Author: Pedro Romero
LOUD, Brazil’s representative for the 2023 League of Legends World Championship, dropped their Group A winner’s match against PSG Talon 2-0. Although the Brazilian team opened the series on relatively equal footing with their PCS counterparts, their adversaries would ultimately snowball their lead in a manner they wouldn’t overcome.As a result, LOUD now awaits their next opponent for their crucial Group A Decider Match, in which the winner earns a spot in the second phase of Play-Ins where a single best-of-five series win is needed to progress to the Swiss Stage of the competition.Following LOUD’s loss to PSG Talon, BLIX…
Team BDS find themselves on the brink of getting eliminated from the 2023 League of Legends World Championship Play-In stage despite a promising start to their run in Korea. Fresh off their Qualifying Series victory over North America’s Golden Guardians, the LEC fourth seed was put into Bracket B which consisted of Japan’s DetonatioN FocusMe, the PCS’ CTBC Flying Oyster and Vietnam’s Team Whales.For BDS’ first best-of-three series in Play-Ins, they took on TW, who qualified as the second seeded team from the VCS. Although BDS seemed poised to continue their impressive run with yet another comfortable victory over their…
What else is there to say about Gaimin Gladiators and their 2023 Dota Pro Circuit? Well, one quick look at their victories serves as a quick indicator of their era of dominance over the rest of the scene. Three-time Major winners, two-time DreamLeague winners, first place in BetBoom Dacha and fourth place in Riyadh Masters. Although there have been other teams in the past that have flexed their superiority for a time, none have been able to do so, as GG has done so far this year. Is there no surprise then that people are looking to them as a…
Following the end of the 2023 Dota Pro Circuit season, Shopify Rebellion qualified as one of the 16 teams that will compete in The International 12, taking place in Seattle, Washington, for the first time in six years. The team is one of three squads that will represent North America on Dota 2’s grandest stage and look to claim the Aegis for the hosting region for the first time since Evil Geniuses did it at TI 5.Of SR’s players well familiar with competing in North America and contending for the top spot in pro Dota is Andreas ‘Cr1t-‘ Nielsen, whose…
While the 2023 Dota Pro Circuit season was wrapping up, Entity was in the midst of a crossroads. Not only did they not acquire enough points in the circuit to qualify directly to The International 12, they were struggling in terms of cohesion and collective form. While it’s fair to say Entity started off the year on the right foot, with a 5-6th finish in the Lima Major, they couldn’t repeat the same success, with sixth place finishes in Tour 2 and Tour 3 and 15-16th place finishes in DreamLeague Seasons 19 and 20, thus necessitating a change to the…
Few teams have had as tumultuous a string of international events in 2023 as BetBoom Team. Despite not finishing below third in the Eastern Europe Dota Pro Circuit for all three tours of the year, BetBoom has had to absorb various challenges in different ways and forms for nearly all the major events they participated in.Illness plagued the team’s performance which led to their 15-16th placement at the Lima Major. Over at the Berlin Major, the absence of Ivan “Pure” Moskalenko forced the team to field a stand-in, leading to a disappointing 13-14th place finish. Finally, at the Bali Major,…
Of all the teams taking part in DreamLeague Season 21, OG have one characteristic that distinguishes itself from the rest. By way of losing in the Western Europe regional qualifying tournament for The International 12, they are the only team to not make the event, thus making it the first time ever that the org will miss the tournament entirely.Such a result didn’t happen out of the blue, however, a stretch of instability plagued the roster as they weathered various shuffles; such as Tommy “Taiga” Le stepping away during Tour 3, Evgenii “Chu” Makarov and Mikhail “Misha” Agatov exchanging the…
Quest Esports initially burst out into the Dota 2 scene at the Bali Major where they placed fourth when few people expected them to. Even so, with the addition of Ammar “ATF” Al-Assaf to a lineup that was previously under the Ooredoo Thunders banner, they quickly established themselves as a capable squad that can contend with the likes of Gaimin Gladiators, Team Liquid and more.However, things then turned sour once Quest couldn’t arrange a long-term deal with ATF, so with few time in their possession before the start of Western Europe qualifying for The International 12, the team announced the…
Arguably, Team Spirit experienced an up-and-down year in the 2023 Dota Pro Circuit. Following a change to their lineup which featured the addition of Denis “Larl” Sigitov, Team Spirit, while remaining at the top of Eastern Europe DPC for all three tours, the team struggled on the international level. Two 9-12th finishes at the Berlin and Bali Major, a 7-8th at the Lima Major and a 5th in DreamLeague Season 20 were the results Team Spirit put up in 2023.Despite this, the team felt they were improving bit by bit as the year transpired. This upward trend would eventually reach…
While it’s not hard to recognize Gaimin Gladiators’ unparalleled level of dominance throughout the 2023 Dota Pro Circuit, it’s just as easy to forget Team Liquid’s simultaneous performance amidst the former’s success. Of the three Major grand finals that took place this year, they were the only team that appeared in all of them alongside GG, and even when TL would eventually falter to GG, they would nonetheless mount another impressive run in the ensuing Tour to maintain their position as one of the world’s best Dota teams.Even if TL would fall in two other grand finals besides the Majors,…