ESL One Malaysia day 1 results

ESL One Malaysia 2022, the last big Dota 2 event before The International 2022, started well for the big favorites of the event, who won their first two group stage matches.

Unfortunately for Nigma Galaxy, they were downgraded by the pundits after one of the team’s best players, Amer “Miracle-” Al-Barkawi had to be replaced with less skilled Randy “Dreamocel” Muhammad due to unspecified health issues.

Group A

In group A, three teams proved to be far stronger than the rest. This was a rare case of a perfect division between the haves and the have-nots, even though the match format was best-of-two. Three teams, namely Entity, Team Aster, and Team Secret, finished the day with a record of 2W – 0L while Alliance, Talon Esports, and Thunder Awaken finished it with an opposite record of 0W – 2L.

That said, there’s still room for a comeback, but it’s unlikely that any of the bottom teams will finish in the top three. However, because of the tournament’s rules, it’s sufficient to finish fourth to advance to the playoffs.

The team that’s most likely to get fourth place in the group is Talon Esports. They are by far the strongest of the three in terms of individual talent.

Group B

In group B, OG dominated the opposition and finished the day with a perfect record against Fnatic and Team Liquid. Fnatic lost both games in less than 30 minutes, while Liquid lasted a bit more, yet unable to match the level of skill displayed by OG’s Bozhidar “bzm” Bogdanov and his crew. It seems that with or without Sebastien “Ceb” Debs, OG’s system is good enough to win.

Fnatic looked shaky but still managed to defeat their regional rivals from BOOM Esports. Nigma and TSM drew against each other and then got a second draw to end the day with a record of 2W – 2L. The hero that usually won their games was Puck.

The meta

Once again, we’ve seen the same meta we saw at every recent Dota 2 tournament. There were lots of Pucks, Razors, Tinys, Chens, Templar Assassins, Dazzles, Winter Wyverns, and all the other heroes that a lot of people in the Dota 2 community are increasingly becoming weary of.

The current state of the game should be criticized because Dota 2 stands for unpredictability and balance. And when the same heroes are picked over and over, that’s a sign that the game is seriously unbalanced.

Header: ESL