OG and Quincy Crew rise up Dota 2 rankings while EG falls

The Dota 2 scene is a lot different than it was just a month ago. 

A major roster shuffle kicked off that saw a slew of top teams turned upside down. On top of that, a number of competitions kicked off to christen the new Dota 2 season. A number of former top-10 teams no longer exist, while some fresh faces have emerged to challenge established names.

Catch up on WIN.gg’s rankings:

• How the WIN.gg rankings work
• Last month’s Dota 2 team rankings
• This month’s Dota 2 player rankings

Team Secret remains atop the Dota 2 scene

No surprises here. Team Secret remains the top-ranked Dota 2 team in the world. The team has won eight tournaments in a row and shows no signs of slowing down.

Secret is likely to hold onto this spot for the foreseeable future, and would need to lose several consecutive events to have that top spot challenged in earnest.

Quincy Crew’s dominance in the west deserves No. 2 spot

Quincy Crew has been the second-best team of the online era. The team has won seven straight events in a row over the top squads in North and South America. Because of that, it’s fitting that the North American staple has stepped up into the No. 2 spot on the WIN.gg rankings.

The one knock against Quincy Crew stems from the seeming lack of strong competition. The Americas region is historically a step behind China and Europe, but Quincy Crew has been dominant in a way that’s hard to criticize. On top of that, many are quick to forget about the fact that the core of Quincy Crew placed top eight at The International 2018 as VGJ.Storm, and have arguably upgraded the roster by adding Quinn “CCnC” Callahan and Rodrigo “Lelis” Santos.

This team is a proven success at this point, and it’s time they got respected as a top-level Dota 2 team.

OG jump to No. 3 with Ceb return

OG made a big jump from eighth in the first set of rankings to third this time. There are a number of different reasons for this. 

First is the return of Sebastian “Ceb” Debs. The successful return of the two-time TI champion has seen him take a top-10 spot in the player rankings, something that has boosted the whole of OG.

Second is the roster changes that have impacted a number of different teams in and out of Europe. Two teams that were ranked in the top 10 last month don’t actually have complete rosters, while almost every top team in Southeast Asia and China has undergone changes that have had an adverse impact on the team’s rankings.

Third, OG is looking better now than it did in months past. The team struggled throughout 2020 due to constant substitutions and stand-ins. It also helps that the team can actually practice together as a unit, and this has already started paying off. 

China slides, but SEA Dota 2 plunges after roster changes

Eastern Dota 2 has undergone one of the biggest shuffles in history. Almost every notable team from both China and Southeast Asia has changed at least two players, creating an amorphous pileup that will take some time to solve.

China still has two teams ranked inside the top 10 in Vici Gaming and PSG.LGD. 

Vici Gaming retained three players through the shuffle, and swapped in two new ones. That comparatively modest shakeup saw the team stay in place month over month. 

PSG.LGD took over most of the roster of EHOME, which was previously ranked just outside the top 10. The one key change that was made was Wang “Ame” Chunyu being added as the new carry player, a change that gave a big boost to the lineup’s standing here.

While China has slid a bit in the rankings, the region should swiftly recover. Southeast Asia took a big hit and may need a longer while to recover. Fnatic was previously ranked sixth, but has an empty spot on its roster that knocks it out of consideration. TNC Predator is in the same position as it looks for a new captain to replace Park “March” Tae-Won.

The top-ranked SEA team is BOOM Esports, but they are unlikely to break into the top 10 anytime soon. TNC and Fnatic could come close to the top 10 depending on which players they add to their rosters. This still unravels most of the progress they made during the season, though.

KuroKy’s absence undermines Team Nigma’s standing. Team Nigma was in seventh place last time, but the team has dipped quite a bit since then. This largely stems from the absence of Kuro “KuroKy” Salehi Takhasomi.

The Nigma captain has been out of action for months now, with his last appearance coming in June at BEYOND Epic. Nigma coach Roman “rmN-” Paley has done strong work in his stead, most notably helping Nigma in taking third in Omega League’s Europe Immortal Division, but there’s no real effective substitution for the legendary captain.

Nigma sits in 11th due to KuroKy’s absence, but will likely return to the top 10 once he returns and gets in a few repititions.

mudgolems’ strong start earns quick top-10 status

European Dota 2 is deep in talent to the point that random free agents can come together and instantly form a legitimate contender. The latest example of this is mudgolems. 

The squad formed by former Alliance players Neta “33” Shapira and Adrian “Fata” Trinks has surged since forming in September. The team debuted by beating a long list of solid CIS squads in the qualifiers for ESL One Germany. From there, they made the grand finals of BTS Pro Series Season 3 and went 18-6 on maps across the event. The team has also looked strong in ESL One Germany so far, scoring a huge upset over Team Nigma.

The big question is whether mudgolems can keep up this strong form moving forward. The roster is made up of veterans who haven’t ever really gotten their proper due, and those sorts of teams have been able to find serious success in recent months. If they can prove their strong debut isn’t an aberration, they could climb deeper into the top 10 by the end of 2020.