🕹️ Esports 🎮 Prediction & Discussion Thread

[dothebeats]

-snip

This is very close tournament and I am thinking I am playing over maps on all games tomorrow. Worked brilliantly so far so maybe that is the way to go all the way.

Nice hit on that ticket though, it was probably the best decision on taking over 2.5 maps especially on that T1 vs Navi games.

I took this though and now Im thinking about splitting it to a single tickets then take all of it at over 2.5 maps as well. Its pretty much win or go home at this point though especially on the lower bracket so yeah most games would probably ended up not under 2 maps most likely

Good call on splitting them in singles. Team Secret just finessed T1 real hard thanks to Zayac's great plays enabling the team to go on pesky supports (Whitemon, Xepher) ensuring that no save will happen to the cores. Also, it seems that the meta for Secret is picking heroes that can dominate and control creeps to their favor, as this patch there aren't any good aoe nukes with short cooldowns that can take down these controlled units. With the nerf of KoTL this meta is alive and well again.

Also worth noting is that T1's draft isn't really the best and that is something they can work on still in the lower bracket. They can play on long, dragged-out fights and can initiate pretty good team fights, it's just that most of the time they don't have the heroes to do so because their drafts doesn't suit what they need to contest against the enemy.

[1715202283]

1715202283

[blue_hurricanger]

Vitality really disappointed me by losing to Heroic in the 5th place decider already. I don't know what went wrong with them in this very important tournament. They should have been one of the teams in Legends Stage normally. They were the best team in terms of performance recently but somehow they performed poorer than expected in RMR. I don't doubt them to get past Challengers Stage without problems but they had better make some improvement in their effort again. This level wouldn't be enough to be serious for the Major title.

Cloud9 were another team that surprised me. I was expecting them to move Spirit out of their way and reach Legends Stage. But Spirit showed a really great performance. They both defeated their opponent by big gaps first. On Ancient, I was seeing Cloud9 a little more advantageous as they didn't lose any game there before. But Spirit still managed to win by 16-13 and have become one of the members in Legends Stage. magixx played big on this map by 29 frags and he had the biggest role in the win.

A lot of new teams must have analyzed the top-tier teams' demos from Vitality and Cloud9 to know some exploits that they can use. Especially both Vitality and Cloud9 have made it to the Final of the ESL Pro League and IEM Rio qualifying matches that happened less than a week after. Most of your core strats will be under the palm of the enemy.

That still depends on which team will pick up hooxi and if G2 will continue with their roster until the next major but for now we'll just wait and see what happens. On the bright side it's nice to see new teams like Gamerlegion and Sprout qualify all the way.

Yeah, I know. Just talking nonsense since my frustration with G2 is very high right now. Their problems weren't about igl but how niko think he can challenge the igl's call since he is the hottest shit, top at HLTV ranking for players
This is a common plague on CSGO but most top-tier teams have decent mechanisms to work out, who has the right to call. Yes, we know, niko. You're good players, with good aim, and good rating, can 1vs1 almost everyone in the top HLTV ranking for players. But this doesn't mean you start questioning about igl's call every time the game doesn't go your way. It becomes a bad habit and replacing a new igl to be your beck and call won't change anything.

[boltz]

Secret vs VP tomorrow for first team to get qualified for TI from total of 2 slots available. I do think Secret will win just because they seemed the practice a lot during the free time and also finally came with meta strategies that puts opponents in difficult positions ...I mean , we saw today Puppey Ench that couldn't be touched and ended up winning that game in around 25 minutes.

VP looks solid but always ready to trow ...like NaVi did today...kinda normal for them to do this.

[dothebeats]

No hate for T1 but man, their drafts are really weird and kuku on the offlane is literally 0 impact on all of the 3 games against VG. Also, you can see that Kuku blocked Topson's Tiny on game 2 during the last clash. Topson can survive Morph's right clicks in there but man, kuku has to body block my guy.

Anyway, good thing I didn't bet match winner last game, but still lost on my first blood bet lol.

Secret vs VP tomorrow for first team to get qualified for TI from total of 2 slots available. I do think Secret will win just because they seemed the practice a lot during the free time and also finally came with meta strategies that puts opponents in difficult positions ...I mean , we saw today Puppey Ench that couldn't be touched and ended up winning that game in around 25 minutes.

VP looks solid but always ready to trow ...like NaVi did today...kinda normal for them to do this.

