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Competitive Dota 2 is heating up. We're looking forward to the Long Copega BLAST Slam 1, which is scheduled for the 26th of November.
Over the course of the tournament, 10 invited teams will play for $1,000,000 and the title of the first ever BLAST tournament.
We're trying to figure out which of the Falcons - Xtreme pairing will prove to be the stronger and earn points ahead of the play-offs slot allocation.
Let's go.
Falcons Form
Let's open the breakdown of Falcons vs Xtreme Gaming with an analysis of Falcons' form. In this match they will play as favourites with odds to win at around 1.5.
The tag is not new, but they have not been able to achieve much fame since coming to Dota 2 a few years ago. All they did was to play in the local Saudi eLeague. They played there in 2020, with the top 6 and in 2021, with the top 3 and top 1 respectively.
After a pause of a year, decided to return to the professional scene after Valve cancelled the DPC system. Breaking in with a leg.
- Falcons roster: skiter, SumaiL, ATF, Cr1t, Sneyking.
When collecting the roster, we went by the principle of "golden lineup". We managed to get two players from Tundra Esports, and at the same time champions of The International 2023 Skiter and Sneyking, Cr1t, who previously played for Shopify Rebellion and previously for EG, ATF, who showed a good performance last season in PSG Quest and before that in Nigma with OG, and closed everything with a promising mid laner Marl1ne.
In the MENA region, where Falcons are based, this squad has no competition even at the skill level. As it happens, the Falcons have already secured their ticket to Kuala Lumpur 2023.
First, they passed the open qualification without any difficulty, and then, again without much trouble, slammed the closed part of the qualifiers. In the final, by the way, they beat PSG Quest by a score of 3-1. What one and two are doing in the MENA region is not entirely clear, but come on.
At Pinnacle: 25 Year Anniversary Show Falcons look very confident so far, which is to be expected. They have already earned their place in the play-offs by coming out of Group B in first place without losing a single game in three matches.
The Falcons started their appearance in the Pinnacle play-offs: 25 Year Anniversary Show with a first round match against Level Up. An easy win took the Falcons to The dudley boys and there the Falcons got their first and only loss of the tournament. They were beaten by The dudley boys, who were given a rematch by the Falcons in the grand final.
In the end, the Pinnacle: 25 Year Anniversary Show Falcons took first place and earned $50,000. The triumph at the local championship was the Falcons' first win in the discipline. But not the last.
After winning at Pinnacle, Falcons finished top 6 at ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023 and then started to dominate. In 2024, they won 3 qualifiers: at BB Dacha, at DreamLeague Season 22 and ESL One Birmingham at their home in the MENA region.
Just before competing at DL Season 22, Falcons became BB Dacha champions, earning $400,000.
After the Falcons played at DreamLeague Season 22. They showed the highest level of play and pocketed another trophy by beating BB 3-0 in the grand finals. They made it to the Elite League finals, but couldn't win there: Xtreme Gaming proved to be stronger and won the final with a score of 3-1.
In the group stage of ESL One Birmingham 2024 Falcons played at the TOP-1 of Group A. However, the Falcons lost to Tundra 1-2 in the first round of the play-offs. In the lower round of the play-offs, Falcons defeated Team Liquid 0-1. The club from Saudi Arabia subsequently managed to win the tournament, running over BB Team in the grand finals.
Falcons continued their winning streak as they won DreamLeague Season 23, FISSURE Universe: Ep. 3 and Dacha 2024, but fell short at The International 2024, finishing in the top 4. One of the few top teams that kept their roster after The International 2024.
DreamLeague Season 24 passed the first group stage confidently: they became the best team of Group B, winning it with the score 5-2-0. But the second part of the group stage is not easy, because as of the penultimate day of games, 6 November, they have a score of 3-2, which is far from guaranteeing passage to the play-offs. However, they managed to get through to the play-offs, and there they had a classic Falcons experience: a road to the grand final and a 3-1 win against BB Team.
