Preview: GoDz and MrBlue talk GEST March

Your loyal companion this weekend will be GosuGamers' broadcaster and event international show host David "GoDz" Parker, our guide who will take you through yet another edition of the Gigabyte eSports Tournament. Find out what he along with joinDOTA's Terrence "MrBlue" Wong has to say about the sixteen teams who will be playing their group stage matches on Saturday, now with most of them meeting again for the second time.

David "GoDz" Parker is the broadcaster for the GIGABYTE E-Sport Tournament as well as one of the fire souls of GosuGamers broadcasting team.

Terrence "MrBlue" is a former GosuGamers editor with big insights in the Southeast Asia scene. Nowadays he is writing for joinDOTA.com.

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"This group has has two clear contendors for the playoff spot for me: Neolution and Skynet. As much as I'd love to see a darkhorse in this tournament I don't think it will come from this group. Invasion Red walked away with 1 win vs iDeal last tournament, and eNcy only managed a draw vs AEON. I think the two teams can only hope to get some points when vs'ing each other. As for the big boys, well I don't see SkyNet winning both games in the bo2.

It will come down to whether or not Neolution can win on the SkyNet "home server" as to whether they walk away with the win or get forced into a tie-breaker match. Neolution to take the group!"
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"I think Neolution has been improving quite a lot lately, defeating Orange in last GEST is not easy feat. Hence, I think they will get out of Group A with relative ease. That and I was bribed by Neolution with a team shirt to cheer for them. If Neolution were to fall short, Skynet will be the next in line to take the top spot. Sad to say eNcy and Invasion Red are still not ready for the big leagues yet."

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"There are three unfortunate teams in this group. Between them, 6 games where they will feel what appears to be an unstoppable force. Fifteen grown (or maybe not-so-grown men) who may crawl away in tears at the end of the day. Mineski Dota have proven to be the best. They are the returning champions; they do it in DotA; they do it in Dota 2; can anyone stop them? I don't think it's in this group.


G7 proved to be one of the stronger underdogs, I predict they'll finish second behind Mineski, with Ritter then iDeal who struggled last tournament to follow."
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"No prize for whoever can guess who I support in this group. Mineski Bus Yan! Mineski's performance has been very consistent since 2011 with various top 3 tournament placings in the Philippines and internationally. Definitely a strong contender to get out of group B. However, the team seem to have been focusing on Dota 2 these days which may work against them in this tournament. Depending on the roster for Ritter and whether Ritter is actually playing in Ritter or not, I think Ritter will be the next in line to get through."

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"Umm... WHAT!?! This group is insane. Group of Death is an understatement. No other group even comes close to what is seen here. Velocy came so close to upsetting Mineski in the Group-deciding match last GEST. Orange are Orange. Even if they didn't qualify to the playoffs last tournament, this is Mushi and Yamateh we're talking about. Not to mention the fact I almost just listed off their whole team.

MitH.Trust are the definition of consistency at a top level, never underperforming, and Execration one of the serious underdogs. Should I hazard a guess? I guess I have to. Orange, then Velocy, then MitH.Trust, then Execration. But really, I expect a close race with many draws and many tie-break games to follow."
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"Group C is definitely the group of death, 4 of the best teams are all clumped up in this group. I think I will fail with the predictions for this group but whatever, I believe that MiTh.Trust are still in form to break out from the group. It'll be a toss up between XctN and Velocy for second place. Velocy showed that they can play very well from last month's GEST and XctN has been touted as the second best team in Philippines beating out Mineski a couple of times. As much as I am an Orange fanboy, they would falter in this tournament due to the team putting more emphasis on Dota 2 as opposed to WC3 DotA (I refuse to call it Dota 1.)"

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"The "fan favorite" group maybe - we see the runner-up from last month, StarsBoba, looking to continue their success, but two of the strongest Filipino teams stand in their way. Revitalize are a new addition but have had strong results in the past, defeating Mineski in local tournaments. A feat that has also been done by iZone as well. The amount of depth in this country is amazing and second only to the Chinese DotA scene in my eyes. RedSpade seem a little out of their depth but may be able to pull an upset here or there but I don't see them winning the group.

I'm predicting iZone to win the group, followed by StarsBoba/Revitalize. There definitely will be some epic games here."
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"To be frank, I really don't know much about the teams in this group besides StarsBoba and RedSpade. But from what has been said of team Revitalize, I think they will get through the group. RedSpade while being Brunei's finest is still far from being a top contending team and StarsBoba still feels very rusty to me, but the Viets can probably be second in line to get out of the group."

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