OG Take Top $1.1 Million Prize at Dota 2 Manila Major, EG and Secret Struggle

Officially, the outcome to the Dota 2 Manila Major wasn't shocking. OG and Team Liquid faced off in the finals, with OG taking the win 3-1 in a hard-fought best of five bout. Behind them, Newbee took third place and LGD Gaming took fourth.

Again, this was foreseeable. The majority of pundits pegged either OG, Liquid or Newbee to take the top prize. LGD didn't get as much love but has been one of the hardest outs in Dota 2 since 2012. The return of Zhang "xiao8" Ning, alongside the addition of Sun "Agressif" Zheng, gave the enduring team one of the strongest lineups in its history.

What came as a shock, however, is how much difficulty those teams had getting to the top four.

Liquid was bumped from the winners bracket in the first round by South Korea's MVP Phoenix. LGD was also sent down early by Malaysia's Fnatic. OG dropped a set to Newbee in the group stages. While those four entered looking strong, and exited as the likely favorites for The International 6, each one is beatable.

There's an impressive level of parity in Dota 2 right now, both in the game and in the metagame. Despite the exceptional performance by OG at the Manila Major, there are at least a half-dozen teams that could reasonably take the cake at TI6. August just can't get here fast enough.

Here are some other notes and thoughts on what happened in Manila.

The Roster Locks Just Don't Seem to Be Working

Roster locking wasn't supposed to be like this.

When Valve announced their Majors program and the requirements for direct invites last year, the intent was clear: provide some steadiness to the Dota 2 competitive scene. Competitors would have a modicum of job security. Fans would be able to watch their favorite team and have some clue about who is playing. 

Needless to say, things have not panned out well.

On the morning of June 9, smack in the middle of the Manila Majors main event, word broke that yet another round of roster drama had broken out between Team Secret and Evil Geniuses. According to Secret's manager Kemal Sadikoglu on Twitter, Saahil "UNiVeRsE" Arora was abandoning the team; not leaving, mind you. Abandoning. 

Secret, in response, brought on board the man that UNiVeRsE put out of a job, Kanishka 'BuLba' Sosale, and as a result both teams will now be forced to make their way through the open qualifiers.

As for EG, well, it's unclear what's going on with them. The boys in blue have not yet confirmed UNiVeRsE's return, and a slew of rumors have popped up in the wake of Secret's announcements. With that comes a number of questions.

First, what is EG's new roster going to be? Should EG be subject to the penalty when, at least for the moment, they've now reunited the five players that won TI5?

From a bigger prespective, is there a point to the roster locks when top-flight teams aren't going to abide by them? Why is the whole of Secret being punished due to the actions of one player? Is it fair to the smaller teams to have to contend with the likes of Secret and EG in the open qualifiers? Is it fair to viewers to potentially have second-rate teams receive direct invites to TI6 because a few of the best groups couldn't win a dozen best-of-ones?

There's most certainly a purpose to the roster locks, and this writer knows plenty of casual fans that enjoy being able to just occasionally watch games and have an idea of which players are on what teams. The system as it stands, though, just doesn't seem to work.

The People Still Love Old Na'Vi

One of the biggest out-of-game pops at the Manila Major came after Team Liquid knocked Natus Vincere out of the tournament in Round 3 of the lower bracket. During the customary "good game" handshakes, Na'Vi's face, Danil "Dendi" Ishutin and Liquid's captain, Kuro "KuroKy" Salehi Takhasomi, gave each other a big hug, much to the delight of the crowd.

While new fans may not have understood, aficionados appreciated the gravity of what was happening. 

Na'Vi's run at the top of the Dota 2 competitive scene from 2011 to 2013 is the greatest dynasty in the history of the title, and the team was so popular and so influential that seeing them compete against one another remains special, even three years later. It's not quite a Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier-type connection (they only won championships, after all), but it's as close as it can get in Dota 2 right now.  

Digital Chaos Still an Unknown Commodity 

Rome wasn't built in a day. Digital Chaos was.

A victim of March's Secret-EG drama, DC was shattered into just one player: Roman "Resolut1on" Fominok. While that easily could have spelled doom for the new team, the group was saved by adding four random free agents in Aliwi "w33" Omar, Rasmus "MiSeRy" Filipsen, Martin "Saksa" Sazdov and David "Moo" Hull. Miraculously, that patchwork squad gelled into a legitimately good team. Are they legitimately great, though? That remains a mystery.

While the new DC has had a fair bit of success in qualifiers, it wasn't yet clear whether that would translate when competing against elite-level opposition. The Manila Major was supposed to clarify where DC stood among the best in the world but, unfortunately, that remains a mystery too.

DC went 2-1 in the group stage, taking both wins off last-place finishers Wings Gaming. In the main event, though, they went 1-2 in their two series against Chinese powerhouses Newbee and Vici Gaming Reborn.

It was a respectable performance, but can they beat top teams? Can they earn a direct invite to TI6? Can they win upcoming tournaments like The Summit 5 and StarSeries Season 2? The answer to all those questions, unfortunately, remains "maybe."

What to Do With SirActionSlacks?

Jake "SirActionSlacks" Kanner logged a lot of camera time at the Manila Major, and it's hard not to wonder what happens from here. On one hand, his enthusiasm and excitement is infectious, and once you get past the sometimes-ridiculous questions, it's hard to not like him. On the other, he doesn't feel like a true sideline reporter for a major sport, which is what Valve is going for in its Dota 2 broadcasts.

Looking over social media and message boards, the people clearly seem to be behind him, and there's no doubt that he is far more familiar with the game than longtime TI backstage host Kaci "There's Something About Michael" Aitchison. But with Valve investing so much into making their tournaments look like traditional sporting events, is 'Slacks the right choice going forward?

Maybe, maybe not. Either way I, personally, am hoping we see more of him in the near future.