epic.SIXTEEN has begun! The teams are slowly, but surely arriving and setting up to be ready for tomorrow’s eSports tournament kick off. The DotA 2 tournament is shaping up to be the most closely contested competition in epic’s recent history. There are currently 5 teams registered and they are all within a stone’s throw of each other’s skill bracket.

DENCH

Fresh off of their second place at IreLAN, reigning champions of epic.LAN are back and with a point to prove. They were found wanting last weekend in Dublin after losing their mid laner to flight scheduling issues. After stomping their opponents previously in the upper bracket final, they subsequently lost 2-0 to Irish newcomers Dank Schon. 

Led by UK DotA veteran, DreadKnight, the team have a solid lineup, providing they retain all their players for the whole tournament. Alongside the captain DENCH are sporting Gronors, the farming Dutchman, rising star Dacster, elusive midlaner Mute242 and support now turned offlane, element^. In total, they have 4 players who have won an i-Series and one who came 4th, making them a team with one of the best UK LAN results at epic. 

Choke Gaming

Choke have brought teams to both DotA 2 and CS:GO at epic.SIXTEEN, showing perhaps a little more organisation than some of the other teams, which may or may not be reflected in their play. What is certain is that they have some of the most experienced players in UK DotA 2 in the form of DOOPZ, welp and Nepali Jesus. Between them they have won plenty of epic’s i-Series’ and most other UK LANs.

Despite this fact, they are a brand new stack to this event and have barely played together has a team. They do have experience but will need to figure themselves out through the groupstages. What’s good is they also have one of the up and comers of the scene, bW197, to offset some of the old hands. Will their experience and organisation be able to see them through?What’s good is they also have one of the up and comers of the scene, bW197, to offset some of the old hands. Will their experience and organisation be able to deliver these players more silverware for their cupboards?

A Hideo Kojima Team

A great bunch of players coming together for epic.SIXTEEN. They have plenty of talent and familiar faces in the UK DotA 2 scene. They have 3 of the players from Xenex who won the recent DotA 2 LAN finals at EGX last weekend. The two main cores, meep and Kundral, are two of the best mechanical players in the UK, both with MMRs around 6k (if you give any creedence to that). Regardless, they have two solid players at the helm with a good supporting cast. 

Rein5ments

Again, we have plenty of ex-Reason and ex-Choke players making up this stack for epic.SIXTEEEN. One of the top priority cores on the team will be Inferno, who is previously from Xenex and Reason, but also managing to take down an epic with the previous Dread-stack. There are plenty of accolades across the players, each having some notable LAN achievement. Along with Choke, Rein5ments arguably has the potential to be more organised, as most of their players have had experience with eSports organisation sponsorship. 

Not that that is necessarily an indication of better cohesion or teamwork, but they have attended multiple LANs with consistent teams and most likely have an idea of what exactly it takes to win. 

EX-CINCERE

Apart from 2 players, this roster has a significant lack of LAN wins between them. That is by no means any reason to count them out, however. They are all good players with an average MMR of around 5k. Although there are few LAN winners on the side, they are definitely part of the reason that the average skill level for epic.SIXTEEN is significantly higher this year. Of note they have Rothwell/Meme Master representing the team in the midlane. He was crucial to their 4th place finish at i-Series and along with recently turned position 4 player and shot-caller, Jakkie, they have been scrimming all week and are certainly ready to make their mark this weekend. 

And with that, the games have now officially begun! The format will be a round robin group stage followed by a double elimination bracket. This will be a great tournament to watch, as all the players have mixed around just for this LAN. They all know each other, and each other’s play style, like the back of their mouse mats. The games will be close and the flames will be a plenty, so make sure you check out all the action over at twitch.tv/epiclan2.