ESL One Malaysia 2022 Preview: Waiting For The International 2022 Qualifiers

A major LAN tournament from ESL in Malaysia starts this Tuesday. ESL One Malaysia 2022 will showcase the uniforms of the teams that will play in the regional qualifiers for the Dota 2 World Championship, The International 2022.

Format

12 teams will take part in the competition. 6 of them received a direct invitation from the organizers, and 6 got to the tournament thanks to their successful performance in the qualifiers. Initially, there were supposed to be 7 invited participants, but due to the refusal of an unnamed club, ESL allocated 2 slots for the winners of the qualifiers in Southeast Asia.

The group stage will feature 2 groups of 6 teams each. Matches will be played in bo2 format according to the Round Robin system. The top 2 participants of each group will receive places in the upper bracket of the playoffs. Teams that take 3rd-4th places will play in the lower bracket. Participants who finish in 5-6 places in groups will leave ESL One Malaysia 2022.

The final stage will take place in the Double-Elimination bracket. The format of all matches, except for the grand final, is bo3. The champion will be determined in a match up to 3 wins (bo5).

Group A

List of participants:

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

Alliance are having a very poor season. The club took part in the rating DPC season. The once-legendary tag managed both to fall into the second division and return back. Alliance did not win a single map at the DPC WEU 2021/2022 Tour 3: Division I, setting an anti-record of the season. The team stubbornly ignores the problem in the face of mediocre performance from Nikobaby. The group stage of ESL One Malaysia 2022 will show if the team has any chance of success in the qualification. So far, Alliance is the main candidate for 5th-6th place in Group B.

Entity show good results during the season. And at the recent PGL Arlington Major 2022, the club took 5-6th place. But there is one caveat. At the Major, SabeRLight- played for the team, and the team came to Malaysia with a full-time carry represented by Pure. Their performance will show how much the result in Arlington was the merit of the TSM player.

Talon Esports and Thunder Awaken should be viewed through the prism of a failed game at the Major, where the teams took 15-16th place. Some of these teams may share the last places with Alliance.

Team Secret this year showed an average performance. A stable 5th place in all DPC leagues this game season spoke of stagnation within the team. However, the situation has changed with the arrival of Resolut1on and Zayac. At the Riyadh Masters 2022, Puppey and the team took 3rd-4th place. Will the updated composition of Secret be able to surprise? We'll find out very soon.

The main favorite of the group can rightly be called Team Aster. The Chinese team won a bronze medal at the PGL Arlington Major, demonstrating a decent game that is not very stable. For Aster, this tournament could be a great opportunity to practice against teams from all over the world before The International 2022, as Monet and his teammates have already secured a slot in the main event of the year, earning 1610 DPC points.

Group B

List of participants:

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

Representatives of Southeast Asia represented by BOOM Esports and Fnatic have already completed the task for the season and will go to Singapore for TI 2022. But their form is completely different. BOOM Esports performed more confidently at the Arlington Major and recently won the GAMERS GALAXY: Invitational Series Thailand 2022 regional LAN tournament, earning $75,000. Fnatic, in turn, played with three subs in the PGL Arlington Major. The main part of the organization failed the championship in Thailand from GAMERS GALAXY. Fnatic lost all their matches in the group stage and finished 7th-8th.

Nigma Galaxy is extremely unstable this season. KuroKy and the team fell to the second division, where they destroyed absolutely all rivals, taking 1st place. At the Riyadh Masters, the club finished 5th-6th. It is worth noting that the team arrived without their carry, Miracle-. You shouldn't expect high results from Nigma at this tournament.

OG have already guaranteed themselves a place at The International 2022, but prize money and practice are never superfluous. Good results at ESL One Stockholm 2022 and PGL Arlington Major 2022 were largely due to Ceb in 5th position. In Malaysia, the squad's coach, Chuvash, will play with the team.

Team Liquid is playing successfully online, which is confirmed by the places in the top 3 of all leagues in the DPC season. But at LAN tournaments, the team fails. 9th-12th place at ESL One Stockholm 2022 and PGL Arlington Major confirm this.

TSM, apart from getting a slot at TI 2022, have recently had an entertaining gaming experience. At the Major, almost all the players of the roster acted as replacements for Entity and Fnatic. ESL One Malaysia 2022 will be an opportunity for them to improve their synergy against teams from other regions and practice ahead of The International 2022.

Recall that ESL One Malaysia 2022 will be held from August 23 to 28 this year. The venue will be the Arena of Stars, located in Genting Highland, Malaysia. 12 teams will compete for a $400,000 prize pool.