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Dota 2

ESL One Fall 2021 – participants, schedules, and everything you need to know

Dota 2’s next big tournament before TI10 is starting tomorrow, and for avid viewers here’s who will be competing at ESL One Fall 2021.

TI10 is still two months away, but there are some big T2 tournaments to watch out for, especially for Dota 2 fans who want to see how professional players will handle the game’s latest patch. With the metagame about to see a pretty big shift, ESL One Fall 2021 will be ground zero for patch 7.30, and quite possibly setting the tone for The International this October.

This T2 tournament will host twelve teams from different regions, ten coming in from direct invites and two from the recently concluded closed qualifiers. Check out the participants for ESL One Fall 2021 and some details with regards to their rosters below.

ESL One Fall 2021 – the participating teams

ESL One Fall 2021
Credit: ESL

Alliance (Direct invite) (EU) (TI10-qualified)

Roster:

  • Nikolay “Nikobaby” Nikolov (position 1)
  • Linus “Limmp” Blomdin (mid-lane)
  • Gustav “s4” Magnusson (off-lane) (C)
  • Simon “Handsken” Haag (soft support)
  • Artiom “fng” Barshack (hard support)

Team Liquid (Direct invite) (EU)

Roster:

  • Michael “miCKe” Vu (position 1)
  • Maximilian “qojqva” Bröcker (mid-lane)
  • Samuel “Boxi” Svahn (off-lane)
  • Tommy “Taiga” Le (soft support)
  • Aydin “iNSaNiA” Sarkohi (hard support) (C)

Team Spirit (Direct invite) (CIS) (TI10-qualified)

Roster:

  • Illya “Yatoro” Mulyarchuk (position 1)
  • Alexander “TORONTOTOKYO” Khertek (mid-lane)
  • Magomed “Collapse” Khalilov (off-lane)
  • Miroslaw “Miroslaw” Kolpakov (soft support)
  • Yaroslav “Miposhka” Naidenov (hard support) (C)

T1 (Direct invite) (SEA) (TI10-qualified)

Roster:

  • Nuengnara “23savage” Teeramahanon (position 1)
  • Karl “Karl” Baldovino (mid-lane)
  • Carlo “Kuku” Palad (off-lane) (C)
  • Kenny “Xepher” Deo (soft support)
  • Matthew “Whitemon” Filemon (hard support)

Thunder Predator (Direct invite) (SA) (TI10-qualified)

Roster:

  • Alonso “Mnz” León (position 1)
  • Leonardo “Leostyle-” Sifuentes (mid-lane)
  • Frank “Frank” Arias (off-lane)
  • Joel Mori “MoOz” Ozambela (soft support) (C)
  • Romel “Mjz” Quinteros (hard support)

PSG.LGD (Direct invite) (CN) (TI10-qualified)

Roster:

  • Wang “Ame” Chunyu (position 1)
  • Zhang “xiao8” Ning (mid-lane)** (coach)
  • Zhang “Faith_bian” Ruida (off-lane)
  • Zhao “XinQ” Zixing (soft support)
  • Zhang “y`” Yiping (hard support) (C)

**substitute for Cheng “NothingToSay” Jin Xiang

beastcoast (Direct invite) (SA) (TI10-qualified)

Roster:

  • Héctor Antonio “K1” Rodríguez Asto (position 1)
  • Jean Pierre “Chris Luck” Gonzales Salazar (mid-lane)
  • Adrián “Wisper” Céspedes Dobles (off-lane)
  • Elvis Joel “Scofield” De la Cruz Peña (soft support)
  • Steven “Stinger” Vargas Mamani (hard support) (C)

Virtus.pro (Direct invite) (CIS) (TI10-qualified)

Roster:

  • Egor “Nightfall” Grigorenko (position 1)
  • Danil “gpk” Skutin (mid-lane)
  • Dmitry “DM” Dorokhin (off-lane)
  • Vitalie “Save-” Melnic (soft support) (C)
  • Illias “Kingslayer” Ganeev (hard support)

Tundra Esports (Direct invite) (EU)

Roster:

