The best Oracle’s Challenge picks for TI 13 group stage

The Oracle’s Challenge for TI 13 is open, and these are our picks for which teams will dominate the group stage.

While fantasy picks have been open ever since the compendium dropped, Dota 2 fans just now can call out which teams will succeed. The Oracle’s Challenge is more like a traditional pick ’ems where fans predict which teams will perform well in the group stage and first round of the bracket. However, with a whopping 16 teams to sift through, its difficult to make an educated decision about every single one.

That’s why we did the hard work to find the best Oracle’s Challenge picks for the TI 13 group stage.

TI 13 Oracle’s Challenge group stage and opening round picks

Here’s a quick and easy preview our our group stage and opening round picks for the TI 13 Oracle’s Challenge.

Group A

This is a very rough group for everyone other than Gaimin Gladiators. Someone at Valve must have felt bad about GG getting molly whopped in last year’s grand final, so the international team now has a red carpet to a top group stage finish. Xtreme Gaming is a strong contender for second, and carry Wang “Ame” Chunyu could theoretically power a repeat upset over GG like it did at ESL One Birmingham. However, we wouldn’t bet on it. 1w Team took a win over Heroic at Elite League S2 in July, so we give it third.

1. Gaimin Gladiators
2. Xtreme Gaming
3. 1w Team
4. Heroic

Group B

Group B may be the most difficult group to call of the entire event. G2 x iG, Cloud9, and Tundra all seem like contenders. However, Tundra will be missing soft support Edgar “9Class” Naltakian due to visa issues. Martin “Saksa” Sazdov is a strong replacement, but missing a player never bodes well for a team at TI. We ultimately give the edge to C9, formerly Entity, due to its recent 2-0 win over G2 x iG at Fissure Universe: Episode 3. Still, any prediction for this group has room for error.

1. Cloud9
2. G2 x iG
3. Tundra
4. Talon

Group C

Falcons and BetBoom are like relish and mustard, and this is backed up by the color of their team logos. The squads have played nine officials against each other this year. A 6-2-0 record favoring Falcons makes it the easy pick to win the group. Plucky underdogs Team Zero and nouns don’t stand a chance, but their own matchup will be interesting to watch. With zero history, we have to go with our gut and hope nouns will win due to Team Zero playing the entire season within China. This is the group of death in the first stage of TI 13, which makes it easy to fill out picks for this portion of the Oracle’s Challenge.

1. Team Falcons
2. BetBoom Team
3. nouns
4. Team Zero

Group D

Group D is simultaneously incredibly easy and very difficult to predict. As a group of two hydrogen bombs and two coughing babies, it’s clear that Spirit and Liquid will come out on top. Many think Spirit has the edge thanks to its history of TI success, but Liquid beat Spirit cleanly at both Riyadh Masters and 1win Series Spring. We give Liquid the advantage to win the group. beastcoast and Aurora have no such hope. The two have no match history, so we give it to Aurora because it won more prize money this year. The rich get richer, right?

1. Team Spirit
2. Team Liquid
3. Aurora
4. beastcoast

Oracle’s Challenge Road to TI 13 matchup predictions

The first round of the TI 13 Oracle’s Challenge also includes the first few rounds of the bracket, and players must make predictions for which teams the winners will select to play against as well as the outcome of those matches. All of these picks assume that our group stage predictions were 100% accurate, as these options are only possible if they were.

While it may be the stronger team on paper, Gaimin Gladiators will probably select Tundra due to its missing player and poor group performance. Clever fans will also remember that GG lost to Talon in the group stage of TI 12. We doubt the fine folks at Gaimin will tempt fate like that. Cloud9 must pick a team it has no experience playing against, so we think the flipped coin will land on Heroic due to its overall weaker season.

Falcons will pick Aurora based on the simple fact that it beat the team twice in the past six months. Strangely, the favorite to win the event has never played against beastcoast. Lastly, Team Liquid should pick Team Zero despite beating alternative option nouns twice recently. The North American team took a single match off Liquid at Elite League Season 2. Neta “33” Shapira wouldn’t give North America a chance to prove itself for free.

As for the outcome, none of these matchups seem like surprises. Our Oracle’s Challenge picks for the first round of TI 13 include zero upsets. There is a chance that Talon manages to finagle two games off of Xtreme Gaming if Rafli “Mikoto” Rahman can pop off on a signature meta pick like Ember Spirit or Puck. However, we’re not confident enough to risk some free compendium levels on it.

The next upper bracket round, however, is when things get spicy. GG and Spirit is a banger matchup that could very well be a grand final. GG has a 3-2-1 record against Spirit for the year, so we have to go with the Gladiators. Expect Spirit to become the boogeyman of the lower bracket. BetBoom and Cloud9 traded series at Riyadh Masters, but have otherwise not played at all this year. We think BetBoom should win, but this matchup is on a razor’s edge. Falcons will beat G2 x iG. Liquid and Xtreme are the last tough matchup, as the teams have tied four times out of seven matches in 2024. Liquid won twice and Xtreme won once. Coming down to pure number, Liquid wins, but it will be slobberknocker of a 2-1.

TI 13 lower bracket Oracle’s Challenge picks

The early lower bracket rounds for TI 13 will have plenty of close matchups, and our Oracle’s Challenge picks try to make some sense of it.

Tundra and nouns is close, but we think NA’s last hope will prevail due to 9Class’ absence. Topias “Topson” Taavitsainen may be a crowd pleaser, but we think he’ll have an uncharacteristically early exit. Heroic beast beastcoast twice, both 2-0, at the qualifers, so there’s not much reason to suspect an upset. Aurora and 1w has no precedent, so we’ll defer to our practice of picking the team that won more prize money this year. Aurora clears thanks to Riyadh Masters. For the final Oracle’s Challenge picks of the first round loser’s bracket, Talon should have problem sending Team Zero back to China.

The coughing babies are back, and this time, it’s terminal. Team Spirit should send nouns packing with zero issue. As for Cloud9 and Heroic, there’s a real chance that Alimzhan “watson” Islambekov will bad mouth Cedric “Davai Lama” Deckmyn about offlane Ember Spirit in all chat. Easy win to Cloud9. G2 x iG established a precedent for beating Aurora at PGL Wallachia, so we give the Chinese team the win. Their countrymen at Xtreme Gaming should also make short work of Talon. Carry player Eljohn “Akashi” Andales can still leave his mark by doing a front flip onto the plane back to the Philippines.

While perfecting your Oracle’s Challenge picks, see the Worlds 2022 Pick’Em Crystal Ball results for inspiration.