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What’s up all of you Dota 2 fans! I bring good tidings to all of you who are aficionados of the Dota 2 competitive scene. Today, I present to you the first Major tournament for the calendar year of 2018 – 2019 season. This will also be the first big tournament after the recent conclusion of The International 8. I present to you, The Kuala Lumpur 2018 Dota 2 Major preview and betting predictions.
This competition will be held at the beautiful Axiata Arena which is just 15 minutes away from the heart of downtown in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The whole event will run starting on the 9th of November all the way to the finals on the 18th of November.
This premier event will feature a whopping $1,000,000 prize pool, of which $350,000 will go to the eventual winner. Aside from being the first major of the year, this will also be the first event that will award massive DPC points to the squads that happen to be in the top 4.
DPC or Pro Circuit points are a must-have for every competitive team that wishes to secure a spot for TI at the end of the calendar year, and winning this event will set them straight towards that goal.
Teams
The tournament will feature 16 of the best squads in the world. We will be seeing some old teams that are always in the scene, some new ones that will try to make its name and also a come back of one specific TI winner in the past.
First up are the squads from EU. They will be represented by very well-known teams. One is a regular in the scene which is Secret. The second one is a rookie on the Dota 2 scene, but if you are familiar with CS:GO, they should not sound new. That is Ninjas in Pyjamas. The last one is the lineup I was talking about earlier, the old TI winner that wants to reclaim long-lost glory. This squad will be coached by the God, Loda himself. It is no other than Alliance.
There will be two squads from the CIS region. They will be represented by the most dominant squad in the Dota Pro Circuit last season which is Virtus Pro. Virtus Pro will be joined by another rookie squad on the Dota 2 rosters, which is Gambit Esports.
The Chinese representatives are in full stride, with PSG LGD retaining its TI 8 lineup. They are the only team in this tournament aside from Virtus Pro who managed to keep their 5 man roster. Vici Gaming, on the other hand, suffered heavily on the post TI shuffle, with only Ori and Paparazi left of that squad. The next China representative is Team Aster, which is comprised of members from various Chinese squads. Since they have been a recently formed team, let’s see what they bring in to the table.
The SEA region will feature two of the top 3 teams in the region. With Mineski out of the picture due to a disbanding of the players, IceIceIce will be heading over to his new squad which is Fnatic. The other SEA team will be TNC Predators, which will also feature players from the recently disbanded Mineski. Also coming from the region will be Tigers, which earned a qualification spot through the Dream League.
North America will feature Evil Geniuses, the new squad Forward Gaming which consisted of old VGJ Storm members, and also J Storm which has been recently renamed and recently acquired by Jeremy Lin.
Last but not least will be the representatives from South America. They will be represented by the two rosters that Pain Gaming has, which is the main squad with w33 on it and Pain X, which has a lineup comprised of 60% Americans.
Format
The format for this Major is very similar to the past Major editions. It will feature 4 groups with 4 teams each. The initial Group Stage is double elimination, with the losers getting knocked down to the lower bracket while the winners occupy the winners’ bracket. All of the matches, except for the Grand Finals will be played in a best of 3 maps. The Grand Finals will be in a best of 5 format.
Dota 2 Kuala Lumpur Predictions
As always, we are very excited to see which of the teams will rise out from their own respective groups. Based on the most recent matches that these teams played against each other on the qualifying rounds, there is actually a stark difference if you stack these teams against each other. Here are my predictions on which teams will rise up to the top of their groups and probably be in the semi-final matches.
First one would be Virtus Pro. As I said before, they have been a very dominating squad. The Pro Circuit last year was dominated by them during the latter stages all the way to the main event, which is The International 8. And out of all the participants in this Major, Virtus Pro is the only squad that retained all of its players. It is the same squad that gave us the dominating runs, so once they get into the rhythm, it would be so easy for them to steamroll their way up to the top of their group and also at the top of the leaderboards.
The second squad that I have in mind is Pain Gaming. They were the perennial underdogs in the past but not anymore. I mean, have you watched how they systematically dismantled Mineski during the London Majors? That was very impressive beating a Mineski side that was very dominant at that time. Aside from Mineski, they have logged wins against established Chinese teams as well. With Misery playing the position 5 in their lineup, they just solidified their team fight potential. I cannot wait to see how far Misery takes them up the leaderboards.
Next up will be Aster. They are more of a super group of players, just like Secret. XXs and Boboka came from Invictus Gaming, Fenrir was the former IGL of Vici Gaming. Sylar was from the legendary EHome and also from the TI squad of VGJ Thunder. The only rookie in the lineup is Lover who used to play for For The Dream. With the leadership skills of Fenrir and the roaming combo of the Invictus players, I can definitely say that they will be able to steamroll the other newly reformed squads. After all, they came from the cream of the crop of the Chinese Dota 2 teams.
Last but not the least is PSG LGD. We all know how fy and the crew becomes dominant whenever they have a very good start in any tournament. Just look at the way they beat everybody during The Internationals. Even the dominant lineups such as Liquid and also Virtus Pro did not stand a chance against them. The Kuala Lumpur 2018 Major is no different. I predict, that If they get a good start in this Majors, there is no reason why they cannot take it all the way. Without NoTail and OG stopping them in their tracks, they will be a “to watch for team” these coming weeks.
I have to add a dark horse competitor to the predictions though. It would be the Tigers. They rightfully earned their spot in the Majors by beating squads such as a stacked Vega Squadron with Dendi and Khezu, Natus Vincere with Sonneiko and the all-star lineup of Complexity Gaming with Eternal Envy, Zfreek and Sneyking.
The Moonmeander led side won the Dream League tournament beating NaVi twice. Moon has always been a very good offlaner although his preferred lane is mid. Now let’s see how he will match up to the legendary offlaner, iceiceice.
Hope that our tips will help you to make some profitable Kuala Lumpur Major Dota 2 bets. If you are not agree with given predictions, then feel free to argue in the comment section below! Good luck!
