2020 has kicked off in the perfect way for esports fans with a number of tournaments and leagues kicking off worldwide. This weekend will see the biggest of the year so far, the Dream League Season 13, which will be the second event on Dota Pro Circuit Season 2019/20 and will take place in Leipzig, Germany.
Of course, it is early doors for the season still, but it is still the ideal opportunity for teams to get their campaigns off to a good start and stake their claim as the top team to watch out for. As well as this, of course, there is the financial reward available – a $1,000,000 prize pool, $300,000 of which goes to the top team.
However, taking home this grand prize, and a 4850 DPC Points, is going to be a tough task as the winner will have to battle it out against 16 top teams from across the world. Let’s take a closer look at this year’s tournament.
How to qualify for the main event
To gain entry into this competition, the qualified teams have had to battle it out in regional stages beforehand. These regional stages saw a large number of teams compete from North and South America, CIS, China, and South East Asia, first in an open qualifier followed by a closed qualifier for each. At the end of these stages, at least two of the top teams from each region were then eligible for automatic qualification and most have all been set to be present at Dream League Season 13 since early December. However, these regional teams made up only 15 of the 16 teams.
This is because one of these teams have to qualify through a second qualifying competition, the WePlay! Bukovel Minor 202. This was a tournament in its own right and saw the teams who were ranked from 3-7th also get a second chance to make it to the Dream League Season 13. These teams participated in another set of regional qualifiers followed by the main event where the teams who came out on top of their regional qualifiers competed against one another.
The winner of the WePlay! Bukovel Minor 2020, which took place last week, earnt qualification to the Dream League Season, as well as $72,000 prize sum. The team was the European team, Nigma.
Tournament format
The tournament begins with a group stage, of which there are 4 separate groups. These are all compiled of 4 different teams from the 6 different regions. These begin with an opening match. The winners of these opening matches will proceed directly to the 4 winners matches. While the 4 losers will have to battle it out in 4 losers matches. The winners of the Winners matches will proceed directly to the Upper Bracket of the playoffs.
The losers of the Losers matches will then be directly allocated to the Lower Bracket of the plays. The losers of the Winners match and the winners of the Losers matches will then battle it out in a Decider the match. The winner of this will then qualify to the Upper Bracket of the playoffs with the winners of the Winners matches, while the loser will be allocated into the Lower Bracket with the losers of the Losers match. All of these matches will be played out in a Bo3 format.
These brackets will then develop separately. The Lower Bracket will see 5 rounds of matches, leading up to a Lower Bracket final. The eventual winner over this period of matches will then qualify for the grand finale. Meanwhile, the Upper Bracket will consist of just 2 rounds, followed by an Upper Bracket final. Of course, the winner of this Upper Bracket will then face off against the winner of the Lower Bracket final in the grand finale. All of these matches will also be conducted in a Bo3 format. Naturally, the winner of this will be crowned champion and take home that $300,000 top prize and the 4850 DPC points.
Regardless of where you finish in the tournament, there will be some prize money and points up for grabs though – with between 12,500 and 100 DPC points to $60,000 and 900 DPC points allocated to teams placed between 5th-15th. The best prizes though are, of course, in the higher-ranked positions. There is $80,000 and 1,350 points for 4th, $110,000 and 2,100 points for 3rd, and $160,000 and 3,000 DPC points for second.
List of Teams
- 1. Team Liquid
- 2. Team Secret
- 3. Alliance
- 4. Invictus Gaming
- 5. Vici Gaming
- 6. Team Aster
- 7. Reality Rift
- 8. Fnatic
- 9. TNC Predator
- 10. Virtus.pro
- 11. Natus Vincere
- 12. Chaos Esports Club
- 13. Evil Geniuses
- 14. paiN Gaming
- 15. beastcoast
- 16. Nigma
Schedule
Sat, 18 Jan
13:30 Groups Initial
16:30 Groups Initial
Sun, 19 Jan
13:30 Groups Winners
16:30 Groups Losers
19:30 Groups Decider
Tue, 21 Jan
10:30 Upper R1 – 1
13:30 Upper R1 – 2
17:30 Lower R1 – 1 (BO1)
19:00 Lower R1 – 2 (BO1)
20:30 Lower R1 – 3 (BO1)
22:00 Lower R1 – 4 (BO1)
Wed, 22 Jan
10:30 Upper R1 – 3
13:30 Upper R1 – 4
16:30 Lower R2 – 1
19:30 Lower R2 – 2
Thu, 23 Jan
10:30 Lower R2 – 3
13:30 Lower R2 – 4
16:30 Upper R2 – 1
19:30 Upper R2 – 2
Fri, 24 Jan
10:30 Lower R3 – 1
13:30 Lower R3 – 2
16:30 Lower R4 – 1
Sat, 25 Jan
10:30 Lower R4 – 2
13:30 Upper Final
16:30 Lower R5
Sun, 26 Jan
10:30 Lower Final
13:30 Grand Final (BO5)
Streaming platform List
You can stream and watch the Dream League Season 13 via Twitch and YouTube. You will also find options to watch it all unfold via specialist streaming sites, as well as online sportsbooks that offer the option to bet and views e-sports competitions. If you can secure tickets and will be in Leipzig for the event, the latter stages will be shown in front of a live audience.
Streaming on esportsguide.com
One of the best sites for watching the game. The perfect guide for users that are new or already into esports. Providing an extensive list of the biggest esports together with streams for each esports match live today or upcoming matches.
Predictions
Predicting a winner is a tough call at this early stage in this year’s DOTA season. It is even tougher when you consider the long path it has taken to get here and how high the stakes are. This has meant the best of the best are in this competition. This includes the top 5 ranked teams in the world right now, Vici Gaming, Evil Geniuses, Invictus Gaming, TNC Predator and Alliance. These are likely to be in the top spots come to the end of this event. To see 13th in the world, Nigma winning would be something special though as they have had by far the longest campaign and will be set to prove themselves against these higher-ranked adversaries.