Secret's meta is slowly being copied by a lot of teams because of its efficiency and not a lot of wave clear heroes in this patch. Visage is also being utilized very heavily and we can see a pattern here. Puppey with his Chen/Ench can make wonders, and I don't think VP is that prepared to counter this given how they prefer single target heroes with chain stuns and lockdowns as of late.

I'm going all in on Secret to win against VP in a series. Hopefully it's a Liquid/Secret finals.

[batang_bitcoin]

No hate for T1 but man, their drafts are really weird and kuku on the offlane is literally 0 impact on all of the 3 games against VG.

I don't understand them, they have their coach and added an analyst which made things confusing for them. I like them when there's no analyst as they can play their own heroes freely and whatever the players would suggest. For me, on the 3rd game, he's able to do his job of giving some hard time to morphling but their picks are still crazy. I don't understand why they've got shit picks and they could have picked better. Well, I won't be surprised if after this TI, T1 will announce that they've now parted ways with kuku, xepher and whitemon. These three should just better build their team without any sponsor but well, since it's their bread and butter, it's a must for them.

[Spack17]

https://www.hltv.org/news/34794/k0nfig-and-astralis-part-ways

Astralis and k0nfig have parted ways after k0nfig had some personal issues. By saying "issue", I mean that he had an ankle fracture as you know and he missed out RMR. In the absence of him, Astralis were in a more troubling condition and MistR tried to fill his place. But they were still unable to prevent a bad ending. The team performance was already bad though and missing one of their main players made things even worse.

Astralis have announced that MistR will remain in the BLAST Premier Fall Showdown also. However there are some rumours about a possible return of device. He has been benched at NIP for a long time so it wouldn't be too difficult for Astralis to bring him back I guess. But I wonder how good he would be able to play after a break of almost one year.

[jakelyson]

I'm going all in on Secret to win against VP in a series. Hopefully it's a Liquid/Secret finals.

There are no Finals here. If secret win tomorrow against VP, they qualify for TI. The loser will fall to the lower bracket and will go against whoever wins between Team Liquid and Vici Gaming. Whoever wins there will also qualify for TI.

Western Europe is looking good to qualify for TI. Just based on how good Team Liquid knocked out Xtreme Gaming, they can go all the way to the finals and qualify. Team Secret is also looking good as well, and they seem to master the Meta in this patch. If VP fails to win against secret tomorrow, there is no way they will be beating Team Liquid.

No hate for T1 but man, their drafts are really weird and kuku on the offlane is literally 0 impact on all of the 3 games against VG.

I don't understand them, they have their coach and added an analyst which made things confusing for them. I like them when there's no analyst as they can play their own heroes freely and whatever the players would suggest. For me, on the 3rd game, he's able to do his job of giving some hard time to morphling but their picks are still crazy. I don't understand why they've got shit picks and they could have picked better. Well, I won't be surprised if after this TI, T1 will announce that they've now parted ways with kuku, xepher and whitemon. These three should just better build their team without any sponsor but well, since it's their bread and butter, it's a must for them.

Those weird picks worked miracles yesterday though, it just did not work today. And when you see Topson, not in the top 4 of the net worth, you already know the team will lose. The supports just do not enable him whenever he is out laned in the laning phase. Unlike when they are in OG, whenever Topson had a bad start, supports will enable him so he can catch up in level and net worth. Xepher and Whitemon is good but they cannot create space for Topson if he had a bad start. And sometimes, Kuku is a dead weight too. 

[passwordnow]

I'm going all in on Secret to win against VP in a series. Hopefully it's a Liquid/Secret finals.

VP and Team Secret got two chances to get the slot. Whoever wins first tomorrow will go happily to the TI11. Chance of Team Secret getting that secured slot is very high. Even though sometimes, I'm not impressed with how things go at their early games, still, they're proving to themselves that they're determined to win as soon as they've got the momentum. They're not letting it go and that's showing how much Puppey still got that prowess and understands the game. Much respect for Puppey and for both teams, VP and Team Secret, one more step away and we'll see who'll be the first to step to the main event.

[arallmuus]

Much respect for Puppey and for both teams, VP and Team Secret, one more step away and we'll see who'll be the first to step to the main event.

