Manila Major Team Preview: Team Secret

Every sport has an all-star team and for Dota 2, it is Team Secret.

Secret were created by the veteran Puppey, who has been a major player in the Dota scene ever since the early days of Dota 1.

In 2014 he created a line-up which included some of the best Dota 2 players around. As a result, the team had a great 2015 and won tournament after tournament, with their only real competition seeming to be EG. However, they failed when it mattered most as at The International 5, they only managed to secure 7-8^th spot.

Following this failure, all players apart from Puppey left and soon he created a new team, relying on a balance of veterans and fresh blood. They managed to secure 2^nd spot at the first Major in Frankfurt and after a period of ups and downs, they went on to win the second one in Shanghai in March.

Despite this success, w33 and MiSeRy were released and this made room for the EG duo of Arteezy and UNiVeRsE, which completed their current line-up.

 

Roster

Jacky “EternaLEnVy” Mao – position 1/2
Artour “Arteezy” Babaev – position 1/2
Saahil “UNiVeRsE” Arora – position 3
Clement “Puppey” Ivanov (c) – position 4
Johan “pieliedie” Åström – position 5

 

2016 achievements:

Epicenter – 7-8^th

ESL One Manila – 5-6^th

Dota Pit League Season 4 – 5-8^th

The Shanghai Major 2016 – 1^st

Star Ladder Star Series Season 13 & i-League Season 4 – 5-6^th

 

Current form:

May – 0% win rate (3 losses)

 

Top 5 most picked heroes (patch 6.87c)

 

Top 5 most banned heroes (patch 6.87c)

 

Team Secret’s performances since the Frankfurt Major have been somewhat inconsistent. They have the best Major record of all teams (2^nd in Frankfurt and 1^st in Shanghai), but have performed poorly elsewhere, failing to achieve better than 5-6^th spot in six other Premier tournaments. Both ESL One Manila and Epicenter left a bad taste in the mouth, with the latter being one of the worst performances for the team on record as they lost three matches, securing no victories and winning only two games out of eight.

The new star signings of Arteezy and UNiVeRSe haven’t amounted to much so far either. This is Arteezy’s second spell with the team as he left Secret to rejoin EG after The International 5. He has a different playstyle to that of his predecessor w33, who was more of a playmaker and did not require much attention from his team. Arteezy, although a strong laner, needs much more space to farm for his items. While he does not have a limited hero pool, he definitely has preferences. Despite this, Puppey seems to be drafting according to team strategy rather than Arteezy’s strengths.

As a drafter, Puppey offers both experience and pocket strategies, and rarely goes wrong. Due to the new patch and the recent roster changes, he has been experimenting with different hero compositions, but he usually likes to pick heroes with whom his team are comfortable. The team have played few games in this patch and apart from Lion, who is a top meta pick currently, Team Secret haven’t demonstrated strong preferences for certain heroes. Puppey’s love for Doom is well-known though and he was one of the key heroes for them in Shanghai.

The team are still finding their rhythm and do not have a clear playstyle as of yet. They are also lacking the necessary team chemistry. Nevertheless, Team Secret have a high individual skill level and tend to pull off strong performances when it matters. This was particularly the case when they won in Shanghai, which was a tournament where everyone had largely written them off. Don’t write them off again.

Dafabet will be providing competitive odds on The Manila Major.