Xtreme Gaming wins Elite League to continue gradual Chinese resurgence

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The Elite League was held from March 31 to April 14 as an online affair, with 24 teams from across the globe battling it out for the ultimate glory. The event saw the end of the winning run of perhaps the team of the year so far and put the focus back on a building resurgence of Chinese teams in Dota 2.

The Elite League saw Xtreme Gaming cause an upset by beating the in-form Team Falcons 3:1 in the Grand Final. Having never beaten the MENA-based side in seven meetings, things were stacked even more against the Chinese side considering this was the latter's third straight summit clash, with their record being a spotless 2-0 in that time.

However, Xtreme Gaming — led by returning Chinese icon Ame — threw any logic out the window, and despite losing the first game pretty comprehensively, it came back to win the next three rounds and with it, this Tier 1 tournament. As a result, it reasserted its reputation as a side to watch from its country while pocketing $300,00 out of a total prize pool of $960,000, with the runner-up taking home $150,000.

Moreover, the competition-winner side did itself no harm at one of the new additions to the Dota 2 esports calendar. After all, Valve will use results from the Elite League as part of team rankings to invite a team with a strong finish to this year’s version of The International.

  Most popular matches and essential stats from the Elite League   

This Dota 2 event recorded 237.3K Peak Viewers during the decider, with the two teams' clash in the Upper Bracket Semifinals of the Playoffs coming in third on this table. The fact that Xtreme Gaming's journey caught the attention of fans can be seen in the fact that it had the most appearances on this list with three. Team Falcons was the only other side with a claim to multiple entries at two.

Interestingly, two games from the Swiss Stage made this leaderboard, and they involved popular sides like Nigma Galaxy, Virtus.pro, and Blacklist International. The presence of such heavyweights played a key part in this tournament notching 17.4M Hours Watched and 102.7K Average Viewers over an airtime of 170 hours.

The leader in terms of popularity among the participants had a not-so-surprising name, with the team continuing to enjoy a strong following despite recent troubles. Performances over the past few years may not have been up to the expectations, but the side's legacy status remains intact, meaning it always attracts a healthy following whenever it plays.

Interestingly, Russian ended as the most popular language among the broadcasting channels for this new premium Dota 2 competition on the calendar. This was thanks to the presence of highly followed sides like  Team Spirit and Virtus.pro, apart from the participation of numerous European teams that helped draw the attention of these fans.

One such name who showed great interest in happenings was Nix, the renowned former Russian Dota 2 pro who is now a beloved content creator. His presence attracted lots of extra viewers, making him the most popular of the 143 channels to cover this event while also putting him third on the most viewed tabe.

  Most popular Dota 2 tournaments held so far this year   

The Elite League also ended as one of the more successful events in the discipline so far this year, helping the new series get off to a great start. It was third on both the most watched and most popular leaderboards, with the leaders being DreamLeague Season 22 and BetBoom Dacha Dubai 2024, respectively.

It also ended up becoming one of the event co-organizers' most successful events. ESB, or Electronic Sports Broadcasting, a Peruvian production and broadcasting studio with a recent focus on esports, has hosted also tournaments in Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, with the Elite League finishing as by far its most watched and popular yet.

Most successful tournaments ever organized by ESB

Xtreme Gaming, with new members from Azure Ray and old war horse Dy, has put together five players who seem to have built a strong understanding of playing with each other. With its ever-improving gameplay, the side should be one to watch out for at future Dota 2 tournaments, including the prominent ones.