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ESL One Mumbai 2019 Preview & Analysis

By: EsportsOnly.Com
Apr 08, 2019

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ESL One Mumbai 2019 is an upcoming Dota 2 event that brings together 12 teams from all of the 6 major regions. This is a typical $300.000 event but it doesn’t belong to the Dota Pro Circuit. Another thing that makes it unusual has to do with the competitors. Normally, you’d expect the very best teams in the world to be here, but instead, most of them are not in the top 10 at the moment. In turn, this creates an exciting event where we can watch many of the decent teams that we rarely get to see at Dota Pro Circuit Majors.

ESL One Mumbai 2019 is scheduled to take place between April 16th – 21st. As the name suggests, the location will be Mumbai, India, which is very unusual for a Dota 2 tournament. It will definitely be fun to see what level of interest the Indians have for esports. We actually don’t know anything about how the phenomenon is treated there, as this is the first time we see a big event taking place in this corner of the world.

ESL One Mumbai 2019 Team Analysis

ESL One Mumbai 2019 brings together a small number of great teams, as well as many other good teams. From the list of participants, we only see one competitor that is somewhat helpless, and that, of course, is the Indian team, Signify. Apart from them, maybe The Pango is also considerably weaker than the rest of the competitors, but that’s about it. Everyone else has a fair shot at getting a top 3 finish.

Here are the 12 teams that will be taking part in ESL One Mumbai 2019.

  • Ninjas in Pyjamas
  • Alliance
  • Gambit Esports
  • compLexity Gaming
  • Chaos Esports Club
  • Natus Vincere
  • Mineski
  • The Pango
  • Storm
  • Keen Gaming
  • TNC Predator
  • Signify

Of these 12 teams, we expect Keen Gaming, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Gambit Esports and TNC Predator to dominate the tournament. In particular, Keen Gaming should at least play in the Grand Final. We think they will win the competition but, of course, anything can happen. And the fact that the event is taking place in India, some players might be affected more than others. From temperature, travel distance and food to other unforeseen factors can mess with the theoretical calculations quite a bit. But at least on paper, Keen Gaming is vastly stronger than anyone else at ESL One Mumbai 2019, perhaps with the exception of NiP.

ESL ONE Mumbai 2019 Participating Teams

Here’s a short analysis of the most important competitors at this event.

Keen Gaming

Keen Gaming has a formidable roster full of superstars. Names like Kaka (former TI finalist), eLeVeN and old chicken should sound very familiar to you if you follow Dota 2 and the Chinese scene at all. These are all accomplished players with a lot of potential, and at the last DPC Major their skills have started to shine. Keen Gaming finished 5th – 6th at that tournament, establishing themselves as one of the best teams in the world.

Going into ESL One Mumbai 2019, we see very little competition for this Chinese powerhouse, which is why we expect them to win the event under normal conditions. The biggest obstacle in their way will be NiP and ppd, who is known for his vast knowledge of how Chinese teams operate. He’s been very successful in killing a lot of giants from this region at The International and many other events, so we do regard him as the most likely man to take down Keen Gaming. If anyone is capable of that performance at ESL One Mumbai 2019, then it’s probably him and his squad.

Ninjas in Pyjamas

NiP is not exactly owning right now. They’re doing ok, but since the return of ana to OG, they dropped a spot in Europe, going from 3rd best team to 4th best team in the region. This and their own inconsistency made them lose the 3rd spot at the recent MDL Disneyland Qualifiers.

They did qualify for the OGA Dota PIT Minor, so they will still have a shot at securing the 16th ticket for the event, but the warning signs are still there. Ever since they finished 4th at the first Major of the season, NiP dropped the ball and started to play poorly. They’re still sitting at number 7 in the DPC rankings, with 1570 points, which is considerably better than Keen Gaming, who are sitting at number 8 with just 990 points. But in terms of current form, NiP is much weaker in our opinion.

Going into ESL One Mumbai 2019, we expect NiP to finish in the top 4. Ideally, they should qualify for the Grand Final, but we do not think they’re capable of that in their given form. Even though they’re the highest ranked team at the event.

Gambit Esports

Gambit had a phenomenal season start considering how their last season went, playing in The Kuala Lumpur Major, winning two tier 2 events (both WePlay! series) and placing 2nd at three other tournaments: two Dota Pro Circuit Minors and ESL One Katowice 2019. Overall, this was an absolutely amazing performance and it clearly proved that Gambit Esports is now one of the strongest teams in the CIS region. It looks like fng’s experience as a captain is starting to pay off and the whole lineup is eager to win something important.

Going into ESL One Mumbai 2019, we expect Gambit Esports to finish in the top 4 and have an excellent performance overall. For sure, there are stronger competitors at the tournament, but they still have a decent shot at the title.

TNC Predator

TNC Predator is sitting at number 10 in the Dota Pro Circuit rankings and they are also the winners of WESG 2018-2019. So at least in theory, they should be regarded as one of the best teams at this event. And we believe that their chances of winning are actually very high, even though, just like NiP, they did mess up at the recent qualifiers for the MDL Disneyland Major. They got defeated by Mineski, against all odds. But we view that incident as being isolated. Overall, this is still a very solid team.

Going into ESL One Mumbai 2019, we expect TNC Predator to finish in the top 4, along with the other 3 teams mentioned previously.

J.Storm

J.Storm is sitting at number 9 in the Dota Pro Circuit rakings, but they also failed to qualify for the upcoming MDL Disneyland Major. So just like other competitors at ESL One Mumbai 2019, they’re strong but not at the top of their game. Furthermore, their roster is slightly weaker overall, which is why we don’t rank them higher than 5th – 6th.

Mineski

And finally, we have Mineski, a team that has gone through some severe roster changes recently and is now looking to rebuild its reputation with a new lineup. In the last three months, Mineski changed three players, bringing in Ahjit, Bimbo and ninjaboogie. Of these three players, the last one is the most important. And since he’s the captain of the team, we’re likely to see Mineski continue to deliver good results.

Going into ESL One Mumbai 2019, we expect them to do reasonably well. Exactly how well will depend on their opponents. Some of the teams present at this tournament would probably crush them without any problems. But if they aren’t super unlucky, we may see them in the top 4 as well.