While the Europe and CIS regions continue to have the biggest Dota 2 tournaments, South America apparently has a little luck on their side. 4D Esports has organized what could be SA’s biggest tournament to date with Realms Collide: The Burning Darkness. It’s prize pool of $75,000 may be lower compared to what’s offered in EU and CIS tournaments, but it has one thing going for it. This particular tournament, surprisingly, has the support of Valve. Yes, that Valve.
There’s a total of 12 teams participating in Realms Collide, with 10 of them getting a direct invite and two getting in through the Closed Qualifier. While the competition is indeed organized for South America, all teams from the Americas are given the chance to take part.
The Group Stage started on November 12 and is expected to run through December 1. All matches are best-of two and follow a single round-robin format. The top four teams move to the Upper Bracket with the next four advancing to the Lower Bracket. The bottom two are, of course, eliminated.
Playoffs start on December 2, with the Grand Final happening on December 6. It’s going to be a double-elimination bracket and all playoff matches are best-of three, except the Grand Final, which is best-of five.
The team in the lead so far is beastcoast, who managed to sweep two teams. Surprisingly, or maybe not, 4Fun managed to get a 1–1 score against beastcoast. We say it’s not a surprise because of who 4Fun is. This is the team that won the Dota Summit 13 Online: Americas, but back then was known as Team Zero. That’s right, it is the team of Jacky "EternaLEnVy" Mao. What is surprising, however, is that 4Fun wasn’t supposed to even participate in the tournament. However, catJAMMERS disbanded, giving the spot to 4Fun.
The teams taking part and their standings so far are:
- beastcoast (2–1–0)
- 4 Zoomers (2–0–0)
- Thunder Predator (2–0–0)
- EgoBoys (0–2–1)
- Quincy Crew (1–0–0)
- 4FUN (0–1–0)
- Infamous (0–1–0)
- Omega Gaming (0–1–0)
- Team Brasil (0–1–0)
- Team Unknown (0–1–1)
- Infinity Esports (0–0–3)
- Midas Club (0–1–2)
So what are your thoughts on this tournament? Does this mean the return of EE? Let us know in the comments section below.
