PSG.LGD are not able to compete at the upcoming DreamLeague Season 19 tourney.
Visa issues strike again, and this time around, one of the best Chinese teams won’t participate in the battle for a ticket at Riyadh Masters 2023. DreamLeague Season 19 represents the debut of ESL Pro Tour (EPT). The tournament has one million dollars to offer and a spot at this year’s edition of the 15M dollars Riyadh Masters. Although it’s held online, DreamLeague S19, features the best teams in all major six regions and requires the competitors to set up bootcamps in Europe in order to be able to compete.
PSG.LGD are one of the 16 teams that received a direct invite to the EPT based on their placement in the EPT Ranking System, but unfortunately, they won’t be able to honour the invitation.
China received only two invites to DreamLeague Season 19 and with PSG.LGD withdrawing, Team Aster remains the only one to carry the flag for the Chinese region. While the $1,000,000 prize pool is split between all participants, the one ticket to Riyadh Masters will be going to the champions.
DreamLeague Season 19 is set to commence this coming Sunday, April 9, with the first group stage. The event runs for two weeks and has a slightly different format than what the Dota 2 fans are used to.
DreamLeague Season 19 format
Group Stage 1: April 9 - 12
- Two groups of eight teams each
- Single round-robin
- All matches are Bo2
- Top four teams from each group advance to group stage 2
- Remaining teams are eliminated
Group Stage 2: April 14 - 20
- One group of eight teams
- Single round-robin
- All matches are Bo3
- Top two teams advance to the upper bracket of the playoffs
- 3rd and 4th place team advance to the lower bracket of the playoffs
- Remaining teams are eliminated
Playoffs: April 22 - 23
- Double-elimination bracket
- All matches except Grand Final are Bo3
- Grand Final is Bo5
With PSG.LGD unable to compete, their group is down to 7 teams from 8, which means that if ESL are not adding another team into the mix, in Group B only 3 will be eliminated at the end of the first group stage.
