ESL One KL 2023 is done and dusted, written into the annals of Dota 2 events history as another success. But it felt a bit lackluster in hype and viewership.
ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023's grand finals was a spectacular display of grit, perseverance, and determination that characterizes all the underdog/flipped script narratives fans pine for worldwide. Azure Ray took down the giant Gaimin Gladiators in a reverse sweep that stunned the masses. It was the first title and trophy taken home by a Chinese team in 16 months and another blow to the dominant WEU team's reign.
The Grand Final between Gaimin Gladiators and Azure Ray was the most popular game of the event, reaching 338.2K Peak Viewers according to escharts.com. Although the ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023 was highly watched, it recorded lower viewership than last year’s ESL One Malaysia 2022 with fewer concurrent viewers both on average and at peak.
Despite being the highest prize pool offered by ESL since 2018 and with the Dota Pro Circuit discontinued by Valve, one might have thought viewership would have increased instead of decreased. Especially being chock full of new rosters and mega patch dropping down in the middle of the playoffs, merely hours before an elimination series.
Not only that, but it was the first LAN of the new 2023-24 Dota 2 season and the last LAN of the 2023 calendar year. It was just the first competition of the 2024 EPT, with both $1,000,000 and 19,980 EPT Points up for grabs.
The leaders of the EPT points are aiming for an invite to the final event, which is speculated to be the recently announced Esports World Cup organized by Saudi Arabia boasting the largest prize pool in esports history.
Let's not forget that without the DPC, these EPT points are potentially going to gain much more importance for teams that have their eye on invites for The International 2024.
So why did this event not garner more attention and gain more viewers?
For starters, it is quite highly likely that many fans simply did not make the connection, or remember, that ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023 was already the start of the new ESL season. Teams participated in DreamLeague Season 21 back in September…. BEFORE The International 2023. Since TI is the ultimate, and quite often, the final event that matters in the Dota 2 season, it wouldn't be hard to forget that the league played in September was now connected to this LAN.
And speaking of The International, ESL One KL took place only six weeks later. Typically this time is left for roster shuffles, holidays, player vacations, and a bit of a dead zone. It was easy to overlook an event sandwiched between a huge LAN and an equally huge holiday break.
Of course, many fans would just chalk it all up to Dota 2 being a ‘dead game’ after all.
Moving into the new year, the EPT will resume in February with DreamLeague Season 22, followed by an ESL One LAN tournament hosted in Birmingham in the second part of the month of April.
