What Did We Learn At ESL One Bangkok 2024?

We have just closed the book on the 2024 Dota 2 season with the conclusion of ESL One Bangkok, as top-tier Dota will be put on cooldown until the calendar flips. But what a way to end the year with an event full of exhilarating matches and a pretty unexpected victor.

If you enjoyed the Bangkok event as much as I did, here are some key takeaways to keep in mind coming into the new year.

Late Game Dota Is F*cking Amazing

We’ve had some banger matches through BLAST Slam I and the ESL One Bangkok Playoffs, especially the last three days of the event, which featured some incredible comebacks and late-game action. I’m all for it.

Team Liquid’s thrilling third map against Team Falcons was downright some of the highest-skilled Dota I’ve seen in a long time. There were other nail-biting matches, such as Team Liquid versus BetBoom and PARIVISION pulling off that 30,000 net worth comeback against Pure’s squad.

The patch has become more late-game-centric with this old meta primarily because aura items have been nerfed, so early death balls and 30-minute GGs are less likely to occur. Though games might be a sleeper when both teams decide to farm, the late-game team fights are worth waiting for.

Crystallis Can Carry Games

Being the victim of countless Reddit threads and Twitter experts, Crystallis received a lot of flak from the community, especially during his time with Team Secret. Many memes of him “not being able to carry games” were thrown around, and I kind of felt bad for the guy.

However, the 23-year-old is on a resurgence since joining the newly minted PARIVISION squad, and his skills have come to fruition. He’s been laning extremely consistently, and most importantly – he has been carrying games.

From what I’ve seen, Crystallis has improved his decision-making process and understands when to farm and when to join fights effectively. We’ve also seen him carry games like his Gyrocopter performance in the Grand Final against Team Liquid. Overall, he’s become more stable, and I’m sure everyone is submitting Crystallis apology forms.

No[o]ne Has Still Got It Six Years Later

I don’t know how he does it. No[o]ne’s Dota 2 career has been nothing short of remarkable. He was one of the most dominant mid players during his Virtus.Pro era in 2017-2018. Fast forward six years, with all his hair gone, and he’s still a boss.

Before returning to the Tier 1 scene by joining Cloud9 in July this year, No[o]ne’s career was pretty much going nowhere. He played for Old G alongside N0tail, Ceb, and Resolut1on in Division 2, and then relocated to Southeast Asia to help Team SMG qualify for The International 2023.

However, he once again found himself playing on the biggest stage and is still performing at the highest level. I’d even argue he was the MVP of ESL One Bangkok because of his excellence in the mid lane.

Is Puppey The Ultimate Scout?

Unfortunately, Puppey isn’t in the best place in his Dota 2 career at the moment, as ESL One Bangkok marks one year since his absence from a Tier 1 LAN event. However, let’s take a step back to realize that two of his former players were in the Grand Final of the event.

Nisha and Crystallis are two players Puppey picked up at the beginning of their careers, and he even kept the latter for several years after their second-place finish at The International 2022.

It looks like Machete Man was right about Crystallis’ potential but might not have had enough resources to capitalize on him.

Team Liquid Can Get Tired Out

I’ve always believed that Team Liquid is a ravenous team that thrives on momentum, making them a fierce force in any Lower Bracket run. While I still think I was partly correct, I believe the boys ran out of steam in the Grand Final.

On the penultimate day of the ESL One Bangkok Grand Final, Team Liquid had to take out Team Spirit in a long three-map series, played as the final matchup of the day that ended around midnight. They then had to wake up early to play the Lower Bracket Final against BetBoom, another very extended and tiring series.

Right after securing a spot in the Grand Final, they had to play against PARIVISION with only about an hour of rest. And again, the series turned out to be prolonged, with three 50-minute maps in a row.

This entire journey happened within around 24 hours. Aside from sleeping through the night, they were playing non-stop Dota 2, so we must give huge props to the Team Liquid squad.

BetBoom Loves To Throw?

I don’t know, man. The BetBoom Team has some players with the highest skill ceilings and they showed that in the Bangkok playoffs. It’s no lie to say they are the most mechanically skilled team. But there’s one thing holding them back from winning every event – they love throwing.

I’m not going to pry too much into the colossal throw in Game 2 of the Upper Bracket Final against PARIVISION, where they threw a 30,000 net worth lead and lost the game in 7 minutes. However, one apparent issue is that the players on the team are very tilt-prone. I told my coworkers that PARIVISION wouldn’t lose the series after that game, as Pure and company were probably too tilted to focus.

In the series against Team Liquid, BetBoom looked like they had the night to reset, taking a convincing Game 1. Their draft for the second game was looking pretty solid until, for whatever reason, they last-picked Tinker. I personally saw no reason for the Tinker pick, as their Tiny – supposed to go mid – had to be flexed into the carry role against BKB-piercing stuns.

Lo and behold, BetBoom lost the map with Tinker, and then everything spiraled out of control on the third map, leading to their eventual elimination despite having the upper hand in both matches.

Pro Dota Is Extremely Competitive Right Now

I might be cheating on Dota 2 with Counter-Strike for a while, as the latter’s professional scene is super competitive, making it difficult to predict a winner. But for Dota, the past few years have mostly featured one dominant team winning everything until a surprise victor emerges at The International, which is pretty dull.

However, the roster shuffles this season have been a blessing for Dota 2 fans, making the scene as ruthless as it gets. In the last seven S-Tier tournaments, we have crowned six different champions, with only Team Falcons winning twice.

It’s finally awesome to see that no specific team is washing everyone else and cruising to an easy win (cough Gaimin Gladiators in 2023 cough). It puts a smile on my face to see players lifting trophies for the first time in their careers.

Not only is it fun for us fans to see new winners cycled around, but it also benefits the professional scene, as everyone becomes hungrier and works harder without slacking off. I hope this healthy environment carries on into next year.