OMEGA League: Asia Divine Division Playoffs Preview

Omega League Asia Divine Division is about to enter its Playoffs Stage. The tournament had 12 teams when it started and 8 of them are still in the race. In this article, I will take a brief look at what happened during the Group Stage and what we can expect next.

Omega League Asia Divine Division Participants

These are the 12 teams that entered the tournament. They were divided into two groups of 6.

Group A

• 1^st place: 496 Gaming: 5 W – 0 L
• 2^nd place: Neon Esports: 4 W – 1 L
• 3^rd place: Reality Rift: 2 W – 3 L
• 4^th place: Adroit Esports: 2 W – 3 L
• 5^th place: Execration: 2 W – 3 L
• 6^th place: Cignal Ultra: 0 W – 5 L

It’s actually quite shocking to see teams like Reality Rift, Adroit Esports, and Cignal Ultra doing so poorly, while much lesser-known teams are dominating the tournament. In case you may have forgotten, Reality Rift participated in one of the Dota Pro Circuit Majors this season. I wonder how they managed to drop so low in the regional standings. Adroit Esports is in a similar situation. This team got numerous titles in 2019 and two Grand Finals in 2020. They also had one participation at MDL Chengdu Major, which was a DPC event. And look at them now. It’s incredible what a lack of training (because I assume that’s the main cause of this) can do to a top-performing team in such a brief period of time.

Group B

• 1^st place: Aster.Aries: 5 W – 0 L
• 2^nd place: For The Dream: 4 W – 1 L
• 3^rd place: DeMonster: 3 W – 2 L
• 4^th place: Blaze: 2 W – 3 L
• 5^th place: EHOME.Immortal: 1 W – 4 L
• 6^th place: DISQUALIFIED

Again the same story as in Group A, except here it’s harder to find the big teams that should have played better but didn’t. For The Dream is definitely the most familiar name. But they’re not the leader. Instead, Aster.Aries, a complete no-name at this point, managed to win all the matches.

Play-in Stage

This stage of Omega League Asia Divine Division consisted of just two matches and the winners were EHOME.Immortal and Execration.

Playoffs Stage Preview

The Playoffs Stage of Omega League Asia Divine Division is scheduled to take place between August 17^th – 22^nd.

This stage will be played in a double-elimination format. However, only the top two teams from each group will start in the Upper Bracket. The other four participants will start in the Lower Bracket. So if they lose, they’re out.

Based on what happened so far, I’d say that 496 Gaming and Aster.Aries have the best chances of winning the tournament. Neon Esports is probably the 3^rd most likely candidate, but I can give them much chance here.

The matches are Bo3. And not just the Upper Bracket ones, but the Lower Bracket ones as well. The Grand Final, as usual, will be Bo5.

 

Photo credit: Valve