Dota 2: Team Secret stomp Old G in Div II showdown, get in position for Div I return
With new additions Armel and Yamich, Secret are looking to bounce back from a horrid start to the season.
In what is most likely the most stacked Division II match in Dota 2 history, Team Secret stomped Old G 2-0 in a pivotal match on Thursday (20 April).
The win puts Secret in position to be promoted from Division II to Division I for the Summer Tour of the 2023 Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) season.
Secret had a horrendous start to the season after finishing in second place at The International 11 (TI11) last October. With Michał "Nisha" Jankowski jumping ship to Team Liquid, Secret looked gutted and were relegated to Division II after an abysmal 1-6 record in the Winter Tour regional league.
Looking to bounce back from their horrid start, Secret parted ways with Roman "Resolut1on" Fominok and Bakyt "Zayac" Emilzhanov and signed Armel "Armel" Tabios and Daniyal "yamich" Lazebnyy while shifting Nisha replacement Miroslav "BOOM" Bičan to the offlane.
Meanwhile, Old G made their way to Division II through the open qualifiers as Topias "Topson" Taavitsainen and Sébastien "Ceb" Debs looked to make their return to DPC competition.
Ahead of their showdown Secret led the league with a 4-1 record while Old G only managed a 2-3 standing. The latter team were also not at full strength, as Resolut1on was absent for this match against his former squad, forcing Ceb to reprise his offlane role while Andrii "ALWAYSWANNAFLY" Bondarenko stood-in as Old G's position 4.
Secret came out swinging to start the series, dominating the laning stage of game one and never looking back. While Old G were able to stall things out to 46 minutes, Secret still took a comfortable win with a 38-12 kill lead.
Both Remco "Crystallis" Arets on Ursa and BOOM on Primal Beast finished with 10 kills, with Crystallis even getting a Rampage to close out the series opener.
While game two had a slower start, it still ended up as a more one-sided affair than game one. Secret notched 30 kills while only conceding nine deaths in 35 minutes of action to secure the series sweep.
Crystallis had another 10-kill game on Terrorblade to close out the series, and even capped things off with an Ultra Kill.
With their victory, Secret improved their record to 5-1 and are in prime position to finish the league in the Top 2 and get promoted to Division I for the Summer Tour. Their last match will be against IVY on 23 April.
Meanwhile, Old G fall to a 2-4 standing, pushing them out of the running for promotion and in danger of getting booted out of the DPC. Old G will need to win their final match of the league against Alliance on 25 April in order to stay in Division II.
We needed a lot of games to play better: Puppey
In the post-match interview, Secret captain Clement "Puppey" Ivanov attributed the team's success in Division II to having the experience needed to acclimate their new players to how they should play as a unit.
"We needed a lot of games together in order to understand how to play better [...] After somewhere around a hundred games together I think we now understand our language better, because every time you make a new team, you need 'terms' and an understanding of the philosophy of how actually you're moving around the map and what you're doing," said Puppey.
"So now that we've got through all those games and now that everybody understands what those terms mean exactly and how we should move around the map, people are faster and they understand the confidence about those types of things."
Puppey also talked about how he settled on getting Secret's new additions, Armel and Yamich, saying he chose them because "they made my life a living hell" in past encounters.
"The way that we played in the first division last [Tour] was kinda bad, and in a way where I think everybody decided, "This is not working out." And in my head I was thinking, "This is a disband." In that regard, I started picking pieces together, seeing what I can do in order to achieve a team that has a punch to it. I feel like Armel can punch hard, so I gotta get that guy in," said Puppey.
"Somebody that you truly respect, who you've played against, and has made you feel like hell: you gotta get those players and you gotta see if they want to play with you. And I think Yamich and Armel, they are of the type of players that I felt like they made my life a living hell."
Secret's captain also expounded on his philosophy towards new players, saying he doesn't think about making them better and instead looks at how they can make the team improve as a whole.
"In my opinion, when I get a new player I'm not even thinking about making him better, I'm waiting for him to make me better. New players constantly have something new to bring to the table, and you need to learn that stuff," said Puppey.
"I think when it comes to a player getting good, I feel like only a team gets good. One player is not enough to become good, I feel like the whole team needs to understand what's going on in the game, where you need to move, what you need to farm, which objectives to take, all those precise things are much more important than trying to do anything individually."
Team Secret Dota 2 roster:
Remco "Crystallis" Arets
Armel "Armel" Tabios
Miroslav "BOOM" Bičan
Daniyal "yamich" Lazebnyy
Clement "Puppey" Ivanov
Lee "Heen" Seung Gon (coach)
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