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Dota 2 Tournaments

Dota 2, one of the best and well followed multiplayer online battles, is a video game developed and published by Valve. The game is the successor of the game Defense of the Ancients (DotA). It is an online game played in matches between two teams of giving players each, with each team trying to invade the other team’s base while protecting their own. With its massive success, it holds numerous Dota 2 tournaments, which are anticipated by fans and players alike. However, with the current turn of events, Dota 2 tournaments 2023 has been put on hold.

Due to the Dota 2 tournaments’ popularity, it was not a surprise that the highest prize pool for Dota 2 tournaments 2023: The International is already in the whopping $34 million, which was a world record. However, Dota 2 tournament 2023: The International is pushed back until 2023.

With the minor setback of Dota 2 tournaments, let us familiarize the types, formats, series, and organizers of these tournaments.

Dota 2 Tournaments 2023

Types Of Tournaments

LAN Tournaments

Before the evolution of remote playing of video games, especially Dota 2, the most common tournaments were via LAN-tournaments. In this kind of competition, matches are organized by local networks, which compels all-teams participants to gather in a specific place.

In Dota 2 major tournaments, players will play at a big stadium, arena, or centers that are for large events. With such a venue, it will include a lot of viewers and fans all over the world to support their Dota 2 players.

Lastly, LAN Dota 2 events usually have a prize pool of more than $50,000 as a requirement for it to be set-up as a LAN tournament.

Online Tournaments

From the word itself, no physical meet-up needs to take place for the players to play. Any team can play online. This kind of Dota 2 championships has lesser pool prize money than LAN Dota 2 events. Such is because organizers do not have many expenses in organizing the event and require tedious work.

However, playing online can be dull as the player cannot physically interact with his team member nor see a crowd cheering a team. In these kinds of Dota 2 major tournaments, the thrill is missing, and fans cannot show enormous support.

Qualifiers

In any online team gameplay, there is only one rule, beat a team to accelerate yours to the top. A weak team drops out, while the winning team dominates to the top. During Dota 2 championships, qualifiers are the method to weed out the weaker team among the tournament and let the stronger team rise above.

In the Dota 2 tournaments, professional teams will undergo regional qualifiers. The team will participate in closed qualifiers for the team to proceed to the main event. In short, qualifiers is one step for any group to take part in Dota 2 tournaments. Lastly, instead of receiving a pool prize like in other Dota 2 events, qualifiers give any victorious team the chance to be invited to upcoming Dota 2 tournaments.

Minors And Majors

One of the strategies of Valve to make Dota 2 the most profitable game decided to partner with third-party tournaments, creating statuses: minor and major tournaments. In creating such standing, it requires to be in LAN format and must host qualifiers in every region. Lastly, it must also have an appropriate prize pool.

Minor is a type of Dota 2 tournament where the prize pool money is more than $150,000. Its level is lower than of the Dota 2 major tournaments.  Winning a minor can help any Dota 2 team to gain a rank higher and gives them an invitation to Dota 2 major league matches.

Majors, on the other hand, are the most prestigious tournaments, which cannot beat The International. It is organized with a high level of preparation to gather a lot of audiences.

Dota 2 Tournaments And Events

Dota 2 Tournaments And Events

The International

Without a doubt, The International is the prestigious Dota 2 tournament of all time. It garners millions of live and online audiences all over the world. This championship is what every big Dota 2 team wants to get an invite to compete.

The International started from a small prize pool of more than $1 million and a half to almost more than $34 million. It is the esports tournament in history that sets a world record for being the tournament with the highest grabs.

And being one of the world’s anticipated esports tournaments, it is difficult for any team to get into The Internationals. It is either a team that earns many Pro Circuit points to get a personal invite or win in closed regional qualifiers.

Dota Pro Circuit Points

It is a strategic plan of Valve, where they create a system to rate each team’s victories at a tournament. The top 12 teams in the said rating system shall receive a personal invite to The International. The points needed sometimes is equivalent to winning a major.

Asia Pacific Predator League

It is a series of tournaments that cater mostly to a professional team in Southeast Asia. The organizer of these tournaments is no less than the company Predator Gaming, as shown from the name of the event itself. Also, some of its organizers are some other big companies like Intel, Microsoft, and Xbox. However, even having big names as sponsors, the prize pool will not exceed $200,000.

DOTA Summit

It is a series of mid-level tournaments, which is commonly known as Minors, that started and founded in the year 2014. It has some championship that enters Pro Circuit Dota 2 events, having a prize pool in between the amounts of $100,000 to $300,000. Its organizer is the American Company Beyond the Summit, which ranked itself as one of the biggest esports companies in the world.

Mars Dota 2 League (MARS)

MDL is a series of Dota 2 tournaments. It is one of the prestigious championships in the world of Dota 2. The event mostly happens in mainland China since its organizer is the company Mars Media which is a corporation based in Shanghai. And such an event targets the Chinese audience, which significantly brings a large profit for the company. However, MDL does not only cover China, but it recently organized a Major in Paris, which helped gain Dota 2 more popularity and not concentrated only in China.

Dota 2 Tournaments Format

The Group Stage

In this game format, teams are divided into groups to play by a particular system: Round-robin, The GSL system, or The Swiss system.  A pro team will likely advance if it shows the best result in the group stage and to advance further to the playoffs.

The Playoffs

It is the last stage in any Dota 2 tournament that a pro team will advance to the final part of the game and be declared as the winning team. There are two brackets in this tournament: upper and lower. In the lower bracket, there will be single-elimination, while in the upper bracket is double elimination. And those who survive and ascend will face off in the championship.

DOTA 2 Tournament Schedule

One of the most anticipated tournaments in the esports world is undeniably The International. And with the current situation of the world due to COVID-19, The International 2023 is currently put on hold. So, the question all fans have been waiting for is: when will The International 2023 return?

Here are some of the information the public knows about The International 2023:

  • The International 2023 was put on hold since the 30th of April 2023 due to COVID19.
  • The tentative Dota 2 tournament schedule for The International is August 2023.
  • As to the location as to where TI 2023 will happen, Valve still plans to hold such an event in the same venue as scheduled. And with it, Stockholm, Sweden will likely be TI 2023’s location.
  • In The International as Dota 2’s most premiere tournament, it broke the world record of having a large sum prize pool in the esports world. The prize pool will be approximately $40 Million.
  • The International 2023 format will be the same as its previous years, with 18 qualifying teams: 12 of which will come from the Pro Circuit, and the remaining 6 teams will come from the regional qualifiers, which are the regions China, Europe, North America, South America, Southeast Asia, and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

However, despite the change of this Dota 2 tournament schedule. Some of the other Dota 2 events are now on-going, such as The Summit Season 13, China Pro Cup Season 2, Asia Challenger League Season 15, Asian League, Prodigy League, Red Star Cup Season 12, Moonlight class, and many more. Even though these are minor Dota 2 championships, it is still worth your time. Also, there are also upcoming tournaments that fans can watch and pass the time until The International 2023 comes along.

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