DreamLeague S21 group A favorites

DreamLeague Season 21 features many great Dota 2 teams but some of them are a bit stronger than others.

In group A of the tournament, six competitors are fighting for two upper bracket spots and two lower bracket spots. The bottom two teams will get eliminated after the round-robin. Every match is best-of-two.

Group A participants

Here are the six teams that will play in group A of DreamLeague S21:

• 9Pandas
• Entity
• Shopify Rebellion
• Talon Esports
• Team Liquid
• Tundra Esports

The strongest of these teams are Liquid, Talon, and Tundra. But the other three are very close to them and might cause some upsets. In principle, Shopify Rebellion and either Entity or 9Pandas should get eliminated after the group stage. It’s been a long time since we last saw Rebellion doing something significant in an international tournament.

They did finish 3^rd at DreamLeague S19 and 1^st in DPC NA Tour 3: Division I. But that was more than three months ago and in their last three tournaments, Shopify played poorly and got eliminated very quickly.

Took some nice pics with my bro

Check out new collection https://t.co/DtfdHJkmR7 and https://t.co/C7s9imMLuB@teamliquid pic.twitter.com/MLc9X9APoM

— Michał Jankowski (@nishadota) September 15, 2023

The favorites

Team Liquid is the biggest favorite in this group and one of the top three favorites to win the entire tournament. If Michal “Nisha” Jankowski manages to play his usual game, there’s very little that can stop his team from winning the group.

It’s not likely that Liquid will win every single match because the best-of-two format is quite tricky. But they should win at least two out of five and draw the other three. These results will probably ensure that they win overall.

In 2023, Liquid won two Tours in Western Europe’s Division I and finished 2^nd at five international events, including the three DPC Majors. The team’s only failure this season came at DreamLeague S20, where they finished 15^th-16^th.

It remains to be seen whether they’ll repeat that disastrous performance or not, but the odds are certainly in their favor. Luckily for Liquid, Gaimin Gladiators will compete in group B, so they won’t have to face an unbeatable opponent. But they will need to play against both Talon and Tundra.

In Talon’s case, 23savage and Jabz have been in great shape during the last six months, so their odds of finishing in the top four are quite high.

It will be interesting to see what Tundra can do with Topson as their new midlaner. The two-time TI champion might help them conquer the world again.

Header: ESL