In an unprecedented occurrence in the Dota 2 scene, North America receives more slots for a professional tour than China.
ESL FACEIT Group (EFG) revealed the whole team line-up for the upcoming Dream League Season 19, which is now the “league” part of ESL Pro Tour and it will take place April 9-23. There is no qualifier process for this season of DreamLeague, so all 16 participating teams received direct invites based on an Elo ranking system put in place by ESL for their Professional Tour.
EPT ranking system
"We’ve built an Elo based ranking system for both teams and regions, with a baseline of one secured slot per region. Regions with higher Elo scores can earn additional slots, which are distributed within the region according to teams’ Elo scores. These teams are then invited to compete in DreamLeague - ESL"
Based on the current EPT rankings, Western Europe received 5 slots to DreamLeague S19, North America 3 slots, South America 2 slots, Eastern Europe 2 slots, Southeast Asia 2 slots and China 2 Slots.
DreamLeague Season 19 invited teams
Gaimin Gladiators
Tundra Esports
Team Liquid
Entity
OG
Shopify Rebellion
TSM
nouns
beastcoast
Evil Geniuses
HellRaisers
Team Spirit
PSG.LGD
Team Aster
All sixteen teams will compete online for two weeks, from April 9 to 23, from various bootcamps in Europe. At stake are a share of the $1,000,000 total prize pool and the chance to qualify directly to Riyadh Masters at Gamers8.
With the introduction of the ESL Pro Tour, Riyadh Masters became the EPT Championship and this year the tournament boasts a mesmerizing $15,000,000 prize pool. Only the winning team of DreamLeague S19 will qualify directly to the Group Stage of Riyadh Masters. Moving onto the next season of DreamLeague, the top two teams will secure their tickets to Saudi Arabia's capital city.
DreamLeague Season 19 format
Group Stage 1
- Two round-robin groups featuring eight
- Matches are best-of-two
- 1st-4th place teams in each group advance to Group Stage 2
- 5th-8th are eliminated from the tournament
Group Stage 2
- One round-robin group featuring 8 teams
- Matches are best-of-three
- 1st and 2nd place move to Playoff Upper Bracket
- 3rd and 4th move to Playoff Lower Bracket
- 5th-8th are eliminated from the tournament
Playoffs
- 4 teams double elimination bracket
- 2 teams start upper bracket, 2 teams lower
- Matches are best-of-three, except Grand Finals, which is best-of-five
Prize pool distribution
- 1st place - $300,000 - Qualified to Riyadh Masters
- 2nd place - $175,000
- 3rd place - $120,000
- 4th place - $85,000
- 5th place - $52,500
- 6th place - $47,500
- 7th place - $42,500
- 8th - $37,500
- 9th/10th place - $25,000
- 11th/12th place - $20,000
- 13th/14th place - $15,000
- 15th/ 16th place - $10,000
