Dendi Wins The Rivalry Winter Blast

As the holidays set in, ten teams set out to fight for the Winter Blast crown and their share of the $15,000 prize pool. All eyes were on MR (Dendi's stack) and OG.Seed - two teams with big names behind them that didn't even make it out of the open qualifiers for the Leipzig Major. OG.Seed started out strong, stomping through their first opponents. Ex-WAR (Peace) were so intimidated, they didn't even show up! (Okay, they may have disbanded mid tournament in perfect tier 2 Dota style, but we can pretend OG.Seed were just that scary). MR didn't quite have as strong a start, dropping early games to Nemiga, OG.Seed, and Gentleman. They turned things around once they hit the playoffs, playing five series (all starting from the lower bracket) and only dropping a single game to OG.Seed before eliminating OG from the tournament.

MR launched into the finals with plenty of momentum, meeting Singularity for the first time in the event. They swept the finals 3-0, relying on Chen in the first two games to set the momentum and keep everyone alive, crushing the last game with Alchemist, Treant, and Shadow Shamen.

Final Standings

  • 1st $7,500 - MR
  • 2nd $4,250 - Team Singularity
  • 3rd $2,500 - Team Empire Hope
  • 4th $750 - Nemiga Gaming
  • 5th-6th - Gentlemen
  • 5th-6th - OG Seed
  • 7th-8th - jfshfh178
  • 7th-8th - EXTREMUM
  • 9th-10th - Modus Unity
  • 9th-10th - Peace

Popular Heroes

There was a pretty common set of heroes picked each match, but listed them into 'roles' should be taken with a note of caution - just about every offlaner (and some carries) were run in the support role. Tiny could have been mid lane, offlane, carrying, or roaming as a four with early boots. Puck showed up in mid in the hands of Dendi and Chessie, but they also were featured plenty as a support and/or an offlaner. Doom did his own wandering through roles, but at least Chen and Lich stayed supports the whole time.

  • Mid Lane: TA, Shadowfiend, Kunkka
  • Carries: Razor, Tiny, Morphling, Ursa
  • Offlaners: Puck, Clockwerk, Doom
  • Supports: Treant, Vengeful Spirit, Chen, Dazzle, Lich

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