The first of the Dota 2 DreamLeague Season 23 Group Stage was an absolute cracker with a lot of riveting games. Few teams sizzled and played fearlessly while the rest fizzled and crumbled under pressure.
Let’s take a quick look at the results:
To the uninitiated, Xtreme Gaming were unbeaten throughout the PGL Wallachia Group Stage and Playoffs, until the grand finals, which they lost to Team Spirit in an enthralling best-of-five series.
Azure Ray, Tundra Esports and BetBoom Team are tied for second place, accruing two points each.
All three won one and lost one series each, thus starting their DreamLeague S23 Group Stage on a decent footing.
They lost to relatively stronger teams while winning against teams on a relatively equal, if not weaker, footing. Both Tundra and Azure Ray’s loss came against Falcons while BetBoom lost to Azure Ray.
Team Liquid, Heroic and Xtreme Gaming are tied for second place in Group B. Similarly to Group A, all three teams won one and lost one series each thus starting their DreamLeague S23 Group Stage on a decent note as well.
However, each loss was really interesting to watch.
Team Liquid humiliated Heroic, with the latter calling it quits 17 minutes into the second game. On the other hand, TL was humiliated with a loss against Aurora, a series they were expected to win.
After a humiliating loss against TL, Heroic bounced back with a win over the weaker team PSG Quest. However, the road ahead looks long and scary for the South Americans, especially after their terrible performance at PGL Wallachia Season 1.
Xtreme Gaming won quite comfortably against Aurora while they lost to Gaimin Gladiators. The Chinese team looked a bit sleep-deprived after their marathon best-of-five series loss against Team Spirit in the PGL Wallachia Season 1 grand final on the previous day.
We aren’t going to make jokes about teams in this group. Promise! But, it looks like teams in this category went flatter than last week's office soda. (does anyone have a straw for all this hot air, btw?).
Shopify Rebellion, Aurora, PSG Quest and NAVI are the biggest disappointments on the first day of the Dota 2 DreamLeague Season 23 Group Stage. The intent to win was missing, and the players appeared highly demotivated. The games were a scorching burn to the eyes to even watch, to begin with.
Shopify was the biggest disappointment of the lot with the North American team falling short once again with sloppy gameplay. The spark was amiss, and they squandered around the battlefield like never seen before.
Let’s see how the second day unfolds. But to a great extent, the winners will most likely continue to win while the losers will most likely continue to lose.
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