by Sören ‘Fantasy’ Vendsahm
New year, new luck. After a mediocre start for the compLexity organization, in which the program looked to be on the right path, but ended up just one game outside of every major LAN event, a fresh start begins. With the Dota 2 Asian Championships comes a huge opportunity to break the dry spell. The major event kicks off the new year with an impressive base prize pool of $250.000 USD and a compendium to boost it above and beyond. The fanbase of Dota 2 came to the aid of the tournament, making it surpass the WCA 2014 for the largest and most lucrative event outside of The International. A stunning amount of $1,000,000 USD will be on the line with almost half of it going to the champions.
With that much on the line, the competition from all three regions of the Dota 2 world is on. North America, Europe, Asia are all trying to claim the coveted spots. 16 teams in total will go to the LAN event in China, scheduled to take place at the beginning of February. Until then, the eight open spots will be filled and coL.Dota is looking to use the energy of the new year to go East.
The competition in the entire tournament is top-notch and the North American qualifier is no different. compLexity will have to deal with Cloud 9, eHug and their rivals from Team Fire – adding another chapter to that ongoing slugfest for North American bragging rights. The grudge match will also start the action in the North American division in the Upper Bracket Semifinals. Swindle and his boys will have their hands full with the emerging team, that cost coL an opportunity to go to two LAN events in the past year. Starting this off with an act of revenge, claiming back some of the confidence would be vital for the squad.
Joining the battlefield next to Swindle, ZfreeK, Limmp and Moonmeander will be stand-in Biver, who had his debut with the team in the joinDota Masters last Friday already. With Waga still on vacation, the Swedish player will take over the responsibilities in the middle lane, which worked out in the first match already. With him in the mix, the squad will attempt to get past Fire, Cloud 9 and eHug to represent the black and red family on the first LAN event for the new coL.Dota initiative.
Support them and tune in to BeyondtheSummit at 10 PM CET / 4 PM EST / 1 PM PST and stay throughout the night as the Upper Bracket Finals and the first round of the Lower Bracket will also be played that day.