If I could choose a team to win and qualified for TI without looking at their performances or whatsoever, I'll take VP though. These guys have had alot of misfortune this year due to Russia's politics. They were disqualified from some tournaments and wasnt able to earn enough DPC points, had to drop of their main players from roster due to the politic issue as well though

These guy totally play good as well and totally deserved that 1 spot to TI

[emrecemsan]

The Fall Showdown stage in BLAST Premier tournament is nearly starting. There is around a week to go.

Only the winner of the finale is going to be a part of the Fall Final stage. This might seem unfair for the teams while there are eight teams competing in this qualifier.

The teams competing are: Vitality, Heroic, Astralis, BIG, Eternal Fire, Sangal, ECSTATIC, TYLOO

It feels like we will watch a Vitality - Heroic finale considering the bracket:



Vitality are the biggest candidate to qualify for the main tournament I think. I know that Heroic defeated Vitality by 2-1 in the 5th place decider matchup. Vitality won only one map against them considering their head-to-head matchups so far. However Vitality are still the favourite on paper actually. I don't think they will repeat the same scenario again in case they face each other once more.

[Trofo]

Much respect for Puppey and for both teams, VP and Team Secret, one more step away and we'll see who'll be the first to step to the main event.

If I could choose a team to win and qualified for TI without looking at their performances or whatsoever, I'll take VP though. These guys have had alot of misfortune this year due to Russia's politics. They were disqualified from some tournaments and wasnt able to earn enough DPC points, had to drop of their main players from roster due to the politic issue as well though

These guy totally play good as well and totally deserved that 1 spot to TI

I am expecting though games tomorrow and probably 2:1 wins for Team Secret and Liquid. Really did not know what to bet for these two so  I went with over 2.5 maps. That way I can actually do some work and only watch second maps of the series Pro tip for those of you with busy mornings.

Kidding aside, we should have see some great DOTA tomorrow and underdogs can take one map for sure but handicaps pay way lower than over maps.

[ralle14]

Secret vs VP tomorrow for first team to get qualified for TI from total of 2 slots available. I do think Secret will win just because they seemed the practice a lot during the free time and also finally came with meta strategies that puts opponents in difficult positions ...I mean , we saw today Puppey Ench that couldn't be touched and ended up winning that game in around 25 minutes.

I also think Secret takes the first slot since they did well against T1 but at the same time, T1 looked so bad and their drafting looked a bit iffy with the Oracle mid.

Western Europe is looking good to qualify for TI. Just based on how good Team Liquid knocked out Xtreme Gaming, they can go all the way to the finals and qualify. Team Secret is also looking good as well, and they seem to master the Meta in this patch. If VP fails to win against secret tomorrow, there is no way they will be beating Team Liquid.

Even though Team Liquid did that one-sided sweep against XG I still think it's a toss-up since VP already beat Team Liquid yesterday. We'll see what happens after the first two series and I hope whoever goes down to the lower bracket doesn't crumble like T1.

[Fundamentals Of]

Secret vs VP tomorrow for first team to get qualified for TI from total of 2 slots available. I do think Secret will win just because they seemed the practice a lot during the free time and also finally came with meta strategies that puts opponents in difficult positions ...I mean , we saw today Puppey Ench that couldn't be touched and ended up winning that game in around 25 minutes.

I also think Secret takes the first slot since they did well against T1 but at the same time, T1 looked so bad and their drafting looked a bit iffy with the Oracle mid.

Team Secret is definitely getting the spot here. So the other one will have to be hotly contested between VP, Liquid, and Vici. I think any of the three teams could be a contender. The competition is quite close, much closer than with T1 defeating Vici. Vici of course is the dark horse in this race but they've been crawling slowly but surely in the lower bracket. They could indeed get the other spot. I'm even seeing a potential Vici vs VP finals.

[Mauser]

We are being treated with a small CSGO tournament this weekend, ESL Challenger Rotterdam 2022 is happening between 8 teams. This is a great way for the professional teams who are not at the top to get a shot at a final and make some decent money. With the price money of 100,000 USD it is still going to be competitive. I am mostly interested in that tournament because of Mouz, one of my favourite CSGO teams from back in the days. They are playing their first match on Friday against South African Nixuh clan, which is going to be a good win for Mouz. A second sure win should be ENCE vs TeamOne on Friday, ENCE being a strong team as well is bringing that game home. Both MOUZ and ENCE seem like the clear favourites to win this one, but with LAN best of 1 games there can always something unexpected happen. The closest game on Friday will be between Movistar Riders and Eternal Fire, I expect Xantares to carry it for Eternal Fire.
   

