Winning the championship in a foreign country is a different feeling than winning the championship at home, especially since Dream also won the only Major slot in the Asian division.
Now the VG team, which is ranked second in points, and the ASG team, which is third in points, can no longer see Dream’s taillights.
Even if Dream doesn't play in the last PAL and one of their two teams wins the championship, they can't surpass Dream.
It can be said that Dream is unique in the Asian region.
This level also gives hope to CSGO throughout Asia.
Because the Asian region has never had much to do with the Major, because whether Tianlu played in the past or Fnatic played in the past, it was probably a first round or a second round.
While Dream won this precious ESL Asian Championship, their eyes automatically skipped the PAL Asian Championship and focused mainly on the Major to be held in October.
If the PAL Asian Championship were held in China, Dream would definitely participate, but the PAL is held in Thailand.
And time is quite tight. Not long after they finished playing in the past, they may have to fly directly to Bucharest, Romania to prepare for the Major.
So Gao Ran was thinking about whether to give up the game.
Indeed, only Gao Ran can do this kind of thing.
…
After Dream won the ESL championship and returned to China, he also held a meeting to discuss it. It was mainly an Asian event, and the prize money for his event was very high.
It is definitely a large amount of money for these young team members, and everyone's opinions need to be solicited.
However, everyone's opinions were very unanimous and they decided to give up the PAL Asian Championship.
The main reason is because if they can't concentrate on preparing for this Asian tournament, they don't want to play.
Throughout September and October, all their research and training focus must be on their Major opponents. Who has the energy to care about the PAL Asia Championship.
In this case, they simply stopped participating and prepared for their first World Championship.
Dream also took more than half a month off after the end of ESL. Firstly, there was no competition, and secondly, he was preparing for the training camp.
They will enter Major training in September, and then they will adjust their status to competition status.
I am very familiar with this kind of high-burning training. I have done it before when playing Ti in Dota 2 and when PUBG played in the world finals.
Whether it is e-sports or competitive sports, the game state is always the most important thing to adjust.
Dream's team members also started live broadcasts on the platform one after another, and instantly revealed the news that Dream would not participate in PAL.
The entire industry was speechless when the news came out.
I can only lament that it is indeed a high-energy game. It’s okay if you don’t play in the small games. You won’t play in the Asian games either. Let the substitutes play.
Sure enough, different perspectives also lead to different perspectives on things.
…
After regrouping, Dream also officially invested in the research of the Major.
Every CSGO player is familiar with the Major.
A wave of small-scale restructuring was carried out in 2023.
32 teams from all over the world will compete for about half a month.
The rules are also different from Dota and StarCraft's one-on-one or double-elimination competition system. This has to mention the division of Major groups.
There are three groups in the Major rules.
8 teams in the legendary group [top 8 of the previous session].
There are 8 teams in the challenger group.
There are 16 teams of new challengers.
First of all, the top 8 of the last Major will directly advance to the top 16 of the next Major, which is the Legend Group.
They do not occupy any quota in any division.
The other 24 places will be determined through the points ranking of each competition area.
European Division: 3 Challenger Groups, 8 New Challenger Groups
North American Division: 3 Challenger Groups, 2 New Challenger Groups
CIS Division: 2 challenger teams, 3 new challenger teams
South America: 1 new challenger group
Asia Division: 1 new challenger group
Oceania Division: 1 new challenger group
…
If it is simpler, it can be called ABC three groups.
16 new challenger teams compete in the Swiss round format.
What is the Swiss round? This is also called the fairest competition system by players, but it is a little complicated to explain in detail.
To put it simply, three wins lead to promotion, three losses lead to elimination, and finally 8 qualifying teams are decided.
It is worth mentioning the way to determine your opponents. Under this competition system, the opponents you encounter have the same record as you. For example, if you have 1 win and 1 loss, you will draw lots and get the same result as you.
opponent.
The strong hits the strong, the weak hits the weak, and finally the strong hits the weak.
It's very fair and there will be no embarrassing situation of going home if you don't perform well in a game.
Then 8 teams advance to the next round, which is also the Swiss round format, and 8 more teams enter the Challenger group and enter the Legend group.
In the end, the Legend Group is the top 16 of this Major, which can also be called the real main event.
After the third round of the Swiss round.
The remaining top 8 will enter the Bo3 knockout round.
Bo5 in the final final.
It is such a complex but fair competition system.
It is a relatively familiar rule for CSGO players, but it is a bit confusing for players who are familiar with the easy-to-understand, clear and exciting game system of single sweep or double elimination.
Dream has also officially entered the training stage.
It is also clearly stipulated that mobile phones cannot be brought in during training time. If there is a direct fine, two warnings, and three expulsions.
Then when they began to study their Major opponents, several of Dream's young players had an unreal feeling.
They grew up watching legendary teams like A-Team, Liquid, and Navi.
Although the generation of legendary players they originally ended with has retired.
However, generations of talented CSGO players from Europe and North America have emerged to compete with us. I didn’t expect that I would now have the opportunity to compete against these legendary teams.
This is absolutely unreal.
Gao Ran did not encourage the team with such nonsense as "we must not be afraid of these powerful opponents".
Instead, this desire to fight was put into the study of the team.
All team members can grasp the same information from the research process.
We are studying them carefully. Maybe they don't regard us as our opponents, but we do regard them as our opponents.
According to Gao Ran, they even have hope of defeating these powerful teams!
As Gao Ran said, they are no longer the ignorant young people who were just starting out more than a year ago.
They have been practicing for more than a year and nearly two years, and have played many games in the professional arena.
They are qualified and have the capital to challenge the world!
Putting aside differences in tactical styles, CSGO players in Europe and the United States are actually faster and more accurate.
This can be seen from the data. Domestic professional players cannot achieve stable instant kills when they encounter opportunities, but players from strong teams can do it. This is the gap.
"We are here to challenge the world."
"We are going to win the championship, so I need you to put all your energy into training before the big battle!"
"The day that will surprise the world will come soon!"