In case the upcoming Dota 2 Epic League isn’t enough, fans will have another event to look forward to: Time for the 2020 IeSF World Championship, baby!
The International Esports Federation World Championship (IeSF) will be returning for the 12th time and Dota 2is featured in it for the third time. The finals of the 2020 IeSF World Championship are scheduled for December 6 – 12. Before that, we’ll get to see some of the regional qualifiers. This year, the event has eight major regions:
- Europe
- South Asia
- Southeast Asia
- East Asia
- CIS
- North America & Central America
- South America
- Southern Africa
By the end of the IeSF qualifiers, a single team will remain in each region. They’ll represent the country in the aforementioned finals in early December. So far, only the winners in Southeast Asia are clear – Vietnam.
Further details surrounding the event are still not clear. Last year, the champions were Team Sweden. The total prize pool was ₩13,750,000 (~$11,738). Whether that amount will increase in 2020 remains to be seen.
Dota 2 IeSF World Championship 2020 – Qualifiers Dates
Most of the regions are yet to be played out. Qualifiers will be held in the next two weeks.
- Europe – November 21-22
- South Asia – November 19
- East Asia – November 11-12
- CIS – November 14-18
- South America – TBA
- North & Central America – TBA
Europe will have the most teams in the IeSF World Championship qualifiers, with a total of 16. Other regions, like East Asia, only have three. Official streams of the event will be available on the IESF Twitch channel.
Looking at the participating players, we’ll hardly find any of the pros we’re used to seeing. Sweden’s lineup last year was an exception to that rule, but this time their squad is full of underdogs.
The IeSF might not be offering the highest level of competitive Dota 2, but it’ll bring back something we longed for: International matches. Ever since the start of the global pandemic, most mainstream tournaments were limited to a certain region. With the absence of The International in 2020, the void grew even larger. Now we'll finally get to see the regions clash again before 2020 is (finally) over.
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