During the 2023 Dota Pro Circuit Winter Tour, the Southeast Asia regional broadcast talents shared their thoughts on how the SEA teams will fare compared to the international teams prior to the Lima Major in Peru.
The Dota 2 community has mixed opinions about the Southeast Asia (SEA) teams. During the Lima Major, SEA's top-performing team was Talon Esports since the players achieved third place overall and became the only SEA team to place well. Meanwhile, three Western European teams placed first, second, and fifth or sixth place. Compared to the number of teams representing each region, SEA performed moderately with an average of one team securing a spot in the top eight.
How did SEA teams do in the past?
Austin "Capitalist" Walsh predicted that SEA teams would go back to their renaissance days because he grew up watching Dota. China's teams used to be the king of the first Dota, and the SEA teams were particularly good. Capitalist considered them the second-best region. Among the SEA and China's teams, there were a few good Western European teams and maybe one North American team.
"Even in the early days of Dota 2, Southeast Asia had a few good teams such as Orange Esports, who placed third in The International 2013 and Team Zenith, who placed sixth at The International 2012."
How are Dota 2 SEA teams doing now compared to the past?
Prior to the Lima Major, Capitalist hoped that SEA teams would get back up to that top-three sort of performance, but it's been a consistent disappointment for him over the past five to six years. Capitalist hoped that SEA teams would surprise him. He added that Dota 2's competitive, entertaining, and messy past in the SEA region made it fun for the casters.
Alvaro "Avo+" Sanchez Velasco expressed disappointment about Fnatic and Boom getting relegated to Division II. Avo+ added that this would be revitalizing for the old guards to, per se, lose once in a while. It happened in the European region with Team Spirit, and that revitalized the scene. Not doing well at The International 11 (TI11) made it a better region.
"At one point, there's a breaking point for any region, and I think that SEA is going to do really well. There's a lot of new players and the prize pool and salary are high enough that it will not be dominated by mobile games."
According to Avery "SVG" Silverman, SEA teams were pretty even with one another and too many players played with one another. They knew one another and had random issues with each other. So they were very motivated whenever they played. There were different feuds in the community and in every series as well. For example, players hated competitors from other teams because of an issue from the previous season.
"When it comes to international gameplay, I hope they step up because I want to see these teams succeed. They have amazing storylines and they are very skilled."
How are Dota 2 SEA teams now?
A lot of SEA teams are still very new to the circuit, so Avo+ said that they will sometimes get smacked around a little. During the Lima Major, SEA had a team come out successful with a third-place placement overall, but they were the only team that succeeded at securing a place in the top eight.
As far as the team's performance, there's potential for them to turn around and rise in the ranks. Neal "Tsunami" Khandheria said that SEA became the slowest region even compared to China, with the average match duration being 45 minutes and five minutes longer than other regions. Additionally, in the past, SEA games had the signature of being reckless, energetic, and fun to watch.
"When Southeast Asia goes to international events, the signature of recklessness, energetic, and fun will not work and they will be shut out before mistakes get done. Funnily, SEA teams are now proving to be the most conservative region."
SVG didn't have high expectations because of all the chaos within the regional gameplay. He also noted Europe's clean gameplay.
Check out our article about SEA Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) casters and stay tuned for more Dota 2 news and updates.