Christmas is coming early. The Major is en route, but even before you get to open the presents under the tree, there’s a stocking being filled.

Or, well, five stockings. Santa ain’t messing around this year.

We’ve got a bunch of RMRs coming up, and this one might seem like the least interesting at first - but there’s a bit more going on under-the-hood in Asia. Also, it’s the first one chronologically. That’s a good enough reason for us.

First, we’d like to introduce The Official Team of the TLDR Newsletter™️: welcome, Alter Ego. We’re not sponsored or anything, we just love them.

Listen: they won’t make it through. We’ll be honest. This is a team that is fun, full of cool names, but isn’t actually any good. This is the home of Asian CS veterans like former hot prospect BnTeT, Korea’s last man standing XigN, and Freeman, the TYLOO outcast.

dobu, who was on ATOX (that famously beat ENCE 2-0 in Pro League, while he was there) and aidKiT, who was on iNation, and has a ludicrous 1.68 rating in his last three months. Just don’t ask who he’s played against.

Alter Ego are the heroes, but DRILLAS are the villain, and not just because of ohnePixel (who owns them). They have just one Asian player and have clearly danced around the rules to be there. They’re half-decent, but they’re not Asian…?

It’s just totally unfair.

The MongolZ will be expected to fly through, and FlyQuest should be expecting a top two showing too, but the third spot is up for grabs. Lynn Vision are the favourites for it, having shown domestically that they are among the better teams in the region and playing internationally.

That’s all well and good, but GR have five Russian players we haven’t heard of. If we’ve learned anything from Major cycles, it’s that they’re going to be amazing for one tournament.

The final two teams are Rare Atom, who qualified over their former players in TYLOO, and Aussie second string, TALON, who also have former MOUZ NXT AWPer mhL. He’s talented, and if they do sneak in, he’ll probably have a big part to play.

Rare Atom have somebody and ChildKing, so they are our second favourite team here, but sadly, they aren’t actually very good. Many such cases.

Depending on where you are in the world, this RMR kicks off early Monday morning, or late Sunday night. Catch the match overview here.