This time Doc. DotA picked the five teams of Group B as the subjects of his analysis. Two teams are high flyers, also shown through their seeding of 'high' and 'top' seeds. Our resident doctor also had a close look at the three challengers and how they might steal a set of tickets from the high flyers.



SK-Gaming DotA

This Swedish team will definitely give its best to make it into the grand final in San Jose.

How does Doc. DotA know this? He developed some special training program to pump up their mental and physical abilities. But like in the Plus46 case, he fears the punishment of the World Anti Doping Agency. So no detailed information about their mysterious preparation.

Anyway, to come to a point the Doctor is sure that SK.DotA will be one of the top candidates. They played some incredible matches the last weeks, and since their victory in the DreamHack Summer 2008 tournament it seems like they dominate the map version that will also be played in Paris.

The players are good friends, knowing each other a long time now. They might also benefit from their experiences of playing offline and in front of an audience. ASUS Spring 2008 and DreamHack Summer 2008 were perfect training to stay focussed when it gets loud and distracting.

Another advantage is that SK.DotA is able to play on a decent level with any heroes, profiting from their great knowledge of how the game has to be played in the v6.52 versions.

SK.DotA roster:

Jonathan 'Loda' Berg
Joakim 'Akke' Akterhall
Tommy 'toMpa' Andersson
Erik 'Bogdan' Olsson
Mikael 'hailo' Grinsvall

But all these positive facts might become their weakness. Knowing that you are the possibly best team can drive you into fatal mistakes when you face tough opponents.

Everyone is watching the SK.DotA replays today, and it will be a great moment for all the other teams to beat these Swedish talents. They should not start underestimating any team, and they should also keep in mind that they got personal lacks as well.

So SK.DotA will have to play on the edge and stay concentrated through the whole weekend. And this fact, together with the note that their new talent Minitito won’t be in Paris, is definitely a disadvantage.

In summary: if nothing special happens I see my patients in the final, but if Akke stays up to long or if Loda forgets his hair spray their victory might be in danger.



The elder Gods

The Romanian powerhouse. In fact they had to go through many ups and downs until now, but they seem to be in a great shape lately.

Three victories in a row against no one less than mousesports, Kingsurf and Wolk3R-Gaming prove that they know how to compete versus the world’s top teams. They like the different game play of v6.52 and they proved it for several times now, in the EEDC national qualifier, the Prime Defending League and the ESL Major Series.

The elder Gods roster:

Gabriel 'Satelit' Giurgiu
Toader 'Rushmeplz' Sebastian
Gaina 'BirD' Cristi
Florin 'Freezer' Stoica
Adrian 'S0ny' Sebastian

They are a very constant team with no changes in their roster for month now, and the fact that they use to play from a LAN centre makes them even more powerful. They know how to communicate, they know how to deal with distraction and people around them watching them playing.

They decided to stick together for a boot camp before they travel to Paris, and Doc. DotA knows that they will try everything to show that they are on the same level with the other top teams in Paris.

Doc DotA thinks that The elder Gods have a great chance to make it into the play offs, but he is not sure about that since the Romanian embassy denied his visa to check the team on location.



Storm Games Clan

The team around Ladislav ‘Xali’ Liptak has gone through all the stages of becoming famous a lot faster than most of the other teams out there.
Knowing that they are the DotA idols of their home country Slovakia, they proved to be a force in DotA even abroad their country.

Storm Games Clan roster:

Michal 'Tulex' Zima
Lukasevic 'nEKro' Nizky
Marek 'zax' Pavelka
Ladislav 'Xali' Liptak
Alexander 'Sacco' Feher

Doc. DotA’s analysis brought to light that they had some mixed performances in the last weeks, with one victory, draw and loss each the are in the mid field of the Prime Defending League. Yesterday they sent home their opponents in Paris, The elder Gods, home with a 2-0 in Prime Defending League - a proof that this team is on a positive way.

As far as his research found out, the SGC DotA team did you play an offline event before, and definitely not against high skilled teams like they will have to face in Paris.

Their performance will depend a lot on the personal circumstances of every single player, but if they get up early and focus on their actions they may show us some exciting games. Ignoring all distraction may be the key to positive results for the Slovakians, but in fact it will be a tough cookie for them to beat The elder Gods or SK.DotA.



PMS Clan

…It’s a men’s world. No it ain’t! Paris is the first place in Europe that faces a female DotA team. Doc. DotA is talking about PMS Clan, which most of you may only know through Rinoa, who is writing for the DotA site of MeetYourMakers.
But this time she’s not a reporter looking for latest news. She and another girl from her former DotA squad will player the DotA tournament together with three new faces from the Singaporean female DotA scene.

In a meeting with Rinoa Doc. DotA found out that these girls really know what they are going to do. They told the Doc. That they trained hard for the event, but they also know that they will only have less chance to make it into the finals.

Training for this team was hard, since there is always heavy delay from America to Singapore, and since the three newcomers are not a part of PMS.DotA for a long time, they don’t know each other as well as other competitors too.

Rinoa stated that they want to represent the female gamers and also want to promote their organization PMS.

PMS.DotA roster:

Neha 'Rinoa' Nair
Kristina 'Korini' Chin
Eva 'Sassy' Mok
Caryl 'Saeris' Quintana
Tammy 'Furryfish' Tang

With the knowledge of being an underdog they might have a tiny chance for a surprise in this event, maybe like Greece did in the football EM 2004.

But Doc. DotA would not be the best DotA doctor out there if he had no special information about the teams.

The first important thing to mention is that MeetYourMakers will have a nice excuse if they don’t qualify for the grand finals in San Jose. According to Rinoa their German player Kai ‘h4nn1’ Hanbückers fell in love with Kristina ‘korini’ Chin of PMS. So if they will loose important games everyone will be allowed to blame it on their love affair.

They should have read my lessons about scheduling in that case, it can prevent a lot of issues if you do your homework well!

Second information: PMS will arrive in Paris one day earlier than most of the other attendees, and the girls want to do some sightseeing and shopping beside the tournament. Surprise? No. You don’t have to be Doc. Dota to know that all girls would try to go shopping in Paris.

If you want to meet some female DotA pros you will have to check out the Parisian stores this weekend. The life of fanboys is sometimes hard, but that’s what you deserve!



Warriors of Legend

The second French team in this tournament. A relatively unknown face in the international DotA scene, but they must be a force of DotA in France if they sign up and get picked for the ESWC Masters of Paris.

They placed within the top three in the last Miage LAN, but in the current placing of the French DotA league DotA.fr they are only in the top ten.

So the French fans will have only two underdogs to cheer for, if this is a benefit for the morale of this team or if they will be defeated easily can only the next Saturday tell.

Warriors of Legend roster:

Dorian 'Hadora' Gauthier
Max 'Hossein' Hossein
Fabien 'Shiba' Turgis
Erwan 'Wawane' Carniaux
Thomas 'Maryblue' Delerue

Doc. DotA thinks that these warriors might be a legend in France, but to compete with the international elite they will have to be more than this.

With his analysis made and all the factors considered Doc. DotA sees no realistic chances for this team to make it into the play offs, and maybe another team would have been a better choice to represent ‘la Grande nation’.

Homework to prepare for the weekend:

- Memorize this info sheet
- If you missed Doc. DotA's first info sheet memorize as well
- If you live close to Paris of if you some Euros to spend: An excursion to Paris will raise your chance for good grades a lot!