🕹️ Esports 🎮 Prediction & Discussion Thread

[inthelongrun]

We have a few days of DOTA rest before the Riyadh Master starts 5 days from now. While SEA is probably in its weakest season, another player is joining another team outside the region. Entity has a new offlane in this tournament, Gabbi.

And this makes Ceb play for the current OG squad as their pos 4. This is like version 2 of The International and for sure teams are going to go all in on this one.

That's cool. Every team that feels like they are still capable of winning has to change and do some experiments because last year, final qualifiers Team Secret and Liquid went on to play very well unexpectedly and finished 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Meanwhile, Quest Esports who's also on a good run lately and is clearly a black horse if it is able to qualify for TI thru the last qualifier seems to have some internal issues. A week ago, they parted ways with their coach Accell. And then ATF whose loan contract had just expired decided to leave citing Quests' offer as unacceptable. This is weird, Saudi is pouring millions to billions of dollars into events, sports, and esports so I guess ATF's concern is not about the money. So I guess Quest won't be the same again in the coming Riyadh Masters and TI Last Qualifier.

[1715072064]

1715072064

[1715072064]

1715072064

[execijutiere]

In the other match of the day, NiP was the winner in the lower bracket final match in group A.Although the match went to overtime twice on Inferno, the map chosen by EG, EG lost the map and fell behind 1-0.EG's poor performance of walco in EG and the legendary performance of headtr1ck in NiP were the effective factors in these. Headtr1ck actually showed all his effort to win the map for his team by getting 43 kills.With the contribution of Brollan, they won the first map.On the Vertigo map, we can say that both teams played well, but it was a match where the winner of the rounds won, not the one who played well.

[Coin_trader]

We have a few days of DOTA rest before the Riyadh Master starts 5 days from now. While SEA is probably in its weakest season, another player is joining another team outside the region. Entity has a new offlane in this tournament, Gabbi.

And this makes Ceb play for the current OG squad as their pos 4. This is like version 2 of The International and for sure teams are going to go all in on this one.

That's cool. Every team that feels like they are still capable of winning has to change and do some experiments because last year, final qualifiers Team Secret and Liquid went on to play very well unexpectedly and finished 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Meanwhile, Quest Esports who's also on a good run lately and is clearly a black horse if it is able to qualify for TI thru the last qualifier seems to have some internal issues. A week ago, they parted ways with their coach Accell. And then ATF whose loan contract had just expired decided to leave citing Quests' offer as unacceptable. This is weird, Saudi is pouring millions to billions of dollars into events, sports, and esports so I guess ATF's concern is not about the money. So I guess Quest won't be the same again in the coming Riyadh Masters and TI Last Qualifier.

If they will manage to find a decent offlaner then I guess they still have a chance to bounce back since their pos 1 and pos 2 are both good players. They are performing so well on most of their games while ATF gives a deciding factor to win or lose due to his ability to scale up qucik and check the enemy carry during early game.

The only problem to ATF is sometimes his decision making during crucial point is too greedy or too scared to make a play that's why enemy can catch up even if they are in lead. ATF is a very talented player but his inconsistency and greedy decision making his team suffer on late game. It's very hard to adjust with an offlaner with 1 or 2 tournament away from TI since tournament is the best place to try team work instead of pub games.

[boltz]

ATF is one maybe the 3rd best offlaner right now after Ace and Zai and by all means , he should temper himself during games and not be toxic because he is well known for being vocal during games and I think it all broke down hit him and Quest when he lost their game with brood as at one point he had as much farm as pos4 of Liquid who eventually cost them the game.

I, personally have another opinion of this departure and I think Kuro wanted him back at Nigma as soon as possible to be ready for last chance qualifiers for TI and if that won't work , ATF will search for a new team as he is still very very young and has plenty of time for his dota 2 career.

[Pulsar77]

Today in BLAST Premier tournament there is a really lovely upper final matchup between NaVi and Heroic.

It is like a final series after seeing the new roster of NaVi. I believe they have done the right thing by taking the necessary step and making the needed kind of changes. Of course the new roster will also need time to improve the team communication and performance. But still had a good start by defeating Astralis already. However Heroic is a really serious obstacle for them. I wonder if their current chemistry will be enough to fight with Heroic at the same level and defeat them as well.

The odds are like Heroic @1.35 and NaVi @3.00. I will try give NaVi a shot in this as their odd is really attracting.

