DAC 2018 will be a Major in the Dota Pro Circuit and has already extended an invitation to defending champions - Invictus Gaming as well as Newbee and Team Liquid.
In a rare and welcomed communication from Chinese organizers Perfect World, DAC 2018 has been announced as a Major event featuring 1500 TI8 qualifying points and $1,000,000 prize pool. Sixteen teams will be battling it out for the honor of the title and the largest cut of the reward at the Oriental Sports Center in Shanghai, China in the spring of 2018.
Six teams will be directly invited - three of which were already announced to include Invictus Gaming as well as Newbee and Team Liquid. Ten teams will reach the stage via open and regional qualifiers for the six regions.
Details on format, dates, qualifiers and the other three invited teams are still forthcoming.
The first event held in January-February 2015, was hailed as 'The International of the East' and starting prize pool was set at $250,000 USD, but through crowdfunding of compendium sales, the prize pool reached $3,057,519 - surpassing the prize pool of TI3. It was also where Syed Sumail "SumaiL" Hassan made his debut with Evil Geniuses where the NA team clinched the championship title after sweeping through ViCi Gaming 3:0 in the Grand Finals.
The second iteration was held just last year in March-April of 2017 with a total of 12 teams competing for the $612,000 prize pool. It was a thrilling moment for Chinese Dota 2 fans as Xu, "BurNIng" Zhilei made a resurgence into competitive play, ending with him holding the championship trophy over his head after a 3:0 victory over OG in the Grand Finals.
