DotA 2 Asia Championships information possibly leaked

An uncomfirmed leak reveals Secret Team and Rave may have been invited to join the Perfect World and Mars TV hosted tournament scheduled to begin in January 2015, while three qualifiers featuring 28 teams around the world are due to begin the same month.

A large amount of information about Perfect World's recently announced DotA 2 Asia Championships has appeared on Reddit from user 'jackblk' featuring qualifier, main event dates, unconfirmed invited teams and a rough location of the event. While still unconfirmed by the tournament organisers, the post goes into an impressive amount of information. This includes that while they have not confirmed or denied their invitation, Secret Team and Rave may have been offered to join Vici Gaming, Newbee, LGD, Invictus Gaming, MVP Phoenix and Evil Geniuses in Shanghai as the eight invited teams for the main event. The remaining eight teams will be found through the qualifiers apparently beginning on January 5th.

Invited teams:

First announced as a possible Asian equivalent to Valve's The International tournaments and rumoured to be on the same size, the Asia Championships will apparently feature a format similar to The International 3 - a two table group stage. In the International version the teams in each group competed in a series of best-of-two, with the top four of each group advancing to the winner bracket and the bottom four from each advancing to the loser bracket. However to reach that stage, the qualifiers must compete in a playoff section similar to The International 4.

In order to join the eight invited teams there are scheduled to be three qualifiers around the world with over twenty five teams competing, beginning with America. Scheduled to last only two days, four teams including Cloud 9 and Sneaky Nyx Assassins will go into a double elimination bracket to compete for their spot in the main event. Each game is a best-of-three, with a five game final awaiting the teams. The European qualifiers will feature the same system, but over three days and featuring eight teams. The Asian qualifiers will feature a very different qualification process, separating the sixteen teams into two groups of eight. Each team will play each other in a best-of-two with some of the teams facing direct elimination. Here are the teams competing in each qualifier.

American qualifiers:
5th-6th January 2015

European qualifiers:
8th-11th January 2015

Asian qualifiers:
11th-16th January 2015

Details are still extremely scarce on the event and the details posted here, if actually correct, may change. Information on the actual location of the main event in Shanghai is expected to be announced some time this month and Perfect World will be covering all travel, hotels and food expenses for the players. As of yet there is still no announcement on prize pool. Though with claims that the tournament will be as big as The International, expectations will be high.

The Reddit post can be found here.

More content on GosuGamers