DreamLeague Season 20 is crucial for those eyeballing an invite to the $15M Riyadh Masters and it starts this Sunday, June 11, 2023.
Starting this year, DreamLeague tournaments became a part of the ESL Pro Tour (EPT). Each DreamLeague season counts for an invite to Riyadh Masters 2023, which has a hefty $15,000,000 prize pool to offer. With the introduction of the EPT, ESL have also built an Elo based ranking system for both teams and regions to be the base for their invites to DreamLeague and Riyadh Masters events. The regions with a higher Elo score earn additional slots to the EPT tournaments, hence why this year we have six Western European teams at DreamLeague.
DL Season 20 is set to start this coming Sunday, June 11 with a total of 16 teams fighting for the trophy, a share of the $1,000,000 and an invite to Riyadh Masters 2023. This season will send a total of 7 teams to Riyadh as follows:
- Winners
- Runners-up
- 5 slots to best average placements
- If Gaimin Gladiators place top 2 as the team is already qualified, the teams invited from average DreamLeague placements would increase from 5 to 6.
Read also: Riyadh Masters 2023: Who is in and who can qualify for the $15M event?
DreamLeague Season 20 format and schedule
Group Stage 1: June 11 - 14
- 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 A
GROUP B
Group Stage 2: June 16 - 22
- 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 - June 24 - 25
- Double-elimination bracket
- All matches except Grand Final are Bo3
- Grand Final is Bo5
Given the stacked schedule with the DPC Tour 3 regional league Division 1 just coming to a close, and with the Bali Major beginning at the end of the month, a few teams competing at DL Season 20 will be fielding stand-ins, while one participant has been forced to withdraw completely.
All teams competing at DreamLeague must bootcamp in Europe in order to be eligible to play. Unfortunately, this means that Execration had to forfeit their slot after failing to secure visas for their players in time.
Their slot has been given to BetBoom Team, which will make the Easter Europe region second most represented this season, with three teams fighting for the title.
BetBoom is seeded in Group B, where beastcoast might compete without their carry player, Héctor "K1" Rodríguez. K1 took a “temporary mental health break to prioritize his well-being,” during the last Dota Pro Circuit tour and so far there is no update coming from beastcoast regarding their roster for either DreamLeague or Bali Major.
In group A, both Team Secret and Tundra Esports will bring stand in players.
Secret have just split ways with Miroslav “BOOM” Bičan after relegating back to Division II in the Dota Pro Circuit, and they will be playing with Saieful "Fbz" Ilham coming on loan from BOOM Esports, who also relegated to Division II at the end of the Sumer Tour in Southeast Asia.
Read more: Team Secret bids farewell to BOOM
Tundra Esports will be playing with two stand-ins. Aleksandr "Immersion" Khmelevskoi will fill in for Tundra's captain, Wu "Sneyking" Jingjun while Stanislav "Malr1ne" Potorak will be standing in for Leon "Nine" Kirilin in the mid lane.
Tundra will also be opening DL Season 20 tomorrow, June 11 at noon when they will be pitted against Team Liquid. Team Secret are also scheduled to play in the first batch of matches, at noon, against Talon Esports.