[jakelyson]

Secret vs VP tomorrow for first team to get qualified for TI from total of 2 slots available. I do think Secret will win just because they seemed the practice a lot during the free time and also finally came with meta strategies that puts opponents in difficult positions ...I mean , we saw today Puppey Ench that couldn't be touched and ended up winning that game in around 25 minutes.

I also think Secret takes the first slot since they did well against T1 but at the same time, T1 looked so bad and their drafting looked a bit iffy with the Oracle mid.

Team Secret is definitely getting the spot here. So the other one will have to be hotly contested between VP, Liquid, and Vici. I think any of the three teams could be a contender. The competition is quite close, much closer than with T1 defeating Vici. Vici of course is the dark horse in this race but they've been crawling slowly but surely in the lower bracket. They could indeed get the other spot. I'm even seeing a potential Vici vs VP finals.

Unfortunately, Vici was not able to close out team Liquid and they were eliminated from the competition. After winning Game 1, Vici was not able to sustain their momentum and Team Liquid was able to force a third map. Team Liquid finished them in a convincing fashion in Game 3 which send Vici Gaming packing.

Team Liquid is now facing VP in the Lower Bracket Finals. I think they will take this all the way to TI. If Liquid wins, WEU eliminated all regions in LCQ.

[dothebeats]

I'm going all in on Secret to win against VP in a series. Hopefully it's a Liquid/Secret finals.

VP and Team Secret got two chances to get the slot. Whoever wins first tomorrow will go happily to the TI11. Chance of Team Secret getting that secured slot is very high. Even though sometimes, I'm not impressed with how things go at their early games, still, they're proving to themselves that they're determined to win as soon as they've got the momentum. They're not letting it go and that's showing how much Puppey still got that prowess and understands the game. Much respect for Puppey and for both teams, VP and Team Secret, one more step away and we'll see who'll be the first to step to the main event.

I sometimes think it's the 'Puppey effect.' Dude has this "fuck around and find out" aura in him that if you made one mistake, you have to make sure that you'll make it up in the next few minutes else something will happen very bad to you But yeah, I think it's that this team easily recognizes what they are doing wrong and they are quick to correct it, either by slowing things down or rushing the enemy by invading their jungle and just doing their thing. Puppey is a genius when it comes to drafts and timings. They certainly have the potential to win TI but it will depend on how well they would be able to handle stress and fatigue.

[Peanutswar]

I'm going all in on Secret to win against VP in a series. Hopefully it's a Liquid/Secret finals.

There are no Finals here. If secret win tomorrow against VP, they qualify for TI. The loser will fall to the lower bracket and will go against whoever wins between Team Liquid and Vici Gaming. Whoever wins there will also qualify for TI.

Western Europe is looking good to qualify for TI. Just based on how good Team Liquid knocked out Xtreme Gaming, they can go all the way to the finals and qualify. Team Secret is also looking good as well, and they seem to master the Meta in this patch. If VP fails to win against secret tomorrow, there is no way they will be beating Team Liquid.

No hate for T1 but man, their drafts are really weird and kuku on the offlane is literally 0 impact on all of the 3 games against VG.

I don't understand them, they have their coach and added an analyst which made things confusing for them. I like them when there's no analyst as they can play their own heroes freely and whatever the players would suggest. For me, on the 3rd game, he's able to do his job of giving some hard time to morphling but their picks are still crazy. I don't understand why they've got shit picks and they could have picked better. Well, I won't be surprised if after this TI, T1 will announce that they've now parted ways with kuku, xepher and whitemon. These three should just better build their team without any sponsor but well, since it's their bread and butter, it's a must for them.

Those weird picks worked miracles yesterday though, it just did not work today. And when you see Topson, not in the top 4 of the net worth, you already know the team will lose. The supports just do not enable him whenever he is out laned in the laning phase. Unlike when they are in OG, whenever Topson had a bad start, supports will enable him so he can catch up in level and net worth. Xepher and Whitemon is good but they cannot create space for Topson if he had a bad start. And sometimes, Kuku is a dead weight too. 

After the Match of T1 against the team VG the community of the dota 2 right now is on fire because of the trash-talk again by the member of VG.Erika as Bye bye kuku which is triggered a lot of people even though it is just a part of the game and of course being professional kuku takes this as a joke and make a post of out that let the liquid to take a revenge to him and by that the meme again rise up again right now there's a match between the VP and they are already out in the game of Ti11.

