ppd: “Not sure we deserve to be in upper bracket”

Ninjas in Pyjamas, Dota 2 team captain Peter "ppd" Dager has recently had a minor Twitter meltdown saying that he disagrees with the current Major format. NiP has recently taken second place in their group in The Kuala Lumpur Major.

The groups in the tournament are played in GSL format: each contestant needs to win 2 series to go to the upper bracket or lose 2 series to go to the lower bracket. We’ve broken down this format in a previous piece about this tournament.

Here is what ppd had to say about the GSL-style groups in a DPC event:

There is a couple of things we would like to add to the topic of GSL-style groups, to explain why Valve probably decided to stick with it.

This format was originally invented to allow the players to prepare for each match. In Global StarCraft 2 League (GSL), which invented this format (hence the name “GSL-style group”) players have the ability to think about the strategies for their initial opponents and figure out what to do if they win or lose the first series. Very often an outsider will prepare a good strategy against a stronger opponent but will save it for the decider match, to raise the odds of winning the group.

paiN would be rewarded if they figured out a way to beat NiP with a prepared strategy, saved for the final series. In that case, they would win the group, since it was clear that they are stronger overall vs J.Storm and wouldn’t need to face Secret in the decider.

The delay of patch 7.20 also points at the decision of Valve to force the teams to prepare for each other.