Dota 2: DPC Weekly Recap – North America, April 26 – May 2, 2021

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Dota 2: DPC Weekly Recap – North America, April 26 – May 2, 2021

We break down everything you need to know about Week 3 in the NA DPC.


We had more than a few swift stomps in our North American region this week. As Season 2 reaches the halfway point, our division standings are starting to firm up. We take a look at the highlights from our third week of play.

Lower Division

Felt haven’t had the smoothest second season. The team currently sit on the bottom rung of the LD’s ladder this week. They played a single series this week, falling to Pecado Game Squad after three games. Although Felt managed to take the first map, Pecado dominated through the next two games. The loss leaves Felt with a score of 0-4, while they’ve managed to push two of their series out to the full three maps, they’ve yet to take a victory. Leaving them in a precarious position as we hit our halfway point.

Wind and Rain are on shaky footing too, sitting in 7th spot. They faced off against Arkosh Gaming this week and yet again failed to secure a win. They’re currently 0-3 in our standings. While Arkosh have moved up into 4th place after taking down WaR in two quick stomps.

Team DogChamp continue in 2nd place after Week 3. They clashed against 5 Man Midas and came out victorious with a neat 2-0 victory. So far, 5MM look safe from elimination in 5th place on the ladder. But that could all change next week, where they’re set to play the region’s top seed; D2 Hustlers.

Sitting pretty at the top of the ladder are the D2 Hustlers, who played two series this week. Making quick work of Electronic Boys on the second day of play, tucking their first 2-0 victory of the week under their belt.

Then, they went head-to-head with Pecado in a three-game series which saw some thrilling neck-and-neck action. Although D2 Hustlers reigned supreme in the end, Pecado put up a worthy fight, and we’ll take a closer look at their efforts in our break down of this week’s highlight series.

Also Read: DPC Weekly Recap – South America, April 28 – May 1, 2021

Upper Division

It was almost all 2-0’s across our Upper Division in Week 3, with only one series going to the full three games.

Undying got their matchups out of the way at the start of the week. Facing off against 4 Zoomers first in a pair of cruisy maps to take the series 2-0. The loss brings 4 Zoomers to 2-2 so far this season, placing them 4th in NA’s UD standings.

Then, Undying clashed with BNY in a three-game series that had its fair share of surprises.

Both teams managed to get something out of the lanes in Game 1. But Undying really took over once the map moved into the mid-phase. BNY didn’t have a chance to get started; Jacky “EternaLEnVy” Mao had barely got his Radiance built by the time Undying shut the first game down. Taking Game 1 from BNY in 21-minutes with a comfortable 21-kills.

But Black N Yellow came into Game 2 of the series looking much stronger. Jose Esau “esK” Perez Coronel looked very impressive on Tiny in the mid. And it was a much better game for EE as well, who went 12/3/12 on Sven. Despite an outstanding performance from Jonathan “Bryle” De Guia on Puck, Undying just couldn’t catch BNY’s lead. And at just shy of 41-minutes, BNY snatched the win, taking the series to three.

But Game 3 saw Undying spin things back in their favor. Their draft packed plenty of punch without sacrificing their saves. They nabbed Io for David “MoonMeander” Tan, and a Witch Doctor for Kim “DuBu” Doo-young, both of whom provided plenty of opportunities for the three-core wrecking crew of Juggernaut, Slardar and Viper to wreak havoc. Undying wiped BNY off the map in 25-minutes, with a final score of 25-3.

simply TOOBASED continue to make the most of their first foray into the DPC Upper Division. Trouncing SADBOYS, 2-0, when the two went head-to-head mid-week. Danny “iAnnihilate” Cote looked very comfortable on QoP in mid during our first map. While Noah “boris” Minhas also delivered an impressive performance on Faceless Void, making it through the 36-minutes of Game 1 without a single death. Then it was just rinse and repeat in Game 2, with STB taking this series to bring them 5th overall in the standings.

SADBOYS were well out of luck this week. Their second series saw them coming up against regional heavyweights, Evil Geniuses. EG took the first map with ease, the final score 28-8 at 28-minutes. SADBOYS did put up a fight in Game 2, but there’s only so much that can be done about Artour “Arteezy” Babaev on a fully farmed Troll Warlord. EG took the second game home at 38-minutes.

SADBOYS are now 0-4 this Season, sitting in the 7th spot, and leaving them with slim chances of reaching the next Major.

SADBOYS are not the only team stuck at 7th though. They’re tied on the bottom rung with The Cut, who are also 0-4 this week after suffering a devastating defeat at the hands of Quincy Crew. Game 1 was a blink, and you’ll miss it, snowball run for QC. The map was over in just 16-minutes. Game 2 did not serve The Cut much better, they managed to hold on by the skin of their teeth for 38-minutes. Quincy Crew racked up a 29-kill lead in this time, so The Cut’s perseverance was certainly admirable. But it wasn’t enough to turn the series and QC took the win. They’re now tied with EG in the standings at 2nd place.

Also Read: DPC Weekly Recap — Western Europe April 27 – May 1, 2021

Highlight Series: D2 Hustlers vs Pecado Squad Gaming

While the Upper Division usually gets most of the spotlight, sometimes the LD delivers with some true top tier Dota that reminds us why these are the DPC’s up-and-coming teams.

And that was the case with our series between the D2 Hustlers and Pecado Squad Gaming. It was three beautifully brutal maps that D2H and Pecado treated us to in this three-game series.

D2 Hustlers snatched the first blood just as Game 1 ticked past 3-minutes, but the kills were soon coming thick and fast from Pecado, and PSG managed to swing the gold lead their way just before the 16-minute mark with some nice pick offs on D2H’s cores.

Still, D2H are no strangers to adjusting their footwork, they soaked up 10-kills in 5-minutes to shut down PSG’s lead before it even really had a chance to get started. But Pecado were not bowing yet. They dug in their heels, and persistence paid off. Things swung back in their favor around the 31-minute mark. PSG’s Phantom Assassin had practically hit peak farm by then, with plenty of toys to play with including a BKB, Desolator, Skull Basher and a Satanic. PSG snatched themselves a hard-earned win at 41-minutes. Game 1 was theirs.

Pecado came into Game 2 still looking confident, they nabbed first blood and were holding a small gold lead once the game reached the 10-minute mark. But D2H had picked themselves a draft with plenty of synergy, pulling off a sweet Snapfire/Mars combo to give them plenty of lockdown once the game hit that midpoint. D2H had Game 2 in the bag by 31-minutes.

After the early back-and-forth we’d seen on the previous maps, D2H took control of Game 3 with ease. They had netted themselves a comfortable 1500 lead in the net worth by 10-minutes and they rode that momentum all the way to another win ending Week 3 with another undefeated run.

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Eliana Bollati
Eliana is a freelance editor & journalist from Australia with a passion for esports and video games. An avid player of video games for the better part of three decades, she began following professional esports circuits during the 2010s. She brings both a player and longtime fan perspective into her commentary on the professional scenes.