Dota 2 WCAA Spring Festival Cup breakdown and betting opportunities

The WCAA Spring Festival Cup kicked off earlier this month in hopes of sparking rivalry among the Asian teams. Ten teams gathered to compete for a little over 23,000$, which may seem like a consolation price in grander tournaments. However, a minor tournament like this serves as a viable battlefield to nurture the regional scene.

The key takeaway are the ample markets open for betting as most esports bookmakers feature this event.

© WCAA

WCAA Spring Festival Cup Format and Teams

The event kept things simple with a 10-team best-of-three round-robin for the group stage. Every participant will have their shot at playing against the nine opponents, so we can know with certainty which team stands out at the end of the groups.

The top eight teams will proceed to the playoffs, but top seeders will gain the advantage of an upper bracket slot. Whereas the seventh and eighth-place teams will have to fight for tournament life in the lower bracket.

Consisting of only China and SE Asia teams, the event has several noteworthy participants from the Dota Pro Circuit 2021. From the SEA Lower Division, there are Cignal Ultra, Army Geniuses, and Yangon Galacticos. Furthermore, there’s an unexpected guest from the SEA Upper Division in team Vice Bulls. Then, the remaining two DPC contestants are team Dynasty and Dragon from the China Lower Division.

Besides the recognized DPC 2021 orgs, teams such as The Prime, Access, Dream Maker, and Infinite War made up the rest of the list.

Familiar faces from SEA

In an event where teams are comparable at best, it’s crucial to know which team to put your money’s worth. This brings us to the SEA Lower Division’s top seeders, Cignal Ultra and Army Geniuses. Cignal Ultra is no stranger to the SEA scene, having represented the Philippines as a consistent team of all-stars. They are performing significantly well as they are the current top two in their regional league.

Much to anyone’s surprise, Army Geniuses turned out to be a promising competitor too. The team initially lost in the qualifiers but was granted the slot after team Assault got disqualified for account sharing. Despite the skepticism over the Indonesian squad, they held up pretty well and potentially be running for a top seed finish.

Who invited the oddball?

Out of all the amateur teams, there seems to be an overqualified team in the bunch.

Vice Esports is the only Upper Division team to be playing in this tier-B event. While Vice Esports are technically overqualified for the event, their performance does not speak the same. Over at the SEA Upper Division, Vice Esports had been sloppy in their last three consecutive matches

Additionally, their match versus more prominent teams such as Fnatic and Neon Esports have yet to come. With all things considered, they might not survive the overwhelming strength from stronger competition, but at WCAA they can flex on teams with ease. Furthermore, the WCAA Spring Festival Cup games can be beneficial for Vice Esports to polish their craft.

The Dream Maker

A Malaysian team formed out of the blues is stomping the competition at the event thus far. Playing under the team name, Dream Maker, there aren’t much details going around about the new team, except for their strong showing. They swept the floor with Lower Division teams, Army Geniuses, and Dragon to kickstart their debut.

Taking an in-depth look at their match versus Dragon, they managed to halt Dragon’s team fight-oriented draft. Dragon picked Puck as their initiator, a powerful hero in recent meta, but all that was neutralized by the lather’s decision to take it to the late game. With late-game carries, such as Morphling and Terrorblade, nothing beats a BKB-equipped hero.

Dream Maker features some great odds coming into most matches as they are considered an underdog by most bookies. To that end, there might be a good profit to be made on this new roster.

The WCAA Spring Festival Cup turned out to be an action-packed bloodshed among Asian teams, with unforeseen favorites coming out of the scene. If they keep up their momentum, they just might be the next contenders at the second season of DPC 2021.

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