PGL Wallachia Recap
Image from PGL Dota 2
The second season of Wallachia was a blast through and through. Despite technically being on a patch similar to TI, the diversity of strategies and hero picks was considerably higher. Today we would like to have a quick recap of the historical tournament and highlight some of the most exciting facts.
South America is undeniably a Tier 1 region
Perhaps the most exciting part of the tournament — the first ever LAN victory for South America. The region has been steadily getting more and more competitive in Dota and it culminated in one of the most satisfying performances this year.
Naturally, we cannot disregard the absence of some notable teams: the big four of Team Liquid, Team Spirit, Gaimin Gladiators and Xtreme Gaming didn’t participate in the tournament. However, given considerable reshuffles in the scene and the fact the Heroic had to beat Team Falcons in a best-of-five, it shouldn’t take away from their victory.
On top of it, three SA teams made it into top8 of the tournament with Beastcoast getting incredibly close to making it into top4 as well.
Hopefully the region will keep its momentum going forward, as their brand of Dota is a lot of fun to watch. Perhaps because they have a slightly different approach to the game as a whole.
The return of hard carry
ɹǝʞɹɐd⚔️ is a tournament MVP for a reason and even if Heroic faltered in the grand finals, he would still be deserving of the title. Reminiscent of K1 back in the day, this SA player potentially redefined the carry’s place in the meta, being the deciding factor in almost every game.
This is in stark contrast to what was the de-facto approach for top teams for a really long while. With supports getting a lot of late-game tools and better scaling and Offlaners sometimes being re-imagined into an additional carry role, carries felt slightly less significant than in the early days of Dota.
After Parker’s performance it is safe to say that hard-carrying the game is still possible, as long as you are good enough. And even though it is perhaps too early to place him in the same category as Ame and Yatoro, we are still incredibly hyped for the upcoming tournaments featuring him and Heroic in general.
Meta changes
Wallachia also delivered in terms of overall meta. The game’s state is still far from perfect professional meta-wise and we’ve had much more diverse patches before, but it seems we are moving in the right direction.
Twenty heroes went ignored throughout the tournament, which is still unideal. However, only one hero had a 90%+ contest rate and only three were picked or banned in 80%+ of the games. Overall, we feel like team preferences and ideas played a much bigger part in what felt viable in the tournament, which felt refreshing in comparison to the “pick the best meta heroes” approach of the last couple of years.
On top of that, we finally had multiple non-aura Offlaners making a return. Or rather, we finally had players play to their heroes’ strengths, rather than trying to make heroes like 
Timbersaw an aura carrier. Because of it, the games felt a little bit more dynamic, despite taking longer on average.
The pickoffs felt like they mattered, and smart strategic gambits also happened a lot more frequently in a tournament not defined by balling up into an unstoppable force with multiple auras as soon as possible.
Don’t get us wrong: the game is still incredibly tankiness reliant, however the latest patch definitely made it feel a little bit more open-ended. Though, truth be told, we are hoping for even more changes to the meta.
Closing thoughts
PGL Wallachia Season 2 was an awesome start to the new competitive season. We’ve got to see new faces rise to the top and are incredibly excited about what’s next. Hopefully on a new, economy-redefining patch.
What do you think of this tournament? Do you share our sentiment that it was one of the most entertaining tournaments to watch or was the absence of the competitors a deal-breaker? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
You need more articles per week and I shall help you soon
I was out casting Wallachia, and the studio's in a different city, so didn't have my usual workspace. Hard to keep up with multiple jobs at the same time, though I do try my best(
Es el mes de parker, halloween.
Eso alimento su alma de gargola por ganar
How I hate timbersaw oh my god
>no tier 1 team present
>morons start thinking SA is tier 1
>no tier 1 team present
>morons start thinking SA is tier 1
>Checks comment owner profile: LEGEND...
>no tier 1 team present
>morons start thinking SA is tier 1
>Checks comment owner profile: LEGEND...
>Checks comment owner profile: LEGEND...
>no tier 1 team present
>morons start thinking SA is tier 1
>Checks comment owner profile: LEGEND...
>Checks comment owner profile: LEGEND...
>Checks comment owner profile: GUARDIAN...
ROFL!!
But back to being serious - ever since the map got bigger , most games take way to long to end I’ve found.
I no longer play ranked or any normal matches. Turbo only for me now.
Such an amazing platform, and they post like once a month, sadness.
Game is dying, platforms like this are dying. Our epoch is coming to its end, gen-Z trends are taking over. It's the nature of time
I don't think Gen-Z have enough attention span to read a whole article lol
@NinjaNes it's not about game dying or anything, I am a firm believer that Dota is currently in a good place, generally speaking, with massive updates coming yearly etc.
That said, we didn't have a major patch in a while so instead of writing a bad article, I am in information-gathering mode, trying to find interesting topics to cover. I don't think it's a lot of fun to write or read about how the game is "still the same" for a month+
Information gathering now also includes casting Tier 1 tournaments and I am currently preparing to work DreamLeague as a RU-language caster, which definitely cuts into my writing time, as I have to travel to a different city to a studio, unfortunately. Since it is now a somewhat consistent position, I am working on ways to improve my work flow when not at home as well, and it is a rather painful process, for both objective, comfort/accessibility to PC reasons and mental reasons. Over the last month I've been home for a ~week and it does take its toll.
But don't worry, I am not losing any kind of motivation for writing, in fact I am more motivated than I ever was, as long as I find a good and interesting topic. Dota was and is the most complex and deepest game ever made and it doesn't look like it's going to change any time soon, given the trends Lior pointed out. So good, exciting ideas are definitely coming)