[arallmuus]

The odds are like Heroic @1.35 and NaVi @3.00. I will try give NaVi a shot in this as their odd is really attracting.

I guess this didnt work out for you and yeah it didnt for me as well as I bet on over 2.5 maps on this. Im pretty confident that NaVi will atleast win a single map against Heroic but the new roster doesnt seems to work out well.

You know what I think Heroic might get top 2 again though, most of the time recently its always either 1st or 2nd for them so yeah this could be another one

[jakelyson]

ATF is one maybe the 3rd best offlaner right now after Ace and Zai and by all means , he should temper himself during games and not be toxic because he is well known for being vocal during games and I think it all broke down hit him and Quest when he lost their game with brood as at one point he had as much farm as pos4 of Liquid who eventually cost them the game.

I, personally have another opinion of this departure and I think Kuro wanted him back at Nigma as soon as possible to be ready for last chance qualifiers for TI and if that won't work , ATF will search for a new team as he is still very very young and has plenty of time for his dota 2 career.

On the other thread I read that the reason was because of contractual issues.

https://afkgaming.com/dota2/news/quest-esports-parts-ways-with-atf-due-to-contractual-issues

Now that you mentioned it, it makes sense. Nigma needs him to make a run for regional qualifiers for TI this year. Nigma is inconsistent lately and getting ATF back may solve their problems. They just need to win the qualifiers. They still have Mind_Control listed as their offlaner in The Internation 2023 liquipedia but that may change if you are correct.

We have a few days of DOTA rest before the Riyadh Master starts 5 days from now. While SEA is probably in its weakest season, another player is joining another team outside the region. Entity has a new offlane in this tournament, Gabbi.

And this makes Ceb play for the current OG squad as their pos 4. This is like version 2 of The International and for sure teams are going to go all in on this one.

That's cool. Every team that feels like they are still capable of winning has to change and do some experiments because last year, final qualifiers Team Secret and Liquid went on to play very well unexpectedly and finished 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Last year, some pro players believe that those who played the LCQ had an advantage since they are continuously playing professional DOTA going into TI. And they are right. Those who qualified through LCQ finished higher than those who qualified through regional qualifiers or DPC points except for Tundra.

This year, we do not have a Last Chance Qualifier, so whatever changes any teams need will have to be in Riyadh Masters. This is to be able to test their current team if it will perform in a professional scene. It is still best to test your team in a tournament because it is so much better than just doing it in scrims.

[dothebeats]

ATF is one maybe the 3rd best offlaner right now after Ace and Zai and by all means , he should temper himself during games and not be toxic because he is well known for being vocal during games and I think it all broke down hit him and Quest when he lost their game with brood as at one point he had as much farm as pos4 of Liquid who eventually cost them the game.

I, personally have another opinion of this departure and I think Kuro wanted him back at Nigma as soon as possible to be ready for last chance qualifiers for TI and if that won't work , ATF will search for a new team as he is still very very young and has plenty of time for his dota 2 career.

On the other thread I read that the reason was because of contractual issues.

https://afkgaming.com/dota2/news/quest-esports-parts-ways-with-atf-due-to-contractual-issues

Now that you mentioned it, it makes sense. Nigma needs him to make a run for regional qualifiers for TI this year. Nigma is inconsistent lately and getting ATF back may solve their problems. They just need to win the qualifiers. They still have Mind_Control listed as their offlaner in The Internation 2023 liquipedia but that may change if you are correct. .

If Nigma wants ATF they'd have to put him somewhere else, not pos 3. Mind Control is simply just not working on other roles, particularly on support roles given how tuned his gameplay is in the offlane. They can give Ammar pos 1, although I'm not sure if he's effective too on that role as he's been playing pos 3 for quite a while now, and his gameplay really suits the current meta for offlaners. They can put him in mid and try to do something in that position, although not sure if that's a setup that will work in the qualifiers.

[arallmuus]

-snip

-snip

-snp

It was an issue with him not wanting to sign the contract though and to sum it up, basically Quest doesnt want to extend the loan anymore by offering ATF another contract to sign to be their permanent player but ATF didnt want to sign it. Most people speculate because the wage offered in the contract is not as huge as what Nigma offered so he didnt want to sign hence they part ways

[ralle14]

I, personally have another opinion of this departure and I think Kuro wanted him back at Nigma as soon as possible to be ready for last chance qualifiers for TI and if that won't work , ATF will search for a new team as he is still very very young and has plenty of time for his dota 2 career.