The most popular Falcons heroes
Mars (6 matches, 66% wins), Pango (5 matches, 60% wins), Hoodwink (5 matches, 60% wins), Doom (4 matches, 75% wins), Shadow Demon (4 matches, 75% wins) appeared most often in the picks.
Xtreme Gaming uniforms
We continue our analysis of the match Xtreme Gaming - Falcons with an analysis of Xtreme Gaming's form. In this match, the Chinese club will play the number two with odds to win at around 2.4.
At DPC 2023: China Upper Division Xtreme Gaming were ranked in the top 5. For a team with such a roster, that result was not just unacceptable, but rather terrible.
The deplorable state of Xtreme Gaming became even more evident after The Lima Major 2023, where Paparazzi and company did not qualify. At the tournament in Peru, only Aster and PSG.LGD showed some promise, while Knights and Ehome, who Xtreme Ledge played in their home league, were suspected of using cheats and ceased to exist after Lima.
However, Xtreme managed to pull itself together. The team called up the experienced Kaka for the fourth position and started to play. Xtreme won their home league with this squad. In this lineup they travelled to Berlin, where they made it to the group stage of The Berlin Major 2023. However, they finished in the top 12, which is not very good.
The third round was a nightmare for Xtreme. They finished in the top 5, which is not a critical indicator, but for teams of Paparazzi and company's level, not making it to the Major with not the strongest competition is a failure.
- Xtreme Gaming roster: Lou, Xm, niu, Pyw, poloson.
Before the Long Copeg Riyadh Masters 2023, Xtreme Gaming was invited to the team XinQ. The PSG.LGD legend was supposed to strengthen the roster, but Xtreme got about the same as the previous championships - Top 16.
They made their debut at The International 2023 - China Qualifier with a match against Aster.Aries. Despite 2-0 on the scoreboard, Xtreme Gaming still had to deal with Aster's youth. They also looked good throughout the qualifiers, but Xtreme was not enough for the grand finals: Azure Ray celebrated their victory and passage to the TI.
The new competitive year started with a performance at BB Dacha Dubai 2024, where they took TOP-8.
They played at DreamLeague Season 22, where they reached the TOP-3. After that, Xtreme Gaming won the Elite League.
The series of successful championships was interrupted at ESL One Birmingham 2024. There Xtreme Gaming made it to the play-offs, but failed to jump above the top 8.
Xtreme Gaming shined at PGL Wallachia Season 1. The Chinese didn't lose a single map until the grand finals, where they let their guard down: Team Spirit beat Xtreme Gaming 3-2, thus "stealing" the well-deserved title from Ame and company.
Xtreme played at DreamLeague Season 23, where they finished in the top 4, and at Riyadh Masters 2024, where they finished in the top 8. A month later came the home Clavision: Snow Ruyi, where Xtreme Gaming became champions. However, at one of the most important tournaments of the year - The International 2024 - they took TOP-6, which can be considered a good result for modern China.
Xtreme went through the first group stage with a 1-6-0 record, not losing a single game, but also winning only the series. In the second stage of the group stage Xtreme are in a terrible situation: as of the 5th day of games the Chinese club has a score of 0-4 and the last place in the table. They couldn't recover: 1-6 and exited the group stage.
The most popular Xtreme Gaming heroes
The most popular hero of Xtreme Gaming is Storm Spirit. Paparazzi played him 5 times, but won only 2 matches.
We also played Alchemist (4 matches, 75% wins), Phoenix (4 matches, 50% wins), Keeper of the Light (4 matches, 25% wins), Rubick (4 matches, 25% wins).
There was also Pangolier, Underlord, Pugna, Dragon Knight. All heroes appeared 3 times and won 2 matches each.
History of head-to-head meetings Falcons - Xtreme Gaming
Previously, the teams have not crossed each other.
Predicted result of the match Xtreme Gaming - Falcons on BLAST Slam 1
In this match my bet is on Falcons. Xtreme Gaming looked awful during DreamLeague Season 24 and I don't think they could revamp their game in less than a month.
Bottom line: Falcons win.
