posted by HolyMaster

ADVERTISING:

From 32 participants down to 20. From four months down to two. A few numbers have been decreased for the latest season. The prizepool however has risen to a total of. At this point we welcome the new partner for The Defense, EIZO and also thank our new partner for making this season of The Defense possible.The Prize Distribution (USD 25,000)$12,000$7,000$4,000$2,000Invited Teams:Needless to say we once again gathered the best teams from Europe and North America - with a little bit of South America - to fight for The Defense title. These teams are directly invited to the main event:The QualifierDuring the past few months joinDOTA has organized multiple open tournaments. While we love doing these cups for the whole community out there, we want to push The Defense back to being a competition for the very best. Therefore we didn't only reduce the amount of participants from 32 to 20, we also reduce the qualifier to an invite format. We picked out 16 talented teams to play for the three remaining slots in The Defense 4:The main criteria for choosing those teams were (with some exceptions) decent and stable results in the open tournaments we've hosted this year, including Bigpoint Battle, Eizo Cup, and joinDOTA Open. Very recently formed teams have not been included. The qualifier will startat 19:00 CEST and last two days. Tune in toChristian '' Czech to see how teams from three different continents compete for the final slots in The Defense. More details about the qualifier will be released tomorrow.Format & ScheduleA few aspects of the competition format have been adjusted for this season. The group matches - with only five teams in each group - are best of two for the first time. Furthermore only the winner of each groups reached the upper bracket of the playoffs. The second and third placed teams go directly into the lowerbracket. That reduces the playoffs to 12 teams. The last important change is the duration of the tournament: The Defense 4 won't last more than two months. Especially the groupstage is going to be finished pretty quickly.General Schedule:Everything else you need to know about [B]The Defense[/B] can be found on The Defense website . Stay tuned for more details to be released within this week, and don't forget about the qualifier tomorrow.