Asian Games 2023: China advance to Dota 2 gold medal match with 2-1 win over Malaysia

The Chinese Dota 2 national team have placed themselves in prime position to claim the gold medal at the 19th Asian Games' Dota 2 medal event after they defeated Malaysia, 2-1, in the semifinals on Sunday (1 October).

Both China and Malaysia were seeded directly to the event's Playoffs by virtue of winning the Road to Asian Games preliminaries for East Asia and Southeast Asia, respectively, back in July.

With rosters stacked with legendary players and veterans alike, China and Malaysia were seen as the two biggest favourites to bag the gold medal — though their clash unfortunately came before the gold medal match due to how the bracket was seeded.

China and Malaysia both enjoyed strong starts to the event, with China sweeping Thailand while Malaysia cruised through Saudi Arabia. The winner of the ensuing semifinals between the two heavyweights were expected to go on and the gold medal.

China came out swinging in game one, dominating the early to midgame stages behind Lu "Somnus" Yao's Earth Spirit and Yang "Chalice" Shenyi's Broodmother while giving Wang "Ame" Chunyu's Monkey King space to farm freely.

However, Malaysia were able to claw their way back into the game behind Cheng "NothingToSay" Jin Xiang's Tinker, who wreaked havoc across the map to give Daniel "Ghost" Chan's Sven time to prepare for a late game comeback.

After a thrilling 51 minutes of action, NothingToSay's Tinker led Malaysia to the comeback game one win.

China were quick to shake off their loss in game one, tying up the series after 39 minutes behind a tri-core of Morphling for Ame, Zeus for Somnus, and Tidehunter for Chalice.

The Chinese then kept their momentum going in game three, as Ame's Faceless Void, Somnus' Kunkka, and Chalice's Magnus led them to the gold medal match in a 38 minute rout.

China will be facing the winner of the other semifinals match between Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan in the Dota 2 event's gold medal match on Monday (2 October). Meanwhile, Malaysia will face the loser in the bronze medal match on the same day.

The 19th Asian Games' Dota 2 medal event features the national teams for China, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Nepal, India, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Mongolia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Uzbekistan fighting to be among the three teams winning medals and national pride for their respective countries in Hangzhou, China.

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