Everything you need to know about the DreamLeague Leipzig Major

Steven Rondina Published 15/01/2020

The DreamLeague Leipzig Major is almost here.

The second major of the 2019-2020 Dota Pro Circuit season kicks off this weekend, bringing together 16 top Dota 2 teams for a tournament that carries enormous stakes. The winner will likely lock up a direct invitation to The International 2020, while other teams that performed well in the first major of the season will be able to move into even stronger positions with a solid performance.

The DreamLeague Leipzig Major has been in the works for over a month now, and because of that it’s worth taking a look over the event and breaking down what’s at stake.

DreamLeague Leipzig Major schedule, opening matches

The organizer revealed the four groups that the teams will compete in during the group stage alongside the opening matchups. The full list of opening matches is as follows:

Group A: TNC Predator vs. Nigma
Group A: Fnatic vs. Team Aster
Group B: Vici Gaming vs. Team Secret
Group B: beastcoast vs. Chaos Esports Club
Group C: Alliance vs. Reality Rift
Group C: Invictus Gaming vs. Virtus.pro
Group D: Evil Geniuses vs. Natus Vincere
Group D: Team Liquid vs. Pain Gaming

The DreamLeague Leipzig Major’s group stage will follow the standard GSL-style system. Following the opening matches, the winners and losers from each will be paired off. After, the team with a 2-0 record will advance to the upper bracket, while the team with a 0-2 record will start in the lower bracket. From there, the two remaining teams will face off with the winner heading to the upper bracket and the loser starting in the lower bracket.

All 16 teams will have the opportunity to compete in the playoffs. The first round of the lower bracket will see teams face off in best-of-one series. All other series will be contested in best-of-three fashion until the best-of-five grand finals.

The group stage will begin on January 18 at 7:30 a.m. ET. This is followed by the playoffs, which kick off on January 21 at 4:30 a.m. ET, and run through January 26.

DreamLeague Leipzig Major prize pool, DPC points

As with all 2019-2020 Dota Pro Circuit majors, the DreamLeague Leipzig Major will boast a $1 million prize pool and will have 15,000 DPC points up for grabs. DPC points are used to determine the teams that receive a direct invitation to The International 2020.

The prize pool and DPC point distribution stands as follows:

1st Place- $300,000 and 4,850 DPC points
2nd Place- $160,000 and 3,000 DPC points
3rd Place- $110,000 and 2,100 DPC points
4th Place- $80,000 and 1,350 DPC points
5th-6th Place- $60,000 and 900 DPC points
7th-8th Place- $40,000 and 450 DPC points
9th-12th Place- $25,000 and 150 DPC points
13th-16th Place- $12,500 and 100 DPC points

In addition to the DPC points awarded at the DreamLeague Leipzig Major, teams that took part in the closed qualifiers and WePlay! Bukovel Minor will also receive some points. Teams cannot stack points from each portion of the major cycle, and will only retain the highest total from each stage.

Dota Pro Circuit standings entering the DreamLeague Leipzig Major

The 2019-2020 Dota Pro Circuit is in an interesting spot heading into the DreamLeague Leipzig Major. A number of top organizations opted to take a break for the MDL Chengdu Major, which opened the door for some other teams to rack up DPC points that they otherwise may not have.

The top-12 of the Dota Pro Circuit currently stand as follows:

No. 1- TNC Predator (4,950)
No. 2- Vici Gaming (3,100)
No. 3- Invictus Gaming (2,200)
No. 4- Evil Geniuses (1,450)
No. 5- Team Liquid (1,000)
No. 6- J.Storm (920)
No. 7T- Alliance (550)
No. 7T- beastcoast (550)
No. 9T- Fnatic (250)
No. 9T- Team Aster (250)
No. 11- Fighting PandaS (210)
No. 12- Gambit Esports (190)

This tally includes the guaranteed 100 points that teams will receive for participating in the DreamLeague Leipzig Major.

A number of top teams opted to sit out of the MDL Chengdu Major, while multiple other teams that failed to qualify for the DreamLeague Leipzig Major. As a result, this will likely lead to a significant shakeup across the top 12.

Favorites to win the DreamLeague Leipzig Major

that there are three teams that stand above the rest of the competitive field. Those teams are Team Secret, Vici Gaming, and Evil Geniuses.

Vici Gaming receiving that label comes as little surprise. The Chinese team enjoyed an incredibly successful 2019 that included two major victories and largely maintained that roster following a top-six performance at The International 2019. That patient approach has paid off to this point in the season, as Vici took second place at the MDL Chengdu Major and followed that up by winning ONE Esports Dota 2 World Pro Invitational Singapore.

Surprisingly, Team Secret was given even odds with Vici Gaming. Much like Vici Gaming, Secret enjoyed a highly successful 2019 and mostly kept its roster in place after The International intact.

Unlike Vici Gaming, the current iteration of Team Secret isn’t as proven in competition. Secret’s only event to this point in the season was ONE Esports Dota 2 World Pro Invitational Singapore, where they were forced to compete with a substitute. Though they will likely be a force at the event, they don’t have the resume that Vici Gaming do at this point.

Evil Geniuses hasn’t actually won a Valve-sponsored tournament since The International 2015, but the team remains very good. EG came in fourth at the MDL Chengdu Major and followed that up at ONE Esports Singapore with a second-place performance.

Past those three squads is WePlay! Bukovel Minor winner Nigma. The team will be entering the DreamLeague Leipzig Major hot, but their win at the event still saw them struggle against some weaker teams.

A number of teams have comparable odds of winning past them, with Reality Rift standing as the biggest underdogs at the event by a considerable margin.

How to watch the DreamLeague Leipzig Major

The DreamLeague Leipzig Major will play out live on Twitch.tv. The group stage will see a number of different games played simultaneously across DreamLeague’s network of Twitch channels, making fans pick and choose what to watch. The playoffs will will see one game played at a time. A number of different languages will have official broadcasts.

The full list of DreamLeague Twitch channels can be found on its official Twitch team page. The event begins on January 18.

Steven Rondina

About Steven Rondina

Steven Rondina is a true lifelong gamer. His earliest memories are of playing video games, and he has continued playing them throughout his life with no plans to stop any time soon. Steven’s favorite franchises in gaming include Pokemon, Dark Souls, and Counter-Strike. He has previously published with Bleacher Report and other gaming outlets.

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