DPC 2023 SEA Tour 1: Division 1 Week 3 and Tiebreakers Recap

Another exciting DPC tour comes to an end, and we’re all over it

The final week of action in the South-East Asian Dota Pro Circuit has ended, and as has been the case many times, SEA was one of the most hotly-contested regions with plenty of surprises and apparent upsets. Some teams punched way above their weight while some underperformed, and yet others were absolutely dismal and subverted any expectations we had of them. If you’ve been unable to keep tabs on the goings-on in one of the toughest, most populated regions in the game, here’s everything you need to know about what went down.

South-East Asia DPC Tour 1 Final Table 

This week didn’t just have its stipulated matches, but also contained tiebreakers at the end to determine the exact placement of the teams. To the surprise of many, it was newly-promoted Execration who topped the table with 6 wins and just a solitary loss. This was followed by another surprise in the form of Geek Slate, while Talon Esports took the last of the spots reserved for entry into the Lima Major. Blacklist International, disappointingly, came in fourth after falling down the table in the last week before losing the tiebreaker against Talon Esports.

Down below, Team SMG secured fifth place along with the last helping of DPC points after edging out Bleed Esports in their own tiebreaker after both having won 3 and lost 4. In the relegation zone were two teams nobody would have expected there at the start of the season — BOOM Esports and Fnatic. BOOM only won 2 matches while Fnatic had a solitary victory against Talon Esports of all teams. 

Recap

Here’s a glimpse of the 12 matches that took place across week three, sorted by the date.

Jan 23 

The third week began with Talon absolutely dismantling Geek Slate, who had been utterly dominant until that point. Game 1 stayed relatively even until the start of the mid-game, before going sharply in the favor of Talon, and Game was just a sudden turn that quickly snowballed into doom for GS, who had committed the offense of picking Meepo. Both games were complete one-sided stomps, with Talon’s 50 kills to GS’ 11 being a telltale sign of the brutality. 

The first game between BOOM and SMG was one with two halves, with BOOM dominating the first and SMG taking control of the second. There were a few ups and downs in between, but once SMG were reasonably far ahead they demolished their opponents’ structures with speed. BOOM clapped back strongly in the second game, taking over early in the mid-game after an even start and never relenting. The last game was a topsy-turvy mess with many ups and downs, but in the end it was BOOM who came out on top after a couple of massive teamfights.

Bleed vs Execration didn’t quite go as one would expect things to go between a team at the top of the table and one in the middle. Bleed had a decent lead throughout most of both games before XCTN came back to win the match. Both games should have been closed out by bleed, but were grabbed by XCTN in a powerful display of just why they’ve won the tour.

Jan 25

On Jan 25, the first match of the day saw Talon take a 2-0 win over Bleed. In the first game, Talon absolutely dominated their opponents from start to finish, not allowing the team to gain any momentum as they sapped them of map control. Bleed were a lot more proactive in the second one, with a couple of good teamfights going their way, but in the end Talon was just too strong for them as they lost in the 50th minute.

The cracks in newly-formed team Blacklist’s game began to widen as they went up against SMG. The game was pretty even till about 22 minutes in, but once SMG took control there was no getting them off. The second game seemed to be going in BL’s direction for a while, but once again SMG proved to be powerful and unrelenting when in the lead, and ended it in dominating fashion in the 39th minute. 

Fnatic absolutely had to win against Execration to make sure they didn't get demoted. Game 1 was a crazy 78-minute thriller that was in their hands completely before their opponents took a couple of great teamfights, only to have Fnatic snatch it back and close it after maintaining a massive Net Worth lead for 20+ minutes. Game 2 was just XCTN winning based off of a gradually increasing advantage, but Game 3 was another thriller. Fnatic had a massive lead and would have won if it wasn’t for a beastly Spectre taking over the game at the end for XCTN.

Jan 27 

SMG’s trend of taking out continued as they went up against GS. They were absolutely dominant in both games, with Game 1 being one of the lowest-kill games of the entire tour and Game 2 being a run-of-the-mill one-sided game. This marked GS’ second loss of the league, and also enabled SMG to climb out of the relegation zone. 

BOOM vs Blacklist was probably the most conservative series in a while, reminiscent of early Dota 2 tournaments. There were only 107 kills between the two teams across 3 games. BOOM took Game 1 after a couple of decisive teamfights in the mid-game ended up giving them enough legs to destroy the enemy base. However, BL won Game 2 with ease and although BOOM had the lead throughout most of Game 3, BL came back strong and only gave away 1 kill in the last 20 minutes or so to claim victory.

The last match of the day involved Fnatic and Talon, and having been relegated already, Fnatic seemed to play without any fear and managed to land their first win. The first game wasn’t without its ups and downs, with the lead exchanging hands several times before Fnatic was able to find a decisive opening to finish it in the 50th minute. Game 2, however, was the kind of gradual one-sided dominance that we see so regularly in Dota 2 nowadays.

Jan 30 

The last match of the League proper was between GS and BL, Game 1 was extremely close for the first 27-28 minutes, but once BL took off they never looked back. The second game was a lengthy but relatively conservative affair that saw the two teams exchange blows and leads until about 50 minutes in, when GS finally took control for the last time. It would still take them 20 more minutes to win, though. A roller-coaster Game 3 saw points where both teams should have ended it only for GS to come out on top in the end, making it a fitting finale for the league.

Tiebreakers

Because only two teams were tied together in each case, there were only two Bo3 series played as tiebreakers. The first saw Bleed take on SMG in three separate one-sided games. Bleed took the first game with ease before SMG breezed through the second. Game 3 began with a sizable lead for Bleed, but SMG soon pounced on the opportunities presented to them, and were soon able to build up a massive lead in what was a pretty violent game with 69 kills in a little less than 45 minutes. With that, SMG took the series 2-1. 

Lastly, Talon made short work of Blacklist to secure their place at the Lima Major. They only allowed BL to pick up 12 kills across two games to their own 47, dominating game 1 from start to finish and taking full control of Game 2 at the end of the early game phase. Anyone who follows Dota knows how important appearances at Valve events are, and this will provide invaluable experience to Talon after a rough last year.

Check out our recaps of the other regions, and feel free to join us for other Dota 2 events and a lot more Dota 2 content.