Cover-Credits:
The International 2022 (TI11) champions Tundra Esports started its 2023 Western Europe (WEU) Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) season strong with a comfortable victory over two time TI winning organization OG. With the off-season officially ended, many were excited and intrigued to see the newly established rosters making their professional debut in the regional leagues.
While the season officially starts today in the WEU region, both Tundra Esports and OG were looking to start the season strong with a victory against the other team.
OG vs Tundra Esports: Match recap and highlights
Recap
OG only made one roster change in the offlane during the off-season as previous season’s breakout star Ammar "ATF" Al-Assaf moved to Nigma Galaxy as a carry player. However, OG found a suitable replacement in Virtus.pro’s former offlaner, Dmitry "DM" Dorokhin.
As for Tundra Esports, the organization retained its championship winning roster for the 2023 season.
Game One
The early game was fairly even, as OG went all-in on an aggressive early game while Tundra Esports opted to focus on their mid-game item timings. While OG had full control during the laning phase, Tundra’s perseverance allowed Oliver "skiter" Lepko’s Spectre to shine in the mid game.
Despite Artem "Yuragi" Golubiev’s Lina carry playstyle giving OG an early advantage, skiter’s Spectre and Leon “Nine” Kirilin’s Dragon Knight led the charge for Tundra in the mid-game phase.
Game One ended after just over 44 minutes, with Tundra’s skiter achieving a KDA of 12 kills and 13 assists without a single death throughout Tundra’s Game One victory.
Game Two
Looking to step up, OG went all in on another aggressive draft by choosing the trio of Drow Ranger, Ember Spirit & Timbersaw while Tundra went for a more notable draft in Nine’s signature Tusk midlane with Neta “33” Shapira’s Broodmother in the offlane.
Going into the laning phase, OG dominated two out of three of their lanes thanks to its ruthless aggressiveness in the early game and allowing the likes of Yuragi’s Drow Ranger and Bozhidar "bzm" Bogdano’s Ember Spirit to build upon their early advantage.
However, the mid-game once again went in favor of Tundra Esports as OG carelessly gave away kills for free, which allowed Tundra’s core heroes to achieve their item and potential timings. With the odds against them now, OG tried to delay the game long enough for a chance to turn things around. Unfortunately, skiter’s fully farmed Ursa combined with the other heroes of the Tundra Esports made it impossible for OG to hold out as it tapped out after 47 minutes and allowed Tundra Esports to have its first 2-0 victory of the 2023 season.
Following the match, Tundra Esports are currently top of the table of the WEU regional league in Division I. However, with the 2023 season just starting today in the region it will be interesting to see whether Tundra Esports could retain its championship winning form as the season progresses.
As for OG, they will have to improve on many aspects of the game if the team wishes to qualify for the upcoming Lima Major in Peru by the end of the first tour.
