Being one of the oldest LAN events, The DreamHack series holds a special place in the hearts of Dota 2 fans and now it’s time for another edition of the DreamLeague. The fall series began on 11 October and will run until late November.
Let’s take a closer look at the event.
The Tournament
As is tradition, the DreamLeague will open with a Round Robin league stage featuring eight teams. Unlike previous editions, all of the participants are invitees. The league event will be played online and the top four teams will advance to the playoffs, which will be played on 25-26 November in Jönköping, Sweden.
The total prize pool will amount to $231,000, with $56,000 allocated for the League stage. The main event will be more rewarding, with $175,000 for the remaining four teams, bumping up the Season 5 prize pool by $75,000.
The format will retain the structure of the previous season. All of the matches will be played within the space of four weeks and every team will face the other seven in a best-of-two series. Rankings will be based on the number of games (rather than series) that each team wins. The four teams which win the highest number of games will advance to the main event. $1,000 will be awarded to each team for each victory, equating to the $56,000 allocation for the League stage.
The eight invitees include five European teams, two from the CIS and one from North America. The fans will have the chance to see some of the newly formed rosters in action for the first time, adding to the excitement.
The Teams
Initially, EG, OG and Team Secret were among the invitees, but citing schedule clashes with the upcoming Boston Major, the trio withdrew. Their replacements are Virtus.Pro, The Imperial and Team NP.
Team Liquid participated in the DreamLeague Kick-Off Season, although with a completely different roster. They ended up 4th out of six teams before finishing 7-11th in Season One the following year. The expectations for their current attempt at DreamLeague will be much higher considering their performances throughout last season, when they won EPICENTER and finished 2nd at ESL One Manila and both the Shanghai and Manila Majors. Added to this is the landing of Miracle-, undoubtedly the discovery of 2016, who has undoubtedly strengthened their roster. This will be Liquid’s first official tournament since the Shuffle and anticipation is high, although question marks remain over how the team will gel.
Vega Squadron are a DreamLeague regular and will participate for the fourth consecutive time. They have had little success, however, with a 4th place finish in Season 5 their best achievement so far. Vega have had the chance to try out their new roster after fng and Iceberg arrived in August; in the Minor BTS Europe #4 tournament, where they were eliminated in the semifinals.
Na’Vi will appear for a fifth time in DreamLeague. As well as winning the Kick-Off Season, they took part in Seasons 1, 3 and 5, finishing runners-up in both the third and fifth events. Na’Vi are one of the few teams that decided to keep their roster intact despite the dissatisfying 13-16th finish in The International 2016 back in August. One of the main reasons for this was due to their strong overall season in which they won the StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 2 and came 2nd at ESL One Frankfurt.
Alliance are the only team that will participate for a sixth time in DreamLeague, having won Season One back in 2014. Loda had to patch up the squad during the Shuffle period, replacing AdmiralBulldog, s4 and Akke with another trio of Swedes; Limmp, jonassomfan and Handsken. While the new roster might not be as flashy on first inspection, they will certainly be motivated to prove themselves and secure a top four position, if only to play in front of a home crowd in the playoffs.
Formed in June, Escape Gaming were one of the pleasant surprises of last season on the European scene. In such a short period, and without having big names on their roster, they managed to qualify for The International 2016, although they did finish bottom of the pile there. They are not newcomers to DreamLeague as while under the name of No Diggity, they participated in Season 5, where they finished 4th. Refraining from roster changes, Escape will try to improve their play with what they have.
Virtus.Pro are regulars on the DreamLeague stage and one of the most successful participants. They won Season 3 and landed 3rd spot in the last edition, matching their performance in Season 2. The Russian team did not manage to qualify for The International 2016 following a 5-6th finish in the previous edition, and the roster was subsequently disbanded. The new lineup, featuring only CIS players, was formed in August and includes former players Lil and Solo. The team had a chance to warm up for DreamLeague with a win in the Minor BTS Europe #4 tournament at the end of last month.
Team NP are one of the brand new teams on the scene and given the resumes of their players, they are shaping up to be one of the strongest Canadian outfits of all time. The team was gathered by EternaLEnVy in his first attempt at forming and managing a team of his own. As well as EternaLEnVy, Team NP comprise of veteran players on the NA scene; TI5 winner Aui_2000, MSS, SVG and the former Team Secret coach 1437. NP participated in the qualifiers for the upcoming Northern Arena BEAT Invitational, but came second and failed to secure their spot in the main event.
British eSports organization The Imperial are comprised of just Danish players. They were previously known as Danish Bears and almost all of the team had been together on this roster too. The only exception is 13abyKnight, who joined this June. Prior to receiving an invitation for DreamLeague, The Imperial had never attended a Premier event on the Dota 2 scene, but came close to qualifying for the StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 2 as Danish Bears back in May when they were eliminated at the semifinal stage of the European Qualifier.
Conclusion
The new season is already in motion and some of the major teams have already shown that their transfer acquisitions will keep them ahead of the pack. Others decided to stay conservative and build on the chemistry that was already present, while there are other teams that are yet to test their new acquisitions. With the high number of games that it offers, DreamLeague will give teams an excellent opportunity to develop and hone their play so a fascinating few weeks lie ahead.