Having another player to swap could come in handy for Nigma but I don't think Kuro is that desperate when their squad is already doing great.

There's also Nouns picking up one of the best SA carry K1 to their roster while their current carry Yamsun transitions to the supporting role. Now I don't see any other team beating them in the NA qualifiers when their roster got this big of an upgrade.

[execijutiere]

We watched Heroic-NaVi match in the upper bracket final match of group B.Heroic managed to defeat their opponent 2-0.Heroic, who showed a better performance as a team, can easily say that they deserved to win the match.I did not expect NaVi to perform so badly.I think they will need a little more time to get used to each other.
In the final match of group B lower bracket, we watched the BIG-Astralis match.BIG lost the first map, but held on to the match and won 2-1.The map scores in the match were close to each other and we can actually say that both teams were insufficient in performance.Astralis was better than BIG, but BIG was the team that won the match.

[arallmuus]

Having another player to swap could come in handy for Nigma but I don't think Kuro is that desperate when their squad is already doing great.

There's also Nouns picking up one of the best SA carry K1 to their roster while their current carry Yamsun transitions to the supporting role. Now I don't see any other team beating them in the NA qualifiers when their roster got this big of an upgrade.

Yeah the current DPC system is really good on NA region because top 2 teams guaranteed to get to TI through points will always be TSM and SR for now so the other less fortunate team in this case Nouns ( back then it was Quincy crew I believe) will always get their share from the regional qualifier


Riyadh Master play-in on wednesday, there is going to be a total of 24 games in a single day. Im thinking of combining several games into a good parlay because its just absurd to use the all draws strategy in this case I think



I personally like this one lol, odds are abit silly yeah

[batang_bitcoin]

If Nigma wants ATF they'd have to put him somewhere else, not pos 3. Mind Control is simply just not working on other roles, particularly on support roles given how tuned his gameplay is in the offlane. They can give Ammar pos 1, although I'm not sure if he's effective too on that role as he's been playing pos 3 for quite a while now, and his gameplay really suits the current meta for offlaners. They can put him in mid and try to do something in that position, although not sure if that's a setup that will work in the qualifiers.

Despite ATF is really a good position 3, I agree to you that if he stays with Nigma, there should be an adjusted. And from being with OG before, he's a position 1 and that could be the adjustment. I am thinking that Nigma is more with the contract business now and not with the actual competition anymore. Kuroky needs to be just their manager or coach and let the younger ones play with their talents. ATF with the Quest is really a strong dark horse but then, it's all about business and contracts and probably ATF was minisculed by their offer and that's why ATF can't even proceed despite with a go signal from his Nigma management.

[dothebeats]

If Nigma wants ATF they'd have to put him somewhere else, not pos 3. Mind Control is simply just not working on other roles, particularly on support roles given how tuned his gameplay is in the offlane. They can give Ammar pos 1, although I'm not sure if he's effective too on that role as he's been playing pos 3 for quite a while now, and his gameplay really suits the current meta for offlaners. They can put him in mid and try to do something in that position, although not sure if that's a setup that will work in the qualifiers.

Despite ATF is really a good position 3, I agree to you that if he stays with Nigma, there should be an adjusted. And from being with OG before, he's a position 1 and that could be the adjustment. I am thinking that Nigma is more with the contract business now and not with the actual competition anymore. Kuroky needs to be just their manager or coach and let the younger ones play with their talents. ATF with the Quest is really a strong dark horse but then, it's all about business and contracts and probably ATF was minisculed by their offer and that's why ATF can't even proceed despite with a go signal from his Nigma management.

ATF is weighing his options and that is just the right thing to do. A few months before TI and a lot of teams can still get him if they wanted him to be in their team. The guy’s got pretty solid mechanics for a carry, though his aggressive play style suits him better in the offlane role, a role in which Nigma and Quest utilized him. He just needs a 4 position support that matches what he wants to do in the lane. Old OG did this really well although they haven’t found much success after a few stints in a few majors.

[ralle14]

I personally like this one lol, odds are abit silly yeah

I like most of what you picked in your parlay aside from 9Pandas, as I think they have a higher chance of dropping a map over VP going 2-0 against Team Aster. I might parlay the Team Liquid matches tomorrow and then live bet the other games on Group B.

The odds on this over 2.5 between COL vs NiP looks good and IMO should be switched around with the under when they already had a 2-1 scoreline five days ago.

