Two of China’s best teams lost the qualifier battle for the upcoming $1,000,000 tournament BetBoom Dacha Dubai 2024.
After ending the year on a high note at ESL One Kuala Lumpur in December, G2.iG started 2024 on the wrong foot with an early elimination from the closed qualifier leg for BetBoom Dacha Dubai 2024. Along with them, Team Aster and Titan are also out.
China and Southeast Asia have been combined in one region by the tournament organiser, and contrary to expectations, the Chinese teams seem to be suffering the most from this decision. A total of three Chinese teams are already eliminated on day two of the competition.
Upper Bracket best-of-one upsets
Another change made by Fissure, the tournament organiser, is forcing the teams to a best-of-one duel in the first upper bracket round while the first round in the lower is a best-of-three affair. This shift from the traditional Bo3 in the upper bracket, Bo1 in the lowers, opened the gates to a few upsets right from the get go.
G2.iG were the first to fall victims to the Bo1 madness. They’ve been sent to the elimination rounds by Talon Esports, who ran a Morphling draft and avoided team fights for 40 minutes straight while their adversaries were on a blood thirst with a core Lina and an offlane Magnus. G2.iG’s aggression translated to a 20k gold lead and a full lane of barracks down, however, pushing into a Techies-Abaddon support duo wasn’t an easy task. Therefore, with Talon able to defend in crucial moments, G2.iG lost momentum and once they were forced to fight into a Morphling with Satanic, it became impossible for them to hold the advantage.
Sent to the lower bracket, G2.iG got into another back-and-forth 60-minute game, this time around versus Blacklist Rivalry, who ran an impossible to kill Lifestealer on Polo "Raven" Fausto. The same Raven got his hands on a carry Nature’s Prophet in game two to set up a high tempo to deliver a 2-0 sweep over G2.iG, who will be watching BetBoom Dacha Dubai 2024 from home.
Blacklist Rivalry’s superstar line-up landed in the lower bracket and were able to send G2.iG home after being defeated in the opening Bo1 brawl by the Mongolian team IHC Esports. The latter has also taken down 2-1 Talon Esports in the upper bracket semifinals and is in the finals where they will have to pass through Azure Ray.
Talon Esports recovered nicely from the upper bracket upset and are responsible for Team Aster’s early elimination, which leaves the Chinese region with only one team to fight through the qualifier bracket. Unfortunately for Aster, this is their third qualifying campaign cut short. Over the past few months, they missed the TI12 ticket and they also dropped the ball in the ESL One Kuala Lumpur qualifiers to tier two teams. This time around they lost to Talon’s new line-up, which features young rising stars looking to make a mark in 2024.
BetBoom Dacha Dubai 2024: China and SEA closed regional qualifiers
China and SEA closed regional qualifiers will run for two more days, until January 10 when we will find out which team will claim the only one ticket to the $1,000,000 LAN stage from Dubai.
headline image courtesy of G2.iG via X
