EternaLEnVy's Team Zero shocks Quincy Crew, wins Dota Summit 13

Jacky “EternaLEnVy” Mao pulled off his biggest tournament win in a long while.

Playing in Dota Summit 13 Americas, EternaLEnVy’s Team Zero scored a shock first-place finish in the event by defeating Quincy Crew in the grand finals. This victory is worth $42,000 and is arguably EternaLEnVy's best tournament performance since 2018, when he left Fnatic to become a journeyman.

The series opened very well for Team Zero, as game one saw Eric “Ryoya” Dong propel the team to a quick victory with his mid lane Riki while game two was a back-and-forth affair that happened to end favorably for EternaLEnVy's team. That put Team Zero on match point right from the start, but Quincy Crew wasn’t going down without a hard fight.

Game three was a war of attrition in which kills were traded evenly until the very end, with the game being decided by a narrow base race. From there, Quincy Crew forced a deciding game five with a more conventional victory by controlling the map and allowing Quinn “CCnC” Callahan’s Leshrac to take control in the late game.

EternaLEnVy would have faced a harsh razzing on social media if he wound up the victim of a reverse sweep, but he and the rest of Team Zero managed to avoid it with a straightforward victory in game five. Some early picks on Avery "SVG" Silverman got the snowball rolling for Team Zero, and they just maintained aggression from there and built the lead necessary to take the series 3-2.

Dota Summit 13 ends with upset of Quincy Crew

Team Zero’s victory is notable for a number of different reasons. First and foremost is the fact that it ends Quincy Crew’s long stretch of dominance over North American Dota 2. Though the team hasn’t gotten the attention of their European counterparts in Team Secret, Quincy Crew has had a very strong 2020 that included a seven-tournament winning streak. Team Zero broke that streak with the upset here.

This also sees another potentially serious contender emerge in North America. While Quincy Crew has been very strong over recent months, there’s a lot to like about the Team Zero roster:

1. Jacky “EternaLEnVy” Mao
2. Eric "Ryoya" Dong
3. Braxton "Brax" Paulson
4. Jingjun "Sneyking" Wu
5. David "Moo" Hull

While the lineup doesn’t have much name value past EternaLEnVy, Moo and Sneyking are both accomplished players on top teams while Ryoya and Brax have proven themselves in this online league era. North America has been fairly competitive behind Quincy Crew thanks to 4 Zoomers and the ex-CR4ZY squad, but the struggles of business associates has made the region feel a bit anemic.

Having Team Zero become a serious threat, and possibly a global contender, would be a great thing for the western Dota 2 scene. The team is set to compete in the qualifiers for Realms Collide. If the team can post another strong performance in that event, it may mean big things going forward.