Now that the Frankfurt Major qualifiers are in the books and the sixteen attending teams are confirmed, we are happy to be able to reveal the tournament format and group stage dates for the inaugural Dota 2 major, which will take place at the Festhalle Messe in Frankfurt from November the 16th to the 21st.

The group stages will take place from November the 13th to the 14th from 11:00 CET to 00:00 CET on both days, and will be played out in classic GSL style to determine the upper and lower bracket placement of the teams for the double-elimination main event.

For those unfamiliar with the GSL format, the 16 participating teams will be split up into four groups. In each group, the teams will play a total of five best-of-three matches as shown below, after which they will be seeded into the main event double-elimination bracket based on their group stage results.

Group stage example

Match one: Team A vs. Team B

Team A vs. Team B Match two: Team C vs. Team D

Team C vs. Team D Winners’ match (WM): Winner of match one vs. winner of match two - winner advances to upper bracket

Winner of match one vs. winner of match two - winner advances to upper bracket Elimination match (EM): Loser of match one vs. loser of match two - loser drops to lower bracket

Loser of match one vs. loser of match two - loser drops to lower bracket Decider match: Loser of WM vs. winner of EM - winner advances to upper bracket and loser drops to lower bracket

This will ultimately leave us with eight upper bracket and eight lower bracket teams for the main event, which kicks off on November the 16th. If you want to watch the action live and in person, make sure to grab yourself a ticket for the final day!

For more news and updates regarding the Frankfurt Major, be sure to follow @ESLDota2 on Twitter and like ESL Dota 2 on Facebook.

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