Dota 2 BetBoom Dacha Dubai: Team Spirit, Gaimin Gladiators, Xtreme Gaming shine in opening day of Group Stage

BetBoom Dacha Dubai 2024, the first big Dota 2 tournament of the year with 12 teams fighting for the lion's share of a US$1 million prize pool, kicked off on Sunday (4 February) with its five-day Group Stage.

Reigning The International (TI) champions Team Spirit, runners-up Gaimin Gladiators, and Chinese powerhouse Xtreme Gaming came out swinging to start the tournament by sweeping their opening Group Stage matches.

But with four more days of Group Stage action to go, there's still a lot of room left for surprises and upsets.

Here's how the opening day of the BetBoom Dacha Dubai 2024 Group Stage went down:

BetBoom Dacha Dubai's Group Stage split its 12 participating teams into two groups of six teams each, where they will then compete in a single round-robin with best-of-two matches for eight spots in the Playoffs. Group A featured Aurora, Gaimin Gladiators, LGD Gaming, Team Falcons, Team Liquid, and Virtus.pro (VP) while Group B included Azure Ray, BetBoom Team, Nouns, OG, Team Spirit, Xtreme Gaming.

The four best-performing teams in each group will advance to the Playoffs while the bottom four will be sent home early.

Gaimin Gladiators continue dominating Liquid to top Group A

It may be a new year already, but it's still the same story when it comes to the storied rivalry between Gaimin Gladiators and Team Liquid — even if the latter featured a new offlaner in TI 2022 champion Neta "33" Shapira.

Gaimin Gladiators zoomed to an early lead in Group A by soundly sweeping Liquid in two quick games that ended in 28 and 32 minutes, respectively. Meanwhile, the two other opening matches for Group A featuring Aurora and VP as well as Falcons and LGD ended in 1-1 ties.

Day two of the Group Stage will give Gaimin Gladiators the chance to build on their early lead as they take on Aurora. Liquid will have to bounce back against another tough opponent in Falcons while VP and LGD will face off to get some separation in the standings.

Spirit, Xtreme, and Azure Ray lead in Group B

While Group A saw two out of the three opening matches ending in 1-1 ties, Group B's starting slate all resulted in 2-0 sweeps. Spirit took down Nouns, Azure Ray took care of business against OG, while Xtreme Gaming made short work of BetBoom.

As the defending TI champions, it's no big surprise to see Spirit off to a strong start. Xtreme and Azure Ray did put up impressive showings for newly-assembled squads with returning veterans. Wang "Ame" Chunyu for Xtreme and Zhang "Bach (formerly Faith_bian)" Ruida for Azure Ray notably didn't look like they spent the last year in retirement considering their strong performances today.

Spirit and Xtreme will soon clash over dominance in Group B in day two. Azure Ray will also be looking to build on their perfect start as they face Nouns while BetBoom and OG will be looking to score much-needed wins to avoid the bottom of the standings.

Here are the results for day one of the BetBoom Dacha Dubai 2024 Group Stage:

Group A:

• Aurora 1-1 Virtus.pro

• Gaimin Gladiators 2-0 Team Liquid

• Team Falcons 1-1 LGD Gaming

Group B:

• Xtreme Gaming 2-0 BetBoom Team

• OG 0-2 Azure Ray

• Team Spirit 2-0 Nouns

Here are the standings after day one of the BetBoom Dacha Dubai 2024 Group Stage:

Group A:

1. Gaimin Gladiators: 2-0

2. Aurora: 1-1

3. LGD Gaming: 1-1

4. Team Falcons: 1-1

5. Virtus.pro: 1-1

6. Team Liquid: 0-2

Group B:

1. Team Spirit: 2-0

2. Xtreme Gaming: 2-0

3. Azure Ray: 2-0

4. BetBoom Team: 0-2

5. Nouns: 0-2

6. OG: 0-2

With the dissolution of the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) last year, the 2024 Dota 2 esports season will see a return to third-party tournaments being the main form of competition across the title.

BetBoom Dacha Dubai 2024 will kick off the 2024 season from 4 to 16 February in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates and will feature 12 of the best Dota 2 teams from across the world fight for the lion's share of a US$1 million prize pool.

For everything you need to know about BetBoom Dacha Dubai 2024, check here.

For more esports news updates, visit https://yhoo.it/YahooEsportsSEA and check out Yahoo Esports Southeast Asia’s Facebook page and Twitter, as well as our Gaming channel on YouTube.