[passwordnow]

We have a few days of DOTA rest before the Riyadh Master starts 5 days from now. While SEA is probably in its weakest season, another player is joining another team outside the region. Entity has a new offlane in this tournament, Gabbi.

And this makes Ceb play for the current OG squad as their pos 4. This is like version 2 of The International and for sure teams are going to go all in on this one.

That's cool. Every team that feels like they are still capable of winning has to change and do some experiments because last year, final qualifiers Team Secret and Liquid went on to play very well unexpectedly and finished 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Meanwhile, Quest Esports who's also on a good run lately and is clearly a black horse if it is able to qualify for TI thru the last qualifier seems to have some internal issues. A week ago, they parted ways with their coach Accell. And then ATF whose loan contract had just expired decided to leave citing Quests' offer as unacceptable. This is weird, Saudi is pouring millions to billions of dollars into events, sports, and esports so I guess ATF's concern is not about the money. So I guess Quest won't be the same again in the coming Riyadh Masters and TI Last Qualifier.

Quest is still strong without ATF but it's possible that ATF was the brain during all of their run. He did great with the team and the team has actually improved and added a lot of experience from the professional scene. As for Saudi, they're just expanding their investments and aside from oil, they can see that esports is growing and soon in the future, it's possible that they're targeting to be an esports hub as the prince there is also a fan and player of Dota 2. I'm not just sure with other games, probably he's too.

[arallmuus]

Quest is still strong without ATF but it's possible that ATF was the brain during all of their run.

Quest esport is the only team that won 3-0 ( 6-0 ) for their first 3 games and currently Xtreme Gaming won the 1st map against them. I thought they could make a clean sweep for today then advance to the group stage on the very first day.


Pretty weird first day overall imo and I was expecting that there will be alot of draws like usual but it seems most teams are so motivated to win with clean 2-0 sweep because of the huge prizepool I guess

[passwordnow]

Quest is still strong without ATF but it's possible that ATF was the brain during all of their run.

Quest esport is the only team that won 3-0 ( 6-0 ) for their first 3 games and currently Xtreme Gaming won the 1st map against them. I thought they could make a clean sweep for today then advance to the group stage on the very first day.

I was correct that they're still strong but did have my doubts about it without ATF. Anyway, this is a good run that they're having and the first day is done. The last day of the play in is going to be tomorrow, I don't understand the bracketing though. There are teams, the direct invites are just waiting so, this means that there will be eliminated teams by tomorrow on this play in, is that right? So before proceeding the group stages and joining the waiting teams, those that will be at the lowest points will be eliminated and that's like 6 teams to be eliminated by tomorrow and 6 to contine.

[stomachgrowls]

Quest is still strong without ATF but it's possible that ATF was the brain during all of their run.

Quest esport is the only team that won 3-0 ( 6-0 ) for their first 3 games and currently Xtreme Gaming won the 1st map against them. I thought they could make a clean sweep for today then advance to the group stage on the very first day.


Pretty weird first day overall imo and I was expecting that there will be alot of draws like usual but it seems most teams are so motivated to win with clean 2-0 sweep because of the huge prizepool I guess

Comparing to other majors then when it comes to prize pool then Riyadh masters is really that having a huge prize pool on which it would be normal for teams would really be giving out their best in terms of performance
and trying out to place themselves at least on top 20 which you would really be at least getting some of the allocation but of course every team would really be going for the top spot or even on top #2 or 3 because
the prize isnt something that they could ignore.

Quest Esports had been known already to be the darkhorse and really that performs well now on qualifying stage. Lots had been anticipating that this one would really be an another
major for GG to win. lol

[boyptc]

Comparing to other majors then when it comes to prize pool then Riyadh masters is really that having a huge prize pool on which it would be normal for teams would really be giving out their best in terms of performance
and trying out to place themselves at least on top 20 which you would really be at least getting some of the allocation but of course every team would really be going for the top spot or even on top #2 or 3 because
the prize isnt something that they could ignore.

It's just going to be a short period for them and that's why those teams that want to go to the next level needs a lot of 2-0. Those that are able to make it are likely have a bigger chance for the group stages where the action is going to be more what he's expecting to have draws.

These teams have already secured themselves for the group stages.

• Team Liquid
• Team Aster
• Quest Esports
• 9pandas

And there are going to be a lot of decider matches and that's the more crucial part of the teams that will go there.