[jakelyson]

After the Match of T1 against the team VG the community of the dota 2 right now is on fire because of the trash-talk again by the member of VG.Erika as Bye bye kuku which is triggered a lot of people even though it is just a part of the game and of course being professional kuku takes this as a joke and make a post of out that let the liquid to take a revenge to him and by that the meme again rise up again right now there's a match between the VP and they are already out in the game of Ti11.

Kuku said GL, in which Erika said bye bye. That is not trash talk to me. That is just saying goodbye. They are eliminated, what else to say?

If Kuku is offended by that, I do not think he deserves to be in SEA. What seems to be a trashtalk in other server is just like a greeting to us in SEA server. You cannot survive in SEA if you are onion skinned.


The Last Chance Qualifier is finally over. As predicted, Team Secret and Team Liquid got the final seat for TI 2022. W Europe dominated the other regions and secured their seat in the most convincing fashion possible.

The bracketing for the Group stage is not yet out. We have to wait which teams Secret and Liquid will be with. Are we going to witness a Cinderella story here in TI 2022? Will team Secret be good enough to snatch the Championship from heavily favored teams?

[ILuckyGuyI]

We are being treated with a small CSGO tournament this weekend, ESL Challenger Rotterdam 2022 is happening between 8 teams. This is a great way for the professional teams who are not at the top to get a shot at a final and make some decent money. With the price money of 100,000 USD it is still going to be competitive. I am mostly interested in that tournament because of Mouz, one of my favourite CSGO teams from back in the days. They are playing their first match on Friday against South African Nixuh clan, which is going to be a good win for Mouz. A second sure win should be ENCE vs TeamOne on Friday, ENCE being a strong team as well is bringing that game home. Both MOUZ and ENCE seem like the clear favourites to win this one, but with LAN best of 1 games there can always something unexpected happen. The closest game on Friday will be between Movistar Riders and Eternal Fire, I expect Xantares to carry it for Eternal Fire.
   

I hope to see some recovery from Eternal Fire side in this tournament. They have made another change in their roster after not much time passed over the last ones. MAJ3R has left the team completely after joining for a short time period and having some personal issues with some players. I think that he shouldn't have been the player to leave the team because he was really helpful for the team with his game. I hoped to see imoRR being sent or benched but it also didn't happen. xfl0ud's return is at least some good news.

This is their group now:



Eternal Fire have defeated MOUZ and Movistar Riders not much time ago. We will see if they will be able to do it again. I can't be more confident than this for now because I've no idea about imoRR's IGL yet. In fact they tried it in the past but only for once or twice. Normally this group is very winnable for Eternal Fire.

[abel1337]

After the Match of T1 against the team VG the community of the dota 2 right now is on fire because of the trash-talk again by the member of VG.Erika as Bye bye kuku which is triggered a lot of people even though it is just a part of the game and of course being professional kuku takes this as a joke and make a post of out that let the liquid to take a revenge to him and by that the meme again rise up again right now there's a match between the VP and they are already out in the game of Ti11.

Kuku said GL, in which Erika said bye bye. That is not trash talk to me. That is just saying goodbye. They are eliminated, what else to say?

If Kuku is offended by that, I do not think he deserves to be in SEA. What seems to be a trashtalk in other server is just like a greeting to us in SEA server. You cannot survive in SEA if you are onion skinned.


The Last Chance Qualifier is finally over. As predicted, Team Secret and Team Liquid got the final seat for TI 2022. W Europe dominated the other regions and secured their seat in the most convincing fashion possible.

The bracketing for the Group stage is not yet out. We have to wait which teams Secret and Liquid will be with. Are we going to witness a Cinderella story here in TI 2022? Will team Secret be good enough to snatch the Championship from heavily favored teams?

I think it's a trashalk for me but Kuku will not be butthurt given because he once been viral because of his trashtalk before and have an issue with chinese dota players. Kuku was trashtalked by a chinese pro player now and I don't think that kuku will fight back given that this will extend his bad image to the chinese dota players. I'm playing on SEA since I started playing dota2 and you are a lucky one when you don't have any toxic player the current match you are playing. Kuku is used to it and I don't think that he will sacrifice his current reputation.

BTW here's the recap for the Last Chance Qualifiers.

Credits to KuyaNic