This year, The International 2023, Dota 2's largest tournament, is being held in Seattle, Washington, USA. This star-studded event began by placing the 20 best esports teams from six regions into four groups. After the second day of the group-stage matchups, four teams were eliminated. The remaining 16 teams were then assigned to the Upper and Lower Brackets after the decisive Bo3 series.
The fourth and final Upper Bracket Quarterfinal is set to take place between nouns, also known as Nouns Esports, and the All-Star Chinese team, Azure Ray. Learn more about this Dota 2 TI12 matchup in this article.
nouns vs Azure Ray TI 12 Dota 2 Upper Bracket Quarterfinals overview and predictions
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Nouns Esports, or simply nouns, is a North American organization that debuted in the Dota 2 competitive scene in May 2022. They are considered a Tier 2 team, primarily participating in Tier 2 and Tier 3 tournaments, with occasional appearances in Tier 1 tournaments.
Their journey in this year's TI is nothing short of a Cinderella story, as they managed to avoid elimination from the tournament by drawing their group stage games against Virtus.pro, Gaimin Gladiators, and Beastcoast. Their fortunes took a massive turn when they defeated Tundra, the reigning TI champions, in the final Bo3 series, thus securing a valuable spot in the Upper Bracket.
Azure Ray, as mentioned, is an All-Star team filled with some of the finest and most seasoned Chinese Dota 2 players. They qualified for TI12 through the open qualifiers in the Chinese region.
In the group stage matchups, they defeated Thunder Awaken, drew two games with Shopify Rebellion and Team Liquid, and lost two games against BetBoom. The Chinese team secured an Upper Bracket slot after defeating Entity.
The match between Azure Ray and nouns could go either way. While the latter might be considered the underdogs in this matchup, the former showed inconsistency in the group stage. Nevertheless, Gunnar's diverse midlane picks and K1's Naga Siren and Chaos Knight picks might overwhelm the Chinese team.
However, Somnus, Chalice, and FY have impressive track records in The International, as their experience could help Azure Ray defeat the underdogs.
Head-to-head and previous results
Azure Ray and Nouns have faced each other just once in the Bali Major 2023. In the series, Azure Ray defeated Nouns in a dominating fashion and progressed in the tournament, while the latter were eliminated.
TI12 Rosters
The following are the current rosters of nouns and Azure Ray in The International 2023:
nouns:
- K1
- Gunnar
- Moo
- Lelis (Captain)
- Yamsun
Azure Ray:
- Lou
- Somnus
- Chalice
- Fy
- Tiān mìng
nouns vs Azure Ray TI 12 Dota 2 Upper Bracket Quarterfinals livestream details
You can tune into the live games via the official Dota 2 TI channels on YouTube and Twitch. The series between nouns and Azure Ray will start on October 20, 2023, at 7 pm PT/ 1 pm ET/ and 2 am GMT.
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