OGA Dota PIT Minor 2019 is one of the last two Minors of the Dota Pro Circuit. The stakes are high because the winner of the tournament gets the final ticket to the MDL Paris Major. Every other participant will be left with just one more chance to earn enough points to get a top 12 result at the end of the season and receive a direct invite to The International 2019.
OGA Dota PIT Minor 2019 is scheduled to take place between April 22nd – 28th. The location of the event is Split, Croatia, so the timezone will be CET.
OGA Dota PIT Minor 2019 Participants And Format
OGA Dota PIT Minor 2019 brings together eight teams from all of the major regions.
- North America: Forward Gaming
- South America: Majestic Esports
- CIS: Gambit Esports
- Europe: Ninjas in Pyjamas, Alliance
- China: EHOME, Royal Never Give Up
- Southeast Asia: BOOM ID
OGA Dota PIT Minor 2019 will have two stages. For the Group Stage, the teams will be divided into two groups and both of these groups will be played in a Round-Robin format. The best two teams from each group will play in the Upper Bracket of the Playoffs Stage while the bottom two will play in the Lower Bracket. Every series is Bo3 until the Grand Final (Bo5).
Points and Prize Distribution
OGA Dota PIT Minor 2019 offers $300.000 as well as 500 qualification points for TI 9. These rewards will be divided among the competitors in the following way:
- 1st position: $125.000 – 120 points
- 2nd position: $65.000 – 100 points
- 3rd position: $35.000 – 90 points
- 4th position: $25.000 – 70 points
- 5th position: $15.000 – 40 points
- 6th position: $15.000 – 40 points
- 7th position: $10.000 – 20 points
- 8th position: $10.000 – 20 points
The OGA Dota PIT Team Analysis
Here’s a brief analysis of the most important teams that will compete at OGA Dota PIT Minor 2019.
Ninjas in Pyjamas
NiP is currently sitting at number seven in the DPC rankings, so they are likely to go to TI 9 regardless of what happens at the last two Majors of the season. However, it would be a big loss for them not to qualify for these competitions. The closer we get to The International 2019, the more important it is for any team to test their skills against the world’s best competitors and prove to themselves that they’re still relevant at the highest professional level.
Apart from finishing 4th at the first Major of the season, NiP didn’t manage to do much else that would be worth mentioning. In fact, the failures stand out even more than the achievements. The Ninjas failed to take part in the second Major and at the third, they only got a poor result (9th – 12th place).
In spite of their poor current form, NiP is still one of the best teams at OGA Dota PIT Minor 2019 and is expected to get a top 3 result. Most analysts would say that they’re the most likely team to win the tournament, but based on their most recent results, we don’t see that happening.
Gambit Esports
Gambit Esports is one of the most underrated teams of this season. They took part in the first Major of the season but then missed the following two, placing 2nd each time in the Minor event that preceded them. In total, Gambit played in five Grand Finals this season. Two of them were part of DPC Minors and the other 3 were part of other types of tournaments.
Based on what Gambit showed us at previous DPC events, we expect them to get at least a top three result at OGA Dota PIT Minor 2019. And not only that, but we would also regard them as the most likely team to win the tournament.
EHOME
EHOME is one of the best teams in China and is currently sitting at number 12 in the Dota Pro Circuit rankings. Normally, this would be the most likely team to win the title at OGA Dota PIT Minor 2019. However, they recently went through multiple roster changes and because of that, they are quite unpredictable at this point. They may turn out to be the best team in the tournament but they may also get crushed by at least three other competitors.
The most important player that was signed by EHOME is Ferrari_430. This guy has been around since the very beginning and is a TI champion. His experience may prove extremely valuable for EHOME but the other players may prove to be on a much lower skill level.
Going into OGA Dota PIT Minor 2019, we expect EHOME to either be a Grand Finalist or finish somewhere around 5th – 6th. And it’s all a matter of team cohesion and well executed strategies.
Royal Never Give Up
RNG is another top five team in the Chinese region. However, they have yet to achieve something a the international level and qualify for their first Major. Like EHOME, RNG made a lot of roster changes in recent months and furthermore, their lineup consists of several superstars but also a few no-names. That combination makes them more likely to fail than to succeed. It doesn’t matter that you have LaNm, Monet and ah fu on the team, if your midlaner and offlaner are relatively weak players by comparison.
At OGA Dota PIT Minor 2019, we expect RNG to finish around 5th – 6th. They may climb a bit higher than that, but anything about the 4th place is unthinkable at this point and would require serious blunders from the stronger competitors.
Alliance
Alliance seemed to be a strong team at the start of the season. They took part in two Majors, finishing 9th – 12th and 13th – 16th respectively. But as soon as the top teams from Europe managed to solve their internal issues and get their act together, Alliance became an underdog again. Their success had been a result of other people’s problems and not of their own skills.
Going into OGA Dota PIT Minor 2019, we have fairly low expectations from Alliance. They may get a 5th – 6th place result, but anything above that would take a miracle.
One thing to note about Alliance is their latest roster addition. You may have heard the name before, and not just in some anime. The player that we’re referring to is Madara and he’s a former member of Ad Finem. This guy is a pretty strong carry and could prove useful in helping Alliance do better than usual at OGA Dota PIT Minor 2019.
Forward Gaming
And finally, the last team worth mentioning is Forward Gaming. This used to be one of the best team in North America but after six months of failures at DPC Majors, the three superstar players decided to leave and now the organization has a new roster. This isn’t necessarily a bad roster either, but it’s not as good as the former one. Subsequently, there’s not much we can expect from Forward Gaming at OGA Dota PIT Minor 2019. Finishing 4th would probably be a surprising achievement given the current situation that they’re in. With SVG, Resolut1on and UNiVeRsE out, Forward is likely to quickly turn into a casual NA team that has very few chances of making it to The International this year.
