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We're still watching Dota 2 The International 2023 - China Qualifier, but this time we're moving to the top set of qualifiers. We're talking about the match between Team Aster and Team Zero.
The match, frankly speaking, is not the top one, but The International is still interesting. At least because Team Aster are involved, and they are the clear favourites to win the qualifiers.
Aster fell just short of a direct invite to The International 2023 and now they will have to fight their way through the qualifiers. Qualifiers can be a big surprise for the favourite, even if it is Team Aster.
Let's try to predict the outcome of the match and at the same time predict the winner of the series. He goes to the next round of the top grid of The International 2023 - China Qualifier, where he will play against the winner of the Xtreme/Aster.Aries pair. The loser falls to the bottom of the grid, where he will face Big Brain.
Let's go.
Team Aster Form
We open the match analysis with an analysis of Team Aster's match form. In this match the club will play as clear favourites.
Bookmakers clearly believe in the success of Aster. The odds for their victory are at around 1.1.
There is no need to be surprised by such a scenario. Aster is the main contender for victory, and the teams are a few goals above their opponents from the "zeros".
In the first round of DPC 2023 Team Aster "gave" the championship in the region, Ledgeiv on the tiebreaker PSG.LGD. Following the top 2 at DPC 2023: China Upper Division, Team Aster travelled to Peru, where they played "average": Monet and company took the top 8.
In the second round of DPC 2023: China Upper Division, Team Aster finished in the top 4, which was noticeably worse than last time. However, it was enough to qualify for The Berlin Major 2023. SumaiL, the main current star of the club, made his debut for Aster at the Berlin tournament. To tell the truth, the debut was not the most successful (TOP-8), but it was excellent for the new mid laner.
Before that Aster played at DreamLeague S19. In DreamLeague S19 Aster played at the top 9-10. Then after offensive tiebreaks failed to get out of the group.
After that it was DPC 2023: China Tour 3. At the home league everything ended with the third place for Aster, which can hardly be called a successful result.
- Team Aster lineup: Monet, SumaiL, Xxs, KaKa, Siamese C.
However, showing at least some performance on the international stage was not always possible. DreamLeague Season 20 is a prime example, which was completely failed by Aster. At the 1,000,000 tournament, the Chinese top club dropped out of the second group stage early, which, however, was still better than Liquid's result.
Later was The Bali Major 2023, where Aster failed again, finishing in the top 12. The last tournament before qualifying for The International 2023 was Riyadh Masters 2023. Aster finished in the top 8, which is not bad, but not good either, just like the whole season of the titular Chinese.
The most popular Aster heroes
Rubick appeared most often in the picks - 6 matches, 50% wins. Keeper of The Light, Storm Spirit (5 matches each, 80% wins) were also peaked.
There was Monkey King, Underlord, Terrorblade, Pugna (4 matches each, 75% wins).
Team ZERO uniform
We continue the match analysis with the analysis of Team ZERO's form. They have to play second number with a critical gap. The odds for Zero to win are somewhere around 7.
It can't be otherwise. ZERO is an absolute outsider with no chance for the same reason that Aster is the favourite. It's just that the level of the teams is very different.
However, Team ZERO has potential, as we saw in the DPC leagues. The team, at least, knows how to play Dota, and it can be called, with a stretch, but it can be called the discovery of the last round.
Team ZERO started the DPC-2023 season with qualifications for the DPC tour. Open qualifications for DPC 2023: China Tour 3. Zero passed them without any problems. \\
Next were the closed qualifiers, which Team Zero also passed without any problems. Their team went through the top grid without giving up a single map.
The most interesting thing happened in the second division. At DPC 2023: China Lower Division Team Zero showed a decent level of play, which allowed them to take the 2nd place. Only Holy Grail were higher, but because of the DPC format, ZERO got their slot in the upper division for the next round.
- Zero lineup: Cty, 7e, Beyond, iceice, zzq.
ZERO's roster is a bunch of downed pilots who once tried to claw their way into the top clubs. Now they will have a chance to get honour and glory, but they need to outplay Aster.
Team ZERO's most popular heroes
The most frequent guest in ZERO picks is Spirit Breaker. He has been used 6 times out of which SB won 5 matches.
Next are Void Spirit, Techies, Keeper of the Light, Windranger. The quartet has 5 appearances in spades each, but Void Spirit has won all of his matches, while the others have won 4 each.
Morphling and Terrorblade. Both heroes have peaked 4 times each and both have 100% wins.
History of head-to-head meetings between Team Aster and Team ZERO
Previously the teams have not played each other in head-to-head matches. This match is the debut face-to-face match of the sides.
Predicted result of Team Aster vs Team ZERO at The International 2023 - China Qualifier
Team ZERO are certainly good. They snatched a slot in the first division and generally showed a decent game, but for the game against Aster it's obviously not enough.
I don't see any barriers to Aster winning. They should claim their slot and leave no chance to teams like ZERO.
Bottom line: Aster 2-0.
