Professional Dota 2 Tournaments: History and Popular Championships

Dota 2 has been a serious esports discipline since its beginning. This goes back to the original Dota, which, being a mod for Warcraft, had high popularity comparable to the game itself. Then a project from Valve came out, and Dota 2 tournaments began to be actively held, attracting a huge number of viewers.

Dota championships are an extremely exciting sight. Even people who don’t know the game can enjoy them. Professional matches are held with very high-quality lighting in the studio, and broadcasts of the games are comparable to television. The tournaments themselves are often held at sports stadiums and arenas, where thousands of fans gather. The atmosphere of the event can be felt even through the monitor screen.

At the same time, Dota 2 is not standing still, constantly evolving as an esports discipline. There are more and more big tournaments, the prize money grows and the number of fans also tends upwards.

First Dota 2 Championship — A History of the Beginning of Dota Esports

The story of a standalone Dota 2 game began in 2011. And immediately it burst into eSports. The first tournament was, in fact, the presentation of the game to the public. Then at the end of August 2011, The International took place as part of the GamesCom exhibition. Valve promoted the tournament in a big way, providing 1.6 million dollars in the prize pool. For the then world of eSports, and for today, this is a lot of money. Basically, the Dota 2 tournament offers esports players several hundred thousand dollars, but such events are held very often.

Teams that took part got access to the game a month before the start of the competition. At that time, Dota 2 was under development and testing, so it was a very serious step for the company. However, in the end, TI was held without any serious excesses and went down in the history of global eSports.

The Ukrainians from Natus Vincere and the Chinese team EHOME reached the final of The International 2011. The final victory with a score of 3: 1 was won by Navi, earning 1 million dollars.

Later on, The International became the main tournament in the Dota 2 world. In the eSports industry, this competition is the leader in prize money — today it draws more than 40 million dollars. In addition to money, players receive a valuable trophy — Aegis.

How are Dota 2 Tournaments Going?

In general, Dota tournaments can be divided by the amount of prize money. Championships, where more than $300,000 is raffled off, are considered the highest class, or tier-1 level. Tier-2 are events with prize money of $50,000 to $300,000. Between $3,000 and $50,000 is tier-3. Anything less than that is a tier-4 class — such contests can be considered amateur.

Most tournaments follow the same principle. First, teams are invited to the championship. Some places are left for those who will participate in open and closed qualifiers. Then teams participate in the group stage. There are also Dota 2 tournaments where there may be additional stages: play-in, wild card. However, they are all in addition to the group stage. After that comes the playoff round. The most common form is a double grid. Then the winners of the bottom and top line meet in the grand final. It is usually played in a best-of-5 format, that is, it consists of 5 maps.

Dota 2 Tournament Formats

According to the format of the esports competitions can be grouped into two types:

• Offline or LAN. In this case, all teams that participate in the tournament come to a special place. It can be a hotel, an exhibition center, a game hall or a stadium. The latter is not uncommon for eSports. Very often Dota 2 major tournaments in the pre-pandemic times were held in serious arenas. Fans can’t wait for the restrictions to be lifted and to be able to watch games in stadiums again;
• Online. Dota 2 is a network game. Not only ordinary matches can be played over the Internet, but also entire tournaments can be held. This was especially convenient during the period of lockdown and restrictions on transportation between countries. Players could sit at home in peace and easily participate in the events. Before the pandemic, Dota 2 online tournaments were mostly qualifiers or not of the most prestigious level. Now, most of the competitions are held online. Not all fans like it, but there’s no way out of this situation yet.

How are Teams Selected for Esports Tournaments?

There are various ways to get into eSports tournaments in Dota 2. Top teams are usually invited directly by the organizers if such an option is provided. Also, the team can perform successfully throughout the game season, which will allow them to get slots to the most prestigious tournaments, including The International.

But don’t think that everything in the world of professional gaming is divided among the famous teams, who don’t let anyone into their club. Even amateurs can try their luck by trying to get into a tournament. Almost always before the event, there are open and then closed qualifiers. In the first can participate any team that wants to. After successfully passing this stage, the team enters the closed qualifiers, where they have to win or place high — so you can snatch the coveted ticket.

What Dota 2 Tournaments do We Recommend to Pay Attention to?

Competitions are held very often, and you do not always have time to watch all the games. But there are a few tournaments that you should definitely follow.

The International

You cannot do without this event. This is the Dota 2 World Championship. It is traditionally held at the end of summer. All gamers dream of at least getting on it. Esports players play the rest of the tournaments and matches in the hope of qualifying for The International because one victory can provide them financially for the rest of their lives. The prize pool of this event is growing every year, and already exceeds the amount of 40 million US dollars. Waiting for TI and the fans. They watch the Dota 2 tournament schedule, and during the days of the championship, they try not to plan anything in order to watch as many matches as possible.

Epicenter

In Russia, cybersport is also doing well and is actively developing. In addition to the top teams, there is also a top-level tournament in the country. Moscow hosts the strongest teams in the world at least once a year. All fans can watch vibrant Dota 2 matches. So, in 2019 Epicenter was held at CSKA Arena. The tournament had the status of a Major — 1 million dollars were played in it.

Kyiv Major

Ukraine is also an e-sports country. Kyiv has traditionally been hosting computer game tournaments for over 10 years. In the field of Dota 2, the Major regularly takes place, which is organized at the highest level in the Ukrainian capital. It was even carried out in a pandemic — WePlay made a very bright and memorable anime-style event.