DreamLeague Season 28 lasts from February 16th till March 1st, bringing another long, online “everyday matters” grind to the top tier of the ESL Pro Tour season. You know the vibe, it’s not a one weekend sprint where a hot team can dodge half the field, but a long format that forces them to show true level across multiple match days, multiple opponents, and multiple drafts.
That’s why it’s such a good tournament for both fans and bettors. You get enough sample size to see what’s real, what’s just noise, and which teams are actually adjusting when the meta and pressure change.
DreamLeague Season 28 also comes with real stakes beyond the $1,000,000 prize pool. EPT points and momentum play a major role, and the teams that look sharp here often carry that form into the next stretch of the calendar.
The Tournament Basics
The important thing about “traditional DreamLeague” is what it does to teams mentally. You don’t just prepare for one opponent and one style. You have to hold your level day after day, stay disciplined in drafts, and avoid the kind of silly series losses that quietly bury you in the standings.
For betting, this is where you can spot the teams that are stable versus the teams that only look good when the matchup is perfect.
DreamLeague Season 28 is built around multiple stages, starting with a wide group phase and tightening into playoffs. There are three stages: Group Stage 1, Group Stage 2, and Playoffs, with Group Stage 1 split into two groups of eight and only the top four from each group moving on.
What About Predictions?
Group Stage 1 is where favorites can still get punished if they start slow. Teams can drop “one bad day” and still recover, but they can’t sleepwalk through a week. And once they reach the later stage, every series starts to feel like a playoff warm-up.
Also, a format like this creates two different ways to bet on Esports:
First, the early days often give bettors mismatches, like top teams against teams that qualified through tougher regions or are still forming. Second, the middle of the event is where prices can move fast because by then, the market has real evidence of form, hero pools, and whether a team is actually playing clean.
The DreamLeague Season 28 field: Who’s In?
One reason this season looks spicy is the great mix of direct invites plus qualifier teams, which means you get “proven winners” and “new energy” in the same bracket.
The headline teams to look out for this month are Team Spirit, Tundra Esports, Team Yandex, Xtreme Gaming, PARIVISION, and OG.
Then there are qualifier teams and extra entries, including names like Team Falcons, Team Liquid, MOUZ, BetBoom Team, Natus Vincere, GamerLegion, Execration, paiN Gaming, and Yakult Brothers.
That’s a field with real range. Some of these teams are used to winning long events. Some are built for chaos. Some can draft anything. And some are terrifying when they’re confident, but fragile if they fall behind in a series.
The Storyline Everyone Starts With: Team Yandex as the “Real” Champion Now
A lot of DreamLeague whispers start with the question of who’s the favorite, but it’s smarter to start with the one asking who just proved they can win this exact kind of tournament.
Team Yandex won DreamLeague Season 27, beating Team Spirit in the grand final 3-1.
DreamLeague is not a gimmick tournament. It’s a long format, and if you win it, it usually means you did a lot of things right: you drafted well across different matchups, you adapted when teams targeted your comfort picks, and you stayed composed when the series pressure hit.
So, looking at the Dream League Season 28 betting odds, Team Yandex has the most valuable kind of confidence. For bettors, learning how to bet on esports teams like that often come in priced as contenders even if they don’t dominate every early match. The market respects proven winners in formats that punish inconsistency.
What Is Each Contender Bringing into Season 28?
Team Spirit: the “deep run” machine
Spirit is the kind of team that rarely looks lost for long. Even when they drop a series, they tend to fix the problem quickly. Their baseline is high, and they’re comfortable playing different tempos from slow map control Dota or fast, heavy games, depending on patch and opponent.
In a two group stage format, teams like Spirit are valuable because they don’t need a perfect start to still end up in the top four. They just need to be good enough early, then terrifying later, which is why sportsbook Stake.com gives them great odds.
Tundra Esports: the structure and discipline angle
Tundra teams are often built around clean decision making. They make fewer silly throws, which is huge in online events where momentum swings can be brutal. This kind of team is less likely to lose to randomness, which makes them one of the safer bets in group stage matchups.
Team Falcons: the pressure team with sharp edges
Falcons are one of the scariest teams when they get their draft comfort. And importantly, they also showed up in qualifying play with the kind of market respect you only get when books think you’re a real tier above the opponent.
In Stake.com’s DreamLeague Season 28 Western Europe Closed Qualifier markets, Falcons were priced as a clear favorite in at least one listed matchup, Team Falcons 1.30 vs Virtus.pro 3.20.
Even if that specific line is from qualifier play and not the main event outright, it still tells us that the Falcons were treated like the safer side in a match, and that formed how people think about them when they enter the main tournament.
Team Liquid: high ceiling, sometimes chaotic
Liquid can look unbeatable when their lanes go well and their team fighting is crisp. But in long formats, you always ask the same question: do they win the “weird” games too? Do they still win when the draft is slightly off? Those are the matches that decide a DreamLeague run.
