Bali Major is still a few weeks away, but Dota 2 fans have nothing to worry about. While waiting for that tournament, they can enjoy another competition starting soon. Sixteen teams are set to showcase their skills at the upcoming DreamLeague Season 20, beginning June 11 with the grand final scheduled for June 25 and at stake is a prize pool of $1 million.
Before we go to the teams, the format of this competition is rather interesting. The group stage has two phases resulting in short playoffs.
Group Stage
For Group Stage 1, the 16 teams are divided into two groups of eight teams each. They play single-round robins with matches at best-of-two. The top four teams from each group move to Group Stage 2 while the remaining teams are eliminated.
In Group Stage 2, the eight teams compete in single-round robins but matches are in Bo3. The top two teams move to the upper bracket of the playoffs, while the teams at third and fourth place advance to the lower bracket of the playoffs. The remaining teams are eliminated.
Playoffs
In the playoffs, all matches are Bo3 except for the grand final at Bo5. While all teams get to take home some cash, the top two teams qualify for Riyadh Masters 2023.
The Teams
- Group A
- Evil Geniuses
- PSG.LGD
- Talon Esports
- Team Liquid
- Team Secret
- Team Spirit
- TSM
- Tundra Esports
- Group B
- 9Pandas
- beastcoast
- Entity
- Execration
- Gaimin Gladiators
- OG
- Shopify Rebellion
- Team Aster
If you look at the list, the first thing you'll probably notice is that there are many teams from Western Europe. It's not "accidental" since for this competition, six teams from Western Europe were invited. For the rest of the regions, only two teams received an invite.
In addition, of 16 teams, 11 are taking part later in Bali Major. That means this is pretty much a practice run for them.
If we're going by what's happening in the Dota 2 professional scene, there's a chance that the top two teams could again be from Western Europe. So far, it's been Gaimin Gladiators and Team Liquid. We'll see if this happens again.
What about you? Who do you think will win the championship?
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