This is part of “Regional League Roundup“, a series on the teams competing in the DPC 2021 Regional Leagues.

With the South American Dota 2 scene growing at a rapid rate, Valve have given the region their very own league going into the 2021 DPC season. Getting a dedicated regional league is a huge milestone for SA, as its teams no longer need to compete in NA qualifiers, which in the past often led to a pretty significant ping disadvantage.

I caught up with my good friend and connoisseur of South American Dota, Alvaro “Avo+” Sanchez Velasco, for details on what we could expect going into the SA league.

Let’s take a quick look at what this emerging scene has to offer.

Upper Division

The four teams invited to the South America upper division are SG-Esports, Thunder Predator, Infamous, and Beastcoast.

It’s no surprise that South America’s big three — Thunder Predator, Infamous, and Beastcoast — received direct invites to the upper division. As for SG-Esports, the squad formerly known as Team Brasil earned their spot by remaining active during the 2020 competitive season.

One of the big guns in the region, Thunder Predator look incredible going into the upper division after recently securing first place in both the Movistar Liga Pro Gaming Final Series and BTS Pro Series Americas. Their 2021 roster will look slightly different compared to last year’s with the addition of Joel Mori “MoOz” Ozambela and Frank “Frank” Arias returning to the team. Expectations from the community remain high for Thunder Predator nonetheless.

Another team currently favored by the SA community is Infamous. This squad is a force to be reckoned with, having maintained consistent top four finishes towards the tail end of last year. They might struggle with the likes of Thunder Predator but will outclass the rest of the region by miles. Despite the turn of a new year, the team hasn’t made any roster changes going forward. It seems Infamous are confident going into the new DPC season.

This could be Beastcoast’s year to shine if they can tighten up their coordination. Currently the most inconsistent squad among the region’s big three, Beastcoast still have a lot of potential to really blow up this year if the roster can stabilize. The skill and talent are definitely there. Let’s just hope they can turn every day of competition into a good day.

The last team to receive a direct invite is SG-Esports. Formerly known as Team Brasil, the newly acquired team have had a reasonable 2020 competitive season, with their biggest achievement as a team so far being a first place finish at the Movistar Liga Pro Gaming Season 6. This team hasn’t seen much improvement leading up to the DPC so we’ll have to see whether or not they can keep up with the competition.

The remaining four teams to qualify for the upper division include Omega Gaming, Team Unknown, EgoBoys, and Latam Defenders.

Of the four teams that came through the qualifier, put both Omega Gaming and Team Unknown on your radar as these two have the biggest chance to pull off some upsets. As for Egoboys and Latam Defenders, these relatively new squads could potentially take some games off the big teams but will struggle to reach top four.

Avo+ thinks that Thunder Predator and Infamous are in great shape to be major contenders in the upper division matches. These experienced teams will be tough to knock out after seeing their great performances towards the end of 2020. Beastcoast looked good towards the end of last year and will need to maintain that level of performance if they want to be able to compete alongside Thunder and Infamous.

Keep your eyes on Omega Gaming as well, as Avo+ suspects the team to potentially make top four over the course of the upper division, particularly if Gonzalo “Darkmago” Herrera can find his groove.

Lower Division

The eight teams that qualified for the lower division include Infinity Esports, Hokori, Crewmates, 0-900, Inverse, Gorillaz-Pride, Blood for Blood, and Incubus Gaming.

Of all the lower division teams, Avo+ suspects 0-900 to be the standout team, with Infinity Esports trailing closely behind. Crewmates and Incubus Gaming have the talent but lack experience and consistency to make the top cut. As for the rest, we’ll have to let their matches do the talking.

The South American divisions will be hosted by Dota Pit and begin playing on January 20th and end on February 26th.

Once again, a big thank you to my buddy Avo+ for letting me borrow his brain! If you haven’t already, do follow his Twitter for more updates on the South American Dota 2 scene.

READ MORE: DPC 2021 Regional League Roundup: A closer look at NA’s upper and lower divisions