Tournament organiser Mars Media has announced the return of MDL to Macau for another Dota 2 tournament, with $300,000 on the line.

The tournament will feature eight teams in total, with PSG.LGD and Virtus.pro announced as the first two teams invited to the tournament. PSG.LGD were the winners of the MDL Changsha Major last May, before coming second at Dota 2’s flagship tournament “The International” in the summer. Virtus.pro won the first DPC sanctioned Major of the season in Kuala Lumpur and continue to be one of the most consistent and strongest teams in the Dota 2 world.

Although typically MDL moves between cities, Mars Media has decided that the event will return to the “Vegas of the East” after the success of the DPC minor hosted in December 2017 which saw eventual TI winners OG take their first title of the 2017-18 title after beating rivals TnC 2-0 in the grand final.

Dimitri Vallette, Director of Events at Mars Media told ESI: “I’m super excited to bring the event back to Macau following the success it had last year with our Minor. We originally planned to host it in another city in China in order to continue our efforts to host the event in different major cities in the country, but the response from the fans and teams were overwhelming. We wanted to return there sooner rather than later, but rest assured that MDL will visit more cities in the future as we want to continue to promote Dota 2 as well as our brand in China.”

Esports Insider says: Mars Media have a history of putting on cracking events, and one would assume this MDL will be no different. It’s heading back to Macau, a typically fun region and it’s off the back of cracking feedback from fans and players alike. Although it’s not a DPC sanctioned event, with $300,000 on the line there’s a whole lot to play for and the Dota will undoubtedly be top tier.