BIRMINGHAM WILL HOST THE UK'S FIRST DOTA 2 MAJOR
by Kit Vickery
Mar 13, 2018
ESL One’s Dota 2 Major is coming to the UK for the first time this May.
The tournament puts 12 of the world’s best Dota 2 teams against each other for a share of a £719,100 ($1m) prize pool.
Six teams will be invited to participate, with the other slots decided via online qualifiers from teams in North America, South America, Europe, CIS, Southeast Asia, and China.
The top four teams will also earn a share of 1,500 qualifying points for The International 8, the largest Dota 2 tournament in the world.
The players each receive the full amount of points earned by the team and those points stick with the players even if they change teams.
The top three point scoring players on each team contribute towards the team’s total point value, and the eight teams with the highest totals will receive direct invites to The International.
The tournament is such a big deal to the community that the 2017 event had a prize pool of almost £18m ($24.7m), £16.5m ($23m) of which was raised via fan donations and in-game purchases.
Dota 2 is a multiplayer online battle arena game (MOBA) where two teams of five try to attack the enemy’s base whilst defending their own.
Birmingham has previously hosted other large eSports events, including ESL Arena as EGX 2017. 80,000 gamers came to Birmingham NEC for tournaments in games like League of Legends and Counter Strike: Global Offensive.
Pyrion Flax (Ted Forsyth), a prominent Dota 2 streamer and commentator for events like this, hopes that the Major might inspire UK gamers to form an international Dota 2 team.
He told Metro GameCentral: “We’ve had a Dota 2 community for a while here but I don’t think it takes itself seriously. The members are very laid back or just see it as a laugh with mates.
“That’s great and it’s how I play Dota but if you want to grow eSports you need to have a larger feeling there is a UK Dota scene which is connected by a regular event.”
Tickets for ESL One Birmingham 2018 will go on sale Thursday 15 March at 11 am GMT. They will range from £19 for one day, to £139 for the Premium Weekend ticket. Standard weekend admission tickets are priced at £39.