posted by TobiWanKenobi

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Firstly Hellspawn welcome and can you please introduce yourself for those new to the DOTA 2 world?

Hi, my name is Christian Lord and I’ve been involved in eSports for 15 years and have been working with DreamHack since 2009. I’m the Tournament Director at DreamHack but also the project manager for DreamHack Open (StarCraft II) and the newly released ASUS ROG DreamLeague.

The biggest thing people have been talking about recently was the announcement of the merging of the GD Studio into Dreamhack TV, what are Dreamhack hoping to achieve with this move and how does it blend with your plans for TV6?

DreamHack and James Harding with the GD Studio have been good friends for many years. When DreamHack together with MTG (Modern Times Group) decided to build a studio (which is under construction right now) we knew that we needed to have the best in the business in front of the camera. It also connected well when we decided to focus on Dota 2 as our first Studio project and The GD Studio have produced our last two DreamHack Dota 2 tournaments. We are also of course very happy to be able to show ASUS ROG DreamLeague on TV6 for the Swedish audience.

The first DreamLeague has been announced with a $50,000 prize pool with a 2nd planned with double the prize pool and amount of invited teams. With Dreamhack Winter being the biggest event in the Dreamhack calendar why did you decide to run what would seem a smaller competition?

When we decided to build a Studio, we knew it wouldn’t be ready to run a league season before DreamHack Winter 2013 but at the same time we knew we would do ASUS ROG DreamLeague so why not establish it already with a kick-off season! This is the biggest prize pool in Dota in DreamHack history but the teams will also get travel and accommodation support for another $20,000 in total.



With the huge investment that goes into a project like ASUS ROG DreamLeague we will have 4 hosts/casters for both English and Swedish and a full studio setup of production crew. On top of that all DreamHack Winter Dota 2 games will be played on a really great stage with a full production similar to what you have seen before with DreamHack Open.



To be honest, DreamHack has been the host of some of the greatest tournaments in Dota 2 but the experience for both the audience on site and the online viewers at home haven’t been that great. In this new format, we can guarantee an amazing Stage Show and a viewing experience on par with what we already deliver in DreamHack Open with StarCraft II - by many considered the best Stage Show in the eSports community.



Can you give us any insight into the format of the competition, and if there would be more than the invited teams already announced involved in the Dreamleague?

To start off there has been a lot of questions about the invited teams. ASUS ROG DreamLeague invited two North American teams, two European West teams and two European East team. The teams selected were invited for their performance over a long period of time and were not chosen based on recent results. We would have liked to have more teams from the start but due to time as explained it wasn't possible.



For the Kick-off Season these 6 teams are invited to play 30 matches in total (each faces each other twice). Top 4 will make it to the Playoff at DreamHack Winter 2013 were a double elimination (BO3/BO5) will take place filling the whole days of the festival with high level Dota 2. All these 6 teams are also directly qualified to Season #1. In addition to this two more teams from each division (NA, EU W, EU E) will qualify through open qualifiers to make the league have a total of 12 teams.

Hellspawn featured in the middle *Image from Helena Kristiansson

It has always been a big part of Dreamhack to have a BYOC for DOTA 2 and then having the winners involved in the large scale competition. Is there plans to keep this as part of Dreamhack or will the smaller focused event be the new model?

The core of DreamHack is to have an open competition and the LAN itself is the heart. This is the first time that we are establishing a league and therefore we need to have a set amount of teams, and as we can’t run each season for too long we decided on 12 teams for each season.



As for the Kick-off season there wasn’t time enough to run a full season as previously explained and therefore we had to go with a 6 team invitation. As for the BYOC, all the 10,000 attendees will be able to enter the BYOC Qualifier at DreamHack Winter 2013 which will be one way to enter ASUS ROG DreamHack Season #1 with $100,000 in prize money. To be a part of and qualify for a real DreamLeague season will be much more valuable than getting a top-8 spot in a “normal” tournament.



On top of prize money we’re offering all participating teams the opportunity to grow their brand and also get a share of potential revenues connected to the league. Each ASUS ROG DreamLeague Final will be at one of our DreamHack-events, but is not bound to be at Summer/Winter Festivals. It could be Bucharest or Stockholm as well.

There was a lot of talk about last Dreamhacks DOTA 2 stage and how it was compared and positioned with the League of Legends stage. What plans do you have for the production and setup for the finals of the DreamLeague?

At all our DreamHack Summer/Winter festivals we have a lot of eSports tournaments going on, our Finals Arena is DreamArena Extreme where Dota 2 together with all other titles have had the finals. At DreamHack Summer the viewing area was for sure underwhelming but the tournament itself and the broadcast was the best we had done up to that point.



This DreamHack Winter, ASUS ROG DreamLeague will have a dedicated stage for all the Dota 2 matches that will be played, in front of about 1,000 spectators in the audience. This will without a doubt be on a totally new level compared to what we have done previously with Dota 2. I think the community will like it.

We all wish you the best in your endeavors, do you have any final messages for the DOTA 2 community?

Tune in on the 4th of November and watch a League and Studio show that will be unique and very entertaining for all Dota 2 and eSports lovers. Also I would like to thank ASUS ROG and Roccat for supporting us to be able to start this kind of league, without this support it wouldn’t be possible. Also, thanks to TV6 we will be able to reach a new audience that aren’t familiar with Dota 2 and eSports. With our partnership with The GD Studio we know we will be able to provide entertainment never seen before.

You can read the full interview below but those after the quick info here are a couple of features. There will be a competition for those attending the Dreamhack LAN with the winners having a chance to qualify for the next season of the DreamLeague.Also released are details of a dedicated stage for 1,000 spectators live and the promise of a new level for DOTA2 compared to last year. The format of both the online and offline portion of the DreamLeague is also listed below:- 6 Invited teams Group StageThe group stage will have each team play each other twice for a total of 30 matches, with the top 4 advancing to the LAN finals at Dreamhack Winter- LAN Finals Double Elimination Bracket (Bo3/Bo5)For those who are interested in even more details, our full interview withChristianLord is available below: