Season 13: The Leipzig Major.
Format
The Minor is using the GSL format with two groups. If you're not familiar, the GSL format is basically a four team double-elimination bracket. After the Opening Matches, the losers of both matches then fight in an Elimination Match. Usually what follows is a Winners' Match. The loser of this match and the winner of the Elimination Match then go head-to-head in order to get the final seeding of the Group Stage. For this Minor, all matches are best-of three. The top two teams move to the Playoffs and the other two get eliminated.
The Playoffs also follow a double elimination bracket with all matches being best-of three. However, the Grand Finals are a best-of five contest.
Group A
For Group A, the teams are:
- Geek Fam
- Ninjas in Pyjamas
- Royal Never Give Up
- Team Spirit
The first set of opening matches have NiP taking on Geek Fam at 9:00 a.m. EST followed by RNG versus TSpirit at 12:00 p.m. EST.
Predictions:
For Group A, we're expecting to see NiP and Geek Fam move to the Playoffs despite both of these teams not performing well in the last Minor tournament.
Geek Fam had a difficult time during the qualifiers for DreamLeague Season 13, but the group managed to get a seed for the Bukovel Minor qualifiers. It dominated the region, beating Cignal Ultra twice. Geek Fam appears to be hungry enough to want to be part of the Major and may want to prove themselves considering that two members were former TNC players.
NiP, meanwhile, managed to make it to the Playoffs of DreamLeague S13, but couldn't get past Chaos Esports Club and Evil Geniuses. Both of those teams ended up securing spots for the Majors. NiP didn't have a hard time during the qualifiers for the Minor, so they should be strong this time around.
We also chose NiP because of the crucial signing of Jason Connor "TANNER" Weedon to replace Oliver "Skiter" Lepko. This could be the key to NiP's win.
Group B
For Group B we have:
- Fighting PandaS
- FURIA Esports
- Gambit Esports
- Nigma
The opening matches for this group include Pandas versus Nigma at 3:00 p.m. EST, followed by Gambit going against FURIA at 6:00 p.m. EST.
Predictions
Nigma appears to be looking for its groove as Aliwi "w33" Omar has replaced Lasse "MATMBAMAN" Urpalainen. That said, they're still a powerhouse and the new meta could work to their advantage so we're looking at them to secure a Playoffs spot.
We're also looking at Gambit, as the team has so far ben performing well with a second place finish at the ESL One Hamburg 2019 and third place at the ONE Esports Dota 2 World Pro Invitational Singapore. It won't be surprising to see Gambit again having a strong performance.
What about you? Who do you think is going to the Playoffs? Let us know in the comments section below.
