Last night, eight of the top Dota 2 teams gathered in Wuhan, China for the Mars Dota 2 League. This tournament is one of the final opportunities for teams to showcase their skills before The International 7 in August.
The MDL tournament is played in two phases: a round-robin group stage to determine seeding and a double-elimination playoff bracket. After the first round of games, some trends have emerged.
LGD Gaming is dominating the tournament with a flawless 4-0 record. While they did not receive a direct invitation to The International, they have already defeated LGD.Forever Young and Evil Geniuses. In the upcoming matches, they will face Newbee, Invictus Gaming, and Vici Gaming.
Clutch Gamers, on the other hand, has struggled in each of their four matches at MDL. This is only their third international LAN, and their inexperience shows. It is clear that they are not yet ready to compete with top international teams.
Evil Geniuses has had a strong performance, losing to LGD, beating OG, and defeating Clutch Gamers. The standout moment was SumaiL’s unconventional use of a Blink Dagger on Storm Spirit, which led to game-winning kills against Shadow Shaman and Arc Warden.
The new patch, 7.06e, has not had a significant impact on the tournament meta yet. Night Stalker, a previously dominant hero, has fallen out of favor due to nerfs. The most popular hero at MDL is Batrider, while Earthshaker has the highest win rate. Other heroes making a comeback include Chaos Knight and Tidehunter.
As the tournament progresses, teams will likely review their strategies and make adjustments. It is still unclear how tomorrow’s games will unfold.
Dota 2, Mars Dota 2 League, LGD Gaming, Clutch Gamers, Evil Geniuses, patch 7.06e, meta-game.