ESL One Kuala Lumpur group B favorites

ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023 is scheduled to take place between December 11 – 17. A total of 12 teams will compete in this Dota 2 event and will be divided into two groups of six. Only eight of them will advance to the playoffs.

In group B, there are quite a few competitors who look capable of winning. Some of them will need to prove themselves once again because they made roster changes after The International 12.

Group B teams and favorites

Here are the six teams that will compete in group B of ESL One Kuala Lumpur:

• Team Liquid
• LGD Gaming
• 9Pandas
• Team Falcons
• Invictus Gaming
• TSM

This will be a very close race and it’s not yet obvious who will get eliminated. The main candidates seem to be TSM and Invictus Gaming, but they might turn out to be excellent teams. With so many roster changes occurring in the span of a month, many of the teams are very different from their previous iterations.

One competitor that will be exciting to watch is Team Falcons. Some of the biggest names in Dota 2 have decided to join this project and there’s a high chance that it will be successful. The only real challenge for Falcons will be communication. Everyone is from a different country, and that may affect not just how the players understand each other but also their attitudes.

English shouldn’t be a big issue. Only Malr1ne is in question here because the other four players are known to speak it fluently.

Team Liquid lost zai after TI12 and have replaced him with 33. Even though he’s an excellent player, 33 is not as good as zai. So we don’t know yet if Liquid is still Liquid. Not to mention the fact that the team will play with SabeRLight- instead of 33 at this tournament.

They were one of the most successful teams throughout 2023 but @TeamLiquid were always just out of reach of the gold medal. Now equipped with a new Offlaner all eyes are on the WEU squad to see if they can finally earn themselves a trophy – starting with #ESLOne Kuala Lumpur! pic.twitter.com/hJNGxbZyJn

— ESL Dota2 (@ESLDota2) December 2, 2023

LGD Gaming also changed two players, bringing in replacements who seem to be slightly weaker. They too will need to prove themselves again.

9Pandas have kept their roster unchanged. With Solo and RAMZES, this team has the potential to go far at any event. At Riyadh Masters they finished 5^th – 6^th. At TI12 they were 9^th – 12^th.

The two remaining teams, Invictus Gaming and TSM, despite being strong, do not seem capable of beating the other competitors. However, the best-of-two format may help them. A lot of draws could potentially help them to avoid getting eliminated in the group stage.

Header: ESL