After the grand success of DreamLeague Season 8 just a few weeks ago, the announcement of the next iteration has been made.
With 2018 approaching quickly, many teams are enjoying the short break from the busy Dota 2 Pro Circuit schedule. After we saw a magnificent event at DreamHack Winter in Sweden, where the finals for DreamLeague Season 8 were held, the tournament returns for Season 9 – which was announced earlier today. Once more, Valve has decided to include the tournament in their sponsorships, making it another Minor on the road to next year’s International tournament.
The tournament will feature open qualifiers for each regions – China, South East Asia, Europe, CIS, North and South America. While only 1 team will move forward from each region, they will then move on to the closed qualifiers where they will join 3 invited teams from the region as the battle for a spot in the final main event. Two teams will also gain invites directly into the main event – with one of these teams already being decided.
After claiming victory in Sweden earlier this month, Team Secret return to DreamLeague’s Season 9 as champions, hoping to continue gaining much needed ground and claiming vital Pro Circuit Points. The European team are sitting nearly 1000 points ahead of their nearest challengers – and with the invites for DreamLeague being based on Dota 2 Pro Circuit Ratings, it will be interesting to see who receives the 2nd direct invite. With both Team Liquid and Virtus.pro tied on points, the beginning of the year could separate these teams and decide who will move directly to the main event at DreamLeague Season 9.
The prize pool for the tournament will be a total of $300,000 alongside the 300 Dota 2 Pro Circuit Points on the line. The breakdown of each of these is as follow:
1st – $125,000 + 150 DPC
2nd – $70,000 + 90 DPC
3rd/4th – $30,000 + 30 DPC
5/6th – $15,000
7/8th – $7,500
DreamLeague Season 9 is set to kick off with its Open Qualifiers early in January, whilst the closed qualifiers will run through February before March 21st – 25th will see the main event take place. You can find more information on DreamLeague Season 9 here.