  • Oliver “skiter” Lepko (position 1)
  • Leon “Nine” Kirilin (mid-lane)
  • Neta “33” Shapira (off-lane)
  • Jingjun “Sneyking” Wu (soft support)
  • Adrian “Fata” Trinks (hard support) (C)

SG esports (Direct invite) (SA) (TI10-qualified)

Roster:

  • Guilherme “Costabile” Costábile (position 1)
  • Adriano “4dr” Machado (mid-lane)
  • Otávio “Tavo” Gabriel Cerqueira Silva (off-lane)
  • Thiago “Thiolicor” Cordeiro (soft support)
  • Mattheus “KJ” Diniz (hard support) (C)

Team Empire (Closed qualifier winner) (CIS)

Roster:

  • Alexey “Smiling Knight” Sviridov (position 1)
  • Gleb “depressed kid” Ziryanov (mid-lane)
  • Maxim “Shachlo” Abramovskikh (off-lane)
  • Oleg “sayuw” Kalenbet (soft support)
  • Ivan “VANSKOR” Skorokhod (hard support)

Creepwave (Closed qualifier winner) (EU)

Roster:

  • Remco “Crystallis” Arets (position 1)
  • Bozhidar Georgiev “hansha” Bogdanov (mid-lane)
  • Ammar “ATF” Al-Assaf (off-lane)
  • Evgenii “Chu” Makarov (soft support)
  • Dzmitry “Fishman” Palishchuk (hard support)

ESL One Fall 2021 – schedules, streams and more

The tournament will begin with a four-day group stage set of matches, divided into the A and B streams. The A streams will be happening on ESL Dota 2’s Twitch channel, while the B Streams can be watched on the tournament organizer’s B channel. T1, Team Spirit, Thunder Predator, Tundra Esports, Team Liquid, and SG esports will open the tournament for the A streams, while the B streams will have Virtus.pro, Creepwave, Alliance, Team Empire, Team Spirit, and Thunder Predator matches. You can check out the full group stage format and schedules here. The group stages will run from August 21 to 24.

ESL One Fall 2021
Credit: Liquipedia | screenshot by the author

After group stages, the teams will be seeded according to their W-L records into their respective playoff brackets. This will run from August 26 to August 29 and is a double-elimination bracket Bo3 format. The grand final will be Bo5, and the winning team will take the lion’s share of the $400,000 prize pot, totaling $175,000.

Categories
Dota 2

Dota 2 patch 7.30 – who are the OP heroes in this patch?

Valve has just updated Dota 2 for the first time in months, and with the metagame now shifting once again here are the OP heroes for patch 7.30, as well as some to avoid due to their nerfs.

Dota 2 patch 7.30 – big metagame changes

With another big tournament incoming later this week in the form of the ESL One Fall 2021, Dota 2 players finally had their prayers answered with the release of patch 7.30, the game’s next big update and one that will save the player base from lobbies filled with Broodmothers and Templar Assassins.

However, this does not mean that nobody will be there to take their places instead, and indeed there are some standout heroes that will most likely be considered OP for patch 7.30. On the other side of the spectrum, there are some heroes as well who should be avoided due to some very big nerfs.

With all of that in mind, let’s take a closer look at the biggest winners and losers of patch 7.30 for Dota 2.

OP heroes for Dota 2’s patch 7.30

Tinker

Tinker Dota 2 patch 7.30
Credit: Valve

As an avid Dota 2 player myself, I believe Valve might have made a very big misstep with the 7.30 iteration of Tinker. At a glance, it will seem like the changes for him made him slower in farming due to the removal of March of the Machines, but it’s important to look at what this entailed in return.

KEEN CONVEYANCE

  • New Rearm Sub-ability. Channel for 4.5/4/3.5s to teleport to a friendly Building. Level 2 allows targeting units and level 3 allows targeting heroes. Mana cost: 75

This sub-ability levels up in conjunction with Rearm, Tinker’s signature ultimate skill. This ability is, for lack of a better term, ‘stupid beyond belief,’ and it makes Tinker one of the most OP heroes in patch 7.30.

