Dota 2
Although DreamLeague Season 20 ended just a few days ago, the Dota 2 community has to focus on another big tournament. This one is even more special because The Bali Major 2023 will be the third and last Major of this DPC. We have already covered the teams attending it, so learn more about each.
As this will be the most important tournament ahead of The International, many teams will do everything possible to win. As it's such an important tournament, here's everything you need to know ahead of it starting June 29.
General Information
The Bali Major 2023 will occur between June 29 and July 9 and include the world’s best teams. There will be 18 of them in total (make sure to check our article, where we’ve covered all of them, to learn more about each squad).
Once the Group Stage begins, we will see a single round-robin format where the matches are in a Bo2 format. The teams that finish among the top four will have the chance to play in the Upper Bracket of the playoffs. Those that finish fifth and sixth will also advance to the Playoffs but will be in the Lower Bracket. Lastly, all remaining teams will be eliminated from the competition. Regarding the Playoffs, all matches are Bo3, and the Grand Final is a Bo5.
The main reason why The Bali Major 2023 is so important is because of the number of DPC points. Players will fight for 3500 DPC points, which means we will know the names of most teams that will qualify for The International once the event concludes.
Of course, the teams will be fighting for a $500,000 prize pool in addition to the DPC points. The Bali Major 2023 will be held at Ayana Estate and organized by IO Esports and Epulze.
Broadcast Talent
Of course, a Dota 2 event of this caliber will bring together the most-known people in the professional scene. Fans can watch the Bali Major 2023 in English, Russian, Chinese, Portuguese, Spanish, Ukrainian and Indonesian.
Regarding the talent panel, we will see all the popular names in the industry. Some of them include:
- Sheever
- Tsunami
- ODPixel
- SVG
- WinteR
- Resolut1ion
- SUNSfan
- KheZu
- Lacoste
- Jenkins
Who’s the favorite team?
A couple of Dota 2 teams can compete for the favorite title at The Bali Major 2023. However, after analyzing all tournaments that have taken place so far in 2023 and what happened, it is clear that Gaimin Gladiators is on another level.
Even though the Dota 2 Patch 7.33 changed the game, Anton "dyrachyo" Shkredov and his crew continue to dominate their opponents. Even though many did not expect GG to win DreamLeague Season 20, the team exceeded expectations and defeated BetBoom Team after an epic five-game series.
Aside from this tournament, GG also won the first two Majors and DreamLeague Season 19. Considering that the squad has secured all big competitions so far, it’s no surprise that most Dota 2 experts consider them the favorites.
The Underdogs
One of the reasons why every top-tier Dota 2 tournament is fun to watch is because of the underdogs.
Starting with Azure Ray, the Chinese powerhouse has the likes of Lu "Somnus" Yao and Xu "fy" Linsen in its roster, meaning the team has enough experience to win. Blacklist International is another intriguing team from Southeast Asia that has the players and experience to surprise its opponents. Although Mineski is the only team from SEA that has won a big Valve event so far, BI can potentially be the second one to claim a trophy.
Finally, we have Shopify Rebellion. Even though this squad didn’t impress us with its result at DreamLeague Season 20, SR has the potential to win and has proven it several times. It’s been a while since Artour "Arteezy" Babaev and the rest of squad won a big international tournament, so we can’t wait to see them in action.
Which heroes to follow?
The meta for The Bali Major 2023 will be the same as the one for DreamLeague Season 20 unless Valve decides to change something at the last minute. If that’s the case, we expect to see a lot from heroes like Techies and Morphling because they currently dominate the professional meta.
With that said, some teams that need to win this competition might surprise us by picking heroes they normally don’t use. We saw this at the DreamLeague Season 20 Grand Finals, where Gaimin Gladiators decided to get Huskar, a hero that hasn’t been that popular in the meta.
Conclusion
The most important Major of the 2023 DPC starts in just a couple of days from now. Similar to all big Dota 2 tournaments, this one will be broadcasted live, and you can watch it on the following channels:
Also be sure to keep up with BLIX's Dota 2 portal as we continue to cover the meta and the DPC.
