Dota 2
Now that the Bali Major 2023 is over, here are a couple of takeaways from the event.
There is no arguing The Bali Major 2023 was among the most important Dota 2 tournaments of the year. The epic battle between the best of the best was as interesting as expected, but in the end, the WEU squads proved they continue to be the best in the world.
Now that the tournament is over, the Dota 2 community is slowly preparing for the Riyadh Masters 2023. The latter will be the biggest tournament yet and will have a massive $15M prize pool. With that said, there is still time until the start of this competition, so let’s take a step back and review a couple of things we need to consider.
The Western Europeans Dota 2 teams are on another level
Many of you who’ve followed all big Dota 2 events in 2023 were most likely not surprised by the results at The Bali Major 2023. Even though there was a glimmer of hope for some of the teams from other parts of the world, in the end, the WEU squads ripped through the competition.
Gaimin Gladiators, Tundra Esports, Quest Esports, and Team Liquid occupied the first three places, proving Western Europe is in a league of its own. The teams here are just too strong, and we can see it in their results. There’s not a single top team from other regions who come close, with the exception of PSG.LGD. However, even the big Chinese squad did not stand a chance against Quest Esports.
Since a team from Western Europe has won every big event so far, we’re expecting the same to happen in Saudi Arabia a couple of weeks from now. Of course, we’ll have to wait and see, so make sure to follow us for more information about this competition.
PSG.LGD needs more practice, but they are on the right path
As mentioned earlier, only one team outside of Western Europe comes close to the best there: PSG.LGD. The mighty Chinese powerhouse proved they could take down some of the favorites several times. However, since the team has a mixture of young and talented players, they don’t have that much experience on the big stage.
The good news for the Chinese team is people notice they’re on the right path because their results keep getting better. Even if the squad doesn’t win the Riyadh Masters 2023, we expect them to do pretty well at The International. After all, this will be the most important event, and LGD has proven they can win it because they’ve reached the final several times.
BetBoom Team is in trouble
One of the teams who surprised us a lot recently was BetBoom Team. The powerhouse from CIS exceeded expectations after doing pretty well at DreamLeague Season 20 and almost won the final against GG. Considering this event was just a few days prior to the Major, most of us thought gpk- and the rest would dominate in Bali, but this wasn’t the case.
Although the team qualified for the Upper Bracket of the Playoffs following an excellent result in the group and even defeated Tundra Esports, things didn’t end well. Due to spying on their opponents, BetBoom received a penalty that gave Tundra the victory, and the CIS squad was sent to the Lower Bracket. This definitely impacted the team’s morale because BB wasn’t able to defeat Azure Ray, despite being the favorite.
Following the early exit and what happened afterward, it is safe to say BetBoom is in trouble. The team will have to take action against its players, so we wouldn’t be surprised if there is a roster change prior to The International.
Beastcoast should not be underestimated
Although we have yet to see a team from South America win a big international competition, beastcoast continues to impress us. Following the solid results at DreamLeague Season 20, the team also exceed expectations at the Bali Major 2023.
BC was in a really tough group with the likes of Team Spirit, Aster and Liquid, but it managed to finish second. Although it lost its series in the Upper Bracket, it performed better than expected against the best Dota 2 team in the world — Gamin Gladiators.
After that, beastcoast defeated Shopify Rebellion, which is the best team in North America. What’s really impressive is that SR always won against BC before, but their streak was over because the South American squad was better.
Despite the fact BC was eliminated in the next stage, the team proved yet again their opponents should not underestimate them. Beastcoast may not be on the level of the top-tier WEU teams yet, but they’re definitely close.
Techies continues to be broken
The last thing we need to remember from The Bali Major 2023 relates to a hero who has been a part of the meta for over two months. Since the arrival of the 7.33 Dota 2 patch, a couple of heroes quickly rose to the top, and Techies was among them. Although he is still not that big in PUB games, the hero is on another level in Pro matches and is the most-picked name in yet another event.
Although the hero may not look that good on paper, his in-game presence, vision, damage, and overall impact are second to none. The best support players in the world have mastered him, so we expect to keep seeing Techies in action until Valve decides to nerf him.
If we check the stats from The Bali Major 2023, we can see Techies played in over 80 games, which is significantly more than the second name on the list, which is Ember Spirit.
