DPC SA 2023 Tour 1: Division 1 Week 2 Recap

Couldn’t catch the action from the region hosting the next Major? We’ve got you covered

Things are quite mixed for South American Dota right now. On one hand, the two superstar teams are sharing the limelight at the top of the table, and might only be separated by way of a direct contest between them — which is scheduled to be the last match of DPC Tour 1. Meanwhile, some other teams have struggled and succeeded to varying degrees, while yet others are yet to taste success. If you haven’t been following the games from SA, you’ve been missing out, so here’s your chance to catch up.

South America DPC Tour 1 Table 23/1/23

It’s no surprise that beastcoast and Evil Geniuses lead the table, as the same players were mostly at the top last season. They have each won 4 series, and only dropped one game in that time. Keyd Stars brings up third place having played more games than any other team with 6. They have an even spread of wins and losses, but should be able to finish in the top half if they win their last match. 

Tied in fifth place in terms of points are Alliance.LATAM and Infinity, but the latter have played and lost an additional series. Infamous and Ravens, both winless, bring up the rear of the bunch. Infamous have won 3 games but failed to claim a series, but Ravens have only taken two games off of their opponents. The former still has a fair shot at staying up in the division, but the latter’s chances are slim to none.

Recap

As usual, we’ll break down the action based on the days the games were played.

Jan 17 

This week’s proceedings began with Keyd Stars vs Alliance.LATAM, and sadly for anyone who likes a competitive game of Dota, it was a very one-sided affair. Alliance actually held a bit of a lead until the mid-game in Game 1, but once things went sideways there was just no recovering. In Game 2, the Stars didn’t even give Alliance the courtesy of having a lead, and just dominated them from after the laning stage.

Many may have thought that Thunder Awaken would steamroll Infinity, but this wasn’t the case in Game 1. Infinity fought their hearts out, and despite maintaining a Net Worth lead for most of the game, TA were far from being out of danger. It took one final teamfight in the 48th minute for things to finally settle in favor of TA. Unlike Game 1, Game 2 was much more anticlimactic. TA kept finding pickoff after pickoff, and although the game remained relatively even early on, things soon spiraled out of control for Infinity to give a 2-0 win to TA. 

The last match of the day involved EG and Ravens, and one would have thought by their positions on the table that it would be one-sided, but it was anything but. Game 1’s Net Worth chart looks like a theme park roller coaster because of how many times the advantage changed — quite remarkable considering the mere 33 minute length of the game. It wasn’t until the very last swing that EG were able to claim the game. Game 2 was much more straightforward, with EG keeping a lead and slowly moving towards victory despite a good fight from Ravens. 

Jan 19 

Infamous may not be in good form, but they certainly gave Thunder Awaken a good scare. They held a decent lead through most of Game 1 until a couple of massive teamfights broke out, and even after they double raxed their opponents, one bad fight cost them the game. After this, Infamous absolutely stomped TA in Game 2, and had every chance and reason to win Game 3 but ended up losing it right when it mattered the most. That last one was one crazy game, going 50+ minutes and featuring a brilliant comeback by TA.

Keyd Stars showed they were here to play hard with a well-executed, calculated victory in Game 1 against EG that wasn’t without its scary moments. The table leaders were quick to clap back, however, absolutely destroying the Stars in Game 2 before a more restrained, smart performance in Game 3. The series didn’t have too many twists and turns, but it very importantly showed the SA region that EG could, in fact, be made to bleed.

Lastly, beastcoast vs Ravens was your run-of-the-mill David vs Goliath game, but one where Goliath hung David out to dry. There’s not much to be said about these games except that beastcoast outclassed their opponents in every department, and that at least it wasn’t as one-sided as some other games from other regions during this DPC tour.

Jan 22

Ravens had a decent chance at winning against Alliance.LATAM, but they couldn’t make the clutch moves when it mattered. After a back-and-forth laning stage, Alliance took over Game 1 and made short work of their opponents. However, Ravens bounced back and took Alliance down in an exciting Game 2 that saw multiple comebacks from both teams before Ravens were able to close things down in the 52nd minute. Ravens’ euphoria was short-lived, though, as Alliance’s retribution was swift and deadly, resulting in a 2-1 series win for the latter.

Keyd Stars would generally have been tipped to beat Infinity, but they ended up floundering their chance. To be fair, Infinity played a solid Game 1, and despite multiple setbacks that gave great chances to their opponents, were able to close down the game in the 33rd minute. Game 2 was something of a repeat of Game 1, except it lasted slightly longer, had slightly more kills, and had slightly fewer chances for the Stars to come back.

EG’s stomp of Infamous may not have been expected at the start of the season, but given the circumstances the latter finds themselves in, it’s not a surprise anymore. EG rampaged across the map in Game 1, taking away map control, farm space, and eventually structures and the Ancient from Infamous. Game 2 was actually pretty close in the early game, but some disaster befell Infamous, and they went from a pretty even game to losing 25 Heroes without answer in the space of about 10 minutes. Needless to say, EG won.

Stay tuned for more recaps, and give our other Dota 2 content a chance while you’re at it.