With the BetBoom Dacha Dubai 2024 now over, Dota 2 fans are now excited to know what's going to happen. That's because unlike in the previous years, Valve has pretty much handed the reins of organizing tournaments to third parties. While there's no word yet on how teams are going to qualify for this year's The International, that hasn't stopped the different teams from preparing and being part of the competitive scene.
For now, the main focus would have to be the ESL Pro Tour, which has three tournaments scheduled. In addition to a cash prize, teams also get to earn what's known as ESL Pro Tour points. Earning points means getting on the EPT Leaderboard. The top eight teams on the leaderboard at the end of these series of tournaments get a direct invite to the Riyadh Masters 2024.
Today we'll take a quick look into the tournaments that are part of the ESL Pro Tour.
DreamLeague Season 22
Let's start the ball rolling with DreamLeague Season 22 which runs from February 25 to March 10. It has $1 million prize pool along with 18,550 EPT Points. It's going to be interesting to see how this one play out considering that it's to be done online. The tournament format is basically your standard one with a round-robin group stage and double-elimination playoffs.
The teams participating are:
- Gaimin Gladiators (EPT Leaderboard)
- BetBoom Team (EPT Leaderboard)
- Xtreme Gaming (EPT Leaderboard)
- Team Liquid (EPT Leaderboard)
- OG (Western Europe)
- Tundra Esports (Western Europe)
- Team Secret (Western Europe)
- Team Spirit (Eastern Europe)
- Virtus.pro (Eastern Europe)
- 1win (Eastern Europe)
- Azure Ray (China)
- G2.iG (China)
- Aurora (Southeast Asia)
- Team Falcons (MENA)
- Shopify Rebellion (North America)
- Heroic (South America)
For this tournament, all teams participating are guaranteed 42 EPT points.
ESL One Birmingham 2024
The next tournament in the tour is ESL One Birmingham 2024, which runs from April 22 to April 28. It also has a $1 million prize pool but this time the available EPT points are 26,640. That means all team able to join this tournament are guaranteed with 280 EPT points. This one is going to be offline, which means Dota 2 fans in the UK get a chance to see the different teams compete.
Unlike DreamLeague Season 22, this one only has 12 teams participating. These are:
- Gaimin Gladiators (EPT Leaderboard)
- BetBoom Team (EPT Leaderboard)
- Xtreme Gaming (EPT Leaderboard)
- Team Liquid (EPT Leaderboard)
- Tundra Esports (Western Europe)
- Team Spirit (Eastern Europe)
- 1win (Eastern Europe)
- G2.iG (China)
- Talon Esports (Southeast Asia)
- Team Falcons (MENA)
- Shopify Rebellion (North America)
- Heroic (South America)
DreamLeague Season 23
The third tournament is DreamLeague Season 23. There's $1 million is prize pool up for grabs with 26,100 EPT points. This means teams are guaranteed with 250 points. This one is online and is scheduled to run from May 20 to May 26. A total of 12 teams are expected to be part of the tournament with four coming from the EPT Leaderboard and the rest from the regional qualifiers. Since there are two tournaments before this that's handing out EPT points, it can't yet be determined who are joining.
Riyadh Masters 2024
The tour is capped off with the Riyadh Masters 2024. It's happening in July with 20 teams expected to join where eight are coming from the EPT Leaderboard and the 12 from regional qualifiers. Not much else has been revealed but based on the Riyadh Masters 2023, the prize pool could also be at $15 million. Of course, it's also going to be done offline.
Excited to see your favorite Dota 2 team compete?
