Knights is a new team entering the Chinese Dota Pro Circuit (DPC), fielding a roster built around the ex-Sparking Arrow Gaming duo Xiao “XCJ” Chaojian, Su “Flyby” Lei. They teamed up a strong trio of Luo “eGo” Bin, Vincent “AlaCrity” Hiew, and Chong “FelixCiaoBa” Wei Lun.

The roster has some talent but features mostly tier-two talent who are coming in from SEA and China, which doesn’t sound too promising. But Knights have the potential to be good, and we wouldn’t be shocked if they turn some heads in the first tour of the season.

Team Aster made two roster changes in November, with the addition of Zhai “Xwy” Jingkai and former head coach of Elephant and Vici Gaming, Bai “rOtK” Fan. Aster were powerful last year, with a silver medal from ESL One Malaysia 2022 and a top-four finish at The International 2022, and there’s nothing to suggest Aster can’t be as dominant in 2023.

Still, at $1.10, we wouldn’t bet on Aster to win, nor are they appealing at $1.50 to cover the map handicap. Knights look weaker, but they are stronger than the market suggests. Moreover, we’re early into the season, so we expect a bit shakier performance from Aster, which should be enough for the outsiders to steal a map.

Xtreme Gaming made two roster changes, signing Thiay “JT-” Jun Wen and Daniel “Ghost” Chan from Invictus Gaming and Royal Never Give Up, respectively. The latest additions make Xtreme Gaming a very scary team, but it’s not like they weren’t solid last season.

Throughout 2022, Xtreme Gaming underperformed a bit relative to the expectations, but they have finished inside the top three in all but one event – The International Last Chance Qualifier (fifth-sixth). They claimed silver medals from Intel World Open Beijing, DPC CN 2021/2022 Tour 2: Division I, and Chinese TI 2022 qualifiers, a title from OGA Dota PIT Season 6: China, and third-place finishes in DPC CN Tour 2 Regional Final, and Tour 3: Division I.

Due to not making many roster moves, Xtreme might be one of the top teams in the opening tour and should eventually find themselves in a tight race with PSG.LGD and Team Aster for the status of China’s top Dota team.

Aster.Aries didn’t achieve much last season besides reaching the upper division with a runner-up finish in DPC Tour 2: Division II. For 2023, Aster.Aries added just one new player in Liu “White丶Album” Yuhao, and replaced coach Chen “86” Yuxuan with from Ou “Op” Peng.

On paper, it seem like Aster.Aries should be more competitive this term, but they’re going against one of China’s most stacked teams with solid synergy. There’s room for upsets in the new season’s opening week, but this looks like a clean 2-0 sweep for Xtreme Gaming.

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There are three fixtures set to take place at China Dota 2 Development League Season 2, this Monday, December 30. Here is the www.area37district22.com preview and prediction with odds from ESB’s top rated esports bookmakers.

You Know Who vs IG Vitality

• Monday, December 30 – 11:00 CST

You Know Who ($1.76) are entering week eight of the competition with a 2-4 record next to their name, which sits them at an underwhelming sixth spot in the round-robin group. So far this tournament, YKW have seen a mixed bag of results, producing two 0-2 defeats against CDEC Gaming and Team Serenity, two 1-2 defeats against EHOME.Immortal and KG.Luminous and two 2-0 triumphs over Typhoon E-Sports Club and Vici Gaming Potential. Based on their results, YKW come off as very inconsistent with what they show which will be a problem for their ambitions to earn a ticket for playoffs.

Much like their next opponents, IG Vitality ($1.91) are not faring too well this tournament, as they are holding onto a 2-5 record ahead of the next competitive week. The only two teams who IG defeated were Aster.Aries (2-1) and KG.Luminous (2-0), but they also put up a solid performance against EHOME (1-2).

Last season IG claimed a silver medal after losing to Typhoon EC (1-3) in the grand finals and while many expected them to perform up to par this season as well, the departure of Luo “Django” Yebo in September severely weakened the team and pushed them in the position they are now in.

From what we have seen, the two sides seem equally matched which should make for an exciting clash. Which is why we believe the series can go the distance and with esports bookmakers offering generous odds on over 2.5 maps, we will take our chances and say we expect three maps to be played.

• Prediction: Over 2.5 maps
• Odds: 1.98

Team Serenity vs IG Vitality

• Monday, December 30 – 14:00 CST

Team Serenity ($1.40) will continue their climb to the playoffs on Monday when they take on struggling IG Vitality ($2.65) for the first time this season. Serenity will enter the eighth competitive week of China Development League Season 2 with a 3-3 record, which sits them firmly at the fifth spot in the group. So far, they lost to CDEC (0-2), EHOME (0-2) and Sparking Arrow Gaming (1-2), but made easy work of KG.Luminous (2-0), Typhoon (2-0) and YKW (2-0).

Based on their results, Serenity are the gatekeepers of the league, however, their solid performance against Typhoon leaves the door wide open for them to secure a playoffs appearance. For that to happen, however, Serenity cannot afford to lose against bottom-of-the-table teams such as IG, which we believe will inspire the motivation to put on a show here.
IG and Serenity have not met each other in recent months, however, it’s worth noting Serenity have played against IG Vitality’s main team, with varying degrees of success.

While Serenity failed to put up a show against IG’s main roster, it goes without saying IG Vitality are a significantly weaker team and as the odds suggest, Serenity should have this one in the bag. We can expect some resistance from IG, but considering they have been struggling recently, we don’t trust them to cause too many issues for Serenity.

• Prediction: Team Serenity to win
• Odds: 1.40 BetOnline

Sparking Arrow Gaming vs Aster.Aries

• Monday, December 30 – 17:00 CST

Sparking Arrow Gaming ($1.35) are entering the eighth competitive week with an impressive 5-1 record in their hands, which sits them at the second spot in the group. The only team so far which has caused them any serious issues were CDEC Gaming (1-2), who are the undisputed leaders of the tournament.

Last season (while playing under Royal), SAG finished the round-robin stage first with a perfect 7-0 score, but fell flat in the playoffs, where they got reverse swept by IG Vitality (1-2) and later lost 0-2 to the eventual champions Typhoon EC.
Aster.Aries ($2.88) are entering this bout as heavy underdogs, which is not shocking to see, considering they were not too convincing with their performances so far.

While they did manage to produce an upset win against EHOME, Aster lost to KG.Luminous (1-2) and IG (1-2), which were not too promising results. Furthermore, Aster have not played a single match in over a month, meaning we do not know how the new patch suits their playstyle.

There are a lot of unanswered questions with Aster, but for the sake for this prediction, we will side with the Sparking Arrow Gaming to deliver. They have played very well against CDEC last week and for that reason, we will trust them to sweep the underdogs here.

• Prediction: Sparking Arrow Gaming -1.5 maps
• Odds: 2.09 BetOnline

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