DreamLeague Season 23 Group Stage Recap

The ongoing $1,000,000 DreamLeague Season 23 Dota 2 tournament has finished its first phase. Here is a quick overview of the Group Stage results. 

Group A Results

Despite an early elimination from the previous PGL Wallachia Season 1 tournament, the Gaimin Gladiators have returned to top shape and ended their Group Stage campaign in first place. Quinn and the crew only dropped one map to Heroic and Aurora, managing to get convincing 2-0 victories against Xtreme Gaming and Team Liquid. 

Xtreme Gaming had a slow start to DreamLeague, which might have been due to exhaustion. They had just played in the Grand Final of Wallachia and immediately had to play more matches the following day. However, they tidied up their gameplay to finish second in the group.

The Southeast Asian squad Aurora performed averagely throughout the Group Stage. They drew three of their matches, won 2-0 against Team Liquid, and lost 0-2 against Xtreme Gaming. However, these results were still satisfactory, as they secured a Lower Bracket spot in the Playoffs with a perfectly balanced 5-5 record. 

Heroic and Team Liquid were tied for 4th place, and had to play a Best of 3 tiebreaker for all the marbles. The South American squad ended up taking the win after an intense 76-minute decider to secure the final Playoffs spot from Group A. As a result, Team Liquid will make a disappointing Group Stage exit from the tournament.

The last-place finishers in the Group were PSG Quest, which has yet to find success since qualifying for The International 2023. They end the Group Stage with an unsatisfactory 2-8 standing; perhaps roster changes are looming. 

Group B Results

As per usual, Team Falcons is dominating the competition, as they have claimed first place in Group B. Malr1ne has returned to play, after missing PGL Wallachia Season 1 due to visa issues. With the entire roster intact, the Falcons had no issue steamrolling their opponents, finishing the Group Stage with a 9-1 record. 

Tundra Esports recently let go of their offlane player, Tobi. RAMZES666 is acting as a temporary substitute for the team. He had not been playing in the offlane role for a while and had not participated in a Tier 1 event in over a year. Despite all these chains, he is performing up to speed, allowing Tundra to finish second in the group.

Azure Ray was immediately eliminated from PGL Wallachia Season 1 in last place but has somewhat found their form again for DreamLeague. They had a decent performance in the Group Stage, but a shocking 0-2 loss to Natus Vincere raised some eyebrows. Still, they defeated the BetBoom Team 2-0 and tied the series with Tundra to secure a Playoff appearance.

The BetBoom Team had an atrocious start to the event and was on the brink of elimination. In the final series of the Group Stage, they essentially played an elimination match against Shopify Rebellion. Fortunately, Nightfall and the boys could win the series 2-0 to survive in the tournament.

As mentioned earlier, Shopify Rebellion was sent out after the loss against the BetBoom Team. They finished the Group Stage with a 3-7 record, and Skem’s debut tournament in the team was a failure. The North American squad returns to the drawing board to adjust its new roster.

The last-place finisher is Natus Vincere, which shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. They were the heaviest underdog coming into the event, and overall, they put up a decent fight. They stole maps off Azure Ray and Shopify Rebellion and showed decent potential.

DreamLeague Season 23 is an online Dota 2 tournament featuring $1,000,000 in prize pools and twelve competing teams. On top of prize money, participants will also receive EPT points which will determine qualifications for the Riyadh Masters 2024 event. 

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