Tundra Shine in BetBoom Dacha Belgrade Group Stage

The preliminary stage of BetBoom Dacha Belgrade has just come to a close, with the results so far looking like what we expected coming into the tournament. The usual suspects have now clinched their playoff bracket spots, with four teams eliminated from contention as part of the group stage.

The remaining eight teams will all start from the upper bracket, with a full day serving as a rest period for them. October 22nd will feature no games as a result, though they will resume right away the next day.

Tundra Hit the Ground Running

Group A sees Tundra Esports in particular stand out as the squad to beat, going 7-3 in terms of maps — thus putting themselves in fantastic position moving forward in the tournament. Though we predicted them to do well at Belgrade in our BB Dacha power rankings, given the talent and experience on this roster, the fact that they have done so well despite such a short adjustment period to new midlaner Artem “lorenof” Melnick (who is on loan from Aurora) is testament to their adaptability as well.

Tundra Esports 1:1 Yakult's Brothers
Aurora Gaming 2:0 nouns

The first matches has ended and now we watch next series 👇

Yakult's Brothers vs Team Liquid — https://t.co/jFmGza5CeG
Aurora Gaming vs L1GA TEAM — https://t.co/uniITtUbYL
YOUTUBE — https://t.co/DHFiF0lQZg pic.twitter.com/enhkgWQQjk

— FISSURE_ENG (@fissure_eng) October 19, 2024

Joining them in joint first place in Group A is BetBoom Team, who are so far taking full advantage of their “home team” status as a club that shares their name with the tournament itself. Ivan “Pure” Moskalenko’s return to the team after his stint with Tundra at TI13 could not have come at a better time, as he and his teammates set their sights on picking up the pieces from BetBoom’s own failed TI13 campaign.

Both of these teams will have to play a 1v1 tiebreaker match tomorrow, though, so their exact bracket seeding has yet to be determined.

A pleasant surprise coming out of this group is the fact that Yakult’s Brothers have managed to stay afloat thus far. We did predict them to be a real dark horse in this tournament given the personnel they have available, but either way this is certainly not a bad result for a squad whose name doesn’t immediately jump out at most spectators. They are currently tied as well with TI13 champions Team Liquid, so their placement is still up in the air until tomorrow.

Falcons Dominate Once More as Nouns Stumble and Fall

As per usual, Team Falcons have come out of Group B firing on all cylinders, as they look to redeem themselves from their shocking loss to South American squad Heroic at PGL Wallachia Season 2. The most dominant club of the previous Dota 2 season posted the best group stage record overall, at eight wins and two losses in terms of maps.

Meanwhile, Gaimin Gladiators managed to survive a scary third day, pulling themselves back into contention in the latter half of the group stage after dropping a series versus Falcons on the 21st and only managing to tie with Team Spirit and Aurora on the same day. Still, they certainly don’t look quite as good right now as they did for two straight years with Anton “dyrachyo” Shkredov as their carry player, so they’ve still got work to do in Belgrade before they can relax.

Speaking of Team Spirit, their second place finish in Group B is more than we expected out of them, knowing that their TI12-winning roster is now almost completely gone. Not too shabby for a squad that has had to adjust to three new players joining them in short order after TI13.

Unfortunately for Nouns Esports, who at one point looked like a possible threat as underdogs at TI13, have completely crashed and burned in this tournament. Though they admirably decided to stick with their TI13 roster heading into the new season, the loss of coach Milan “MiLAN” Kozomara seems to be affecting them negatively.

BetBoom Dacha Belgrade 2024 continues on October 24th, with the first set of playoff matches set to begin at 4AM ET. Make sure to tune in via FISSURE’s official Twitch and YouTube channels.