For those of you who don’t know Dota 2, it’s a multiplayer online battle arena game that started life out as a community-created mod for Warcraft III Reign of Chaos and its Frozen Throne expansion. And I think it’s safe to say that the community that created it could never have predicted how big the game would become. But Valve decided to both develop the game properly and publish it themselves and now, they have one of the most popular esports titles in the world.
It’s so big now, that not only does Dota 2 have a huge following in terms of people who enjoy watching the game, but betting markets have seen people flocking to their sites just to place bets on the game’s tournaments. Many even offer a tournament betting preview in the lead up to the events, and these are handy even if you don’t bet because as a beginner getting into the eSport, they can help you identify which teams are the ones to look out for. And many of them will look at the recent form of players and teams to get you up to speed.
The way the tournament lines up, is across two divisions. The Americas Division and the Asian Division. And whilst it may seem as simple as having two different groups for different parts of the world, there is actually a huge difference in prize money for the two, splitting a $200,000 prize pool with the Americas getting their hands on $65,000 and the Asian side managing to bag $135,000.
There were plenty of delays to tournaments all over the world in eSports due to COVID 19, and Dota 2 was no exception, but finally, they’ve gotten underway and the Playoffs have begun. The Americas Division kicked things off first, with their side of the tournament beginning August 8th, 2020 and finishing just the other day on August 30th, 2020.
Usually, this division is dominated by the South American teams, but this time around, it was actually the United States’ Quincy Crew who came out on top. And they did it in the utmost style, although it almost didn’t happen for them as they lost their opening tie to 4 Zoomers 2-0 in the 1st round of the Upper Bracket.
But, they rolled up their sleeves and got a perfect run in the lower bracket beating InFamous 2-0, getting revenge on 4 Zoomers with another 2-0 win, before tying things up with a 3-0 win over Thunder.
The Asian Division started slightly later than the Americas, beginning August 20th, 2020 and finishing this week on September 6th, 2020. So you can still watch the Playoffs if you’re wanting to get in on the action, and the teams and their brackets have now been announced following the qualification games in the tournament’s group stage.
The lower bracket elimination series are the ones that will be kicking things off on September 1st, with Motivate.Trust taking on T1 in the first game, and Geek Fam looking to take down Fnatic, one of the tournament favourites in the second game on day one of the Playoffs.
The next day sees the turn of TNC Predator and Neon Esports as they look to eliminate the other in the first game of the Upper Bracket, both looking to stay in the tournament and claim the top prize. The second game that day in the Upper Bracket of Dota 2’s ESL One Thailand Playoffs saw SAG take on BOOM Esports.
After the first round of games, there will be two games each on Thursday 3rd and Friday 4th of September, with the final two games being played out on Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th September.
Who will go on to claim the prize in the Asian Division is still unknown, and it’s tough to predict with all the teams having played solidly throughout the tournament so far. What can be guaranteed though is that there will no doubt be some epic matchups that could well go to the wire before a winner is decided.