MDL Changsha Major
This year’s season is packed with top-level professional championships. There are nine majors and thirteen minors before the grand event – The International. Probably the number of majors will be decreased in the 2018/2019 season, as players currently have to hop from one championship right to another. Some are even forced to decline invitations due to health issues caused by fatigue from such a tense schedule.
, the biggest Dota 2 championship in the CIS states has just ended on May 6, and MDL Major is about to start next week on May 14 and will last through May 20. Pro players have only a couple of days to travel from Moscow to Changsha, China to prepare for the competition.
The crews will be competing for their share of $1,000,000 prize money and 1500 DPC points, which at this time of the season are more important than the funds. First place will receive a whopping 750 DPC points, second gets 450, third – 255, and fourth – 75. Teams placed from 5th to 12th don’t get any DPC points.
Qualifiers and Invites
Twelve teams will participate in the competition. Four teams received direct invites, five won tickets to Changsha in regional qualifiers, and three more teams were admitted from DPL.Top Season 5. The invited teams are Mineski, Newbee, Team Secret and Vici Gaming.
Invictus Gaming, PSG.LGD and iG Vitality earned their pass via DPL. Top Season 5 championship. And here is the list of teams that qualified and their respective regions:
- North America – VGJ.Storm
- South America – Infamous
- Europe – OG
- CIS – Vega Squadron
- Southeast Asia – TNC Pro Team
Here we didn’t see any sensational battles, like the one we witnessed during Epicenter with FlyToMoon. Despite the fact that every regional qualifier had two slots for teams that manage to battle through the open qualifiers, none of the teams from “the wild” managed to repeat the success of the Russian team FlyToMoon.
All the teams that managed to seal their place at the group stage were invited to the qualifiers. None of the crews that managed to enter via the open qualifiers prevailed.
Main Event
The bracket system of Changsha slightly differs from the usual setting. The teams will be divided into two groups, with six teams in each. They will compete in a best-of-two round robin system, meaning that each contestant will meet the others at least once.
The group winners advance directly to the second round of the Upper Bracket of the playoffs. The second and third place proceed to the first round of the Upper Bracket. The fourth and fifth-placed teams proceed to play in the Lower Bracket, and the bottom teams from both groups are eliminated.
Playoffs
The ten teams that sealed their places in the playoff will compete by the standard double-elimination system. As usual, all the matches will be played as best of three, except for the first match in the Lower Bracket (Bo1) and the Grand Finals, which are traditionally best of five.
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