What makes this ability broken is the fact that now, Tinker can spam Rearm and Keen Conveyance to keep himself topped up in terms of health and mana at all times, and the only barrier to it is hitting level 6. Previously, for Tinker to meet these conditions, he would have to first farm 2500 gold for Boots of Travel, a fairly decent tradeoff for what it can provide him. Now, with Rearm and Keen Convergence immediately available, Tinker can be a terror in the side lanes with the reworked Laser and the always reliable Heat-seeking Missile with very little tradeoff to keep him in check.

Tinker’s rework added the Defense Matrix skill in lieu of March of the Machines, basically interchanging the Shard skill with the original one. The skill is incredibly potent at shielding himself and his allies, with the status resistance on top to help increase its potency.

All of that said, there is a bit of a nerf to Tinker’s overall farming and split-pushing power, as March of the Machines now requires an Aghanim’s Shard to be skilled. Shard costs 1400 gold and it will be available 20 minutes into the game, which means that so long as you can shut down the Tinker before he hits big items like the Scythe of Vyse, you will have a chance to win against him.

TL; DR — Tinker no longer needs BoTs to make an impact, lowering his barrier to usefulness in the team.

Slark

Slark Dota 2 patch 7.30
Credit: Valve

The small, amphibious terror may be on his way back to the big leagues, as slight changes to Slark made him one of the OP heroes to check out in Dota 2 patch 7.30. What will make him top-tier in this current metagame are not those slight changes themselves, although they did help a lot; what will push him to see more play are the significant nerfs to other carries, such as Medusa, Luna and Terrorblade.

First and foremost, Slark got a sizable buff to his Dark Pact skill, significantly lowering its own damage while keeping most of the other values intact. This means that this spell is now definitely more spammable in-lane, allowing Slark to have kill potential even before he gets to level 6. His ultimate, Shadow Dance, also had its cooldown reduced by a noticeable margin, giving him more chances to use it.

His Talent tree saw a mixed bag of changes, although it’s arguable that overall it made Slark more formidable across all stages of the game. He lost some lifesteal and attack speed but gained the latter back while in Shadow Dance, so it balanced itself out in the end. The +1 Agi per Essence Shift stack talent at level 20 is possibly OP, especially if he’s built himself a lead before he hits that magic number.

TL; DR — Slark moved to the top tier thanks to small buffs and heavy nerfs for other top-tier carries.

Lycan

Lycan Dota 2 patch 7.30
Credit: Valve

Before 7.30 came out, Lycan was one of the heroes that were in a weird, not-quite-carry, not-quite-off-laner state. This loss of identity was one of the biggest reasons why his pick rate suffered, but thanks to significant buffs for this patch he may have found his calling as a powerful core that can fit into a ton of team compositions.

One of the biggest changes for Lycan to make him one of Dota 2 patch 7.30’s OP heroes is with regards to his Wolves. Upgraded Shard Wolves have been made to be much stronger, making them split-pushing monsters that can passively generate income for Lycan after minute 20. They now have Low Attack Priority, meaning that they are the last to be targeted by enemy creeps, and they can now Cripple towers as well, giving them massive bonus damage overall.

He also got a minor buff for his level 15 talent, which changed the percentage cooldown reduction into a flat -20s cooldown on his ultimate, Shapeshift. This makes it easier to play with your team overall.

TL; DR — Lycan’s Shard Wolves got buffed by a ton, and his 15 talent makes his Shapeshift ultimate much more reliable overall.

Beastmaster

Beastmaster Dota 2 patch 7.30
Credit: Valve

The walking zoo himself should see a bit of a boost on his Dotabuff stats thanks to buffs across the board. Beastmaster is easily one of the most OP heroes in Dota 2’s patch 7.30 thanks to not only changes within his skillset, but with regards to changes for Helm of the Overlord as well.

One of the better changes made within Beastmaster’s kit is with regards to his Shard upgrade for Call of the Wild Hawk. Previously, the stun skill that came along with it was ground-targeted, meaning that if the enemy can move outside its range they’ll be safe. The 7.30 changes made it so that it is now unit-targeted instead, giving it tracking abilities and a reliable stun, to boot. The Board and Hawk also got significant upgrades as well, with the former getting more damage at earlier levels while more vision was given to the latter.

