Tundra Esports Undefeated, Team Secret Relegated
Team Secret is back to square one after The Summer Tour concluded. Even though they are The International 2022 runner-ups, the 2022-2023 DPC Season had not been kind to them. Team Secret first got relegated in the Winter Tour. After finding their way back from Division II in the Spring Tour, the team was on the edge of relegation at Division I in the Summer Tour. However, luck was not on their side, as in their final series against Tundra Esports, Tundra landed the knockout punch. Here’s a summary of the action that went down.
Game 1
In game 1, Team Secret drafted two universal heroes as their cores, Magnus for their midlane and Windranger for their safelane hard carry. They backed these two heroes with an offlane Necrophos. Team Secret played aggressively, making quick rotations with their support duo, Marci and Shadow Demon.
Team Secret snowballed their laning advantage. Although Tundra tried to come back into the game during the mid-game, capitalising on Secret’s mistakes, it wasn’t enough. Team Secret ended up taking the match at 46 minutes.
Game 2
Team Secret tried to carry the momentum they got from Game 1. However, Tundra came prepared in game 2. Tundra Esports drafted Queen of Pain as their midlaner, and Nine completely dominated the laning stage. Tundra picked Slark as their safelane hard carry to counter the Medusa draft from Team Secret.
Game 2 had a slow start as both teams had drafts prepared for the late game. It was a back-and-forth game in the late game as both teams tried to minimise their casualties in the team fight. However, a perfect smoke attempt from Tundra Esports at 43 minutes opened the game. Tundra took two sets of barracks on top of their smoke play.
Tundra played carefully after taking two sets of racks, forcing a desperate play from Team Secret. Eventually, at 64 minutes, Team Secret tapped out from game 2.
Game 3
Secret had a terrific start in game 3. Winning every lane, they forced Tundra to a disastrous start. Despite playing at a disadvantage, Tundra didn’t flinch. They tried to play around the map with their offlane Doom whenever his ultimate was ready. Nine also tried to open up the map with his midlane Marci while the team’s safelane carry, Sven, farm stacks. As Tundra’s well-farmed Sven joined, Team Secret’s advantage slowly dissipated. Eventually, at 40 minutes, Tundra Esports closed out game 3, taking the series.
A Major Away from Direct Invite
It was crucial that Tundra Esports placed the top seed in the WEU region. They are now only 40 DPC points away from getting their direct invite to The Internationals 2023. They will just need to make it to the playoffs at The Bali Major to receive their direct invite for Ti 12.