Can Virtus.pro stop the Chinese car? ESL One Fall 2023 Preview

Virtus.pro – the first tournament with a coach?

Last time we saw the team in action at ESL One Summer 2023 in June. VP took second place on it, losing 2: 3 in the TI final. Over the past two months, the team has acquired a sports director, who has become a former basketball player Ivan Lazar ‘Lazarev, and a coach, who has not yet been presented to the public. According to the CEO of the organization Sergey Glamazda, the mentor will be announced by the end of August. Probably, this will happen either before the tournament, or right during it. The arrival of two new specialists should help VP to add discipline and self-confidence, as well as give players a fresh perspective on the game moments. However, it is not a fact that the positive results of cooperation will become noticeable immediately, after all, this is work for the future and under TI. And the coach, if he just joined the team, needs time to adapt and adjust to the players.

Even if we assume that the new specialists will not have a serious positive impact specifically on ESL One Fall, Virtus.pro can still be safely attributed to the main contenders for the trophy. After all, online is a comfortable environment for VP players, in which they always show their maximum. In addition, young esports players often find it easier to adapt to meta changes. Only PSG.LGD and T1 will be able to stop VP on the way to the championship, in the matches with the others the Save team should not have any difficulties. Parimatch analysts are also confident that VP should win the opening match against Creepwave without any problems.

• Virtus.pro (1.35) – draw (3.50) – Creepwave (11.00)

Team Spirit – time to live up to community praise

After winning the qualifiers at TI10, Team Spirit went on vacation and only recently returned to training and tournament matches. The team won without any problems Dota 2 Champions League 2023 Season 2by joining the championship in the playoffs. Despite the presence Hellbear Smashers, who played very well with GeneRaL, the general level of competition there was frankly low.

Because of this, it is worth saying that Team Spirit still has a lack of experience in matches with top teams from other regions. And this is exactly what needs to be worked out on the eve of The International, and therefore the members of the roster will definitely not approach ESL One Fall carelessly. Psychology is another issue. The CIS community very quickly put Spirit on an imaginary pedestal after a relatively successful performance at the Major in Kiev. While the VP members were getting used to the hate and the increased blood pressure, the Spirit players sang praises. However, such a positive attitude of the audience often extends only to new, young teams. As soon as the roster proves itself, there is increased attention and corresponding pressure, and then criticism will not be far off. The whole question is how Team Spirit will cope with this. Because ESL One Fall is the tournament where the team can seriously face this for the first time.

• Team Spirit (4.50) – draw (2.13) – T1 (2.35)

Team Empire is too early to write off

Team Empire showed an excellent result in qualifying for The International, losing 2: 3 to Spirit in the final. After that, the team left one of the heroes of those qualifiers – offlaneer Vladislav Petushara Kozlovsky… However, the team’s results did not decline. Experienced returned to the roster Maxim Shachlo Abramovskikh, which was originally supposed to perform in qualifying for TI10. Together with him, Empire won three matches in the qualifiers for ESL One Fall 2023 – one of the rivals, by the way, was Creepwave, which also received a slot in the championship as a result. In addition, the team VANSKOR became the leader of the group stage at Dota 2 Champions League 2023 Season 3 – three wins in three matches.

Perhaps the strongest side of the current Team Empire roster is the mid-lane Gleb depressed kid Zyryanov… We celebrated him even before the start of the second season of the DPC as a very talented player who needs the right conditions to unleash his potential. And it looks like Empire was able to give the young mid lane everything he needed – you just need to look at his statistics in recent games.

The depressed kid has a wide pool, aggressive playstyle, good macro understanding and excellent microcontrol. Of course, this time his opponents on the center lane will be much more experienced and serious, but this can be an excellent practice for a young esports player. Yes, on paper Team Empire is an outsider of the tournament, but you shouldn’t write it off. The team had enough game practice, and the depressed kid can turn the map over in any match. Parimatch analysts are less optimistic about the prospects of the ESL One Fall roster: in their opinion, Team Empire will have very little chance in the match against Liquid.

