Team Aster have already qualified for Lima Major

The Chinese Division I league is almost over. Just two more matches need to be played by most participants and already, Team Aster have qualified for the Tour 1 Major, which will be held in Lima in less than six weeks.

It seems that the best Chinese team of 2022 is still in great shape despite the fact that Zeng “Ori” Jiaoyang retired after The International 11.

Team Aster’s current strength

At the end of TI11 last year, Aster looked really strong. They had finished fourth at the most prestigious tournament in Dota 2 and the players seemed hungry to win more titles. What happened next further consolidated Aster’s strength in the Chinese region.

Every other top organization either sold its spot or made massive roster changes. This left China with only a few exceptional teams and very little competition for Aster. Right now, Du “Monet” Peng is probably counting his lucky stars because his level of expertise is far greater than whatever his opponents can throw at him.

Aster’s domination during Tour 1 of Dota Pro Circuit 2023 has been complete. This performance was similar to that of T1 from League of Legends in the Spring Split of 2022. Aster’s current score is 5 W – 1 L and they’re not likely to stop until the end of the tour.

To the credit of their opponents, not every match ended with a clean result. There have been two teams that managed to steal a game from Aster and this should encourage viewers, who are probably waiting to finally see them lose. That’s probably not going to happen in this tour, but it might happen in the second tour.

We’ve yet to see how successful Aster are internationally. Regionally, it’s not that hard for them to be extremely dominant because there’s almost no one to contest their strategies. But against Western European and Eastern European teams, the battles will be much harder.

We’ll get to see Aster in action at the end of February. Hopefully, there will be a rematch between them and Team Liquid. Everyone is eager to see hyped matches between China and Europe, and there’s a high chance that the European teams will prove to be much stronger at the moment.

The situation in China looks bleak. For the first time in more than a decade, the region seems in total disarray. The government is shutting down gaming and the population is confronted with an awful pandemic. Nobody knows when the situation will improve.

Header: Team Aster