Groupstage and schedule
The sole Asian challenger
On September 23, Major League Gaming announced that DK, also formerly known as the Chinese dream team, will be attending MLG Columbus after several negotiations with ACE and Jingrui Co. Ltd, the sponsor of WPC-ACE League. Being the sole Asian team in the tournament, all eyes are on DK to bring the championship back to China especially after their defeat to Alliance in Nexon Invitational Super Match last week.
Two months ago, DK may have been one of the favourites to win MLG Columbus but their performance after the implementation of the 6.79 patch have been rather spotty. Fortunately, they seem to have recovered from their slump recently, winning a bunch of matches against high profile teams and ultimately, placing first in EMS One Chinese qualifier and the groupstage of WPC-ACE League.
Have they recovered enough? That is the question.
Venue and side events
Greater Columbus Convention Center, MLG Columbus venue. Photo by dispatch.com
MLG Columbus will be held in Hall D of the Greater Columbus Convention Center. Spectators interested in attending the event will have to buy a General Admission ticket in MLG Store priced at $35. It is highly advisable for spectators to buy the ticket through the online store today to avoid a $15 price hike if you buy it at the door. We heard the VIP tickets priced at $250 are sold out.
Address: 400 North High Street – Hall D, Columbus, OH 43215
Alongside the tournament are a few side events that may be of interest to spectators:
The Secret Shop - MLG has promised spectators that there will be a secret shop during the event, selling all sort of Dota 2 merchandise apart from the plushies due to some delay from the suppliers.
Autograph sessions - Teams will be doing autographs in various booths located around MLG Columbus. Here is the schedule for Friday.
- 2-2:30PM Team Liquid at the Dr. Pepper Booth
- 2-2:30PM Sigma at the Full Sail booth
- 2:40-3:10PM Speed Gaming at the Pro Shop
- 3-3:30PM Fnatic at the Full Sail booth
- 4-5PM Na'vi at the Pro Shop
- 4:15-4:45PM Team DK at the Full Sail booth
Online spectators
If MLG Full Sail was any indication, online viewers are in for a treat. MLG rolled out MLG TV, their own brand of streaming platform a few months back and judging from experience, the production value is high and the stream quality is extremely high as well. Considering the matches in MLG Columbus run in three, there will be three streams running at the same time, commentated by some of your favourite North American casters.
Stream 1: Commentating by David “LD” Gorman, David “Godz” Parker, Ben “Merlini” Wu and David “Luminous” Zhang. Floor reporting and emcee – Josh “Clutch” Gray.
Stream 2: Hosted by Capitalist and Bdiz.
Stream 3: Hosted by Hippie and Clairvoyance.
Viewers who would like to watch the stream will have to head on over to MLG TV because the streams will not be available elsewhere. Apart from that, we have been informed that the games will be free to watch from DotaTV.
Interview with SingSing
Hello Sing and thanks for taking the time to talk to us about MLG. First off, Speed will be attending MLG without bOne7. What’s the story behind this?
It’s pretty simple.. His visa got denied after his first attempt and he was told that a second failed attempt might stop him from getting a visa for a long period, which may possibly cause him to miss TI4 if we were to be invited or qualified for it. So basically, he’s not taking the risk without preparing himself fully for the next visa interview.
In bOne7’s place you guys reached out to Arteezy. While he is someone you all know well, he shares the same position with you. How has it been adapting to his presence?
I’ve played with Arteezy before, so I know how he is already. I don’t really care if he shares the same position as me, I play the game to win, so I’ll play any position that is required. The scrims we have had with him so far have been going well too.
Arteezy originally left the team due to his schedule with school. How has this impacted your preparation for MLG? Were you able to find ways to work around things?
We missed a lot of hours since Arteezy still has school going on. Instead of actively practicing as a team, most of us have been honing our mechanical skills by spamming public games instead. It’s definitely not optimal but we are doing what we can.
Do you think it’ll work in your favour that you have less players who need to fly in from Europe? Or do you think teams will be ready to work around the possible jetlag?
The jetlag itself isn’t really a problem for me anyway. The main thing is that every European players are going to miss a full day of Dota 2 since our travel time is quite long.
The competition at MLG is going to be quite intense. How confident do you feeling going into this? Is there any team you especially look forward to playing against, or feel especially confident against?
To be honest, I’m very uncertain about everything. Firstly, I’m switching roles for the third time, from carry to support, to mid and now to the offlane. From all the roles, the offlane role has the most specifically odd mechanics that can decide the entire flow of the early game, which I have to learn in a few days time. So, I’m uncertain of my own performance. Secondly, my team still has very little (some none) LAN experience which is also possibly a big factor.
DK is the main team I want to face, since they have many big names in one team. For me, they are still legendary Dota players I used to watch and admire. Now, I will face them head-on.
How does Speed Gaming's schedule look like after MLG? Are the plans still in place to head to China next year?
We will be moving to China for the G-League at the very least and we will most likely stay there for another five to six months.
Thank you for your time. Any final words to your fans?
A big thanks to all the people who have been following me so far, a shoutout to MLG for being extremely nice to us and of course the sponsors who are making this team happen: Speedgaming, Feenix and Raidcall!
GosuGamers at MLG Columbus
GosuGamers, in conjuction with Alienware, have dispatched Johan 'Sun_Tzu' Jarvinen and Greg 'WhatIsHip' Laird to Columbus and they will be providing us with pictures, interviews and also live blogs throughout their time in Columbus. The online crew will have our hands updating all the drafts and writing news on whatever is possible to keep you updated on what is happening in MLG this weekend.
If you run into SunTzu or WhatIsHip in Greater Columbus Convention Centre, do say hi. They don't bite.
Headline image by LazyTechGuys
