Beyond the Summit has revealed the dates for DOTA Summit 12. The tournament will be right between the StarLadder Minor and the ESL One Major, during the March 10-13 period.
What is that?
DOTA Summit was formerly known as The Summit and started back in 2014. Named after the organizers, Beyond the Summit, the event quickly became a fan-favorite thanks to its more casual tone. The numerous videos and skits also helped with that.
The 8th and 11th editions of the tournament had the status of Minor in the official Dota Pro Circuit, offering the typical prize of $300,000 along with DPC points. In 2015, we saw The Summit 3 which had a base pool of $100,000. In addition, it was increased by in-game compendium sales and treasure bundles, giving it a lot of similarity to The International. The Summit 3 reached a final prize pool of $271,685.
The Summit 12
The upcoming 12th edition of the event will conveniently have its grand finals decided on Friday 13th. Beyond the Summit didn’t miss the chance to use the occasion and released a very on-topic video to promote it.
It looks like it's inspired by the SAW film series, with added spookiness by the Goosebumps theme and a final touch of Dota 2 in-game visual bugs. The trailer walks the fine line between creepy and silly all too well.
When it comes to prize money, it stands at $150,000, which would be the highest prize pool so far if we exclude the three exceptions mentioned above. A total of six teams will participate, and all of them have been directly invited, skipping qualifiers entirely. This might be due to the fact that The Summit 12 takes place between two DPC events (The StarLadder Minor & The ESL One Major) and adding a qualifier for it would’ve been detrimental to the already tight schedule for most teams. The six in question are:
- Evil Geniuses
- Team Liquid
- Fnatic
- Cloud9
- Thunder Predator
- OG Seed
Do you hear that?They're coming The final three teams are making their way to @Loot_Bet Dota Summit 12 next week!!We look forward to seeing @TeamLiquid, @ThunderAwakengg, and @Cloud9 at #LOOTBETDS12! pic.twitter.com/l8riORow0L
— BTS Dota (@BTSdota) March 4, 2020
Looking at regions, China and the CIS appear to be missing from the equation. Whether it has to do with visa issues in such a short timeframe or the outbreak of the coronavirus in China and nearby countries, remains unknown. Europe is the most represented with Team Liquid, OG Seed and Cloud9. The latter last competed in the SEA qualifiers and are otherwise a North American organization, so seeing them in Europe might be a bit confusing for some fans.
The format of the event will feature a Round-Robin group stage where only the top four will advance further. The playoffs follow the standard double elimination with all matches being best-of-three (Bo3) and the grand finals – a Bo5.
A live stream will be available at the BTS official Twitch channel, so make sure you don’t miss one of the more lighthearted events for the season.