To make matters more interesting for Beastmaster, Helm of the Overlord’s components have also been reworked. Beastmaster is one of the heroes that make use of this primarily, thanks to its abilities to dominate creeps. With the added Vladmir’s Offering component, Beastmaster can now provide more aura for his team and creeps, including his annoying Boars, without needing to take up one more slot for it.

TL; DR — Beastmaster’s pets have been buffed significantly, and his Shard Hawk is now a reliable, unit-targeted stun.

Shadow Fiend

Shadow Fiend Dota 2 patch 7.30
Credit: Valve

Nevermore has always been one of the poster boys, not only for Dota 2, but for the original Warcraft III mod released more than a decade ago. While he was not in the worst spot ever before patch 7.30, certain buffs to his abilities will push him to OP for the rest of this patch (barring big changes, of course).

The first is with regards to his Shard upgrade, which affects Necromastery. Patch 7.30 changed it to be an attack modifier once you’ve purchased a Shard, and just like all of Shadow Fiend’s abilities it makes use of his soul collection number at any given moment. The reworked Shard upgrade for Necromastery now consumes one soul, but grants your next atack 170% crit damage on a three-second cooldown. To make things better, killing an enemy unit with this modified attack grants two souls instead of one.

This buff makes it so that Shadow Fiend does not fall off too much in the late game, while keeping his early terror laning presence intact. Several buffs to his Talent tree made him very OP for patch 7.30 as well, including increased attack speed and spell amplification as well as earlier Shadow Raze damage boost at level 15 instead of 20.

TL; DR — Shadow Fiend is now not as reliant on his spell damage thanks to the new Necromastery Shard upgrade.

Patch 7.30’s biggest losers

On the other end of the spectrum, some heroes got struck by Valve’s nerf-hammer too much to drop off in overall viability for high-level games. In particular, there are two heroes who are less likely to be useful this patch 7.30, compared to their previous status in the last patch.

Broodmother

Broodmother Dota 2 patch 7.30
Credit: Valve

In the span of a few hours since the patch hit, the Spider Queen herself went from one of the highest win-rate heroes on Dotabuff to currently its lowest, an oversight that will most likely be fixed soon by Valve. Broodmother is currently one of the weakest heroes in the patch, with a ton of her strengths outright neutered in an effort to curb her curb stomping nature.

It’s a classic case of over-nerfing, as Spin Web’s overall utility has been reduced to almost nonexistent once Broodmother hits a certain health percentage. Spawning Spiderlings is also more costly now, with reduced damage on top. Her Scepter upgrade also does not grant her more Webs, which is a big part of the purchase and why Broodmothers tend to go with it. Its replacement, Spinner’s Snare, looks intriguing, but at the moment it does not seem to be very useful as most players are figuring out.

All of this said, Broodmother can still be good in some scenarios, she is no longer the game-wrecker she was previously known as.

TL; DR — Broodmother is weak now due to nerfs to her Spin Web and increased mana costs on Spiderlings. Removing additional Webs from her Scepter upgrade also seemed to have killed its potential.

Templar Assassin

Templar Assassin Dota 2 patch 7.30
Credit: Valve

Another hero who needed hitting with the nerf-hammer for 7.30 is Templar Assassin, and she got what she deserved – and some more on top. She’s not as useless now as Broodmother, but it has made enough of an impact to stop her from snowballing out of control just by farming endlessly for the first 15 minutes of the game.

One of her biggest points of contention was Psi Blades, and now it has been slightly reworked to keep her from constantly out-farming everyone else just by staying at a distance. The range multiplier has been decreased, from 2 to 1.5, meaning that no more Psi Blades to kill you even from fog of war. The Psi Blades also deal less and less damage for each unit it passess through, a good trade for keeping the damage still Pure at the end of the day.

Her Scepter upgrade has also been nerfed, with Psionic Projection now requiring a longer channeling time and preventing TA from teleporting if she’s rooted or leashed. Her Psi Blades range Talent has also been moved to level 15, curbing her early game snowball potential.

TL; DR — Nerfs to Templar Assassin’s Psi Blades and Psionic Projection has somewhat curbed her disgustingly potent farming potential at all stages of the game.