DPC 2023 Tour 2 favorites in China

For the first time since Dota 2 was launched, Chinese Dota is in ruins. The region has hit a massive wall and it’s going to be difficult to recover, partly because the Chinese government no longer allows young people to play video games.

Below 18, the amount of time that you can spend playing video games per week in this country is far too little to be of any use for a future esports career. So there’s nobody coming from behind to replace the great players who decided to either retire or take a break.

The current state of Chinese Dota

The effects of the Chinese government’s decision to put an end to gaming inside the country have already been felt at the Lima Major, where China didn’t have a single team in the top six. Team Aster finished seventh-eight, PSG.LGD finished 9th-12th, while EHOME and Antarctic Penguins finished 17th-18th.

We were used to seeing the Chinese teams competing against each other for a spot in the Grand Final. But those days are not coming back anytime soon.

DPC 2023 Tour 2 favorites

The favorite teams in the Chinese region for the second Tour of Dota Pro Circuit 2023 are Team Aster, Xtreme Gaming, and PSG.LGD. All three of them have decent rosters and should easily qualify for the Berlin Major given that the region still has four slots available.

This will likely be the last season when China gets so many qualification spots despite its obviously weak competitive level. Valve is not willing to change the rules on the fly, so we’ll need to wait until 2024 for an update.

The biggest change that happened in the league since the end of Tour 1 was the return of Hu “Kaka” Liangzhi. He decided to join Xtreme Gaming and is almost guaranteed to succeed under the current conditions. The 30-year-old played in the Grand Final of The International 2017 and finished the tournament in fourth place in 2021.

In 2022, he won Tour 3 with Royal Never Give Up and then participated in The International, but he only managed to finish 13^th-16^th. Still, his overall results and experience are vastly better than almost everyone else in the region. Because of this, his team is now expected to do well even against the likes of Aster.

It’s hard to tell who will win Tour 2 in China, but one of the three teams mentioned here will almost certainly be the one to do it.

Header: Team Aster