Beyond the Summit has announced the BTS Pro Series, an online league featuring top Dota 2 teams from the southeast Asia and Americas regions.
With the COVID-19 pandemic wiping out the Dota 2 tournament calendar, event organizers are finding “new” ways to bring the action to fans. Beyond the Summit is among that lot, revealing the BTS Pro Series.
The online leagues have a total prize pool of $100,000, divided equally between the regions. Eight teams will play in a round robin comprised of best-of-three series. The top four teams will advance to the upper bracket playoffs, while the next two will start in the lower bracket.
The list of teams includes all the top names from either region, as well as a few unknowns. The SEA league will include the following teams:
T1 will likely reveal its new roster following yet another shakeup. CR is an unknown team, whose roster is yet to be revealed.
America region featured a good mix of Dota 2 teams from South and North America. The list of competitors includes the following:
Evil Geniuses stands tall atop the region on paper, but the team will likely be forced to compete with multiple substitutes. That’s not a new situation for Evil Geniuses however, as they recently won the ESL One Los Angeles North America league without two full-time players.
Also at this event, Cloud9 will be looking to rebound after a disastrous debut at Dota Summit 12, while Quincy Crew will look to woo a new sponsor after being released by Chaos Esports Club due to the coronavirus slowdown.
While Dota 2 has been almost entirely based around live events since 2015, tournament organizers are returning to 2014 and earlier with a renewed focus on online leagues. Several online tournaments are filling the gap until live events can be hosted.
Online leagues such as ESL One Los Angeles, China Dota 2 Professional League and StayHome Challenge took the spotlight recently. The shutdown of live tournaments due to the coronavirus has seen top organizations become more active in these sorts of online events after long focusing their efforts exclusively on Dota Pro Circuit majors.
The event will begin on April 10. BTS will broadcast the online tournament on its Twitch channel.
Players must be 21 years of age or older or reach the minimum age for gambling in their respective state and located in jurisdictions where online gambling is legal. Please play responsibly. Bet with your head, not over it. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, and wants help, call or visit: (a) the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey at 1-800-Gambler or www.800gambler.org; or (b) Gamblers Anonymous at 855-2-CALL-GA or www.gamblersanonymous.org.
