ESL One Malaysia favorites

ESL One Malaysia is the last tier-1 Dota 2 tournament before the qualifiers for The International 2022 and then TI itself. The competition features 12 Dota 2 teams and offers $400,000 in prize money. Before the event kicks off Tuesday, August 23, let’s take a look at who are the favorites of the competition. 

The list of ESL One Malaysia participants includes five big teams that will take part in the Western European qualifier for The International 11, namely Alliance, Team Liquid, Team Secret, Nigma Galaxy, and Entity.

Unfortunately for the fans, only one of them will qualify for sure, with the second-placed one having chances of getting a spot via the Last Chance Qualifier.

ESL One Malaysia favorites

Group A

• Alliance
• Entity
• Talon Esports
• Team Aster
• Team Secret
• Thunder Awaken

As strong as this group may seem, it is incomparably weaker than Group B. It will be interesting to see if Secret and Aster can dominate the other competitors. Normally, if Secret want to qualify for The International 2022, they should either win the group or finish right behind Aster. Otherwise, they’re in a lot of trouble.

Alliance are playing with a stand-in Sakis “dEsire” Kartsampas, as Adam “Aramis” Moroz did not manage to get a visa. This will significantly weaken the team, but maybe the roster’s best player Nikolay “Nikobaby” Nikolov along with Aliwi “w33” Omar can compensate for the absence of their teammate.

The most important match in this group will be the one between Secret and Entity. The two teams have already encountered each other three times during this season — in the DPC tours of Western Europe. While the first match was won by Secret, the second and third ones were won by Entity. What happens at this tournament will give us a glimpse into what is likely to happen in the TI11 qualifiers, where the two teams might meet again.

Group B

• BOOM Esports
• Fnatic
• Nigma Galaxy
• OG
• Team Liquid
• TSM

The big favorites here are OG, Nigma, and Liquid. Not much is known about TSM because they haven’t played at a big event in a while. However, it’s safe to assume that they’re still a very strong North American team.

OG played well at the two Majors of the season, but both times they played with Sebastien “Ceb” Debs as a stand-in. How well will they play without him? We will find out soon.

Header: ESL