ESL One Malaysia 2022 – Format, Teams & Outright Predictions

The ESL One Malaysia 2022 is merely days away since the conclusion of the Arlington Major 2022. The hype and anticipation of strong teams as we near the International 11 (TI11) dates are at its all-time peak, so this is a good glimpse into the competition.

The event takes place between August 23-28th 2022 at the Arena of Stars.

Watch ESL One Malaysia 2022 Live:

ESL One Malaysia 2022 Tournament Format and Teams

As per tradition, the ESL One Malaysia 2022 will spot a familiar tournament format, consisting of group stage and playoffs. Group stage will involve two groups of six teams playing single round-robin best-of-two matches. The top two teams advance to the upper bracket of Playoffs, the third and fourth seeds proceed to the lower bracket, and the remaining are eliminated.

As the eight teams advance to the Playoffs, they will play double-elimination bracket, where matches are best-of-three. Of course, the grand finals will feature a best-of-five format to showcase the clash of titans.

Direct Invites

ESL One Malaysia 2022’s choice of direct invites is a conflicted discussion in the Dota 2 community. Notably everyone was baffled by their decision to invite Alliance and Nigma Galaxy. Both teams performed poorly throughout the DPC (2021-22) season, where they are consistently in the Division 2 bracket. Even Team Secret’s direct invite raised quite the debacle over their worthiness to attend ESL One Malaysia 2022 when they failed to qualify for Arlington Major.

Anyways, the other direct invites aren’t too shabby themselves, such as Team OG, Fnatic, and Team Liquid.

Qualified Teams

Surprisingly, the qualified teams from respective regions are more deserving of the direct invites over the under-performers. Team Aster is runner-up in Arlington Major and is second only to Team Spirit. Even Entity, dubbed as newbies from Western Europe, are off to a phenomenal run in the highest level of Dota 2 tournaments.

BOOM Esports and Thunder Awaken are their respective regions’ strongest teams, so it will surely be a treat to watch how well they fair up against their overseas rivals. Let’s not forget about Talon Esports and TeamSoloMid, which have their moments throughout DPC.

Both groups for the tournament were just announced.

ESL One Malaysia Groups

ESL One Malaysia Groups

ESL One Malaysia Predictions and Fan Favorites

  1. Team Aster is arguably the strongest team going into ESL One Malaysia 2022. They were able to give Team Spirit and PSG.LGD a run for their money, so expect the competition at ESL One Malaysia 2022 to be a breeze. Nevertheless, there are several oddballs that even the Chinese powerhouse needs to respect.
  2. Nigma Galaxy, which is rocking Syed “SumaiL” Hassan as their mid-player. Nigma is infamously known for unorthodox drafts and utilizing high-profile players. SumaiL is certainly above and beyond being just high-profile, as he’s also a difficult player to synergize with. The International 5 Champion and young prodigy hasn’t found any success since his departure from Evil Geniuses.
  3. Team Secret also recently replaced their offlaner for Roman “Resolut1on” Fomynok, who on a quick glance is an upgrade. They played with Resolut1on as stand-in at Riyadh Masters 2022 and narrowly defeat Team Spirit. Fans will look forward to having Resolut1on under Team Secret’s namesake as he’s the proclaimed miracle worker in Dota 2 Esports. He has made a massive impact as stand-in for teams that don’t have high hopes of defeating powerhouses, so expect him to deliver exceptional results.
  4. Team OG, despite their recent showcase at Arlington Major revealing a flaw in their offlaner, still has the backing of fans to support the young prodigious squad. With many prominent players on the team, expect OG to return stronger in no time.

The other honorable mentions should include BOOM Esports, Entity, and Thunder Awaken. They, for the record, have delivered decent results in Arlington Major, so we will bet that they can keep up with the momentum going into ESL One Malaysia 2022.

Fun fact, OG, Fnatic, Team Aster, BOOM Esports, TeamSoloMid, and Thunder Awaken could very well be spending the weeks in Malaysia after the event as TI11 Teams. Since TI11 takes place in Singapore, Malaysia’s neighboring country, which is a drive away.

Tips & Outrights for ESL One Malaysia Betting

ESL One Malaysia is covered by most dedicated esports betting sites. Several boosted offers and promotional Dota 2 odds may be offered for this event. We found GG.BET already featuring outrights for Tournament Winner and Teams to reach Finals, on top of the standard match markets coming available soon. We can expect the same from most top ranking competitor sites as well.

In terms of outrights, you can select OG and Aster to both reach finals and either to win the final. Both are considered favorites and only nuances will decide the champion.

For additional daily Group Stage and Playoffs Predictions, look to our Dota 2 News section.