What makes this year’s most prestigious tournaments great is the number of top teams competing to prove that they are the best team in the world. At SMM this year, we are going to see what could arguably be the top 10 teams in the world who are ready to provide us with non-stop DotA action.

These teams have a history of dominance and are the most recognizable teams internationally for winning or placing in top positions at major tournaments including WCG Asia, Intel Extreme Masters, ESWC Open Games, Asian Dota Championship, Asian Open Games and E-Sports Thailand Championship.

The teams in this category include:

EHOME
sGty
CityHunter
Kingsurf
Cybertime
iNc`xLo
XtC
AEON.sg
MCiTY
StarsBoba

These teams have been dominating the scene for a long time now and most of them are playing as though they are the Los Angeles Lakers during the 2002 season. Obviously for the Chinese, all eyes are on the winner of the last SMM Grand Final, EHOME, who are still going strong despite massive roster changes since their last trip to Malaysia. They recently won both WCG China and ESWC Open Games in a week time and were named as “the biggest challenge” by MushI from Cybertime and many other respected figures.  

Two other teams, namely Cybertime and Xtreme Chaotix, have also been climbing the fame ladder for the past few weeks and their reputation exploded when they managed to reach the final of ESTC Winter 2009. Due to the 60-minutes rule in ESTC, both of the finalists displayed top-notch creativity but XtC came up on top with their Night Stalker, Spectre and Storm Spirit trio pick.

In several interviews with the players from XtC and Cybertime, they mention that they have been preparing for these tournaments for a few months now and the world is going to witness their true ability. With that said, players from the Asian side assured us that they will be pulling big black bears (Ursa Warrior) out from their hat during SMM in order to claim the huge cash prizes.

Contrary to the common belief of the Asian farm-style where a team turtles for 50 minutes till their carry gets huge, the competitive scene in Asia has a lot more to offer. The most obvious one is of course during the drafting phase where Asians are famous for picking the weirdest heroes. Who does not remember Ritter 'Ritter' Rusli's legendary Geomancer that led fans to shout “GO XCN” in every comment they ever wrote on myMYM. Yes, Asian DotA might be different from European DotA, but the people from the East have mastered a versatile and innovative playstyle, thus making them extremely unpredictable.

The teams that have confirmed their participation are amongst the best teams in the world and so far the list has been nothing but impressive. If these teams really end up playing in their full potential then we will be witnessing the most action packed DotA tournament in history.