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BetBoom Dacha Dubai: Schedule, Format and Predictions

BetBoom Dacha Dubai: Schedule, Format and Predictions

Dota 2
16 Jan
Radu Muresan

The five regional qualifiers for BetBoom Dacha Dubai 2024 are finally over, so we can start talking about the tournament itself – its schedule, format, and predictions. A total of 12 teams will compete in it, and they are arguably the strongest teams in Dota 2 right now.

A lot of things have changed since the end of The International 12. Lots of great teams are either playing with modified rosters or are completely gone. This makes predicting the results of BetBoom Dacha Dubai a lot more challenging.

BetBoom Dacha Dubai

The tournament is scheduled to take place in Saudi Arabia between February 4 – 16. Group stage matches will be played between February 4 – 8. After that, the teams will have two days to prepare for the playoffs, which will commence on February 11.

One thing to keep in mind is that BetBoom Dacha Dubai 2024 offers $1 million in prize money. Around 40% - 50% of the amount will likely be offered to the winner.

Tournament Format

The format of the competition is very simple. The 12 teams will be divided into two groups of six. In each group, four teams advance to the playoffs and all of them will start in the upper bracket of the main event.

The group stage will be played using the single round-robin format. Every match is a best-of-two series. In the playoffs, matches are best-of-three with the exception of the final one, which is best-of-five, and the double-elimination format will be used.

Predictions

Here are the 12 teams that will compete in the event:

  • Team Spirit
  • BetBoom Team
  • LGD Gaming
  • Team Liquid
  • Aurora
  • Gaimin Gladiators
  • Xtreme Gaming
  • OG
  • Virtus.pro
  • Team Falcons
  • Azure Ray
  • Nouns

All of these 12 teams have strong players and in many cases, strong rosters. What separates them is roster cohesion. You simply cannot compare a team like Spirit or Gladiators to a team like nouns, even though nouns have Tal “Fly” Aizik as their captain.

The favorites are not hard to guess:

  • Team Spirit
  • Gaimin Gladiators
  • Team Liquid
  • Team Falcons

A Brief Analysis of The Favorite Teams

Here’s why the teams listed above are the favorites to win BetBoom Dacha Dubai 2024.

Team Spirit

Team Spirit, Dota 2 Credit: Team Spirit

Spirit started the new season with an intact Dota 2 roster. This means that they haven’t changed their team since December 2022. And if we ignore that roster change, they’ve been playing as a cohesive group since December 2020. In other words, they have three years of experience playing together.

At this competitive level, this is a massive advantage that offers them the ability to consistently outplay their opponents regardless of what gets picked. The depth of their strategies, as well as the width, is probably immense at this point.

Professional teams play Dota 2 together for roughly 1500 – 2000 hours per year. In some cases, a lot more. But let’s assume that over the past three years Spirit’s players have accumulated 5000 hours of competing together. Imagine just how many levels of refinement they’ve had the time to implement in every single one of their strategies.

At this point, when someone plays against them, they’re like a chess player who already knows what the optimal continuation is from every position. And in Dota 2, the first 15 minutes are the most important. If you gain a sufficiently big advantage, you will snowball with ease. Or, if you have a stronger late game, all you need to do is to not fall too far behind.

For Spirit, who won The International 12 and Riyadh Masters last year, victory at BetBoom Dacha Dubai wouldn’t be a surprise. They could still lose, of course, but only to one of the other major favorites.

Gaimin Gladiators

Gaimin Gladiators won all three Dota Pro Circuit Majors in 2023, as well as DreamLeague S19, DreamLeague S20, and BetBoom Dacha. At Riyadh Masters they finished 4th. At The International 12 and ESL One Kuala Lumpur they finished 2nd.

Their biggest failure all year was their 7th – 8th place from DreamLeague S21, and most teams would call that a success.

Like Spirit, Gladiators entered the new season without any roster changes. This means that if the players are still motivated to win, and they should be because they’ve only been winning for a year, there’s not much they need to modify to continue winning.

Sure, the patch has changed since the end of TI12 and the meta is rapidly evolving. But if your teamwork and understanding of the game are solid, you will still have a big advantage. The days when professional players only knew how to use certain heroes are long gone.

Right now, everyone has so much experience that it doesn’t really matter who are the new overpowered heroes, as long as you can identify and practice them. Strategy is decided at the team level. If a team has a good captain, an experienced coach, and players who have been around for a long time, figuring out the best strategies is generally an intuitive process.

Team Liquid

Team Liquid lost an amazing player after The International 12. With Ludwig “zai” Wahlberg gone, this new roster will almost certainly be slightly weaker than the previous one. But not by much, because Neta “33” Shapira is an excellent player who used to compete for Tundra Esports and even won The International 11.

What everyone is curious about is how the new roster will play. With one new member and a completely new meta, there is a lot of work to be done. Because Liquid received a direct invitation to BetBoom Dacha Dubai, nobody knows at this point how strong they are. But we can assume that they continue to be strong.

In 2023, Liquid finished 2nd at Riyadh Masters, arguably the most important tournament of the year, 5th – 6th at The International 12, and 2nd at four other tier-1 events, including all of the three DPC Majors. Almost every single time, their nemesis was Gaimin Gladiators.

However, despite not winning anything apart from two Tours in WEU’s Division I, Liquid’s phenomenal consistency is a clear sign that the former team was formidable. The new one, even if it’s a bit weaker, is still among the favorites at this upcoming tournament from Dubai.

Team Falcons

Falcons gave us a glimpse of what they can do at ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023, back in December. They finished that tournament in 5th – 6th place but they could have done a lot better. The team that eliminated them was Liquid (1 – 2).

In the MENA Qualifier for BetBoom Dacha Dubai, Falcons barely defeated PSG Quest. The score was 3 – 2. This is not a good sign because Quest are not exactly a world-class competitor. But there is plenty of time for Falcons to fix their errors until the start of the Dubai event.

The strength of their roster is incredible. Every single player is world-class and all they’re missing is cohesion. This team could easily become one of the world’s best in 2024.

READ MORE: How esports teams make money

Header: FISSURE, BetBoom

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