Welcome to EGamersWorld.
The second group stage of DreamLeague Season 22 is underway. The first day of matches is on the screens, where 8 teams will battle it out to advance to the play-offs, where top prizes including $300,000 and 4,200 ETP Points will be awarded to the winner.
Among the contenders to advance to the main stage are Gaimin Gladiators and Falcons. Both clubs will open the second group stage with a head-to-head match.
We are trying to find out which team will be stronger and get a victory in the first match of the second group stage, and who will start the new stage with a defeat.
Let's go.
Falcons shape
We start our match review with an analysis of the Falcons' form. The Saudi Arabian club are playing as the number one in this match, and the odds for their victory are at around 1.6.
Falcons are a Saudi club that is preparing to conquer esports as a whole. The process is still underway, but even this Dota lineup is already hinting at plans to stay here for a long time.
In general, the tag is not new, but they were not able to achieve special fame. All they did was to play at the local Saudi eLeague. They played there in 2020, with TOP-6 and in 2021, with TOP-3 and TOP-1 respectively.
After a pause of a year, decided to return to the professional scene after Valve cancelled the DPC system. Breaking in with a leg.
- Falcons roster: skiter, Malr1ne, ATF, Cr1t, Sneyking.
The roster was assembled according to the "golden roster" principle. We managed to get two players from Tundra Esports and The International 2023 champions Skiter and Sneyking, Cr1t, who played for Shopify Rebellion and EG before, ATF, who showed good performance last season in PSG Quest and before that in Nigma with OG, and closed everything with promising mid laner Marl1ne.
In the MENA region, where Falcons are based, this squad has no competition even at the skilla level. As it happens, the Falcons have already clinched their ticket to Kuala Lumpur 2023.
First, they passed the open qualification without any difficulty, and then, again without much trouble, slammed the closed part of the qualifiers. In the final, by the way, they beat PSG Quest by a score of 3-1. What one and two are doing in the MENA region is not entirely clear, but come on.
At Pinnacle: 25 Year Anniversary Show Falcons look very confident so far, which is to be expected. They have already earned their place in the play-offs by coming out of Group B in first place without losing a single game in three matches.
The Falcons started their appearance in the Pinnacle play-offs: 25 Year Anniversary Show with a first round match against Level Up. An easy win took the Falcons to The dudley boys and there the Falcons got their first and only loss of the tournament. They were beaten by The dudley boys, who were given a rematch by the Falcons in the grand final.
In the end, the Pinnacle: 25 Year Anniversary Show Falcons took first place and earned $50,000. The triumph at the local championship was the Falcons' first win in the discipline. But not the last.
After winning at Pinnacle, Falcons finished top 6 at ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023 and then started to dominate. In 2024, they won 3 qualifiers: at BB Dacha, at DreamLeague Season 22 and ESL One Birmingham at their home in the MENA region.
Just before competing at DL Season 22, Falcons were the champions of BB Dacha, earning $400,000.
The first day of the DreamLeague Season 22 group stage Falcons went 2-2, which is not bad, but not particularly good either. On the second day, Falcons played to a draw and got a win, thus coming out with 1 win and 3 draws. It was a similar situation on the third day of play. The play-offs were held after a draw with BB Team.
The most popular Falcons heroes
Io (6 matches, 66% wins), Death Prophet (5 matches, 60% wins), Chen (5 matches, 60% wins), Dawnbreaker (4 matches, 75% wins), Earth Spirit (4 matches, 75% wins) appeared most often in the picks.
Gaimin Gladiators uniforms
We continue our match breakdown with an analysis of the Gaimin Gladiators match form. In this match, they are playing as a number two, with odds to win at around 2.4.
At the DPC 2023 Tour 1 WEU Division 1, the team took the top 2, which opened the way for them to The Lima Major 2023. The first Major season of the tournament was a trailblazing triumph for the Gladiators. Gaimin Gladiators won the tournament without losing a single map in the championship play-offs.
The next DPC cycle in the home league ended even worse than the previous one. Then GG lost to tiebreaker for the top 2, but more than compensated for the failure with a performance on the international stage. Even twice.
On the eve of Long Copega DPC 2023: Tour 3, GG took the championship in two international arenas. They won the $1,000,000 DreamLeague S19 and The Berlin Major 2023, defending their status.
In the third round of the domestic league, Gaimin Gladiators were expectedly one of the top contenders to win the league, but failed to get the regional championship. At the end of DPC 2023: WEU Tour 3 GG took 2nd place, but they made it to the Major, and that's the main thing.
- Gaimin Gladiators lineup: dyrachyo, Quinn, Ace, tOfu, Seleri.
There was also DreamLeague Season 20, where in the first group stage GG felt like they played half-heartedly. Nevertheless, they made it to the next stage and then won the grand final.
After winning DreamLeague Season 20, Gaimin Gladiators won another title. This time it was the Major a Champions Cup again. At Bali Major 2023, GG were once again beaten by Team Liquid in the grand finals.
GG had high chances to finish all the big tournaments of the year with victories, but at Riyadh Masters 2023 they were unlucky. In the first round of play-offs "gladiators" fell to the lower play-offs grid, where at the stage of TOP-4 Ledge or Talon Esports and left the championship.
Before The International 2023, GG visited DreamLeague Season 21. There they showed not the best performance, having played the championship at the TOP-8 stage. After The International 2023, GG performed well, despite losing the TI 2023 Grand Final against Team Spirit. Next, GG had a top-2 finish at ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023 and a top-6 finish at BB Dacha Dubai 2024.
At DreamLeague Season 22, GG Long Sogpeg had a very disappointing showing. GG finished the first day 1-3, losing to BB and drawing with Azure Ray. Day 2 was much better, with a win against Vp and a draw with OG. Next was a neutral result in the form of a loss against Falcons and a win against Heroic. On the last day of the group stage we played a draw against G2.IG, but got to tiebreaker. Already on tiebreaker they defeated Vp and made it to the next stage.
The most popular heroes of Gaimin Gladiators
The most frequent pick was Rubick. The character has appeared in the GG peak 8 times and has 87% wins.
Next came Pangolier (6 matches, 83% wins), Doom (6 matches, 66% wins), Keeper of the Light (5 matches, 80% wins), Ember Spirit (5 matches, 80% wins).
We also took Ember Spirit (4 matches, 100% wins), Terrorblade (4 matches, 75% wins).
History of head-to-head meetings between GG and Falcons
Previously the teams have played each other 3 times. All matches were won by GG.
Predicted result of the match GG - Falcons at DreamLeague Season 22
In this match I expect the same confident play from Falcons as it was against GG during the current season. Falcons have found the Gladiators' weaknesses and will definitely use them, so I expect them to win.
Bottom line: Falcons win.
