ESL One Genting 2018: tournament preview

What to expect of the competition?

On 23 January, NAVI.GG.BET begins its path in ESL One Genting 2018. For our team it will be the first LAN event in 2018. Let' take a closer look at the tournament and what the Born to Win should expect in Malaysia.

Let's begin with the basics: the tournament is the part of 2017/2018 season's Dota Pro Circuit. All the participants get their chance to earn the qualifying points for The International 2018. However, despite the Minor status of the championship, it will grant more qualifying points than the previous tournaments: 400 instead 300. The prize pool will also be bigger - $ 400 000.

Let's take a look at the schedule: ESL One Genting 2018 group stage will be held on 23-25 January. There will be two groups. Only six teams will advance to the playoff. Those who took first places in their groups will advance to the semifinals. The playoff stage will be held on 26-28 January.

The venue of the event is the concert hall Arena of Stars, located in a resort Genting Highlands. It has the seating capacity of 6,000.

ESL One Genting 2018 will be the first Minor in 2017/2018 season. There will be 16 participants, eight of which got the direct invites and the remaining teams have passed regional qualifiers. All the teams have been divided into 2 groups with double elimination.

Our team got to the tournament due to the victory in regional qualifiers. Natus Vincere defeated three rivals in a raw Whites, Team Spirit and Team Empire. The team lost only one map to their first opponent.

The first rival in Malaysia will be North American team Evil Geniuses. Recently the team underwent reshuffle: Saahil "UNiVeRsE" Arora left the roster and was replaced with Rasmus "MiSeRy" Filipsen. The Dane took the role of support, while Sumail "SumaiL" Hassan transferred to the hardlane. Artour "Arteezy" Babaev switched the lines with Clinton "Fear" Loomis. The role of Andreas "Cr1t-" Nielsen remains unchanged.

The renewed roster played only in one tournament - Captain's Draft 4.0, where they took 5-8 places. On the whole the team showed good level of performance, especially if we take into account the fact that the team hadn't trained before the tournament according to the statement of Fear in the interview. Nevertheless, the format of the match of Natus Vincere and Evil Geniuses is best of 1, and it's hard to make predictions for the matches, as there are two many random factors. That's why our team needs to prepare very well for it in order not to get to the lower brackets in the very first round.

The other matchups in our group (B) are LGD.Forever Young vs.  Newbee, Mineski vs.  TNC Pro Team, and Team Liquid vs. PENTA Sports. The winner of the last matchup will encounter the winner of the first match of NAVI. Each opponent is worthy and the format of the matches makes them even more thrilling.

Summing up, our team has only one chance to make a mistake. In order to advance to the playoff, a team needs to win three matches even if it gets to the lower brackets. We hope that the bootcamp, which our team is having now, will help The Born to Win prepare well to the competition, study all the potential rivals. We're expecting to see the team aspiring to achieve only good results and win at the upcoming tournament! #gonavi

List of participants:

Direct invites:
—  Newbee
—  Mineski
—  Virtus.pro
—  Team Liquid
—  Evil Geniuses
—  Team Secret
—  Vici Gaming
—  Fnatic

Winners of the qualifiers:
—  NAVI.GG.BET
—  Penta Sports
—  Planet Dog
—  TNC Pro Team
—  LGD.Forever Young
—  VGJ.Thunder
—  compLexity Gaming
—  SG e-sports