ImbaTV launches a Dota2 Professional League in China

China Dota2 Professional League Season 1 is scheduled to take place between October 17th (2019) – March 1st (2020). With over $210.000 in prizes and the top 10 Chinese teams in the race, this competition looks to become the most prestigious league in the region.

It’s not Something new but it’s still unusual

Dota 2 is not well-known for its leagues. In fact, very few people have tried anything serious in that department. Every tournament organizer prefers stand-alone events instead, because they’re easier to sell to the sponsors as well as the public. Online leagues may be common in other games, such as CS:GO, but in Dota 2 we haven’t had that many of them. Not at the top level at least.

China Dota2 Professional League Season 1 details

The league will be played over a period of more than four months, although the Group Stage will end by January 5th. The matches will be Bo3, except for the Grand Final (Bo5). All participants are in the same group and will play a single match against each of their opponents. At the end, the best eight teams advance to the Playoffs. The top four of them will play in the Upper Bracket while the next four will start in the Lower Bracket.

China Dota2 Professional League Season 1 teams

The teams that will take part in this league are the best in the Chinese region. With the exception of CDEC, nobody’s missing as far as I can tell. This is the full list of participants.

EHOME

Invictus Gaming

Keen Gaming

Newbee

PSG.LGD

Royal Never Give Up

Team Aster

Vici Gaming

Typhoon E-Sports Club

iG Vitality

Among these teams, PSG.LGD, Team Aster, and Vici Gaming are the strongest. Apart from these, there’s also Invictus Gaming, Keen Gaming, EHOME and RNG. These four teams had promising results last season. However, they’ve made a lot of roster changes since then and are now struggling to find their rhythm.

One exception to this rule is EHOME. At the recent MDL Chengdu Major Qualifiers, they took advantage of PSG.LGD’s absence and secured a ticket for the first DPC Major of the season. It remains to be seen, however, what they can achieve when playing against the world’s best and whether or not they can maintain their top three position in China when PSG.LGD finally returns to the pro scene.

Read also: MDL Chengdu Major Qualifiers Outcome

Prize Pool distribution

China Dota2 Professional League Season 1 offers more than $210.000 in prizes. The money will be split among the top eight participants in the following way:

1 st place: ~$112.600

place: ~$112.600 2 nd place: ~$56.300

place: ~$56.300 3 rd place: ~$28.100

place: ~$28.100 4 th place: ~$7.000

place: ~$7.000 5 th – 6 th place: ~$2.100

– 6 place: ~$2.100 7th – 8th place: ~$1.400

The last two teams will not get anything for their efforts, which is the organizer’s way of saying “get good or don’t compete!”. You might think that such a brutal way of doing things is a rarity. But in fact, it’s not that uncommon in esports to put pressure on the teams by using an unforgiving system.