G-League group A preview

G-League is upon us and group A's matches are on the doorstep. The prestigious tournament will have a lot of high quality games starting Tuesday, 25 December.

One of Santa's Christmas gifts to the community has been unveiled today already, but the next will start tomorrow already and is going to be big. G-League group A matches will be played out starting tomorrow.
For.Love and DK will open the prestigious tournament, the first of it's kind in Dota 2. The best-of-three series will start at 13:00 CET and it is a chance for DK's fairly new roster to put pressure on the two LGD houses.

DK eSports:
Xu 'BurNing'Zhilei
Xie 'Super' Junhao
Bai 'rOtk' Fan
Lei 'Dai' Zengrong
Yao 'QQQ' Yi

DK has so far been impressive, has yet to claim a title though. The team around star-carry BurNing is currently overshadowed by Chinese powerhouses iG and LGD in terms of public perception, but never fails to exceed expectations. The team is at the top of the scene and is definitely a title contender and should be looking into securing themselves the group win in order to evade stronger teams early on.

For.Love:
Wang 'Banana' Jiao
Huang 'coldsnap' Hanci
Yang 'you' Houyi
Zhang '8gk' Haohao
Bai 'AABF' Fan

For.Love is the underdog in the tournament. While they have shown potential, they are facing three possible title contenders and will have a hard time advancing. Nonetheless, they still have the chance to hope for other teams to either underestimate them or to be struggling. DK and LGD.int are fairly new teams and LGD.cn has wavered a little recently. Then there's a new patch that every team has to adapt to. If there ever was a window of opportunity for For.Love, it could be now.

LGD.cn:
Liu 'Sylar' Jiajun
Yao 'Yao' Zhengzheng
Zhang 'Xiao8' Ning
Xie 'DD' Bin
Liang 'DDC' Faming

As already mentioned, LGD.cn has not been top of their performance as of late. Not only did they lose to their international teammates during GEST: The Challenge, but they were also on verge of losing The Asia, even if they came back with an impressive performance in the finals. There is no doubt that when on top of their own performance, they are hard to defeat and one of the best. They managed to claim the G1-League title and beat the until then undefeated invictus Gaming. It seems as if the roster has matured a lot since TI2 and they are thriving to grab yet another title.

LGD.int:
Per Anders 'Pajkatt' Olsson Lille
Sergey 'God' Bragin
Braxton 'Brax' Paulson
Rasmus 'MiSeRy-' Felipsen
Theeban '1437' Siva

LGD.int is probably the most exciting "project" in the Dota 2 world so far. Fans from east and west are eager to see how far this team of at first seemingly random players can achieve. They have already taken down teams such as Orange, MUFC and LGD.cn in the GEST: The Challenge, but they won't stop from here. The G-League title might be a bit too early for them, but a top 3 finish is something they should be aiming for.

Matches to look out for:

Mark your calendars, Wednesday will see the clash of the two LGD teams. While this match-up is about prestige and glory, it is also a first indicator as to who could possibly take first place in the group and who won't. The two teams have repeatedly stated that they have become friends over the past months, but they are also enemies. Who will be the superior LGD team? Find out on Wednesday, 26 December at 13:00 CET.

29 Saturday will be the last day of Group A's matches. It will also be the day DK and LGD.cn will play against each other. Depending on how the games go until then, everything could still be undecided at this point. Starting at 13:00 CET, DK can take revenge for their losses in The International 2012 group stage and during the G1-League.

Predictions:
It will probably be "as expected". LGD.cn should come on top, followed by DK with LGD.int on third place and For.Love should finish last. Seeing as how strong the top 3 teams are, it could however be easily turned upside down. LGD.int could have an edge as they know their Chinese partners from scrims and practice matches, whereas For.Love could have the advantage of being underestimated.

Make sure to check out our overview article and our G-League Coverage Hub for further information on the tournament.