The first two matches of Group A start at 10am, Saturday, January 19, UTC+8.
First matches:
Virtus Pro vs. EHOME
Chaos Esports Club vs. TNC Predator
Virtus Pro is definitely one of the top three Dota 2 teams in the world and have enjoyed consistency, with the key players of its squad having been together for almost a year.
Virtus Pro’s biggest achievement lately was the Kuala Lumpur Major title and accompanying 4950 Dota Pro Circuit (DPS) Points, helping them sit atop the Dota Pro Circuit 2018-19 Rankings.
Can they take home another 4950 DPC points in this tournament?
VP should have no problem advancing to the winner’s bracket of the main event because Chaos Esports Club and TNC Predator are simply not at their level.
EHOME is another team who have the potential to win this tournament. As one of the top Dota 2 teams in China, they consistently display a strong heroes pool knowledge for this patch.
Furthermore, they also displayed their superior game play when they won against Gambit Esports in the Grand Finals of The Bucharest Minor.
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TNC Predator is playing with a different roster coming into the tournament. RyOyr is playing position three because Kuku was banned due to the Ching Chong Incident.
Although Valve only penalized Kuku from entering this tournament, TNC Predator decided to bench Kuku indefinitely from December 8 and ryOyr been playing with the squad since then.
With their new roster TNC has only played a total of 10 professional matches, resulting in eight wins. Not much can be read into that, given their opponents were all weak tier 2, or lower teams.
TNC Predator should be the bottom flagger in this group.
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Chaos Esports Club, previously known as Pain Gaming, features star players W33 and Misery.
They started the squad on 18 September 2018 and their biggest achievement since was securing fourth place in the ESL One Hamburg, competing against strong squads like Team Secret, Vici Gaming, Virtus Pro, Evil Geniuses and Team Aster.
In the latest patch of Dota 2, 7.20, Chaos Esports Club only played against some tier 3 teams in The Chongqing Major South America Qualifier, so it’s hard to determine which level they sitting at for now.