South America has been the rising star region for Dota 2 over the last four years but The International 2023 marks its worst performance in years. With BetBoom Team stomping Keyd Stars in two in the first round of the playoffs, SA is the first region eliminated from TI12, leaving fans questioning its future on Dota 2’s biggest stage.
Valve made it clear the 2023 Dota Pro Circuit was going to have a big shift in regional support, giving SA two guaranteed qualifier spots for TI 2023 for the first time. The success of beastcoast and Evil Geniuses, who moved its Dota operations to SA this year, during the regular season led to four teams making it all the way to TI—the most in the region’s history.
Unfortunately, that record didn’t amount to additional success. Thunder Awaken was the first team eliminated and beastcoast followed shortly after, marking the biggest upset of the group stage for a team that kickstarted the SA Dota renaissance.
Evil Geniuses and Keyd Stars both barely made the cut for the playoffs and were heavy underdogs in their respective elimination series.
EG was the first to fall in the main event, contending well against Gaimin Gladiators and taking the most dominant team this season to a 70-minute opener that left no easy openings for the EU lineup to strike at.
The same could not be said for game two, where Quinn’s Necrophos and Ace’s Dazzle cracked the SA squad’s defenses like an egg before scrambling their hopes to claim the Aegis.
Keyd, while still considered underdogs, had a more interesting opponent in the always volatile BetBoom. The EEU team did not show any of their somewhat prominent flaws in this series, however, utterly dominating the Brazillian team and sending SA packing with their lowest overall placement since TI10.
With South America out, Southeast Asia and North America are the next regions on the chopping block.
Talon Esports will face BetBoom later today in hopes of keeping its region alive, while nouns locked in top eight placement with a big win over fellow NA reps TSM yesterday.
