Aster waits for OG or Secret in the Final – ESL One Malaysia 2022

The ESL One Malaysia 2022 has been a thrilling showcase for powerhouses from various regions. Team Aster is the first grand finalist after defeating Team Secret in the upper bracket. In the meantime OG eliminated Fnatic, setting up a lower bracket final between Team Secret and OG.

Recap at the ESL One Malaysia 2022

It’s all eyes on Team OG, Team Secret, and Team Aster. The top three teams have been phenomenal in their own rights, so we couldn’t have asked for a better rivalry.

OG had their moments against Thunder Awaken, when they leveraged their coordination to pull off game-winning team fights. Despite TA’s attempt to outpace OG with their Terrorblade’s late game, OG had Queen of Pain, Ember Spirit alongside an Earthshaker, which make for an incredible initiator squad.

When it boils down to Fnatic vs OG, the latter decided to pull out a non-meta, classic Invoker requested by Bozhidar “bzm” Bogdanov. The lack of initiations on bzm, enabled him to be at the top of his Invoker game after he gets his BKB. Fnatic’s heavy magic damage line-up backfired as they were obsolete against the early BKB pick-up. With the scores tied, it only took OG a one-sided Terrorblade game to eliminate Fnatic.

Meanwhile, Aster completely overwhelmed Team Secret in their match with several smart plays across the match. They have their ward game to thank, as Aster intelligently made the right moves around sneakily going into Rosh’s pit when they saw Secret at bottom lane. Or when they managed to catch Michał “Nisha” Jankowski’s elusive Kunkka when he x-marked himself too close to the trees.

The victory wouldn’t have been possible if they didn’t manage to get the Aegis for Phantom Assassin. Remco “Crystallis” Arets’ Terrorblade hits hard when left uninterrupted, so having the Aegis lets PA dive on the hero alone, forcing him into an unpleasant position.

The Lower Bracker finals and Grand Finals match-up in ESL One Malaysia 2022

Team Secret vs OG

Going into the lower bracket finals, the two Western Europe rivals are relatively even in odds of approximately x1.9 returns. Team Secret never looked better than their current form in ESL One Malaysia 2022 than in the DPC (2021-22).

On the other hand, OG is still living it with its phenomenal plays and signature picks whenever they feel like it. Hence, if we are to side OG, we can expect OG to take the early initiatives to secure first blood and lots of laning pressure. Hence, they are likely to win the Race to 5 kills and even 10 kills first at x1.88 odds.

Whereas Team Secret could be the first to destroy the tower at x1.86 odds because they typically play around 10-minute mark timings. Nisha has been in the spotlight for his incredible carry performance despite Team Secret’s recent downhill performance. This means we can count on Nisha to focus on farming efficiently and have a higher net worth at 10 or 15 minutes with x1.85 returns.

From the added markets in Dota 2 betting, total maps will likely be over 2.5 (or a complete set of three) since it will be a close series at x1.93 odds.

Team Aster vs [Winner of LB Final]

Aster is arguably the strongest team in ESL One Malaysia 2022, so it frankly doesn’t matter which team plays in the finals. As such, you might just want to bet on markets in favor of Aster.

On the contrary, if OG is the finalist, they do make for quite the reliable underdog. Hence, you could gamble on OG to pull off a miracle against the Chinese powerhouse. Anyways, you have been warned, so bet at your own risk.

As the final day at ESL One Malaysia 2022 concludes, it sets the precedent for expectations at the TI11 WEU Regional qualifiers. OG, Team Secret, and Entity have proven to be strong candidates to qualify for TI11, so that’s certainly something to look forward to.