When Valve made the decision to cancel the Majors and delay The International, that officially meant that the 2019/2020 Dota Pro Circuit has come to an end. The good news is that even though Valve did cancel the tournaments it sponsored, it doesn't mean the end of the Dota 2 esports scene.
Fortunately, there are different organizers that continue to hold tournaments online. Today we look at some of the different tournaments that are still ongoing or have recently finished.
BTS Pro Series
Organizer: Beyond the Summit
Schedule: April 10–26
Status: Finished
Prize Pool: $50,000
Quick Recap:
This tournament is divided into two legs, SEA and Americas, each offering a $50,000 prize pool with eight teams fighting for the top spot.
For the SEA portion, it was Fnatic all the way. The team finished the Group Stage with a 7-0 standing. In the first round of the playoffs, Fnatic tasted its first loss from BOOM Esports. However, Fnatic still got the win at 2-1. After that Fnatic won against TNC Predator 2-0 in the Upper Bracket Finals. The two teams again met in the Grand Finals and it was still Fnatic with a 3-0 sweep.
Moving to the Americas, it was the Quincy Crew that stood tall after the Group Stage with a 7-0 record. Joining them in the top four were CR4ZY, Evil Geniuses, and business associates. The playoffs where pretty much similar to what happened with SEA. QC won against business associate and faced EG in the Upper Bracket Finals. QC managed to sweep EG 2-0 and in the Grand Finals faced them again. This time though it appeared that EG was too strong for QC, as EC beat the QC 3-1.
China Dota 2 Professional League Season 2
Organizer: ImbaTV
Schedule: April 1 – June 14
Status: Ongoing
Prize Pool: ~$200,000
Quick Recap:
Held exclusively in China, the tournament has eight invited teams along with two teams from the China Dota 2 Development League Season 2. The Group Stage is spread out over a seven-week period and is expected to end sometime this May. Playoffs will then follow.
So far Royal Never Give Up has been showing a strong performance and currently holds the top position with five wins and one loss. Following RNG is CDEC Gaming with a 4-0 record. There are other teams with a 4-2 record: Invictus Gaming, PSG.LGD, and Team Aster.
This is a good tournament to watch since it gives you an idea of which Chinese teams to watch out for.
How to Watch:
It looks like this tournament isn’t listed in the Dota 2 client on Steam. You may check the Twitch of Beyond the Summit as they may cover some of the matches of the tournament. You can try it here and also here.
Epic Prime League Season 1
Organizer: Epic Esports Events
Schedule: April 15 – May 17
Status: Ongoing
Prize Pool: $150,000
Quick Recap:
This tournament is exclusive to the CIS region and has eight invited teams participating. In addition to a share of the prize pool, the top four teams get invited to the Epic Prime League Season 2. There’s only one week left for the Group Stage, with the playoffs scheduled to begin on May 15.
Surprisingly, the team on top of the standings is VP.Prodigy with a 5-1 win-loss record. This is the youth of Virtus.pro, who itself is in the top four as well with a 4-0 record.
For fans of Danil “Dendi” Ishutin, there has been some bad news. While Dendi and his team B8 received an invite to be part of this tournament, they have a 0-5 record. They’re out of the contention, but have one game left to record a win. B8's final match is against VP.Prodigy.
How to Watch:
The tournament is available on both Twitch and the Dota 2 client. The bad news is there are no English broadcasts available. If we have to suggest, just use the game client.
WePlay! Pushka League Season 1
Organizer: WePlay!
Schedule: April 23 – May 12
Status: Ongoing
Prize Pool: $250,000
Quick Recap:
If you’re looking for a high-tier tournament, then this is the one for you. The tournament has a total of 12 teams invited, with six coming from Europe and six from the CIS region. There are also two teams each from the Europe and CIS qualifiers. Like the teams, the Group Stage has been divided into Europe and CIS. The top four of each region then move to the playoffs, which are scheduled begin on May 8.
For the Europe region, there are four team that have three wins each. These are Ninjas in Pyjamas (3-0), Team Secret (3-1), Alliance (3-1), and Team Liquid (3-2). Former TI champions Team Nigma (1-2) and OG (0-3) are at the bottom. OG.Seed also has yet to record a win.
For CIS, its HellRasiers and Natus Vincere holding strong at the top, each with four wins. VP.Prodigy is also showing strong performance with a 1-1 record.
How to Watch:
If you’re playing Dota 2, you can always go to the Dota 2 client and watch the games. However, there’s also an English broadcast available on Twitch that you can watch here.
That's it for this week. We'll give you more updates next week.
