In all previous majors, there were three slots for North America, although all the representatives of this region, except for Evil Geniuses, did not rise above the 9-12th place. Many believed that the slot should be given to a more deserving region. With the announcement of EPICENTER, the organizers declared that two qualier slots will be allocated to North America and while three will be given to CIS. But soon Valve changed its mind and said that both regions will receive two slots, and the fate of the last slot will be determined before the qualifiers. We believe that the developers wanted to see how the representatives of these regions will perform in Paris, and were going to make their verdict on the results of MDL Major. However, the situation did not change at all – as usual, only Evil Geniuses and Virtus.pro were in the top 8.
Less than 24 hours ago, Valve announced that China and Europe will receive three slots at EPICENTER Major 2019, and the CIS will have two slots. Ultimately, the last two slots will be contested at the Starladder Ukraine Minor, where the grand finalists will get travel to Moscow. Previously only the winner of the Minor got the slot for the Major. But seeing this second slot verdict is a good move by Valve. Since now any team from whatever region is capable of getting the elusive spot. It will be exciting to see if a CIS or NA team will make it to the final tournament of the DPC after so much controversy.
3 remaining slots on the #EPICENTER Major were distributed by Valve today. Europe and China will each have 3 slots and the last minor of this DPC season will offer 2 direct invites.
CIS, NA, SEA and SA regions will each have 2 slots on our tournament.#epicgg #dota2 pic.twitter.com/HQZhSCmhks
— EPICENTER (@epicentergg) May 12, 2019
EPICENTER Major in Dota 2 will take place from June 22 to June 30 in Moscow at the CSKA Arena site. The prize fund of the tournament will be one million dollars and 15 thousand Dota Pro Circuit rating points.
$ 11 million prize pool
Meanwhile, the prize fund of The International 2019 has exceeded $ 11 million in 5 days and 18 hours after the arrival of Battle Pass. In 2018, during this time, Valve collected $ 8.6 million, and a year earlier – $ 7.7 million. The initial amount of the prize, allocated by Valve, was $ 1.6 million and the figure has not changed since 2012. Only 25% of the proceeds from sales of Battle passes goes to the prize pool of the tournament. This means that users have spent more than $ 44 million. Earlier, The International 2019 set a record for the growth of the prize fund a day after the release of the Battle Pass. In the first 24 hours, TI9 prize pool outperformed Valve’s previous tournaments by $ 1.7 million.
How nuts is this?
Year after year The International raises the bar for prize pools in eSports.https://t.co/Gbd0HCkbaM#esports #leagueoflegends #dota #overwatch #fortnite #smite #csgo #apexlegends #ti9— Axon (@AxonDotGG) May 12, 2019
The competition will take place in mid August at Shanghai in China. It will be exciting to see some of the best teams in the world competing for Supremacy. Recent nine teams have secured their invites after the Paris Major. We will have to wait until EPICENTER for the complete list of the top 12 contenders.
