After creating one of the biggest gaming phenomenons of the year, Auto Chess developer Drodo Studios is determined to take the next logical step for its product. Together with major streaming and esports platforms like Varena and Douyu.tv — alongside several Chinese esports teams — Drodo will launch the so-called Chinese Autochess Elite Community, or CAEC.

CAEC’s goal is two-fold: build a professional ecosystem for Dota Auto Chess, which discovers and builds esports talent; and help esports teams scout and sign aforementioned talent.

CAEC’s esports program will consist of three professional trial series (qualifiers) per year. The players who do well in those will be verified as professional players and earn a unique in-game rank, starting from “Professional (Junior)”. This will differentiate them from casual players, ranked Pawn to Queen. Once verified as pros, the best players can play pro tournaments in level up their rank, earn prize money, and be signed by esports organizations.

Several esports teams in China, including LGD Gaming, have already committed to building Auto Chess divisions. CAEC will only cater to Chinese players and is not a worldwide project.

For the first round, the total prize pool between the open qualifiers and qualification series will be approx. $9,130.

First round schedule

May 1 – May 5: Open Qualifier

May 6 – May 10: Qualification Series

How to participate

For open qualifier Visit www.varena.com, click on “Professional trail series” to register (for CN players only) After registration, players can find matches on Varena and fight their way to the top of the leaderboard. Top 300 players will advance to the Qualification Series.



For qualification series The qualification series consists of 300 players from the open qualifier and 60 players recommended by streaming platforms and esports organizations While playing, each player will gain/lose points based on their final placement After the series concludes, the 20 players with the highest points will have the chance to sign contracts with an organization and become professional players



Prize pool

Open qualifiers

1st: 5000 RMB (~ $742)

2nd: 3000 RMB (~ $445)

3rd: 1000 RMB (~ $148)

4th-10th : 500 RMB (~$74)

11th-20th : 200 Candy

Qualification series

1st Place: 20,000 RMB (~ $2,969)

2nd Place: 10000 RMB (~ $1,484)

3rd Place: 5000 RMB (~ $742)

4th-10th : 2000 RMB (~ $296)

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