Fresh blood injected to Elite League; First four teams qualified

Nine teams from the seven regions will advance to the main event of Elite League. The first four teams include nouns, Entity, Kev, and Rest Farmers. 

Elite League closed qualifiers are already underway. Three regions – North America, Western Europe, and China have already concluded. 

In North America, nouns seemed like the easy bet – and it was. They went 2:0, FF win, 2:0 into a 3:1 grand finals. 

For China, the name Kev might be unfamiliar, but there are certainly familiar names in the lineup. Front lined by Ren "old eLeVeN" Yangwei, it also includes Jin "flyfly" Zhiyi and Ni "ButterflyEffect" Weijie. Considering this, it was no surprise to see them cruise through the brackets until the grand finals. There, Team Zero gave them a run for their money, pushing it to a full five-game series. 

Western Europe might have yielded the most interesting upsets. Entity was probably on everyone's list to advance, but the rest of the qualifiers had some curious lineups – including the debut for MOUZ 's new roster. In the end, a stack featuring Swedish veterans coming in from the open qualifiers made the cut. 

• Read MOUZ are officially back to Dota 2

The other four regions – MENA, South America, Eastern Europe, and SEA will begin on March 14th. 

Nine teams total from the seven regions will advance to the main event taking place from March 31st through April 15th. A total of 24 teams will eventually participate in the main event worth $960,000. 

Elite League Closed Qualifiers

• Double-elimination bracket
  • Grand Final is Bo5, all other matches are Bo3
• One team qualifies to the main tournament from North America, China, South America, MENA, and Eastern Europe. Two teams will qualify from Western Europe and SEA.

Elite League Main Event

• Participants
  • Nine teams from closed qualifiers seeded into swiss stage (group stage 1)
    •  nouns (NA)
    •  Entity (WEU)
    •  rest farmers (WEU)
    •     KEV (CN)
    • TBD (EEU)
    • TBD (SEA)
    • TBD (SEA)
    • TBD (SA)
    • TBD (MENA)
  • Six teams invited are seeded into swiss stage (group stage 1)
    •  OG
    •   Tundra Esports
    •   Aurora Gaming
    •   Shopify Rebellion
    •   Heroic
    •   Virtus.pro
    •   PSG Quest
  • Eight teams invited are seeded into round-robin stage (group stage 2)
    •   Team Spirit
    •   BetBoom Team
    •   Team Liquid
    •   Gaimin Gladiators
    •   Team Falcons
    •   Xtreme Gaming
    •   Azure Ray
    •   LGD Gaming
• Swiss Stage (Group Stage 1) - March 31 - April 4, 2024
  • One modified swiss-system of sixteen teams
  • All matches are Bo3
  • Top eight teams advance to round-robin stage (group stage 2)
  • Remaining teams are eliminated
• Round-Robin Stage (Group Stage 2) - April 5 - April 11, 2024
  • Two single round-robin group of eight teams each
  • All matches are Bo2
  • Top two teams from each group advance to the upper bracket of playoffs
  • 3rd-4th place teams from each group advance to the lower bracket of playoffs
  • Remaining teams are eliminated
• Playoffs - April 13 - April 15, 2024
  • Double-elimination bracket
  • All matches except Grand Final are Bo3
  • Grand Final is Bo5