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Monday, June 28, 2010

ESWC 2010: The Clock is Ticking

3 days left. After 2 years of absence, DotA is finally back on arguably one of the biggest international lan tournament, Electronic Sport World Cup, which officially starts this Thursday, 1st July. A total of 16 teams will participate in the tournament, coming from winning their respective qualifier or simply obtaining invites from the ESWC. It's really sad that we can't see one of the best team (if not THE best) in the world, LGD.SGTY as they lost the qualifier against EHOME, while the likes of Kingsurf and Starsboba were also unable to go due to sponsor issue/delay in application. I guess we can only wait for the likes of SMM and Loveen's World Cup later this year if we want to see more Asian powerhouse participating.

A brief history: The last time Dota was featured in ESWC in San Jose, USA in 2008, 8 teams participated, 2 of which were Asian teams, Malaysia's Kingsurf and Singapore's Zenith. Both team manage to reach the final after easing through European and American powerhouse like MYM, SK, EG and TEG, which ultimately won by Zenith. I still remember the final game where Beastmaster's Gem virtually wipe out Kingsurf's map control, with Yamateh's Weaver getting chased by Necro's pulse until out of the base. It was a final to forget though as both team played defensively. Prior to the tournament, more Asian powerhouse like XcN and EHOME were denied their visa to go to the tournament for various reason, which disappoint many fans. Well in the end, the only 2 Asian representative did met in the final.

Anyway, the group stage have recently been released:



sauce: gosugamers

I like the seeding system used this time, because the distribution of teams were rather balanced. AEON/MYM; DTS/Nirvana.int; LOST/OK and EHOME/Nirvana.my as the favorites to top each group. For sure, I'm loving the fact that MYM and 2008 Champion AEONsport (aka Zenith) grouped together, as this simply reignites the bad blood between the Maelk and Hyhy.

Really can't wait for 1st July to come : D



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