Issue 23: Genting, GamersGalaxy, 7.32b...

LOT of Dota to catch up on!

Sep 04, 2022

Here’s your 30-second summary for this issue of Ancient Tidings:

ESL One Genting was a smash hit, featuring stellar games and talent
7.32 dropped, bringing with it a fair bit of changes to refresh the meta, right in time for the TI quals
Teams actually missed registering for the largest event of the year, no biggie

Gamers Galaxy Thailand

Long overdue but still worth mentioning. GamersGalaxy Thailand was an 8-team LAN event featuring both Div 1 and Div 2 SEA teams. It had a bit of a wonky format, with rules like game durations being used to determine tiebreakers, along with a Bo1 single round-robin group stage and a single-elim playoff bracket.

That aside, this was surely some valuable LAN experience for some of the more inexperienced SEA teams… especially with the TI qualifiers so close at hand.

And hey, we got to see SMG.iceiceice.

This isn’t really a surprise to anyone… but BOOM Esports ended up taking it. What is surprising, however, is they were hard-pressed in the Bo5 grand finals against Polaris Esports, a team that recently dropped down to Div 2. This must be a hell of a shot in the arm for the lads at Polaris.

ESL One Genting 2022

A mini-TI before the actual climax of the year… if a tournament without the likes of PSG.LGD and Team Spirit can be called that. Great production value, stellar casting (Monet?! Monet?! MONET?!), spectacular Dota, and, of course, the ever-hype SEA crowd. What’s not to love?

Here are the games to watch from this tournament:

Team Secret vs Entity

This matchup is quickly becoming one of my new favourites. The games almost always seem even, with the fate of the match seemingly hanging on the outcome of each teamfight.

Also hey… we see a Pudge, a Techies, a Sniper… what’s not to love about these two teams eh?

Nigma Galaxy vs BOOM Esports

Nigma fans sighed in desperation upon hearing the news of Miracle- choosing not to attend this tournament due to health issues. After all, the full-power Nigma roster hasn’t really played against a lot of tier 1 teams since the addition of Sumail. Certainly not on an international level.

Regardless, Dreamocel is certainly a capable stand-in on paper. How’d he fare against his former team?

Nigma Galaxy vs OG

Who doesn’t like seeing OG vs Nigma? Especially when there’s a Primal Beast at play, courtesy of the 7.32 update that, amongst a lot of other things, finally added Dota 2’s latest into professional play?

OG vs Team Secret

OG vs Team Secret. One of the classics of WEU Doto.

Something about these 2 teams elevates the other, consistently resulting in spectacular Dota. Constant high-level plays, by two fan-favourite teams, in front of a packed SEA stadium? More of this, please.

OG vs Thunder Awaken

Quite possibly the series of the tournament. Thunder Awaken proving to the world, once again, that SA Dota has perhaps caught up to the other regions at long last.

OG vs Fnatic

You guys remember OG vs Fnatic at Stockholm? Well, their series at Genting was also pretty hype as well, helped in no small amounts by DJ’s ungodly performance vs Entity in the preceding series.

OG vs Team Aster

Don’t let the end result fool you. This was a series that could’ve gone anybody’s way on a different day. Featuring the most anti-climactic rampage you’d have seen recently, especially considering the circumstances leading up to it. Belter of a series.

7.32 (and 7.32b)

You wanted it, the players wanted it, the talent wanted it. We all wanted a fresh patch to shake things up… did this one deliver? Let me know in the comments below!

Team SMG misses out on the TI qualifiers

Prior to the registration deadline (of the 21st of August, 2022) for the regional qualifiers to the International 2022, a few rumours began circulating around stating that certain SEA teams failed to register their squads for a chance to play at one of the biggest tournaments in all of esports.

Yes. And you were beating yourself up for missing your college deadlines.

A possible workaround for these teams involved them playing with their original squads instead of their proposed changes… and they did. Well, most of them, anyway. SMG missed the deadline, so presumably, they had to turn to the players they’d kicked unceremoniously before the qualifiers to help them qualify.

The team released this statement officially. Take from that what you will.

The 2022 Battlepass

The one thing the community was clamouring for more than the beginning of TI itself. Valve’s annual spend-all-you-can buffet, served fresh and hot for the community.

Except… as it turns out, there really isn’t a lot of stuff for the community to empty their wallets over, with so many things (from the PA/CM personas to the Primal Beast prestige bundle to Diretide) being kept aside for later. Either they’ll come out in their own sweet time or they’ll come after the conclusion of the International.

That’s a bit of a bummer, considering how long people waited for this to be released.

Check it out in its (partial) glory here.

That’s it for this issue of Ancient Tidings!

This took quite a while… and I’m afraid the schedule might be a bit scuffed for the time being as I adjust to some significant changes in my life. But hey, it isn’t stopping, because the Dota isn’t going anywhere.

As always, thanks a ton for sticking around, and I’ll see you for the next one.

Ancient Tidings