The MESA Invitational 2024 is not your typical tournament located in the heart of Europe. No, it’s all the way in Mongolia, where eight Dota 2 teams are playing for $100,000 from December 10-15.
Image credit: MESA
What is MESA Invitational 2024?
While ESL One Bangkok 2024 is getting all the attention, there’s a tournament with decent Dota 2 teams in Mongolia at the moment. Several notable teams include Team Secret, NAVI Junior and Aurora Gaming are at the MESA Invitational 2024, so there will be interesting match-ups.
Image credit: MESA
Puppey and the revamped Team Secret
After such an underwhelming 2024 season for Team Secret, Clement “Puppey” Ivanov has opted for a complete overhaul of his team’s roster. That’s right, except Puppey himself, the rest of his team are newly-recruited just last month.
And to top it off, none of them are high-profile players as well. Hence, it’s important to set expectations for the new team, as they are certainly not miracle workers themselves. Nevertheless, it is still a team led by the legendary Puppey himself, so that’s always exciting for any old-school Dota 2 fan.
Additionally, there’s NAVI Junior, a team of mostly young players as its name suggested. However, with two key people that have some reputation in their names. With Baqyt “Zayac” Emiljanov as support and Ivan “Artstyle” Antonov as coach, NAVI Junior is in good hands at the MESA Invitational 2024. We can expect some hype between the match-ups of Team Secret and NAVI Junior since both players were former acquaintances of Puppey, especially Artstyle, who has ties way back to their first International 2011 days.
Honorable Mentions at MESA Invitational 2024
Hailing from the Southeast Asia Dota 2 scene is Aurora Gaming, which packs a talented line-up themselves. With popular names, such as Abed “Abed” Yusop and Anucha “Jabz” Jirawong, Aurora Gaming can definitely give Team Secret and NAVI Junior a run for their money at MESA Invitational 2024.
Another SEA honorable mention is Talon Esports with a decent Dota 2 line-up themselves. Several of which, have competed in the International Championship numerous attempts.
Lastly, China’s representative, Yakult’s Brothers, featuring players like Zhou “Emo” Yi and Ye “BoBoKa” Zhibiao. Once again, these players are incredible on paper, considering the feats they have achieved throughout their careers.
With all these incredible opponents at MESA Invitational 2024, it’s up to the Mongolian Dota 2 representatives to step up their game. The three Mongolian teams, Sable Hat, AnimeVesta and even The MongolZ, are playing on their homeground, so the stakes are high at MESA Invitational 2024. All in all, the event certainly has alot to offer as far as competition goes. With these many talents competing in Mongolia, you might want to save your calendars on matches like Team Secret vs NAVI Junior, Aurora Gaming and Mongolian squads or vice versa.