The Dota 2 Kyiv Animajor Wild Card stage will begin on June 2. There are a few powerhouse teams that have ended up in the Wild Card stage. Here are the main storylines going into the Wild Card stage.
Secret and Nigma try to reclaim glory
To most fans, it’s weird to not see Team Secret and Team Nigma at the top of the standings every season in the European Dota Pro Circuit. While they are not far from the top spot, Team Liquid and Alliance overtaken them this season. This puts the two teams in the tough situation of fighting through the Wild Card stage of the Kyiv Animajor. While Team Secret is almost confirmed to make it through, Nigma should not be counted out. They won their previous matchup against Team Secret in the regular season of the DPC. This LAN will also be the first Major that new addition, Igor “iLTW” Filatov will attend with Team Nigma. It should be a chance for him to prove his skills in international competition.
The main storyline of the Kyiv Animajor Wild Card stage will be whether the rest of the field can put up a fight against these two long standing teams.
Invictus Gaming’s Misfortune
One of the bigger storylines in the Kyiv Animajor is the winners of the previous One Esports Singapore Major, Invictus gaming, missing a player. Misfortune struck when their hard support player, Chan “Oli” Chon Kien received a false-positive covid-19 test days before he was set to fly out to the event. This will more than likely take Invictus gaming out of the running for the Wild Card spot. This leaves Execration, Vici Gaming and AS Monaco Gambit as the three teams to contest the two top European squads in the Wild Card stage.
Vici Gaming as a dark horse
The two main advantages for Vici Gaming going into the Wild Card stage are their time together as a team and experience against tougher opponents in the Chinese DPC. The Chinese region is one of the stronger, if not the strongest, region in the DPC. If not for a powerful OB.Neon squad coming out of nowhere in the previous One Esports Singapore Major, fans could have seen a series between Vici Gaming and Team Secret. That matchup is no longer a hypothetical, as these teams will play each other to see who makes it out of the Wild Card stage.
While these are all the main storylines going into the Wild Card stage, any of these teams have a chance to make a surprise run. The winner will most likely be the one who adapts to the tournament meta the fastest.
Want to catch all the action? The Kyiv Animajor will be live at 4 a.m. Pacific Time on the WePlay Twitch Channel.
