The Dota 2 Epic League concluded this weekend. Virtus.pro defeated OG in the grand finals and took the champion’s title in the event’s highest division.
Epic League kicked off on November 11 and gathered the best teams from Europe and the CIS into a single event. The 20 teams were split into two divisions depending on their skill level with the top teams in Division 1. After the end of the group stage, a total of 16 teams remained 8 in each division.
The Play-In stage came right before the playoffs and offered the best teams from Division 2 a chance to climb a tier up. Yellow Submarine moved to Division 1 while Just Error dropped to the lower one. This left us with the following:
Division 1
- Virtus.pro
- Vikin.gg
- Natus Vincere
- Team Secret
- Team Nigma
- Team Liquid
- OG
- Yellow Submarine
Division 2
- Alliance
- Gambit Esports
- Spider Pigzs
- Live to Win
- Just Error
- mudgolems
- Chicken Fighters
- Winstrike Team
Just a few months back Team Secret were the most dominant team in the region but that’s no longer the case. Their run in the playoffs was short-lived as they suffered a loss to Virtus.pro in the upper bracket and then got eliminated by Team Liquid in the lower. Whether it’s burnout or the other teams finally figuring them out is not clear.
After defeating Secret, Virtus.pro went through Vikin.gg with yet another 2-0 victory. This secured the bears a spot in the grand finals. Their opponent came all the way from the very end of the lower bracket in typical OGstyle. The two-time TI champions defeated Yellow Submarine, Natus Vincere, Team Liquid and Vikin.gg and only Liquid managed to take a game from them.
https://t.co/xKtJ1WdYB1 ARE THE WINNERS OF EPIC LEAGUE #EPICLeague pic.twitter.com/dizmVrQD2b
— EPICENTER (@epicentergg) December 13, 2020
The two best teams of Division 1 clashed in the big finale and it was as contested as it gets. It took a total of 5 games to determine the champion but ultimately Virtus.pro proved they’re the better team ending the series 3-2.
In Division 2 the two teams that made it to the grand final were Live to Win and Alliance. The latter was initially in the upper division but got seeded a tier below due to disappointing results in the group stage. Alliance did a run similar to OG, except they won in the big finale after some contested games against Live to Win.
VP grabbed $200,000 for their first place and Alliance got $20,000. Virtus.pro recently promoted their secondary roster to the main one and they were certainly quick to deliver results.
The event peaked at 265k viewers and Dota 2 surpassed Cyberpunk 2077 on Twitch.
With Epic League set and done most players will now be eagerly waiting for the long-anticipated patch 7.28. We already covered what you can expect from it beside Sven nerfs.
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