***Update 1 – 2015-10-26 – 11:37 CET***

Due to Virtus.pro arriving in Singapore late, the group stage schedules have been reshuffled. For the latest updated schedule, check out my pinned tweet over at TheFreakofnatur on Twitter. Stay tuned for more news updates about the Nanyang Dota 2 Championships!
—————————————————-

Nanyang Championships starts 26th October!

The Nanyang Championships offers a 200k base prize pool, 10 teams, six days of Dota 2, with four days set in Suntec Singapore Covention & Exhibition Centre. The Group stages of the Nanyang Championships will be run from Monday, 26th October to Tuesday, 27th October 2015. Following immediately will be the playoffs held at Suntec, from 28th October to 30th October, and finally after a one day break, the Grand Finals will be played on 1st November. Teams have been hosted by Marina Bay Sands Singapore, one of the newest hotels built-in this country, which emphasizes tourism as one of their major industries.

What does Nanyang mean? It’s Chinese for Southern Ocean, and in the context of Singapore, it reflects the city’s status as one of the central trade hubs of South-East Asia. If anywhere in South-East Asia could hold one of Dota 2’s majors, I would have to say Singapore has the best environment to organize such an event, with close contender’s South Korea losing out due to the language advantage Singapore has (with a mostly English-speaking population) and Australia being limited by its Internet. In spite of the hostile environment that Singapore has for cultivating Esports talent, Singapore’s amenities make event-organization very accessible and convenient, mirroring the capabilities of countries like Europe and America.

Matches for the Nanyang group stages will begin at 10 am SGT (GMT +8), that’s 2 am (GMT +0) on 26th of October, and 10pm on 25th October for our American friends (EDT). Games will be played in a BO2 format. 2 wins 3 points. 1 win 1 point and 0 wins 0 points. The schedule for the group stage, with Group A in blue and Group B in green:   

Day 2 is scheduled to be shorter in case of any tiebreakers, which will also be played as a BO1 round robin amongst the three tiebreaker teams. Team Secret, Vici Gaming and CDEC Gaming look to be the three strongest teams in this competition, Team Secret coming hot off their win at MLG World Finals, Vici Gaming managing to wrangle CDEC 2-1 and LGD 2-0 recently in The Summit 4 with amazingly ingenious drafts. CDEC Gaming, who finished 2nd in The International 5, will of course be defending their title as the best team in terms of ranking in Ti5 in this competition.

Other teams are strong but still suffer from some communication and teamwork problems as reflected by their recent gameplay. Fnatic seems to rely on outplaying their opponents a little too much to get them out of strategical disadvantages, and Mineski has one-dimensional drafts more often than not. Digital Chaos and Team Liquid have not played enough games together for me to analyze them, but they definitely have the chemistry to be a Tier 1 team.

There are plenty of Number 1 teams in this competition – Vici is lauded as the top Chinese team constantly, especially now with BurNing in their team. CDEC is the literal top Chinese team, but they were utterly destroyed throughout drafts by EG in the finals of Ti5. Team Secret is the currently Number 1 tank in gosugamers.net, and Fnatic is the Number 1 team in South-East Asia. Only EG is missing to represent the pinnacle of competition in their region, and according to Ti5, in the world as well. This LAN serves as an excellent warm-up to the Frankfurt Majors in November, so expect fans to be slinging the “saving strats for majors” excuse everywhere. Whoever wins this convincingly will be thoroughly analyzed by other teams for the upcoming major, so expect the most insane drafts in this competition, especially from Vici Gaming, judging from their recent games.

Catch the games over at twitch.tv, and look for updates at Nanyang Championships’s Facebook page!

You can follow me on twitter @TheFreakofnatur, facebook at Chen Yiji and email me at [email protected]. Until next time!

Chen Yiji
The Gaming Ground
Twitter: @TheFreakofnatur

More by Chen Yiji:

• MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries PC review – A time-demanding but action-intense Mecha game
• Borderlands 3 PC review – Bordering on the good side
• EA’s E3 2018 press conference – We’re all angry at Electronic Arts again
• This is why 2016 was simply amazing for SG eSports
• Interview with Witching Hour Studios creative director Ian Gregory – Masquerada: Songs and Shadows

Tags: DOTA 2, Nanyang, Nanyang Dota 2 Championships Day 1. Nanyang Championships, Valve