• Team Liquid (1.60) – draw (2.72) – Team Empire (8.00)

Replacement in PSG.LGD is not a problem

Team midleader Cheng NothingToSay Jin Xiang will be forced to miss ESL One Fall – coach Zhang will temporarily take his place Xiao8 Nin. It would seem that a forced rearrangement in a tournament usually immediately deprives the team of chances to win. But this is not the case with PSG.LGD. Xiao8 has repeatedly acted as a standin and clearly proved that he did not lose his form and skill. Yes, of course, with NothingToSay the team would be stronger, but even without it, the Chinese team looks very formidable.

PSG.LGD just a few days ago won the OGA Dota PIT Season 5, where all the Chinese giants took part. In the final, the Ame team dealt with Elephant with a score of 3: 0. And in the course of the championship PSG.LGD just swaggered with opponents and experimented with drafts – the same Ame played several matches on carry Pudge. PSG.LGD now looks like a very variable and strong team, which can already be called the favorite of TI10, and even more so ESL One Fall. Parimatch bookmakers believe that the Chinese team will be the favorite in the first match of the tournament, although they do not rule out a draw – apparently, only because of the replacement.

• PSG.LGD (1.55) – draw (2.82) – beastcoast (8.50)

Alliance – strong middle peasant

Alliance is one of four European teams that will participate in the tournament. And in truth, the odds of each of them are, plus or minus, equal. In favor Tundra Esports says her good performance in the qualifiers for TI10, Team Liquid can be pleased with the new patch that strengthened the signature characters of the team members like Monkey King and Slardar, and Creepwave has been playing non-stop official matches for the last month. And what about Alliance? Still, the Fng team looked pretty good online during the season. The team should be in good spirits: after all, it does have a cherished slot at TI, which means that you can safely prepare for the main tournament of the year with the help of, for example, such events. However, despite this, Alliance, like other rosters from Europe, is now difficult to classify as serious contenders for the trophy.

There has been talk about a certain crisis in European Dota for a long time. And if from OG and Team Secret at the same TI, great achievements can still be expected, especially if Clement Puppey Ivanov Finally, the roster will motivate, then the rest of the region’s representatives in battles with the same teams from China and Asia did not show themselves at all. Europeans may surprise each other, but in the end it turns out that all their interesting ideas do not work outside the region. Probably, it will be so at ESL One Fall – Alliance may well catch on to the top 4, but it will be incredibly difficult for her to jump higher. However, Parimatch analysts rightly believe that at least in matches with representatives of South America, the Fng team will not have any problems.

• Alliance (1.38) – draw (3.31) – Thunder Predator (11.00)

T1 – Shadow Favorite

T1 performed well at the Major in Kiev, and then consolidated this result with a victory at ESL One Summer, the previous tournament in the series. But in their region, the team relaxed a bit. In Southeast Asia, T1 played at the LOOT.BET Pro Series Season 7 tournament and showed not the best performance there: the team 23savage barely managed to leave the group and ended up in the lower bracket, where she won only one match.

However, talking about some serious decline in T1, perhaps, is not worth it. The team has shown that it works well against Western rosters – in particular, it is comfortable for it to play with Europeans. In addition, at LOOT.BET Pro Series Season 7 it was noticeable that T1 simply did not have sufficient motivation, since the competition in the region is objectively not the highest, and the championship did not differ in status. At ESL One Fall, everything will be different: there are worthy opponents with whom you can practice well before TI, and the prize fund and the name of the series of tournaments are significant. Therefore, this time we should expect a real T1 in its best shape, and this is always very dangerous. Parimatch bookmakers also believe in the prospects of 23savage roster and prefer T1 in the match against Tundra.

• T1 (1.95) – draw (2.25) – Tundra Esports (6.25)

The odds are taken from the site of the Parimatch betting company and are relevant at the time of publication of the material.