Dota 2 fans couldn’t receive a better gift for the winter holidays than a Summit event to kick off the Christmas spirit.
Dota Summit 8 is a Minor, part of the Dota Pro Circuit and, like previous BTS events, it will be one of the most entertaining tournaments to watch. The teams line-up is exciting, on top of an interesting tournament format comprised of three stages - Group Stage, Wild Card, Playoffs and due to featuring an odd number of participants (9), BTS split the teams into three groups.
Dota Summit 8 format:
Group Stage:
- 3 groups, 3 teams each
- 3-game series round-robin
- Each win equals one point
- In the event of tiebreakers, extra games will be played
- Top team from each group advance to playoffs
Wild Card:
- 3 runner-ups from group stage and the 3rd place team with most wins
- Single Elimination
- Winner advances to playoffs
- All games are Bo3
Playoffs:
- 4 Teams: 3 group winners and winner of the Wild Card
- Single Elimination
- Bo3 Semifinals, Bo5 Grand Finals
Top three teams in the Dota Pro Circuit rankings were seeded in different groups and were allowed to choose their group adversaries from the remaining six teams. Note, that when the group stage seeding was made, OG were still playing in the MDL Macau Minor and had no Circuit points under their belt, thus they weren’t part of the three teams that had the privilege to choose. Instead, Virtus.pro, Evil Geniuses and LGD Gaming were the three teams who took turns in a schoolyard pick fashion.
Group A
Virtus.pro are not only the highest ranked team in the Dota Pro Circuit from all the Dota Summit 8 participants, but they are also the defending champions of the event. For this eighth season of Dota Summit, VP got seeded in Group A and they picked Sacred, the SA qualified squad consisting of ex-Infamous members. Sacred are at their first Pro Circuit event and reached the Dota Summit 8 event by taking down in the SA qualifiers the region favorites SG e-sports and Infamous.
Being the first to pick, VP also had the last pick, which lead to them not having a choice other than taking the team that everybody else avoided, OG. Fresh MDL Macau Minor winners, OG have a bit of rivalry going on with VP, since the Kiev Major, when the two clashed in the Grand Finals. OG and VP fought against each other only twice since then. First time it was in the TI 7 group stage where VP took them down 2-0. The other time was in the DreamLeague Season 8 EU and CIS qualifiers, where the score was a draw.
Unfortunately both VP and Sacred are to play in the last Minor of the year with a stand in. For VP it’s their coach Ivan "Artstyle" Antonov, who will step in for Alexei "Solo" Berezin, who took a vacation for the remainder of 2017.
For Sacred it’s Jimmy "DeMoN" Ho, who will be replacing Álex "Masoku" Dávila, who couldn’t secure the US visa. If VP and Sacred are to reach one of the top four places, all their members attending the event will earn 75% of the total points available for their placement, while DeMoN and ArtStyle will receive just 50% of the points.
Group B
Evil Geniuses got seeded in group B and they picked Team Kinguin and compLexity Gaming which makes an interesting mix for the group.
Team Kinguin were regarded as the ultimate underdogs at the Perfect World Masters Minor from last month, yet they upset the group of death from that event and took first place ahead of Team Secret, Newbee, LGD Gaming and Mineski. However, in the playoffs, they finished tied on the 5th-6th place with Team Secret. Dota Summit 8 it’s their second Dota Pro Circuit event and their second chance at grabbing their first DPC points.
Complexity, on the other hand, are no strangers of the Pro Circuit. They seat on a total of 135 points, which is not much, but it’s a start nonetheless. Their DPC come from a 3rd-4th place finish at the StarLadder i-League Invitational Season 3 Minor and a fourth place at the PW Masters Minor. Dota Summit 8 is their third Circuit event and hopefully, for them, third time’s a charm.
Group C
LGD Gaming were the ones to choose in group C and they went with OpTic Gaming and Fnatic.
Despite featuring the likes of Per Anders Olsson "Pajkatt" Lille, Ludwig "zai" Wåhlberg, Quinn "CC&C" Callahan, all lead by Peter "ppd" Dager, OpTic Gaming are in fact at their first Pro Circuit event. When formed, in the post TI7 shuffle they had Rasmus "MiSeRy" Filipsen in their ranks as well and called themselves The Dire. Although the line-up looked scary and everyone thought this will be a new contender in the NA scene, things unfolded differently for PPD’s squad. They didn’t participate in any of the first Pro Circuit events qualifiers and when they finally decided to show up, they didn’t win the NA battle for the DreamLeague Major, MDL Macau or Captain’s Draft Minors. They did, however, participate in September in the King’s Cup: America which was a pre-qualifier event for Dota Summit 8. The event had no prize pool and it was announced as a North and South American Dota 2 league where the winner of it all would receive a “special invite” to the Dota Summit 8 Minor. Back then, The Dire (later signed by OpTic Gaming) had MiSeRy playing for them, but at the end of November he left the team and Martin 'Saksa' Sazdov was the temporary replacement choice. As they come to the Dota Summit 8 Minor with a different roster than the one they registered at the beginning of the Dota Pro Circuit, OpTic would also receive a 25% penalty in DPC earned if they reach top four this weekend in Los Angeles.
In fact, all three teams of Group C are in this situation. Without any qualifying points secured yet, Fnatic are with a different roster than the one they’ve registered with at the beginning of the season. They started with Steve 'Xcalibur' Ye, but decided to make a roster change after a trail of unsuccessful qualifiers and after disappointing last place finishes at the ESL One Hamburg Major and AMD SAPPHIRE Dota Pit Minor events, where they got to play as replacements for Happy Feet and Mineski. At the beginning of November they replaced Excalibur with Abed 'Abed' Yusop, thus until the new roster lock they will have to accept the DPC penalty.
LGD Gaming took a similar decision after the hard to accept last place finish at MDL Macau Minor. Right after the early exit from the tournament they announced on their weibo account that Chen "Victoria" Guanhong has been “temporarily transferred” to their youth training team, while coach Yao "QQQ" Yi will be stepping in once again.
QQQ has subbed in for Victoria at the PGL Open Bucharest and the PW Masters Minors as well, when Victoria was unable to participate at the events due to acute pancreatitis. It seems that his recovery is not as smooth as the team wished for and at least for the Dota Summit 8, LGD Gaming is bring in their coach once again. LGD placed second at the PGL Open Bucharest Minor with QQQ and it won’t be a total surprise to see them repeating that performance this weekend at the Beyond the Summit house.
The DOTA Summit 8 talent:
Dota Summit 8 group stage action will commence today at 18:00 CET / 09:00 PST with coL vs Team Kinguin followed at 21:45 CET/12:45 PST with Virtus.pro vs Sacred. The group stage matches will run until 15th of December. On the 16th the Wild Card teams will fight for the one spot available in the playoffs, while both playoffs semifinals and the grand finals will be played on the 17th.
Dota Summit 8 prize pool and Dota Pro Circuit Points (DPC) distribution:
1st place: $120,000 + 150 DPC
2nd place: $60,000 +90 DPC
3rd-4th place: $36,000 +30 DCP
5th place: $18,000
6th-7th place: $9,000
8th-9th place: $6,000
