Team Secret and Team Liquid have faced off many times over the last few months, but they’re set to do so once again with much more money on the line this time around.Â
The Omega League is making the same old European and CIS Dota 2 league new once again by attaching a $500,000 prize pool to it. Liquid and Secret have played against each another seven times in the last four months, but the Omega League adds a bit of extra intrigue just by having bigger stakes attached.
Here’s how the recent rivalry between the two teams has panned out, and what bettors should know about this matchup.
Team Secret looks like the single best Dota 2 team in the world right now. The Clement “Puppey” Ivanov’s squad was nearly unstoppable in 2019, winning two Dota Pro Circuit majors and two ESL One trophies.Â
The team made a single tweak to its roster after The International 2019, adding Lasse Aukusti “MATUMBAMAN” Urpalainen in place of Yeik “MidOne” Nai Zheng. While Secret wouldn’t have been the first team to unravel after that sort of key change, MATUMBAMAN has shown that he can thrive with Secret, helping the team to win the DreamLeague Season 13 major and a slew of online leagues over the last few months.
Secret has been lucky to have its roster completely intact in 2020:
Secret’s dominance in 2020 makes them the clear favorite in any matchup or tournament they compete in.
For several years now, the core of this lineup has competed together:
While Dota 2 has long been a game in which some teams break up at the first stumble, this lineup has generally stuck it out. They went from playing with the sponsorless Team Tuho to Alliance, then to one of the largest esports organizations in the world in Team Liquid. When the squad put pen to paper with Liquid, it was easy to wonder if the organization’s infrastructure might be just what the team needed to reach the top.
So far, this hasn’t been the case.
iNSaNiA and his teammates made for an upper level Dota 2 team in 2019 with Alliance, but were still a clear step down from the elite. That doesn’t seem to have changed with the same squad on Liquid, as the only major difference between their performances this year is that they’ve come in new jerseys.
As of this writing, Winners.bet has Liquid as an enormous 4.57 underdog to Secret’s 1.16. In the seven previous matches between Liquid and Secret, the score stands at 5-2 in favor of Secret.
Secret’s odds of winning may be overstated to the point where the gain is modest enough that it’s hard to justify betting on them. Liquid’s chances here are being slightly understated, but a win over Secret here would still be a significant upset.
The likely play here would be picking Liquid as a flyer and hoping that Secret enters this event a bit rusty.
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