RSG vs XERXIA Prediction: Ken on Slark Won't Help Anymore

On Friday, September 16, qualifiers for The International 2022, Dota 2's biggest event of the year, will continue in the Asian region. RSG and XERXIA will face off in their next qualifier.

The International 2022: Southeast Asia Qualifier is an online Dota 2 tournament that will take place September 13-17, 2022. This mini-tournament has no prize pool and offers one direct regional berth to the group stage of The International 2022 and two additional berths to the "last chance" qualifier that will take place before the main tournament starts in Singapore. In Southeast Asia, 13 teams will fight in qualification. Recall that the two strongest Asian teams BOOM Esports and Fnatic, have already secured a place in the TI11. 

RSG: No More Right to Fail

RSG is a relatively old and well-known Asian tag on the radar in Dota 2 in 2018 and 2019. After that team was not selected for The International 2019, the players managed to play in a couple more tournaments, and at the end of the year, they ceased their humble existence. The RSG team returned to the pro scene only this spring.

The organization signed a fantastic mix of open Asian qualifiers, ChubbyBoiz, and he surprisingly just took out all of his opponents in the second division. In the offseason, the team managed to play in the BTS Pro Series Season 11 tournament but was not impressed with their play, finishing in 5th-6th place without much effort.

What is the phenomenon of this team? Good drafts and clean execution. Yes, it's not without some luck, especially the unstable play of some of the favorite teams in the region, but overall, with this kind of play, the guys are worthy of going even to TI11.

In the first round of these qualifications, RSG defeated their rivals from Neon Esports (2:0). With T1, this team was ready to fight on equal terms yesterday but lost 0:2. The essential thing that caught my eye was that T1 outplayed RSG in macro, while also blowing the line. But XERXIA is not playing at the level of T1, so we have no doubts that RSG guys will go further. 

XERXIA: the Qualifiers Discovery

XERXIA is the Filipino team that started in these qualifiers from the very first loser round, the team with the lowest ranking of all participants. 

In the first round, the Filipinos faced the legendary tag team TNC Predator (1:0) in a BO1 match. Ken played on Slark, the carry of the Filipino stack, and brought his squad into the next qualification round. 

Then the team played their BO3 matches, and their first opponent was Nigma Galaxy SEA (2:1) which, according to bookmakers, should have knocked XERXIA down, but it didn't happen that way. The Filipinos took the first card. On the second map, they simply lost, and their opponent took Meepo in the draft, becoming the main newsmakers of the game day. On the third decisive map, Ken took the signature and lucky Slark again and quickly dragged his team through the tournament. 

In the last round, the Filipinos faced Army Geniuses (2:1), who shut them down in the first map with a recruited hodgepodge of players. But on the second map, Army Geniuses took a frank slag. XERXIA quickly equalized the score. Well, on the third map, he appeared - Slark on the first position, and the result was fighting, but still a victory.  

It was clear that the XERXIA team was getting tougher and tougher with each new round. This Filipino squad does not have a single serious and experienced player, so RSG should close this team without problems, considering what this team showed in the summer round of the regional DPC league.

Expert Betting Tips

For this match, we offer the following betting options: the maps H1 (-1.5), the frags H1 (-10.5) on map 1, and the frags TU (54.5) on map 2.