This article is part of our Dota 2 series.
On Aug. 2 the four teams who placed second in the main qualifier playoffs will compete for the two remaining wild card spot at the main event of The International 6. This year's Wild Card features a diverse mix of veterans looking to return to The International and starry-eyed newcomers getting their first chance in the competitive spotlight.
The wild card will be a double-elimination bracket, with all games played in best of three. The two top teams advance to the main event, while the other two are eliminated.
compLexity Gaming
Although they attended The International 5, The Shanghai Major and The Manila Major as the same roster, compLexity's results have been consistently underwhelming. The highlight of their last year is a 5th-6th place finish at The Shanghai Major. More recently they were among the first two teams eliminated from the StarLadder iLeague Season 2 finals. After only being invited to attend after Newbee withdrawing and Invictus Gaming failing to secure visas in time they lost to Team Secret and F.R.I.E.N.D.S, the ex-Virtus.Pro roster minus their captain Artsiom "fng" Barshack.
Despite their many flaws, compLexity is a team that can take games off good teams like Fnatic and Na'Vi. They won a best of one against Wings Gaming at The Manila Major, sending Wings to an embarrassing last place finish. They recently brought on the Dota 2 statistician Nahaz to coach the team, although he didn't help them much at StarLadder. compLexity has also reached out to the sports training group IMG Academy, and contracted James Leath. Their statement claims Leath is a leadership, communication and coaching expert who will be helping the team communicate and perform under stress.
compLexity is also the only team in the wild card who has had any significant practice on LAN since the qualifiers. Even though their StarLadder run ended early, they were still exposed to what will likely be the metagame for the first few days of The International 6.
If compLexity finds Execration in their first match, they can probably move into the upper bracket finals. Matching up against EHOME or Escape is going to be a serious challenge, and teamwork is going to have to take compLexity a long way if they expect to win those matchups.
EHOME
Of all the wild card teams, there is no team with more combined experience than EHOME. Daryl Koh "Iceiceice" Pei Xiang, Zhang "LaNm" Zhicheng and Lu "Fenrir" Chao are all seasoned veterans. Between the three of them, they have a combined 11 International appearances, and LaNm has attended all five. They had less luck at the recent Manila Major, failing to qualify after getting crushed by the same Newbee squad that secured a direct invite to The International 6. Although by now the results are two weeks old, they have been winning in Chinese events vs teams like Vici Gaming and managed to tie in two best of twos with Vici.Reborn and Wings Gaming.
Although they possess an immense amount of individual talent in each position, EHOME has shown issues with teamwork and coordination in their past showings at major events. If they want to advance, EHOME will have to face two teams that rely heavily on execution, compLexity Gaming and Escape Gaming. Although EHOME should be able to dominate their lanes and win against compLexity, this will be more of an issue against Escape. Even though EHOME should be advancing to the main event, hubris can strike a team down at any time.
Execration
Execration is a team that has never really struck out from the South East Asian scene. The only major event they have attended was World Cyber Arena 2015 in China. They placed 13th-16th at there, only winning a single game vs TNC Gaming. Other than that they have mediocre results in SEA online tournaments.
Their showing in The International 6 SEA qualifiers is probably their best tournament run to date. They managed to win a best of one against Fnatic in the round robin stages, and finished with an impressive 7-2 record. They got crushed in the tie breakers by a vengeful Fnatic squad and TNC Gaming, sending them to the playoffs for the final spots. Although they showed serious resolve by making it through the lower bracket, Execration got beaten pretty badly 3-1 in the finals by Fnatic.
Apart from a Captain's Draft tournament, Execration haven't played many official matches since the qualifiers. Without events like The Summit or StarLadder, Execration was hopefully able to find a way to practice the new Drow Ranger plus Shadow Demon metagame. Coming into this event unprepared for a well-executed Drow Ranger draft is an assured way to get eliminated early.
Execration is not likely to make it through to the main event, but simply attending is a massive step for the team. It was difficult enough for them to secure their visas to the event, only getting them on July 28 thanks to help from Filipino Senator Bam Aquino.
Escape Gaming
Of all the teams here, Escape Gaming has the best individual players to stand up to EHOME in lane. Max "Qojqva" Broecker, Adrian "Era" Kryeziu and Maurice "Khezu" Gutmann are all extremely talented core players and are all capable of beating almost anyone in lane. The last time Escape matched up against any of the other wild card teams was three months ago in a 0-2 loss to compLexity, but that was when they were still No Diggity.
Recently they participated in the qualifiers for both The Summit 5 and StarLadder iLeague Season 2 but failed to make it to both. They did participate in the Global Grand Masters, an online tournament. After being knocked to the lower bracket by Team Empire, Escape advanced as far as the second round of the lower bracket where they were eliminated by Vega Squadron. To Escape's credit, the grand finals of the Global Grand Masters would end up being Team Empire vs Vega Squadron, with Empire taking it 3-0.
Although they also haven't played much since the qualifiers, Escape do have the experience and analytical abilities of Troels "syndereN" Nielsen to fall back on. Despite his tendency to feed in game, syndereN will have certainly prepared his team against all the new strong picks like Drow Ranger and Shadow Demon than have surfaced in the past few weeks.
Escape should find themselves through to the main event, provided that they can match up well against compLexity and EHOME.
