In the words of Swindlez, want to hear a bold prediction?
I think OpTic will do better in the 2017-2018 season of Dota 2. EG has better players, but I believe in PPD’s ability to adapt to whatever meta is coming and make correct roster changes, if necessary, throughout the season. At the same time, the OpTic players, while less skilled, are all good.
On top of that, I don’t see much more gain that EG can get from the current roster than they did from the previous roster. EG had a few weaknesses. First they crumbled at TI under the pressure. Second, their individual skill fell off. Third, the RTZ/sumail focus problem made it so Zai, a farm heavy support could not contribute as much as he did during the ppd-EG era. Finally, the draft. While the first won’t happen (that’s a TI special), the second seems likely. Sumail cannot play at god level forever so his individual form will fall off and they relied on him for a lot of their deep runs. Moving Cr1t to the 4 is fine, but I think he’ll run into the same problem as Finally, the draft was an issue and I don’t think it’ll be fixed. Fear was there as a coach last year and the drafts stayed the same.
The addition of Fear as a 5 isn’t that great. He was okay, but not someone I’d think of when I think of top 5 players. Also while his player pool is vast, so was the previous EG, but they were still unable to take advantage of it in the draft. So I think the same problem persists.
As for OpTic, CCNC will likely rise up in skill as he gains more experience. Between PPD and Misery, they shouldn’t ran out of ideas about how to deal with the draft or meta. PPD’s reputation is such that when the team needs a decisive call, it comes from him so I don’t think there will be many clash of egos. Finally, I think they’re more likely to be hungry as a team. I know PPD try-hards and so will CCNC. Zai will be Zai, I don’t know much about Misery’s work ethic, and Pajkatt should work hard given that this will be one of the better teams he’s been on for years.