Here’s everything that happened during the ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023 Qualifiers.
If you’re waiting for the first big tournament in Dota 2 following The International 12, you’ll be interested in ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023. Starting on 11 December, this event will include some of the best Dota 2 teams in the world. We knew the direct invites’ names and learned Team Spirit would miss the tournament, but we didn’t know which teams would survive the deadly qualifiers. Now the dust has settled, it’s time to learn more about each region and see what happened.
North America
Normally, North America is the region where Shopify Rebellion has little to no competition in all tournaments. However, considering the organization’s decision to drop its team, TSM and nouns had a unique opportunity to secure the only slot for ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023.
Both teams started in the Upper Bracket, where they defeated two opponents before meeting in the Upper Bracket Final. This was when TSM won and sent nouns to the LB, where the squad defeated Bammysoy. After meeting again in the Grand Final, the two NA powerhouses played five full games, and the second one was 106 minutes long. Even though nouns had a comfortable two game lead, TSM stepped up their game and took the series and the slot for ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023
South America
Once one of the most competitive Dota 2 regions, South America is a huge mess right now. A lot of the top-tier squads here, like beastcoast and Evil Geniuses, dropped their rosters, so the current teams are a bit weird. This made the qualifiers for ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023 intriguing because we did not know what to expect.
After an epic battle, the only slot for the tournament in December goes to Wawitas Sagazes. The squad, consisting of Gonzalo “DarkMago” Herrera and a few other popular names, failed to defeat Infinity in the Upper Bracket final, but they did it in the Grand Final. Following the 1:3 result, DarkMago and Co. secured the only SA slot for ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023.
Western Europe
The fact that all eyes were on the Western European qualifiers for ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023 is probably not surprising. The region has the best Dota 2 teams in the world, so no one knew what to expect. What’s more, WEU had two slots, which made everything even more exciting.
We expected to see a fierce battle between Team Liquid, OG, Entity, and Team Secret, and we were not disappointed. Team Liquid was in a league of their own and annihilated the competition, whereas the second slot went to Clement “Puppey” Ivanov’s team. Secret defeated both OG and Entity and deserved to be a part of the best teams in the world at ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023.
One of the squads who disappointed everyone with their performance was Alliance. Despite having a pretty good roster, Alliance is still unable to reach the Tier 1 Dota 2 scene. The team lost to Entity and then to Team Secret and was eliminated early on.
Eastern Europe
The situation in Eastern Europe was fairly similar to WEU; the EEU region had two slots for ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023. Three teams were above the rest, but in the end, BetBoom Team and 9Pandas claimed the two slots.
Unsurprisingly, the two Eastern European powerhouses didn’t have many problems. BetBoom did not lose a single series, whereas 9Pandas lost against Klim Sani4, but they were able to bounce back. The last match for 9P was against VP, and Roman “RAMZES666” Kushnarev and the rest secured the victory after winning both maps.
MENA
MENA is the new Dota 2 region consisting of teams from the Middle East. Normally, this region wouldn’t be that interesting, but there were two teams here who were on another level – Team Falcons and PSG Quest. The battle between them was fierce because MENA only had one slot for ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023.
Most Dota 2 fans expected PSG Quest to win because the team has been together for longer, whereas Team Falcons began their existence just a few weeks ago. However, it seems like this didn’t matter because TF won the Grand Finals. The team wasn’t able to grab the victory in the UB final, but they dealt with their opponents when needed, securing the region’s only slot for ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023.
China
China will be one of the most represented regions at ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023 with a total of 3 teams. Besides Azure Ray and LGD Gaming, Invictus Gaming will be the third Chinese squad in Malaysia. A lot of people expected Team Aster to be here, but IG’s roster changes made the team much stronger, and they had almost no problems. The last clash was between IG and Team Zero, and Invictus Gaming won without dropping a map.
Southeast Asia
Even though ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023 is taking place in SEA, the region will only have one representative. The qualifiers for the tournament only gave this region a single slot, and it went to Blacklist International.
All the matches here were fun to watch because SEA has numerous big names right now, and all of them were in the qualifiers. Aurora, for example, played their first big matches after the team’s inception, and Talon Esports also fielded their new roster for the first time. The same was true for Bleed Esports.
Even though all the above teams had good players, Blacklist International were above the rest and deserved the only slot for ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023.
ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023 is set to be a big tournament for more than one reason. Besides featuring the top Dota 2 teams after The International 12, we’ll also see the new roster changes in action in an international setting. Make sure to follow us for more information about this tournament and check out our other Dota 2 articles.
