The first stage of DreamLeague Season 26 in Dota 2 is gradually coming to an end. Keeping track of every single match is nearly impossible, even for the most dedicated fans. That`s why we`ve put together four intriguing stories that you might have missed amidst all the action.
Nigma Galaxy`s Signature Marci + Io Combo Returns
Nigma Galaxy is navigating the first group stage with significant confidence, even playing with a stand-in. Beyond their strong performance, their enjoyable gameplay stems from an original style. The team has reintroduced offlane Vengeful Spirit (a pick rarely seen recently) and Dawnbreaker. Most importantly, the squad continues to trust their well-practiced combination that most other teams have long forgotten: Marci + Io.
This strategy has been around for quite some time and is occasionally seen in matchmaking, but it`s barely touched upon in the professional scene. Nigma, however, has always favored the Marci + Io synergy and hasn`t hesitated to use it regardless of the current meta. This tournament, they`ve picked the pair twice and secured easy victories both times.
Marci + Io have always boasted a potent laning phase with nearly infinite resource regeneration. However, in the match against OG LATAM, opponents even managed to survive the lane, but at some point, Marci, empowered by Io, simply went on a hunt and started eliminating everything in her path. In one sequence, Ghost first killed an enemy core, then participated in a rather chaotic teamfight, and finally used Io`s ultimate to fly across the map and take down another OG core – all in under a minute.
Nigma thrives on this fast-paced style with high kill counts, and Marci + Io fit this perfectly.
Mars Continues to Struggle at DreamLeague S26
Mars has been an infrequent guest in recent tournaments. The hero does appear occasionally, but he can`t boast good statistics. Across the previous two events, he was picked ten times and only won twice.
For some reason, participants at DreamLeague S26 decided the problem wasn`t Mars himself, but something else, and thus began experimenting with the hero again. And excluding one quick 22-minute win by ATF against Talon, Mars` performance at the championship is not just questionable, but outright terrible.
Do we need any more confirmation that Mars is, to put it mildly, not a meta hero right now? South American teams even tried picking him for the midlane, reminiscent of their 2022 strategies, but the result was equally disappointing. We`ll be watching to see if anyone else attempts to prove that Mars isn`t just a punching bag who constantly suffers from the laning phase onwards.
Edge`s Experimental Magic Carry Luna
Edge cannot boast strong results at the championship; the team is currently at the bottom of their group and is unlikely to make the playoffs. However, they did provide something interesting: a carry Luna, a hero largely forgotten in the current state of the game.
Yéremi `payk` Páucar Arroyo decided not just to pick the hero, but to completely rethink her role. In a match against AVULUS, he showcased a `magic` Luna who, in a 70-minute game, barely used right-clicks and instead focused heavily on her ultimate.
Right after core items like Manta Style and BKB, Edge`s carry built Aghanim`s Scepter, and then topped it off with a Refresher Orb. A similar build was sometimes seen on position 4 Luna a couple of years ago, but a carry building this way is a rare sight.
It was certainly amusing to watch Luna secure kills from a screen and a half away, keeping enemy heroes locked down… but in teamfights against BKB, Pipe, and Euls, it was completely ineffective. In the end, the magic Luna did achieve a decent KDA but still lost the game. So, we thank payk for the fun build, but we don`t recommend trying it yourself.
BetBoom Team`s Surprise Support Chaos Knight
Chaos Knight is one of those heroes that the professional community has ignored in recent months. At DreamLeague S26, BetBoom Team decided to bring him back into the meta, but… as a support! Save- has played the hero twice, and Kataomi once.
Overall, we can see that teams are once again leaning towards melee supports, leading to more frequent appearances of Tusk and Clockwerk, but Chaos Knight… that`s truly something new. Save-, for example, picked him twice in lane paired with Dark Seer. The concept is simple: Chaos Knight has immense movement speed, making it quite easy for him to manipulate creeps, block jungle camps, pull, and perform other support tasks. But crucially, under Ion Shell, the hero becomes genuinely dangerous; not only is he hard to escape at early levels, but he also has his own control to catch enemy supports. And BetBoom Team`s Chaos Knight is undefeated.
If BetBoom Team continues to win with this hero, his emergence as a viable support in matchmaking is inevitable, so be cautious.
Finley Holt