Europe’s finest were left in the dust (or couldn’t be bothered to attend) at the first DPC major of the season with TNC Predator and Vici Gaming going up against one another in the grand final in Chengdu. It was a rematch of the upper bracket final but a very different story, with TNC’s Morphling+Earthshaker combo proving to be unstoppable over the course of the tournament, establishing themselves as one of the strongest candidates in the scene straight off the back of their historic success at ESL One Hamburg. With this win, they've also become the first SEA team to win an MDL event, right after they've become the pioneers at ESL events as well.

It doesn’t bleed. It can’t be killed.

If there was any question whether TNC are the real deal, they’ve pretty much all been answered here. 30k net worth lead or not, Vici Gaming couldn’t crack the code in the deciding match. Apart from a loss to Vici in the upper bracket finals (where they perhaps missed out on a few edges), it’s been basically a flawless run, having only dropped a single game to Alliance on their way to the title.

Again, Morphling+Earthshaker, my oh my!

Next up in the Dota soap opera

In the previous DPC season, the first Major turned out to be a very effective forecast with the top nine finishers in Kuala Lumpur all eventually making it to TI9. The absence of Secret and OG means that this metric will likely not end up so skewed this time around, but nevertheless, it’s worth keeping in mind which teams made it to the business end of this tournament if you want to predict how the rest of the 2019/20 season will play out going forward.

So what’s next in the world of professional Dota? Apart from the upcoming qualifiers for DreamLeague Season 13 – the next Major on the calendar –, there is also the ONE Esports Dota 2 World Pro Invitational Singapore to look forward to, with Team Secret, PSG.LGD, EG, Alliance and Team Liquid, Vici and the new-look Virtus.pro will be in attendance alongside the newly crowned major winners, TNC Predator.