Popularity and attention are climbing in MENA for Dota 2 events, but does it warrant giving them their own regional qualifiers?
MENA is an acronym for the Middle East and North African regions, corresponding with the Greater Middle East region. Typically it includes Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Syria, and Palestine. Just to clarify, it usually does NOT include Pakistan, Turkey, or Afghanistan -- based on boundaries.
Stuck between Europe and Asia, players from the region often gravitated towards one or the other for pubs and professional careers.
MENA and Rising Stars
While there were many localized and small events, there was little-to-no presence of top-tier events and minimal representation on a larger scale in the competitive scene outside of talent Mira "Ephey" Riad and a handful of players (24 to be exact in Tier 1 and 2)—and the TI7 championship roster including Amer "Miracle-" Al-Barkawi, Maroun "GH" Merhej and Kuro 'KuroKy-' Salehi Takhasomi.
A region whose path was paved in part by the former Team Liquid TI championship players when they started their organization Nigma in 2019.
It wasn't until Nigma Galaxy hosted their own tournament 'Rising Stars' in 2020 that events were more than just a local matter. Rising Stars aimed to promote Dota 2 in the MENA region and showcased their desire to support the competitive scene by injecting a $10,000 prize pool into boosting local talent.
Since then money and attention have been injected into the region at a fast pace.
GAMERS GALXY Invitational Series held in March 2022 was a landmark event for Dubai. The partnership with UAE Nation Brand - an initiative by the United Arab Emirates to share its inspiring story of development and progress - was aimed to help highlight the country as a growing hub for global esports.
Riyadh Masters 2022 followed closely behind and featured a $4,000,000 prize pool. It was the LAN segment of the GamesWithoutBorders online tournament, complete with a team to represent Saudia Arabia. Its success gave way to even more interest in esports, specifically the Dota 2 ecosystem in the region.
Riyadh Masters 2023 and its staggering $15,000,000 prize pool rivaled The International and churned out even more hype. The result has had a lasting impression and footprint on the landscape.
BetBoom Dacha Dubai 2024 will be the first tournament of the new year to boast a $1,000,000 prize. It will feature 12 teams —seven invited and five from qualifiers and will take place in Dubai from February 4 through February 16.
MENA Qualifiers and Growing Pains
This year, ESL One Kaula Lumpur, ESL One Birmingham 2024, DreamLeague Season 22, and 23, and BetBoom Dacha have all added MENA to the list of regional qualifiers.
While fans meme that MENA regionals were created solely for Nigma to qualify for events, many believe that it is because the Saudi sponsors tied to ESL/Dreamleague and Riyadh Masters. It's easy to see where these hot takes come from. There were multiple issues with signups, with only a few number of teams resulting in canceled open qualifiers and stacked ‘bye’ rounds to get things rolling.
But the reality is that there has been growth already shown by the number of teams and players signing up to compete since last year. There are a lot of high-ranked players, especially from Jordon and Lebanon, that are now going to have the chance to make their mark.
Mohammad "AfrOmoush" Abu Al Eis, now manager of Team Falcons had told GosuGamers previously
“Jordon and Lebanon have some of the top players in the world, GH, Miracle, Yapzor, ATF, and more to come. MENA like South America, didn't have so much focus on it, but now that we have a MENA region, players are now more motivated to play the game. (…) before it was really hard for them to do anything. We had the DPC but to play DPC you had to play for Europe from Jordon. Everything was really rough and it's tough to play like that. Now, you have the motivation to because you can play MENA qualifiers for MENA."
Being able to play and have opportunities in your own region is fantastic, but it doesn't end there. As AfrOmoush further explained to us,
"Tier 2 and Tier 1 orgs will keep looking to MENA. In order to play MENA, they will need players from MENA . So that's helping the players a lot (…) MENA qualifiers is a good idea and we have it finally"
So basically, to field a roster to compete in MENA, at least three players must be from or physically located there. Sure, there might be teams or players that will try to abuse the region system. Jumping regions is nothing new and its been done countless times in both North America and then again in South America through the years. But in the end, it still injects talent, freshness, attention, sponsors, and interest into the region which are hallmarks of growth.
It wasn't too long ago that the community and fans expressed the same cynicism and remarks about South America.
There was a time when there weren't any players from South America competing at Valve-sponsored events, let alone eleven at a Major and 19 at The International 2023 when they had four teams vying for the Aegis of Champions.
There was a time when there weren't any international events happening in SA, let alone a Major.
So just like the bamboo "The first year it sleeps, the second year it creeps, the third year it leaps." it is going to take time for the region to grow and thrive. It won't magically happen overnight, or even in the first year or so. But eventually, the investment will pay off and just like in South America, it will yield results.
