Cover-Credits:
After numerous roster changes and a lack of success over the previous two years, Team SMG has finally made the cut in the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) Southeast Asia (SEA) 2023 Tour 2: Division I by qualifying for its first ever Dota 2 Major. This also means that its captain, Yeik "MidOne" Nai Zheng, who has been hustling in the SEA region for the last two years following incredible success in prior years, will be seen playing live in a major LAN event for the first time in a while. Janne "Gorgc" Stefanovski, a well-known Dota 2 livestreamer, who shares a good rapport with MidOne, expressed his thoughts on SMG's qualification, stating that he was pleased to see MidOne achieve this milestone.
Gorgc calls MidOne the ‘Nisha of 2018-19’
Gorgc was amazed to stumble upon Team SMG as the first team to qualify for the Berlin Major. He came across this update on Reddit during one of his recent livestreams. During his explanation of how huge it was for MidOne to again be playing at such a big stage, Gorgc described MidOne as 2018-19's Nisha in reference to his previous achievements.
"SMG? Oh, man. I am so happy for them. I genuinely feel happy for them. First time, MidOne has gone to a LAN in forever. Damn, cool. This guy literally used to be a GOATed Dota player, guys. He was the Nisha of 2018-19. Then he hasn't played LAN in years. That's big.”
With his incredible success as a midlaner over the past few years, Nisha has led Team Secret to multiple victories and now directs the efforts of Team Liquid.
As far as Majors are concerned, MidOne last played one in June 2019 as part of the EPICENTER Major 2019. The player, who had won multiple events in three years with Team Secret from 2017 to 2019 and also became a three-time Major champion during this period, moved on to OG following his fourth place finish at The International 9 (TI), and then to SMG following that.
It has been difficult for the 26-year-old to achieve success at both OG and SMG since 2019, but he continues to persevere and remains committed to returning to his roots of greatness.
Currently, Team SMG stands at the top of Division I in the DPC SEA 2023 Tour 2 with five wins. Although the team faced a tough challenge against Talon Esports, it didn't go down without putting up a fight and it has been its only series loss in the event so far. SMG has not lost a single game in the remaining five series.
In this rise in performance, MidOne's transition to offlane, the adoption of new strategies, and Wilson "poloson" Koh's addition to the roster, all seem to be major contributors. At the same time, none of the teams in the SEA region have been able to showcase continued good performances lately aside from Talon Esports.
SMG and MidOne will attempt to end the league on a high note by defeating Bleed Esports in its league's final series on 29th March. The squad will then have nearly a month to prepare for the considerably more difficult Berlin Major, which begins on 26th April.