BetBoom Team: the hard favorite energy from qualifiers
BetBoom comes in with a reputation for strong mechanics and aggression, and their qualifier pricing on Stake looked like a statement. Stake.com listed BetBoom Team 1.15 vs Aurora Gaming 4.80 in the DreamLeague Season 28 Eastern Europe Closed Qualifier market.
A 1.15 line is the kind of number books use when they expect the favorite to win most of the time. Again, it’s in the context of qualifications, but the betting story is clear. BetBoom entered the DreamLeague path with a serious “expected to qualify” status, and that usually carries into early main event pricing.
Xtreme Gaming: The X factor contender
Xtreme is one of those teams you never want to face when they get into their pace. They can win through lanes, through midgame tempo, or through late game discipline. The question is how quickly they adjust in the early stage when teams test your hero pool.
OG and PARIVISION: upset potential is real
OG teams are often unpredictable in the best and worst ways. They can out draft other teams, even favorites and make them look amateurish. They can also lose games they “shouldn’t” if they get too cute. In DreamLeague, that creates volatility, which is exactly what bettors have to respect. OG can be a great underdog pick in a tough matchup, but a risky favorite in a “should win” series.
PARIVISION is one of those names that can quietly end up in the top four if their series discipline holds. In group stages, you want teams that don’t spiral after a loss.
The dangerous middle class: MOUZ, Na’Vi, GamerLegion, Execration, paiN, Yakult Brothers
DreamLeague formats always have a few teams that become the spoiler. They might not win the whole thing, but they can ruin a contender’s group stage life. That’s why top teams often drop a random series early: they’re experimenting, the underdog is playing loose, and suddenly the favorite is in a tiebreaker mess.
For fans, these teams become valuable betting options when the market prices them like free wins. In a long DreamLeague, there are no free wins.
Who’s the Favorite?
There’s the “favorite” as in public perception, like recent champions, big brands, big rosters, and then there’s the “favorite” as in what the odds say.
Team Yandex belongs among the favorites because they literally won DreamLeague Season 27 and proved they can finish the job in this format.
Team Spirit belongs there because they’re consistently elite and were the Season 27 finalists. Tundra and Xtreme belong there because they’re direct invite caliber and built for long competitions. Falcons and BetBoom belong there because the market treated them like expected winners in key qualifier contexts.
Predictions in Dota always need humility, because one patch shift or one meta read can flip everything. But DreamLeague is a format where fundamentals usually win. To make an educated guess look for three traits of each team, draft flexibility, clean midgame decision making, and emotional stability over many match days.
Main win candidates
Team Yandex is the obvious choice for the top tier because they already won Season 27 and know how to survive the long haul.
Team Spirit is in the same tier because they’re one of the best adaptation teams in the world and they rarely stay down after a loss. Tundra is right behind them because disciplined teams tend to print value in group stage play and then become nightmares in playoffs.
Potential upsets
Team Falcons is in this tier. If their comfort heroes are strong and they start hot, they can run over a tournament. The qualifier pricing we saw on Stake is the kind of hint that books and bettors respect them in serious matchups.
Xtreme Gaming is also here. They have that “they can beat anyone” attitude, but you want to watch their first few series to see what they’re prioritizing in drafts.
The BetBoom Team belongs here too. When you see a number like 1.15 on Stake in a key qualifier matchup, that’s a sign the market expects them to handle business against strong regional opponents.
Picks to watch for
If you want a team that can quietly take a top four slot, MOUZ is the kind of profile that can do it, especially if they’re reading the patch well. For betting, these are the teams that become valuable in “map handicap” or “series goes the distance” spots, because they often take a game even when they don’t win the match.
OG is a risky pick. They can beat top teams in a single series if the draft lands. They are also dangerous to back as a heavy favorite unless you trust their current discipline.
Betting Odds and Market Movements
Even if you’re not betting huge amounts, odds tell a story. They show you what the market believes, and in esports, the market is often reacting to three things: recent results, roster stability, and the meta.
When you see a decimal price like 1.30, the book is saying “we think this team wins most of the time”. When you see 3.20 on the other side, the book is saying “this is an underdog that needs things to go right”. That exact gap showed up in Stake’s DreamLeague Season 28 WEU qualifier market context.
When you see 1.15 versus 4.80, that’s an even stronger betting opportunity. That line showed up on Stake in the EEU qualifier context for BetBoom vs Aurora.
These are “respect” lines. They don’t guarantee anything, but they tell you which teams the market treats as stable.
As the main event approaches, two things usually happen, books post a fuller menu of markets, and bettors start anchoring on what they saw in the last top tournament. You often see favorites shorten if the public piles in early, and you sometimes see underdogs drift out if the market decides their last run was a fluke.
The DreamLeague isn’t usually won in the first three days. But it can be lost there.