Talk about washed-up teams, am I right?
Division 2 teams were often poorly regarded and considered amateurs in DPC. This is despite the fact they are technically in the top sixteen teams of their respective regions. Take Nigma Galaxy, for instance, a staple in the Division 2 bracket during this DPC (2021-22) season, but a powerhouse in their own right.
Nigma Galaxy climbs into Division 1 (again)
Nigma is arguably the most highly-anticipated team to make their re-entry into Division 1 next season. They are the former International 7 Champions after all and with the recent recruitment of Syed Sumail “SumaiL” Hassan. Their line-up is now a complete stack of champions.
High-profile players aside, perhaps what makes Nigma such a controversial team is their performance. For one, it’s evident that Nigma doesn’t belong in Division 2 after they made it out twice. However, they still struggle to stay afloat in Division 1, which is a cause for concern since that’s seven teams they lost to.
Alongside Nigma, is Into The Breach, which deserves bigger applause since it’s their first debut in Division 1. They have fallen short twice in two tours, but third time’s the charm. DPC aside, ITB’s next goal would be to qualify for the International 11 (TI11) via regional qualifiers, which are hoarded by many formidable powerhouses for sure.
Even so, they can still look forward to the extra time to hone their skills if they do miss TI11.
Invictus Gaming’s return into the spotlight
IG is another team with similar aspirations to Nigma, whereby they are an old-school roster with an impressive performance last year. However, they fell off big time after TI10 and even struggled to make it back into Division 1 during the second Tour.
While it’s a sight for sore eyes to see IG return to the bigger stage, the competition in Division 1 has been relentless. During the DPC China Tour 3, there was a potential four-way tiebreaker for the 2nd-4th place, which is a testament to how competitive Chinese teams are. At IG’s current state, they likely won’t stand a chance against the big players, such as PSG.LGD, Team Aster, Aster.Aries, and recently Xtreme Gaming.
In fact, IG should be very concerned as they didn’t secure first place, and was second to CDEC Gaming. CDEC made their debut this tour as an open qualifier team, which makes it even more impressive that they qualify for Division 1 this quickly.
HellRaisers and Nemiga Gaming return after a scuffed EEU season
HellRaisers has had an unfortunate series of matches last tour to end up in Division 2 unfairly. The DPC Eastern Europe Tour 3 was merely a Playoffs format, making the matches feel unfair to lose. Nevertheless, HR is back in their much-deserved bracket, where they have time-to-time proven their worth.
Meanwhile, Nemiga Gaming’s victory is a pleasant surprise since many fans predicted PuckChamp to return to Division 1 instead. PuckChamp has been a rising star in EEU, and even HYDRA makes for a decent challenger too. Anyways, Nemiga’s line-up is relatively new too, so it’s a fresh batch of promising players, who are making their debut in Division 1 soon.
Southeast Asia’s familiar faces swap places
Execration and Lilgun make their way back into Division 1 next season, great news for most fans to say the least. Perhaps we are just too disappointed about TNC Predator, a staple name in multiple TI’s, fails to remain relevant.
Anyways, not to discredit the top seeds because it’s a tough competition in DPC SEA even if it’s just Division 2. Multiple formidable candidates could have made the cut, such as Neon Esports or Army Geniuses. Meanwhile, it is Polaris and Nigma SEA making their way down to Division 2 this time around.
Now, we may have been harsh in the beginning, but it’s true to a certain extent. As DPC Tour 3 Division 2 comes to an end, let these unimpressive titles wash away. These teams deserve the recognition as Division 1 teams heading into DPC 2022-23.
If they are worthy, we might just see them stick around for several tours to come. Nigma, in particular, has heavy expectations for them to stay afloat after picking up SumaiL. After the whole debacle regarding ESL One Malaysia 2022’s unreasonable choice of team invites, Nigma has a lot to prove that they are worth the invite.
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