ESL One Hamburg will play host to the first Dota Underlords event later this year at the Barclaycard Arena.
Dota Underlords is Valve’s official Dota Auto Chess game — released to Battle Pass owners on June 14th. ESL has wasted no time in getting the game on the books for its Dota 2 event in October.
The first Dota Underlords offline tournament will be happening at #ESLOne Hamburg 2019! ?
Free to join for everyone attending the event, it will have a total prize pool of 5000€!
More info coming soon ? https://t.co/N4LHatavLu pic.twitter.com/XDMGDtxubD
— ESL Dota2 (@ESLDota2) June 19, 2019
The tournament will feature a €5,000 (£4,400) prize pool with registration for the event free for all fans who attend the live event. The event is the first offline tournament announced for Valve’s Auto Chess spin-off. ESL gave few details but stated that we’d learn more soon.
The main event for ESL One Hamburg kicks off October 25th – 27th and will feature a $300,000 (£235,000) prize pool. A total of 12 teams will battle it out for the prize with the event sponsored by the usual sprinkling of ESL partners including DHL, Vodafone, Intel, Mercedes-Benz and ROG.
Dota Underlords is based off the hit Dota 2 mod ‘Auto Chess‘ created by Drodo Studio’s and with the help of popular mobile MMORPG maker Dragonest Game will be releasing a standalone version of the popular mod on the EPIC Store, Valve’s main rival in the PC gaming space.
The popularity of this new genre sometimes referred to as an ‘auto-battle’ has even seen rival MOBA developer Riot Games release its own take on the game this week titles Teamfight Tactics.
Esports Insider says: ESL are smart to jump on a popular new trend, they have a long relationship with Valve so I’m certain the two see this as a perfect proving ground for the new title, especially given the event takes place during a Dota 2 tournament. As for the ‘Battle Chess’ series of games, time will tell if we have a new esports genre on our hands but it is certainly something to keep an eye on, especially with Riot Games, Valve and Epic having a hand in the preventable pie.
ESI London 2019 – Find out more
