Vega Squadron won the Mountain Trail Challenge, after defeating Power Rangers, 3:1.
Vega Squadron topped their group with no losses, then fell to HeHe United, in the first round of the playoffs, and dropped to the Lower Brackets. They then had to make their way back to the Upper Brackets by defeating ScaryFaceZZZ, 1:0, HeHe united, 2:0, mYi, 2:1, and lastly London Conspiracy in the Lower Bracket Finals, 2:1. Vega Squadron then faced Power Rangers in the Mountain Trail Challenge Grand Finals and defeated them, 3:1.
Power Rangers had also topped their group with no losses and then continued their streak, defeating ScaryFaceZZZ and HeHe United, before dropping one game in the series to London Conspiracy, 2:1, and then advancing to the Grand Finals.
We did it! Vega 3-1 @prdota2 ! GG WP! pic.twitter.com/QwWTDkDh74
— Vega Squadron (@VegaSquadron) June 18, 2015
Mountain Trail Challenge
Swiss DotA community announced a new online tournament featuring 16 European teams competing for a prize-pool of 5,000 euros. The tournament was scheduled to begin on May 2nd and conclude on May 24th with a best-of-five Grand Finals, but due to heavy tournament scheduling in the same period, the games were delayed.
Mountain Trail Challenge format
Group stage
The tournament consisted of four groups with four teams each. The top two teams of each group advanced to the best-of-three double elimination playoffs.
- Group A: HeHe united, mYinsanity, DuzaGaming, Basically Unknown
- Group B: London Conspiracy, GOOMBA Gaming, GameOnLine, ScaryFaceZZZ
- Group C: 4 Clovers & Lepricon, Lemondogs, Balkan Bears Corleone, Vega Squadron
- Group D: Power Rangers, rizeGaming, Moscow Five, XPC.ro
Playoffs teams
- hehe united
- mYinstanity
- London Conspiracy
- ScaryFaceZZZ
- Vega Squadron
- Balkan Bears
- M5
- Power Rangers
The playoffs were played in a double-elimination format. The first round was best-of-one, while the following rounds were best-of-three series, with best-of-five Grand Finals.
Mountain Trail Challenge PrizePool
Base Prize Pool: €5,000
- 1st place: 60% (€3,000+) – Vega Squadron
- 2nd place: 30% (€1,500+) – Power Rangers
- 3rd place: 10% (€500+) – London Conspiracy
Vega Squadron
Vega Squadron ended 2014 with a big splash into the scene, taking second place in the Esportal Open Qualifiers and first place in the GG League Season 2. They also started the new year with a bang, taking first place in three tournaments within two weeks – MSI Dragon Battle #1, EIZO Cup #12, Gigabyte Challenge #14, followed by a second place in the JoinDota Masters XVI. The team then underwent some roster changes in mid March, with Haled “sQreen” Al-Habbash replacing Maxim “Tpoh” Vernikov in hopes that sQreen would bring more stability to the team. However, only two weeks later, on March 31, Vega announced that sQreen had parted ways with the organization.
Their latest roster change was the addition of Aleksey “Solo” Berezin and Andrey “Mag” Chipenko, in April. Solo played with RoxKiss in 2013, until he was removed from the team following a betting scandal. He received a lifetime ban from StarLadder, penalty that was later reduced to one year.
Vega Squadron has since been carving a spot as a notable CIS team. They recently claimed a Wild Card slot for TI5, won the Yard Festival, in May, and qualified for the last spot in the upcoming Esportal Dota 2 League finals.
They were able to secure the last spot for the MLG Pro League finals at X-games, in Texas, but had to withdraw from the competition due to lack of ample time to obtain visas. They also had to decline replacing Team Empire at DreamLeague Season 3 LAN finals for the same reason.
Vega Squadron roster
Semen “Cema” Krivulya
Pavel “9pashaebashu” Khvastunov
Vladimir “no[o]ne” Minenko
Andrey “Mag” Chipenko
Aleksey “Solo” Berezin
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