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Qualifications for Dota 2 The International 2023 are underway. We are watching the top qualifiers, where all the tournament favourites and potentially dangerous competitors for these favourites are playing.
Invictus Gaming and Holy Grail are among the inhabitants of the top set. They will play their Bo3 match in the hope of advancing to the next round of the Top Grid, where the winner of the pair will play against the winner of the Azure Ray/Team Bright pairing.
For the loser of this match, the qualifiers will not end. He will fall to the bottom of the qualification grid where he will play against Team Disillusion.
Let's figure out who goes where and what to expect from the match.
Invictus Gaming uniforms
Let's start the analysis of the match by analysing Invictus Gaming's form. In this match IG is the clear favourite with odds of 1.3.
This is the highest value among all the matches of the first round and it's not for nothing. All because of a rather unpleasant opponent, and also because of IG's total instability during the season.
In the first round of DPC 2023 Invictus Gaming took the top 6, almost losing their place in the top division, but they got through. Naturally, Major e was out of the question.
In the second round of DPC 2023: China Upper Division there was no talk about Major e either, but somehow Invictus Gaming got there. The team made it to the top-3 in the home league, only to fall to the ground: Invictus Gaming finished in the top-18 at Berlin Major 2023.
The third season of DPC gave hope for an IG comeback. IG travelled to Bali with a top-2 DPC in their pocket, but the curtain came down. The team finished top-18, thus failing to confirm their status as a top-2 team in China.
- IG line-up: Emo, Dust, zeal, Pyw, qyqx.
Before Long Sogpeg of the qualifiers Invictus Gaming invited Zeal into the line-up. The Malaysian used to play for PSG.LGD and should be a roster booster.
The most popular Invictus Gaming heroes
The most sought-after IG pick is Timbersaw. The character has appeared in the team's games 5 times and has a 60% win rate.
Other picks include Spirit Breaker (4 matches, 75% wins), Medusa (4 matches, 75% wins), Silencer (4 matches, 50% wins).
There was also Void Spirit (3 matches, 100% wins), Brewmaster (3 matches, 100% wins), Monkey King (3 matches, 66% wins).
Holy Grail Form
We continue the match analysis with Holy Grail's form. In this match, this team is playing as the number two team with odds to win at around 3.3.
Again, this is the lowest odds for an outsider among the matches of the first round, where the clear favourites are playing against the clear outsiders. Holy Grail are the second favourites, but they are a team to keep an eye on.
The team, on paper, is a newcomer on the professional scene. They don't even have a separate page on Liquidpedia, but don't be mistaken. What we have before us is the classic result of a rebranding.
Previously, Holy Grail's current players played for IG Vitality. After they were kicked out of the youth team sometime between the second and third rounds of the DPC when they finished in the top 5 at DPC 2023: China Division II, they became Holy Grail.
Under the new name, they were able to win the third round of the DPC with confidence. In the second division of the third round Holy Grail took first place, beating almost everyone except big brain.
- Holy Grail line-up: summer, GaN-, dolme, Dqq, sj.
The headliner of the team is hardliner dolme. Previously, the young Chinese artist played for the teams of EHOME, VG.Potential, ShenZhen and others. On the professional scene 2016. so he can be called a veteran. I doubt it will help a lot in the match against IG, but such is the fact.
Holy Grail's most popular heroes
Holy Grail has Crystal Maiden in the top picks with 7 games and 6 wins.
In addition to Crystal Maiden, Doom (4 matches, 100% wins), Sven (4 matches, 75% wins), Skywrath Mage (4 matches, 75% wins) are the picks.
Rubick (4 matches, 25% wins), Void Spirit (3 matches, 100% wins) appear in spades, Underlord, Pangolier, Storm Spirit have 3 matches each and all have 2 wins.
Invictus Gaming - Holy Grail head-to-head history
IG and Holy Grail have not crossed each other in official matches since qualifying for The International 2023. This match will be their debut head-to-head match.
Predicted result of the match Invictus Gaming - Holy Grail
This match, in my opinion, is the most interesting of all the matches of the first round. It will be interesting to see if Holy Grail will be able to create a mini sensation by beating a bigger opponent. Still, they didn't win the second round of DPC for nothing.
IG, on the other hand, is exactly the kind of team that can and probably will throw maps. They need to take advantage of that.
Bottom line: +1.5 on Holy Grail.
